July 2011 Part 1

We were getting a little cabin fever so we picked up some ice blocks - at the 6th place we tried! - and headed to University park to ride the hill!

We weren't sure how the girls would do or IF Ellia would even try it, but she LOVED it!

Ash was a little more hesitant.

We went for an afternoon hike to Sunday Peak one weekend, and the weather was SO nice! It was great to get out of the heat.

The girls hiked most of the way and did pretty good. I on the other hand almost had an anxiety attack toward the end because it was seeming so long and there's only so much creativity a mother's brain can take trying to keep her kids from whining.

We tried to recreate one of the cutest pictures of Jeremy and Ellia but Ashlyn had other ideas. Instead of kissing daddy's cheek she slapped it.

Trying to get Ellia to show her sass in a picture.

At the top! FINALLY. After a little cool down, both physically and mentally, we got some great pictures.

Ellia took this picture...she's getting to be quite the photographer.

The trip down was a little bit more rough. Ellia even got a blister.

Happy Birthday Ellia! Dad was so good to get up and make her a special breakfast pancake, complete with fruit snack hair.

Opening family presents before the ward Fourth of July breakfast and swim party.

The big present for this year was a dwarf hamster...later named Buggy. Both girls were kindof scared at first to hold her, but Ellia has since warmed up pretty well.

Ward party.

At home that night we had cakea nd ice cream and went swimming.

A few friends and I have set up a co-op joy school rotation. Ellia has a hard time at our house, but I hear from the other mom's she is good at their houses.

This is letter E day, so we made elephants out of household food stuffs.

Well, it happenned. Ellia cut her hair. I heard the little toy vacuum going and thought, "how nice Ellia is cleaning something up." I even looked in on her but didn't notice the blond hair all over the floor. Then I say the ends of her braids... I guess she just wanted to make them even? Then I thought to myself, " well, that could have been a lot worse, and now its done, she's cut her hair, I knew it would happen - she could've lost an entire braid!" Later when I was trimming it and found what she had actually cut it came to about 2 inches! Still, could have been worse.

It's HERE! The friend birthday swim party Ellia has been waiting for and I have been planning for. She chose to have a Little Mermaid party so we got some fun ideas online for food and decor.

Octodogs.

Treat bags. (the pill thingy is a spongy sea creature in a dissolvable capsule)

Handmade by me - yes I'm proud of my first 3d cake - ...thanks Grandma Betty for passing on some cake skills.

the green is supposed to be seaweed.

Treasure hunt with Ariel type clues. "Where would Ariel and Eric build castle on the beach?" Sandbox. etc.

This clue was hidden inside a yellow ballon that was supposed to be flounder among all the other balloons, later I realized it might have been kindof morbid to pop Ariels friend just to get a clue.

Apparently Ashlyn was being kindof a class clown at the tables. Emily kept getting her to laugh and laugh which made the other kids laugh.

Ashlyn just kept popping up everywhere and I'd just htink she was one of the big kids, it was kindof fun.

As a kid when we opened presents with friends we'd do a little rhyme "Heavy heavy hang over thy poor head, what do you wish with a bump on your head." So I started doing it and seemed to be the only one who'd heard it. I stopped for a second and thought, " is this appropriate? are we talking about someone who has a hangover?" I looked into and no. There isn't much history to find on it, but I asked my mom and she said they always did it growing up so at least I know that much.