First and Last Day

Every year I take a ton of photos of the boys on their first and last day of school and see a huge difference; but this year I really didn't see a difference in the boys...It's weird! 

All the boys had another great school year. All the boys did good to great with grades and improvement overall. Surprisingly, they all love every year when it is time to head back to school, though it's mostly to see their friends again. And they are also super excited when it all comes to an end. 

I too have been excited to say goodbye to school for a couple months. We've planned a fun, jam packed summer with lots of different activities. Before I know it, school will start up again. And I'll be ready for it.

Skate Park/Hiking/Tracy Aviary

We have one heck of a Summer To Do list this year and we've been great at crossing items off left and right! One day we went to TWO different skate parks, ate a free lunch at IKEA and cooled off at a local splash pad. The boys loved the skate park! They've asked to go back several times! All the boys tried jumps and tricks. Even Preston had a good time!

Another fun, adventurous day we were off on TWO different hikes. The first was Grafitti Rock (aka suicide rock) which was very easy and beautiful. I wish we would of brought spray paint though...

It was getting pretty hot that day so we drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon and hiked Donut Falls, another pretty easy hike and very beautiful. I  printed out nature scavenger hunts for the little kids and a harder one for the older boys. It was a lot of fun. The boys teamed up and worked together to complete their searches. 

Another day we stopped off at (THE BEST) doughnut shop (Banbury Cross) and then headed to Tracy Aviary. We stopped under a tree for a picnic then ate those delicious donuts. It was a pretty hot day so we walked to a nearby splash pad to cool off. 

This summer has been a lot of fun. My house is messier than ever because we're always out playing. And it's great! I really enjoy planning and spending time with these kiddos. They are pretty cool boys and I'm glad to be their mom.

HAPPY SUMMER!!

Summer Activity Ideas List

I've had a lot of people ask about the list we are using this year, so here it is!! 

We usually do 50 things, but decided to add more because I wanted to focus on the little boys ideas as well as the big boys. Most of the items we can all do as a family, but there are a few that are age specific. 

Enjoy!!

Summer Activity Idea List

1.      Water balloon fight

2.      Slip and slide

3.      Family bike ride

4.      Nature walk

5.      Sleep on tramp

6.      Splash Pad

7.      Blow bubbles

8.      Home Depot craft

9.      Farmers Market

10.    Fishing

11.    Go swimming

12.    Sell lemonade

13.    Story time at library

14.    Ferris Wheel at Scheels

15.    Bowling

16.    Movies

17.    Water Park

18.    Beach

19.    Movie in Park

20.   Bob’s Brain Freeze

21.    Fat Cats

22.    Magic Mountain

23.    Hike Donut Falls

24.     Picnic

25.     Tracey Aviary

26.     Lake Powell

27.     Fireworks

28.     LDS History Museum

29.     Temple Square

30.     BBQ tri tip

31.      Roast Marshmallows

32.     Trax ride

33.     Parade

34.     Geocaching

35.     Breakfast for Dinner

36.     Tye Dye shirts

37.     Flag T-shirt craft

38.     Rent Bike on Beach

39.     Feed the Ducks

40.     Pick Berries

41.      Graffiti Rock

42.     Make pet rocks

43.     Complete Reading Program

44.     Visit National Park

45.     Chuck E. Cheese

46.     Eat at Dad’s Work

47.     Skate Park

48.     Manti Pageant

49.     Rocket Launch

50.     Camping

51.      Carvers Cove in Eden

52.     Beach in AF

53.     Copper Mines

54.     Hill Air force Base

55.     Silver Lake

56.     Ctwd. Hts. Pool

57.     Timp Caves

58.     BBQ in Canyon

59.     BYU Creamery

60.     Movie on Lawn

61.      Mt. Rushmore

62.     Western Gun Fight

63.     Pizza Making Night

64.     Milsim

65.     Confetti Eggs

66.     Sprinklers

67.     Seven Peaks

68.     Hike the Y

69.     Host night games

70.     Trafalga

71.      ANW in LV

72.     Eat at IKEA

73.     Olympic Park in PC

74.      

75.      

More than half of the activities are already crossed off!!

Egg Hunt and Home Depot

 Before leaving on our trip to Goblin Valley, the boys had the opportunity to go to the Millcreek Park for an Egg Hunt over Easter Weekend.  In the first and second pictures, you can see Brigs (white & blue T-shirt) and Nathan (red sweatshirt) ducking under the barrier and going after the eggs.

 And here is Preston in the white T-shirt and his hat.

 They got quite the hall of eggs, and Preston even got a larger egg that allowed him to win an Easter-themed music box.

From there, we headed to Home Depot where the older boys paired up with a younger boy to work on the Kid's Craft. It was a planter box craft. Will helped Brig's, Tyler helped Preston, Jackson helped Nathan and Gavin worked on his project all by himself. They all turned out cute. The rest of the day was spent cleaning the house, packing and then playing with neighbor friends. 

New Year's Eve and a Very Happy Birthday to Scott

Scott had New Years Eve (his birthday) off from work ... Thank Goodness!! We had a FUN day filled with lots of different activities and tons of games!! The night before, I wrote different activities our family would do together randomly throughout the day. Those ideas were then stuck inside balloons and a time written on the balloon that told us when it would need to be opened. It started with a delicious breakfast.  

Here is a list of the things I planned for the day:

• breakfast
• mock tails (I made three different ones of these)
• write our resolutions on the chalkboard
• draw and color pictures
• decorated cupcakes
• "ring in the new year" with ring pops
• open gifts (Happy Birthday SCOTT!!!)
• go to the zoo (it ended up being too cold to do this!)
• Poppers
• make mini pizza's for lunch
• sparklers
• Fireworks
• special games
• jacuzzi time

 Here is the list we came up with of games to play. We went through most of them...and it was a ton of fun!!
Below we are "ringing in the new year" with our ring pops!

CHEERS!! Here's one of the mock tails I made. Yum! I went to Pinterest and found a few I thought were not only easy to make but that my boys would enjoy. I bought plastic wine glasses for the boys to use. We also took turns making a toast. SO fun!

I found some cute pages for the little boys to color. And for the older boys, they completed a 2014 remembrance page. It was fun to see the kids write their year in review. (again, from Pinterest!)

One of the "special games" was the flour and the dime. Messy fun!  All the boys wanted to retrieve the dime and once they did they regretted it immediately. They say flour mixed with a bit of spit tastes like glue! 

Happiest of birthday's to this guy! 38 years old. Scott is such a great guy. We're lucky to have him in our family.

And, of course, was the annual fireworks celebration at the Towers'/Monson's home. Over 2,015 fireworks were set off. Awesome!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!!!