To make my family jealous

I got to see my brother today even though he's still on his mission. We have been good his whole mission while he's serving an hour away from where we live and haven't tracked him down once. The mission pres granted us a lunch date before he left and today was the lucky day. He flies home on Wednesday.

I was nervous, and he later said he was nervous, about what the outcome of our little date might be, but it ended up being a great time. Everybody wants to see the newly home elders, but I hated to be the one to remind him the real world is coming. I told him it's good, though. I don't think he believed me.

We met in a bit of a sketchy neighborhood at a cool Mexican food joint. His companion gained five pounds worth of burrito during the meal (he's a bean pole, so he could use it). We talked about his mission and how things might be when he gets back. I think he's in for a bit of a shock based on how he reacted to a couple of Chris' slightly off comments, but he's going to do just fine. Just don't make him watch any movies for awhile. He's not ready for that. And he doesn't want to hear Weezer right away, either.

We love Bubba and can't wait to have him back! He has definitely served with honor and is coming home a different, wiser, more mature man (but still as skinny as before, to his chagrin). Hopefully we'll rise up to his level a little bit as he rubs off on us.

MJ's memorial is tomorrow, so LA is covered with murals like this one down the street from where we ate. Bubba was worried he was breaking the rule of looking like a tourist. I thought it was more of a historical picture. It marks the end of an era in so many ways.

What we did on the 4th

The 4th of July has always been one of my favorite holidays. My friend pointed out today that it has all the fun of the best holidays without the fuss of gifts (like Christmas) or insane amounts of food prep (like Thanksgiving). Ours was nice. We started with a refreshing pancake breakfast. The flier sent out at church said "Come enjoy a refreshing pancake breakfast." I can't eat pancakes, but it looked like everyone else was very refreshed by it.

I told Sam we celebrate the 4th in honor of those who fought for our freedom and who continue to do that. He said "like Uncle Danny?" who is in Iraq fighting right now. I think it meant more for the kids knowing someone they could relate the meaning of the day to.

That afternoon we swam at Nellie's with the cousins. Sam got stung by a bee as he was about to cannon-ball into the pool about 15 minutes into the festivities. A few popsicles later he still wanted to go home, so we did. We barbecued and ate outside. The kids werekind of jumpy about bugs after Sam's incident, but they forgot all about it once I started filling water balloons for our water balloon toss. It's funny how I spent so long filling balloons and never had more than 10 filled at one time. Ben especially loved grabbing them, giggling, then chucking them on the grass. Chris snuck up on the roof with a hose and sprayed us as we worked so diligently filling and tying (all the kids helped, of course). So then the 10 I had filled were launched at him. We got him pretty good. That counted for the water balloon toss, I think.

Later we had a huge communal bath (it's nice having kids and cousins 7 and under--they don't care yet). Then we enjoyed our first batch of homemade ice cream for the year. We were all totally spent even though we really wanted to watch fireworks. Cousins left, hoping to catch some fireworks on the ride home. We got lucky. As we were putting the kids to bed, we heard the booms of the nearby show. I peeked out the window and there it was! We could see half of the show pretty clearly. Sam was exhausted! He lay in bed and watched for a few minutes before I heard him lightly snoring. Lucy kept saying "Oooh, that's a pitty (pretty) one!" and telling me which ones were her favorite colors. She got tired and jumped in bed, too. Chris wandered off, so I watched the end of the show as my kids fell asleep. It was a perfect way to end the day.

Check out Ben's Blog

I just accidentally posted the blog meant for here on Ben's blog, so follow the link to see it. I'm too lazy to recreate it.....

The Force always Prevails!

Sam turned five (AAHH!! He's growing up) and chose a Star Wars theme for his first "friends" party (we've always just done family parties). He had been a Jedi for Halloween because he reveres his friend Brayden who let him borrow the costume, but he hadn't seen the movies. I guess a light saber is enough reason to want to have a Star Wars party, right? I tried to talk him into other party ideas, but Star Wars he wanted and Star Wars he got. He asked me as I was explaining some of the activities I had planned what Star Wars' younger brother's name was. Hmmmm.....I decided I'd better let him watch some of the movie, at least, so he would get the games. All of the activities were training to become a Patowan. I learned a lot of vocab as I did my homework to do this right. It's not like anyone knew what was going on, but it's the principal of it, you know? And I had a lot of fun with the details. Here's the sign that greeted them.

That's supposed to be Yoda in case you can't tell--I'm quite artistically challenged and almost had to draw a grid like in middle-school art class to get this right. Then there were the games. We did Pin the X-Wing Starfighter on the Death Star (blindfolded using only the power of the force), Yoda-Vader (red-saber, green saber), and of course an obstacle course involving a meteor shower (one mom throwing rice), ducking under a lava flow (cellophane), and avoiding the dark side (Chris and Lucy with a light saber). If they completed their training, they got a classy homemade light saber (pool noodles and dowels make for a very safe and inexpensive version of the original). Then, thanks to a friend in the ward andy my bro-in-law, there was a disturbance in the force and Darth arrived to take on the newly trained warriors. Only one kid cried when he showed up. Yeah, it was totally intense. When they got over their fear, they went a little postal on him, but luckily only one kid had a real plastic light saber. The rest were pretty soft. Jason was a good sport. The best line happened when he came out and invited each kid to fight him individually using their new moves (I ripped this off from Disneyland's Jedi Training show). He called his son Luke, Sam's cousin, up and said what he'd been trying to find the opportunity to say since he was born "Luke, I am your father!"

Yoda's green, I know, but I was going to do Darth and it was too hard (see the three Darths in the middle? It looks like a nun with a mouth guard). All of these ideas were online--what did mothers do before the internet?

A birthday tribute--Sam is so grown up. He loves preschool, his new friends there, and looks forward to getting homework in kindergarten (we'll see how long I can milk that one!). He likes fixing things, working on puzzles with Dad, and learning new things. He thinks he could drive if I let him try (thanks Grandpa!). He told me that one day he's going to marry Lucy and they'll have Ben as a baby and I said, "Yep--I can't wait!" I keep thinking I don't want him to grow up, but I love every step of the way. Happy birthday Sam! We love you so much!

Lotsa Turtles

I'm always trying to take the kids exciting places and to do educational things with them. We've gone to Sea World, museums, zoos, spent hours driving, packed a million PB&J's... And then a few weeks ago I found a gem of a place literally across the street from where I live! We walked through our neighbor and Sam's buddy Logan's backyard (they have access to the gardens) to the coolest little turtle pond in the heart of the UCR Botanic Gardens. We chose the hottest day of the year so far, but that meant all of the turtles were out sunning. The kids counted turtles (19!) and then ooh'ed and aah'ed at the koi and other fish. After the turtles, we wandered through the beautiful foliage trying to get hit with sprinklers and stay in the shade. We've been here for 5 years and only visited the gardens once before, and then without really exploring much. It proves that you don't need to go much further than your own backyard to enjoy the beauty of the earth!

Updates

I actually updated the kids blogs. Please take a look (the links are on the right)!

Lying to my children and Counting my Blessings

Sam really wanted to know if the Easter Bunny was human or not. I'm not hugely attached to the idea that my kids need to believe in the Easter Bunny, but at the same time I'm not ready to admit that it's all a hoax. He didn't press that much. In fact, when he found a sippy cup (shown above as my decoy while taking Ben's picture) in his easter basket that he had seen in the closet, he accepted my explanation that some of the stuff in his basket came from me and some of it came from the Easter Bunny. He'll figure it out soon enough, right? Let the children enjoy a bit of fantasy while it lasts. Here's the best shot I got of Easter clothes--I know it's washed out, but I thought it kind of looked like a perfume add or something.

We had magical weather on Easter Sunday, making our traditional dinner with Jason, Beth, and Nellie as perfect as it could be. We are so blessed to have family we love close by! (Don't ever move Jason and Beth! We'd be forced to follow you!).

Otherwise, our family is elbow deep in mulch and compost working on our garden. I worked at a garden center for a few months in college and managed to learn nothing, so Chris takes care of most of it. I figure I'll be in charge of harvesting and cooking/canning (if I get that ambitious). The kids and I help water every afternoon, which usually turns into a big mud-fest, and then a big cry-fest as I hose them off and drag them to the bath. Ben eats dirt like it's keeping him alive. I wonder if that kid's missing some nutrients in his diet or something, which is very unlikely seeing as how he eats more than the other two kids combined. But we love being outdoors right now and plan to enjoy the cool weather while it lasts.