Menu Board A La Me!

I wanted something in my kitchen to help me plan out my week's meals in advance.  I bought an 8-paned picture frame and cut papers that complemented my kitchen into 4x6 rectangles.  Added the vinyl letters to the paper and into the frames they went.  Now, I can use a write-on/wipe-off pen to write our meals or other important happenings for the week and have it all handy in the kitchen. 

Anytime Snacks

 We've been talking a lot this summer about "sometimes foods" and "anytime foods."  I filled a basket in the fridge with anytime foods and the kids are allowed to come and pick a snack without asking from the basket: peaches, yogurt, string cheese, carrots, fruit cups, etc. But, they must ask first before getting a "sometimes" snack from the pantry: cheese crackers, granola bars, fruit snacks, cereal bars, etc.  And chances are, they are usually full from their healthy snacks that they aren't even asking for anything from the pantry.

This simple basket and the fact that they can get a snack without first having to get permission has really cut down on their mindless carb consuming mentality and gotten them to eat healthy snacks instead.  Lovin' it!

Swim Meets galore!

 Mikayla is too goofy for words sometimes!

 We had 3 swim meets in 5 days on top of all their practices and these girls are wiped out!  Megan actually fell asleep in the car on the way home from one with a sucker still in her mouth.

 Showing off those gator green nails!

 During the warmups before a meet, all the kids flock to the pool at once.  We have over 180 kids on the Gridley team alone, so that can be pretty overwhelming for Megan to jump in and swim with all the craziness at once!

 We had a Little Gator meet this week for only the 6 and Under age group.  Kids came from Orland, Paradise, Chico, Durham, and Oroville to compete and Megan walked away with a first place medal in her heat for freestyle coming in at 50 seconds flat!  I can't believe the progress she's made in one summer!  She took 3rd in backstroke, 6th in breastroke, and swam in a relay too.

 After their last meet we took them out for ice cream! 

So proud of my girlies and their accomplishments in the pool this summer.  They are really becoming quite water-safe and are strong swimmers and I'm so glad they love swimming.

Orland Swim Meet

Spent a long, hot day in the sun today at a swim meet.  Mikayla took 2 seconds off her fastest freestyle time coming in at 23:49!  We are so proud of her for trying harder every time to get faster and faster.  She also came in a second faster at her breastroke and swam a 100 yd freesyle for the first time, coming in at 2:37:10.

Some breastroke action

This was Megan's third swim meet.  Her first freestyle time was 1:05:10.  Her second race ended at 1:31:44.  Today-- 56:50!!  What?!  She shaved 35 seconds off her last race?!  How is that possible?  So funny!  We talked A LOT about what a sprint is and big arms and she did sooo well today!  Couldn't be prouder of my girls swimming their hearts out!

How Fast Can Angels Fly?

At church, the children were asked if Jesus called on God to send down an angel to save him when He was tempted by Satan to jump off a high building.  Only Megan had an answer.

"No, he didn't.  Because he knew that angels don't fly fast enough to catch him." 

Maybe she missed the point of the lesson, but at least I can tell she's listening!

Job Security

Driving in the car the other day Mikayla said, "You know, I used to think it was really sad when people got hurt.  But now, I think it's kinda good because it means more work for dad."

4th of July Fun on Lake Oroville!

As soon as we got to the lake the girls were ready for some tubing!

They loved it and even got brave enough to ride on their knees or standing after a bit!

The men went out for a "man ride" and it was wild and crazy!  We were going fast and they were each jumping from tube to tube. 

Trent and Justin took the little girls on a paddleboat.

Bree and Kendra loved playing in the sand!

Mikayla was brave and rode with no hands a lot, such a funny girl!

Proof that I went on a tube ride too!

Both times we took Kendra on the boat she fell asleep in my arms.  The 2 naps helped her stay awake through the fireworks though.

Megan and Gracie, boating buddies

Sweet girl on a beach

All-American cutie watching a movie on the big houseboat

Me and my friend Trina.

Kendra and Bree, acting silly in their jammies

Here's the annual family picture.  Totally mismatched outfits, kinda kills me, but we'll take what we can get this year!

I loved this moment!  All the kids were waving their glowsticks from side to side while we all sang, "Proud To Be An American.

Megan and Daddy watching the fireworks.

And, 10 minutes later, sound asleep on the boat ride back to the dock to go home.  What a fun and exhausting day we had!  The girls all slept in the next day till 9:30 when Mom woke them up for swim team practice.  They just loved tubing, boating, swimming with friends, going off the slide on the houseboat into the lake and eating all the yummy food.  There were 47 people on the big houseboat and it was a packed boat full of fun, friends, family, and a great way to spend the 4th.

Canada Day!

To show some love for Dad, we surprised him with a Canaidan maple leaf tie and I made shirts for the girls with maple leaves to wear to church.

And yes, I wore red and white too, can't clash with my Canadian husband and half-Canadian children!

That evening we had friends over, some happened to be half-Canadian or a quarter-Canadian too.

I made red cupcakes with maple leaves on them and we had maple donut bars for dessert too.  Let me tell you, the kids were pretty dang excited to get donuts and cupcakes for dessert!

We made pizzas with canadian bacon and various other toppings.

The adults had a contest to see who could make a pizza that most resembled a maple leaf.  Trina won by a longshot!  She used a knife to cut out her intricate design and kicked all our trash in this contest.

The adults with our pizzas.  We had a great time celebrating Canada Day and love these fun family traditions.

Allergic much?

Kendra got bit by a bunch of mosquitoes last night and it looks like the queen feasted on her face.  This is what she looked like when she woke up from her nap this afternoon.

And after dinner this evening, she looks even worse.  She's been on an antihistamine all day with cortizone cream applied topically.  Poor little thing!   

The next morning, she woke up and it was swollen shut as well as the rest of her face being puffy too.  We rushed right in to the Dr. and got an oral steroid, an eye drop antihistamine and she'll continue to be on Benadryl round the clock.  Poor little girl keeps saying, "Mom, I can' see owwa my eye!"

This same thing happened to Mikayla a year and a half ago and her face progressively looked worse before it got better too.

She would die if she saw I posted this picture of her!  Imagine this face, about 20 yrs older and that's what I looked like last summer as well.  So, I'm pretty sure we're all allergic to mosquitoes in this family.  Sorry, no pictures of the freak show that was my face though!