Hello Kindergarten

Davis started his education career today. Sunday night I was so nervous I couldn't go to sleep. All the anticipation had my stomach in knots. We have been really relaxed about bed time this summer, so it was hard to get the kids to bed at a decent hour. Davis woke up bright and early all on his own. I was in bed waiting for the alarm to go off when he walked in. Davis walked over to Mike and told him to get up and pulled the covers off of him.
Davis hurried to get dress and was anxious to be done eating breakfast. He asked to stand out side waiting for the carpool half an hour before he was supposed to be picked up. He had no fear and was ready for the big day. When my friend came to pick him up I got choked up and teary. I never thought that would happen. I had no problems sending him off to preschool, why was this happening now? When I picked Davis up in front of the school he looked so cute with all the other kids in his class. So happy and enjoying their new adventure with this school thing. Little do they know what is ahead of them. I asked Davis how it went and what he liked best about his day. He couldn't remember anything except for recess. Davis really liked recess. Funny. Later I heard him talking to my sister about school. She asked if there were any pretty girls in his class, and he replied with a laugh Yeah! I guess boys learn to be boys starting from kindergarten. Hopefully he'll squeeze in a few ABC's and 123's between recess and the girls.

I'd rather be...

We are leaving today for a camping vacation and family reunion. On our way out of town we are stopping at Lagoon. Mike's company does a Lagoon day every August. They provide shirts for the family with the company logo. Davis, Tess and Collin all got the same size shirt.

When I should be packing, organizing and cleaning the house before we leave, I decided I want to try something new. I looked at one of Collin's rompers and did a chop shop style job to his t-shirt. It isn't pretty, but it works. Now he doesn't look like he's wearing a dress. He is napping right now, so I haven't tried it on him. I'm pretty sure it will work. Silly I know, but who wants to focus on packing?!

See you in a week...

Homemade lollipops

My sister in law, Rachael, was making lollipops and I invited myself over to learn how to make them. She was so awesome to let the kids and I crash their party.
We made every flavor from butterscotch to bubble gum, sour cherry, watermelon and pineapple of course!

Our poor baby boys had to fend for themselves while we made a bazillion pops.

Thanks Rach for the good time. I can see this becoming and fun new hobby. I'm sure the kids won't mind.

Repurposed Skirts

My old skirt...

Tess' new skirt!

My old skirt...

Tess' new road trip satchel!

Davis' new satchel out of another skirt. I didn't take a pic of the skirt before I made the bag.

The fabric has images of bags of rice. Mr. Chips is ready to go.

The satchels are lined with the same fabric. The have interior pockets. If you wanted the pockets on the outside it's not a problem. The satchels are reversible!

Liberty Park

My neighbor and I took our kids to play in the canyon waterfalls at Liberty Park.
The kids had lots of fun running around and splashing in the water.

There are several of these signs, but no one wants to pay attention to them. The kids said the best part was climbing the water falls.

I tried to keep Collin in the stroller as long as possible. In the end I let him play in one of the little streams.

This is how Collin goes from sitting to
his tummy. He's quite the gymnast.

Another successful day at the park completed with feeding the ducks my stale bread.

Contest Winner!

Congrats to Beth from Your friends, the Hendricks!

for submitting the winning name.

"Ritzy Ragamuffin"

was our family's favorite.

Thanks to all those who gave suggestions.

Beth I will try to get your bird in the mail this week.

Support the Locals

I love to support local businesses. When ever you see the Utah's Own logo you know you supporting someone from Utah. Click on the link to see a list of Utah business.

My sister, Noelle, told me about Wild Coyote salad dressing. They are a food company based in St. George, Utah. Noelle and I grew up with Hidden Valley ranch dressing made from the packet. You know the one you add the milk and mayo yourself... No ranch in the bottle could really compete with that until we had Wild Coyote ranch dressing. I also tasted their blue cheese dressing. It was really good and not too strong like a lot of blue cheese dressings.

A few months ago I saw an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives that featured a Salt Lake restaurant. It's called Moochies. They are located on 800 South and 232 East. Moochies makes Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, meatball subs and lots of other things. I have never been to Philadelphia let alone tried one of their famous sandwiches. However this steak sandwich was tasty. My sister, Cherie, has a friend from Philly. I should take them when they come back to school to test it's authenticity. Regardless, it was good.

Winder Farms is a local dairy that makes delicious milk. They sell several other farm fresh products and will deliver to your door. Their milk is also for sale at Harmon's grocery stores which is a local company too.

Don't forget the Salt Lake farmer's market. It's every Saturday during the summer from 8-1pm. Local growers sell their best fruits, veggies, cheese and more.

I finished Tess' market skirt. It is a really simple skirt to make, and the ruffleing directions were awesome. I wanted to make a different pocket than the one in the tutorial. I tried three different pockets and almost scrapped putting one on at all. After sleeping on it I went back to my first pocket and it looked great. I just needed a fresh head! I need to stop sewing late at night.

One down, three to go on my to make list.

I'm melting!

It was time to clean up the crayon box! Davis helped my peel the paper off all the broken crayons. Sometimes we mix all different colors in the muffin tin to make a multi-colored crayon. This time we grouped similar colors in the mini muffin tin. We warmed the oven to 250* and set our crayons in to melt. I think it only took

about 10 or 15 minutes to melt.

When they are all the way

melted we set the tin

on the stove to cool. Once they

are cool the wax hardens and

we popped them out.

Yeah, new crayons!