FHE-Bowling with Oma and Tiffany

We have some visitors! Mom, Tiffany and Wendy drove up to spend the week with us. Wendy went to hang out with her boyfriend, John and the rest of us decided to go bowling tonight.

We decided to get two lanes this time, because one lane last time was pushing it for the size of our family. Kyle put all the kids on one lane, and all the adults on the other.

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Kyle got this wild action shot of me:

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Adam was a great cheer leader. He sat in his stroller making excited noises as he watched us send our balls off down the lane.

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Mom and Tiffany tied for first at the end of our first game.

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We began a second round while we waited for the kids to finish their game, and we had 19 minutes of lane time left so we thought we might as well use it!

In our second game, mom got three strikes in a row! She was excited and was laughing super hard. Ethan told her that she laughed crazy, because he had never heard her laugh like that before.

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On the other hand, I was not doing so well at all.

The kids didn’t get to finish their game before our time was up, but they still had loads of fun. Every time Lydia pushed her ball off the ramp, she started jumping up and down with excitement as she watched it roll down the lane. She didn’t care about knocking over any of the pins, she only cared about watching her ball roll.

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A few minutes after we left home to go to the bowling alley I realized that I had forgotten the camera, which means all the pictures that were taken tonight, were taken on our cell phones. I definitely prefer my camera. I couldn’t get a good shot of anyone releasing their bowling ball because when I clicked to take a picture, it delayed a few seconds before snapping the picture.

What will I wear?

Chloe came up to me while I was coming out of my room and asked me, “Mom, what will I wear when it’s my wedding?”

Taken by surprise, I answered, “Chloe you don’t need to worry about that for a while yet.”

She answered more urgently, “But Mom! I NEED to know!”

So I told her, “Well you will probably wear a temple dress.”

Chloe asked, “What temple dress?”

I said, “Whatever temple dress you choose when you are getting ready for your wedding.”

Then she asked, “Will it be this temple dress?” (Pointing to a red dress on the chair in my room)

To which I said,  “No it will be white.”

I don’t know what brought on this sudden worry over her wedding. But being only four years old, she has PLENTY of time to just be a kid before needing to think about wedding details. I felt that I handled the situation pretty well. I really wanted to laugh that she would be SO worried about her wedding, but I held it in and patiently answered her questions. Hopefully, she will relax and think about something a little more age appropriate next. 🙂

Apples and Plums and a Pear

One of our apple trees and our plum tree produced fruit this year! The last time we got fruit from any of our trees, it was 2011 and we got three peaches and two plums. The trees bore more fruit than that, but that was what survived the crazy winds we had that year. This is what we got this year:

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Fifteen apples, fifty one plums and one pear. There were a bunch more apples and plums that had bird and wasp damage, and earlier in the season there were a few more pears but they fell off (or Jango ate them) months ago, and I didn’t really expect the last one to last to the end of the season.

It’s not really enough fruit for canning, but it’s plenty for fresh eating. I am just really excited to be able to harvest some fruit off our own trees. It lessens the sadness that I have when I think of the peach tree and cherry trees in my backyard that have died and need to be replaced.

Legos and the Zoo

A couple of years ago, the zoo had a special exhibit of dinosaurs. This year, they have a special exhibit of Lego animals! Ethan LOVES Legos and so we didn’t want to miss it. So we decided it was time to renew our pass to the zoo and go check it out. While we were there we decided to have Ethan earn the Cub Scout Hogle Zoo patch, and so he wore his uniform.

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We also took a friend of Tyra’s along, and since it was a school day, we had all the kids bring their composition books and pencils so they could take notes of the different animals and things that they saw. But that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t any monkeying around. 😛

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Every time we pass the big elephant the kids just HAVE to sit on it’s trunk.

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Ethan really liked the snake made of Legos.

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It was really bright sitting on a shiny polar bear in the full sun. 🙂

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Tyra was also working on a scout badge today. She is working on the Animal Habitats badge and so while we were in the building to observe the polar bear and the seals, we had her talk to one of the zoo employees about the Arctic habitat and why it is endangered. She got to find out why “global warming” is dangerous to the animals that live in the Arctic circle, and she learned about some ways we can help (such as not leaving our cars on when we aren’t driving).

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Lydia saw the bears on the wall and wanted to “walk like a bear” too.

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In the small animal building we had to wait while a couple the kids drew pictures of some of the animals.

Dinah’s drawing of an owl:

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Dinah’s drawing of an armadillo:

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Jeremy’s drawings:

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When we finished searching the zoo for all of their Lego displays, we decided that it was time to go home. Tyra’s friend’s parents hadn’t expected us to be gone all day, which I kind of find funny, because who wants to spend an hour driving to the zoo and only spend an hour there, then spend another hour driving back? I mean, doing that you spend more time driving than you did at the zoo! But I think the kids had a good time, and they really thought the Lego animals were awesome. Hopefully they learned a little something too.

Investiture

Today we had our troop’s investiture and rededication meeting. I don’t have many pictures because I forgot to bring my camera, and the one picture I have, Kyle took with his phone while trying to wrestle Lydia, and Adam to sit still.

Dinah was invested into our troop as a Daisy and got to plant a seed so that she can watch it grow as she will grow.

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Tyra got to get up with the Juniors and recite both the Girl Scout Promise and the Law, and then give an example of how she lives the law.

Then we got to give out the awards that we had earned in the previous weeks. The girls always love getting fun patches and awards. 🙂