Tyson turns 11

Tyson turned 11 on August 10.  It is hard to believe he is that old.  He will be the "ruler" of the elementary school this year.  We love having Tyson in our family.  He keeps us humble with his very honest comments, and he also keeps us laughing with a lot of what he says.  He had a great birthday.  He started the day with his favorites for breakfast in bed (omelet and strawberries and bananas drizzled with chocolate).

He opened his presents and was excited to get everything he asked for (wii soccer game and Phillies hat).  We surprised him with a few extra things (more books to add to his collection of Calvin and Hobbs, and the Star Wars trilogy).

That night Tyson had his "friend" birthday party.  He had a sleep over party (I originally put slumber party and Tyson made me change it.  He says "slumber party" is an old term and only used for girls) with ten boys.  This is the first time we have had a slumber party this large.  He started with a pie eating contest.  Tyson won this hands down!  I am not sure if it is because he had experience earlier in the summer or what.

 Tyson had everyone make a tin foil dinner and they cooked them in the fire pit.  They played lots of games outside, and then came in to watch a movie and calm down.  It didn't go as planned, but they enjoyed the popcorn and candy.  I have never seen boys devour candy so fast.  The mess in the morning was quite shocking.  I am very thankful for a vacuum.  Some of the boys wanted to sleep and others did not so they made a rule that when you were ready to go to sleep you went up stairs, and if you wanted to stay awake you stayed in the basement.  Fortunately by morning everyone was upstairs.  They ended the party with pancakes for breakfast.

Justin's Backyard Carnival

For Justin's birthday this year he decided to do a carnival in the backyard.  His birthday isn't until August 26, but that is always a hard time to have a party since school has just started and so has soccer, so we decided to celebrate early.  We bought a snow cone, cotton candy, and popcorn machine.  I gave everyone tickets when they came in and they got to play games and eat food.  When it was all over they got to redeem their token's for prizes.  The kids had a lot of fun.  It was a lot of work because I had to find people to man the 15 booths, but I think it was worth it in the end.  Here are a few pictures of the event.

I made everyone get their picture taken so we can send them a copy with their thank you card.

They had a lot of fun at the face painting booth

We did cupcakes at the end.  I was surprised any of them could eat them after all of the other junk they had eaten!

The Only Way My Kids Will Eat Squash Without Complaining

One of the things I love about summer is our garden.  I love to get the soil ready, I love to plant it, and I love to eat all of the stuff we grow in it; unfortunately my kids do not share the same love as I do.  They like a few of the things that we grow, but none of them enjoy the squash. 

Over the years I have tried literally hundreds of recipes thinking surely this one they will like, but no matter how I cook it they do not like it.  This year I finally found one way to serve it that they will not complain about, a nice bribe.  I have told them if they just take some and eat it without complaining they can have a See's candy.  This worked.  They will take their allotted amount and quickly eat it without complaining to get a See's candy after dinner.  The only problem I have now is that I am out of See's and we don't have a store here in Lubbock, and we have a lot of squash still growing in the garden. 

Here is how we are eating our squash today, sliced sprinkled with salt, pepper, and garlic powder baked with mozzarella cheese and bacon bits on top.  I know they will complain, but such is life at our house!!!

Emily Turns 13

Yesterday Emily turned 13.  She is officially a teenager and my boys have been giving her a hard time about it ever since she woke up.  It is hard to believe it has been thirteen years since I had my first child.  Emily has been such a joy to have in our family.  She got the traditional breakfast in bed and presents when she woke up.  Because it was Sunday we had to get ready for church.  She got a new outfit to wear to church and she also got to wear makeup for her first time.  She was very excited.  Here is a picture of her all ready to go to church.

After church Annabell had us over for dinner and she got a cake for Emily since we had just gotten home from vacation the night before.  We went out to eat for her birthday dinner tonight.  Emily chose Texas Roadhouse.  I know she would have preferred going to The Olive Garden, but she knew the boys wouldn't like it.  Emily is so considerate that way.  We all love her so much!  I hope she will stay as sweet as she is right now as she continues on through her "teenage" years!!

Summer Vacation #2

Our second vacation was a trip to Utah.  We spent two weeks there, the first week we spent in Beaver visiting with family and having fun.  The kids got to ride horses;

go up in the mountains and roast hot dogs and marshmallows, ride in canoes, and catch fish;

Tyson and Justin also got to enter a pie eating competition.  Tyson did it first he was very excited at the start of the race

He seemed to enjoy every minute of it

until the end, he said he didn't want to ever eat another lemon meringue pie again!

He did get third place!
Justin decided to give it a try next, since they didn't have any adults enter the competition they decided to have a second one with kids so Justin was able to get in on it with some of his cousins.

Amy and Justin were excited to get started

The excitement didn't last long, Justin told me he thought he was going to throw-up, I told him just to quit, but he kept on going.  He ended up getting third also!

After the pie eating competition we headed up to Centerville to visit my Aunt Marie and celebrate the 4th of July.  They were doing their celebration on Saturday instead of Monday.  Here is a picture of the kids after watching the parade.

We visited with lots of family while we were up there.  We were so grateful to my Aunt Helen who hosted a wonderful picnic at her house.  I got to see some relatives that I hadn't seen in a long time.  We stayed with my sister Saturday and Sunday night and the kids enjoyed playing with all of their cousins at her house.  It is so amazing to me at how well they can get along and play when they only see each other once a year.  I am so thankful for wonderful cousins and nieces and nephews.

Monday we headed down to Provo for Tennis camp and Soccer camps.  Emily did tennis camp and Tyson and Justin did soccer camp.  They had a good time, and I enjoyed shopping at all of the fun stores there in Provo.  We also got in some hiking, more visits with cousins, water park fun, a BYU men's soccer game, and a behind the scene tour of BYU studios thanks to Ellen's nephew.  It was all a lot of fun.  Here are some pictures from there camps.  My camera battery ran out so I don't have very many pictures.

Summer Vacation #1

We went on two vacations this summer. The first one was to San Antonio. We hadn't gone to San Antonio since Justin was a baby, so we decided we needed to go back and see all of the sights there. The kids were most excited to go to Schlitterbahns, a water park there. It rained so hard the day before we got there that the park had closed down so we went to Sea World instead. The kids had a lot of fun watching the shows and going on the water slides.

The kids enjoyed the Sea Lion show the most.  The Shamu show wasn't as good as we had remembered it from last time, but it was still amazing.

The next day we went to the water park, but only one of the three parks was open. The kids still had a lot of fun there. I think we would enjoy going back again sometime to see the rest of the park. Ryan and Abigail really enjoyed the splash pools.  I decided it is easier killing time at a splash pool than it is at the kiddie section of an amusement park.

Our last full day there we went to Fiesta Texas.  The kids had a lot of fun, but because of height restrictions it was a little frustrating.  Everyone was just a centimeter too short to go on the rides they wanted to.  Abigail could only go on two of the rides in the Kiddie area. 

We didn't do all of the things we had planned on doing, but we still had a great time.  It was rainy most of the time, but that kept it from being too crowded and it actually kept it from being too hot also. 

Soccer in June, Not Good!

Today I discovered the reason soccer is a Spring sport here in West Texas and not a summer sport. My two boys had soccer games that had been canceled earlier due to rain. Justin played his game first at 3:00, and when we left the car it was 102 degrees, Tyson played second at 4:30 and the temperature was then up to 106 degrees. It was so hot!!! Tyson's team was playing to determine who would take second place, Tyson's team won even though they barely had enough players to play, which means no one got a break, except for the water breaks that they had to add to the game for fear of heat exhaustion. I really don't mind hot weather, but it was miserable sitting out in that heat for 3 hours.