Ladies Man

I was doing the wash today (I am so proud of myself for mustering up the motivation) and saw Logan's white undershirt that he wrote really large on:

"Girls Rule"

Why would a 7 year old boy write this?

Logan was recently invited to a girl in his class's birthday party. He was deciding whether he really wanted to go or not. He first told me NO WAY because she told him he was the only boy invited, and he did NOT want to go to a party where he was going to be the only boy, LAME.

But then as saturday chores drudged along, his heart softened and he decided that possibly a potential birthday party, with all the fun and cake that entailed, sounded appealing. So he told me, "I want to go to the party".

Right before the party he came down with a white t-shirt and got the sharpee markers out. He wrote really big "Girls Rule- Boys Drool", and I kind of snickered because I thought this was a mistake, and said didn't you mean to write, "boys rule-girls drool"?

And Logan said something like "NO, if I'm going to be the only boy there, I want the girls to like me!!" He wore it to the party, and just as planned, was popular with the ladies.

Ha ha, cracked me up!!

PS- Logan came home from school earlier this year, and told me... "The girls chase me like I'm famous" in a tone of voice like as if it were a trial...Ha ha... (One of my favorite Logan quotes). Now I can see why they do, doesn't he know how to please the ladies?! :)

Ladybugs

When we planted our garden Dallin said, "mom we have aphids in our soil, they will eat our plants, we need to buy some ladybugs, so they will eat the aphids."

How does he know this stuff... not from me.

So after a few weeks of begging me to buy ladybugs, I called around and found a nursery in Chandler that sells them. ALL SIX kids wanted to come, so excited to go buy ladybugs. Ashlin thought it was so funny to text her friends and say, "Guess what I'm doing right now"...

Buying 1500 ladybugs.

Yes, all 1500 are in my backyard now. For $7.99 you get a pint of ladybugs, it says 1500, I doubt it was that many, but it was A LOT!

The kids were excited to let them loose in the garden.

Look how cute, even little Sophie loved looking at the ladybugs. Oh she tried to grab those little guys too!

I was cracking up that for our little tiny garden, we probably didn't need THAT many ladybugs, but oh well, so many will just fly away.

Now we are all nervous walking in our backyard, because we might step on a ladybug.

Art Masterpiece

I taught Art Masterpiece to Emma's class today.

I have been teaching Art Masterpiece for my kids classes since Ashlin was in kindergarten. I always wanted to be a teacher, so it's kinda fun to experience that. Though honestly EVERY time I do it, and I am trying to prepare the lesson, I think, "WHY do I do this to myself???!!"... then I leave and it was so fun to be in the class, that I'm glad I did it.

We made flowers, because we learned about:

Georgia O'keeffe
"Poppy"

Georgia O'keeffe was a popular artist even when it wasn't widely accepted for women to be artists. While reading about her I came across this quote, she said:

"I am frightened all of the time. But I have never let that stop me."

I love knowing the real feelings succesful people have. In my mind it makes what they've achieved seem reachable for even me.... like, hey, just because I feel scared or worried doesn't mean I can't do it. Loved that thought today.

Ashlin

HaPpY bIrThDaY

tO mY fIrSt bOrN

So I think it was just the other day... I put Ashlin on the bus for kindergarten and cried because I was sending her off to school... then this wierd time warp thing happend and now...

For Ashlin's birthday friday night Bruce and I thought it would be fun to take her out to tepinyaki, (the japanese restaraunts where they cook the food all crazy at your table) with her BFF/cousin Macy...

(scanning this in effected the coloring, don't think we are all THIS brozen tan, or that Ashlin, Macy and I are sportin bright red lipstick)

Ashlin's friend Vanessa wanted to throw Ashlin a surprise birthday party this year... but after comparing schedules... WELLLL, the only time her and us both had free was.... saturday morning.

So a Birthday Breakfast party it was.

SuRpRiSe! Ashlin's friends hid out back on the side of the house. I pretended to grumpily bark out normal saturday chore stuff (this was not hard, very natural), and sent Ashlin out back to take out the bathroom garbage, and BAM. SURPRISE.

Bruce is the man and made belgium waffles, here are just some of the peeps that loved Ashlin enough to set their alarms for her on a saturday morning.

Then, can the party ever stop... no, so day #3 of Ashlin's birthday was her actual birthday, sunday. Leftover waffles... and... what more could a 15 year old dream of for her birthday then:

CoOkIe mOnStEr CuPcAkEs


A couple weeks ago we saw these on someones blog, we both thought they were so cute, so I told her I would make them for her. She got WAY excited. I actually remembered to buy the stuff then her and I made them together (with the kids after church) and delivered them to some friends on her b-day.

Something I L.O.V.E. about Ashlin is how instead of just wanting to be older she is always lamenting that she's getting older and still wants to do fun kid things. Love this. (sometimes a little abnoxious, just keeping it real here) But, I knew she'd be WAY excited about the cupcakes.

Don't think this was her b-day present though, OH NO, we already had the stuffed animal, we just got it out so he could celebrate the cupcakes with us. She's not THAT in to kid things...

Here she is with her real birthday gift, an IPOD TOUCH. Ouch. Seriously, these are SO expensive, she's never had an IPOD but all her friends have them (and this IS how I am suppose to parent, right, based on what her friends have... ha ha) ... but really, is this what we spend on kids these days for gifts???

We LoVe YoU aShLiN, now STOP growing.

Tennis Team

You haven't seen Ashlin on my blog much lately... yah, we haven't seen her much lately either. Why is this? Freshmen Tennis season. I am so happy she is loving it though!

Cheap Labor

Just remember how happy Bruce looks in this first picture. When you see the last picture, at least remember how happy he started the day.

WHY is Bruce on a tractor???

I love this man.

Life is all about experiences, right? I love this quote by someone rich and famous who said: (something like)

"You can pay someone to clean for you, you can pay someone to watch your kids, you can pay someone to garden for you, etc..... but at some point you have to ask yourself, are you just paying someone to live for you?"

What a great quote. Life is about experiences. So, even though we would LOVE to pay someone to do our yard and clean our house, we don't, we do it, because we want our kids to experience.... their mom grumpy and yelling at them every saturday doing chores.... okay, not exactly that, (even though thats what happens) but I want them to experience that THEY clean up, not someone we pay.

Soooooo, do you want to know a secret.... do ya, DO YA, do ya... I have been developing land for the last year. It has been so much work, but so fun. Some day it will be great.

But last week, it wasn't great, it was just weeds, lots of 'em.

We were needing to get it cleaned up and I was calling around to price out tractor rental/landscapers coming out to clean it all up (about 10 acres)... when it occurred to me that Bruce would have fun driving a tractor. So I call Bruce and say, true story, "seriously Bruce, life is about experiences, how often are we going to own 10 acres of land that needs to be tractored (thats a word, right?) the kids would love to see you out there, and take a turn driving it, so tomorrow on your day off, I'm going to rent the tractor for you to drive."

Bruce is the BEST, because he was like, "all right". And truth be known, he was WAY excited to drive the tractor. He woke up and told me he had to pick out the PERFECT tractor outfit, his sweatiest hat, his favorite goodwill t-shirt with someone elses name on the back, etc...

Because seriously, what could possibly make you feel more manly then driving a tractor which is pulling an attachment called a "Brush Hog"?

Lily was excited to come take a peek at her "farmer dad"

You know the boys were excited after school to come see what their dad had been doing all day...

Okay.... SOOOOO, I don't think you have to worry about Bruce becoming a rancher. It STUNK! He was out there for 8 hours because the tractor kept getting stuck, he was sunburnt, mad at the tractor, GRUMPY... then finally the rental place came out and fixed the problem, and things went better.
But... he.... wasn't.... a..... happy..... camper.

I was trying to take this picture of him afterwards, but he wouldn't smile. I was like, "Bruce, c'mon"... then he said, and I quote, "Cherryl- I don't care about your pictures right now"
WELL, wasn't he grumpy.

I don't think you have to worry about him becoming a farmer.

We were real nice to him all night

because we felt bad he worked so hard.

At least you looked really manly out there Bruce.