California was fun!

This trip to California was fun. Not only did I see the family, but some friends too! I hadn't seen them for SO long. So, here's the California week in review:

Day 1: Drive a long time. The kids were GREAT! Arrive in Santa Monica, eat tasty blueberry waffles.

Day 2: Play with Sarah Jane, lunch at Campo's, play at park, go to Torrance to see old friends . . . leave Logan there after a YUMMY dinner and good visiting. Congratulations to Alyssa for graduating from high school!

Day 3: Logan comes back. Laurie & kids come to visit, so good to see such a good friend after such a long time. Play at the park. Hang out.

Day 4: Church. Go to friends' house and play and eat and talk and hang. More good friends we haven't seen for too long. Congratulations to Brody for graduating from high school!

Day 5: Play with Sarah Jane. Drive to Westlake Village to see MORE friends! Lunch and playing with Michelle & Brenda and our 9 kids! Just like old times, except with kids. We haven't changed a bit. Go to Simi Valley (where we always have fun and eat well)! Swim.

Day 6: Go to Kelly's middle school commencement. Yeah for Kelly! Swim. Leave the kids home and go to Craig's high school graduation. Nice job Craig! Eat and play.

Day 7: Swim. Shop. Leave Easton in the car to take a nap (when I got back he looked at Elizabeth and me and said, "you left me!" He really wanted to go shopping, so Elizabeth took him for ice cream and shopping. By the way, Craig, Kelly, Logan & Lauren were there, we didn't leave him alone somewhere.) Play. Eat. Pack.

Day 8: Drive a long time. The kids were good. Get to swap Logan for Craig . . . nice for conversation and singing Tarzan songs. Home.

P.S. Logan is smiling in all four of these pictures!

Oops

Have you ever turned on the wrong burner?

Piano Practicing

School's Out!

Today was Logan's last day of elementary school. Lauren finished kindergarten yesterday. Time just keeps flying. The last few weeks have been full of field trips, programs, field day, parties, etc. I went with Lauren's class to the farm, and David went with Logan's class to the zoo. They both did well in school, and we are very proud of them. Nice job kids!

Lauren and her friends at field day

Lauren and her friends eating lunch at the farm

Logan with straight A report card and President's award and pin

Lauren with her straight 4 (A) report card

Lauren and Logan about to ride the bus together for the LAST time

a small bit of Logan' sword dance

Funny Plant

Logan brought home a plastic cup with a ball of dirt with buggy eyes. We watered it, and it turned into such a funny guy! It sits on the windowsill in the kitchen and makes me smile while I'm washing dishes. Maybe it will make you smile, too.

Lauren, Lauren, Lauren

My Lauren is a wonder. As in, I wonder . . .

At our ward talent show the other night a girl Logan's age sat down and started playing the piano. Lauren was obviously impressed and said, quite loudly, "Wow Mom, she's WAY better than you!" Mom boost number 2. The first one came a few days earlier. Lauren was asking about the resurrection and families. She asked if we always have the same family, even after we die and are resurrected. I hesitated, because I was afraid of her reaction (and rightly so). I told her that yes, we are sealed together and get to be a family forever. Her initial response was, "YEAH!". Then came, "well, not YEAH yeah". Humph.

On a lighter note, Lauren loves to sing. Her life is a musical. She makes up songs all the time about anything and everything. The other day she was singing "I Like Being Little a Lot". The title line comes from a song she's learning at school, but she couldn't remember the rest of the words, so she just made them up. You'll have to make up your own tune to imagine it with . . .

"I like being little a lot.
Being little is better than being a grown-up.
Grown-ups don't have any friends.
Well, they do but they don't play they just talk.
I like being little a lot.
If you're a grown-up you can't do anything you want.
Like, if you're reading a book and your kids keep bugging you . . .
I LIKE BEING LITTLE A LOT!"

BTW, she came up with that pose all by herself

Pancakes

So, we eat a lot of pancakes in this house. We eat a lot of breakfast for dinner in this house, too (as long as David isn't home). If I ever ask the kids what they want for dinner, Lauren and Easton will both yell, "PANCAKES!" We make popeye pancakes (my personal favorite) and we make regular pancakes, with occasional mix-ins like bananas or applesauce. And they almost always have chocolate chips in them. Logan is getting a little tired of the pancake dinner, so this week we had french toast. Tonight, Logan wasn't home for dinner and when I asked Lauren what we should have for dinner she said, "PLEASE can we have pancakes?" I'm getting a little bored of regular pancakes, so I looked up some recipes and found one for whole wheat pancakes. My mother-in-law tried one like this and said it was good, so I tried it. If you're ever looking for something to do with your wheat . . . here's an idea, and you don't even need a wheat grinder!

Whole Wheat Pancakes
3/4 c. raw wheat
1 1/3 c. milk
2 T. baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 t. salt
1/2 c. oil
1 T. sugar
Blend wheat and milk for 4 minutes in blender. (Do not cook wheat before blending.) Add all other ingredients. Cook on a hot griddle.

We, of course, had to sprinkle on a few chocolate chips. We also had some berry syrup that David made last Sunday and it was yummy! So, we had whole grain and berries for dinner!

Easton enjoying his first of four pancakes

Lauren enjoying her first of 4 pancakes