What little girls are made of. . .

tea parties

 bath times

selfies

girl movies

and dolls!

It's back to Cub Scouts

Cub Scouts

It's fun to be a boy, and it's fun to be in Cub Scouts.  During the summer, I was released from my calling as Relief Society President in my ward.  Our assignments in our church come as "callings" and I was over the women's organization in the ward.  After those three years, I am now with WEBELOS!  I love cub scouts, and what makes it more fun is that Andrew and Mark are in cubs right now too.  After 4 boys, I only have little cub scouts for 2 more years!

Sitting around the campfire to receive a new rank----Andrew (BEAR) and Mark (WOLF).

The boys are pinning their "mother's pins" on me.  

 Mark and his best friend Reikin---they are hard to tell apart from behind!

Pottery Fun

We are finally getting around to firing the fruits of the pottery merit badge and all of the fun that brought our family!  With Matthew and Nathan doing the merit badge, everyone wanted to join in the fun of clay.  We spent 3 summer days playing with clay and not much else.  We made pinch pot monsters, tried some coil pots, and worked on our skills on the wheel.  And now for our first real firings!

Here is Matthew attending to the Bisque firing, and loading of the kiln

 

After the bisque firing was done, on another day we took to glazing.  It was very experimental, we aren't experts yet.  We tried some brushing and some dipping, some mixing and some dripping.  The little girls had made food items and bowls for their dolls.  The boys mostly made pinch pot monsters and pots.  I tried a few things on the wheel.

The loading of the kiln for a glaze fire.  What goes in is never the same as what comes out.  It's pretty exciting, and a long 18 hour wait!  We love checking the temp every hour for the first four hours to watch it climb from 500 degrees to 999 to 2000 degrees.  The hardest part of the wait is when the kiln is done, but you have to wait another day for it to cool down!  No peeking, or the surprises inside may crack from the drop in temperature.

Here are most of our treasures from our first family clay camp and firing!

Hooray for cement!

Apparently it has been a week of dreams coming true.  For seven years we have been promising the kids that we would pour a basketball court, and the day is here!  It took some saving and waiting, but we are doing it!

A Dream

 I've always dreamt of a grand piano, but never really thought it was a dream that could come true.  Well.........thanks to Craigslist, and my ingenious husband, one of my dreams came true today.  Who knew you could buy your dreams and get such a deal on Craigslist?  You can!!!!
This is my new baby grand piano.  I love love love love love it!  Best piece of furniture we have ever bought!

Here I am (fortunately you can't see my 8 month pregnant body!) with Emma on our drive to get the piano.  Ryan came up with some ingenious plans of how to move it.  It was quite a task!

First, you must gather some big and strong friends to help with the task.  It is heavy!  

Dismantle it.

Wrap it and wrap it and wrap it and wrap it.

Move it ooooooohhhhhhhh so carefully on the piano board created by Ryan.  We probably saved $700 by moving it ourselves.  Of course it helped that we own a trailer.  We put two twin mattresses in the trailer to lay it on, and strap it down.  We were hoping this would lessen the jolts to the piano from the trailer.  It worked.  Once we made the drive home, we had to recruit four more friends to  lift it into the house and reassemble it.










Here is Matthew, wishing he could start pounding away with "The Entertainer," but it was 11:30 at night, and everyone was asleep once we got the piano in place.

 Why is piano practice so much more fun on a grand piano.  Everyone was begging for their own turn to practice.  I hope that this excitement lasts :)
It still is like a dream every time I look at it!