Perler beads and lemonade stand

 The kids have been really into perler beads lately.  We found a place online that has patterns on how to make the emoji faces and we have had a lot of fun putting those together.  We even sold some at our lemonade stand for 25 cents.   The kids had a blast having a lemonade stand and people were very generous in their lemonade buying.  A big thank you to all those who came and bought some lemonade or cookies or a perler bead masterpiece.  The kids loved it!

 Emoji faces!

 Zac and Sadie made some light sabers and "swords" out of perler beads and paper.  

The kids had been wanting to do a lemonade stand all summer so I finally decided to let them do it.  We brought the table upstairs and I caught Sadie and Riley playing.  It was cute.  Zac was really the one that wanted to do the lemonade stand.  He made a list of things that we needed to do all on his own.  It said: "1. oringes 2.tabel 3.grind"  ha ha!  I loved it!

Here they are at the lemonade stand.  We had a blast!

Backyard campout

 Rob has the privilege of going to two different scout camps this year.  One of them was a 15 mile hike in the mountains.  For the last few weeks he has been buying and testing out new camping gear.  So in order to figure out which tent to bring with him on his hike, he set up our tent and a tent he is borrowing from a neighbor to see which one he would bring.  So the kids and him slept out in the backyard.  The kids were so excited about it.

 They helped us set up the tents in the early evening and got all their blankets and pillows set up.

 Then Rob decided he wanted to try out a little tool he got.  I can't remember what it is called but it makes sparks when you rub metal down it.  He got a little pile of dead grass and sticks and tried to light it on fire.  He worked on it for about 15 minutes but didn't get the fire going.  He said if he had more time he would have gotten it going.  I believe him. He was getting some pretty good sparks off of that thing!

 The kids loved watching.  I don't know why Zac is holding his pants like that, but next thing I know...

 Both Sadie and Emery are doing it too.  ha ha.  Silly kids.

 Time for bed!

The kids stayed up way too late telling each other stories but they had a blast.  I was sleeping comfortably inside with Riley.  :) And Rob said that his head and feet were touching both ends of the tent all night.  ha ha!  But he said it would work.

A trip to temple square

Over the pioneer day weekend Rob got the Monday after off of work.  I wanted to get out of the house, so we decided to go wander around temple square.  I love going to temple square and it is getting easier to take all the kids.  We of course rode the train there:

 Rob with Riley and Sadie.

 Me with Zac and Emery.  Emery loves riding on the train, but is really nervous the whole time.  She has to have my arm around her because I guess she feels like the train is going to take off at lightening speed and she will fly off of her chair.

Then sometime during the ride, all the kids ended up next to me.  Probably because I pulled out the apples to snack on.

 At the train station I ran into my friend Lisa who I had run with for a few months and she asked if we were going to the parade.  I got really nervous that it was going to be really crowded at temple square because of the pioneer day parade, but it wasn't.  It was such a great day.

 We got into the room with the Christus statue and the kids weren't shy about walking right up to it and hanging out up there for a while.  They had started a little presentation so I made them come sit down but only after Rob snapped a few pictures.  ha ha.

 Feeling the water.  I found some pennies in my purse for them to throw in.  Rob had to hold Riley's leg so she didn't fall in.

 Love these guys!

 I love this fountain.  It's so fun to watch!

 This time we took the kids up to the tenth floor in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  They had never been up there and Sadie was nervous to go close to the window.  

After we wandered for a while, we walked over to the City Creek mall to get some lunch. 

 

 On the way, we stopped to watch some people feed goldfish crackers to the huge goldfish in the pond.

 The kids played on this little play place while Rob got the food.  Funny story- Emery was staying close to Riley just "taking care of her" and holding her hand and stuff.  Then Riley climbed up on one of those dinosaur structures and Emery came up to her and put her arms up as if she were going to catch her.  So Riley just jumped to her with all her might and completely knocked Emery to the ground.  They were both in tears.  I ran over to give them hugs, but wished I had been recording the whole thing.  Emery was being such a good big sister and Riley was trusting her to catch her.  So cute!

Yummy pizza for lunch!  IT was a great day!

Donut falls hike

 A few weeks ago we decided to take the kids on a hike to donut falls.  I have been wanting to go there for a while with the kids so we figured out where it was and gave it a go.  We also invited Luke and William to come with us because Taylor was out of town.  We left pretty early because we had to be back by 11 or so for a gymnastics party at the park for Sadie.  We were glad Luke was willing to get up that early to come with us!  The kids did great and it was a fun little hike.  Rob and Luke carried the littles a lot of the way, but the other kids walked the whole hike.  It was pretty short to the waterfall.  Emery kept pointing out all the pretty flowers and asked me to take pictures of them.  I couldn't get enough of William!  He was so funny.  He put his hands on his hips and walked like that.  It was so funny.  William started the hike by tripping right at the start and cutting his knee...but that only slowed him down for about 2 seconds!

 Climbing up.  And a pretty flower that Emery found.  

 I couldn't stop taking pictures of William and Riley.  Look at him walking with his hands on his hips!  So Cute!

 It almost looks like they are holding hands.  ha ha.  Brothers.

 Cute Emery.  She is so fun to be in nature with.  She points out every flower, spider web, bug and rock.  I love it.

 At one point Riley was crying so we told William to hold her hand.  That cheered her up for a bit.  And it was adorable!

 More white flowers.

 When we got to the waterfall, I was wondering how we were going to hike up to it.  Lots of water and rocks.  The hard part is that you aren't supposed to wade in the water.  So you have to try to rock hop your way over there.  It was tricky with all of the kids, but we made it.

 Then we saw these cute little chipmunks that were eating peanuts from our trail mix right out of our hands!  It was pretty fun!  I'll post a video at the bottom of this post.

 Family picture!  Thanks Luke!

 We were almost to the end of the hike and William was not wanting Luke to hold his hand or carry him at all.  But he was happy to hold Sadie's hand for a long while.  ha ha.

 So cute!

We made it back to the cars and buckled everyone in.  And this was the face that Riley gave me most of the way home:

She was pretty grumpy.  I can't remember why.  I think she was just tired.  

William walking with his hand on his hips!

William and Riley holding hands.

Chipmunks!

Aquarium

 Every time we drive south on the freeway, we pass the aquarium.  The kids always point it out and say they want to go sometime.  So last week when Rob was out of town, I decided to take the kids myself and check it out.  We were most excited about seeing the penguins.  All of the kids have been very interested in penguins for the past year or so.  I think it is because of the show Octonauts, and planet earth.  We got there and I noticed my phone was very low on battery, so I was able to take a handful of pictures before it died completely. 

 Making friends with some whales.  

 We got to the penguin display right as they were feeding them.  There were some baby penguins there that were really fluffy so that was fun to see.  

 I could have stood there all day watching these penguins swim around and waddle around, but the kids were wanting to move on.  I convinced them to stop by again on our way out though. 

 This snake was dancing up and down the glass.  I thought it was gross, but the kids thought it was cool.  So we watched for a while.  

 Emery and Riley couldn't get enough of that snake.

Zac inside the jaw of something.  Maybe a shark?  I didn't actually read the sign.  

It was an enjoyable trip to the aquarium.  It's hard when you have kids that are 8 and want to spend more time in some places and kids who are 2 who want to just rush through the whole thing.  Ha ha.  I think we did ok.  Next time maybe it will be easier with both Rob and I there. 

More Fun with William

 William keeps us laughing.  I love that Sadie and Zac love to relay the funny things he says to me when I'm not in the room.  

 This boy loves trains.  

 And if the stars align these two will happily share the trains.  And it is really cute!

 My friend brought this fruit basket for Riley near her birthday and her and William ate a lot of that in one day.  

Seriously...these two are so adorable.  THings aren't always sunshine and butterflies with these two, but look at those smiles!  I mean...how can you not just love them!

Riley's Birthday

Riley had a birthday a few weeks ago.  I'm a little late on posting about it.  But she is a silly, happy, crazy two year old now!  We had a great day celebrating her.  We invited Crys and Alan and Taylor and William (Luke was out of town) over for dinner and cake and ice cream. 

Here she is opening her first present of the day.  She loved opening her presents!

Rob cooked dinner for us all.  We had pot stickers and fried rice.  It was a hit.

We all got to wear our dresses from Ghana to church that day.  Riley was VERY grumpy after waking up from her nap. :(

But opening some presents cheered her right up.

She got a little baby stroller and decided she wanted to sit in it and go for a ride.  Ha ha!

We sang her happy birthday and she blew out her candles.

She very much enjoyed her cake and ice cream!

I can't believe it has been two years since Riley has joined our family.  She is so sweet but also knows how to defend herself against her brother and sisters.  We tried to switch her over to a toddler bed a week or so ago, and she did pretty good, but then Rob went out of town so I put the side back on the crib after an hour of her climbing out.  We may try again after he gets back from his next scout camp.  I'm just worried she will stop taking naps if we do.  We will see.  Happy birthday sweet Riley!