This week

The boys asked if I would take them to the Dollar Store to buy Alison a birthday present.  Colin grabbed one of Alison's purses, put his altoid box full of kick-knacks and a dollar in it, and was ready to go.  If you ever need a good laugh, just spend a few minutes with Colin.

They were pretty cute shopping for her and trying to think about what she might like.

 Ben actually gets the award this week for grilling in 110 weather, which called for fruit and whipped cream for dessert. 

Alison got super into "stretching" and watched several how-to-increase-your-flexibility videos on youtube.  She worked really hard and almost mastered the splits!

She asked me to join her one evening, so I sat on the floor and attempted to follow her instructions.  It was quite humbling.  I've never been flexible, but then to have my daughter chuckling at how much I wasn't moving, took it to another level.  Ben sat down with us and we quickly started laughing as we realized that maybe we should be joining Alison more.  The next morning I suggested we do a yoga workout together, thinking that would be a good compromise.  It was really fun and it challenged her some, but I fully admit that I was sore the next day.

Even the boys wanted to join in on the stretching.  Alison took this video and they could not stop laughing over the very end...like tears rolling down their cheeks laughing each time they watch this video.

Every time I turn around, Eli is in underwear. One day I asked him why he keeps taking off his clothes and he said, "I'm just TOO hot momma."  Eli wins points for being in my non-flexible camp.

Public school starts next week, so we had our last cooking class with this group of girls.  I taught them how to make pizza dough and then they each made their own little pizza.

When class was finished, Eli asked me, "So when does my cooking class start?"  I was a little taken aback and suggested maybe daddy could take him to a woodworking class.  Nope, he made it clear that nothing gets by him anymore and Alison got a sewing and cooking class, so he was ready for his turn.  Oh boy, this could be a very entertaining year.

My favorite part of this week=Alison did a lot of writing on her own, without any prompting from me and the results were pretty hilarious.  I learned a big lesson as a teacher this week, as well.  Normally, I would be stressing about all the errors on this page, but I realized that when Alison is writing, she is focused on the content and not the grammar.  She is an amazing speller, but doesn't focus on spelling (or handwriting) when her brain is full of ideas for the page.  This is one of the things she wrote:

And if I ever lose sight of the importance of being mom, I'll just pull this up and remember that on my daughter's birthday list is seeing me first thing in the morning. 

Big Yuma news!  Sprouts opened up!  It's Yuma's first and only healthy food store, but leave it to us to buy Jelly Beans there.   To our credit, we just went to check it out and we had a sample of dragon fruit to balance it out.

Finally, nothing beats ending the day playing a little music with your dad.

This week

Eli had a dental procedure done.  The dentist told me to help him be as comfortable as possible, so I let him go in his pj's and hold his blankie the entire time...I figure in a year this won't do the trick, but for now, it helped tremendously.  I told him that we could get milkshakes afterwards and he said, "How about a toy?"  He sure knows how to work the system.

Our neighbors went on vacation and told us we were welcome to use their pool.  So every morning after breakfast, we would go swim for about an hour.  It was amazing how much getting outside for a little bit helped us all.  

We got there are little earlier each day, enjoying a little bit of shade and temps only in the 90's.

By Wednesday, Colin had his suit on at 7:15 and was trying to head out the door.  I stalled long enough to grab a cup of coffee, thinking I could relax by the pool with a book, but coffee+outside+Arizona summer do not mix.

 

I finally got our microscope up and running.

 

I got it while Ben was deployed, took it out of the box and it has been just sitting in the school room for months.  I learned my lesson and should have had it all ready to go before Alison's science lessons needed it.  It took me way too long to figure this thing out!  Thank you YouTube.

The kids were super excited about it though and we had fun exploring different things together one evening.

Ben found a sand dollar on the beach at Coronado and it was the coolest thing to look at.

 

The grossest thing so far has been a bug Alison found.  I definitely did not need to see that up close.

 

Alison and I went to see 'Into the Woods' at the same theater she performed 'Annie'.  She really wanted to be in this play, but it was for older kids.  Strangely enough, pretty much all of the cast were the same people from 'Annie', but I think it was good for her to experience the spectator side.  She thought it was fun to see her friends again and made her even more excited for the next play.  

When 2 boys make a video

Eli asked if he could borrow my phone for a second, I got distracted working on math with Alison and this is what happened (just watch the first minute...I was too lazy to crop it.)

Beach trip to San Diego

Ben was in San Diego for a work training, so the kids and I met him there for a little beach time.  We had nothing on the agenda except for soaking up time outside.  We were on the beach in time for a picnic lunch Thursday; as nice as that sounds, picnic lunches at a dog beach are NOT relaxing.  This was the first time we took Maya and she did great!  I didn't think she would touch the water, but she ran right in with the kids and had the time of her life.

Having Maya with us was like having a toddler on the beach, but it definitely was very entertaining.

I love how dog friendly San Diego is and we were able to find 3 dog beaches.  Our first stop was in Point Loma and then we drove up to Del Mar to be close to our hotel.  I guess a dog beach sounds gross, but they were very clean and not as crowded.

We met up with Ben for dinner and watched way too much Food Network that night.  

Friday morning, we drove over to Coronado Island.  The White's come too and we had a full day of beach time with friends!

Ben and I took turns running on the beach and it was the.best.  The ocean is good medicine for me and I know we all needed some time to just play and relax.

Leaving the beach is always hard, especially when you have to come back to the desert.  It was so good for us though, I'm considering scheduling in some day trips in the near future.

4th of July

Alison was intent (even scooped poop to earn money to buy the ingredients) on making double-layer cupcakes.  Ben asked if he could help her and they spent the afternoon in the kitchen together.

 Her creating didn't quite happen as she visioned and it didn't help that we can't keep frosting from melting here, but they still tasted great!

The Baker's came over for dinner and then we set off a few fireworks. 

The neighbors were also out and had their for-real smoke bombs (they are both border patrol agents).  

 

Dahlia is a fellow "I'm a really small" kid and her and Colin were so cute watching the fireworks together.

My Charloonie

That's what I call Colin.  Colin is just too boring for a little stinker full of spunk.  He had his well check on Friday and, it only took 5 years, but is in the 30% for height and weight!  Party time!  Sounds great, but he's still only 36 lbs.  I think he might be in a booster seat until he's 12.  Anyway, at the doctor's appointment, we were waiting for the doctor and Colin started asking about a chart they have in the rooms.  It has a row of faces in varying colors and expressions and a description of pain.  I didn't think much about the conversation, only that we were passing time on a very delayed doctor for the first appointment of the morning.  But during church, Colin "whispers", "Look at the faces I drew (on his bulletin)!"  He proceeds to tell me about each face he recreated from the chart and then demonstrate it and it was the funniest thing I have ever seen.  Maybe even funnier was me trying not to laugh in church.  I tried to have him recreate the faces for you, but it's not quite as funny.  I love his little character and all his facial expressions.