School. Bus. Mrs. Adams

All weekend we have been telling Jensen that he gets to go to school again on Monday.

He repeats.

"School".

And he gets all excited.

Then we ask him how he gets to school.

He knows this.

"Bus".

Then we ask him who his teacher is.

"Mrs. Adams".

It comes out more like Mz. Aams.

Yup, he still remembers her plus it doesn't hurt that he sees her at church every week.

He was one happy kid to get on the bus this afternoon.

No tears {even from me}.

Lucy asked for him not soon after he left.

It's good he is only gone a couple of hours.

Play Date Mondays: Bowling

To end our summer play dates we went bowling at Sam's Town last Monday.

We had fun even though it took FOREVER to bowl with eight kiddos. They only had one lane for us but, luckily it was on the end so the kids could run around when it wasn't their turn.

Picking up a spare!

Jensen with Lucy's help came in third. Not bad!

The Kiddos

(Seriously, one of my kids always has to be crying in group photos.)

After bowling we walked around the casino a little bit. They have a place where they have pretend but real looking animals. It is kind of cheesy but the kids enjoyed looking at them.

That's a beaver.

This was Lucy's reaction to the bear.

She was scared just a bit.

I'm sad to think our normal play dates are ending for the summer.

We might just have to move them to Fridays in the fall.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Just wanted to say Happy Birthday to the greatest Mother there is!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Sometimes it really sucks being here in Vegas while there are celebrations going on in Utah. I have already missed three birthdays parties this month and am going to miss one tonight too. Complete with Tangled lanterns. My mom knows how to throw a party!

(That's me and my mom. I'm the baby.)

(Check out those bangs!)

(We actually showed up to Europe with the same rain jacket. Which we never wore except for this silly picture.)

When I asked my mom what she wanted for her birthday, she told me a lemonade banner. Now this is my mom. She has wild hairs all the time. Usually it means a really good time like Europe or Tea Parties. But sometimes it means matching sunflower dresses worn by me, my sister, and my mom in a family picture (I don't have a copy, thank goodness). But if there is one thing I have learned in my life, it is just to go with it because she is going to do it anyway. So when mom told me she wanted a lemonade banner, I didn't question that she might be just a little too old for a lemonade stand. I just made it.

Then I got thinking.

A banner is great but she is going to need other things to get this lemonade stand in business, so I continued to make this lemonade kit for her.

Lemonade Kit Includes:

Lemonade (of course)

Cups with Fancy Labels

Straws with Fancy Flag Labels

Tablecloths

Napkins

Hand Towels (lemonade seems to get messy)

A Pitcher

Lemonade Banner

Pink Bucket for Ice

and

a Keep Calm Sign for impatient customers

All you need to do is add water!

And maybe a stand. I'm not too handy in that department.

Since I am too cheap to pay shipping for this big kit, you'll have to admire from blogger until I see you next.

Hope you have a wonderful day Mother!

Love you lots!

Siblings

These two are really starting to be the best of siblings. Which is great for me in so many ways.

They look out for each other which I hope they always do. Every time we go somewhere in the car, Lucy picks herself up a Capri Sun in the garage and she always make sure she grabs one for Jensen too even though he doesn't care too much for them. On the flip side Jensen {most of the time} will share his snacks with Lucy.

Their new thing is to say "cheese" when they get their picture taken. They learned it up in Utah. Go figure. Jensen smiles so big sometimes that his eyes close.

They can be quiet together but this doesn't happen too often.

Or they run around chasing each other. It usually ends with Jensen tackling her.

Sometimes Jensen can get a little rough but Lucy usually comes up laughing and wanting more.

They love to jump on any bed in the house. Lucy recently learned how to get into Jensen's crib. He gets jealous she is in there without him so we will put them both in there together. They hang out for a while in there reading or jumping. They don't seem to care.

They love to play dress up.

Jensen is usually a "ireman" (fireman) and Lucy puts on whatever she's in the mood for that day.

Last night we went to a new {to us} splash pad in Henderson. They had fun running back and forth between us and the water. Lucy follows Jensen wherever he goes. They are like a little comedy routine.

Thanks to the Kanets, the kids have a favorite activity. The white board. Jensen writes and Lucy erases what he just did.

My favorite thing they do is hold hands. They mostly do it when they are crossing roads, going to nursery, or in the car sometimes. It always makes me smile.

We sure love these two!

My Sweet Little Girl. . . I Think

About an hour ago:

She even let me put a pretty in her hair.

10 minutes ago:

Thank goodness I have learned to take off her outfits when she eats.

My First Free Printable

A week or so ago I was asked by a lady in my ward if I would talk on priorities tonight at our Relief Society Meeting. She obviously doesn't know me too well since I tend to put off some things so I can craft, sew or whatever else seems more fun. She wanted me to share a couple of examples of things that has helped me prioritize in my daily life. Luckily, I do have {exactly} two examples to share tonight. My fabulous cleaning chart and my two-week dinner plan/shopping list.

A couple of months ago I was blog hopping and landed on this fabulous site. Now as I am typing this I am wondering if someone nicely sent me the link hoping I would get a clue. Well if that was you, it worked! I read that she did this cleaning schedule and that it helped her have more time to craft and those fun things in life. I was instantly on board! I saw what she did everyday and I kept saying I can do that. It was like she wrote it for me!

And instead of starting right away with the cleaning schedule, I sat down and made this chart to motivate me even more! I had to make a craft out of it.

When I stick to this schedule it really makes my house stay clean. I don't even get {too} nervous when someone drops over unannounced and uses the bathroom. I love that I only have to do one deep cleaning project each day. Which means I am not scrubbing my white tub for hours once a month or two. Instead I just do a quick scrub once a week and I don't even break a sweat. It also doesn't even take me too long to do each days work. That is a bonus too. Nap time is devoted to me time everyday! Serious genius I think this lady is.

So here is my first free printable for you all to enjoy. I hope you can just right click the image and then save them to your computer. They are made for 11x14 for those of you that write big or you can make it a 8x10 like I did.

Plus I have two options for you: a blank file so you can pick what you do each day and a file with words that I use which is similar to what she does. I just don't have a garden to weed or coupon. If they don't work, let me know and I will email them to you. Just leave your address in the comments.

Enjoy!

And as for my two week dinner plan, it isn't a cute printable. Yet anyway! Just a boring document but I will send it to you if you want.

Play Date Mondays: Library, Pool and Paseo Vista Park

I'm a little behind on our play date Mondays. So here is a couple of weeks worth.

We all headed to the library for story time, but we all got a surprise with a special summer story time. (This was actually on a Friday but it was still a play date with everyone.) It was Hawaiian themed complete with leis, books and songs about Hawaii, hula dancing and even Hawaiian crafts.

Can you see Lucy?

A sweet mom took pity on Lucy and said she would take it of all of us if I wanted to hold Lucy up.

That's the only time I get in pictures.

When we were heading out the door the nice library lady asked if they wanted a tattoo.

This was their first tat.

The next play date was at one of the mom's in our playgroup, mom's swimming pool. I am embarrassed to admit this but this is the first time my kids have been in a pool all summer. Yeah, I know I live in Vegas. Yes, I know there is a community pool at the end of our street. Yup, I regret not taking them more after this. I was just worried that taking two kids by myself wouldn't be a good experience, but it wasn't bad at all. Jensen just ended up floating around thanks to his padded suit and arm floaties. That left me to take care of Lucy. I mostly hold her.

Check out those thighs!

Today we went to one of my favorite Splash Pads in Henderson at Paseo Vista. I like this park because it has lots of shade. Especially over the playground so the kids can actually go down them without getting their bottoms burned. It also has two playgrounds, one for younger and one for older kids.

Jensen of course was in heaven and Lucy wasn't too afraid to get wet today either. It was hot!

He is actually drinking the water after his mother told him not to.

Our picnic today consisted of Pirates Booty and Propel. I was running late and they didn't seem to mind.

We left a little bit early since no friends came today (very late notice on my part). So we went to see Quincy at his new office. He moved offices a month ago and we haven't visited him yet.

Jensen picked up the phone and said "Hello" just like his daddy does.

I can't believe summer is officially over in a couple of weeks. Jensen will be back in school four days a week. We better have a big play date to celebrate!

Just kidding.

I love having this boy around.