A Trip to the Children's Museum

Lawrence and Azaria had gotten some coupons from school called Papa John's circle of rewards. One of the ones included was free admission the Phoenix Children's Museum. My friend Rachel was kind enough to give us their coupon so all the kids could get in for free..yeah. We had planned on going on Saturday before the tickets expired but Lawrence part way there said he didn't feel well so we turned around. Azaria was so sad we couldn't go that day she stayed out in the Van for about 30 minutes crying and pouting (yes I kept an eye on her while she was out there). Then a friend came along and climbed into the open door of the van to talk to her and she decided playing with her friend would be more fun then hanging out in the van.

Since the tickets were going to expire that Wednesday I took the kids out of school early on Tuesday so we could still go and enjoy some time together. They had so many fun things to do we almost didn't know where to start. First we started with the Whoosh, which is lots of tubes connect together with air flowing through them. You can feed scarves into them or light weight plastic balls and you can change their path to send them up different tubes. Then they shoot out at different spots and fall down the the ground. They even have a smaller concept of this with ping pong balls where the kids made their own configurations. It was great to watch all three of the kids work together to make it work. I got the be the official ping pong ball fetcher so they could keep feeding the machine.

Next we moved to the arts and crafts room where they were lots of choices. You could make snowflakes, play with playdough, make a sking penquin picture, play with playdough, paint, or make dream catchers. We didn't even have time to do them all but Lawrence and Azaria made several dream catchers and decided they would be a neat gift for Dad's birthday since they made them. I finally convinced them we should see what else there was to see. Though I think they would have all been content to spent the whole afternoon in the craft room.


Playing with the sand on the lighted table. They made textures, hills, wrote names and more. They even have beach chairs for the parents to relax in while you watch the kids play.






I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for ICE CREAM!!! The kids got busy pretenting to run their own ice cream stand. I got served with all sorts of colorful treats.









This kids watching as they send balls rolling down a obstacle course making things move while they zig zag back and forth to the bottom.











Lawrence seeing how it feels to drive a motorcycle. I'm not sure I'm ready to see my kids driving yet. Glad we have a few years before that all begins though Lawrence already asks how many years until he can start learning to drive.

I would have had to put way to many pictures in to show everything we did. We enjoyed the book corner, the noodle jungle, the grocery store, and microscopes too. Downstairs Lawrence and I bounced balls back and forth to each other while the girls zoomed around on plasma cars. After all that we headed over to Alan's office which was close by so the kids could see where he works. Laurel had been there before but not the other two. The kids can't wait to go to the Museum again, we had a blast!

Azaria gets her ears pierced

Azaria had asked a while back to get her ears pierced but then didn't bring it up for a while. Then this Christmas she really wanted to get her ears pierced. She asked if I could talk with Daddy and decide if she could get them pierced. She is very responsible and we figured she was ready to help take care of her ears. If she really wanted them pierced we figured she was old enough to make that choice and we would get them done. I of course wanted to make sure it was done right so I did some research on where to get her ears pierced. I didn't want them done with a piercing gun but with a hollow piercing needle. We found a body piercing place not to far from our house that someone recommended. Azaria wanted it to be her special date with just mommy but then decided daddy could come along too. Lawrence and Laurel got to go hang out with some friends which they thought sounded more fun anyways.When we got the the piercing shop Azari got to pick out her new earrings. I liked the small hoops but she wanted some bling so she picked a pair of small sparkly jewel titanium studs. She saw pictures on the wall with belly piercings and we asked if she wanted one of those too...lol She said no way I only want one earring in each ear. Glad I won't have to worry about her wanting more piercings in the near future :) Then they took us back to the piercing room where they explained to us what they were going to do. They measured and marked each ear so the piercings would be accurate. Then removed the sterile needles from the package. Azaria at this point was pretty excited but that quickly changed.






This is right after her ears were pierced and she was not happy that it hurt even though we tried to warn her. After the first side was done she wasn't sure about doing the other but we told her at that point she needed to get them both done.









Don't worry the tears didn't last to long because then we moved on to some fun time just with Mommy and Daddy! We told her she could pick where we went next and she thought Cabela's for some yummy fudge sounded good. We picked raspberry/chocolate, cookies and creme, strawberry, and pecan praline fudge after trying a few free samples.

Azaria also wanted to try the shooting range while we were there and had fun shooting at the targets to make things happen. She even got the teapot to spray a bystander. Here is Alan giving her a little help. After Cabela's it was time for a dinner break at Wendy's. By this time she was quite proud of her new earrings but told Laurel she really should wait a while because it hurts!

New member of our Family

This last weekend Amber and Laurel went to some garage sales when Laurel found a fish tank that she really wanted. It is small and was only $10 ready to go. Laurel talked Amber into the tank and they brought it home. I went to do some work for a friend and Amber took the girls to PetSmart to get some drops to clean the water for the tank and while at PetSmart there was a dog rescue group with some dogs. Well there was one that was is a Golden Retreiver / Shar Pei mix and and they pet him a few times thinking he was cute. Later that day the tank was ready so we took the kids back to PetSmart to get some fish and the first thing I saw when we walked in was 'Red' and said to Amber that is a really good looking dog. Well we looked at him and talked with the people that had him. He is three years old and his previous owner is dying so he had to give him up. Very mellow, good tempered dog and very good with kids. Well we got two fish and frog for the fish tank and on the drive home we all agreed that we wanted 'Red' so when we got home we called the rescue people and arranged to meet them the following morning to pick him up. We were at Petsmart right at 10am to get him and they did not show up. We ended up walking around the store for 30min and the still did not show. We ended up going home and getting the card for the rescue lady and called her. She was picking up more dogs at the pound and it took a lot longer than they thought to get out of there and they were almost to PetSmart. So we turned around and headed back to PetSmart to pick him up. Well he is with us now and he is a really good dog. He is hard to get pictures of but here are a few that I was able to get. The other two kids keep telling Laurel thanks for finding a fish tank.





Red really likes to take car rides. I went out to test something in my car and he jumped in and was ready to go.

Ward Campout

We went on the ward camp out last weekend. We have never been camping as a family before so I was a little worried how the kids would do. They did great except for the "STINKY" bathroom, that Zari refused to use. Below are some of the pictures that we took when we walked down to the river. No we don't have more kids we had some friends with us on this walk. The kids are very excited to go again. Next month there is a ward Daddy Daughter camp out that the girls are looking forward to.

New Car

Now that I have a job where I have to use my own car we purchased a 2005 Scion xB. The xB gets good mileage and is fun to drive. I know some people don't like them but I do!

The best part is that Amber can drive it so she does not always have to drive the Mazda. Also if I need the van for a scout outing she is not stuck at home with no car.

WATER FIGHT!!!

Laurel pouring water on Josh

Lawrence about to get mom

Last Friday Azaria had a friend over and they found a package of water balloons we had never gotten around to using. They nicely begged for me to start filling them up as they had tried themselves and had very little luck. I found some buckets and sat down by the spicket and began to fill about a hundred water balloons which my fingers got very tired of tying. A few escaped my buckets early as the kids had to see just how well they would pop and a few got overfilled so I was wet before the balloons even started flying...lol

The neighbor kids saw what we were up to and quickly joined in on the water fight. I think the balloons lasted about 5 minutes tops before they were all gone. A few kids didn't even get to throw any as they didn't get over to our house soon enough. That didn't stop the kids though, they just took to filling up the buckets and soda bottles with water to pour on each other. The wagon was used to transport the water buckets to the next person to be doused. All the kids had a blast and I enjoyed watching it. We love our new neighborhood and all the friends on the block. We've already bought a few more packages of balloons from the dollar store and are going to get some other moms to help fill the balloons so this time all the kids will have some to throw and be able to have fun keeping cool in the heat.

Back to School!

The kids were excited to head back to school. Lawrence is now in 3rd grade and Azaria is now in 1st grade. They were so enthusiastic to get going the first day they were up by 6 am when school doesn't even start till 9 am. Lots of kids from their old school moved to this school when it opened last year so Lawrence now has two of his best from first grade in his class this year again. Azaria has a few girls from church in her class so she already knew some people. Their teachers have both told us how well behaved in class they are. I'm glad they save any bad behavior for me at home :)

Azaria had such a great day last week the that the stuffed monkey in their class named Marley came home to tell us all about it. If Marley comes home with your child though he likes to be read a bed time story and you have to do something fun with him also and write about it in his journal. Zari decided since he is a monkey he would like to play at the park so off we went to monkey around with Marley.