Our first summer adventure

It seems that summer vacation is far too short and before I know it I will have to head back to school. So, I decided that once a week the girls and I are going to have an adventure. Then we will have some fun memories to look back on when I go back to school, and I will have something interesting to blog about :)
This week it was cold and raining so we decided to go to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden. Karen and Payton came with us. None of us had ever been there so we didn't really know what to expect, but it was super fun! We were there for about 3 hours but I think that the kids could have stayed longer. There were so many things to see and do. Claire's favorite thing was the music making room. Payton's favorite thing was dressing up and putting on a show. They also made flowers and necklaces, put on a puppet show, had a tea party, and painted. Claire can't wait to go back and show her dad all the fun things there. I forgot to take my camera, but luckily Karen had hers and we took quite a few pictures. I'll post just a few of them!

A few of my favorite things

Ahhh- summer vacation. Can I just say that I love being home with the fam?! I got up this morning (at 8:00!), made pancakes, started some laundry, etc. It was wonderful! Summer vacation has only been 3 days but I have already gotten some time to do things I love to do, like shop and read. On Saturday we went to Salt Lake with my mom and sisters to go birthday shopping. Allie was sick so she stayed home with daddy, but Claire came and I believe that she has my flair for shopping. She loves it! When we get home she wants to try on and model her new stuff. I worry about supporting this habit when she's 16!
I also finished reading "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer. It was good. It started out a little weird and I couldn't really get into it, but after the first 100 pages it got much better. The last 100 pages were the best. It is a different kind of book than I usually read, I don't get into sci/fi much, but there was enough human interaction and romance to keep me reading. I stayed up until midnight last night to finish it!

Summer's almost here!

Remember when you were a kid and you were so excited for summer vacation? And you also thought how sad your teachers must be that school was over? I can testify from the teacher's point of view that the teachers are MORE excited than the students for summer vacation! Actually my students' last day was Friday and this week I am just doing assessment appointments and cleaning my classroom. Nate is just thrilled that I will be staying put this year and he won't have to move all my stuff! I am just excited to be spending more time with the girls. I already have big plans for the summer (in between all the workshops that I have to go to). Allie finally has a little hair and I plan to make her some more clips so people quit asking what 'his' name is. I also need to do some major 'spring' cleaning in my house, but I will save that for when we run out of other fun adventures!

The 'brown thumb' strikes again

I thought that I would give you all an update on the strawberries...nothing is happening! Like I mentioned in an earlier message, I don't have the gift to make things grow. Claire and I have taken very good care of the strawberry seeds but alas they didn't grow, as you can see from the picture. The good news is that mother's day was a week and a half ago and my plant from church is still alive! I told Nate that I don't think a person's ability to be a mother is reflected in how long her mother's day flower stays alive! If that were the case I would be in pretty bad shape because mine usually only last a month or so. I 'm going to try really hard to keep this one alive, it's the one on the table next to Claire. On Saturday I planted flowers in my big pots in the front yard and when I told Nate I was going to the store to buy plants he said, "You are buying more flowers to kill?" Ha, ha, ha. I told you I can't grow anything. I have a feeling that my struggling flowers will be the topic of many more messages to come. Stay tuned...