Sneak Peek

It all began 6 years ago...

We were living in Twin Falls at the time. Jeff (Jason's brother) was dwelling in our basement. Jeff's girls were coming to visit him for Father's Day. (They live with their mom and we don't get to see them very often.) Jeff was worried that his family in Utah, wouldn't come visit, while his girls were there. I said, "Hey, if we have a party they'll come!" We DID have a party and they DID come! Little did I know at the time, that I had created an annual tradition..."The Cousin Party".

We play games, make crafts, sleep in tents, eat lots of food, take lots of pictures and have lots of fun.

This year, Cathy (Jason's sister) is in charge of the cousin party. The theme is "Smullin Grand Prix 2009". We've each chosen a team color and name. We've been asked to design and create a team flag with our color and name. We are the, "Orange Crush"!

Here's the creation process of our team flag:

We had a little family meeting and talked about what we wanted on the flag. Jason started sketching.












Jason came up with a design concept.













Then sketched our logo.













He then enlarged the design on a copy machine and pieced it together.












Then he traced the design onto the flag material.




Then it was my turn. I painted the design and had the kids hand print the corners of the flag. Jason then outlined the design and wrote the kid's names and race numbers on the flag.

What do you think?

Hanging Out With Daisylyn

When Amber had to go back to work, to finish off the school year, Abree and I got to hang out with Daisylyn. We had so much fun feeding, playing with, and dressing her up.

She did a lot of growing and changing in those 2 weeks. She went from eating 1-2 oz. to about 4 oz. She also started smiling and making cute noises.

We love you Daisylyn!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

So far, so good.

Our garden plants are getting BIG. We've even harvested a few things; spinach, lettuce, a few strawberries and a few pea pods. Two of our 3 tomato plants, got a little frost a few weeks back and are struggling. We think one may pull out, but the other one looks quite haggard. After we harvest all of the lettuce, we will have more room for more tomato plants and more strawberries. Our kids have loved having our little garden and fight over the ripe produce. Hopefully we will have enough to go around once everything reaches harvest season.

Red Riding Hood

The Missoula Children's Theatre company was here!

If you haven't heard of these guys, let me tell you a little about them. They are a non-profit play tour company, based out of Missoula, MT. They have 36 teams of two, touring and directing plays, all over the United States, Canada and 14 other countries. They meet the kids on Monday for auditions, intensely practice all week (like 4 1/2 hours every day!) and by Saturday the kids put on a full-blown play; costumes, sets, memorized lines, etc. It's actually quite amazing!

Taylee had the opportunity of being in "Red Riding Hood", loosely based on "Little Red Riding Hood", but much more humorous. She played a "Forest Shadow -Thistle". She had 2 speaking parts and was a part of 3 songs, with dance moves. I was glad she was picked to be in the play (a few did not make the cut) and that she had a small part to begin with. (A bigger, more lines to memorize part, may have turned her off and made her frustrated.) She says next time she'll be ready for more lines and a bigger part.

It was so interesting to me, (I absolutely LOVE behind-the-scenes stuff) that I hung out the WHOLE week at practice. I was a "stage mom". It was so cool the way the directors taught the kids, learned each one of their names (60+ kids!) and put the whole thing together. Even by the night before the performance, a few kids with big speaking parts didn't know their lines, didn't know their blocking and many kids weren't speaking loud enough to be heard. One of the directors turned to me and another mom and said, "Will you think it's a miracle if this all goes as planned?" We had to admit, yes. Then she said, "Me too."

The performance DID go well and the kids did great! I plan on letting any of my kids that want to, participate in the future. It's free, it's intense for ONLY a week and it's a really neat opportunity. I'm so glad that we took part. I would highly recommend it to anyone. Check to see if they are coming to your area www.mctinc.org.

The whole cast; Forest Shadows(Taylee far left, in front, with purple/green hat and gloves) Ranger Rooney, Raccoons, The 3 Little Pigs, Mama Hood, Sister Hood, Brother Hood, Baby Hood and their cousin Robin Hood, Locksmith, Woodsman, The Wolf Gang, Little Lovable Wolf, The Big Bad Wolf, Granny, Red Riding Hood and her Girlfriends.

The Forest Shadows- Fire and Poisonous Plants (Taylee is on the bottom row, 5th over, with purple and green hat.)

Behind the scenes, turning in costumes and saying good-bye.

Director Jen with her Big Bad Wolf make-up still on.

Congratulations Thistle Taylee!

Speech..speech..speech!

There were a lot of candidates running for student offices.

Six students ran for the same office as Rylee.

"Hi Huskies!

My name is Rylee Smullin and I am running for 7th grade secretary.

When I first considered running, all I knew about a secretary was that they write things down at meetings. I thought that if I wanted the job, I better figure out what it is all about. I looked secretary up in the dictionary and this is what it said: "Secretary; noun, one who keeps records, handles correspondence, etc. for an organization or person."

This is exactly what I thought it meant!

Seriously, I do know that the secretary has great responsibilities in helping the student board organize and plan activities and events for the Heritage Huskies.

Let me tell you why I am qualified for the job;

1. I LOVE to be organized.

Looking at my bedroom, you would never know it. But I share with 2 sisters that DON'T love to be organized.

2. I LOVE to have a plan.

When my mom went on a trip for a week, she left an outline of everything that needed to be done. My job was to make sure my dad followed the schedule. That was a REALLY hard job. HE DIDN'T EVEN READ IT!

I'm excited to serve you. I will do my best to be organized, keep records, and help plan activities and events.

And although I like order and like things in line...

3. I can also be flexible. (Then she got on the floor and did her infamous feet-behind-the-head trick.--I missed taking a picture of that, darn.)

Vote for Rylee Smullin, 7th Grade Secretary!!!"

Here is one, of the 2 campaign posters hung in the cafeteria.

Campaign results: Rylee didn't win the secretary position, but was told that it was a close race and that she came in second place. (I don't know how accurate that is, but that's what she was told.)

When we talked about how she felt that she didn't win, she said she was a little sad, but not that sad. I asked her if she was ready to run for another position. She said that she wanted to take a little break, to get over it. I said that she would have a whole 3 months of Summer. She said, "Oh yeah, that will be long enough." --I wonder if she'll choose to run again. I'm guessing, yes. She's just that way. When she puts her mind to something, she's usually successful.

I'm so proud of her. She's much more brave and confident, than I ever was at that age. Heck, more brave and confident than I am at this age! Way to go Rylee!