Melting Ore Like Nephi

What a long, exhausting, fun day!  I spent the morning getting ready for Preston's field day.  I was in charge of one of the stations.  It turned out pretty easy.  One of the mom's brought a balance beam.  I had them go across the beam doing different things; balance a frisbee on their head, backwards, blindfolded.  I did fill up a lot of water balloons for another station.  It was fun, but I am SO glad it is over!

Preston at recess

Austin, Preston, Maddie

Mike has been working for a long time on my Young Womens' activity today.  Don't get me wrong, he thought it was awesome that I wanted him to get all of his toys working.  I wanted to do something super awesome today.  This was Paige's last time with us.  She absolutely loved it when we changed oil in the car, so I wanted to do something workshop related.  Mike did not disappoint!  Paige was in heaven!  The girls all loved it.  When we were announcing the activity I wasn't sure if we would have to change it at all.  I told them Mike was in charge of the activity on Tuesday.  They all started cheering.  Yes, he has an awesome reputation.

Mike printed all of their initials with his 3D printer.  When they arrived he had them make molds of their initials.  The girls loved watching the 3D printer.  Paige said, "I could watch this all day!"  She then said she wanted to video it so she could watch it on YouTube over and over. Mike told her there were lots of videos like that already up there.  She seemed to like that idea.

Zoe & Paige watching the 3D printer

You can't see it here in the below picture, but Paige was so excited!  Her legs were bouncing up and down while Mike was talking to them.  He was talking about Nephi and finding ore to make the tools.

Paige, Jacqui, Ashley

 Paige & Zoe making molds

We then went outside.  Mike had a few molds ready.  He then had the girls use a blow torch to melt the molds.  That was a huge hit!  This picture is one of my all time favorite pictures of Paige.  I love the look on her face.  Paige hates to have her picture taken and she always hides. When Mike does activities she lets me take as many pictures of her as I want.  It's awesome.

Zoe, Paige, Ashley

 Mike & Kelsee

 Ashley & Mike

 Maysen didn't have an activity this week, so she came to ours.

Mike had the girls cut up aluminum for him to melt.  The sparks got pretty high when that was happening.  The girls were cheering!  Who needs fireworks on the 4th of July?  We can just watch Mike play with his toys.

Mike (Kelsee & Zoe)

 Those sparks got high!

 Zoe, Kelsee, Paige, Rachael, Whitney, Ashley, Mike & Jorja

 Mike & Paige

 Paige - loving it

 Ashley & Mike

 Mike & Zoe

The girls then spent their five minute break in the tree house.  I'm glad it held all of them!  That would have been embarrassing!

Rachael, Paige, Ashley, Zoe, Whitney

Mike had all the girls look at the metal as it was melting.  It looked really cool.

Ashley, Zoe's legs, Kelsee, Maysen, Paige, Mike

 Mike & his sparks

 Mike taking his bucket out of the furnace

 H-O-T!  Mike had the girls far away for this part.

 Liquid - filling the molds

The girls kept commenting on how pretty the melted metal was.  They just wanted to touch it.  Mike took a board and stuck it in.  It caught fire and melted instantly.  Yep, just how Satan makes sin seem so innocent and beautiful.

 Mike

 Yep, he's awesome!

 The melted metal.  Not perfect, but they loved the process!

We finished the evening with snow cones.  The girls kept saying it was the best Young Womens' activity ever!  It was so much fun.  Thanks Mike for putting in all that work for my girls!

Ashley, Rachael, Zoe

 Ashley & Scary Zoe

 Whitney, Crazy Rachael, Ashley

First Swim Meet of the Season

The kids had their first swim/dive meet of the summer.  It was up in Salt Lake.  I had to check Jorja out of school.  We were a little late, so Stockton didn't get a chance to warm up.  His first dive wasn't the best, but he did great on the others.  He scored a 92.9, which is pretty low for him.  At least he will have a good chance to improve!  I ended up taking everyone there at the beginning and staying the entire time.  It was a LONG day!  We didn't leave until after 8:00.  Mike was planning on coming but his jeep didn't pass inspection.  I was worried he would get a ticket if he drove up here.  He spent the time at home getting ready for my activity tomorrow.

Stockton ~ 1 1/2

 Stockton ~ reverse

 Stockton ~ inward

 Not a good picture, but how cute is Preston?

Jorja swam in five events.  The first was a relay medley.  Her last was a freestyle relay.  Jorja was assigned the backstroke.  She was not happy about that!  The backstroke is her least favorite stroke.  She did good though.  She was second when she finished.  Nice job Porge!

Jorja ~ backstroke   

Preston swam in his first official meet!  I don't know what his time was, but he was super slow.  He was not in a hurry at all.  He made it though.  He was pretty tired.  I was under the impression that the little guys got a ribbon as soon as they got out of the pool, just for completing it.  At least they did that other years.  I had told Preston that he would get a ribbon.  I guess they're not doing that this year.  Whoops.  At least Preston didn't hold that against me!

Preston ~ Free

 Preston.  He did it!  Yay!

Jorja's swim suit is a little too big.  It rubbed against her arms and gave her a rash.  I'm going to call and see if I can order her a smaller size.  It was tough because when we were trying on swimsuits, someone took home the size we needed to try on, so we had to guess.  We guessed poorly.

Jorja

 Jorja ~ breast stroke

 Jorja ~ breast stroke

 Two hand touch

The kids did great with the long day, but they were so cold towards the end.  I brought seven towels, but they went through those quickly.

Preston waiting for his turn

Preston actually did the backstroke!  Across the entire pool!  He has never even practiced that!  It took him forever to get across, but he did it. I was so proud of him.  What a trooper.

Preston ~ back stroke

Jorja improved on all of her times from the time trials.  50 free ~ 55.24, 50 breast ~ 1:07.56, 50 back ~ 1:12.69.  She didn't swim the butterfly. Great job Jorja!

I was a little frustrated that Jorja's swim cap was taken.  We paid $8 for a silicone cap and before it was even out of the package someone swiped it.  I don't think it was done intentionally, I think someone picked it up thinking it was theirs, not realizing there were different caps.  Although it was on our towel.  At least it isn't as bad as what happened to Ashley. Their car got broken into.  The glass was smashed.  Her dad had his work computer in the trunk.  It was gone.  Three cars were broken into. Glad mine was not one of them!

Out of Control . . . Again

You can always tell when my life starts spinning out of control.  When I'm behind on my blog.  I can't believe I am a week behind!  I hate catching up!  I know I have to for several reasons.  First, my kids love looking back on the blog.  Second, if I don't make myself catch up, I will just stop blogging altogether.  Then I will have no record of my wonderful life!  My memory is shot, so I need this.  It has been great for our family.  I just need to get it printed into a book.  I would love to have each year printed in a book, but last time I checked (several years ago) I had too many posts . . . .

Anyway, I start feeling stressed when I am behind.  The worst is that I forget the little details that I love to write about.  It is just not the same trying to recreate the same feelings and emotions that I was feeling at the time, even when I know what the outcome is going to be.  I forget the funny things the kids say, mostly Preston, even though I promise myself I will remember.  Oh well.  Nothing I can do about it now.  I'll do my best to remember.  Yikes!

Jorja & Preston ~ This is what they looked like last night.

Preston got a puppy puzzle from the tooth fairy!  He was pretty excited. Jorja got a note thanking her for the tooth.  She had been looking for it everywhere!  Robyn Sparkles is still our tooth fairy.  She was our tooth fairy in Georgia too.  How amazing!

Preston and his prize

How awesome is it when your backyard neighbors text you to go to the fence, then you get handed a plate of brownies from their beautiful daughters?  I love it!  My ward is awesome.

Stephanie, Seth and Olivia's head.  Quinn & Georgia were there too.

Mike has been working so hard to put together a Young Women activity for me.  I hope everything turns out like we plan.  (It was awesome)

Initials of my girls from Mike's 3D printer

Millburn Surprise!

I handed Maysen an application to fill out for a writers conference. When I looked over at her, she was filling it out with a giant pen.  Man, that made me laugh!

Maysen

The kids had their swim time trials today.  We had to be there at 8:30. After Lagoon, they were quite tired.  It was pretty cold this early, but the kids did great.  Jorja's times were: 50 breast ~ 1:08, 50 free ~ 58.78, 50 back 1:18.53, 25 fly 28.78.  Preston's time was: 25 free ~ 1:31.  Preston DID NOT want to do the 25 back.  I don't blame him, he has only done the back stroke in the kiddie pool.  Preston's funny to watch swim.  He swims in super slow motion, not a care in the world...

I was timing during the swim meet.  Mike took Preston home and exchanged him for Maysen.  Maysen had tennis practice.  As we were leaving tennis practice I got a call from Mike (my brother).  He said they were in Utah!  What?  They were free today.  I quickly called my dad, Bubs & Matt.  Luckily we were able to get everyone together about 4. Mike made fajitas and they were delicious!

Jorja was so excited to have a tree frog plate! 

 This can't be a good idea.  Abby & Blake

 Blake & Abby

Abby put on a bicycle helmet and thought she was invincible!  She drove Blake around in the jeep like a mad woman!  I managed to get one picture of them, but spent the rest of the time trying to keep them out of danger.  Oh man!  It was crazy!  Christen had no idea that Abby hadn't driven before.  She thought Blake was in safe hands.  Haha!  Those two had the best time!

Ange & Millie, Blake, Christen & Abby . . . doesn't Abby look like trouble?

 Millie with her Grandpa

 Grandpa & Millie

 Skye, Preston, Larkin

Preston was so happy they were here!

 Stephanie and Mike

 Christen, Stephanie, Mike, Dad

Right after the above picture was taken, my phone fell off the ledge. Broke the glass.  Sad.  Oh well, it still works fine.  I was even able to get a few more cute pictures.

Larkin & Skye

 Blake, Skye, Mike & Christen, Larkin

 Blake ~ he doesn't want to leave.  YES!

I was brushing Preston's teeth before bed.  His tooth was so wiggly!  I asked him if I could pull it.  He let me!  It came right out, no problem. He is very excited about it.  He is hoping the tooth fairy will come even though he is sleeping in the tree house tonight.  We'll have to see about that.  Jorja went and found the tooth necklace for him to put his tooth in.  When she opened the tooth she discovered the tooth fairy left the tooth from the last time Jorja lost a tooth!  How irresponsible!  Jorja wasn't sure what to do.  She finally decided to put Preston's tooth in with her tooth.  She wrote the tooth fairy a not explaining what happened.

Preston's first lost tooth

 Jorja and Preston

 Preston

Jorja and Preston are now in the tree house together.  Sleeping by themselves.  Mike brought up a tv for them.  They are watching Aladdin. I am exhausted.  I am supposed to teach a combined lesson on the priesthood tomorrow.  My plan was to spend today preparing.  Plans changed.  I'm really nervous.  Luckily I have been preparing for awhile. I needed today mostly to organize my thoughts.  Hopefully everything will go well.  At least it will be over in a few hours.