Oh the activities we are doing!

Adin measures the fire truck

Ringing the Fire Alarms

On Monday, we went to our local fire station to say thank you to the Fire Fighters for all they do to help our community.  We brought them the fixings for Rootbeer floats.  Then they gave us a tour and helped Greg to complete some requirements for his Readyman achievement for Cub Scouts.  We had a great time learning about the trucks and the work the fire fighters do. 
Today was a "no screen" day (no TV or computer games), so to keep the kids occupied after dinner, we made marshmallow sculptures.  They really got into and Elijah said, "I'm really creative".  I love that boy.  (Both of these ideas, and the Screen Day idea come from a blog that I follow called My Mix of Six.  She is an amazing mother.)

At the counter making their sculptures.

Artist at work

Jake made a little guy

Adin wanted to build a campfire with roasting marshmallows

Mitchell ate the strays.

Diane gets creative

Fun times!

Elijah built a huge structure for Adin's airplane to land on.

Our creative boy!

Birthday Cakes!

Mitchell's 1st Birthday

Elijah's 6th Birthday

Greg's 10th Birthday

Jacob's 15th Birthday

Diane's 17th Birthday

Stuart's Birthday

Chad's 13th Birthday

Adin's 4th Birthday

With 7 kids, there are a lot of  birthdays at my house.  To make birthday's extra special, I try to make a really fun and unique cake for each of my children.  These are the cakes that I made for them on their most recent birthday.  Diane requested the Barbie cake even though she is 17, I guess she was feeling nostalgic.  Elijah found the space shuttle cake in one of my books and begged for it.  The rest of this years cakes were surprises for the kids.  I had made the dragon cake for one of Gregory's past birthday's, but all the rest were new for me.  I really enjoyed making Stuart's Fire truck cake, sort of a joke about putting out the fire from that many candles!  I'll have to make it again when he turns 50!  Elijah's next birthday is coming around in 2 weeks and he is already requesting an army tank cake.  I usually take requests, and I have made this one before, so it shouldn't be too hard to do again. And what about my birthday?  I refuse to make my own birthday cake, so Stuart usually buys me one.  He got me an ice cream cake this year.  Maybe someday, he dabble in the baking department and get inspired, but I doubt it.  Until then, I hope all our birthdays (and yours too) are happy and sweet. 

Summer Time is Here

The kids have been out of school now for a few weeks.  We have such a busy summer this year. Right after school got out, Jacob completed his Eagle Scout Project.  He needs to finish the paperwork next.  He is also taking an online math class through BYU.  Jacob and Stuart already went on the Scout High Adventure. Diane and Jacob are enrolled in summer school history classes which are 3 weeks long .  Chad and Stuart left this morning for scout camp. Stuart will return on Tuesday night and Chad will come back next Saturday.  On Monday, Greg and Eli will go to summer intersession at school, which lasts for 3 weeks and Chad will go to it when he returns from camp.  Diane is looking for a job and has applied to volunteer at the hospital.  She is also applying for college scholarships online.  She is teaching piano to 2 students for the rest of this month, then takes July off.  All the kids are taking a break from piano and Aikido lessons for the summer. We have swam in the neighbor's pool several times already.  We also went to Gilbert to visit Stuart's sister, Laurie's, family.  We brought her daughter, Lexi, back with us for a few days and Laurie picked her up last Monday.  Stuart and I have plans to go to the temple in Mesa next Friday afternoon.  Chad hoped to get to work on his eagle scout leadership project (putting a gate into a fence for a public school). Then, on July 8, we will leave for our family vacation to Utah.  It will take us 2 days to get to Stuart's parents' home.  Then we'll pick up our former exchange student, Carina, from the airport on Sunday, July 10.  On July 11, we'll take Diane, Jacob and Diane's best friend, Megan, to BYU for Especially for Youth activity, they will stay there for a week, while the rest of us will visit family and attractions in the Utah Valley area.  We'll head to Moab the next Monday and spend 2 nights there visiting the parks and canyons, then drive to Bryce and Zion's National parks, after that we will go to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and spend 2 nights there.  My in-laws, Megan and Carina will be with us for that part of the trip, then we'll part ways with the Roberts and Drop Megan off with her family in Flagstaff as we head home to Tucson on July 24.  Carina will spend another 2 weeks or so visiting with us.  We all have dentist appointments for cleaning and we'll  do our back-to-school shopping. I also have some gift certificates for horseback riding and I hope to go to Breaker's Water Park before school starts. The K-8 kids are going to attend a new charter school called Legacy Traditional school which starts on August 8.  The high school kids will go to CDO on August 10.  That will be the end of our busy and wonderful summer!