Fourth of July

I bought some fireworks for the kids this year. Because we planned on going and watching the city fireworks on Saturday, we set most of these off the night before. The kids called some friends and I made popcorn while Allan lit most of them. About 8pm on Saturday the clouds got dark and it started to rain. It got gradually harder and then around 10:30 the lights went out and the fireworks were cancelled. It's a rare occurance when fireworks in Utah are cancelled due to rain. We'll have to save the rest for tomorrow night after FHE.

Kalea took the video, so beware!

Space Derby

Kai participated in the Space Derby tonight for cub scouts. We worked on it a little each week for the past month with Kai doing most of the sanding, painting and decals. I hadn't done one of these since I was his age and couldn't remember all of the specifics so we winged it (yes, some pun intended). He wanted it to look like a missle, which it kinda does. Kai is a huge fan of CARS and wanted to use that as his theme.
We had some problems after the first 2 heats with one of the rubber bands coming off. So, we decided to use only 2 rubber bands instead of 3 and see what happened. The gamble worked and ended up finishing in first place for the third heat.

Somehow, Kai finished in 2nd place and won the "sleekest award". We never really gave it a test run before the event so we were all praying that it would at least fly a few feet. Needless to say the fact that he came in 2nd place was probably a testament to good luck more than anything else.

The kids made some neat little projects for Allan today. They made this cute little shirt and wrote what they loved most about him on it. A couple of years ago, Kalea was asked to come up with list of what she loves most about her Dad and then read it in Sacrament Meeting for Father's Day. It was sort of like David Letterman's Top 10 list and this reminded me of what she did back then.

For dinner I made Koala Pork, I mean Kalua Pork. I can never remember how to say the name right. We normally go up to my parent's house for Father's Day dinner, but because Allan is on call this weekend he needs to be close by in case he gets called out.

Keanu's 3rd Birthday

Friday morning brought Keanu's 3rd birthday. He has been talking about his birthday for several months and asking if it was tomorrow. Well tomorrow finally came. He woke up to find a tricycle in the family room and then proceeded to open presents while he was sitting on it. He asked for French Toast for breakfast which I gladly made for the family.

In the early evening I took the kids swimming for a couple of hours. Allan was on call this weekend and ended up stopping by for part of it. He later informed me that the gentleman in the picture behind Keanu is actually the judge that presides over the Drug Court Allan manages.

After swimming we went back home where we had cake and sang "Happy Birthday". Keanu enjoyed the attention so much he asked us to sing it again and relight his birthday cake.

Taylor's 11th Birthday

We celebrated Taylor's birthday a little early because I had to work that evening. We went out for dinner the day before at Chuck-A-Rama because it's her favorite place to eat. Much to Allan's dismay he tried unsucessfully to talk her into going to Pizza Factory (because it's his favorite place to eat). We had to listen to him complain all night about how boring his children are becoming.

We had to relight the candles, because Kalea was manning the camera and wasn't able to get any shots that turned out well. Taylor also had the uninvited help of Keanu who thought spitting all over it might help out. It did!

Pumpkin Planting

In my sporadic effort to be more diligent in taking pictures and documenting the kids' activities, I took a few pictures of kids planting pumpkin seeds. It was part of an annual primary activity they do every summer. Someone in the ward owns some ground that she allows the kids to plant on. Each summer they plant pumpkin seeds and will from time to time weed it throughout the summer. Then in the early Fall they harvest the pumpkins. The bishop runs the Utah State Extensions office in Nephi and helps prep the ground and gives the kids some basic instructions. It ended up as a rainy and cold activity, but they stayed until it was completed.

Kai's Baptism

We weren't as dilligent about taking pictures for Kai's baptism as we had planned. I got talking to Jen before the service and didn't realize we were 20 minutes late. Fortunately we barely made it in time. After it was all over we went back to our house for a dinner with the family. Kai was baptised along with 2 other kids and they all had to sit on the stand during church today. Allan happened to look over while he was sitting up there and caught Kai playing with a bunch of toys he was able to sneak past the 'guards'. He decided that it would have attracted more attention if had done something about it.