June 29, 2008

Star Wars Week

As in summers gone by, we have been planning nutty activities (Syd says they aren't nutty, they are fun. None the less I try not to admit to most of what we do in public) We had a Starwars watching marathon. Each day we watched one of the movies (in order of episode number).



Wednesday we had Jedi training day. We used a Jedi Name generator to make Jedi names for everyone. We had to call each other by the names all day long and wore name tags. I really loved having the kids call me “Master Annmo Achmur,” or “Master” for short. While I got breakfast ready the Padawan had to stand out in the sun rise and meditate. For breakfast they had to make a choice between the Dark Side (Cocoa Pebbles) or the light side (Fruity Pebbles). Then they had to clean the Jedi Temple and do their Eye Hand Coordination Exercises (piano practicing). Each Padawan made a light saber. For dinner we dined at the Mos Eisley Cantina; the menu included of Bantha Steaks, Ewok melons, Naboo Salad, Tatooine Bread, and Jabba slices. They also had a chance to bring the Legos to the living room and built star fighters and Pod Racers.

June 24, 2008

Train-Driving Thespian (and maybe a Matador)




Nathaniel Lycurgus
Born March 11, 2003

Favorites
Color: Red
Food: Watermelon
Book: Micky meets the Giant

Best friend: Stuart
TV show: Super Why (I'm Wyatt)
Free time: Play with Mom

Bike stunt: "pop a wheely" (hold onto bike keep feet on pedals and jump bike off nearest curb)


Nate says his best talents are:
swimming
tricks on the slide
good singer ("I sing to myself in my bed")
great dancer (I have some good moves)
playing with people
telling jokes


Alter Ego is Super Nate. Super powers include water that flows from his hands to kill bad guys, reach through people and it makes them tingle(this causes memory loss) then they explode.

Career plans include but are certainly not limited to: "I'm going to be a thespian train driver. I will do plays at night. I am going to be in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and good plays (not Holes because you have to take off your pants). I like plays when people sing and dance. I will do train driving at day. I will drive the trains anywhere they need me to. Being a matador looked fun in Ferdinand the Bull, but I'm not very talented at being a bull fighter because I'm not so fast at moving away."

June 22, 2008

Up Close and Personal

Hazel Jean
Born August 30, 2005
Nick Names: Hazey, Hazey Daisy, Lucky #7

Favorites
Color: Pink
Food: Gum and junk food
TV Show: Super Why (She is Princess Pea "with long hair")
Book: What's Wrong Little Pookie?
Free time: Changes her underwear hourly (because she has so many lovely pairs to choose from)







Come on in the Water's Fine

swim, swim, swim, everybody start to swim
Now you're swimming twice a day
swim, swim, swim, everybody start to swim
Now you're swimm'n like everything.



We came home to 112+ temperatures. We were so glad to be home that we didn't notice the heat until Monday morning when we thought about riding our bikes to the library. We thought that the tires on our bikes might melt, so we found other activities and began our summer swimming schedule. We swim right after breakfast and then we try to swim again about 5 with Kenneth when he gets home from work.

June 16, 2008

Make Your Own Candy Bar


In celebration of our first real day of summer break we made our own chocolate bars. In order top to bottom, left to right they are: The Superman bar, Rixt, The Nancy Drew Mystery Bar, The Best in the World Bar, Star Point, and Navvte. The kids made their own molds, chose what to put in the chocolate bar, mixed it up, named them and designed their own labels. The kids made up descriptions too.

The Superman bar: This chocolatey goodness is packed with goodness with milk chocolate on the bottom, oreo cookies on that followed with marble mix-ins, then a layer of peanut butter toped with rice krispies, then all slathered in dark chocolate and almonds to top it off.

Rixt: R is for richest
I is for internationally famous
X is that it is the only one that matters so X the rest out
T is for the terrifying creator (Truman [the evil genius {better than Christian}])
Eat one!

The Nancy Drew Mystery Bar: The Nancy Drew Mystery Bar has a mystery in every bite! But no two Bars are exactly the same! You'll love every bite! It melts in your mouth, and you haven't tried it until it's all gone!! You will absolutely love every bite! Yum!! Yum!!

The Best in the World Bar: Of course it's the best in the world, it has pretzels, chocolate, strawberry whoppers, , cookies, sprinkles and rice krispies. It is the Best!

Star Point: It has peanut butter and two kinds of chocolate and it's star shaped.

Navvt: It was so good it almost killed me!

June 15, 2008

Before and After Sprinklers








Before we could go on our trip Kenneth decided we needed an automatic sprinkling system. We got it all installed the week before we left and so I took advantage of the reduced traffic and threw out grass seed on our way out the door. I kind of figured we would just be feeding the birds. I took a before picture just for fun. Look what 3 weeks and a little water can do!

Out of Order

This post is out of order because we got home last night and I was looking through the pictures and realized that I didn't write about our tourist day (June 5th) in Seattle.We took a tour of underground Seattle. We shopped at Pikes Place Market, Kept "Clam" at Ivars Fish Bar, saw the mummies at Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe.Then we had a behind the scenes tour of Safeco field. We took Abby and Bekah's photo in front of Ichiro Suzuki's locker ( http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=6615).

We finished out the day at my aunt Liz's house for a great dinner party. The guy who gave us the tour of the stadium came with us to Liz's and was kind enough to cook our fish for us. This was especially good since he is the Chef for the Mariners. Needless to say, the fish was fabulous. The kids had a great time in the hot tub!

June 12, 2008

High Adventure Moab

We left Olympia Sunday morning (with Claire Passey) and visited in Caldwell Idaho with Matt and Traci White's family. Then we stayed a night at Ted and Wendy Smith's house. We are so blessed to have such great family. We have stayed with many families and have been well cared for and well fed.


We arrived in Moab Tuesday night and went Whitewater rafting on Wednesday. Rebekah, Nate and Hazel stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Welling. They went swimming and had a picnic. The rest of us went with Kenneth's Uncle Irby and his granddaughter Courtney down the Colorado River. We had a great guide and we did some fun rapids. Kenneth was the only member of out group to fall in. Abby jumped in and Sydney was pushed in by the guide. We rode in a big raft and all helped paddle, and we also had a kayak kind of craft that we took turns in. Truman and I got caught in the "all day eddy". My body is sore today from paddling our way out of the eddy.


Hazel and I took the day off today. We drove the van through a car wash, made some dinner, played playdough, had a 3 hour nap, and walked around Moab's down town. Kenneth and the kids went Jeeping with his welling family reunion.

The Main Event

Saturday was Grandpa Acheson's birthday party. It was fun to hear more about his life, meet his highschool friends, see family and best of all hear him yodel. After the party, we had a surprise bridal shower for my aunt Liz. It was so good to see all my Acheson cousins. I am really enjoying being grown up and seeing who my brothers and cousins marry and watch them parent. My kids had a great time playing with all the kids. I spent a few years lonely that my kids wouldn't have cousins their own age to play with, but as I watched how much they enjoyed all the kids I realized it isn't so bad. It is kind of fun to have older kids that will help entertain younger kids and since I don't have a baby baby I can enjoy other peoples babies.

June 3, 2008

Summer Road Trip Intermission

The main purpose for this trip to Olympia was to attend the 80th birthday gala for my grandpa Acheson. While we are here we are filling our time with constructive activities. We had a birthday party for my niece Mackenzie who turned 2 on Sunday. We went to Grandpa Acheson's beach (and Grandpa Cornwall came with us) to have pizza, watch the seals in the bay, make sand candles, and spill root beer floats on the deck. Today, we visited my Mom's classroom and met her students.
Grandpa and Nate worked together to make sand candles.
I found a live sand dollar.
Me and My Grandpa!
Truman found a goeyduck. (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoduck )

June 2, 2008

Summer Road Trip Part C




Wednesday and Thursday were spent in the Redwood Forest . (mostly looking for good photo ops)

June 1, 2008

Summer Road Trip Part B
















We spent 1 day in SanFrancisco. While riding the cable car back to the Ferry Building at the end of the day I overheard 3 ladies talking, one of them said "We should write a book 'How to do San Francisco in 12 hours'". I looked at Hazel sleeping in my lap and thought "I could write a book 'How to do San Francisco in 12 hours, with a 2 year old".

Here's our list of main events:
ride the ferry
ride the Cable cars (some of the kids even got to hang off the side)
visit the Cable Car museum
visit Musee Mecanique
eat clam chowder on the warf
tour S.S. Jerimiah O'Brien battle ship
walk 5 blocks uphill
walk down Lombard Street
shop China town
Pier 39 (see the Sea Lions)
eat dinner in China town
ride the "fast Ferry"

We are left with one pressing question: Why does the chinese restraunt need to keep a large set of salad tongs next to the toilet?

Summer Road Trip Part A


Thursday was the last day of school in Mesa.
Friday morning at 5am we pulled out with a full van.
Saturday, We attended the Fawson Family Reunion on Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake. I thought the best part was a group of us cousins-in-law trying to figure out what unusual things might be in the cake. (it turned out that it was just baked potatoes, "to make the cake moist")
Sunday, we visited with my Norman realtives and my Passey relations. It was especially fun to see some of my cousins again.
Monday we drove out west on I-80. I slept for a long time in the van and when I woke somewhere in Nevada I commented that the landscape was bland. Kenneth said "well you slept clear through the Salt Flats. That was bland." We drove all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge. BTW We learned that the official name for the color of (higly visible in the fog) paint that is used on the bridge is "International Orange".