The Mother of Geese

Now, that is what I call bubble blowing enthusiasm. (note, Max will also say "I kiss you like a cloudy and the meatball movie" and will make this face when he gives me a kiss. Bless the summer movie series.)

With Max's birthday this week, not only do we have to start to pay full price for him on many of our summer activities, but we also lose our visits from Aprille who helped him so much with his articulation. Max is generally a pretty shy kid, but when Aprille is around, he literally bounces because he loves her so much. When you ask him who is best friends are we are not surprised that Aprille is on that list.

We have been pet sitting this week. Peanut has been a wonderful houseguest, very polite, eats all his vegetables, no biting, exercises regularly etc...Peanut was originally slated to stay in the girl's room. However, I worry that the girl's room is just one good old nagging session from me away from turning into a hamster cage, so Peanut has been residing on top of the washer in the laundry room. Oh, and yesterday, Max observed that Amelia's feet smell "like a peanut".

Grandpa Gary treated the Doug Hardy family and ours to dinner at Maria Bonita in Orem a few weeks ago. Maria Bonita is by far our favorite Mexican joint, but man oh man, don't go if you are in a hurry. The food is out of the this world, but not for the impatient. It was well past 9:30 and Max was wired from the spicy salsa and huge portions. I was in the middle seat in the car with the girls and Bradfo was still chatting outside. He decided to put Max on the car thinking it would deter him from escaping and cause him to hold still for a minute.

Our wonderful neighbors bought our family a trampoline this summer! (not really, they just our incredibly kind people who are thrilled it gets any use at all.)

After a trip to the dentist a few months ago it was reported that Amelia's sucking thumb days must come to an end. I have tried to scare her with pictures of kids with messed up teeth on the internet (she laughs), pictures of kids who have anti-thumb sucking devices (she is intrigued), and even threatened her with the purchase of "THE CLAW" (she wants it). I figured baby steps were in order. If she could go 20 days without bringing her yowie downstairs I would take her to the toy store. We made a chart and she was a champ! We welcome Nugget to the family whole heartedly while I consider how to cure her of Yowie completely.

Realizing this is my fourth time reporting on Strawberry Days. I will say my kids look forward to Strawberry Days like they do Christmas and it is one of my favorite things about our town. I'll keep it short and mostly captionless for the blog book. Strawberries and Cream while listening to a band play covers of Bon Jovi (badly). Huck Finn Days-no fishing pole or net for us this year. I had visions of Max heading into the water so we didn't even venture to the pond area. (story interruption: This train ride is the slowest *read dumbest* ride. I told the kids they could each have 4 rides and Max chose the train for one of his. He went by himself. Once he realized how inexciting it was everytime he would pass us he would yell "Gitme off dis wide white now!", then the train would slowly move along. He yelled and we laughed at least 6 times.) Other memories of the week: Brad worked the rodeo and came home with 16 pounds of hulled strawberries. I spent the day making straw...

While Abbie and Amelia are enjoying summer vacation, Max still has some work to do so the girls and I drop him off for school every Wednesday for a couple of hours. (Max is still working really hard on his artic and has made huge strides. I opted out of the traditional playgroup because he really needs to learn how to separate from me. He is in a "transition" class.) Last week I took them to get a $1.00 smoothie from Jamba and to Classic Skate to jump. A word about Classic Skate? Hasn't changed AT. All. from when I went when I was in the 2nd grade. So cool. The DJ was spinning Lady Gaga. Sort of like a rave for kids.

The pre-dance make up party

Scene: 2nd row of chapel, left hand side, aka soft cushy seats where deacons normally sit. Max is standing facing the bench with his head resting on the seat. Thirteen year old Noah comes and passes the water tray to Abbie. Abbie is sitting on the end and Max is in between. I lean in and tell Max the water is here. He pops his whole body up causing Abbie to lose control of the tray and sends the nearly full tray of cups and water upward landing on the family in front of us. Audible gasp from the people behind us. I hand the tray back to the 13-year old who looks at it and realizes its mostly empty. Do they train the deacons in this situation? I have been taking the sacrament for the better part of 35 years and I have never seen a whole tray emptied by an overenthusiastic 2 year old. Max now says I be so ceeful now when the sacrament comes. Nice. The scene of the crime. We are at Salem Pond enjoying a pleasant summer day. A family is next to us feeding the ducks. Max is in the water. Ma...

On the first Friday of the month the city of Provo opens up their art galleries for the public to walk around and experience. It was such a fun night topped off with an delicious banana cream pie shake (yes, they take an actual piece of banana cream pie and mix it with ice cream and whipped cream. Seriously)