secret hideout

Sunday morning the girls were playing nicely while I was washing dishes and talking to Mike. I turned off the water for a minute and then noticed that the girls voices were muffled. I wondered where they could be as I glanced over the playroom wondering if they were upstairs. It dawned on me that the little people toys were out of the toy cabinet but the cabinet doors were shut. I immediately turned to Mike and told him where they were and the camera came out. They obviously we not wanting to be seen in their secret hideout.

couch pals

preschool-turtles

We themed the preschool lesson around turtles so of course we had to read the Tortosie and the Hare. We even watched a new movie called Tortose Vs. Hare where they rematch. It was cute.

After the movie we had our own turtle races.

Rachel won most times. She figured out how to hold the string high for it to slide.

Then we read the Dr. Seuss classic Yertle the Turtle and used blocks as our turtles to see how many we could stack before they all fell over. 

Ashley got 6 high

Rachel got 7

 They painted a section of an egg cartoon to turn it into a turtle I didn't get a final picture but they were really cute. Rachel is learning how to mix white with other colors to make a different shade and to mix brown or other colors to change the tone of the colors. 

We read a non fiction book and talked about the different types of turtles and tortoises and even learned 2 new words; extinct and endangered.

The last activity was finding the sea turtles eggs that were buried in our backyard that needed to go back to the beach.

What goes around comes around

Who gets to sit in Daddy's seat for a meal that he's not around for is a fight between the two girls. So just about every breakfast and lunch they are arguing over who gets to sit there. Normally Ashley wins out because Rachel is kind enough to move and give her the seat (after a lot of crying on Ashley's end) or Ashley is stubborn enough to pretty much say haha I got here first.  Well what goes around comes around... but today in a good way.

Ashley is sitting in the honored seat and Rachel is whining and I'm ignoring it since this a daily thing. All of a sudden Ashley is saying "I can move."
My reply, "That's nice Ashley please sit still". That's another of Ashley's habits to wiggle the stools and gets excited when she's in a seat that wiggles.
But she goes "no mom look I moved so Rachel can sit there".
Ashley gave up her seat for Rachel!

Rachel keep up the good work on being kind because it's starting to rub off.  I just heard Ashley even apologized for making Rachel mad. Rachel said "you didn't make me mad". Ashley said, "Oh so you were just whining and crying?" Of course Rachel then insist that she was not whining or crying.

10 minutes till nap time.

Bristlecone Loop

One of the fun things about being the Ward Camp Director is I get to do all the fun things the girls do. Like prepare for the overnight hike with our 4th year girls. Today's hike my ward was in charge of drivers and a Priesthood leader so Mike got to go. This loop is 6 miles. It's the first 6 mile hike I've ever been on. It was a good hike. 

The group from my ward at the beginning of the hike

Mike and I at the overlook

showing off our muscles(?)

the view from to top

Mike on the trail enjoying the hike

bristlecone pine trees

We've decided we need to do more things like hiking that we enjoy. We stopped once we had kids since we haven't figured out how to hike with them. This morning we got a babysitter and it worked. It was a wonderful realization that you can get a sitter in the morning and instead of having a night out we just have a morning out. A hike is cheaper and healthier than dinner and a movie and really how many times can you do that.

Fourth of July Festivities

We were exited that we were able to celebrate our nation's birthday with the traditional parade and fireworks this year. Here are the photos of our day. 

The girls waiting for the parade to start. 

The girls and their friends watching the parade

Their were 60 parade entries that ranged from bikes to 4-wheelers that crawled up each others tires to typical floats and balloons to bag pipe players, jugglers on stilts, violins in marching bands, Native American dancers, line dancers, rhymthic gymnast, and even Thai dragons.

So more about the Thai dragons. Their float stopped in front of us and actually wanted to interact with those watching. They picked Rachel. This is Rachel crying and trying to get away from the dragon. She was so afraid. I even tried pointing out that there was a person inside but she was not hearing it. If she didn't have a back on that chair she would have been gone! But she couldn't get away and it took the people inside a while to realize that they were terrorizing her to stop. Someone did come out and apologize to her and us and they felt so bad. Oh well we're still chuckling over it and it's a moment I don't know if we'll ever forget.

After the parade we all went home for a nice nap and woke up to rain. So much for grilling, so instead we used the griddle to cook up some delicious carne asada, chorizo and italian sausage. The girls thought it'd be fun to play in the rain with their umbrellas (they don't get too many chances to use them). 

 It stopped raining in time to enjoy my favorite part- fireworks! This is Ashley's first time going and seeing fireworks, so we didn't want to miss it. We packed the cooler and brought chips with Mike's homemade guacamole. (Are you noticing a mexican food theme on our American holiday? I did) Meet are friends near a park and watched the fireworks explode, what felt like, right over top of us.

The kids entertaining themselves with glow bracelets turned swords while waiting for the fireworks

waiting in their princess chairs

Rachel sat with her friend and loved every minute of the show

Ashley watched the first firework and then turned around ready to cry because of how loud it was she spent the rest of the night cuddled up with Daddy. 

Marble Paint on Wednesday

 Rachel and Ashley marble painted on canvas last week. They had a blast rolling the marble around and off the tray and onto the table and floor and wall and me.  Yes somehow I still managed to get painted even in this.

Rachel is so proud of her art work that she took the liberty of hanging them up in our hallway upstairs with scotch tape.  My favorite part is that it's kid height.

   

Ashley getting a little help controlling it from Tara.