Birthday Madness

This last weekend Michael turned 30 and Grace turned 2. It was just too big of a weekend to stay home. So we loaded up the kids, the camping supplies, and the bikes and headed for Bruneau. We set up camp, unloaded our bikes, fixed a flat on Libby's bike and started biking to the dunes. We made it to the edge of the campground before my tube suffered catastrophic failure. One second it was fine the next there was a loud hiss of air. This effectively put an end to our bike rides for this trip. Michael had brought up extra tubes for the kids but not for our bikes. So we loaded everyone in the car and went over to the dunes and the pond. Sadie was in heaven. She would go swimming and then roll in the dirt. Made me glad I gave her a bath before the car ride up.

The next morning the wind was fierce. Grace was horrified by the whole thing. Michael and I were trying to pack up camp and Grace just wanted to be held. The wind was just to much for her. She finally managed to find her happy place. She discovered she could climb in and out of the bike trailer with no assistance to get out of the wind and she didn't get in trouble for it. She had already been forbidden from playing in the van after she locked herself and the keys in it. Thank goodness one of the windows was open a crack and we had a roasting stick to hit the unlock button with.
Sam didn't particularly care for the wind either. He decided sleeping would be the best way to cope. Heidi though this was a great set-up as it meant Michael and I took down her tent as well.


Meanwhile the older kids helped take the tents down. They particularly enjoyed the kite (tent) flying.


After breaking camp we headed of for the dunes. Everyone managed to hike to the top of the small dune. Libby ran up it and the rest of us followed at a much more sedate pace. I wasn't sure Sam and I were going to make it. Thankfully Michael carried Grace up the last 1/2. Yeah, she thinks she's cute. This was Sam after climbing the dunes. The wind covered him with sand even though I took the brunt of it. It was in his hair, around his neck, and even in his ears. I think he feel asleep so he didn't have to deal with it anymore.


After climbing back down Grace crawled into to the back of the van and found the hygiene kit. I guess her teeth felt fuzzy. It must have been all that sand.

Babies at the Park

We went to the park for a birthday party with my family and while I wandered off to play Bocci ball with the older kids, Michael stayed on the playground with the babies. Michael is much better at taking pictures than I am.

The ShopVac - Blow Mode

Otherwise known to the kids as "The Hair Messer-Upper"

Spring Break

For those of you in the know, you will realize spring break was a week ago. Yep, I'm just now getting the pictures posted and half of them are blurry, too. This is a high quality blog I've got going here.

I had imagined myself with loads of free time during spring break so I decided to use all this wonderful down time and work on some things with the kids. My free time quickly evaporated.

Ethan and Libby had swim lessons every morning for 45 minutes. The babies and I played in the kiddie pool while the big kids learned to float on their backs and to put their faces in the water. They were in heaven and I was only out 30 bucks. The YMCA has awesome swim lessons during spring break for $15 per kid. It is worth every penny.
I also decided that I would have time to convince Sam to sleep in his own bed and not in mine. This went better then expected. The first night was rough, he was awake for two hours. I stayed by his bed and patted him and sang to him when he started to fuss. We were both exhausted but we eventually came to an understanding. It is as follows:
I, Sam, will go to sleep and nap in my own bed. In exchange I am not expected to sleep through the night.

It's not a perfect solution but one we can both live with. He still needs a little help to get to sleep, but it is usually in the five minute range. I can handle that.

With the rest of my free time (I seem to think I have a lot of free time, even when reality insists I don't) I started potty training Grace. This went about as well as can be expected. The second day she didn't have an accident the entire time we were at home and then the third, fourth, and fifth day she never managed to go in the potty. I really have no idea how long it will take to potty train her. She is at the point that she will use the potty if she is running around naked at home. The minute I put pants on her, though, all bets are off. If she is potty trained by the time she turns two I will be in heaven.

Ethan decided to read with his free time. I was amazed that he picked up this book. I figured it was still way above his reading level. I was wrong. He spent most of spring break swimming and reading.

This was Michael's project. I wanted to get some divided piggy banks for the kids but balked at paying $16 each for something that wasn't that sturdy. I even googled how to make your own divided banks but I couldn't find anything. My first idea was to use baby food containers but I was afraid Grace would pry off the lids and mix up their money. While discussing this with Michael I happened to look on the counter at an empty spice jar. TADA! That was the solution I was looking for. They could separate their savings, tithing and spending. Grace couldn't easily open it. It was fairly cheap and if it got broken it could easily and cheaply be fixed and it was big enough that it wouldn't get lost easily. Also if you are crafty (which I am not) you could decorate the heck out of it.
We just got a piece of scrap hardwood, drilled two holes in the bottom of the plastic jars and screwed them to the board. Michael did have to unscrew a couple jars and rescrew them because the flip caps on the bottles didn't all open the same way. He's just that way. I hope our creation will cut down on the amount of money that goes through my washing machine.
All in all we had a good spring break. It was very hard to get back in the swing of lessons once it was over. Here's looking forward to the summer.

Evaporation in Action

This is flippin' awesome.