Glass Candy

Ashlynn has been obsessed with watching cooking shows and she has a particular one called Nerdy Nummies that she watches every day.  She watched an episode on how to make Glass Candy so she invited a friend over, gathered all the supplies she needed and went to work. I love her motivation!

Here are her supplies...

Notice the hammer and paint brush...not usually the tools we use to cook with, but sounds fun.

 After boiling the sugar ingredients and adding the peppermint flavor they had the perfect set up for their candy.

 Then after waiting about 30 minutes for it to dry..then came the fun part...

 Smashing it with a hammer...fun!

 The hammer made cool designs in the candy.

 The girls were smart and put waxed paper on top so that the yucky hammer wouldn't touch the candy.  Good team work!

 The finished candy after hammering it to pieces.

 Way to go girl!

 The girls had fun making their glass candy and it even tasted yummy too.  I can't believe how much it does look like broken glass.

Overnight Scout Camp

 Carter has had 2 scout camp outs. The first camp out in April had terrible weather with pouring rain and the boys came home wet and cold.  It was still raining in the morning that they didn't do their planned hike and even skipped cooking breakfast and picked up donuts on the way home.  

This time the weather was perfect!  They were able to do all their fun activities and enjoy their time together.  All the scout's dads went on the camp out so it was well spent time with their dads. 

Cooking mummy dogs over the fire...

The boys decided to hike up the huge mountain after breakfast.  It was so high that you can barely see them in the picture at the top.

Our Summer Hiking/Walking Challenge

We decided that it would be fun to explore our area this summer and hit the hiking trails. We are going to try to walk a new trail/hike each week and walk other trails a couple times a week.  The kids were super excited for the challenge!

 Our first walk was an easy stroll through Kays Creek.  Carter decided to roller blade the trail since it was paved all the way.  He biffed it in the middle of our 4 mile walk and did not appreciate the blood dripping from his knee.  The blood dried up and he was set for the rest of the trail.

Our neighbor Joslyn was all for the hiking/walking challenge too!

 Our next new trail for the week was Jensen Park.  The trail wraps around a beautiful pond and there were ducks everywhere!  They were super friendly.

 It was so gorgeous here! This trail was also paved so the boys that went with us brought along their scooters and raced around the pond.  A few scooter wipe outs happened, but no blood this time.  So Fun!  We will definitely come back to this one!

Tumbling Performance

Ashlynn had her end of the year Tumbling Performance.  She is such a good sport when it comes to supporting Carter with all his games.  This was her time to shine and it was so fun to see her show off her tumbling skills she has learned this past year.

She is such a beautiful girl and she is loosing her little girl look..sniff, sniff...

 Her nervous before shot...

 Waiting for her Que...

 Ashlynn and her friend Joslyn being silly.

 It has been so fun for Ashlynn to have one of her good friends in her tumbling class.  They can get a little goofy together...

And of course we love it when Aunt Gail comes to support her. She always brings beautiful flowers and yummy treats for both Ashlynn and Carter.  Since moving to Utah I don't think she has missed a single performance of hers.

The Astros...

The Astros' regular season has come to a end.  We ended up 3rd in our division and we had a lot to be proud of. Carter really stepped it up and became our team's strongest and most consistent pitcher.

 

These are the photos that Matt created for the team.  He did a Great job!

 He was very serious with his concentration...

 Ashlynn capturing photos at the games.  I was giving her a wink...

 Another fun photo by Ashlynn. Carter waiting to bat.

 Here is the team.  What a great bunch of boys!

 One last cheer after our last game of the season (which we did win). GO ASTROS!

 End of season pool party! Ashlynn taking a swimming rest.

 Here are the two coaches.  Parents were very pleased with what they did with this team.  Way to go Matt and Stephen!!  This photo makes me smile because Carter is always standing next to his dad at the games by the dugout and here he is again at the end of year party right next to him again. Love these boys!

At the pool party we had each player sign a ball and we handed out a clear display box to show it off.

We are now preparing for the All Star game on the 4th of July.  Carter had the most parent votes to be selected for the All Star team. Way to go!  This will be his 3rd All Star game. He is One and One..will they get the win this year...we will see.

It's laGOon TIME!

It's GO TIME! We finally made it to one our favorite places to enjoy summer fun! LAGOON! 

On our first day at the park Carter took along a friend and we hit all the big rides. Ashlynn was slightly nervous that she didn't need a booster seat for her favorite ride anymore: Wicked. She was worried she would slip out when it flipped upside down.  She has passed the height requirement and can now ride in a regular seat. (No more worries for her because she did just fine in a regular seat.)    

Carter and his Friend Cameron are in the front seats of the Colossus roller coaster. The lines were so short that there wasn't much of a wait time to get on all the rides.  It was awesome!

 Ashlynn and I on the sky ride above the park.

The picture below is Carter going down the fastest slide at the water park. He said it is so tight in the slide that you can't sit up during the slide down. I think that would be scary. He has become such a brave kid lately or maybe some peer pressure from his friends...Ha ha. He must of liked it because he went down it again.

Then on our second day we met up with some friends and hit the Beach Water Park. We had a perfect day in the sun! We had a great spot in the park, gathered some lounge chairs by the slides, packed a lunch and just played for a few hours. Ashlynn rode her favorite water slide 13 times within in 2 hours because the lines again were so short. (I just can't get over how quick you could get on the slides/rides.) We were all sad we had to leave so early but the boys had baseball games to get to. Lagoon Days are always a hit! We will be back for more fun soon! 

Your never too old...

Your never too old to have fun on your BIRTHDAY!

After Matt got home from work we had his favorite take out meal..Chinese Food. Then, Ashlynn and I headed to tumbling pictures and met up with the boys later at their Baseball game.

 Matt points out this big bucket of sunflower seeds every time at Dick's Sporting Good. So, the kids got him the bucket and the bonus part is that it has a padded foam on top for a seat.  That is a lot of seeds!

 Hamburger cupcakes..yum!

 We had the treat for the baseball game and I had Cutler's make these cute sugar cookies. 

 They tasted yummy too!

 The kids thought it would be fun to get cans of silly string and attack Matt after the game.  So, I got everyone a can on the team, we sang Happy Birthday and they attacked.

 Poor birthday boy..they got him good!

 Birthday boy enjoying his birthday cookie.

We also had a awesome SURPRISE when Aunt TRACY showed up at the game. We also won the game, Carter had a awesome pitching game and to top it off he hit a HOME RUN that brought in 2 more runs..Yay!! It was a GREAT evening to celebrate!

Foam pit play time

 So how do you get this dirty and gross?

 And all soapy?

 Well, you slide down a muddy hill and walk through a muddy river and...

 ...then slide down a hill full of soap that creates a foam pit at the bottom.

 This is what our family did on our first day of summer break.

The Fire Department created the foam and the kids just loved getting covered in the soap foam. The pit at the bottom was knee deep to me.  It was surprising that no children went missing because it would go over the little toddler's heads.  It was like a giant bath with no water.  It created some fun laughs.

Ashlynn's 9th Birthday

Ashlynn has turned 9 years old. Since her birthday fell on a very busy day we had to celebrate with a late night cake with neighbor friends and then had her birthday bash on the following Saturday.

 She wanted to have a Breakfast party this year.  So that is just what we did. All her friends came over in their pj's for some morning fun.  We had a breakfast buffet of food, made cereal jewelry, played a spin the nail polish game and made fabric journals. The girls were so cute when they were playing the nail polish game, they would snack on their bracelets they made while waiting for their turn.

 This is Ashlynn's buffet table (she even made the pink table sign). On the menu were chocolate chip pancakes, fruity pebbles crispy treats, donuts on stick, choices of cereal and of course orange juice. (lots of morning sugar, but that is what parties are for!)

She also loved all the extra attention she got in the mail with the cards she received.

We love this girl and her sweet light-hearted attitude. We are glad that she had a fun birthday!