Christmas Outings

We took a family outing last night and went downtown SLC to check out the decorations at the Grand America hotel.  None of us had ever been to the Grand America and we were definitely impressed with how "grand" it was.

 

They had all of the shop windows decorated with elves and parts of Santa's workshop.  They had handouts with a quiz about the windows on them.  If you went through and answered all the questions you got a candy at the end.  They also had a huge, over 6 feet tall, gingerbread house.  The kids loved it.

 

Afterward we rode the train down to the City Creek shopping area and had diner.  The kids love riding the train.  They think that it is an adventure.

We finally got home around 9 pm and put the kids to bed.  It was cold, but it was worth it.  :-)

Grandma's Christmas Tree

A couple of weekends ago Grandma Rhonda put up the kids Christmas tree in her basement.  She always lets the kids helps her decorate it.  Will helped for a bit, but then went off to play.  Lilly stayed through most of it.

 

Lilly got her stool from the bathroom and put it next to the tree so that she could get to the higher branches.  She would go pick an ornament from the table and then climb onto her stool to place it on a branch.  Pretty soon there was a small area right at her eye level that was covered with ornaments, but not much anywhere else on the tree!  We evened it out for her after she went to bed.  :-)

 

Fall Leaves

Last Saturday we were working on cleaning up the front yard.  Paul had raked the leaves into a pile and, of course, Lilly wanted to play in it.  Will was over playing at a friends house or he would have been in on it, too.

 

 

Halloween 2013

We made our annual trip to the Gardner Village Witch Festival a couple of weekends ago.  The kids got to wear their costumes, but Will didn't get to wear his face paint.

 

They started to get really tired of us taking pictures of them after a while.  :-)

They had a small petting zoo set up with some farm animals.  Grandma helped Lilly and Will feed the animals.

Will always looks forward to the pony ride.  This was the first year that Lilly was big enough to go, too.  She loved it!  She is slightly obsessed with horses.

 

Before we left the kids got to hold the bunny.  Will did good but Lilly needed some help from Daddy.  She couldn't keep the bunny from sliding off of her lap.

 

On Halloween Grandma Rhonda and Grandpa Bob came over early to help me get the kids ready.  After we got Will's make-up on he looked really spooky.  He decided it was better not to smile so that he would look scary.

 

Paul and the kids went trick-or-treating with a group of neighborhood kids and other parents.  Lilly made it around about 2 streets before she decided that she was done.  Will went through most of our neighborhood.

I stayed behind and handed out candy at our house.  We went through everything that I had bought by 7:45 pm, so we shut off the lights, but there were people still going around our neighborhood until almost 9:30 pm.  By then the kids were washed and in bed, and Paul and I were in PJ's watching TV.  I know... we're a wild bunch at the Grover house! 

William's First Day of Kindergarten

William started Kindergarten today.  He was so excited!  We got there early so that he could see where everything was and play on the playground for a bit.

 

 

When the bell rang all of the kids lined up and followed their teachers into the classrooms.  I had a hard time not following him in, but I know that he is ready for this and doesn't need his mommy shadowing him.

 

We've enrolled him in an after school program called KinderKamp at the rec center near our house.  They will pick him up after class and take him to the rec center to play, have swimming lessons, learn zumba and yoga, and generally keep him busy.

 

I expect it will be an early bed night tonight.

Summer Fun

We've been having a lot of fun over the last couple of weeks.  We've been trying to keep busy and get as much enjoyment out of the last weeks of summer as we can, except for a bit of trouble with a summer cold that we've been passing around.

 

When all of the back to school sales started showing up at the stores I decided to buy the kids some new crayons to replace the ones that were getting used up.  Since I didn't want to waste what was left of the old bits we decided to make some new "rainbow" crayons with them.  After a trip to the thrift store we had a couple of fun muffin tins and some extra colors to add.  Paul took all of the wrappers off and we broke them into smaller pieces.  We mixed and matched the colors to make fun combinations and then I baked them in the oven at a low temp until they melted.  After a night in the freezer to harden they were ready to use.  Lilly really likes these "new" crayons because they make great variegated shades when you use them.

 

 

I told the other children's church leader about making the crayons, since I knew that her class had a big bucket of old crayons, and we came up with an idea to make themed rainbow crayons for the kids at church.  We've been keeping a look out at the other thrift stores for more themed muffin tins so that we can make different shapes for the seasons and then give them to the kids as gifts.  I'd really love to find some hearts for Valentines or some leaves for Fall.

We also bought a wading pool at one of the end of summer sales.  The kids have been having a ton of fun splashing around in it.

 

Making Pancakes

Lilly decided that she wanted to help me make pancakes for dinner the other night.  So, we pulled up a stool, put on her apron, and gave her something to stir.  She did a very good job.

 

July 4th



We had a great time celebrating Independence Day this year.  We went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house early enough for the kids to spend some time playing on their slip-n-slide.  Grandpa even got in on the fun.

 

 

It soon got too hot to be outdoors so we spent the afternoon playing with toys in the basement.
After dinner we took the kids to the splash pad in the nearby local park.  They had a bunch of fun running around in the water and catching the parachute fireworks that Grandpa was setting off.

 

When we got back to the house the kids got into their PJ's and we decided to set off more fireworks.  Since the kids can't stay up too late we started while the sun was just setting.