So much for that parenting theory

In an effort to teach the boys a valuable lesson about taking care of their possessions, and the worth of a dollar, they have been saving for months to buy a Nintendo DS. They saved birthday money, allowance, and the very generous payments from the neighbor for taking care of their pet hamster (Bruce--short for Bruce Springsteen). Finally last Monday I went online and ordered them a DS. It arrived on Tuesday with much excitement and fanfare. They didn't actually have any games to play on it, so we used the doodle pad to play hangman...$110 to play hangman seems a bit extreme. On Wednesday they borrowed a couple of games from the neighbor. This went well for a couple of days. By Sunday morning the DS was missing. They took it in the car when we went to Lowe's and it hadn't been seen since the ride home. I cleaned out the car after bringing home all of the plants (64 of them). Today I went through the garbage to see if I inadvertently tossed it while cleaning the car. It wasn't in there. We spent awhile looking for it today, but to no avail. This afternoon Samuel went to the neighbors to play and guess what he found sitting on the retaining wall in between the two houses? Yep...the DS. So, I'm thinking that perhaps this was a parenting theory gone bad.

$20 for $638.42 of plants

Yesterday we went to Lowe's to look for gloves for Ben. As we were walking to the store, we saw some racks of "distressed" plants. Well, we would like to put plants in some of the areas that we are pulling ivy out of, not to mention the empty planters that we have in the front yard. Most of the plants were $2-$7, so I was just going to pick a few. While we were standing there picking what we wanted, one of the store employees came over and told us that we could have a whole rack for $20. So, we spent a couple of minutes moving plants around on racks, so that I only bought perennials (why exert the effort of planting something that is going to die and never come back?). We had to take the cart into the store so that they could ring up each plant individually. The total--$638.42. Wow! This was a better deal than the time we got a whole case of 48 cadbury eggs for 25 cents.We couldn't fit all of us and the plants in the van, so we loaded up the van and then Henry and I went home to unload so we could go back and get the rest of the family. I figure even if only one or two plants live, it was still a good deal.

More Ivy

Ben and Henry working on one of the trees

Samuel working on one of the trees

I worked on the ivy again this week and finally finished one half of it, except for bundling it up for the garbage man. Saturday, Ben and the kids worked on it with me for a while.

I haven't had the nerve to unroll this 6 foot long piece of carpet...I'm hoping that there's not a dead body in there.

Pretty pink dish

Under the "hammock trees"

4 Days straight at the playground

Last week Henry had baseball camp every morning. I told him that he could choose one activity for the summer, and that was what he picked. The township that we live in has a big main park. The camp was in one of the baseball fields, so I took the kids to the playground while he was there. Tuesday we stayed for about an hour and a half and then went and watched Henry at camp for the last hour. After we got home I e-mailed all of the mom's in the ward to tell them that we would be at the playground each morning for the rest of the week. I find that the playground is a lot more tolerable if I have other mom's to talk to, and the kids have more playmates. Wednesday and Thursday they had playmates and we stayed the whole 2 1/2 hours that Henry was at camp. Friday no one showed, so we went to the Library. I didn't get any pictures of Henry at camp, but I got some of the kids at the playground. By the way, Henry loved camp.

These red things spin...and spin....and spin. Samuel went in one the first day and ended up losing his breakfast afterwards. I had to talk him into getting back in it to take this picture.

I'm an awesome Wife

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!

What a good day. I made prime rib, french fries and peas for dinner and then for dessert we had fondue with strawberries, marshmallows, bananas, and blueberries. We gave Ben some framed pictures that he took while he was in FL in March. If you want to see those pictures you'll have to check out his blog.

Dentist

We finally did it. We went to a dentist that wasn't in Salt Lake. We have always gone to the dentist in Salt Lake every time that we go back to visit, but since chances of us getting to SLC in the near future are pretty slim, I took the plunge and went to a local dentist. She was very nice and seemed like a decent person not out to rip me off. They didn't mind that I went back in the room with the kids (they don't allow this at any dentist that I called in FL.) Henry went first and had one tiny cavity, which they filled while the other two were getting their teeth cleaned. Sadie decided to go play at the lego table in the waiting room while it was Samuel's turn. When I went to check on her about 10 minutes later, she had wet her pants. Lovely!! She hasn't done this in ages. So, after getting disinfecting wipes from the receptionist and cleaning the chair I took her out to the car. I wasn't totally sure what I was going to do, since I don't carry spare clothes for her anymore. Well, it's a good thing I never clean my car, because she had the choice of a pair of Henry's pants and a pair of Spiderman swimming trunks that belong to Samuel. She chose the pants (sans underwear).

This was Sadie's first appointment and she did great. She told Ben after we got home that it "didn't even hurt." The kids were great (I could have done without the "incident"), but it wasn't as horrible as it could have been.

Walking in Pittsburgh

Since it is now officially summer, we decided to take a walk after dinner on Monday. Most places (at least where we have lived) this is just an enjoyable outing, with no danger of ending up having to use the map app on your phone in order to get home. We just started walking and wandering around and up and down. At one point we were in another township. I entered an address that we walked by into my phone and got directions home, but the first direction was to head NW. Useless. We can't even figure out which direction the house faces. After wandering a bit more, Henry saw a classmate outside with his dad and we asked how to get home. We were only gone an hour and walked 2 miles, but it sure seemed like a lot more.

Archeology dig

I have been working very hard at clearing the massive amount of ivy from our backyard. So far I have been at it for at least 12 hours and am about 1/4 done. This doesn't include the many hours that Ben put in getting the ivy and it's massive roots (some bigger than my arm) off of the trees. Every time I go out there I find "treasures." It's like an archeology dig. Here are some of the treasures. My mother-in-law found a pair of clippers, and I found a hand shovel, but they got thrown out before I took pictures. Scythe

Toy Car

Little Basketball

Wind chimes

Metal Hoop

Garbage Can lid

A WALL??

How did we buy a house with a wall in the backyard and not even know it was there?

Henry's First Power Point Presentation

On Wednesday June 3rd Henry did his first Power Point presentation. He worked on it for a long time and did a bunch of research. First he had to do a written report. He had to do an outline, write a rough draft and final draft (complete with drawings). He even had to do citings. He did all of the research at the school library. After finishing the written report (on turtles), he then made it into a Power Point presentation. All of us, including Ben, went to see him present it. I was very impressed. Henry had the biggest audience.

My brother Matt...

Is getting married....

Samuel Turns 6

Today is Samuel's birthday. When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner yesterday this is what he said: Ribs, corn (not on the cob, the little pieces), and cabbage cooked like when it's with corned beef and cabbage. We are also having dippin' dots for dessert.

I have several issues with birthday parties. One of them is that I am too lazy to plan something for a large group of people, but all of the other issues center around the extreme excess of birthday parties. I don't want to spend money renting a venue, but mostly I see no reason that my kids need that many presents and that much stuff. So, no birthday parties at our house. (However, I do let the kids go to their classmates parties). One of the ways that I have counteracted this is letting them take treats or goodie bags to school. In Florida one year Henry gave his classmates Harry Potter glasses, other times I just got cupcakes at the store. Until we moved here I never thought that Samuel would be in school on his birthday, but we don't get out until this Friday. Last night he told me that he wanted to take goodie bags for his birthday today. I didn't want to spend a lot of money, so this is what I came up with:

One small terra cotta clay pot
One scoop of soil
a small amount of seeds
One lollipop

We bagged these all and sent them to school so that each kid could plant their own flowers. I had everything at the house already...so it was free. My only regret is not taking a picture of them before sending them all to school.

Finally!!

Henry finally lost his first tooth on his own. He had two other teeth that we affectionately refer to as his shark teeth because they grew in behind the others and didn't quite knock out the baby teeth. We had to have those two teeth pulled last year. He was so excited that he lost a tooth on his own that he took this picture. The bad news is that he has another shark tooth and the baby tooth isn't even remotely loose, so looks like we have another to be pulled when we go to the dentist next week.

Henry's Poem

Here is a poem that Henry wrote at school. It was a fill in the blank project.

I am a 2nd grade boy who likes baseball.

I wonder who hit the farthest homer?

I hear a crack when the bat snaps.

I see players running bases.

I want NYY's (New York Yankee's) to win the world series.

I am a 2nd grade boy who likes baseball.

I pretend to be Derek Jeter.

I feel good about baseball.

I touch bases.

I worry if the NYY's will lose.

I cry with joy when they win.

I am a 2nd grade boy who likes baseball.

I understand my team can't win every game.

I say Homerun!

I dream to play with the NYY's.

I try to have good sportsmanship.

I hope to be a national baseball player.

I am a 2nd grade boy who likes baseball!

(NYY's rock)