Week 4: Boys

So we are only on week 4, I had to double check that because I was sure it should be about week 17 or so. This past week seems like maybe it could have been at least 3 or 4 weeks long.
My nephews were here. Dalton, Grayson and Gabe. Sunday morning before church, Hayden says, “Now there will be more boys than girls!” Yup, the testosterone was flowing!
Monday we did the water fountains and Playground of Dreams. Always a good time. At lunch I learned really quick that 6 kids eat a lot of food. I braved Fred Meyer for more groceries with all 6 of them. Crazy, huh? Acutally, it went extremely well. They were all well behaved. As we shopped along, some guy saw us, turned to his wife and said, “whoa, she’s got an army!” The boys laughed and laughed about that pretty much all week. Heath took a Frisbee and they all played during Hayden’s soccer practice at the park. Not sure Hayden was into playing soccer so much that night, he kept looking over at the Frisbee players.
Tuesday we got to start swim lessons for Sage. The boys all took their Nintendo DSs. Well except for Gabe, he had lost his by this point. We rented a couple of Wii games so that it could be all video games, all the time. Well, almost…That afternoon, I invited Michael, Brenna, and Nathan down to slip and slide with the guys and Sage. OK, 9 kids now. I must say, the 3 additional kids made life really easy-who would have guessed. Everyone was completely entertained, all I had to do was provide towels and popsicles. As if that wasn’t enough, when Heath got home we headed out on the river for some tubing and wake boarding. It was a gorgeous night! The cousins loved riding the tube. Hayden decided that he would rather hold the flag, a job he asks about every single time we get on the boat, but rarely gets. He said he really likes to ride with Uncle Kyle, so he will just wait till Kyle comes back and let the guys have turns instead. Dalton tried out the wake board. I would have loved to have gotten some pictures, but I was on the beach with the girls, and Hayden and Gabe who were having the time of their lives swimming and eating sand. He made it up though, so we screamed like crazy people as Heath drove by pulling him. Way to go Dalton! He was pretty pumped up about it.
By Wednesday, my house was as trashed as thoroughly as possible. I am amazed that only one DS was missing. Me and Dalton had turned the place upside down looking for it. Meanwhile, the other kids had pulled out every single toy we owned making our search slightly more complicated. No luck. After swim lessons, we went to the park with a couple of other moms from church. Hayden had a soccer game that night, so we all packed up to cheer him on. He did awesome! There is about 145 kids on the team so playing time is limited, but he makes his presence known. I love to watch him play, he is so serious about it.
Thursday we played the beloved candy bar game. Who doesn’t love a game where the playing pieces are candy bars and everyone wins??? We were hoping to take the boat out again, but believe it or not, the wind picked up. Grrrr…we went out for pizza instead-after some much needed quiet time watching a movie. Then, as if the candy bar game wasn’t enough, we did mystery ice cream game. 6 unmarked pints, you guess the flavors. Well, it was a tasty day. We all pretty much agreed that the ice cream game was our favorite between the two games. AND, I finally found Gabe’s DS buried under Sage’s carseat(???)
Friday, our time was limited, so we had to squeeze lots in: swim lessons, a little geocaching and a picnic, then we hit open gym at the gymnastics gym near us. 2 hours of running, jumping, bouncing and flipping. Too much fun. I sent them home with Heath, wore out. Then Marlee and me went shopping.
We loved having the boys here-Thanks Gretchen for letting us have them for the week!

Favorites:
Heath: Playing guitar hero with Dalton after all the small people went to bed
Lori: watching the boys crack up playing the Rabbids game, and dancing around to the crazy songs on Grayson’s ipod
Hayden: DS downloading with Grayson, playing on the beach with Gabe and Sage on the Bonsai.
Sage: The candy bar game, swinging at the park with Gabe
Marlee: the Ice cream game, the potato rounds at Eatza Pizza

Our 4th

OK, I know, total slacker! The 4th was over a week ago, but I've been really busy. We had Jamie and Kyle and Avery here and it was soooo much fun. Jamie actually put a fabulous post about it at her site :All Things Avery
We started out with a big ol pancake breakfast, then headed out for a bit of geocaching. We found 1 of 2, but the 2nd one seemed like perhaps someone else had found it and not returned it :( The kids love to take turns carrying around the GPS and treasure bag.
After some power napping, it was time to get serious about the celebration. We made some cute 4th of July crowns. Sage and Avery were extra excited, as every princess would be to have a new crown (or corona, as Dora might say). Marlee was happy to have one of her own too. I found the cutest straws at Target that were perfect for the project. I did not realize that they could also serve as pom poms, an added bonus.
The kids tossed around pop its in the driveway. We also had glow sticks for when it got dark-Pretty risky! We grilled and then headed to the river for the big show. Hayden and Sage crawled into my lap and watched the show. About two big booms in, Sage says to me, "Mom, this is fun, can we do it again?"
The whole weekend was tons of fun. We boated, played Wii, and got the world's absolute worst service ever at Wendys. Not even kidding on that last part.
I loved having them here. I especially liked to watch Sage and Avery play. Sage is sorta lacking in the little girl friends department. They are both at a great age and get along really well and are so darn cute. They both love Dora, and pink and dress up. I figure only another year or so and Marlee will jump right in there with them. Don't feel to bad for Hayden, he got plenty of boy time with Heath and Uncle Kyle playing video games. And that was only the warm up for his week with his cousins.

Missing

Missing: ALL OF MY PEPPERS!!! yes, my cute little bell, anaheim, and jalapeno peppers were pilfered! hmmm, any guesses? I can tell you that my kids know better, and even if they didn't, peppers are not the thing they would take.
The gap in the fence makes me suspicious especially since I saw Ashley the neighbor girl picking some cherries not to long ago.
Heath says its payback. He confesses that he owes Aunt Phyllis a big apology since him and Kody used to pick her apricots and throw them around the neighborhood. I am guilty of picking all the Benson's roses when I was a kid. I picked ALL their gorgeous flowers and put them on bushes in my yard. Real sneaky, huh?
Anyway, I am so sad, I was really excited about them. Probably will patch the fence over the next few days. If anything happens to any of my tomatoes, I might resort to electric fence around my garden.
...probably can't do the shotgun filled with salt like Heath suggested...

Week 3

Week 3 was all about house guests. We had my college roommate Amy,and her husband Seth and baby Levi. Then Jamie, Kyle, and Avery came. Sunday night, we got Dalton, Grayson, and Gabe. So the fun will keep going!
Hayden finished the first session of swim lessons. I think we will try to squeeze another session in somewhere before school starts back up. The first week of swim lessons, I tried to no avail to get Marlee in the splash pool. Sage loves it so I thought she would too. Nope. But last week, that was all she wanted. The little pool is only about a foot deep but that was enough for her. Marlee stood in the water and squealed and giggled and splashed. So cute. We set up our own little pool in the back yard for even more fun.
Tuesday, I had my second epidural steroid injection. This time I was super sore at the injection site. It was pretty miserable. The doctor says if this one doesn't work, he probably won't do another. Not sure what options I will have, and frankly, this last shot doesn't really seem to be working this time either. Very sad about that :(

Our 4th was so fun. The kids were so excited for the fireworks. Avery wanted to see the "big meatball" ones! They were so cute playing in the little pool, riding scooters and playing dress up.
We went boating on Saturday and it was wonderful. I forgot to sunscreen my back so I am a bit pink now. The kids all rode the tube and had a great time. Well, maybe not Jamie and Avery when they got sunk.
It was so nice to have visitors. We hope that they all had as good a time as we did.