"Only 3 more sleeps to go!" That's what I keep telling the kids (I think I'm the one who get the most reassurance from that)
Kalei has gone from constantly asking, "Where's Daddy?" Or saying "I DON'T KNOW!" If you'd ask her where Daddy is.
To calling every male close to her "Daddy" (Tyler, Trevor, Jeremy and Luke all have been given the title at one point or another)
She's still trying to select a daddy but now she'll proudly say "Faamoaaa" when asked where her daddy is.
Been so crazy the past couple days haven't gotten a chance to blog.
Friday I cleaned while the kids lounged.
Headed to the waterpark for the day. Gees and Hoovers where there. Having friends always makes it more fun. As we were getting ready to leave Brayden was "STARVING" He was "Hungrier than an empty snake!" Promise of lunch waiting in the car was screaming his name but he really wished he could have a hamburger from the concession stand cause "it was the best smell in the world"
Suddenly a lady came up and asked if we wanted a meal voucher. They had an extra and wanted to make sure it went to someone that would appreciate it.
Brayden was elated and asked, "Why has everyone been giving us so many free tickets lately?"(Stadium of Fire, the parade, meal vouchers etc).
I replied, "Cause Mommy must not play the part of single mamma very well and people can sense it!" haha
Rest of the day was spent playing with friends, running a few errands, and heading to bed early. Well, they did, I never get to sleep early when you aren't home.
Oh, and we may or may not have had Macey's ice cream cones for dinner. And they may or may not have had one apiece! Don't worry I made sure they had a healthy snack before bed.
Here are the flowers I planted out front. Why do you not see the plant you ask? Because Tavita picked several of them, then took a picture as proof of his crime.
Highlight of the errand running, FIREWORKS!!! The kids have been eying them all weekend and can't wait for Monday!
Saturday morning we woke up ready to kick off the 4th of July weekend. Oh how I love this weekend. FAVORITE weekend of the year. Really wish you were here to enjoy it with us.
Started off the morning with the usual chaos mostly compliments of Kalei. By 10 am she had
1. Emptied the sink and climbed in for a bath. Not too bad of a thing except she kept using the hose on the sink to spray everything down.
2. Flooded the mud bath. (this girl and her obsession with water!)
3. Picked all the flowers as fast as I was planting them (and there already weren't many left after Tavita had gotten through with them). I just decided to think of it as pruning, and many more beautiful flowers will come in their place.
4. Gotten a bag of cornmeal and dumped it EVERYWHERE. Then Bowzer followed behind licking turning it all into a nice thick paste to clean up.
Decided to get her to where no more damage could be done so we headed out to pick cherries. Man there are a lot of beautiful red cherries up top that we can't get through. In fact, I'm no where near the acrobat you are so we only wound up with about 1/4 of a bowl. The boys had fun picking though.
While one person picked, the other two would swing!
Got cleaned up from our chores, ate a quick lunch then headed off to the Freedom Festival.
Started off at the Crandall Printing Museum. All three of the kids were absolutely enthralled with all the different types of printers and other gadgets to look at. I was enthralled with the house and it made me want to buy a turn of century home!
Then it was off to Colonial Days segment. We wandered around for a bit. Aside what's in the pictures, the kids also really enjoyed watching the guys that was melting metal and making different objects. Not really a blacksmith because he was just working over a tiny little fire.
The boys thought the cannon was way cool. Brayden however did not like it when the actually fired the cannon. Scared him to death and he took of running out of the yard!
These cute ladies were taking donations to support all the reenactment. I fully intended to donate as we left but didn't get a chance as I was chasing a very scared little boy down the street.
They thought living in a tent was a pretty cool idea but didn't like the idea of selling our house and giving it a whirl. Their favorite part of the tent was actually the feather pen on the desk. They thought they'd be a cool way to color.
When you get home I'd like you to build one of these to put in our yard please. I think it would do wonders for discipline problems.
We then made our way down to the Freedom Days carnival.
Luckily we go there just as the Scales and Tails show started. The kids loved seeing all the different animals as much as they do every year.
Recognize this? They were in there for a LONG time. I was very impressed with how good they did at taking turns with each other on one of the diggers.
Went back to Scales and Tails to try on a snake necklace.
Watched the JuggleNuts as they juggled knives and fire.
My favorite part of the show: They were slicing a carrot to show how sharp the knives were and sent carrot flying everywhere. Tavita ran around to gather pieces and eat them. I told him they were too dirty to eat. He then faithfully held on to one of the pieces the rest of the day (it turned completely black) and when we got home asked me to wash and peel it so he could eat it.
Went and got ourselves some patriotic art done on our faces for the show that night.
Made some rocket balloons.
Then there was an ordeal with a girl (I'm guessing she was dehydrated/overheated) and the ambulance came and eventually took her away. Brayden kept asking what was happening I told him that she probably didn't drink enough water or wasn't used to the heat.
He was then very quick to leave, "Mom, lets get out of here. I don't want to wind up with a needle in my arm like that lady". Then on the way home he said he was going to spend the rest of the day inside until it was time for Stadium of Fire and asked me to make sure the RVS (aka AC) was really cold in the house so we could all cool down.
Your very independent daughter making the long trek back to the car with her rocket baloon and her boppidoo wand.
Despite his worries about needles and ambulances, brayden did stop to do a little Irish jig as the bagpipes passed by.
Came home and took naps had dinner then headed off to STADIUM OF FIRE!!! It was so nice of the McMoils to give us the tickets and they were thoroughly enjoyed.
Getting ready for the show to start. The boys were a bit bummed about missing Cul-de-sac of Fire and thought they'd been duped when they sat in chairs for 45 min with nothing really going on.
Then NFL star/former BYU player Chad Lewis came on stage to get things started. There was a spark of excitement in their eyes.
Then as they started singing "God Bless the USA" (as you know, my all time FAVORITE patriotic song) some planes flew over head and dropped a few things out. Their eyes were glued to the sky while trying to figure out what was headed our way. They went nuts when the realized it was people falling from the sky. One of them unfurled the flag part way down.
All made perfect landings....except for the guy with the flag. He clipped a barrier and went tumbling, all entangled in the flag. It was really cool to see everyone rush to the flag to get it up off the ground, one or two people did help the skydiver as well.
However, everyone was so worried about the flag and skydiver, it took a little while to realize the poor guy in the corner there had been taken out along with the barrier. Fortunately he was ok too.
They then sang had a video of 13 year old David Archuleta singing the Star Spangled Banner 7 years ago at Stadium of Fire which after a few lines was taken over by the live 20 year-old David Archuleta. They had fireworks going along with the song. It ended with fighter jets flying low overhead and a live feed from the one of the pilots giving a message to both those in attendance and military personell oversees (did you know they broadcast Stadium of Fire to the troops?)
Needless to say, by this point the kids were fully hooked and rivited in their seats.
A bunch of dancers performed a few numbers.
Meanwhile they let these giant beach balls go for a stadium version of volleyball. The kids loved having the balls come flying at their heads.
One of their cool formations, also made the Statue of Liberty after it got dark.
Next good ole' hometown hero David Archuleta came on stage to perform.
The lights then dimmed and out came Brad, accompanied by roaring screams. Gotta admit, the man puts on a great show!
Too close up to really see but Kalei was having the time of her life dancing along to Brad Paisley's music. The boys on the other hand enjoyed the first few songs, then got impatient for fireworks.
Sadly at this point my camera died. Apparently the kids had been playing with it alot more then I thought that day and didn't realize the camera was drained til we got there. I did however make sure the video camera was fully charged and got it all on video, along with some still pictures on there, just don't know how to load them on the computer.
Anyway, after Brad Paisley the dancers performed a few more numbers with fire works going off. Then it was time for the Firework Spectacular, and spectacular it was. They had patriotic music blaring as a continuous stream of fireworks just kept going and going (they played Neal Diamond's "Coming to America" made me think of my dad"). The entire stadium was shaking from the noise. Your kids (including the one who turned tail and ran from the cannon) loved every second of it. Can't wait for you to see their faces on video. HILLARIOUS!
Few of my favorite moments from that night, not yet mentioned.
- Tavita nailed himself hard on the door handle a few days ago, got a killer goose egg. But it's a very precises goose egg, small and high. He kept saying, "Mom, my horn is hurting so bad" Tyler and I kept laughing everytime he mentioned his "horn"
- The guy that was caught popping his girlfriend's pimple on the jumbotron while we were waiting for the show to start. He was hard at work for quite awhile before either realized what was going on. INSTANT red faces!
- Kalei rubbing Tavita's head on and off thorughout the show. She liked the feeling of a buzzed head. I liked seeing the two of them actually getting along!
- Upon hearing that fireworks are now illegal in Hawaii Brayden responded with, "That SUCKS!" Tyler and I couldn't help it and busted up laughing. I regained my composure and tried telling Brayden that while he may hear that term used, it's not a nice thing to say. His response, "Well, people making it so other people can't play with fireworks isn't very nice, so we can say not nice things about them."
Couldn't really argue with his reasoning, but still told him not to say it anymore!
Today was relatively uneventful aside from the fact the kids didn't get to bed until almost 1am and were up by 8 so we had A LOT of crying. In fact Tavita cried the entire way to the park when we took Bowzer on a walk.
Sad thing was we got to the park and it was totally trashed from the night before. There were fireworks EVERYWHERE and very little effort to clean up. The boys were devastated. "Why would anyone do this to our park." "That was so mean of them, I feel really sad inside".
We cleaned up the sand pit which had a concentrated amount of fireworks in it and they felt a bit better but it was really pathetic to see people put forth so little effort to clean up after themselves.
Made it to church in one piece despite the fact NO ONE would take a nap. Kalei has taken on the habit of letting out her ear piercing scream everytime Tavita comes near, which made things exciting.
The Winters invited us over for dinner. It was really nice taking a bit of a break and enjoying some adult conversation.
Anway, off to bed. Gotta head out for the Balloon festival in 7 hours!
