Kids' Sewing Project

 One day I did manage to break out our sewing machines (there's 5 in the house now, but one's not working) and I had the Elena, Sebastian, and Isabel sew themselves new music bags for their piano books.

 While these pictures look idylli, don't be fooled.  Sewing with a bunch of kids is a workout.  Wowsers.  I cut all the fabric beforehand and I drew lines where they needed to sew, but I still spent all my time going from kid to kid to kid detangling stuff and rethreading needles and calming Sebastian down when he went off the lines (he probably sewed the straightest of anyone--but Isabel was mad because he was using her much easier machine.)  I serged the inside seams after they sewed them and then I sewed the handles onto the bags, but that's it.  They did everything else themselves.

 Ana, my awesome photographer, was taking pictures.

 Hey, you can kind of see my haircut.

 The kids were bored and whiney near the end, but not so bad that we didn't persevere.

 And they ask for sewing lessons all the time, so I guess they liked it.  And as a note to myself, I should always have the kids sew on a paper following lines first before throwing them into a project when they haven't sewn for a long time.  It would have helped their confidence and also a good way to remind them to stay on the line before it matters.

And of course, it was an excuse to use my embroidery machine a bit.  Yay!

The Rest of August

Isabel got glasses.  But she only has to wear them at school.

 And she lost her first tooth.

 Jubal wreaks havoc wherever he goes.

 First day of school!

 New backpack!

 Even decorated with Canada gear.

The end

August Birthdays

 Right after we got back from Canada we had two birthdays to celebrate.  And yes, this cake does look familiar because ever since Sebastian had a Spiderman cake this spring, Lando has wanted one too.  He never deviated from Spiderman ever.  He was so excited. And he chose Macaroni and Cheese for his birthday dinner.

 But he was so excited to open his present, that we let him do that first, and he did not like it.  Just that day he had gotten it into his head that he wanted something (Mater? A sword? I don't remember now.) and so then when he opened his present and it wasn't that, he started crying and then got angry and threw it across the room.  Nice.  He was still recovering while we ate cake.

 See, sad boy.  But then, after cake, he was totally happy again and spent the rest of the night playing with the big box of Knex we got him.  I love that 3 year olds have such a short attention span sometimes.

 Then we had Leo's birthday.  He chose Pollo Loco for his birthday dinner.  That was easy. I tried making eclairs for him.  They tasted fine, but they were a little flat.

 He sure liked them though, and that was the important part.

 He tried to convince us that they weren't for anyone else to eat, just for him.

 I gave him a picture to hang in his office. Because I think working in a bare-walled office would be so dull, although Leo said he didn't mind.  But he said he liked his picture (of a P-51) a lot too.  Yay!

Bestest wife ever!!

 Since I am the best wife in the world, I asked a friend in our ward who owns a plane if he could take Leo flying sometime.  He was so nice that he took Leo AND me flying.  Leo flew almost the whole time once they were up.  It was a Piper Malibu.  Very nice.  It brought back a ton of memories of flying with Leo in Florida.  Those were good times.

 I hung out in the back seats, and fell asleep.  Leo though, he was in heaven.

Doing my part to share goodness....

These are the best store bought cookies ever: Leclerc Celebration Oatmeal cookies.   I love them.  If you get a chance to buy some, you should.  And then buy an extra box for me at the same time and post it in the mail to me.  I will love you forever.

Random pictures from stalking my friend's Facebook

 I love how her living room is.  And I wanted to keep the pictures.  So here they are on my blog.  Thanks anonymous friend.

Royal Tyrell Dinosaur Museum and the End

 Ana took her cornrows out.

 We headed to the Royal Tyrell Dinosaur Museum up in Drumheller--a 3 hour drive from Derek's house.  We thought Sebastian and Nicolas would love it.  But it ended up being the only place we wish we hadn't had gone to.  Sebastian was tired and grumpy the whole time and not interested. The girls weren't really interested. And Lando fell asleep pretty much as we drove into the parking lot and slept for 45 mins despite us shaking him and trying to get him to wake up.  And then he was grouchy when he did wake up.  After looking through the main part of the museum we were all starving for dinner so we went to A&W for poutine and rootbeer, and we planned on going back to look at the Learning Center and climb the little bluff, but we didn't.  We all decided we just wanted to go back to Derek's and play with cousins and hang out.  And we all wished we had just stayed at Derek's. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.  Plus, the museum reminded me a lot of the Field Museum in Chicago, and while I know the kids won't remember that, I did, and while I think the Royal Tyrell IS  definitely nicer than the Field (for dinosaurs anyway), it just seemed like I'd seen it all before.  I kind of want to go to the new Utah Paleontology museum, just to compare, but on the other hand, I think on the whole, I just don't care about dinosaurs that much.  And neither do my kids.  The BYU one is about the perfect size for us.  So there's my review of the Royal Tyrell.  But bare in mind that we didn't go to the Learning Center where they had interactive stuff--it was crowded and we were hungry--and I don't know, that may have been the coolest part.

 So after a night at Derek and Brooke's, watching another movie with a large bowl of ice-cream, and Ana, Tyson, and Katelyn went out and played night games with friends, we headed to Hyrum the next day.  The kids were really pretty good driving home I must say.

 So we spent another day chilling at Mom's house with Andrea's family, riding horses and eating delicious garden vegetables, before hitting the road home for Texas.

More photos compliments of Ana.  The drive home is never as smooth, but by the afternoon both days the kids and everyone had settled down.  We spent a night in Amarillo and stopped at a steak house advertised for miles around, The Big Texan. They give you the dinner free to if you can eat a 72 ounce steak in one hour.  That's repulsive, and we didn't even think of trying.  It was 10 PM by that time, but they stay open late, and I'm so glad they did. It was really, really good.  We got steak for Ana, Elena, Leo and me, and ribs for the rest of the kids.  Isabel could eat ribs forever.  Yum.  

 Tired kids, not in a picture taking mood.

 Poor squished Jubal.

 And at they end they brought hats for all the kids.

It was a long trip and a ton of driving.  We put 6, 500 and something miles on our van.  But it was so perfect and amazing and fun, and I loved it all.  It was so worth it.  Good times, good food, good memories.