Count the candles. I didn’t need a birthday cake – I shared my special day with my own personal carton of Haagan Daaz. Also, there was not enough candles for 29 plus 4 for our combined ages (I could have stuck a bunch of toothpicks in but I didn’t want to pull them all out).

Don’t you love eating a piece of birthday cake after some enthusiastic child has blown saliva all over it?
Isaac got some new Hot Wheels and a Triple Stunt Track. We have been trying for a while to set it up. It is more complicated than I thought it would be. Thank heavens Peter is back in town!

Isaac can’t wait to play Hot Wheels with his Uncle Tyler and Aunt Megan who are coming on Tuesday!

This is the gift that Grandma Gardner sent. The kids have had fun watching the marbles – I just hope they don’t lose their marbles…

To see the quilt that I finally finished for Isaac’s birthday that I was supposed to have finished for his 3rd birthday click here.

Here is our week in a bullet list:

• Isaac’s 4th birthday is today! Happy Birthday Isaac!
• I turned 29 on the 26th. I folded no laundry, pulled no weeds, washed no dishes and did not brush Sydney’s hair that day. I DID watch Persuasion with my friend Melissa (she got me seasons 7-9 of I Love Lucy for my BD)! I also spent WAY TOO MUCH TIME READING and kept sending my children off to play on their own. Am I a terrible mother?
• Peter says that he is taking me dress shopping for my birthday.
• After nearly two weeks on a trip, Peter arrived home yesterday! On the day of my birthday he took two of his co-workers to dinner at my favorite restaurant, Famous Dave’s Barbecue. He said it was in honor of my birthday… I have not eaten at Famous Dave’s in nearly two years!
• Also, the morning of my birthday I got up and went down to the computer to check my e-mail and the wallpaper on my screen said “Happy Birthday.” Peter had set it up in advance to do that at 12:00 AM on my birthday.
• We are getting ready to have my youngest siblings come out and visit! Tomorrow will be spent cleaning bathrooms, grocery shopping (I’ll take donations because I will be buying food for a teenage boy) and making plans to go camping in Savannah, Georgia.
• That’s right folks, my siblings are coming on a trip to Florida and so we are taking them camping in Georgia. Pictures to follow next week…
• Sydney has continued to do a good job on her bike and the neighbor girls have been giving her good advice on turning and braking. It makes my job so easy!
• Peter and Isaac have figured out the Hot Wheel’s track and are having fun doing some trick driving right now.

That’s all folks!

Well, the people have been heard. You voted to see a picture of me cooking dinner, and here you go! I am modeling my new apron that I made this month along with a hair bow that Sydney made for my birthday.

The dinner menu is Kraft macaroni and cheese and peas (this is what Isaac requested for his birthday dinner).

Yes, I am a bad parent and I admit it. I frequently (like every day) let my son jump and do flips on the couch. But how often do you get a picture like this? (Sydney is watching the episode of I Love Lucy where Lucy and Ethel steal the cement block with John Wayne’s footprints and signature that is in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater).
I’m singing the I Love Lucy theme song. Join in any time.
Every one should watch I Love Lucy. It’s a happy show.
Last week I reported that Isaac’s swim class had no kids in the class that were afraid of the water. Well, as we got further into lessons and he had to try more things, he turned into the difficult kid in the class. I had to take him to the bathroom about four times during each class (most of the time he didn’t have to go). He loves to play in the water, but on his own terms.
I told the lifeguard to just throw him in. I’m mean, huh?
Good thing there were doughnuts for all the kids who went off the diving board! He was sobbing and saying “I’m scared” after that horrendous diving board experience but when he saw that gleaming box of doughnuts he settled down immediately. I wonder why? Isaac is posing here with his swim teacher, Kaitlin. So ten minutes after getting home from the last day of swim lessons I find Isaac playing in the sink in the downstairs bathroom. And I thought he was scared of the water? Go figure.
I tried really hard to NOT laugh. The poor kid spends a lot of time in his room…
Going.
Going..
Going…
Gone. All she wants to do at the pool is go off the diving board over and over and over and over and, well, you get the picture.
Sydney’s lips were all purple and she had “goggle” eyes after swimming for the day.
Here is Sydney with her swim teacher, Michelle.
Sometimes it’s fun to hunt down an old picture. I found these pictures of my delightful sister Megan. If you know Megan then you know she is of the tomboy breed. My sister Amy and I did this lovely makeover and photo shoot for her when she was about five or six. To this day I can’t believe that she let us do this! It took some time to blow dry the ringletty curls out of her hair.Go knock em’ dead.
Here are my two sisters Amy and Megan today (well, not exactly TODAY at this very moment, but I think you get the picture). And hey folks, Megan is SINGLE (I’m sure she wanted me to put that little plug in)!

Well, anyway, here is our week in a bullet list:

• The kids went to a birthday party yesterday and had fun swimming (well, Sydney had fun swimming). I was so exhausted from staying up late AGAIN that I fell asleep on my friend’s couch while the kids partied. Thanks Jessica!
• I felt great after that nap!
• After a long dry spring and early summer down here in sunny Florida the summer afternoon rainstorms have finally kicked in (last year they lasted all spring AND summer). You silly Utahns have no idea what a real rainstorm is. Oh, and the island that we live on is THE LIGHTNING CAPITOL OF THE WORLD. Yesterday while the kids were watching a movie, we had a pretty good lightning and rainstorm going on, and I told them they should not be surprised if the power went out. It went out. They had fun playing with flash lights. The nice thing about the rainstorms is that they are polite. They roll in between 2:30 and 4:00 each afternoon, the rain waters the lawn and the plants, and then the clouds blow away and the sun comes out again. ;o)
• Isaac head-butted me really hard while I was talking to my mom on the phone. I have a big bruise on my left temple.
• Sydney put on a show for me today singing a couple of hip songs that she made up.
• Isaac told me a story. It goes like this: “Once upon a time a little baby was um, was climbing on the fridgerator and, uh he didn’t get cold but he got hot instead. The little boy’s dad said it was OK….(long pause)…but don’t rip the balloons. The end.” I’d like to know your ideas on what the moral of this story is because I’m lost.

As for the poll this week, I noticed a sharp difference in polling answers. I am the single vote for “Yes” in answering the question “Do you listen to Car Talk on Saturday mornings?” So Peter and I love to listen to Car Talk on NPR because it is hilarious. We only listen if we happen to be out driving somewhere on Saturday mornings. We also like Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me… (at least when it is not inappropriate). We are dorks. But what is even stranger is that our kids like to listen to Car Talk. In fact, Isaac sometimes requests it and then is upset when I tell him it’s not on at the time. I remember when I was a kid my dad would sometimes listen to Car Talk and I think I would have rather had my toenails ripped out one by one. My dad was always big into talk radio and it seems that I have apparently grown mature enough to appreciate Car Talk with the hilarious Tappet brothers, but dad, don’t expect me to ever sit through Rush Limbaugh on purpose!

Oh, and I realize that I am about the most fickle person with my blog template but I was just not digging any of the beach/tropical style templates. I only put them on because they went with my blog title. We’ll see how long the current one lasts…

Go and check out my Books and Hobbie’s page! I just finished reading The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis and I posted a couple of recipes.

Peter is eating his home made lentil and sausage soup. Mmmmm. Good.

Sydney is the super-duper underwater swimmer in her class. She had lots of fun swimming to the bottom of the pool to grab a diving stick. That girl just loves her goggles!
Isaac with his friend Dayton getting ready for swim lessons. His teacher is very lucky to have a class of five pre-school age kids who all like the water!
Here is Isaac kicking in the water. He has discovered the trick of taking water into his mouth and spitting it in my face when I am helping him swim at the pool. Who teaches kids these tricks?
Do you recognize this girl? It’s Sydney without her training wheels!
Here she goes…
Friday night we finally took off her training wheels. She just needs to get used to starting and stopping without them. For the first time she got to go up and down the street on her bike with all of her friends.

Here’s our week in a bullet list:

• The swim lesson schedule bites: Sydney’s class is from 8:45-9:30 and Isaac’s is from 10:30-11:00. The hour in between has been difficult and we still have another week of this but I try to remind myself that it is worth it. I almost didn’t sign Isaac up for lessons because of this but he has been doing really well and I have gotten ideas from watching his teacher so that I can help him learn also.
• We had an adult dinner at the church last night that I was in charge of. It went well and everyone enjoyed playing pictionary. No more activities until September!
• Sydney started her first lesson on the sewing machine. I just got out some paper and she traced lines by punching holes with the needle. She also practiced doing a 5/8 inch seam on all sides of the paper. Maybe this next week we’ll get to material. She can’t wait! Sydney has already spent some of her allowance on material, lace and batting so she can make a pillow.
• We are so excited that Sydney is riding her bike without training wheels now! We still have some work to do but the basics are down!
• Isaac is still adjusting to having Sydney at home during the summer break. Every day he asks, “Is Sydney going to school today?” I think it is wishful thinking.
• I love my husband – he stayed up until 2:30 AM on Friday night making rolls for the dinner on Saturday night. He also baked cookies that I signed up to make for the dad’s at church on Father’s Day!

Happy Father’s Day to all of you dad’s!

Oh, and Peter’s middle name is Mathias. Peter asked his mom a few years ago before we were married how to spell his middle name. Her response was that it is just like it is in the bible. Well, that’s not quite so. Matthias in the bible has two “t’s” in it. His birth certificate and social security card have it with just one “t.” We always get a good laugh when his mom sends cards to Sydney and Isaac because we have seen every possible spelling for each name (and remember folks, she is an English teacher)! I always love when people ask me how we spell Sydney. My response is, “just like Sydney, Australia.” Most people reply with, “Oh, with an I.” And then I say, “No, with a Y.”

For Father’s Day I want to list a few things I love about my husband, Peter:

1. He always cooks all of the stuff that I sign up at church to make (I always intend to make it…)
2. He is very handy and can fix almost anything!
3. He will eat whatever I cook for dinner (even the strange stuff I make up).
4. He works very hard and takes his responsibility as a father and husband very seriously.
5. He never asks me what I DID at home all day.
6. He loves me and our two kids!

I love my dad too and here are some reasons why:

1. He loves music. A fond memory from my growing up years was seeing my dad playing Beatle’s songs at the piano. He used to sing to me “You Make Me Dizzy Miss Lizzie, the way you rock and roll…” and then he would spin around on the piano bench (I would like to see him try to spin around on the piano bench now)! We also went to some concerts at temple square together when I was little.
2. He’s my favorite dad and I’m pretty sure I’m his favorite daughter too.
3. He is fun to sit and talk to and he has a great sense of humor.
4. He makes really cute cards (this is no joke).
5. After 30 years of marriage, he still loves my mom (to the best of my knowledge)!

On Saturday we went to Sea World – it was hot and crowded; but to be fair, we knew it would be that way before we left. We had a nice time and saw a couple of shows we had not seen before. Most of the pictures from Sea World were pretty bad…

As for the poll from last week I guess that Peter is going to be a bald, grumpy, old mission president…I bet that will be effective!

I had a request to see the summer chore charts that I made.

So here’s how I made the chore charts. I simply printed on an 8 1/2 X 11 piece of card stock my kids names (i.e. Sydney’s Chore Chart). I found some clip art and enlarged it to the correct size for chore pockets. I printed up pictures of chores for Isaac and just printed Sydney’s chores in words. I cut everything out, got them laminated, and cut them out again. Then with invisible thread I sewed the pockets onto the chart. For Isaac’s chart I made interchangeable days-of-the-week (velcro sewn on with invisible thread also).

How it works: At the beginning of the day I put the chores that my kids need to do in the left-hand pocket. When a chore is completed they put that chore in the right-hand pocket. Sydney’s chore labelled “good deed” is any extra chore I come up with for her that needs to be done.

Isaac and his friend Dylan at the ward Memorial Day picnic. They sat and banged their heads against the wall. Go figure.
Isaac wearing his new t-shirt
Sydney wearing her new t-shirt. I wanted one too but the only one’s for adults were stupid.
Here is the pink jacket I finished making that goes with Syd’s white dress. I only have one more dress to finish sewing for her; thankfully I already have it cut out.
Sorry folks, but I just cannot get a sweet and normal picture of Isaac. He does not send his regards and he would rather I not blog about him.
So I know that the consensus from this week’s poll is that Isaac will be a Nascar Driver when he grows up but I’m thinking he maybe has a future as a photographer – he took the above photographs this morning! I think there’s a lot of subtext in these pictures…

Here’s our week in a bullet list:

• I need a good meatloaf recipe. If you have one send it my way. Just a note – don’t add curry to meatloaf; it smells pretty good but somehow tastes unlike meatloaf (this is where you laugh at me). Thankfully I didn’t put too much curry in it and we still ate it. In fact there was so much meatloaf that we have already had it for two dinners and still have enough for four more dinners. Come over if you want ;o)
• I found out this last week that I have ancestors from Germany. Didn’t know that before.
• Sydney has two more days of school!
• Peter made Kashmiri Naan bread. Kashmiri Naan is a variety of naan bread that is filled with fruit and nuts. We first tried it at an Indian restaurant. You should try it sometime.
• We moved our food storage shelves out of the garage and up into Sydney’s room (there is a small corner of the room that juts out and is like a separate area). We are going to hang up a pretty curtain in front of it so Sydney’s room isn’t in the style of food storage deco.
• Isaac and Sydney did the dishes this morning without being asked. I came down and saw them working together and Isaac was singing a song. The lyrics were “brother, sister, brother, sister, etc.” It was very cute.
• I asked Sydney what she has been up to this last week and she says she doesn’t really remember.
• I asked Isaac what he has been up to this last week and he says he has helped dad. Just ask his dad how much help Isaac really is…(Sydney wanted me to add that Isaac sat and tackled her today).
• We had fun going to the beach and watching the Discovery Shuttle Launch. They are installing a Japanese laboratory and fixing the potty on the International Space Station. Don’t find out how much the potty fix is costing. It’s disturbing.

That’s all folks… Oh, and if you still have nothing better to do and feel like wasting away about five more minutes of your life go check out my books and hobbies page!