Our Summer bucket list.

It is Summertime! We decided to create a list of fun activities, food, trips and things to do with the kids this summer.  A mix of all sorts of things that we can randomly choose to do and hopefully try to check them all off by the end.  The kids and I sat down and made our poster and spent a couple of hours coming up with a good list......

* Watermelon eating contest

*Make your own hot air balloon

*Make homemade ice cream

*Glow in the dark party

*Go bowling

*Mighty Mud Mania

*Bike wash day

*Children's Museum of Phoenix

*Library reading program

*Mall photo scavenger hunt

*Soap boat racing

*Tour chocolate factory

*Masterchef pizza night

*Go camping

*Bubble wrap run

*Visit Mooster Mootique

*Service project

*Make your own movie week

*Seashell diving/night swimming

*Overnight trip out of town

*Make homemade bath crayons

*See movie at the IMAX

*Take a trip downtown on the lightrail

*Trip to Mesquite Grove Aquatic Center

*Visit Challenger Space Center

*Make tin can lanterns

*Nighttime picnic at the park

*Make candy sushi and study Japan

* Try either a Thai, Indian or Ethiopian restaurant

*Work on dollhouse

*Make your own bubble wands

*Sandcastle and starfish rice krispy treats

*Have and end of the summer celebration

So there it is, our list.  We'll see how much of it we are able to get to.  It is going to be a busy and fun summer!!  

This week we've been....

 Finishing up the school year with game days and class parties and teacher/student softball games, assemblies and awards.  Hunter made the principal's list with a 95% average all year and received the Super Scientist Award.  Avery was so excited to be given the "Future Teacher" award in her classroom.  Glad that it is time for a break from school.

 This week we've been having fun watching dad and Hunter do some experiments with his new invention kit....having tea parties in the shower.......

 Learning all about water......

 Enjoying plenty of time together just being silly.....

 Playing tons of games of Jenga at night. Avery loves to be the one to knock it over with her tricky block choices. Emma whomps on everyone she has some mad Jenga skills.  Summer break is here and we are getting ready.....

Pressure cooking

My cousins and I get together every three to four months and have a craft day or get together of some kind.  This month Grandma Hatch came down and we all met at Lisa's for a day of learning to pressure cook meat.  We each had to bring as many jars as we wanted to can and we could bring either ground turkey, chicken or beef chunks.  Lisa and Lonnie had given us a jar of chicken last year and it was really moist and had good flavor.  Instead of only about 9 oz like you get in a can of chicken, you get around a pound per jar and it is better chicken and cheaper than the about $3.69 you pay a can for chicken in store.  We eat mostly chicken so I decided to just can some chicken.  They started around 7 am and we all washed jars, cut chicken and got the jars filled and ready for the pressure cooker....

It was really neat to learn the process and get to visit while we all worked together.  By the afternoon as people started to head home we figured we had done 105 jars which was awesome. 

 All day as we worked the kids played so good at Lisa's enjoying all the toys from the daycare kids and having fun playing with cousin Zeke...

Cute little cousins....

GG and Papa with their great grands.....

It was great to learn something new and it got me thinking just how neat it must be to live somewhere that you can have a garden and can fresh vegetables for your pantry.  I think if I lived somewhere that I could do this I would definitely get into it.  So its a start, I hope to learn how to do veggies sometime this year and maybe even try my hand at some jam as well.

Trade ya Hudson....

 It's Monday. We enjoyed such a nice weekend as a family and I wasn't ready for it to end.  Monday is always my laundry, chores day to just stay home and clean.  Mister man is trying to get his first tooth and his gums are so swollen, he is chewing on everything including gnawing on me when he nurses. ouch.  Last night he got up twice and just as my head hit the pillow the second time Ave came in an announced that Emma had a bloody nose everywhere. awesome.  It is hard to have a couple crazy nights when I have now adapted to sleeping all night long for months now.  So this morning I got the kids all ready for school reminding myself that Thursday is their last day before summer and then started in on the laundry.  Hudson played on his mat as I sorted the clothes into piles and tried to focus on what Emma was saying to me instead of my pounding headache.  Emma headed to her room to play in the dollhouse and as I loaded the first batch I looked over to see Hudson fast asleep.  As I added soap I contemplated squishing on the mat next to him to catch a couple much needed zzzz's.  He looked so comfy.  I would much rather be doing that right now I am not going to lie, c'mon Hudson whadda you think wanna trade??

First boat trip of the summer

All throughout high school I loved spending weekends out on the lake on the boat.  Deke and I and a bunch of friends out wake boarding, tubing and skiing all day long.  The girls and I spending hours flying around the lake with some great music blasting.  I remember having a boat when I was about Hunter's age and Marley was a baby all cute and chubby sitting in her car seat with her little sunhat. I love going on the boat.  Last year dad got a knew boat and I was so excited.  However being pregnant with Hudson I held off from any boating last summer and decided just to wait patiently for next boating season.  So we finally went out and it was a blast and the boat is awesome.  My kids had so much fun and I loved getting to watch them enjoy it.  

I tried the wake surf for the first time and for the first six pulls or so I pretty much ate it.  I just kept drinking lake water.  Finally I got up which felt really good but I never actually figured out how to let go of the rope and do the surfing part but it was my first time so I have high hopes as to where I will be by the end of summer.  More practice and drop some of this baby weight and it hopefully will get easier for me.  

The kids were so so cute....

I loved this little rash guard and swim trunks for Magoo.  My favorite thing though was this cute little sunglasses with a fabric adjustable strap that velcro's in the back.  Awesome and he liked them, thank you Target :)

This is just great...

The kids spent most of the afternoon tubing.

I couldn't believe the Em actually got out there and wanted to tube too.  She even got to a point where she was standing up on it and waving with both her arms.

Alec demonstrating for me the way the wake surf should look...

We played at the lake all day, I am happy to say that there was not a speck of sunburn on these fair little burchlings.  Only their momma who got busy playing and forgot to reapply sunscreen burnt her nose and cheeks.  Can't wait to go again.