Puppies!

We're getting a dog.

This is a moment Seth and I have been anticipating for years. He and I both have fond memories of the canine companions we had as children (I had an ornery but playful miniature schnauzer named Otto; Seth had a sweet spaniel named Betsy and a talented black lab named Lady) and wanted our own girls to experience the love and responsibility that comes with pet ownership.

But we had some hurdles to work through:

(1) I'm allergic to dogs. So our dog will have to be outside ALL the time.

(2) We needed to redo some of the fence in our yard. Seth finished that up last year, minus the few things (staking down the chain link in a few places and fixing the drive-through gate) we'll take care of in the next couple of weeks.

(3) We wanted our girls to be old enough to help take care of the dog. We think that Bekah is old enough to share the responsibilities of feeding/walking/cleaning up after the dog but young enough to enjoy a dog's companionship for many years still.

For a long time, Seth and I discussed what kind of a dog to get. I wanted something small enough that it wouldn't knock over the girls. Seth wanted something big enough that it wouldn't be mistaken for a chew toy. We both wanted something that would be good with small children and something that could be comfortable outside year-round.

I consulted many-a-list on the internet; we polled our friends on Facebook. In the end, we decided a lab would be perfect.

Not only are labs hardy and gentle, but we also happen to know a couple in the neighborhood. So Seth's dad talked to some friends a couple of streets over, and their golden labs got together and made a beautiful batch of puppies.

Meet Peach:

We picked her out of the litter on Monday and placed a bright pink collar on her so we can tell her apart from the rest of the pretty puppies. Then we spent some time getting to know her and playing with the other dogs.

If it had been up to Miriam, she would have spent the entire time picking up and hauling around puppies like they were her babies.

Peach napping in Analee's arms. Ana was apprehensive around the big dogs at first, but by the time we left, she wasn't afraid of them any more. Which is a good thing ... because Peach won't stay this small for long.

 Bekah played the most with the adult dogs. She was so excited when they kept bringing chew toys back to her so she could throw them.

Watching Winnie crawl all around (and on top of) the dogs and puppies was a hoot.

But it wasn't just the kids who were giddy with excitement.

We're all quite smitten.

Peach (named for Princess Peach on the Mario games ... our runner-up for names was "Zelda") will be ready to join the Grover clan in three to four more weeks.

To see more puppy pictures, start here.

For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out and the ol' ball game!

It's June in Ucon. That means baseball.

Both Rebekah and Analee played again this year; Ana played her second season of T-ball, and Rebekah played her second season of coach pitch. Both of them had fun, made friends and learned more rules of the game.

Rebekah's team, the Gray Wolves, did well this season. I was super-late getting the girls signed up for the league (I kept waiting and waiting to see something come home from school about Ucon baseball, and it never showed up.), but the league organizer was kind enough to fit the girls onto teams. For a long time, we didn't know which team Bekah had ended up on because her coach hadn't checked her new roster. Thankfully, we found our team before any games had been played.

Think this one's coming in a little high? Yeah, it was. But she got a better pitch the next time and hit it into the outfield.

Getting teased by Nathanh, a friend from school on the opposing team.

Nearly getting Nathanh out during the next inning.

You know how, when you finish congratulating the other team on a game well played, you circle back and start congratulating your own team? Yeah ... that's what's happening here.

Analee's team was the Orange Goldfish, the Orange Bazookas, the Orange Bananas, the Orange Pumpkins or the Orange Carrots, depending on the day. (Seriously, their coach let them pick a new name every game.) Analee had the most fun during their last game when she got to play catcher.

Striking a pose.

On first base with her coach.

Taking the helmet off.

Wait ... what?! You want me to touch the plate first?

Such a good little catcher, always with her mind on the game.

Like when she's fielding the ball minus her glove and with a rubber band around both her wrists ...

Er, nevermind.

And both girls had, of course, the best cheering section ever.

Winnie likes to crawl in all the tight spaces.

Aunt Jessica brought Barbies for Miriam to play with.

And Miriam found other ways to keep herself amused.

Grandma Scott holding Gwendolen.

More baseball images start here.

Rebekah is 8 (the family get-together)

After Seth got home from work on Bekah's birthday (back on June 14, if you've forgotten) and we ate dinner (leftover Little Caesar's), we had grandparents over for the birthday cake and some more present opening.

BBs? What is an 8-year-old supposed to do with 6,000 BBs?

Shoot them from a BB gun!

Lighting the candles on her Olympian birthday cake.

The mini Ruthie she received from Mom and Dad to go along with the mini Kit she received at Christmas.

 Miriam eating the carrot cake and vanilla ice cream.

Winnie getting a taste of my ice cream.

She also received some Brandon Mull audio books from Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dennis and some fabric and a pattern from Grandma and Grandpa Scott. Grandma Scott is going to sew a dress for Rebekah to wear for her confirmation next month.

To see more pictures, click here.

Bekahism #50

I took Rebekah (8) geocaching this Saturday out west and north of the Menan Buttes. We looked for 16 caches and found 10 (but 3 were microcaches without any "prizes" in them and Bekah was pretty miffed about that). It was a blast. I'll probably post some pictures or something another time. But I wanted to be sure to post this before I forget this Bekah-ism.

On the way driving back towards Rexburg, we passed a sign...

Bekah:  Um, Dad? Why does that sign say "Mean Butts?"
Seth: What?!?

Then I looked:

Seth: Oh. It says "Menan Buttes," Rebekah. That's the name of those mountains.
Bekah: Well, if they don't want people to think it's "Mean Butts," they shouldn't spell it so much like "Mean Butts."

True that, Bekah. True that.

(In her defense: she's a very good reader/speller. We were just speeding down the road and she didn't really get the chance to get a good look at it.)

Rebekah is 8

This post is going to kill me ... now as I write it and any time I read back over it. I was really looking forward to it until I found out, through a series of miscommunications and mishaps, that every single photo I shot during Rebekah's birthday party was erased. I have seriously shed many, MANY tears over this, and I'll try not to shed more as I do the bloggy recap with some pictures borrowed from other sites.

I'm not the mom that throws invite-everyone-from-school, elaborately-decorated theme parties. We usually keep ours low-key: receiving a few presents from Mom and Dad, inviting the grandparents and a few cousins over, letting the birthday girl choose what we eat, smashing a (usually) homemade pinata, picking out a birthday cake that I try (somewhat) to recreate after looking up ideas on Google and Pinterest.

But I had promised Rebekah that when she turned eight, she would get a no-holds-barred, real-deal birthday party. Months ago, she picked her theme: Greek mythology. I designed some invitations, and she handed some out at school, forgot to bring the rest home from school the last day, went back to school with her mom to get them out of her desk, then mailed the rest.

Bekah's invitation.

Then I worked and panicked and searched for ideas and made several trips to the grocery store and the dollar store and the fabric/craft store in time for her party on her birthday.

Here's what went down:

As the kids arrived, they saw the homemade "WLECOM TO Mt. Olympus" sign Rebekah made on butcher paper and taped to the garage. (I think, in her excitement, she kinda forgot how to spell. :-)) I had assumed the entire party would be held in our big yard, but the weather decided to play tricks on me, and the day of her party was the ONLY day that week that was cold and windy. So instead, we had 10 kids ages 6-8 in our house during the craft, lunch and present opening.

The kids all drew names of Greek gods and goddesses to be throughout the party, then wore a name tag I made:

 Since Rebekah was the birthday girl, I let her choose her goddess. She was Artemis.

 make paper plate laurel crowns similar to these:

and decorate togas similar to these:

with fabric markers as they stood around the kitchen table. Then we took everybody outside in their new Olympian duds for a group picture under the Mt. Olympus sign. It's this picture I'm most upset that I'm missing. They were so darn cute!

Then we had our games. The first was a 12 labors of Hercules obstacle course/relay race. It involved draping the Nemean lion skin (a towel) over your shoulders, catching the Erymanthian boar (a clipart picture of a boar taped to a stool) with a net, using Athena's krotala (clappers from the dollar store) to scare away the Stymphalian birds, shooting the Ceryneian hind (dollar store ball guns aimed at a stuffed moose), wrestling the Cretan bull (popping a balloon) and dodging the Lernean hydra's venom (me shooting a squirt gun at them. The kids divided themselves up into two teams (gods vs. goddesses), and the girls beat the boys.

The second was a Medusa red light/green light game. I took one of these:

 

and hot-glued a bunch of these to the top of it:

Most of the kids got a turn to be Medusa as the kids played several rounds and I gathered up all of Hercules' foes.

The third was a good game of "bash up Kronos." Rebekah, Analee and I had made a homemade pinata, filled it full of confetti and put this guy on it:

Then the kids took turns beating him up with a wooden bat, first with a blindfold, then without.

The fourth was "Pin the Arrow on Achilles' Heel." I had used this clipart:

to draw a much larger-scaled Achilles, and Rebekah and Analee made arrows out of construction paper. The kids took turns taping their arrow to his heel. Almost everybody got his heel, so there were no clear-cut winners there.

By this point, most of the kids were starving and freezing, so we went back inside to eat a lunch of grapes, watermelon, cantaloupe and peach Jell-O jigglers with our Little Caesar's pizza (all at Bekah's request).

We saved the birthday cake for the family get-together that evening, but the kids all got to decorate a cyclops cupcake (like the one-eyed guys below):

before we opened presents. Rebekah received several nice, thoughtful gifts that she was very excited about. When our two hours of partying were up, parents came to pick up their wee ones, and I even remembered to hand out a few of the party favor bags before they had all left.

And to prove that I did have pictures at one time, here are a few thumbnails. By golly, they were really cute full-sized.

So what did I learn in throwing my first kid party? (1) Always have a back-up plan in case of bad weather. (2) Don't forget the party favors. (3) Make sure you upload photos before going on any other trips. (4) Plan your party on a Saturday (even during the summer) so the hubby can be home to help (although I did beg him to use his lunch hour to bring the pizzas).

Flying kites

Yesterday we decided it was high time (get it?!) that we took the girls to the church's huge field to fly some kites.

 Analee gets her kite ready to fly.

Miriam and her cheesy grin take a turn with a kite.

Seth works on untangling a kite string while Bekah cheers on Ana and her kite.

Winnie tries to eat a piece of kite tail that Seth ripped out of a huge knot of kite string.

A conversation with Rebekah

What's your name? Rebekah.
How old are you? My birthday's in two days; I'm turning eight.
What's your favorite color? Blue and green.
What is your favorite subject at school? Reading. Definitely reading.
What do you learn about at church? Jesus.
Who is your best friend? Jessie and Rachael and Halli.
What are you good at? Piano, singing, swinging, running and being a big sister. Oldest sister.
What does your mom do for work? She stays at home.
What does your dad do for work? He does McAfee.
What is your favorite book? Harry Potter series.
What do you like to do with Ana? My favorite thing to do with Ana is ... uh ... do the bummy dance.
What do you like to do with Miri? Read books.
What do you like to do with Winnie? Play with the doggy.
What do you like to do with Daddy? Golf.
What do you like to do with Mommy? Snuggle.
What do you want to do when you grow up? Be a paleontologist with Jessie. Yeah. We want to do that.
Tell me something special about you: I ... uh ... can ... walk on my hands for a few seconds!
Anything else? I ... uh ... (giggles) I can (giggles) uh ... do perfect lollipop kicks! And bummy dances.
Show me: Lollipop kick! (Swings her leg.) Lollipop kick! (Swings her other leg.) Bummy dance, ooo! (Shakes her backside.)

Analee is 6

So obviously I'm behind on blogging. But since Rebekah's birthday is this week, I need to get on the ball and write about Analee's birthday before I get even further behind.

Because we were headed out of town for Memorial Day weekend on the evening of Ana's actual birthday (see previous post), we decided to celebrate with family the day before her birthday--May 23. Analee finished her last day of kindergarten, then we got ready for our party. We invited Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dennis; Grandma and Grandpa Scott; Aunt Jessica; Uncle Jim, Aunt Anne, Mack and Tav to our house for dinner and festivities.

Ana wanted sandwiches for her birthday dinner, so we had an entire spread available to our party-goers: honey, peanut butter, jam, butter, lunch meat, tomatoes, lettuce, avocados, etc. Then we had our traditional pinata-bashing (usually we make our own pinata, but when you find one at Wal-mart the week of the party that's only $3, you snatch it up), followed by present opening and cake.

Analee's turn at the pinata.

The weather was nice at the beginning of the party, but it turned chilly, so we had to gather things up and come inside for the presents and cake. Ana opens a giant Disney princess activity pad from her cousins while everyone watches.

A book of fairy poems from Mom and Dad.

Andrea taking a picture of the Brave cake Ana requested before we light candles and sing. Some might say that making a round cake and using a star tip to put "grass" on and then smashing a Merida figurine in the top is not a very good Brave cake. I would beg to differ, especially when the cake making was squeezed in between the many, MANY things I had to do that week, including (but not limited to) field day, packing for Memorial Day weekend, a kindergarten AR assembly and Achievement Days.

Analee commanding Rebekah to not include any "cha cha cha" in the "Happy Birthday" song.

Blowing out the candles.

Retrieving Merida.

Tav, Miri, Mack, Ana and Bekah checking out the leftover frosting on Merida.

Birthday party a success!

Many more pictures of the festivities start here.