Re-instating Tech Free Tuesday

Tech Free Tuesday was such a great thing for our family last year that I decided to carry on the tradition this summer.  Bronson was thrilled.  The rest of the kids put up a fight.  Of course, that only proved further how BADLY we need Tech Free Tuesday.  I have to admit, it's not exactly my favorite day of the week either, but I know it makes a big difference. So I persist.

In case you forgot what Tech Free Tuesday is, its the one day per week when we don't turn on the television, computer, tablets, etc.  The kids are always asking, "can we use the microwave?" or "can I play with my toys that have batteries?"etc.  I tell them, "Yes!  It's Tech Free Tuesday, not Amish Tuesday!"   I am always amazed (like re-amazed every single week) at how much time we have to spend together when we aren't plugged in.  This is a good thing, and also a bad thing.  There seems to be a lot more fighting on Tuesdays.  I guess that's a side-affect of de-zombiefying siblings and I hope it lessens over time.

For the most part, the days aren't too different.  The kids play outside a lot (but they do that anyways), we might go swimming or to a park, etc.  I'm more likely to bake with them or make a special treat. But, we also do fun activities - at least one per week.  Throughout the summer, I'll post some of the fun activities we do on our special Tuesdays.

On our first Tech Free Tuesday of the summer, I assigned Alison and Bronson to create a "Book Nook."  They gathered every blanket and pillow they could find and designed a comfy, private, quiet place to sit and read.  When it was finished, the four older kids ate a picnic lunch and read for a while.  It was amazing.  I wish we could have left it up for weeks, but since it was compiled of blankets and pillows from everyone's beds, it only lasted until bedtime.

Impossible to capture the scope of the Book Nook with my tablet camera (lost my camera temporarily). 

Alison held a grand opening ceremony.  I was the dignitary that got to cut the ribbon!

Picnic in the Book Nook!

Alison is in a private reading area.  Cozy!

Josh is in another private reading area - the tee-pee.  Nicole and Bronson were together - Nicki reading to her brother.  

Another quick, easy activity that kept the kids busy for a while was making collages.

This last week, we had a fun water party out in the neighborhood with our friends.

Let the good times roll!

LAGOON!

No matter how old I get, I still love Lagoon.  As I get older, I don't love it as much for the rides as I do for the fun of watching my children!

Here we go!  In the parking lot.  Ali, Nicki, and McKenna in the back, Josh and Bron in the front.

Love this picture!  Josh is riding solo in the rear chopper.  Quinton looks happy because the ride hasn't started yet.  He screamed when it moved.

Waiting for a ride to start.  Bron's face:  THAT is why I love Lagoon!  

Can you see Josh and Bron? I think that's some pretty good camera work myself (way to go Grandpa Smith!)  It's hard to take a good photo of a moving ride.

We tried the slowest, most boring ride in the whole park, and Quinton STILL hated it.

Rattlesnake rapids - coming up to the BIG waterfall.  Bron told me later, "MOM!  I dot toteen wet!" (soaking)

The train.  More Quinton's speed..

Mostly because I went with him.

This is how the baby prefers to roll.  He was perfectly happy to supervise.

Grandpa and Josh (and Bron and Payton - but you can only see their legs) getting ready for the Bat roller coaster.

Alison met up with a friend and they spent the whole day running off on their own.  Sigh...she's growing up!

Happy faces pre-Wicked!

Gotta love this awesome picture of Megan and Payton!

Nicki and McKenna on Tilt-A-Whirl.

Epic Fail!

On the very first day of summer break, I gathered all the kids together and told them of my genius idea for a Fathers' Day present this year (someone else's genius idea - I saw it on the internet).  We were going to take a special photo of the kids and have it framed for his office. I had spent a lot of time figuring out a darling phrase with just the exact number of letters on it so that I could draw a letter on each of the children's feet.  Then, I would take a photo of their cute feet saying "We 'heart' you dad" with their adorable smiling faces in the background.  Who wouldn't love that, right?!?

Here is the picture from the internet. Seriously, how cute would that be?

Well, I'll just let you see for yourself how the photo shoot went.

Needless to say, Dad got a bird feeder for Father's Day.

Upward and Onward!

Well, it's out with elementary school and on to bigger and better things for Alison!  Can you believe that she's old enough to graduate from 6th grade?!?!?  I guess she's technically NOT old enough - she skipped first grade.  Whew!  That makes me feel a little bit less old!

On the last day of school, the three oldest kids all signed yearbooks for the first while.  Dad, the boys, Grandma Smith, and I all attended Alison's graduation ceremony.  Josh joined us towards the end when kindergarten was let out.

After the ceremony, David went to work, and Ali went to a friend's house for a celebration.  The rest of us went to a Chinese restaurant with my parents.  Chinese food on the last day of school was a tradition in my family when I was growing up.

Sadly, that's all I remember about the last day of school.  I don't think we did anything too out of the ordinary.  Naps, laundry, diaper changes - you know.  All the regular stuff.

ProgramTime

The last month of school is fun, isn't it?  isn't it?  It is, right? Yes, that's what it is.  It's really, really fun.  Projects due, tests galore, field trips and programs and parties non-stop.  Every day is an adventure.  This year was no exception.  Since I can't even remember all of the events, I'll just share one from each child.

Josh had an adorable kindergarten program while I was away at BYU Womens' conference!  So SAD!! The children even presented their mothers with gifts when it was over.  David and the little boys attended in my stead.  Dave took a ton of videos, but they are very hard to watch because he was trying to juggle two boys on his lap at the same time.  Still, I loved watching my sweet, giant, best-dancer-out-there little boy!

Nicole had a huge project due in April.  It was about a county in Utah.  Each child was assigned a different county, but Nicole was able to convince her teacher to give her Davis since her Grandpa is the commissioner.  She had to do a ton of research, write very specific information on very specific index cards, and turn that information into two large "Fact Cubes" (like giant dice) about Davis County.  Nicole is a very smart girl, but she absolutely HATES to do homework of ANY kind without me sitting right by her side!  Seriously, I feel like I did the project too!  She really did it mostly by herself, though - as is evidenced by sentences such as this, " If you'll follow my advice than if you go to Davis county then go to LAGOON!!!" and my favorite, accompanied by a picture of her eating cotton candy: " This is me at the taste of the town test and it is at  Layton park and it is really fun to go to...What Taste of the Town is, is when you go to Layton Park and there are a bunch of booths that have restaurants and you go to a booth and say I want this this and this and they will say that is blah, blah, blah tickets."

A week or two after her county project was due, her grade presented a program about the great state of Utah!  It was very wonderful!  They sang a ton of songs along with darling choreography, and many kids had speaking parts as well.  It really was very impressive.  It even held Bronson and Quinton's attention better than most programs.  Nicki was dressed up in pioneer/cowgirl attire (I had a super hard time finding anything that worked for this particular costume, but she ended up pretty cute anyway).

See Nicki?  Just kidding, but I can - she's the cowboy hat on the right in front of the red curtain.

After the program, each student stood in front of their project while the parents and visitors meandered around and looked at them.  It was hard for me to see all those children looking hopeful every time a person walked past them, and crestfallen if they didn't stop and look at their project.  It was like a whole room full of lemonade stands!!!  Ahhh!  I only stayed for a few minutes, as Quinton made it perfectly clear that he was ready to go home.  Even though it was still morning, Nicole asked if I would take her home with me.  Knowing that she wouldn't be doing anything worthwhile for the rest of the day, I agreed. Her teacher didn't mind at all when I asked. Nicole felt so special, and I loved having her home.  Win/Win!

Our cute girl waiting for someone to look at her Davis County cubes.

The 6th grade teachers at our school are amazing!  6th grade is hard work, but the teachers do so many amazing and fun things!  One of my favorites was the wax museum.  Each student in the 6th grade was assigned a person from world history.  They had to study that person in great detail, write a report, and then create and memorize a monologue FROM that person describing their significance in history.  Each student had to come up with a costume for that person.  They all worked together to create scenery for the different time periods, etc.  Then, they held a wax museum.

In the foreground, we see some English Queens (with heads still attached), back by the Nile river is the Egyptian display, and the upper right corner shows some of the Asian people.  For some reason, Bronson wouldn't let me go into the Asian section.  I guess Attila the Hun frightened him.

Here is the Mesopotamian section.  Beyond them, where you can't see, is the Mythological section.  You can kind of see one person in a toga back there.  

The medieval display.  Look at Joan of Arc back there, stoically grasping her sword.
  

Parents were allowed to come, and I think all the classes in the school went through as well.    The gym and cafeteria were set up with different sections such as medieval, Asian history, Greek mythology, science, etc.  The costumed students sat motionless in poses just like wax figures.  If you touched a wax figure on the elbow, they would come to life and tell you about themselves.

Bronson learning about some Greek Mythological character.  I don't remember which one.

Joan of Arc explaining her vision to an enraptured Bronson.

Bronson was in LOVE with this!  He had a blast touching people's elbows and bringing them to life. He especially loved Alison (aka Joan of Arc).  He touched her elbow three or four times.  I was impressed and amazed at how well every single student did!  They all had their parts memorized and took it so seriously and stayed in character.  All of them - even the ones that struggle in school or at home - every single kid was amazing!  It was apparent that they had done a lot of research and work to write the speeches in the first place.  And it was also apparent that they were loving it!  What a great project! ($40 Joan of Arc costume aside... guess what all three boys are going to be for Halloween someday...that's right - Knights).

Memorial Day Weekend

Boy am I getting behind on my family history!  I will try to do better.  Let me tell you about our Memorial Day weekend before I forget what we did!

Abby and Maddie (two of our Rexburg cousins) are on the same soccer team (Uncle Terry is their coach).  They happened to be having a soccer tournament in Layton during the holiday weekend, so we got to host them.  It was a total blast!  They had a game on Friday evening, and they came over afterwards.  We had Kristi and her family and Shawn and Maddie (the rest of Shawn's family couldn't make it).  They got here after dinner time, so we just had cookies and milk.  The kids played for a while, then got set up in their sleeping bags in various rooms throughout the house.  The grown ups stayed awake and visited until late.  I loved it!  Oh how I miss Sunday visits with the Gee's!  Well, this was a Friday visit, but it reminded me of our Sunday visits.

The girls' first game on Saturday wasn't until later in the morning, so I woke up and made a big breakfast - fruit, pancakes, sausage, potatoes, etc.  We ate and ate and ate.  Then, the soccer families left for their first game.  The weather forecast for the weekend was NASTY, but somehow, the actual games were rain-free.  Muddy and slippery, etc. but never rainy.  I stayed home and cleaned up breakfast.  Then, I prepared lunch just in time for the soccer crew to arrive back.  They only had a couple of hours before their next game.  We ate various sandwiches, chips, and fruit while watching you-tube videos on our TV.  Pretty fun!

That's Abby in the white getting ready to throw the ball in.

And Maddie is in the bright orange shoes.

After lunch, the girls and I joined the soccer crew to watch their last game.  David stayed home with the boys.  I love watching soccer!  And I love my when-did-they-get-so-old nieces!  It was so fun!  Their team didn't win any games this time, but they will next year.  They are very good!  But the rules are different in Idaho at this age group - next year it will change and they'll be more prepared.  Towards the end of the game, Jodi's family joined us.  Once the game was over, the whole gang (minus Shawn and Maddie, who headed home) came over for a while.  We had a little pizza party and just played and talked all afternoon.  In the evening, they all headed home and our house suddenly seemed very empty and quiet with just seven people in it.

Krsiti on the phone with Jodi - "Where are you?!?"  Ali on the ground, and Ainsley and Shawn giving me death looks.   Ha ha!!

Adorable soccer fan, Eli!

I don't remember Sunday very well - shame on me for waiting too long to write.  I'm sure it was the typical "Sunday Morning Smack-down" on the Gee family pew.

Nicki did Quinton's hair for church.  Don't worry, I didn't leave it like that.  

On Monday, we visited my Grandparents' grave in Ogden.  It was lovely.

Sorry I don't have more pictures from our great weekend.  I was just so busy enjoying some time with our family that I forgot to even take out the camera.