Picking in the Garden

First Day of Pre-School

Monday morning Emma headed off to her first day of Joy School. Five of us Moms are going to rotate homes and do a pre-school for our five girls. It should be fun! I was a little worried about how Emma would do because after 8 months of primary she still can't sit in her chair and listen. She also hates story time at the library and is still not fully potty trained. But the others Moms said to just bring her and we would see how she does on a trial basis. Well she did great. All the kids are doing well but its only been two classes so I hope it stays that way.

Traditional first day of school pictures.

First piece of art work from pre-school.

Lagoon!!

Quinn's worked hosted a lagoon day for their employees and families last Saturday. We could not pass this up. It was Emma and James first time there. Emma loved every minute of it and rode every ride she could. James on the other hand did not enjoy it. We have now scarred him for life. The first ride we came to we stuck him on with Emma. He screamed the entire time while Emma laughed. So we let him rest for a little while. Then we tried another ride. We got on Puff and I rode with him thinking this would help. Again he screamed the entire and time and tried to climb out. We thought well lets go on the carousel because he has already been on that at the zoo and it was okay. He again screamed the entire time and tried to climb off. When we got on the train we started to scream until he realized it was hardly moving at all and you got to look at the animals so that was okay.

Emma loves rides. She loves roller coasters. Lagoon has a few new family roller coasters which she is just tall enough to ride on. So you know if you ever go on one with her she is one of those people that scream for fun at the top of their lungs. It was so fun to watch her. She also rode the Tidal Wave and lifted up her arms when she got to the top just like everyone else. It was so cute. We had a blast but boy was it hot. Thanks Mom and Dad for going with us and helping out with the kids.

James hating us right now.

Nice up the nose shot Quinn.

Cute right - giving James a hug. Don't be fooled. Just after this picture she pushed him off the bench.

Messing around in line. They really do love to play with each other. (We were going to try to get James on another slow ride with Emma.)

We did not succeed. I had him buckled in next to her and he just screamed and screamed so we had the operator get him out before they started. Quinn over heard some others parents standing there saying that poor kid.

Trying to get off the carousel!

Summer Projects

Where has the summer gone? This is just one of three book cases that I wanted to paint this summer. I don't know when I'm going to get to the other two. At least Emma has a very cute bookcase for her bedroom.

The before.

The after.

I used contact paper on the back.

So cute!

Zoo Week

A planned trip to the zoo inspired me to come up with fun ways to extend the fun of learning about zoo animals all week long for Emma. We got tons of books from the library about the zoo and watched a Signing Time DVD about the zoo to learn how to sign all the animals.

So on Monday we made zoo masks out of paper plates. She still won't let me take a picture of her wearing one though.

Tuesday we learned what continent certain animals live on and then matched animals crackers to the pictures. Emma had a lot of fun with this and looks at her map still.

Wednesday we went to the zoo with my friends Melissa and Jessica and their kids. Our first stop is always the big water ball.

Rhino!

We finally saw a tiger that was awake. He even walked down in front of the glass briefly.

Dallin, Emily and Emma in front of the T-Rex.

James and Lilly so tired, hot and upset that they can't get out and run around too.

The whole crew - James, Emma, Me, Emily, Dallin, Lilly, Melissa, Johnny, Daniel and Jessica.

Just monkeying around!



Friday Emma and I made binoculars and then went on a safari in our backyard.

Tons of fun.

Church History Museum

I took the kids to the Church History Museum by myself for the first time and probably won't do it again for a while since Emma was lost for about 5 minutes. She had been playing on Nephi's boat with some kids, I turned my back to chase after James and when I turned back around she was gone. I circled the rooms several times until I realized she wasn't there anymore. I finally found her coming up from the basement (I had been on the 2nd floor and had gone to the 1st floor to make sure she hadn't left the building). Another Mother had found her when she fell and got hurt on the escalator. So now I'm scared to take her any where. She didn't know she was lost and wasn't scared. She just wanted to keep playing with those kids. Now every time I try and talk to her about how scared I was and why it was wrong to leave my sight she cries because she remembers being hurt not lost. Oh well, I am supposed to go to the zoo tomorrow with friends. Hopefully we can keep track of all 7 kids.

Here are a few pictures. When will my children look at the CAMERA?

Emma got to color a picture of this stain-glass window

Fishing off Nephi's boat.

She is getting better at twirling that skirt.