Christmas in August!

What a fun month August has been! I've had some great finds.
Here's my list of what made me happy this month: (Happiness can be found in a box! :) )
-Wooden Blocks-- These have been on my Preschool Wish List for years, and I finally did it! When they came it was like Christmas morning for me! I opened up the box, dumped out all 162 pieces and played and played and then let them sit on the family room floor for over a week until we had the missionaries over. I just had to smile in my heart every time I stepped over them or saw the girls building.

-Roller Boards--Did you have these in elementary school for P.E.? Because they are so fun! As soon as they were unpacked (I got 2) all 4 girls were taking turns going down the driveway. On Wednesday we had 8 friends over to play (from our Summer Babysitting Swap Group) and I got them out. So fun to watch what the kids did with them.

-A nice microscope--I think I might just be fulfilling a childhood fantasy of mine with this one, but I think it'll be a great addition to the preschool. And I have lovely visions of my girls and me being curious and wanting to look at everything under the sun.

-Bleak House--an 8 part BBC period drama mini-series not from Jane Austen or Elizabeth Gaskell (it's surprisingly a great Charles Dickens story)! Just a delight! I thought it was very well done. It took 9 days (I had a presidency meeting one night) to watch it on our new...

-NETFLIX ACCOUNT--Yeah for us for joining this new world! What can I say about this one other than I love the words "Watch Instantly."

-Katie Herzig--Thanks, Carole! I'll be adding her as a Pandora station as soon as the new month starts. (Did I (and the girls!) really listen to 40 hours of music in 2 1/2 weeks???) Ladies, you've got to listen to her "Forever" song and just let the memories flow!

-Mango Coconut Smoothie--I know it's a good recipe when I've written to the side 'triple the amounts'. Here is my diet for the summer all blended together for a yummy drink:
100ml apple juice
1 mango (I suggest frozen mango chunks)
4 Tbl. coconut milk
4 Tbl. bio-yoghurt (hee, hee I just love my UK recipe books!) I use vanilla yogurt.
1 tsp. honey
-I haven't made these tiered skirts yet, but I hope to soon (meaning within the next year). My friend's daughter has a similar skirt that goes with a T-shirt that's been appliqued with a butterfly from some of the skirt's material. Very cute. Very simple. But very easy? We'll see.

Music

What is it about music? Why do I feel so drawn to some music and not others? I usually wonder what my music taste says about me. I listen to Pandora (here's my first post about it) and keep adding stations when I find a group/singer that I like. Here are my favorites right now: (I love finding new favorites!)
Weepies
Josh Radin
Matt Nathanson
Sondre Lerche (found him after watching "Dan in Real Life")
Iron & Wine
Rufus Wainwright
Newton Faulkner
Feist
I almost get excited about doing housework, because that means I get to blast my music all throughout the house! The girls know this and so it's been a great motivation for them to work because then they get to turn Mom's music off and turn theirs on. Currently, the girls have a few stations on Pandora too:
Taylor Swift
Disney
High School Musical

Summer Camp

With our last month of summer left I looked up summer camps for kids. I had talked to a mom who had signed up her kids for some cooking classes and thought that sounded fun. After seeing the price ($600 for both E&R), I thought "I can do that!" (I need to make that my motto.)
The girls and I sat down and made a list of all the foods they'd like to learn to make. Here's what we did:
Day 1: apple pie
Day 2: decorated cakes and cupcakes
Day 3: pretzels and banana bread
Day 4: pizza (homemade dough and sauce)
Day 5: chocolate chips cookies
The "class" started as soon as Lizzie went down for her nap. Some days we invited friends to join us and made even bigger messes. My kitchen looked like we had camped in it for the week, but we all agreed we would definitely do it again.

Things That Make Me Chuckle #6

Emily!
Yesterday I took the girls to our Children's Museum. Our next Netflix movie came just as we were leaving, so the girls watched "The Bee Movie" on the way. I kept the movie playing while I paid the meter and got out the stroller and picnic food. "Okay girls, time to turn off the movie and get out." I take the key out and hear, "Oh no! I forgot my shoes!" I just stopped moving trying to debate the best way to respond. Of course she wanted to go home and get them, but we would lose Lizzie to a nap if we did that, so we stayed. My big 9-year old rode in front of the stroller and Lizzie rode in the back and Rachel and Hannah walked on either side with Hannah crying the whole way in. What a sight! We ended up hanging out in the art room the whole time. It was clay week--a perfect medium for all 4 girls. Emily was a good sport even though she was a bit embarrassed. While she was working on her clay vase I looked at her bare feet and said, "You have to admit, this is pretty funny." "Not really," she said, but she gave me a small smile anyway.

I love being frugal!

Trying to speed morning routines along during the end of school last year, I buckled and bought a box of instant oatmeal. Gasp! I know. I regretted it as soon as the box was opened and consumed within a few days. Some of my thoughts were: "I can't believe I just spent $3 on that box." "I don't even want to think about the amount of sugar they just consumed." And "I have 100 lbs. of oats sitting in buckets! I can just make these, can't I?"
A quick Internet search and a list of ingredients in hand I went shopping. I was sold when I saw the words "cost analysis". 100 bags later (yes, I really do like to do things in bulk) and I had a stash of instant oatmeal baggies on hand in various flavors--marshmallow and chocolate chips, apples and cinnamon, blueberries 'n cream, strawberries 'n cream, brown sugar. A few adjustments needed to be made with the salt and the sugar, but I love them! I eat one almost everyday. The girls weren't as patient during the adjustment phase (a day or two) and will humor me with a bite if I go on and on about how yummy it is. Silly girls. They will learn.

Preschool

With the countdown to 4th and 2nd grade (22 days) comes the countdown to preschool for Hannah and me (29 days). The preschool room is pretty much ready.

Here's the before:

Here's the after:

The girls use this room as their playroom and quiet room. I know that when I can't find one or all of them to look there first. Em likes to play out there by herself with blocks, read or do craft projects. Ray likes to play teacher to her younger siblings, read, make b-day presents or do worksheets. Hannah likes to play dress-ups and school. One day she and a friend decided it would be fun to dump out all 25 puzzles. They then discovered how 'fun' it is to put every single puzzle back together. Lizzie sometimes is not invited because she... well, she's 1.

My favorite things about the room:

-it's a light and happy room
-the closets--one houses my supplies in a neat and orderly way and the other one is the reading nook/puppet theater
-the mirror in between the closets--the kids check themselves out when they play dress-ups
-the rug--it makes me smile when I see it
-I did it!

An Ode to Family Reunions

Horse back riding, riding the ski lift, hiking, waterfalls, family pictures, sleepovers with cousins, beautiful mountains, many mosquito bites, Grandparents, long drives, Yellowstone, bison, aunts and uncles, Rook, tire blowouts, many movies, the flu, good to see family, great to be home.