Summer is Coming!

We don't worry much about surviving winter around here (Southeastern Arizona) as we have a very mild winter but summer is a horse of a different color. It starts slowly but gradually picks up speed getting pretty darn hot come July and August. Here are a few reasons that I know it is nigh upon us.

 1. Kids eating popsicles on the back porch

Zany and Teddy 

Archy and Martha enjoying a firecracker.

2. Summer buzz cuts

Pretty close there Quinton!

He likes it short!

Archy moments after haircut.

Cheesy guy, Archy!

McCoy wanted a Mohawk well, summer is coming so why not?

Sporting a coyhawk. 

3. Half-price shakes at Sonic after 8pm

Happy Family Home Evening Treat after showers and pajamas of course.

Zany trying to suck her very thick shake.

4. Saw a baby rattlesnake on the road today, they like to get on the blacktop to stay warm. 

5. Pool Fees are due.

I do miss the smell of water on the hot road, monsoons, camping, corn on the cob, swimming, lazy sleep in days, no school, no homework, children home all day doing chores (Ha!). 

I guess maybe I am glad summer is coming.

Star Wars Party: may the fourth be with you!

 As it is the official Star Wars Holiday on May Fourth (due to the play on words May the Forth be with you sounds like the famous Star Wars phrase May the Force be with you), we celebrated in fine style. I had noticed in a magazine that Netflix had picked up thirteen episodes that had never aired of Star Wars: the Clone Wars, an animated tv series. We love the Clone Wars and enjoyed watching it as a family. So we signed up for Netflix just so we could watch it. I planned the food around Star Wars and got some ideas from pinterest and online.  I had made some cute labels for the food on the computer but the printer decided to quite working so I just had to write them at the last minute.

The silver ball is supposed to be the death star-just a globe covered in tin foil and I drew black lines like the death star.

Half size green soda=Yoda Soda

Black Jello (blue raspberry with red food coloring)=Carbonite Jello

Starburst=Chewbacca Chews

Rolos=Hans Rolos

BBQ Chips=Boba Q Chips

Chocolate Chip Cookies=Wookie Cookies

Chocolate coconut cake decorated with preschool type Star Wars guys

Teddy Grahams=Ewokookies

Ciabatta Sandwiches=Han wiches

 We have an obscene amount of the four inch Star Wars figures, a 184 of them to be exact we counted today. We started collecting them when Quinton was about four years old and never stopped so about nine years we have been buying them. We used a few to decorate the mantle. The kids all dressed up for the occasion.

Quinton party pooper would only wear his Star Wars t-shirt, Declan as Darth Vader, Archy as Jedi Clone (he wanted to be a Jedi but have a gun, he loves guns!), McCoy as Boba Fett and Zaynzley as Yoda.

We watched five episodes in a row eating the food like courses. One episode was Hanwiches and Boba-Q chips next episode was Yoda Soda and Ewokookies and so on. We were to full to eat the cake by the end the kids all declared they would happily eat it for breakfast. 

Hmmm . . . see we shall!

Fathers and Sons Campout

Eddy and the boys (Quinton, Declan, McCoy, Archy) went on an overnight campout for our ward (church congregation). Eddy decided to use a tent instead of our trailer since it was only for one night. They spent the evening hiking, playing  an enforcer game using flashlights to find people, climbing trees, and eating monster burgers and french fries. There was a small program about the priesthood since this campout commemorates the 185th anniversary of the restoration of the priesthood.

McCoy, Quinton, Archy, Declan (left to right)

Declan and Eddy and fry photo bombing.

It was pitch black in the tent you couldn't see anything and Eddy started taking flash photos that would light up the tent for a second. Quinton isn't a guy a who relishes his photo taken and he rarely hams it up so he was in a fine figure for this series of photos.  Eddy took about forty photos in a row, Quinton was goofy in them all.

In the morning, they had breakfast burritos and then went on a short hike to see a waterfall with other guys and kids. The short hike turned into a long hike since they couldn't find the waterfall. They finally decided to turn around after two hours of hiking. The poor kids were exhausted and Archy was a trooper and hiked the whole way.  

The guys on a hike,

Archy hoping stones like a bird.

Eddy and Archy on the hike.

                              They came home filthy, tired, and hungry just as I expected!

Girls Night

Having four boys in a row lead to a yearly vacation night for me known in the Mormon world as Fathers & Sons Campout (a one night camp out for all father and sons in our congregation).  I would usually make a long list of things I wanted to do like read magazines, watch a movie, do my nails and so on.  I would actually only get a few of them done but my main goal was to sleep in, that rare but glorious commodity. Some years the boys would get home at 8 a.m. that pretty much ruins that. Now that I have a daughter I knew I had to include Zany in my plans. We finally got the boys off at 2 p.m. (Zany was very upset to not be going along) and Zany took a nap while I read for a couple hours the cutest non-fiction love story and then worked on redoing the chair for my laundry room. When she finally woke up we spruced ourselves up to go to the unromantic movie store which is just a movie vending machine (only place to rent movies in town). I so miss going to the actual movie rental store I loved browsing Blockbuster before finally settling on a which movie to rent. Zany got a animated movie, Epic and I got Labor Day. We stopped for a visit to my grandma where Zany was weirdly shy, I guess without Archy she didn't know what to do with herself. We popped into a store to pick up some new Sunday pants for Quinton who keeps out growing them. Zany is a girl who loves to go with anyone, anywhere, anytime. In fact if you don't want a companion on your outing you can't use the G (go) word. On the way home we picked up a pizza and soon we were in our comfy clothes watching her movie. Epic was much better than I expected. She finally fell asleep during my movie Labor Day, which I really liked despite the critics negative reviews. Not sure what fun we will get up to in the morning maybe a few yard sales and definitely a stop at the local B&B that has the best bakery in town,

I let the little speed demon (upper left corner) bring her radio flyer in the house, one of the perks to not having any carpet.

Zany on her radio flyer

Jumping Jack Flash

Quinton had been bugging me for a while to take him to get a jump rope. At first I was taken aback that he wanted a jump rope but I guess it is the thing the guys do when they lift weights. When I was a kid it was the popular thing for girls to double dutch (two girls turn the ropes and one girl jumps while singing a little song) and jump rope during recess; I was never very good at it.  Quinton recently started jumping rope and he is already way better than I was but he probably doesn't know any songs to chant while doing it. Maybe I will have to teach him a couple of little ditties.  

Quinton picking out a jumprope, deciding between a weighted or regular rope.

Quinton jumps his rope.

This weekend is fathers and sons campout so Eddy and the boys will be headed out to the great outdoors while Zany and I get up to some fun here. Princess movie anyone?  She actually hasn't seen to many yet just the newer ones I may have to track down my favorite Beauty and the Beast. I just loved the library scene.

I found this on pinterest and I would totally wear it on a t-shirt.

Happy Friday!

Declan the Basketball Star

Note: I accidentally had two post launch on one day and so if you missed either " A Hunger Fueled Rage" or "Quilts" you might want to pop back and check those post out. I couldn't bear not having one launch tomorrow so I decided to do another. You know, in high school, college, and then university I wrote in a journal every single day no matter how late it was and even if it was only for sentence or two. I think this blog has taken the place of my daily journal writing (although I have only written an entry every couple of years since I have been married usually after I had a baby). New leaf yet old habit.

We had some friends who set up a basketball league and ran it out of their house as they had a nice enclosed basketball court. Declan has always loved basketball and was really excited to play. It was a good opportunity to learn how to play basketball on a team and not just shoot hoops.  Sports are very important to the town we live in and it is very hard to get on a team so you have to start them young unless they are crazy talented at a given sport.  

Declan's basketball team the Celtics (second guy on right from coach).

Declan passes the ball.

Declan far right in green.

Declan would sometimes get a little mouthy to the ref asking why he didn't call this or that. So at the end of last game Declan was sitting out on the bench and the ref told the coach to put him in with seconds on the clock; just after the buzzer the ref called a technical foul on Declan for fun just to give him a hard time (only kid to ever get technical foul in the league). At little payback you might say, I thought it was pretty funny--Declan didn't.  Declan is a kid you won't ever miss on the court or in the classroom he is very outgoing and engaging personality. 

"You called what on me?"

A Hunger Fueled Rage

I think it is time to say goodbye to the bottles so enjoyed by Zaynzley. She feels a bit differently about that and it has made for a very looooong day!  She can rage like no other. This morning since she couldn't have a bottle; she wanted croutons not cereal, pancakes or bananas. I decided it was a compromise and so put a few in a dish. She wasn't happy with that and wanted the whole bag I refused and she began to rage screaming and crying and throwing everything in her reach,which sadly included my prized anthropologie bowl and the aforementioned croutons. Twenty minutes later and some quality time spent in the timeout corner things had calmed down and she had some cereal. 

Broken Anthropologie bowl that will have to wait to be replaced for many months until I can get to the big city. (Sad face)

After her nap she wanted a bottle again, we didn't have any milk so I couldn't even give into her demands if I had wanted (I didn't). She began to rage again. This time she took it out on her room and began to toss it like a veteran prison guard, after she threw a few toys at me. She has an arm on her ask her brothers. About an hour later she decided to calm down and eat something.

Zany dumping out princess toys.

All on the floor.

She throws the bin at me

Next up the bin of bottles since she can't have one anyway might as well dump them.

Knocks over her doll high chair.

Sits forlornly in the mess.

It made her madder that I was taking pictures of the tantrum. No picture does justice to the rage, screaming, and growling she does while in the midst of a fit. It is impressive in its fury.  She torment her brothers easily. As I write this, McCoy is crying because she dumped out all his tiny guys that go to his Risk (board) game that he and Archy are playing. Just prior to that she threw a toy and hit Archer in the head and right now she is in a pretty good mood. Watch out when she is in a bad mood she is like no other--think of the fun when she is a teenager!