Love those Boise Summers!!

This is what I love about Boise. 95 degrees, practically empty beach, two tanned, sun-bleached boys playing together for hours, me on the beach reading a good book, or having water wars with the kids! My girls don't even complain about going to the lake! What a life!

Going "green" on the crafting front!

Had to share my latest creation. What do you think of these cute reusable lunch sacks? Made from laminated cotton so they can be cleaned easily. I think they are pretty cute!!

Crafty Crazy!

I had the "great" idea, after reading about some others doing this, of putting together a craft swap with families from all around the US and the world. The goal being that we make something fun with our kids and send it off to another child that we have never met before. I sent out probably 25 or so e-mails to people in my address book with some guidelines and told them to spread the word. In the end we got about 50 people participating which resulted in a lot more work than I had anticipated putting the whole thing together! The date you were supposed to send off your package was last Friday and I along with most of the other participants, was scrambling. In the end...I think our little art kit turned out cute. Hopefully the recipient is as excited as my kids were when they made it. Here are some pictures of the things we sent, along with some pics people have sent me of the items then made!!

The art kit we sent off! Covered sketch book, homemade bags with art supplies!

Cool banners that someone made for some older girls to decorate their room! Love 'em.

Amazing memory/concentration game another family made...wish I had one that fun!

I think it was all worth it!! ...We'll see how I feel next week.

Camp Conundrum!

"co·nun·drum (kə-nŭn'drəm) n.
A paradoxical, insoluble, or difficult problem; a dilemma."

We had quite a week last week. Many of you know that I am in charge of planning our church's girls camp for 30 girls ages 12-17 that we are hosting at the end of this month. Planning has been ongoing and I thought I was on top of it all...until last Saturday! I get a recorded message from the National Forest Recreation Service saying that our campsites have been cancelled due to a "Beetle Infestation".

Are you kidding me? At first I thought it was a joke, but quickly realized no such luck!! So....after several hours scanning the online reservation system, making phone calls, and pleading with anyone who might be able to find a suitable, safe spot for 30 girls to learn outdoor skills and have a great time, I finally hit on a possibility. Me and my trusty assistant camp director took a little road trip to see the place and we were pleasantly surprised. Here are some pictures. Check out the waterslide and lucky us....it has flushy toilets (a luxury we never dreamed of!)

I think it is going to be an absolute BLAST!!

Solar Screens!

This is the latest project my husband has taken on. Solar Screens. We are hoping they will save us money on our airconditioning bill as well as make our house cool and comfortable. I love it when my husband breaks out the tools and gets things done! What a guy!

Happy 4th!

I have to say that the 4th of July is a time when I miss my extended family almost more than Christmas. I have so many memories of the 4th on the lake with rootbeer, watermelon, the dock decorating contest, swimming races, lawn darts, family barbecues, boat rides, sleeping out on the lawn, and awesome fireworks. 4ths in Boise are a whole lot hotter, not so much water, but still lots of friends and family. We started off this morning with the Annual kids bike parade and breakfast that was instituted a few years ago by a favorite friend Katie (we miss you). Isaiah was happy that he managed to beat his papa to the end even though papa was racing as fast as he could go....you can see by the expression on his face!

Then we enjoyed a great pancake breakfast with so many fantastic friends and neighbors! The neighborhood kids all showed their patriotic spirit! Now we are off to a relaxing float down the Boise River and still deciding on whether we will brave the crowds for a fireworks show tonight! Wherever we end up, we miss all those far away today!! Happy 4th!

This is the dynamic "MonaLisa" duo sporting their patriotic splendor!

A Huge part of our summer!!

Mona is the one in the cool pink cap!

After spending 4 hours at a swim meet last night, I felt that it would be good to document this sport that takes up so much of our summer lives. The kids go to swim team every day for an hour in the months of June and July and compete in several meets. They sometimes go grudgingly but always come home in a better mood. It is fun to watch them progress from the first exhausting day when they can barely make it accross the pool, to now when they are able to win races and can swim 20 laps without blinking an eye...well maybe they might blink, but they could do it! Last night Alex was sick, and Eli was feeling "non-competitive" so Mona was the only one racing. She did awesome in all of her events and her coach calls her "the breaststroke queen". Way to go girl!

Finally 12!!...well Almost!!

Just had to take a moment to post a little High Five to Ramona. She turns 12 on Sunday and as per tradition in our family she got to get her ears pierced. She was a little nervous and her friends were making it a little bit scarier than it should have been with horror stories of botched jobs! She toughed it out though, and I think they look pretty good! Way to go!

THE BIG RACE!!

Isaiah has recently accomplished a very big thing....RIDING a 2-wheeler WITHOUT training wheels. Last Saturday he had the chance to strut his stuff as he participated in his first race at the Meridian Speedway. It was a hot day and a little scary as he watched all the bigger kids warming up, but he did awesome! Eli also participated and won a gift certificate in the raffle after. There was plenty of cheers and chocolate milk to go around!

Lining up!

The Last curve!

Way to go Boys!

Preparing for Battle

We have an amazing cherry tree in our back yard and every year about this time we have to gear ourselves for battle. Just as the cherries begin to ripen, hundreds of birds start hanging out in our yard. On the very day when they are finally all perfectly ripe...the birds attack and within a few hours ALL (and I mean ALL) the cherries are gone. We are trying to figure out a good way to fight this, but so far, we have mostly failed. I guess we will just enjoy how pretty they look and pick enough when they come on to enjoy a few days of fresh cherries.

Isaiah's Potatoes

Isaiah wanted to be sure I included a picture of his potato plant. He planted a potato early this spring after he discovered some "eyes" on a potato in our cupboard. He has been very delighted to see how huge they have grown. I guess that Idaho really is a good place to grow them. Can't wait to see how they taste.

BON VOYAGE ALEX

Alex and crew off on a humanitarian trip to the Dominican Republic. These four are meeting up with a couple other groups in Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic for two weeks of volunteer work. Good luck Alex! We look forward to hearing about your adventures. Wish I were going with you!

10 YEARS OLD

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELI! HAVE A GREAT DAY!

since you don't like to have your picture taken lately....I'll just post this one from about 5 years ago! what happened to this little guy? I can't believe you're actually in the double digits now!

Papa T!

We sure love Papa T. I wish he were here every night to read books to my kids. Can't wait until the next visit!

ELI SUPERSTAR!

4th Grade is all about Idaho History here in Idaho. They finish off the year with a great Lewis and Clark musical production. Here is a picture of Eli in his starring role as Charbonneau...the clumsy French furtrader and husband of Sacajawea. He did a fantastic job with funny French accent and all!

BRACES!

Just had to post a picture of Alex's braces for history's sake. She got them on last fall and we didn't get a good picture then...so here goes! Her teeth look straight to me already, just another year to go. I think they must just leave them on so long so they can keep on billing you...what do you think??

Rock Climbing!

Isaiah was quite the little Climber at a rock climbing class at our local YMCA. They have an amazing teacher who unfortunately broke her toe right when the class began, but then stayed and taught the class anyway. After learning all about belaying, carabiners, and cool rockclimbing terms like "dump me" which means to let someone down, they were ready to go. Isaiah showed almost no fear until one little boy exclaimed "Look how high he is!" and then you can see the look on Isaiah's face in the last pic. He'd had enough of this!! Hopefully he'll be up for it again as the Y is just a short walk from our house!

CREATIVE THINKING

Just had to share this typical moment from my day!

Those of you with toddlers and TV's are probably aware of the comeback of our favorite friend Curious George. Isaiah-age 4 loves the PBS series. The other day they aired a Curious George show called "Spider Monkey" where George tries to make a web that he can sit in to catch food. Well, as you can see...Isaiah really liked it. Today while I was in the shower, Isaiah came running up to me to tell me about the spider downstairs. After I dried off, I ran downstairs to find this little creation:

He had found some of my emobroidery thread and made a web and a spider.."Just like George" he said. The spider is eating an airplane at the moment. I had to laugh until I saw the silvery pieces of blond hair that surrounded the web. It seems that Isaiah had to cut the string to make the web, and he also thought he would try cutting his hair. Fortunately he is sporting the surfer boy longish hair now, so you can't really tell.

BOWLING!!

FUN AT THE BOWLING ALLEY! ISAIAH HAD A BLAST, AND MONA AND OUR NEIGHBOR WERE AMAZING HELPERS. RAMONA WAS SAD THAT SHE WAS TOO OLD TO USE THE BUMPERS BUT SHE DID PRETTY WELL ANYWAY!

ISAIAH TURNS 4!

Happy Birthday Isaiah! Our big 4 year old boy!! He had a monster truck birthday party with a lot of little boys and a couple girls (felt like there were about 100 kids there)! We can't believe he is 4 already, seems like he was just born yesterday! We don't know what we would do without him!! We love you big guy!