Pioneer Day

I had big plans to write about this particular week during our trip to Utah, alas I was too busy with all the stuff going on. So here I am writing a couple weeks later. My memory gets hazy fast. Ha. Thus the plethora of photos, they tell most of the story without words. I'll add a spot of narration:

Monday we finally got a dog door! Mr Jennings came and installed the door I got on Amazon. I was a little worried about the depth being sufficient but it all fit perfectly. The kids used the remaining supply of dog treats to teach Vader how to use the new door. He happily goes in and out now...hopefully he will keep his pee and poop outside instead of in my house. We learned some basics of tie-dyeing for our Make-It Monday. Mia tried several fancy methods, one that did not work out like she wanted. After washing it the shirt looked much better. For some reason the dye did not stain her shirt except for the blue shade. I tried several different folding methods including the popular heart tie-dye. The boys were very enthusiastic to use every shade of color and were talented with saturating their shirts. Amelia made a bunny out of white socks, she named it "Thick Boon-ny." She also made several treats using phyllo dough and croissant dough. Wednesday was a rainy day so I declared it a "Miraculous" marathon day. Mia made chocolate croissants for the movie treat.  

Josie learned how to brush the top half of her hair. This process takes an entire bottle of detangling spray and the Frozen brush. She stands in front of the bathroom mirror, sprays the bottle of detangler the brushes the parts of her hair she can see. The last step is to admire the hair style with gasps and kissy lips. I found her 5-6 times last week in the bathroom with saturated hair...the back and ends are left alone. 

I spent quite a few hours researching curriculum and trying to narrow down my resources for school. It is a daunting task. I found a fun google sheet to keep track of expenses for each child. I don't want to pour money into curriculums we may not need or use. My focus will be using what we have and ordering what we need as I see a need crop up. I see a tendency to over order stuff then get frustrated about it not working well with a certain child's learning style. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed but confident the kids will do well because we love them. Love and patience will be key this first year of our adventure. 

Thursday we went back to Jump Creek! It was quite breezy down near the waterfall, caused the girls floaties to take several adventures blowing up the canyon. This time Josie made it to the waterfall with me. We love how cold the water feels on a very hot day. 

Friday we had a water fight. Mia thought she could join us and throw a couple balloons without needed a swim suit. I took that as a challenge. She was soon soaked to the skin with pitchers full of water and a good hose dousing. We all ended up in the pool (in appropriate and inappropriate clothing). That was a fun diversion for us all. Phillip hit me square in the eye with a water balloon, a while later he splashed a pitcher full of water down my ear canal. I felt rather water-logged the rest of the day. We enjoyed snow cones for a post-fight treat. Friday was also Pioneer Day. Evelyn was excited to wear the one Pioneer dress we have and don a bonnet. She was so excited to take a few photos in costume. I tried to organize a fun Pioneer day parade around our neighborhood, posted the idea on FB and texted it out. I was disappointed there was no interest. Maybe FB is broken in our new ward, I got used to communicating through FB in our AZ ward. 

One evening dinner meal Evelyn started a discussion asking why she couldn't mow the lawn like the boys. Amelia took up the gauntlet: women should be able to mow the lawn, girls can do anything boys can do...etc Amelia and Evelyn found themselves committed to mow the lawn on Friday with Justin. On said torture day, Amelia was so mad she really had to mow the lawn. Phillip exacerbated the mood by plopping himself down in a comfortable camp chair, feet resting in the wading pool, watching the show. I made it even worse by snapping a photo of the hilarious situation. Mia stormed off to her room, misunderstood and angry. She had two choices: mow the front lawn or lose all electronic privileges for the weekend. She mowed the front lawn. Her allergies reacted terribly so the rest of her weekend was a nasty nightmare of stuffy nose and headaches. 

Justin, Amelia, Phillip, Evelyn, and Everett all came down with sore throats, runny noses, and coughs. I tried to get the kids tested for Covid but decided to save our money and time. Maybe it was just a cold, maybe we caught the 'rona. We stayed home from church just in case. Justin says he lost his sense of taste for a day after he got sick so who the heck knows? Our Walmart is mandating masks and only has one entrance and exit open. My parking fairy skills don't work under such pressure! Everett had a sore tummy on Saturday adding to his misery. 

Sunday we watched 17 Miracles after home church. We all cried and cried while watching that movie. Stirs the soul to watch and experience part of the hand cart sufferings. After the movie we pulled up Family Tree and played around with some of the fun activities offered there. We could see photos and read snippets about pioneer ancestors, loved playing with the "Compare-a-face" function, and "Where and I from?" Phillip has features that favors both sides of our family, 52% with the Crapo and Hinckley sides. Josef Seth Lance, Minnie Mabel also had very high percentages for all our kids. That was a fun activity for us.