Kate's real birthday

It was interesting to have a birthday on Sunday!  But also very relaxing since the party was over and we didn't go anywhere.  So here she is opening a few presents before church:

 Books and more books!

 This was her laughing face when she opened the Star Wars bike seat cover from Grandma and Grandpa- who knew they made those things??

 And after church trying out her new roller skates from Mom and Dad- don't worry, we bought her knee and elbow pads too haha!

 And she spent a very happy afternoon reading new books and doing her sticker dolly dress-up book. :) Glad she's not too grown up for that!  

 Then Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Kjarom came over for dinner (Kate wanted ravioli) and more chocolate cake!!  Yum.  

My 3 favorite words to describe Katelyn right now at age SEVEN are:

SWEET

She is always doing nice things for me and Eric and Owen, and even Whitney.  She likes to cuddle even though she's way too big and bony!  She is very kind and polite.

SILLY

Oh my she is so silly.  Always laughing about something, making up a joke or telling a funny story.

SMART

The girl reads at least a book a day; three or four if they're short chapter books.  And she is logical to a fault- maybe she gets that from her dad??  haha.  She's going to be smarter than me in no time!  She loves to learn and devours science and history books.  She's always telling me about something new she learned.  

So cute.

How grateful I am that Katelyn was born first.  We love her so much!

Jedi Party 2.0

It was so fun to have ANOTHER Star Wars Party at our house, this time for Katelyn's 7th Birthday!  

She chose a few different things than Whitney, which was fun.  

We started with the Jedi Training Academy- each child got a Jedi vest (Whit and Kate had robes), a light saber, and an Academy Badge.  We did have one friend dress up as Return of the Jedi Luke and one as Leia, so cute!  So this is Aaron, David, Emberlyn, Katelyn, Adalie, Chloe, Whitney, and Hayden.  Not pictured are Danny and Allison, who came a little late.

 After practicing their light saber moves for a while, Darth Vader showed up to fight them!

 Sadly Jedi Katelyn was injured in the fight, but eventually Darth Vader was overcome.

 Next the kids (in teams) had to free Luke and Han Solo from their icy "carbonite" prisons so they could stand on the birthday cake!  Here are David and Aaron doing their best.

 And Whitney!

 checking to make sure all the ice was gone

 Then we had an obstacle course!  katelyn helped create it, so she was the fastest to finish it!

 Danny doing our favorite part of the course- jumping over the "lake of Lava!"

 The last Jedi Challenge was a "Jedi Mission" (treasure hunt) to find the pinata that Darth Vader hid as he was leaving.  The clues were tied into Star Wars trivia, such as "What food did Leia share with the ewok?" or "What character says 'I suggest a new strategy. Let the Wookie win!' Find a game on the shelf that starts with the same letter as that character."  It was funny because only one other kid besides my girls knew the answers!  

 Once the Death Star was found, it had to be destroyed!  Here is Chloe (Leia) working on it-

 And Katelyn doing her best...

 And finally Eric ripping open my way-too-strong homemade pinata!

 Gathering the spoils

 My big 7-year-old with her CHOCOLATE cake!

 The Millenium Falcon sitting on a chocolate lava mountain!

 opening presents from her cute friends- they all know her well and got her such cute things.

 And relaxing later that night with some of their presents!

We all had fun and were so happy that Owen slept through the whole party. :)

Timpanogos Cave National Monument

And now it's time for another episode of "Good Idea, Bad Idea"

(I used to LOVE that show Pinky and the Brain!)

Good idea: 

Take your 5 and 7-year old girls to see Timpanogos Caves.  

They will do great on the hike and be totally enthralled and entertained by the caves.

Bad idea:

Take your 16-month old into a cold dark place where he's not allowed to touch ANYTHING (man-made tunnel walls-no.  Dirt next to the stairs-no.  And an out-of-control cave "volunteer guide" will make sure he doesn't!), you can't give him any food to distract him, or let him climb up and down the stairs while the tour guide is talking- definitely not allowed!  Basically 16-month-old HECK.  Your sweet little angel boy MIGHT just turn into a screaming nightmare. 

Poor boy!  And poor everyone else on our tour!  There was no where to escape, no where to let him calm down.  The caves were pretty cool, but I did not enjoy them at all, and I'm pretty upset at the cave's website for not even MENTIONING that you can't touch anything and small children may have a hard time!  I knew there would be certain things he couldn't touch, and obviously I wouldn't let him near the precious formations!  But really.  Owen's not that wild or disobedient of a child.  They shouldn't allow kids that young in there if they're going to be that strict.  They will be receiving an angry/disappointed letter from me!

Anyway, the girls learned a lot and had fun!

And seriously, the girls did WAY better than we thought they would on the VERY steep 1.5 mile hike up to the caves!

 Owen conked out in the backpack on the way down.

 Everyone we passed would point and snicker at this cute face.

 The girls kept wanting to pose on the edge of the cliff!

  Overall it was a really fun and memorable activity.  But I won't be taking anyone under the age of 4 into that cave again!

Our summer so far!!

So... it's weird that CA schools just barely got out, because I feel like we've been in full-swing summer for a while now!!  

Here are a bunch of random pictures I hadn't blogged about yet. 

katelyn's field day at school- Kate and Danny (Heaps)!  They are twins in so many ways.  And they run around holding hands.  So cute.

 The huge slide!

 Shae Robinson, Katelyn, and Ethan Bascom in the gunny-sack race!

 resting in her gunny sack :)

 Last day of school!  (Still cold in the mornings!)

 And here's what me and Owen and Whitney used to do every day- hang out together, read books...

and now here's what we do: all 3 kids play outside all day long!

 Story:  We replaced a doorknob, and Owen spent at least 20 minutes playing with the old one.  Taking it apart and trying to put it back together! 

 Look mom!  a cool piece of metal!

 I made the girls each a pair of shorts out of a pair of pants my great-grandma had given me last time we saw her. She challenged me to make something out of them- of course I'm up for that!!

 I made shoes for my new nephew Ryder!  Katrina's adorable new baby boy.  They're fake Sanuks- modeled after Eric's favorite shoes. :)

 I got to see Kristi!! She was in town with her 2 youngest kids for a few days, so I drove up to her parents' house and we hung out for a couple of hours.  It was so great to see her and talk like we'd never been apart. 

 My instagram pictures are coming out weird, but anyway...

I've run to the Payson temple a couple of times now, it's 10.5 miles or 9.6 miles round trip depending on which way you take, and it's a beautiful run through fields and orchards!  Love it.  And I love that I live close enough to a temple to run to it!  And I'm so happy to be able to run that far. 

 Bike rides!  Owen begs for them daily.

 Homemade popcicles- blended up fruit and yogurt- yum yum!  But very messy... in this picture Owen is saying "a mess! a mess!"  He says that whenever he gets messy with food- on him or on the floor.  He's so cute.

 Great way to get the kids to eat fruit- and vegetables!  (there's a spinach and banana layer-we made rainbow ones)

 One day the girls gave Owen rides around the backyard

 Owen loves to play on (and push) this car up and down the street (supervised closely by me of course!  He's not allowed in the front yard without me or Eric.)

 Hiking in Santaquin canyon- he walked quite a bit!  Doesn't it look like he's just taking a little stroll?

 We loved throwing rocks into the stream

Owen got tired and only wanted ME to carry him.

 The girls liked hiking in their stylin' hats- it was actually helpful to be able to spot Whitney from far away!

 Whitney and Eric went on a date- I love how happy she is in this picture!!  

 And Owen loves the hose of course.  

Summer, oh how I love summer!!