Starting Our Summer Out Right

  We seriously love summer around here and want to take advantage of every second of it.  Claire spends the majority of her day outside playing and Crue absolutely loves playing on the trampoline.  Luke put the net up a few weeks ago and one of Crue's favorite things to do is have his daddy chase him around the tramp.

Last year Claire was one of the few kids on our street and rarely had anyone to play with.  Boy, things sure change a lot in a year.  We had about 15 kids (and half are cousins) move into our  neighborhood in the last few months and now there is never a dull moment here.

And we are still doing soccer and having fun.

Crue just hanging out at a soccer game.

Crue has decided that he really, really, really likes daddy.  Not only do they play on the trampoline but daddy also plays on the swing with him.

It didn't take Crue long to figure out how to get on the trampoline all by himself so we immediately had to move the slide away.

And he mastered climbing the slide all the way to the top pretty fast too. 

And he is always so proud of himself once he gets to the top. 

We have been setting up the waterslide/slip-n-slide quite frequently and within minutes we have a backyard full of kids.

Isn't he just so cute wearing his cape that the Easter Bunny brought.

And while the big kids are playing on the big water slide we set one up just for Crue too.

  And this is totally random but I went to check on Claire and found her sound asleep with Sally next to her and they were both using their matching blankets that Grandma made them.

We got tickets to a Bees game from Luke's work.  Claire has been begging to go to a game and she was so excited when we found out that they were doing fireworks that night too.  So what happens...it is freezing cold when we got there and windy and just miserable.  I felt so bad not staying for the whole game but we left after about an hour.  Claire must have been pretty cold too because she didn't complain at all when we left early.  We will make it up to the munchkin in a few weeks and take her again. 



Claire's Preschool

Claire has absolutely loved going to preschool.  I honestly think she would go everyday if it was an option.  She had the best teachers and made so many friends.  Right before school got out for the summer she had two field trips and I signed up to go on both of them with her. 

The first one was at a farm.  There were lots of animals there but the only thing she would touch was this little kitten.

And then her favorite part was going on a horse ride with her best friend Alabama. 

Here they all are eating a treat before going home. 

The second field trip was at the fire station.  The kids were so excited when a fire truck showed up at the school, loaded them all up, and then drove them to the fire station.

Lets hope she never needs to stop, drop, and roll because instead she just wants to cover her face and ignore what is going on. 

They took us in a room and showed pictures of all the past fire chiefs and here we are pointing to Claire and Crue's great-grandpa.

She seriously loved the fire trucks.

For her last day of school we all went to the park for a picnic and listened to her class sing some of the songs that they learned during the year.  And she made me promise to get a picture of her with her teachers. 

Washington

So I guess it is time to get back to blogging but it is so hard to do when the weather has been so great. Lets just say that playing outside with the kiddos and working in the garden totally beat out working on the blog. But it has been an great month with lots of memories we don't want to forget.

Earlier this month we were lucky enough to be able to go to Washington to see two of our most favorite people get married. Seeing them get sealed in the temple was such an amazing experience.

Kassie and Blake, we are so very happy for both of you and love you so much.

They had these huge 36 inch balloons at the reception and we were wondering how many it would take to make Crue float.  So what did we do the second the reception was over???

Crue was such a good sport.  He didn't quite float off the ground but when  Ryker threw him up in the air he came down a lot slower than he normally would have. 

Claire was so excited to go see everyone and was talking about them non-stop and all the fun things she wanted to do there. She wanted to go on the zip line, go on a tractor ride, and play all day with Libby.

And this little man spent his time playing in the backyard and getting spoiled with so much attention. 

It was a great trip and it was so nice being able to see everyone again.    We love you all!!

Bug Hunting

Claire came home all excited from school today.  She loves school, her friends, and her teachers, but today she was extra happy.....it was bug day at school.  She even came home with some bug-noculars that she had made.  So soon after daddy got home the two of them headed out into the backyard on a bug hunt.  At first she wanted to go on the bug hunt with me and realized it would be more fun with dad.  And lets me honest, bug hunting is definitely more fun with dad!!

 She even put on her swimsuit with a butterfly for her big bug hunt.

I think they ended up getting some centipedes, ants, wasps, and a stink bug.  Other than finding a spider to hold (don't know why she had her mind set on holding a spider), the bug hunt was a success.

Just Lovin' Life

The weather has been great lately and we have been spending every spare moment outside.  We have been planting the garden, going on bike rides, jumping on the tramp, and just being together. 

Claire and Syndey got out the bubble machine and a bubble gun and Crue didn't know what to think about that.

He couldn't figure out why he couldn't hold the bubbles.  It was so funny to watch him. 

We went out to Grandma and Grandpa Holly's to see Uncle Sam's lambs.  Lucky for us we got there right when Sam was about to feed one of the bum lambs. 

Grandma got out Sam's old trike for Crue to play with. 

And Claire quickly took control and Crue chased her down.  Poor kid.

Luke decided to try out Claire's new plasma car.

Birthday Party

Claire has been talking about what she wanted to do for her 4th birthday for probably about four months now.  At first she wanted a Fancy Nancy party with only girls.  From there it changed to a fire truck party with lots of boys, monster party, Fancy Nancy party again, a pink and purple party, and then a few days before her party she settled on a rainbow party with lots of colors.      

Claire was able to bring treats to preschool for her birthday and so we ordered her favorite....donuts.  She was seriously so excited to bring treats and for all her friends at school to sing to her.    

 It was a perfect day for an outside party

 This was the most fun and easiest cake I have ever made.  And her face when she saw it was priceless. 

 She wanted to play musical chairs and duck, duck, goose and she also wanted to have a pinata so that is what we did.  She had a blast with all her friends

 Crue buddy got his share of goodies from the pinata.  When he couldn't hold anymore in his hands he started shoving it in his mouth so he could grab more.

 We got her a plasma car and she has loved it.

Luke and I decorated her door and blew up a bunch of balloons and put them all over her floor to surprise her when she woke up.   

And here is a little bit about you now that you are four years old. 

You love helping me cook.

Your favorite kind of food is Thai and Chinese

You are the ultimate veggie eater. You will occasionally say you don't like something but the next month you are back to eating it again. Broccoli, brussel sprouts, spinach, peas, corn, beans, potatoes, celery, lettuce, baby corn, bamboo shoots, potatoes, water chestnuts. 

You are obsessive about having your teeth brushed. Nothing brings on a Claire meltdown faster than forgetting to brush her teeth at night.

You love to sing and play pretend.

Every night at bedtime you ask your daddy to tell you about when you were in Melody's belly.

You love going to primary and singing primary songs.

You try to sneak outside in nothing but your underwear so all the cars that drive by can see your "cute tush". Thank heavens we live on a very quiet street. We bought you some new underwear during the winter and I found you on the porch with nothing else on because you wanted all the cars to see your new underwear. 

You like to deliver things to our neighbors....and you has made and delivered some doozies. Your next favorite thing is to mail letters.

Her Great Ideas

Several times a week Claire comes and tells me that she has a great idea.  Some are great and others not so much. 

Not so great idea....

When she dragged this

up this and wanted to ride it down.

I just couldn't see that ending well and had to tell her no. 

Great idea...

"Mom lets leave the boys at home and we can go on a bike ride to the hamburger store and get an ice cream cone....but just us girls."

And so we were off.  I hope she gets more great ideas like that.