While shopping for a printer stand at none other than Hobby Lobby, we ran into a shelf full of flip flops just waiting to be decorated. The girls picked their own ribbons and started tying away, proudly creating their very own designer footwear.
No, not the one in California, the one in Cam’s bedroom. He will disappear and put together an entire kit that would take a day or two to assemble, in an hour. He creates and redesigns over and over. He loves Legos because they can be fixed if they break. Although this 6th grader is growing up too fast, I can appreciate that he still likes to play with his Legos.
Matti doesn’t know how to walk. She dances, twirls, hops and jumps to get from point A to point B. She was born with a song in her heart and she just can’t keep from dancing whenever she hears music. The latest performance she was a part of was “The 12 Dancing Princesses”. Before her performance she reassured me by saying, “Mom, I know all the moves”. And she did.
Joy was written all over their faces as we walked into a warehouse full of trampolines connected from end to end. It’s a kid’s dream. But it’s a parents dream too because at the end of a mere hour of kids jumping, bouncing, flipping and hurling themselves into the foam pit, they come home tired and ready for bed, just as mom and dad planned. Topped off with cold water and an ice cream cone on the way home, it’s a win/win situation for all.
Family Night @ Jump On It
Colton eats pretty much anything and everything. He eats entire apples, leaving just the stem behind. This is the first time we gave him a slice of watermelon. He kept trying to eat the green part, so I yelled, “Don’t eat the green part, Colton, eat the red part!” After reminding him a few times, this suddenly became a game. He would put the green part to his mouth just to see if we were watching. Then we would all chant, “Don’t eat the green part, Colton!” and he would laugh hysterically. There’s a lot more going on in his mind than we give him credit for!
While the cat’s away, the mice will play! While I was packing up camp at Youth Conference, Justin, Wyatt, Cameron and Grandpa Hubert headed out to Wendover to see an Air Show. The highlight was an F-16 fly by. Cameron said it was so loud, it made the ground shake! The boys were amazed and entertained by the “Heavy Metal” stunt team.
Photo taken by Cameron’s phone
The crib is gone. Colton is a big boy. He still didn’t mind sleeping in the crib. In fact, he hadn’t figured out how to escape from it yet. One thing he did know was how to jump and do “bum drops” in it. The bottom had fallen out and was being held together by zip ties.
It is naptime and Colton hasn’t figured out yet that it’s more comfortable to sleep in his bed…
What do you get when you mix 25 teenagers, 4 leaders and 3 cowboys with 32 horses? A beautiful 2 hour horseback ride through majestic mountain scenery!
“Through the Eye of the Storm” this year’s Youth Conference theme. Just as the eye of the storm is the only peaceful place found in a real storm, teenagers today likened that to their own lives. They seek that peace in a stormy, tumultuous world where evil influences surround and tempt them. They were taught that this could be achieved by keeping their “eye single to the glory of God”.
Youth Conference is a time for youth of the LDS church to remove themselves from the outside world to be spiritually fed. It’s also a time to get to know those of your same faith and values a little bit better. What a better way to do that than experiencing high-adventure sports such as horseback riding, zip-lining and rock repelling together? Through facing our fears, whether it was horses, heights, or camping,we grew together as a youth group.
I would consider myself a “girly girl”. I don’t shoot things and it’s not in my nature to want to do so either. I found out during an activity at Youth Conference, that I am really pretty good at Archery. Those around me (who were all teenagers) called it “beginner’s luck”. So, as their fearless leader, I shot another round. During that next round, 4 out of 5 arrows hit the target and I earned the nickname, “Robin Hood”.
Reason #1: Bugs, Reason#2: Outhouses, Reason #3: Can’t sleep at night because it’s too darn cold, Reason #4: Sleeping in a tent is just not comfortable, even with an air mattress. Reason #5: Dirt, Reason #6: Cold showers, Reason #7: Everything and everyone stinks like campfire and sweat, Reason #8: Blisters from hiking Reason #9: No electricity, Reason #10 Yes, that is the flat tire that I got driving up the rocky dirt roads. Ugh! This is not my idea of “fun”…
Playing games is a family tradition from Grandma Carmen’s side of the family. When she was little, her cousins, aunts and uncles would come over to play a family card game passed on through the generations called “Euchre”. Whenever any siblings and their families came over, we would have to play a round of Euchre, which we still do to this day. We would also compete in UpWords and laugh playing Balderdash. Taboo and Rook were also a few favorites.
Today Grandma is still carrying on the tradition of playing games with the kids. Rummikub, Boxers and Briefs and Farkle are some of their current favorites to play. Here, she’s got Brooklyn, Britney and Matti playing a round of Rummikub and they are loving every minute of it!
This is my dad. (see left below)
He is a one-of-a-kind guy. When I say there’s no one like him, I really mean it, and those who know him would wholeheartedly agree. He loves his motorcycle and new little red Triumph. He serves faithfully in his church. He is currently a temple-worker at the Oquirrh Mountain Utah LDS Temple and loves serving the Lord and helping others. He can fix anything. Really. Anything. If he doesn’t have the right tool to fix something, he will make a tool. He is almost 80, and his mother is still alive…so he genetically possesses the “longevity gene”. If I got that gene, I am only 33 and have a lot of years left in me. He is a POW of WWII and survived beatings, starvation and torture during capture in a Japanese Concentration camp as a child. He has determination. He immigrated to this country with just a few dollars in his pocket and didn’t speak a word of English (Ok. He admittedly knew 4 words of English. “I have a home” was what he wrote on his citizenship application to prove he knew English). After furthering his education and learning to speak English, he turned a meager start into a wonderful life with a large family, a beautiful home and a loving wife. He is funny and makes us laugh, probably because he isn’t trying to be funny, he just is. He is a current event junkie. He watches Fox News 24/7 and likes to be informed on what’s going on in the world.
And that’s a little bit about my dad. Happy Father’s Day!
We love Ady. We usually only get to see cousins once or twice a year, if we’re lucky, but Ady got to fly on a plane with her daddy to visit us for the weekend. I’m not sure who entertained who more, but we love to see this little lady.
1 Tank of gas = $85
Park City Museum Tickets = $25
Alpine Slide Tickets = $55
Kimball Art Museum / Olympic Park = $3 donation
A week away from housework, enjoying one another’s company and making memories = PRICELESS!
You could slice through the energy in the car with a knife on our way to the Alpine Slide. The kids could not wait to experience the twists, turns and speed of the carts whizzing down the mountain. The ride up to the top of the mountain on the ski lift only compounded the excitement.
Colton even liked the slide. At every turn, drop and bump, he giggled. In fact, he laughed the whole way down. Justin grabbed the camera out of his pocket to capture the look of the pure joy written all over this boy’s face.
Mom: “You have 5 more minutes to swim, then we need to go. It’s time for dinner.”
Children (whining) “But we’ve only been here 3 hours and 45 minutes and you said we could swim until 6:30”
Mom: (stomach rumbling, magazines read, lists made, thirsty, tired and bored) “You can come now, or you’ll be locked out of the room.”
Children: (stalling) “Can we swim again tomorrow, and this time until 6:30?”
Mom: (walks away, down the hall and ready to go up to the room without stalling children who are still swimming and won’t get out of the pool)
Children: (see mom is serious…get their butts out of the water, quickly gather pool toys and run to meet mom before the elevator door closes)
This dialogue continued on 5 out of 5 days. The kids could not get enough of the pool. When I asked them about their favorite part of the week, their reply was of course, “Swimming”.
Olympic Park was next on our list of places to see. The sun was out and the ski jumps were in use as we watched freestyle skiers practice their flips, landing softly in the water below.
The Olympic Park Gallery displayed memorabilia from the 2002 Winter Olympics. Cameron and Brooklyn were the only 2 alive when the Olympics were here! The other 4 weren’t even a thought, ha! What we didn’t expect were the hands-on exhibits where the kids could learn facts about snow, avalanches, Winter Olympic events and even ski downhill like an Olympic skier. The best part about this venue was that these activities were totally free!
I wanted to throw in a few educational experiences into our vacation (I can’t help it), so we ended up at the Park City Museum on Day 1 to learn about the place we would call “home” for the next week. Located right in the heart of Main Street, this 12,000 square foot museum was one of the kids’ favorite places to visit. The Museum provided a treasure hunt for the kids to follow, which lead us through a path of the rich history of theatre, mining, skiing, and even the old jail located in the basement.
We planned a last-minute getaway to Park City where we stayed at The Canyons Resort. I told the kids all about how cool housekeeping at the resort was going to be. They didn’t have to make their beds! They could throw their wet towels on the floor! And they wouldn’t have to hear any nagging from me to clean their rooms or do their jobs for not one day, not two days, but an entire week! They jumped for joy, and so did I.
Our kids are dang lucky. The Bancroft kids have 4 grandmas and the Giles’ have 6. Blended families are difficult, but this happens to be one of the perks of being a part of one. Since I never had a relationship with either of my grandparents due to circumstances beyond control, I am so glad our children have their grandparents to hang out with, help, play games with, learn from, get extra love from, to see their performances, attend school activities, cheer on their achievements, and to watch them develop and grow. Justin and I appreciate all the love, support and help they give our family.
Yes, this girl can dance. I can always find Brooklyn with a group of friends or sisters with her radio blaring, dancing and choreographing moves to the music. This week, she got to attend dance camp at the high school, then performed in the local city parade. Justin, who is a “parade hater”, even endured through this one with few complaints to see Brooklyn show off some of her new moves.
3 of my children have been away for 4 days and I won’t see them for 3 more, so I am blogging them as an excuse to see their sweet faces because I miss them dearly!
This summer I splurged on a snow cone machine. It already paid for itself simply by the sheer volume of snow cones that were made and eaten the first weekend of summer. Hopefully it will eliminate the begging for money as the ice cream man drives by, and hopefully it will help them earn money when they open their own neighborhood snow cone stand.
We received them as larvae. We watched them eat and grow into to plump caterpillars. We patiently, but eagerly waited for their transformation while in their cocoons. They emerged as beautiful mini Monarch butterflies. And today we let them go. We planted some flowers that attract butterflies just for them. Hopefully they will stick around our back yard and come visit us again.
One just wouldn’t leave Wyatt and clung onto his shirt for a bit!
Colton’s top three favorites include sand, food and water, not listed in any particular order. He played in the pool for almost 4 hours straight. When I called out his name to for this picture, he stopped what he was doing to look at me. To most, this would not be a big deal, but looking at the therapist (or anyone) for up to 3 seconds upon request was one of the goals he met during school this year. Some of the other goals he achieved were sitting during circle time, following 1-step motor instructions in imitation with partial prompt. Since he had reached these goals, his teacher let him skip summer school and she is excited to see him again in the fall. Go Colton!
I’ve discovered it starts early in life. Boys admiring each others toys. One boy gets something new. The rest of the group circles around the new object like vultures zooming in on their prey. They have to touch it, try it out, have contests with one another to see who is the best. This apparently stays with them throughout their lives and as they get older, just turns into bigger, more expensive toys like motorcycles, cars, golf clubs, flat screen tv’s to show off to their buddies. Weird.
Temperatures reached the 80’s today. It hasn’t been this warm since last August. We are taking full advantage of the warm weather today by eating every meal we can out on the deck. Sunshine and warm temperatures make me happy. Maybe part of my happiness is because the mess and noise stay outside. But most of all Justin and I love watching our children play together, laugh, smile and simply enjoy being kids.
A 3D shark swimming pool complete with 3D goggles, water guns, slip ‘n slide, water hopscotch and some friends were just a few of the items necessary to make our Water Play Day a success. Grandma came to visit this afternoon. Colton, Matti and Brit were fast asleep. The water had worn them out. With those kinds of results, I deem water play day a successful start to our ABC summer.
They are going to school as 3rd graders and will come home as 4th graders. If I was still teaching, Britney and Brooklyn would have been in my class this year, and I would have loved to have them. They are great students, creative, make friends easily, try hard, are helpful and love learning.
Next year, all 6 kids will be attending the same elementary school. Colton will continue in Special-Ed preschool, Matti starts Kindergarten, Wyatt starts 1st grade, Brooklyn and Brit 4th grade and Cam will be in 6th grade. I wonder if that’s a record? If it’s not a record, it sure is a parent-teacher conference nightmare…
It appears that I am ready for summer. And it’s a good thing because the last day of school, if you want to call the whole hour and a half that the kids are at school a “day”, is tomorrow. I got the Alphabet Summer idea from none other than my creative sister-in-law. The kids and I brainstormed an activity for each letter of the alphabet. With a few modifications to our growing childrens’ interests, we created our list for 2011. They are less interested in being crafty, so we added some excitement which among other things, includes fire, hiking along steep cliffs and speed. Bring it on, summer!
P.S. I had our poster ready to go when the kids said, “Mom, where’s R & S”? So that’s why it is slightly retarded. It’s amazing I ever complete a task with all the daily interruptions. Ugh!
Yes, that’s right. The kids in Wyatt’s Kindergarten class are going to be the Class of ‘23. My mom’s first response was that she wasn’t going to be alive then! My first thought was, “Wow, I’m old”! Justin wasn’t paying attention because he was checking the news on his phone. It seems so far in the future, but I’m sure will be here in the blink of an eye.
