Grandpa Waite & Kyrick Visit

When the Clawson's moved to Arizona, so did Grandpa Waite. With Micaela's 8th birthday and baptism approaching, Grandpa Waite decided to come visit.... and Kyrick got to come too.

They had a LONG day of delays and lay-overs at the airport, but finally made it here safe and sound.
Kyrick stayed with cousins, friends and Grandma McKinley most of the first week, then got to hang out with us for the remaining week. Two weeks was a long time for a 4 year old, but he was a trooper.

Abree and Kyrick played and played and played (the older kids were still in school). They are good buddies and play well together. I think it's a matter of Abree likes to give direction and Kyrick doesn't mind taking it.

Musical Evening

Rylee came home, the day of her choir concert, telling me she needed to dress like a hippie. This would have been nice to know WAY before the day of. Not having any tie-dye shirts on hand, we had to come up with the next best thing. I was told looking like she was from the 1960's would also be acceptable.

Luckily, being the forward thinker I am, I had picked up a dress (brand new) from the .25 cent sale at "Other Mother's" thinking that someone could use it as a costume.... some day. My girls didn't act excited about it and told me they didn't think they'd ever use it, but I bought it any way.

Here's her 1960's style....

We did her hair and make-up to add to the 60's style.

The concert was great.

Three different school orchestras performed, as well as the choir.

One of their pieces they played was from "Pirates of the Caribbean".... notice the costumes.

The choir ran in from hall and performed a choreographed dance number as they sang their first song from the Broadway play "HAIR".

Taylee and Grandpa Waite made Rylee's HUGE peace sign necklace.

Rylee's choir teacher was a One-Woman-Show she was not only the choir director, but the orchestra conductor.

It was a nice musical evening.

Dr. Seuss Homework

More homework......

Treyson was assigned to do a report on a famous person. Dr. Seuss was his choice. When asked why he chose Dr. Seuss he said that it was because he liked drawing the characters in his books. (I did not know that.)

He was required to do a written report, as well as make this cube. Each side of the cube had pictures and information from his report. He was to use it as a visual aid while giving the oral report also required.

Most cubes weren't this large, but I thought that this rice box (from the cannery) worked well.... considering that the teacher wanted us to create our own cube without a pattern.

He said his oral report went well and that
"people were like 'WHOA!' when they saw how big my cube was".

Father & Sons

Usually I only hear about what happens at the "Father and Son's Outing". This year, I sent a camera and got a glimpse of what went on.

Lots of boy-bonding.
Lots of hiking the hills.

An awesome magic show, great music and a nice hot springs that was soothing on a cold mountain morning.

Because the forecast was rain, Jason decided that they would use the back of the van for their "tent". They took the backseats out before they left and stayed warm and dry throughout the night.

Unfortunately Treyson didn't get much sleep. Jason overheard him talking to his friend the next morning, "I couldn't sleep at ALL last night, because my dad was snoring so LOUD!" and then he proceeded to make loud snoring noises.

Poor guy. He was crabby and had troubles staying awake for the rest of the day.

Talking about it when they got home I said, "Now you know how I feel." He said, "Mom, how can you sleep through that??!" I didn't know what to say. I guess I've (mostly) gotten used to it. :)

Growing Things

Two weeks ago, when we thought the weather was FINALLY going to be nice, we planted a garden (tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, carrots, watermelon and cantaloupe). --The radishes have already come up, but we're still waiting to see any signs of the carrots and lettuce.

We also relocated our strawberries from last year. We were so excited to see that they came back.

We used the containers the trees came in. How "green" is that? And best of all, we planted 3 trees!

Our backyard faces West and gets A LOT of sun in the afternoon/evening. It's not fun to be out there during hot Summer evenings. We decided we needed some trees to shade and hopefully cool things off a bit. We bought "Legacy Sugar Maple" trees. Little did I realize when we bought them, that they are "slow growing". Darn! Well, eventually we'll have shade...... I hope.


Everyone joined the fun of tree planting.
Watch out... Abree's got the shovel!

Our future SHADE!

Ahhhhh, so much better already. :)

Taylee was the most excited about planting. She LOVES getting her hands in the dirt, watching things grow and admiring creation. She said over and over, "I'm SO glad we planted those trees. I feel like we've really accomplished something."

Thanks again Larsen's, for the awesome garden box.

Iowa State Homework

Taylee and I worked late into the night, Tuesday night. She had a state report due Wednesday. She chose to make a State Float, instead of a research paper or poster. (Although all the same information was required.)
Taylee's state was Iowa.
She learned many facts including; average temperature, population, ethnicity, crops, industry, Iowa's flag, state symbols and famous people.
John Wayne and Herbert Hoover rode on our float, both born in Iowa.

I liked the state symbols, seal and flag Taylee illustrated. They were very recognizable and detailed.

Good job Taylee. I hope WE... I mean YOU, get an A.