Painting, Piano, PR, and Parade

The first half of this week was spent cleaning the house and getting it ready for an appraisal. We are trying to refinance our loan. This is a picture of Marianne holding her kite. She came out to fly her kite while I was scraping the paint off the pillars to repaint them. 

Here is a close up of the paint job. I painted the pillars six years ago. I wasn't planning on repainting so soon. We haven't painted all of the trim in the basement yet.

Thursday afternoon the children played the piano at Chataqua for their teacher and with the rest of their piano students. Ben was the youngest student playing. Maddy was one of the oldest. She had 16 students perform, and five of them were from our family. They just played their spring recital songs. They have not been practicing piano over the summer.

Marianne won first prize for her age group in a coloring contest. Here she is receiving her award from the Mayor. She did not want to go up on stage alone and had asked me to go with her. Mindy volunteered and she was okay with that. Marianne was also nervous about whether it would be a boy or a girl giving her the award. Thankfully our mayor is female. That made Marianne less nervous. She got $10 and a free Chataqua t shirt. I shouldn't tell you this, but there were only two entries for her age group in the coloring contest. 

Saturday morning we met at the high school for the 5K/10K race. Maddy ran in the 10K race and did it in 1 hour and 4 minutes, her personal record (PR). She got a first place medal! I shouldn't tell you this, but she was the only girl in her age category. Everyone who ran in the 5K did really well and beat their times as well. After the race I asked if they wanted to do it again next year and they said no. We went to the award ceremony and Makayla received a second place ribbon. After that she told me she wants to race next year.

After the race we walked in the parade to help out a friend who is running for county assessor. He is not related to me (my maiden name is Olsen, with an e).

After the parade Barry and I went to Spokane for a ward temple session. I think Maddy spent more time babysitting the kitten than her siblings.

Have a great week!

Summertime Family Fun

For Family Home Evening Makayla was in charge of the activity. She chose to have us go to the softball fields at the high school. We were glad to make it work with our schedule. It is something we have talked about doing, but never have yet.

In the dugout.

We had a picnic at the lake. Lots of swimming.

We picked up Maddy from work at 4pm and went straight to the lake. She didn't end up going in the water.

We were in Spokane as a family for an orthodontist appointment, and to watch the Lego movie and do some shopping. I knew it was going to be a hot day, so I had the kids bring their swim suits and we stopped at a park in north Spokane that had a splash pad.

Maddy read in the shade.

When Marianne saw how many people were at the park she decided that she didn't want to get in the water. She and Mindy played on the swings.

They changed their minds when they saw how much fun the water was.

 The weather finally warmed up and the creek water lowered. We went tubing in the Chewelah Creek.

For the 4th of July we went to a breakfast and flag raising at the church. Then we took a picnic lunch on our hike up quartzite mountain. 

In the evening we went to a BBQ with friends and shot off fireworks. We were glad for safety this 4th of July. I've heard of numerous accidents that happened on the fourth, including:

ATV - 1 deathof adult, 2 broken arms of child

white water - 1 death of child

fireworks - teenager had one explode while holding, amputation of hand

Have a great week!

Training Wheels

Here is the after picture of painting the walls and trim. It looks like the incident never happened. It is a good thing that I documented it with pictures and told everyone about it...

Mindy and I painted the walls on Monday. On Tuesday I was in-charge of the primary activity. We met at the park with paint, brushes, about 14 children ages 4-12 and a lot of creativity. Everyone had a good time.

We had doctors appointments this week (they will only let me schedule 2 kids per visit, so I scheduled three days in a row of doctor visits (well-child exams).  Maddy left on Thursday to go with her best friend and her best friend's mom to Seattle. They stayed with her friends grandma and went shopping on Friday, and went to an outdoor concert on Saturday. She had lots of fun and is coming home today. On Saturday we left at 8am, dropped off the children to play with their Jensen cousins while Barry and I did a session at the temple Everyone had fun playing at "Sam's house".  The girls made bath salts, and the boys played on the wii. They all jumped on the trampoline.  On the way home we stopped and got running shoes for Mindy and Mackensey who have outgrown their shoes. I was glad that we were able to take the kids with us to Spokane because Barry and I had a Community function to attend that night and had about a 10 minute turn around from the time we got home and left again. We wouldn't have gotten to see the kids at all!

Marianne has learned how to ride a bike with training wheels this summer! Poor girl, all of our tricycles broke before she was able to learn how to ride a trike, and we never got around to getting her one. She looks happy though, so she must not be too damaged for never learning how to ride a tricycle.

Have a great week!

Enjoying our Father on Father's Day

Maddy was voted by her peers in band most valuable for her sophmore class. She won as a Freshman as well. We enjoyed listening to her concert.

Field trip to Cat Tails, the only thing remotely similar to a Zoo in Spokane.

Barry being silly as he opens his birthday presents.

Birthday cake, yum. Chocolate Lasagna.

Maddy brings home lots of plants for the end of year of her horticulture class. She really enjoyed it.

Maddy researched terrariums and made three of them. They don't need to be watered.

Barry and Ben had fun at the father-son campout. Porter Rockwell rode up in camp to tell about his life experiences.

Breakfast in bed for Father's Day.

opening presents. Mackensey painted a sign that says, "DAD: a son's first hero, a daughter's first love."

Barry and I took a trip to California. We visited my parents, and Barry's brother and sister and their families. It was fun to see my parents new house finished and the old house remodeled for the new owners (members of their ward). After spending two days with family, we went to Laguna Beach for a business conference. It was at an expensive hotel. Barry spent all day in meetings, and I had all day to play. I swam in the pool, relaxed in the jacuzzi, then asked about the sauna. It was located in the ladies spa and there was normally a 30 min minimum session price required, but since it wasn't busy they let me in without charge. I had fun pampering my self with the sauna, steam room, tea room, etc. I even rested with cucumbers on my eyes. I spent the afternoon reading on the beach and when Barry was done with his meetings he met me on the beach and we looked at the tide pools.

These pictures are from Tuesday in San Diego touring the USS Midway with my parents. We arrived home Friday night and were glad to see that all had gone well while we were away. I didn't feel too out of touch with my children since I called and talked to them daily, and they posted pictures on Facebook almost hourly! I think they had a fun week. The only major mishaps were when Ben gave himself a haircut (I guess he bangs were getting too long so he decided to take matters into his own hands). Another minor mishap was when it was Mackensey's night to cook and she was making chicken nuggets. She asked Maddy, "I'm thinking 15." Maddy thought, "well, there are five of you, so that would only be 3 nuggets each" she told Mackensey, "why don't you make it 20." Mackensey's eyes got huge, but she did it. After dinner she told Maddy, "We were too full to finish our dinner. Mindy ate the most and she could only eat 12 chicken nuggets." She thought Maddy meant 20 chicken nuggets EACH!

 

Barry and I took a drive to check out the spot for this years ward campout. We heard there was a waterfall in the area so we brought along a picnic for a date night. We found the stream, but this 2 inch waterfall was all we could find. I snapped a photo, but it does not do justice to the beautiful surroundings we found ourselves in. The gurgle of the creek and my handsome honey made it a nice evening together.

The kids were disappointed when we told them that the sign for the lake we would be camping at for the ward campout said no swimming. They brought their swimsuits anyways and played in rocky boat launch area. Ben's friend (in the back) got a leach on his hand, so we think that is why it said no swimming. At least he thought it was "awesome" to have a leach on him.

Makayla and her friend Ryleigh.

Mindy and her friend Kiah.

Mackensey canoeing.

Maddy cuts up vegetables for lunch.

Barry fried up the meat for stew.

Finding a turtle.

We bought 2 gallons of pink paint to paint Mindy's room. She tripped going down the stairs carrying one gallon of the paint. It splattered on the stairs and walls. We were able to clean up the carpet, amazingly. It took six of us three and a half hours and a lot of water and a shop vac and a bissel. I'm sure we'll laugh about it in the future....

Have a great week!