So last year when we put down the lawn in the front yard, we had a bit left over and laid it down the east side of the house in the back yard. The problem is that the rest of the back yard isn’t done yet so this one little strip gets neglected a bit both in terms of being watered (I can’t water it with the sprinklers or it would turn the rest of the back yard into a mud bog) or in terms of mowing it (because I forget).

Anyway… yesterday we were out in the back yard getting it prepped so that we can get the rest of the lawn in and the girls decided to play in the strip of grass along the east side of the house. I wandered over to see what they were doing and saw that they had made “beds” in the foot long grass. They were having fun playing in the severely overgrown lawn and doing their normal “posing” thing, but it made me realize that I should really try to remember to mow back there.

Today I bought my first strawberries of the season. They look so yummy.  I had to wait all day to cut them up and get them ready for all the delicious strawberry treats.  Finally after all the kids were in bed I got out my favorite strawberry knife and started to cut.  They were big and most were pretty funny looking.  But as I got to the bottom of the pile I found the most perfect strawberry.  It looked like a drawing.  It’s color was perfect.  The shape was just right.  And the seeds were all evenly distributed!  I just couldn’t cut it up so  I saved it to show Mike.  He, however, did not appreciate it as much as I did.  But he did help me take a picture so that those who are cutting up strawberries of there own may share in my excitement! Happy eating.

Hailey is off track so we like to go do things we don’t normally get to do.  We met Grandma for lunch and had our traditional “off track frosty”.  Then on Friday we went downtown to The Church History Museum.  The girls had so much fun.  We also went over to Temple Square for a bit but every one was getting worn out so we didn’t get to stay long.  It was such a peaceful day.  I think the girls could sense that this place needed respect.  Even the babies were so good.  All the missionaries thought we were a site to see.  They couldn’t believe my huge double stroller with two car seats going in and out of the exhibits.  They were probably nervous that with one tantrum valuable history could be destroyed! They all got a kick out of the kids though.  And everyone told me how brave I was to leave the house with 4 kids.  I think that is funny because 4 doesn’t seem like a lot (any more).

We thought we got a lot of attention with our double stroller but yesterday at Costco I just put Jack and Annie in the double shopping cart and I got stopped twice as much as we usually do.  Every one says the say thing “boy, you have your hands full”.  Actually yesterday I didn’t because the babies both loved sitting up in the cart, Mallory was hanging on to the side and Hailey was hanging off the front. So really my hands were empty for once. Unless you consider that I was pushing the cart which weighed 4 tons! 

Zach pointed me to a top 20 list over on on Woot! today and it reminded me of the Fractured Fairy Tales bits on that old Moose & Squirrel show. It was a list of 20 lame fairy tales and although most of them were pretty stupid, there were a few stand outs that I thought I’d share:

• The Seven Ugly Stepsisters And Their Other Sister Who Looked Reasonably Cute In The Right Lighting
• Thumbelina II: The Thumbening
• Shaft in Narnia
• Mr. Tapeworm’s Wild Ride
• The Tale of Ned Van Winkle, Who Only Overslept By Half An Hour, But On The Morning Of An Important Job Interview
• Sleeping Nice-Personality

There are a few other good ones, but the rest are just dumb. If you’re interested, you can see the entire list HERE.

My new calling in our ward is Activity Day Leader.  It has been so much fun.  For the activity on Tuesday I decided to teach them a little about money and budgeting or at least as much as 10 and 11 year old girls understand.  I was so excited about it because I had, what I thought, was a good idea.  Hailey and Mallory helped me get ready and they were so excited it made me more excited so we went a little overboard.  When the girls first got there I explained to them that we have to be wise with our money and not just buy anything and everything we want.  We have to pay our tithing, save for the future and sometimes save for a goal.  I told them that they each got $10.00 a month in allowance.  And that in June when school got out they wanted to go to Lagoon with their friends, but their parents would only pay for half of it.  So that gave them a goal to focus on.  Then we went around to different stations to make some choices. One station they were at the store with their mom and she said they could buy a treat.  I bought mini candy bars and gum and Sprite and gave them price tags.  The girls asked “if they could really buy real stuff” and I told them they had to make their own choice with their money.  I have never seen such big eyes! Most bought a treat.  I set up different stations some they could buy stuff and some gave them money, like they got babysitting jobs and they also got “chance cards” with unexpected expences like a library fine or they broke their sisters earrings.  It was so much fun to watch the girls learn and guard their money. I was impressed when they turned down the overprice popcorn at the movie.  After we went to all the stations I talked to them about what choices they had to make and that nothing they had to choose was a bad choice they just had to remember that they were trying to get to Lagoon.  Well they all had enough money to go so I took then to “my” lagoon (good thing it was April Fool’s).  At “my” lagoon we play don’t eat pete.  They had so much fun playing and I let them eat the popcorn that no one bought and we drank the Sprite and candy bars that no one bought.  So when the moms came to pick the girls up they all said “oh mom, today we just had a party with popcorn and pop and candy”.  So two weeks of planning and cutting out money and sewing each girl a wallet, 1/2 hour of setting up the gym to look “cool”, 45 minutes making choices with our own money and after playing don’t eat pete for 15 minutes it was all forgotten!!! I sure hope they remember when the sugar rush wears off!