Camping

We went camping with Chris' parents and sister last weekend and we had a great time. We were up in the Christopher Creek area, and we spent Saturday by Tonto Creek, at the Fish Hatchery, and the "Catch-A-Fish." We had a great time, especially the kids.



Everybody's favorite part was rolling in the dirt. I think they look like Mary Poppins after she powders her nose in soot.






With the amount of time we spent by the creek it's miraculous no one fell in. Clare tried pretty hard though.


The price of the Catch-A-Fish seemed pretty innocent; only $1 to rent a pole and get some bait. But the problem is when you catch a fish they charge you by the inch: 70 cents an inch to be exact. And you have too keep what you catch, no releasing. The teeny fish Molly caught cost us $10! But Kathy cooked them up that night and they tasted awesome, so maybe it was worth it.



Claire and Molly both found a new love: Squeezits.

Smile!

I don't normally love pictures of kids with their face covered in food, but I thought Claire's smile was too cute to pass up. Plus, you get a pretty good shot of her mullet. Tooth update: still none! Fourteen months and counting...

More of Molly's Artwork

Molly takes naps occasionally at my parent's house, and the spare bed happens to be in my dad's office. This particular day Molly couldn't find any paper, so she used the pen on herself. I could hardly be mad because I was pretty impressed with the lovely M's and circles. The week before my dad had left copies of his tax return on the floor. Molly went through and double-checked each page of the return (all 90 pages), marking it with a small scribble to let him know she had ok'd it. Then yet another week, she Google-searched all kinds of strange things on the computer (I turn the screen off before her nap so she doesn't really know things are actually happening) including "00000000000" and "ajsgbfvebvrhjaebv." Not a lot of great results came up there. Lastly, about ten minutes after I had put Molly down for a nap one day she was crying (fairly typical), so I took my time getting back to the room. When I got there, she was frantically holding on to a large painting my dad hung over the bed that she had been messing with and the only thing keeping it from crashing down were her two little hands. What would be fun about touching a painting of a ship I really don't know, so she must have been pretty bored and used it as a last resort. I've finally smartened up and taken the pens out before she goes down, but I'm not really able to remove the computer and large decor items every time she naps. At thif point I just cross my fingers and hope nothing breaks...

Back to the Phoenix Children's Museum

I wasn't going to take more pictures because we already have a large batch from our last visit, but these were too funny so I couldn't pass them up. I finally decided to buy a year pass because it's such a great place, so there may be many more posts to come about the museum.


They have a little area full of funky old tricycles and a course that looks like a carwash. The kids loved it, but my back definitely hurt afterward because of all the pushing I had to do. These kids have no idea how to steer! And I didn't make them wear the helmets (I actually would have preferred they not share helmets with every other sweaty-headed kid there), they wanted to. Safety is obviously a top priority.






Stomp was at Gammage last week, so they stopped by the museum to do a little demo the morning we were there. They played a freeze dance game with the kids before Stomp came, and Molly and Max actually went up! I was shocked because they are two of the shiest kids, but they loved it.

Mine!

Claire's new vocabulary addition...

Molly's Sweet New Glasses

Molly Singing

Molly is really not a performer, so this is for any grandparents who have wanted to hear Molly sing but she has refused to. A couple of classics; ABC's and I am a Child of God.

What Claire's Been Up To

Claire has never really cared about her bunny or lovey much until we got rid of the binky. Now she wraps them both up, usually rolls around laughing for a minute, and says "bu-yee, bu-yee" for bunny.



Claire has recently learned how to fold her arms for prayers, but her arms are too short so she can only fold her wrists. She usually says "om" for amen, but I couldn't get her do it it on the video. Maybe she knew I was insulting her intelligence because we weren't really praying.

Writing Her Name

Molly's first and second solo attempts: