“I Do Mine Job?”

I have a chore chart up on the fridge that sort of splits up some basic chores amongst the kids so I don’t always end up asking Ethan or Tyra to do everything. Ethan and Tyra have more spots on the chart than the younger ones, but as they get older they are expected to help out more. Lydia has one job each day, and that is it. Today her job is loading and unloading the dishwasher. Obviously she can’t do all of that herself, but she likes to hand me the plates and other dishes so that I can put them away, and then I let her sort out the kids silverware on her own.

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She gets SO EXCITED to do her job! She will run into the kitchen and say “I do mine job?” Much much different than the older kids who all moan, or grumble or just fall to the floor when I remind them that it’s their turn to do something.

Utah County Fair

Last year I found out that there is a Scout Expo at the Utah County Fair, and I really wanted to go, but our schedule was so crazy, and I was so close to having Adam that we decided to not go, but to plan on going this year. So I am SO excited that we got to go this year. I am a little disappointed that the website said it ended at 1 and it really ended at noon, so we had to rush to get to as many booths as possible before everyone packed up.

We didn’t get very far, before the boys just wanted to stay and stare at what was in front of them. The first booth we stopped at was a display of a scout camp made out of legos!

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There was a booth with a big scout quilt on display, the front and back had all kinds of patches on it and the back had neckerchiefs put together to make up the background. The kids got to shoot off some paper rockets that were left at another booth. There wasn’t any more paper for the kids to make their own and that’s ok with me, because all they really wanted to do was launch them, and not making their own rockets meant more time to see the other booths. Next the kids got to make some sand and glitter art by drawing a picture on a paper with glue and then pouring colored sand or glitter on it so that you could see the design. At another booth some of the kids got to plant some seeds, and some learned to tie a couple of new knots. At the last booth we were able to get to before everything was packed up was a booth where the kids got to make necklaces with boondoggle and a leather fob. Lydia was excited to show me hers (I actually made it for her so I already saw it, but she was excited about it anyway πŸ˜‰ ).

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I’m sad that we didn’t get there until the expo was almost over but I am very glad we got to go. Someone gave Tyra, Ethan and Kyle patches for the scout expo which I think is so cool, but I’m kind of sad that Jeremy (who is almost a scout) and Dinah (who is already a scout) didn’t get patches. I guess I will have to see if I can hunt a couple of extras down. It was rather disappointing that this was supposed to represent scouting across all of Utah county and as I think about the lay out and count the booths that I saw there were about a dozen booths total. Granted I am coming up with that number as I think back on it, and I might be missing one, but it was really very small considering it was supposed to be for all of Utah county. I would LOVE to see our pack or boy scout troop or both, have a booth there next year.

Once the scout expo was all packed up we decided to walk across the bridge and check out the county fair. The first building we went to was another huge distraction for the boys:

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All three of them are drooling over the lego display. πŸ˜› We walked around and checked it all out, then we walked around the rest of the building and I took pictures of crafts that I thought would be fun for the kids to try to make.

Next we went to see what animals were being shown at the fair. There were FAR less animals here than there usually are at the state fair. The state fair usually has several buildings of animals of all different kinds, and there was only a small tent of animals to check out at the county fair today.

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There were some animals that some girls were allowing kids to sit down and hold or pet. One of them was a baby pygmy goat. It was so cute.

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There was also a rabbit.

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Just before we left I took Lydia over to see the pony. She got SO excited and said “is horsey!” and I just happened to be trying to take a picture of her with one hand while I held her with the other and got her super excited face as she was exclaiming that it was a horsey:

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Lydia’s Second Birthday

Lydia turned 2 today! We didn’t do much aside from have the traditional cake, and presents, but she was thrilled with just that.

Lydia is still too young to pick her own cake. There are too many options and to her it’s all just cake, so I decided to try making a strawberry lemonade cake. I thought it turned out yummy, but it probably could have had a bit more lemon flavor to it.

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When trying to decide what to get her for a present, I kept thinking that the Minnie Mouse pillow pet we saw at Disneyland was perfect. Lydia is obsessed with Minnie Mouse. She can’t go to sleep at night without her little Minnie Mouse. However, we didn’t buy the Minnie Mouse pillow pet at Disneyland because we thought we might be able to find it cheaper somewhere else. WRONG! The same pillow pet was more expensive on Amazon, and wasn’t eligible for the free shipping. But I ended up finding a different Minnie Mouse pillow pet on Amazon that was eligible for free shipping and cost the same as the one we saw at Disneyland, so we got it.

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Just look at how much she loves her Minnie! πŸ™‚

How did she do that?

HOW did Lydia happen to flip my desktop sideways???

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It is incredibly difficult to type, or to move the mouse around when the orientation has been flipped.

Kyle figured it out when he got home from work, and it ended up being a simple combination of specific keys being pushed at the same time. So he flipped it back the right way and then went into the settings to turn that command off. πŸ™‚

Lydia’s Latest Thing

Lately, Lydia has constantly been after stuff on the counter. She also seems to think that the dishwasher is her own personal step ladder. She likes to open it up, and she pulls out the bottom rack all the way, and then she pulls the top rack out part way THEN she proceeds to climb up to the counter. There was one night, that Kyle woke in the middle of the night hearing her crying very loudly in the kitchen. He went out to see what happened and found that she had been trying to climb on the dishwasher and her feet slipped through the slats and she was completely stuck.This morning I awoke about 6:40am to hear noises out in the kitchen and I went out and discovered:

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Lydia sitting on the counter withΒ  two or three unwrapped Lindt truffle balls in her hand, one on the counter and one in her mouth. Obviously, getting stuck in the dishwasher rack didn’t teach her to not climb on the dishwasher any more. It just taught her to be more careful next time. πŸ˜›