Farewells, Homecomings and random moments

Last week we said good-bye to Jeff as he went to Texas for a week of training. I played single mom with carpools, homework overseeing, some of the last of the kitchen work and Family Home Evening. 

The kids are always happy when lessons are short, lectures are at a minimum and some sort of game or food is involved. So we took an idea from Steve and Tahna's family and combined the game AND the food. 

We have the Oreo cookie game...

You basically stack up as many Oreos as you can without letting them fall. 

Jacob was the winner... 

Ashley did pretty good too....

Taylor lost by default since he didn't move from the couch :)

While Jeff was gone I spent the first day held hostage while the kitchen was being painted.

Tuesdays are always crazy but I was so grateful for a sick piano teacher who cancelled the 5:30 to 7:00am lessons (1st time in 9 years!) It made the morning doable for me. Wednesday I was again held hostage all morning and into the afternoon  waiting for a late TV repair guy to come again. The TV was fixed but we then realized the power surge broke the cable box....so still no TV until the cable company comes out.

Wednesday afternoon I went into Ashley's class and did art. 

We did a fun project with watered down paint that you blow across the paper with straws. 

No paintbrushes! Yeah! (everyone could have their own)  The straw is your paintbrush and it comes out looking like watercolors. 

The class loved it and kept experimenting with mixing colors. 

I found for the most part their pictures started out looking good...then they would get a little overzealous with the color mixing and it would end up a puddle of color. Some turned out pretty good though and they all had fun!

Thursday Taylor and I drove out to see his cousin Josh flying in from his mission in Baltimore Maryland.

Taylor had finals week and was done with his last final so he was happy to be able to come with me. 

Cayden held the sign for us.

He was so stinkin cute here is all of us getting a picture of him holding the sign. 

It was a cousin fest! I couldn't believe all the cousins from Palmdale came down too! I think there was a lot of school missed for you Josh ;)

I had to laugh at these boys in black.

Taylor likes Aeropastale and every time he's wearing one of his shirts it seems like one of his cousins are wearing one too (Jared has one on)

The plane arrives and we're waiting and waiting and no Josh. 

We were laughing because we were all standing there holding the sign and the fellow passengers on the plane were giving us a blow by blow as they were coming down the elevator...

"he's coming"

a few minutes later another person comes down...

"he's waiting for his bag,"

a few minutes later...

"he's in the bathroom"

then finally....

Josh is here!

He looked sharp and happy to be home...though maybe a tad overwhelmed with all of us there.

We were happy to go to his church on Sunday and hear him speak. He did a wonderful job and shared some great experiences and more importantly things that he learned on his mission. I was very impressed with Josh and his openness with us both with struggles, things he learned and triumphs that he experienced while on his mission. Great job Josh!

Oh and after we picked up Josh we went to Shakeys for their lunch buffet and more cousin time...until we had to hurry home for the other two kids. 

Friday Ashley got an award for doing so well in Math at school!!!

Great job Ashley!

Saturday Jeff is home and we had a full day. 8:30 in the morning the cable guy is here...he had to replace the cable box because the power surge blew out the port. 

I hate it when the box is replaced...all our shows are gone...then I started laughing at how ridiculous that  sounds...what would my grandmother think about complaining about my DVR being gone and losing all my shows.

Then Jeff and I...but mostly Jeff worked on shining up the floors. They needed it.

I actually was gone for a few hours doing a Little People of America planning meeting with Taylor and Ashley and when we got home our floors were all nice....and the table was gone.

We are having someone sell it because we were getting a new one that night. The furniture people were supposed to come from 5:00 to 9:00 at night so we sat at home waiting...and waiting...and waiting. 

We finally got our table at 10:30 at night.

I don't think we could've had repair guys much earlier or later...crazy day.

While Jeff was gone I was proud of myself for putting in the can light covers and assembling our bar chairs...the kitchen is looking complete.

Jeff said I did a good job picking out the table too...it matches and looks good in the kitchen even though Jeff wasn't too sure about my hasty pick while we were in the store (We were literally walking by it as we were walking out the door and I said "thats the one!" We weren't even there to buy, just get ideas.)

So the kitchen's pretty much complete...I'm just having a hard time keeping it perpetually clean...using it doesn't help :)

This week Ashley had her long awaited field trip to Knotts Berry Farm

Sorry to disappoint some children who were there for the first time...this was not a trip about rides but about early American history. The class did get to go on 3 rides but the day was spent....

hearing presentations about history and how the early settlers lived. It was pretty interesting but by the end of the day a few of us parent chaperones were ready for a nap.

Ashley loved panning for gold the best.

Very excited to have real gold in the bottom of her vial!

Learning how to make candles

They got to take their patriotic candle back to their classroom....they said it looked like a popsicle. 

The mine ride.

I loved that Ashley's friend Riley was there with Ashley all day willing to walk at the back of the line. She was a great friend to her for doing that, she never wanted to leave her. 

More presentations and a chance to play a game trying to get a ring around a stick...

Ashley's face tells it all....she was more worried about getting the ring on her face than the stick.

And a turtle update. We were worried when we first got them because they never seemed to eat....they are finally eating and they seem to love to bask in the light stacked on top of each other with their legs stretched out as faaarrrr as they will go.