Summer Day

I usually start each day by walking the dog before Mike goes to work.  We get about 2 miles in each morning.

 I make bread about twice a week.  If I didn't make bread, the kids would probably starve.  Oh wait, I spy oatmeal in the background.  They wouldn't starve.  As long as there's oatmeal around to supplement their diet they would be okay.  My kids are becoming masters at using oatmeal and cooking eggs this summer.

 I try and get out to the garden  in the mornings to water or weed.  It's not the greatest this year, but Kirsten is growing some beautiful flowers.  Morning glories and zinnias are so pretty.

Keith eating his bit of dough.

  

The bread is finally done.

 Alyssa singing in her microphone.

Kirsten has been busy playing with Little People and Barbies.

 I caught Ethan with the Game Boy.  A rare occurance since I'm not a huge fan of games.  Lately he's been reading all the Percy Jackson books.

 Jon taking a break from jobs for Mom and tons of reading.  I need to get this guy on the piano more!

 Singing a song for Mom!  And the all too familiar basket of laundry in the background.

And if you are wondering where Rebecca is, she is probably curled up somewhere reading a good book.  We'll go to the library and pool later in the day.  I love summer!

New Bench

 Mike made this new bench for me to go with our dining room table.  We had a bit of trouble matching the stain to the table.  You can't tell in the picture, but the bench is darker than the table.  Still, I love it.  I think I need one more for the other side of the table.  It's so much easier to sweep under a bench than under a bunch of chair legs. 

We rearranged our dining room recently.  I used to have my piano and all my teaching supplies in the dining room.  It's centrally located and easy to keep tabs on kids throughout the house, but it was time to move the piano to a new home (aka the living room), and open up our dining space.  We were feeling cramped eating in the kitchen all the time.  One of my favorite activities is reading scriptures each day, sitting around the table with our family when Mike comes home for lunch.  Ahh, the freedom that summer brings.  Thanks for the bench Mike!  I totally love it!

Cookie S'mores

What says summertime better than roasting marshmallows and sandwiching them between graham crackers and chocolate?  How about melted marshmallows and chocolate chip cookies, aka s'mores Ruth and Lee style?

We celebrated getting our jobs done with swimming followed by cookie s'mores after dinner.

 Having a built-in fireplace comes in handy.

 Love the socks Alyssa!

 The kids started hamming it up with "cool" poses for the camera.

 Mike roasting something like 10 marshmallows at a time.

 Alyssa with a pretty smile for Mommy.  When she smiles like that she expects me to smile back.  If I don't, she says "you are supposed to smile too Mommy."  So I smile back and she rewards me with her stunning smile.

 One for the forehead.

 Keith started pushing and pulling kids on the four wheeler.

 One tough kid.

 Here's the last one. . .

Gooey, golden, perfection sandwiched between chocolatey chip goodness.   

Mmmmmm.

Flour Power

While the cat's away, the mice will play. . .

 Or in this case, get into the pantry.

 The cat really wasn't away. . . 

 She was in the next room finishing up a cookbook to send out to relatives for a family reunion.

  One little mouse sure can do a lot.

 The cat didn't even want to look at where the mouse had been after he came in covered in flour.

The cat was the one who wanted to say "EEeeekkk!"

This is one thorough mouse.  He's definitely got flour power.

Keith Goes to Nursery

Keith went to nursery today for the first time.  At first he was really excited to go to class like his older brothers and sisters.  Once he got in there with all the other kids, he got a little worried though.  After a little while, he settled down and fell asleep for a while.  It's hard to believe how fast Keith is growing up!  The kids all grow up too quickly.