1st Day of 2nd Grade

Here is Sarah sporting her new lunch sack on her first day of 2nd grade. She's got two weeks under her belt already and is enjoying it.

Prayer and Multiplication

For Enrichment one day this past week, Sarah did some amazing multiplication. She started doing simple one digit multiplication in first grade so I know she knows that basic mechanics of how it is done. However, this multiplication that she did was a three digit number multiplied by a one digit number. What's even more amazing than this is that Sarah didn't have any of the numbers she carried written down. All that was there was the answer.

When I asked her to explain to me how she got the answer, she told me that what she did was say a prayer about the problem and then she got the answer. Pretty amazing, huh?

However, the next day when she tried to repeat the feat after I'd removed the answer sheets from the back of the book, the answers didn't come so clearly....

The Red Monster

School starting in July has always seemed a little early to me. However, Sarah has been trying her hardest this week to convince us it is a good thing.

On Tuesday, she gave Megan the rest of her container of Tylenol. Yikes! (I don't think there was a ton left, but still...) We had a talk with her about how there are some things moms and dads do that big sisters don't do.

On Wednesday, she gave Megan a bath. She even washed and conditioned her hair. We had another talk with her about things moms and dads do that older sisters don't do. At least not without their mom or dad there.

On Thursday, she really wanted to make sure we knew she was really ready for school. She played with red food dye. In her room. She says she was trying to dye one of her play dishes red. Also, she wanted to see how red her Strawberry Shortcake car could get (note to self: it was already completely red and pink....). I'm not sure what all she did, but it made a HUGE mess!!!! It looks like she used close to a whole big bottle of red food dye in her room.

We started cleaning it up. Spot Shot stain remover took out the first stains I found right away. Those stains were pretty much right on top of the carpet and so a little spray and a little blotting got them out. Hooray! We used up all the Spot Shot we had left so while we waited to get more of that, I had Sarah clean up her floor so we could see if there were any more spots. Boy were there ever! That's when I discovered the area where there was some really intense red dye. Like it looks like the dye may have been poured directly onto the carpet. Or pretty close to it. To start cleaning that up, I used three (3!) whole cans of Spot Shot and a lot of rags to blot. By the time I went to bed Thursday evening, it looked much better. I knew I would need to do some more work, but was encouraged by how much better it looked.

Some of the cleaning supplies used on Thursday

Friday morning, the carpet was pink again. It's like a monster came and undid all our work on Thursday. Sarah thought that what happened is that daddy must have rubbed instead of blotted when he worked on the stain a little bit which must have turned the carpet pink (you can see that I did a good job stressing to her that we must BLOT not RUB the stain). Sarah even called U to accuse him of such. Of course, we all know that U would never have rubbed the stain, right? Probably what actually happened is that the remaining dye was coming to the surface of the carpet. I spent a few more hours primarily using water and towels to clean the carpet. Friday night, I was very encouraged by how the carpet looked. There was still a bit of work I'd need to do, but a lot of the dye was gone. Or so I thought....

Saturday morning (aka today), the carpet was pink again. Ahhhhhh! The monster's back!

The stain on Saturday morning. I don't think the picture shows just how dark it was.

It was the first time I took a picture. I know, I know--I should have gotten them all along because if I'm going to spend hours upon hours cleaning (at least 8 so far) I should at least have photos to document my work, right?

So it was probably less red than Friday morning and definitely less than Thursday afternoon. But still.... Anyhow, I sprayed the stain with vinegar and then sprinkled baking soda on top of it. I let it dry and then I vacuum. Then I spray again with vinegar (the vinegar is supposed to break down the dye). I think each iteration is resulting in a little less dye in the carpet. I certainly hope so! I guess we'll see if the monster comes tonight or not....

Baseball and the Haboob

Tonight we went to the Diamond backs game. They won quite handily, 12-3, in case you were wondering. One of their players got 3 home runs! Wow! We enjoyed it and the kids did quite well. Until the very end, at which point you would have thought it was past their bed time. Which it was.

Enjoying the game.

The really exciting part was getting there. We stopped at Sweet Tomatoes for dinner and when we left, we saw a HUGE haboob making its way towards Phoenix. It was really cool to see. The city was already prepared with the signs on the Interstate saying there was limited visibility due to a dust storm. This was a little funny as at the time it was perfectly clear outside. I took some pictures of it as we drove to the game. They were taken from inside the car, so there's a bit of glare from the window. It was just a huge wave of dust coming at us!

When we parked our car, the storm was pretty close. We hurried to get to the game so we wouldn't be caught in it. We had out tickets scanned in the parking garage just as the wind and dust started blowing. We had to run across the bridge to the stadium. We definitely got a little wind blown and dusty but were thankful we were so close to our destination.

The storm approaching after we parked our car.

The dust storm was over before we left. It was raining which is actually a good thing after a dust storm as is gets all the dust out of the air. It does result in people getting wet if they are walking to the car though. Thankfully, none of us melted:)

Utah Trip: Seeing U's family

We were able to see U's brother Christian as well as some of his cousins and their families both before and after our time at Aspen Grove. We went to pizza night two times. Very fun! We went to the park. And Sarah even got to stay overnight with her second cousin Kemarie. Fun times!

At pizza night the first week with U's cousin Jessica, her husband Cade and their little girl Abbi.

"Yes, I think I'll buy a Megan:)" She climbed in there by herself.

Sarah swinging with Uncle Christian.

U pushing Megan and Matthew.

Megan loved riding this little bike thing. Matthew liked watching her ride.

U and Christian

Aspen Grove: Grandparents

Megan and Matthew enjoyed spending time with Grandma and Grandpa A while we were at Aspen Grove. (And their parents were very grateful for their help!) Here are a few pictures.

Aspen Grove: Cousins!

Sarah LOVED seeing her cousins at Aspen Grove and had so much fun playing with them. Here are a bunch of pictures from their adventures.

Andrew, Sarah and Luke

Throwing stuff in the stream.

Sarah, Kinley and Aspen.

Up in a tree.

Not eating dinner. (Laughing is much more enjoyable.)

What they were laughing at. (The guy hiding behind the tray was totally playing with them. Sarah really liked him and wanted to go talk to him whenever we saw him.)

Sarah and Aspen

Sarah, Kinley and Emma

Aspen Grove: Megan to the Rescue

One day at Aspen Grove, Megan and Matthew decided to climb up the hill by themselves.

It's time to come back down now. But what's this? Matthew's scared....

No need to fear. Here comes big sister Megan to the rescue.

"It's ok, lil bro," she says. "I'll help you back down."

And down they came.

Aspen Grove: A few more pictures

Here are a few more pictures from our time at Aspen Grove. It really was a great trip!

Sarah driving a pedal cart.

Matthew loved playing shuffleboard.

He especially loved the stick!

U and Sarah swimming.

U and the kids on the big brown bear.

Aspen Grove: Family Fun

In addition to all of the activities I've written about already we spent a lot of time with my family in various activities--archery, paintball, rifle shooting, pool, going to classes. One night there was a family talent show. We all sang "Skin." It was quite a rousing rendition, I'm sure. Some nights after the kids had gone to bed, we played games together. We had as many as 12 people playing Oh Heck. It was great! And a little crazy! Here are some pictures of some of our activities.

Playing pool.

Archery.

Jon during "Minute to Win It." He needed to pick up those bags with his mouth (with only his feet on the ground) and put them on a nearby table. He thought he'd beat the system by going off the stage to be lower than the bags. Good idea until they started moving the bags further away from the edge...

U introducing himself before his feat. He balanced 5 dice on the end of a Popsicle stick. He actually stacked the 5 dice before putting them on the Popsicle stick and then transferred them all at one. Pretty cool.

Luke before his feat. His job was to put together the front of a cereal box--like a puzzle.

Aspen Grove: Climbing

They had a rock wall and a ropes course at Aspen Grove. They were a lot of fun.

Sarah getting read to climb. She really loved the rock wall! She would do it over and over again for as long as they would let her.

Sarah mid climb.

Look at her go! She's almost to the top.

U and Kinley climb side by side.

Me starting to climb.

Mid climb.

Yeah! I made it! (Ok, I actually made it multiple times. It was lots of fun.)

Mom climbing the log on the ropes course.

Dad climbing the rock wall on the ropes course.

Dad on the tightrope.

U climbing the log.

Hello up there!