18 August 2010

Newspaper game

The girls, before going to bed, wanted to play a game. There were some grocery store ads lying on the table, and Abigail turns to Collette and says, "You want to play this game? Remember it?" Curious, I watch Abigail unfold the paper and get 3 toys to use as game pieces. They use each ad as a square on a game board. And, certain ads, like the $3.99/lb London Broil, can catapult you forward five spaces. I think the inspiration includes Chutes & Ladders and Candyland.

They had a problem, no dice. Abigail thought we could grab them from another game. Collette said we could draw dots on paper and fold it up to use as dice. Finally, Abigail grabbed my phone and said we could use that. I installed a dice rolling app, and we were off. The winning spot ($4.99/lb Rancher's Reserve Boneless Top Sirloin Steak - Extreme Value pack) was marked, and Abigail said once the winner got there we would give high fives, elbows, and foreheads.*



Collette won (unicorn) - she kept rolling 6s. I got second (polar bear). Abigail came in a graceful third place. Graceful is an accomplishment for Abigail.

I'm still trying to figure out if we've deprived our kids because we never want to get the board games down from the top shelf, or they're just really imaginative.

*We have this habit to mimic Finding Nemo's turtles in giving elbows and knocking heads, usually followed by an appropriate 'Dude' or 'Totally' - Benjamin is really the king at this.

16 August 2010

Camping- we made it through the night

So a few weeks back we went camping with our good friends, the Geddes family. We both had not camped in a long time and so it was nice to go together. We were also both up for only camping for one night as to give us a pretty good idea of whether or not we could actually do it- us with our 4 kids (one of them being 13 months old) and the Geddes's with their 3 kids (one being just about the same age as Gabe). So we drove about 1.5 hrs north of here up by Point Reyes and we put our families to the test.

I knew from talking to Julianne that all of our older kids were super excited about the adventure. They couldn't wait. My kids had been counting down the days for about two weeks. Julianne's two older ones were also super excited. They did not fail us. From the moment we opened the van doors, these 5 were all over the campsite running around, playing together, begging for the tents to be up in lighting fast speeds, and genuinely enjoying the novelty of camping. Immediately, we decided to see if the campsite was open for one extra night. We thought we could do two nights. And we probably could have...but the campsite was taken the next night and pretty much the whole campground was full for the weekend so we would stick to our original plan. Which turned out ok. We packed so much into that Friday-Saturday that when we got to our house Saturday evening, I was so happy to have a shower and nice comfy bed that there was no complaining from anyone.

So thanks to the Geddes Family for being our camping buddies. We are now totally up for another round! Anyone else up for camping??

In a fairly small amount of time, camp was set up.


There was an open grassy area to play. They had a volleyball net set up. We had frisbees....


Let the roasting of marshmallows begin!


The cleanest one at all times....


Saturday we went up to a state park and played in the water and on the sand


But we left after not too long because there were lots of these dead jellyfish around:


So we left and went up to this great meadow/picnic area.

In the end, we all had such a great time. And I love knowing that my kids are dying to go again!

10 August 2010

Sleepover with the Horsleys

The Spikers came down yesterday with the Horsley family (Paige, Hyrum, and Hannah). They spent the day playing in water. When I got home, the kids were happily watching Up, and then they slept in a tent in the backyard. Most of the kids got up earlier than the sun, but Paige knows how to sleep in. Even with Hyrum jumping everywhere in the tent and waking Laura up (who was sleeping inside).

I think they all had a good adventure in the tent, despite any lack of sleep.

At the movies.

Into the tent.


07 August 2010

Knock, knock...

who's there?

Knock-knock jokes have turned into a tradition in our family. When conversation turns into the silly, the knock-knock jokes appear. While we're all laughing, one of the children has to stop and say, "Wait. This one is really funny," and proceeds to tell a joke like:

Child: "Knock, knock"
Mom/Dad: "Who's there?"
Child: "Peach"
Mom/Dad: "Peach who?"
Child: "Peach poop"

hahahahahahahahaha

I know. They really aren't that funny. But, the kids love it. And Mom & Dad laugh because it's funny they laugh. Punch lines include: peach toilet, peach and apple, peach moonahblahnah (yes, just a bunch of gibberish). Gabriel was trying to 'tell' jokes in his own way too. He has the right meter and knows when to laugh after his 'punchline.'

We even 'paused' (a timeout with no jokes) the fun so kids could get up and relieve themselves due to the long and hearty laughs. No one wanted to miss this fun. Benjamin looks a little distressed, but that's just him laughing really hard. And Gabriel has a bunch of watermelon all over, in case you're wondering about that mess.





03 August 2010

My littlest helper

A little while ago Gabe was in his seat eating breakfast. When he's done and bored he starts throwing all his food off of his tray. So I try to get the tray fairly quickly so I don't have a whole new set of chores waiting for me. This day, however, I was just not ready for more pick up and so I got Gabe out of his seat and told him he had to help me clean up the mess he made. He started walking off (I assumed, rightfully, that he didn't understand and was going to take off to do other things) and I noticed that he was walking towards the vacuum. I usually use the vacuum to help clean up messes around the kitchen table. So he picked up the hose (which wasn't actually attached at the moment) and came back trying his best to clean up his cereal mess off the floor. He did not succeed in picking up anything but I gave him so much credit for trying that I did the rest :) Here's our littlest helper in action: