California in June

We went on a family vacation to Newport Beach in June, it was our first solo family vacation meaning no extra adults to help us out with the kids. But we did just fine.

This was a science class that the resort put on in the kids clubhouse. They learned about the wonders of dry-ice. It was packed.

The first 2 days we were there it was cloudy and chilly, not a lot to do when you can't even go to the pool without freezing. But we wandered down to this beach to look at tide pools and Calvin met his first crab. It did not go well.

Becca explored the sand.

We finally gave up on having good weather and headed down to the San Diego Zoo. The sun was there to greet us and we had a great time seeing all the animals. Calvin taught us that the correct term is "Hippo-pa-mom-us" which I love. 

The sun was out again the next day so we headed straight to Huntington Beach to play in the surf and sand.  At one point the lifeguards were running up and down the beach telling everyone to get out. Sure enough, we spotted 4-5 dorsal fins swimming just beyond the surf. I couldn't say for sure if they were sharks, but better be safe.

Calvin, still scared of crabs (but there aren't any on this beach), so he didn't go in the water.

Anna dug a big hole, we put Becca in and she buried herself and loved it.

It was a good vacation, great way to start off our summer.

I've got the hold wide world in the palm of my hand

So here's a quick update,

All my trees are still alive as far as I can tell. The apple trees are just single sticks coming out of the ground, so they are harder to read, but I think it's working pretty well so far. Our renter figured out how to get the water on out there so watering isn't too bad, and I have a very helpful water boy home with me.

Anna is progressing in karate, she goes twice a week for an hour, and she is climbing the ranks. I signed both girls up for a self defense course they taught one Saturday and it was enough for Eliza to earn her white belt, she got to break a board.

Eliza and Calvin are both learning to read! It's really exciting as a parent, like, what else could I ever teach them? They are potty trained and can read, my work here is done. right?
Calvin still has another year of preschool before he will go to Kindergarten. He might be a little bored.

Becca is full time exploring. She is a busy little body who hid my keys about 2 weeks ago, we still haven't found them. We may not as she has an affinity for garbage cans. Still, she is the cutest thing around.

Ben and I took off a few weekends ago to visit San Francisco, it was really fun and so much food, we could hardly stand to leave. Ben has some friends out there who kindly showed us around the bay area.

Everything is great, everything is grand.

Orchard Planting!

This week we planted my orchard! It's so exciting!

Since the city was never going to let us develop the lot our house came with we decided to rent out the supergarage and fill the lot with trees and gardens and make it at lease usable.

I ordered the trees in January and they arrived here on Monday, the first day of spring!

Planting the first tree!

We have 20 peach trees in 4 different varieties and 8 big apple trees in 3 different varieties.

I had so much great help, I'm so grateful for Dad, Thad and the Oliphants!

Afterward we had a little fire and some hotdogs and marshmallows!

Thad has always been so photogenic...

Recipes That Don't Work

Gather round children, it's time for another edition of Recipes That Don't Work. I know, it's been too long! I've been playing it safe and letting Ben do a lot of the cooking. But that ends now! Last week I ordered a very simple, beginners cookbook and this week Ben is out of town so I can finally crack it open and get to it. We may get a whole week of blog posts out of this.

Today's recipe was Asian Fried Rice. The book gave simple step by step instructions, but of course I can't even follow those. So here were the roadblocks:
#1- I couldn't find any plain white rice, like a medium grain white rice. So I used basmati. I like basmati but it probably wasn't supposed to be used for this.
#2- We got a new InstantPot for Christmas and I have not used it at all. I could have googled instructions, but, come on, it had a button that said RICE. So I went with it.
#3- My rice was quite wet when it came out.
#4- The wet rice was added to a pan with hot oil, chicken, (yes I used chicken, the recipe said that would be fine) onions and some spices and things, so I thought I could just cook the rice dry. That's a thing, right?
#5- The recipe said to add a bag of frozen vegetables, so I bought I big bag of frozen vegetables to put in. The picture had the traditional carrots and peas, but I didn't look much closer. Turns out it had corn, string beans and lima beans as well. I could have done without those.

As I continued to try to cook all the moisture out, it just got mushy and mushier. So I stopped and added some scrambled egg. That's my favorite part of fried rice. The mixture at this point was so big that the eggs disappeared almost completely.

So obviously, this was not supposed to resemble Chinese Restaurant fried rice, so I consulted with the girls about renaming it something more apt. Mushy Rice Surprise came to mind. I think it could be good in like a soup or a pot pie, but fried rice it is not.

Back Online

For about a month I was unable to load my blog-- or any blog because I downloaded a dumb widget that blocked them I guess. It just confirmed my fear of technology and that I shouldn't be allowed to make any decisions without Ben.

So to catch up we'll profile our inhabitants.

Anna - just turned 9 this week! She had an excellent President's Day Birthday and was spoiled most royally. Shopping and mani pedi's and she picked Tucanos for her birthday dinner. Much better than her last birthday which she spent on the couch with a broken leg. Anna is enduring the basketball season. She isn't quite aggressive or tall enough to get into the thick of it, but she's a good defender and she made a basket at her last game.

Eliza - is reading up a storm. Even as I write this, she's sounding out the words. Her kindergarten teacher loves her (who doesn't) because she's always quietly on task. She has a play date every Friday with her BF Penny. She has mastered some gymnastic tricks like wall kickovers and her beam routine.

Calvin - is quite a character. Since the Elf Incident he has not been super excited to go to school, but he's reading some words and loves mazes and puzzles and brain bending exercises. His other hobbies are playing Wii and teasing his older sisters -- Anna especially, she gives the best feedback.

Becca - is still a total cutie. She loves and has always loved sticking her arm down the front of shirts. It's like a comfort thing. Also if you hold out your hand to her she might pretend to pick up something and pretend to eat it. Of course your hand is empty, but she just does this really cute pinch and eat pantomime. She started walking a few weeks ago and is doing great with her new independence.

Ben is in the thick of his busiest time of year but we still see him 60% of the month. So that's pretty good.
I have too many projects to keep track of and complete in timely order. It's a real trial. I guess I'll just have to give up on keeping my house clean. Hey- somethings gotta give.

Becca's One Year Pics

Here are the pics from Becca's photoshoot with Aunt Robyn. They are so cute!

 

So this outfit inspired this whole shoot, my lovely, amazing neighbor crocheted the sweater and hat out of the very goodness of her heart, and I loved it so much I knew we needed some real pics with them on. She looks like a little princess

"Onward Unicorn Steed!"

This squishy face smile is just how she smiles now.

Calvin vs The Elf

Cute Calvin got out of preschool last week, hopped into the car and said "I'm not going to school anymore" This was surprising, because up until now he has LOVED school. He talked about it to strangers and kept the class calendar on hand so he could figure out what he'd learn about next time. He loved school.
For the rest of the day, it was "I'm not going to school anymore" and I couldn't figure out why. Finally he helped me out with one more little phrase "cause of the elf." Ok, ok, so I figured the teacher had an Elf on the Shelf that freaked him out a little. Maybe she was using it with the class or something. I thought he would forget about it over the weekend, but when it came time to go back to school this week. He was very firm. He was "not going to school anymore". So, as his tears mixed with a low fever I texted his teacher to let her know that he was sick but also fretting about going to school. She sent me the explanation.
She had found Calvin crying and cowering during class that day, he asked for me and to go home, and she couldn't figure out the problem - after 30 minutes, as it was almost time to go, he finally let that pivotal phrase slip out "cause of the elf"! Her teenagers had put their family elf down in the preschool room and Calvin was deathly afraid of it. She felt so bad! She promised it would not be there anymore.
So yesterday it was time for him to go to school and he was super anxious and resistant even though I told him the elf wouldn't be there. I almost caved, but instead I promised him I would go in with him and stay as long as he wanted. I would have to bring Eliza and Rebecca too, but we would all stay with him until he felt ok. So as he got out of the car at school he put his backpack on and we walked in. Inside I showed him the nativity sets and pointed out the lack of elves. When we got downstairs he asked his teacher about the elf and she confirmed that it was gone and invited him to do some painting. He walked right over, forgot all about me and was totally fine. What a relief!

And that is the story of Calvin vs. the Preschool Elf.

Becca Turns ONE!

Our cute baby turned one last week! Calvin was insistent that she have a "smash cake" (chocolate chip pumpkin bread) which she didn't smash so much as devour in its entirety.

She got some great presents from her grandparents but not from us. We will celebrate her half birthday in June with presents because we could barely come up with presents to give a 1 year old for Christmas. We got some more professional pictures taken with Aunt Robyn and will post those when they are ready, but for now, here are a few of our favorite pictures of this cutie pie.

halloween costume

standing proud

ugh, so adorable.

Apostles Mnemonics

In the 90's we learned in seminary some rhymes and tricks to remember the order of seniority of the Apostles. This has little spiritual importance, but it's fun. So we tried to remember them last night, "Ten: ten-hen-duck-mallard-ballard!" but that was in the 90's. So I worked with my super clever siblings last night to come up with new ones. If you know a seminary teacher, you'll want to pass these along.

One: I have one son, his name is MONSON
Two: I have a second son, his name is NELSON
Three: Tree-OAKS
Four: Floor, ducks poop on the floor, duck-mallard-BALLARD
Five: Dive through the HALEStorm!
Six: Licks from the Lord's Bulldog HOLLAND
Seven: Leaven-yeast-chemistry EYRING
Eight: In German it's acht - UCHTDORF
Nine: Fine-toothed comb to tame gNARly BED hair: BEDNAR
Ten: Quen-ten COOK
Eleven: 11 is two ones just like the two F's in CHRISTOFFERSON
Twelve: Twelve apostles NEIL at the feet of the savior. ANDERSON
Thirteen: Go back to three-tree, under the tree are some RASberries and a BAND
Fourteen: Go back to four - the ducks are chased by your cousin Steve: STEVENSON
Fifteen: Go back to five, Dive through the HALEstorm into the DALE in G.RENLUND




YOU'RE WELCOME.

Reflections Poem

Anna entered the school's Reflections contest with the following poem:

How I Broke My Leg

I went to the mailbox one day,
To see what my birthday cards say,
A car hit me instead, and me in an ambulance fled.
To a hospital it went,
And my leg bone was bent!



She was invited to a luncheon for participants where she was given an Award of Merit.
Her first "real" trophy, she's was so excited.

'Liza turns 6

Eliza's birthday was on a Saturday - Conference Saturday actually, I guess that's what happens when your birthday is in early October.
We opened presents early in the morning, she got some replacement parts for her bike, a ukulele book, a reading book, some wooden ninja dolls and....Roller Skates. She actually went with me to pick them out a week earlier and was extremely anxious to finally get them.
She spent the morning trying them out.

For a "party" we had Girls Night Out at the provo rec pool with Gramma and the Oliphant girls. It was lots of fun. We had dinner and cake afterward with the men, which was unfortunately pretty late.

Eliza is growing up too fast. She loves kindergarten and riding her bike, she is just few brave minutes away from ditching her training wheels. She wants to play with friends every second of every day. Every morning we work together practicing gymnastics and yoga, she is mastering those hand stands.

Teddy Bear Picnic

Calvin's preschool had a Teddy Bear Picnic last week, where all the kids could bring their favorite stuffed animal for the day. Calvin isn't a big stuffed animal kid (despite the adorable and perfectly executed Hobbes Tiger that I made for him), so he initially wasn't going to take anything. Then the girls convinced him to take his Chompy, based on the chain chomps from Mario's adventures, here it is in stuffed animal form:
















So that is what Calvin took to the Teddy Bear Picnic at preschool. His teacher was very accepting.

Second Place!

Anna had a little karate tournament - emphasis on little - She competed against 4 other girls with white or yellow belts (I think it was coincidental that they were all girls). They were tested on how well they memorized a form, which is a rote set of movements they learned in class, and their kickboxing skills.

I did take video but can't find it and can't move it into blogger. She was very cute.

She got 2nd place in both categories! She was so excited about it and loves to show off her ribbons so I thought I'd handle telling the internet so she didn't have to worry about that.

Good job Anna!