Jeepers

We had a play group at Jeepers Amusment Park (indoors) today. The kids had a great time!

STELLA AND CLARKIE on the motorcycle racers. Good thing about little kids is that you don't really have to spend money for them to enjoy these toys.

See, she loves it.

We spent a few cents on these rides (CLARKIE, SAMMY, STELLA)

EMMA AND STELLA

REAGAN

KIMMIE and STANTON

STANTON

NOELLE

MACY

Goldilocks

I love Elliot's extra commentary when he's reading stories to Stella. After reading Goldilocks, he said, "She should have been devoured." . . . and then he moved on to the next story.

Ward Picnic and a Nap

Our annual ward picnic was on Saturday, March 8 at Mesa Riverview Park. It's supposed to be a missionary opportunity, but some people (including me) forget about that part. The kids had an Easter egg hunt and while I was trying to get another kid to come and join us, Stella gathered MORE than her share of Easter eggs on her own. She played hard and we all had a great time.

By the time we left, she and her father were both in dire need of a nap. We took a family hike after the nap to end our exhausting day! (happy birthday Mommy)

Gross

This is what Stella thinks of eating an orange flavored Vitamin C after brushing her teeth. I know how you feel sister, I always drank Tang after brushing my teeth when I was little.

Drunk?

So we've had our mailbox bashed in a couple of times. We don't know who did it. But this is what we found this morning. We didn't hear a thing.

Seriously . . .

Stella, as usual, started out having a hard time wanting to go to Sunbeams today. She was pursuaded to be the reverence child who gets to stand at the front of the room and show the rest of the primary how to be reverent. After she was done being the reverence child, she got a sticker on her hand. Then she put it on her face. Then she ate it.

The Garden - Round #2

I invited my friend Brooke to share our garden this year. Last Friday she came over and we prepared and planted (in the rain) our 2008 vegetable garden. We did corn in the East garden. Hopefully it grows. Nothing grew there last year.

Instead of herbs, we planted zucchini and squash in the herb garden along the North wall.

In the West garden we planted tomatoes, peppers, beans, peas, lettuce, carrots, watermelon, cantaloupe and I'm sure there was something else, but I can't remember. I already see growth on the lettuce row, but Elliot thinks it's just weeds. I planted herbs this week in pots and I'm pretty sure we're just about done smelling like manure.

Stella loves helping and making sure the water is getting down each row in the gardens. When she's sure it's satisfactory, she proceeds to become as dirty as she can. Thanks for your help Brooke! I hope it grows!

Music

On Friday, Auntie Em invited us to her friend's music class. She does it at an old folks home every other week and sings silly songs with them. She invites some of her friends with kids for additional entertainment for the "grandmas" and "grandpas" so they can help with the props. Stella has gone with Auntie Em before, but hardly participated when I went with her this time. I did get several great ideas for Nursery though. We all went to the "temple's park" (it's across the street from the temple) after the singing class so that we could be harrassed for money. Then we waited almost patiently the rest of the long day for Daddy to finally come home from Baltimore.

Swing Sweat

For our family project today, we took apart and then put back together a swing set that my friend gave us. To avoid a dog attack, we had to wait until today to go and get it, plus I probably wouldn't have gone to get it on my own. Stella has been asking about the "swing sweat" all week.

We were outside most of the day, so Stella was pretty worn out until her friend Capri came over.

Therapy

I've decided that this time, right now, is my absolute favorite time of year in Arizona. Yes, I just got a sunburn yesterday from working in the yard, but the mornings and evenings are just absolutely beautiful. For the past several weeks I've been spending so much time outside working in gardens and the yard and I can't get enough of it. After having a pretty crappy start to this year, I decided to medicate myself with the beauties of the earth, so I planted flowers. The very thought of those flowers outside just makes me happy and the sun soaks away (or burns away) any nuisance that tries to creep back in!

Friends

Because our homes are so close, Emily and I frequently go back and forth for short (yah right, mostly long) spontaneous visits. Ideally we'd like to be next-door neighbors without that pesky house between us. We've often said that if there was one more house between us, we couldn't possibly be as good of friends . . . at least it'd be more of a hassle to borrow eggs and such. :)

The kids often play together. On this day, Clarkie was trying to teach Stella how to ride a tricycle because I've given up for a while because of her steering challenge. Who knows what Sam and Joe were doing. It's amazing what big brothers can make little brothers do for them.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Lunch

I forgot to post these pictures from almost a month ago when my family was in town for Hannah's sealing. Dad took us all to lunch on a raining day.

Hannah taking another stab at the lemon. She loves it.

Poor Miles had to sit between the kids and I'm sure his left arm is grease-stained with Stella's french fry fingers.

Natalie, Marci, and Mom

Lindsay and Hannah

Daddy-O

Nursery Story

Cute story about my Nursery kids. During the lesson the teacher showed a picture of a father baptizing his son. When she asked the kids what they were doing, some kids said that they were swimming, others weren't able to see the picture because they were either underneath their chair or turned around completely. When another teacher whispered to Mason that he was getting baptized, he turned around and said, "He's getting bad guys!"

WANTED: A Sunbeam Teacher . . .

. . . because after today, I'm sure they want to quit. Let me start at the beginning because it didn't quite start out very well. For weeks we known and practiced for Stella's prayer debut in Primary. I really thought she'd go through with it, but when the time came, she just said, "I'm too sleepy!" and refused. So I prayed and I'm kind of bitter that I didn't get a sticker for it.

Fast-forward an hour or so, I was summoned from my Nursery class with a crying Stella. We talked in the hallway for a short while and I found out that Stella was having a hard time in her Sunbeam class and . . . she burped in her poor teacher's face! STELLA ROSE DIBBLE! TROUBLE!

We drew a flower for poor Sister Harris and went back to Stella's Sunbeam class for the rest of the lesson. Stella sat reverently, picked her nose, and then was able to apologize to Sister Harris and give her the flower picture minus a small corner of the paper which was now containing the booger. I'm sure Sister Harris will forgive Stella for burping in her face, but who gets in trouble for forgetting to brush Stella's teeth this morning?