Bad Hair Day Revisited

I looked a little more online this morning before Kaylee woke up. I had a suspicion that the current oily state of her hair was more from the baby oil and less from the Aquaphor. So I dug around in my cupboards until I found some body wash without any moisturizer or conditioner added, and gave it a try. One washing with the body wash, one with her normal shampoo, and her hair is pretty much back to normal! YAY! She won't have to wear a hat to church on Sunday after all!

Bad Hair Day just doesn't do it Justice...

Kay has a nasty obsession with girlie things. She gets into my make up. She loves lotion. She even sits still and plays with the bottles on the bathroom counter like dolls, while I spend forever doing her hair. She loves clothes, and changing her clothes...often. I don't know where she get this girlie streak. Obviously, not from her mother. She looks so innocent. Don't be fooled. Kay knows there are some bottles, like lotion and soap, that you put on your hands, and some bottles, like hair gel, that go in your hair. This is where Kay's understanding of bottles gets...messy.
This morning, Kaylee confused Aquaphor with hair gel. A lot of Aquaphor. Yes, she did do this before with Vaseline. And lotion, several times with the lotion. After four shampoo-ings this morning, a good bout of research this evening, a treatment of baby oil (this was the remedy they said to try online), and another two shampoo-ings, these are the fabulous results. Nope. Her hair is dry. It only looks wet because it now contains Aquaphor and baby oil.
Actually, it's a big improvement over just the Aquaphor. I guess we'll try the egg remedy in the morning.

Backyard (Almost) Done and Jensen Family Reunion

This is my view from my bedroom! No longer dirt and rocks, but grass and plants and trees! However, we have one fly in the ointment. They just dug the two lots behind us and there is a little dispute as to where the property lines are. The developer has one set of measurements, we used the measurements the county has recorded.... The pink stakes are the developers markers, the orange peg in the ground is ours. Do you see the pink over spray on my fire pit!!! It will all get resolved tomorrow morning, so we'll see what happens.
Still no railing on the deck, but all the plants are in and my favorite is turning out to be the fountain grass we bought on a whim. Someday we will cover the foundation posts with rock.
This is the current project. A retaining wall to keep the mulch in the planter since we had to move the trees in. Yes, we've been dealing with this property line garbage in one form or another for a year now. The landscaper who put in the yards on both sides of our backyard didn't exactly do his due diligence when it came to the property lines. We assumed he had until we were trying to measure our back line out and couldn't get anything to line up. So, we had to move trees and mulch on both sides, just in case somewhere down the line we put a fence in. But now we will have a nice retaining/seating wall by the fire pit.

Fire pit is in and getting sufficient use. Can you say s'mores with peanut butter cups?

Our little garden is in. Lots of strawberries and peppers; cukes, tomatoes, and zucchinis on the way. Kay loves picking the strawberries.

Water fountain in! Trent wanted to do a great big water feature that involved drilling a hole in a rock, which I admit would have been pretty. He compromised with me and we picked up this pot on sale earlier in the summer. It was really windy tonight! That's why the water is off to the side.

Planters mulched, plants in, trees relocated!

We are loving having grass this year and being almost to the stage where all we have to do it mow and weed. So close! There are before pics in my blog archive from June and March 2009 if you want to see the difference. Can't wait until those lots behind us are landscaped too!

Jensen Family Reunion was last month. We had a great time with all the cousins and their kids. It's so fun to get all together and we don't do it nearly enough considering how close most of us live to each other.

Trent rented canoes from the local university and they were a total hit!

They caught two fish and Tys passed off a ton of cub scout stuff! I got sunburned on my shins (who does that?!). Everyone had a blast.

Say What?

Saturday we were running errands and Cameron begins a very serious discourse on why Batman is NOT a superhero.

"Batman is a guy who battles villains and bad people, he's NOT a superhero."

***

Last week, for a treat, I took the kids to McDonald's for breakfast after swimming lessons. In the drive through Tyson is trying to decide what he wants, but just can't remember what it's called. I guess we don't go to McDonald's often enough (read that in the sarcastic tone it is intended to be read in. I don't like fast food).

"Mom, I want those things that are...um....you know....the things that are shaped like a trapezoid that's cut in half with the end rounded over. Like a cone with a circle on the end that's squashed flat. Those things."

Oh, of course. Hash browns.

***

Kay's new favorite game is to sit on your lap, with your cheeks in her hands, saying, "I love you."

Of course, you would respond with, "I love you!"

To which she yells, "No, I love you!"

Can you see where this is going?

She loves to go back and forth with "I love yous," escalating until she is literally shrieking it at the top of her lungs.

What a quiet, sweet thing she is.

Pioneer Primary Party

This morning was our Primary Pioneer Party. We (the Primary presidency) have been trying to get the kids excited for it since April. We made a map of the five states the pioneers crossed with our party date and time on it and moved a little wagon across the trail, telling a story, or just updating the pioneers location every Sunday in Primary. For the actual party we had six stations, each with a pioneer story to go along with it. We divided the kids into companies and gave them name tags with the name and age of a real pioneer child on it.

At the Sweetwater station, our secretary filled a kiddie pool with ice water, told them the Sweetwater account about the three boys that carried the rest of the company across the icy river and then died, and let the kids "ford" our little version.

The Primary president told a cute story about how the first school in Utah was started by a fourteen year old girl looking to entertain the children on the trail, then the kids sidewalk chalked around the church.

The second counselor did a pack the handcart relay with wheelbarrows and a cute story about how a girl was able to bring her fragile china doll across the plains.

Our CTR 7 teacher did the hilarious, but slightly disgusting, "Buffalo Chip Relay." We made "buffalo chips" with spray foam and spray painted them brown. The kids were divided into two teams and raced against each other to find a chip and place it in the fire (crumpled up red and yellow tissue paper), then tag the next kid on their team. She read them a story about a girl who was trampled in a buffalo stampede, but was healed through faith. We also made no bake cookies for the kids to eat here, because you know what no bake cookies look like.....

The chorister sang pioneer song with the kids while they shook up cream and salt in baby food jars to make butter. Then they spread it on wheat bread and had a snack.

I read the kids a true story about a girl who had nightmares on the trek West and was comforted by an Indian who made her a pioneer "night light" (a glass jar with fireflies in it). We had so many baby food jars donated, we HAD to use them up. So, the kids filled the jars with glow in the dark beads and glitter and water to make their own pioneer nightlights. They loved that they really glowed!

We had a ton of help from our wonderful CTR 5 teacher, two of the Beehives, a Deacon, and the primary presidents husband. It was so much fun, I forgot to take pictures, but here are Tys and Cam showing off their bounty.

Now we can start worrying about the Primary program....

Run, Baby, run!

Trent ran his first 10K today in the Freedom Run. He is prepping for the Red Rock Relay this fall, so this was good practice. He did great, especially when you consider the utter lack of running he has been doing lately. He had expected to do a 10 minute mile and came in just under an hour! Better than he thought!
The kids and I were going to go down and cheer him on this morning, then stay for the Freedom Festival Parade, but poor Cam was up and down all night with an upset stomach. Instead, they spent most of the morning making Dad a beautiful poster.

Tyson Meets the Tooth Fairy!

Tyson has inherited my slow teeth. All through kindergarten, first grade, and second, poor Tyson stood by and watched his friends loose tooth after tooth, while his beautiful smile remained sadly intact. About three months ago, he discovered his first wiggly tooth! He wiggled and pulled and jiggled, but that stubborn thing would not come out. His permanent tooth was coming up behind, but that baby would not leave! So after a visit to the dentist on June 7th to have his tooth forcible evicted, the Tooth Fairy finally made her first appearance at our house.Like the form letter he wrote for her? My favorite line is "please report back. But can I have the money?" The Tooth Fairy has a special little jar and bag in which she leaves the tooth and the money. Tyson was so excited the next morning when he opened the bag, he took scissors to the ribbon that held it closed (see the leftover scraps?). Perhaps next time she can bring us a new bag.
Tyson loves the dentist. We go to a really good office. One of the dentists shares my dad's name. The whole thing, just different spellings. Tyson actually gets excited when we have our cleaning appointments; he asks when we will be going next! I believe this is mostly due to the toy chest in their office.
I had them do a full set of x-rays on him, just to make sure that he actually had permanent teeth under his babies (I am missing two, so I still have two baby teeth on the bottom). Luckily, his are all there, but they are huge. I see an orthodontist in our future....