Memorial Day

As part of our Memorial Day activities, we talked about Uncle Russ, serving our country overseas. I explained to the girls how far away he was and how he was very brave but probably missed home a little bit. 3-year old Lauren thought about this for awhile, went and found some paper and drew on it, and then brought it to me. "Look, Daddy," she exclaimed, "it's a map for Uncle Russ so he can get home."

I thought we could wait 20 years or so

Yesterday, Lauren came up to me with a big smile on her face and announced, "Daddy, guess what? I like boys now!" and then skipped off merrily on her way. Wonderful, just wonderful.

Life in the Fast Lane

Our Elder's Quorum had a Pinewood Derby on Saturday night but despite good intentions, I kinda forgot about it until Saturday afternoon. With the girls' help, we quickly put a car together for the big race. It was a last minute job, and still had wet paint when we took it to the derby, but I was shocked when it pulled out the fastest time of the night and took first place in the derby! Wow! The girls were very excited and jumping up and down with their pom-poms. Pretty funny. Maybe procrastination does pay off?!

Belated Earth Day

We had a late celebration of Earth Day by planting our first trees in our yard. The sprinklers went in this week and we were finally ready to put some fruit trees in. We ended up putting 2 peach trees in (plus one for our neighbors), and a plum tree, apricot tree and nectarine tree. Of course it was record-breaking heat this weekend (in the nineties), so we just hope our little trees make it through okay. We're watering them a lot and hoping for good things to happen and can't wait for some delicious fruit in about 3-5 years! The girls each adopted a tree, so Kaitlyn is in charge of the peach trees, Ashley is taking good care of the plum and Lauren loves giving her apricot tree lots of hugs.

Happy 1st Birthday, Tanner!

Our boy turned 1 year old today! He had a train birthday party and a great day, from his own ice cream cone at Artic Circle to rides in the wagon. We played a few train games with him and his sisters, then presented him his own birthday cake. He made an absolute mess of his chocolate cake and giggled the entire time as he shoved handfulls of it into his face. After a quick bath, he loved his presents (blocks, a basketball hoop, ball maze game, etc) and had a great day. What a cute little boy!

Past Late

Lauren refuses to even consider going to bed until it's dark, and reminds us that it's not even "late" until it gets dark. A few evenings ago, on one of our not-quite-stellar parenting nights, we had the kids out several hours past their bedtime and as we dragged the exhausted kids home, Lauren moaned, "Dad, it's not late anymore--it's past late."

I'm #1!

On Saturday, we went to the Reading Elementary Fun Run, with a 5K for adults, followed by shorter races for the different grades and age groups. I'm a bit of a hypocrit, because I repeatedly told Kaitlyn and Ashley how it didn't matter how they did or what place they got as long as they did their best, but then I was sure excited when I won my age group for the 5K--it admittedly wasn't a very large pool of competitors, but I think it was the first 1st place I've ever taken, after lots of 2nd and 3rd places in high school track events and so forth. Kinda satisfying, I guess.