Member Mondays!

Our Zoo does Member Mondays in June.  They have snacks, free train rides and carousel rides as well as free admittance into their new splash pad!  We headed on out to enjoy some perks of our membership. 

We were really looking forward to the new splash pad.  It costs $5 to get in normally and members get a discount at $4... per person (over 2).  Well, since I don't plan to pay that sort of price we were really excited for the member Monday promotion!  When we pulled into the zoo there was a sign stating that the splash pad was currently closed due to technical difficulties.  We were so disappointed!  We really had just been to the zoo a week earlier and really wanted to enjoy the splash pad this time around.  I filled out a comment card hoping to get tickets to use at a later time to make up for our loss during this trip.  Well, they responded with the idea to hit another member Monday in June with no reference to any other way to make up for the inconvenience.  I was sad, but life goes on. 

Well, here is what we did enjoy on our Member Monday at the zoo!

An animal encounter with a Macaw :)

New baby giraffes! 

 .
More lion cub action!  There were actually 3 cubs!

A statue that I hadn't noticed before... who had extra guests living in a very personal area!

 .
Nasty wasps!

 Clark hugging a turkey statue.  Silly boy!

Free carousel rides!  
Grant

Bree and Mhari

 Ella and Sandra

 Lorna

 Clark and Talmage

Despite the disappointment we really did have a nice day.  It was hot and we spent plenty of time playing in the water tower splash water just to let the kids cool off.  I'm glad the kids got to enjoy some of the perks that were being offered!

Last Soccer game!

This season really dragged on and on with all of the rain outs.  We finally finished up in June!

Clark's team played hard and won their last game.  It was great to see them play!  Clark really does play well!  I look forward to seeing his skills progress in the future!

Team photo after they got their team medals for playing!

Talmage and Grant had a double header Saturday.  It was a hot day and it was tough to pull off.  The boys played well, but they lost both games.  We were so worn out after Clark's game and the boys first game that Jeff went back with the boys for the last game.  I'm happy they are learning so much, but I hope they are able to improve as a team next season!

Talmage had a turn as goalie in the last game.

Team pizza party afterwards!  

It was great being a Spartan!  The boys really have enjoyed soccer!

Pianist!

Sandra has enjoyed being our family pianist!  She practices almost every day!  She had to prepare for her spring recital and memorize two piano pieces!  She did one as a duet with her teacher and the other as a solo.  I think we all had the two songs memorized by the time the recital came ;)

Here she is faithfully practicing!

Daddy and Lorna - too cute!

Sandra playing her solo!

At the end of the recital the teacher passed out certificates and talked about each student.  She mentioned that Sandra had done so well for her first year of piano that she let her do a solo, when usually she doesn't.  

Such a cute little pianist!

We are so proud of how far Sandra has come with the piano and look forward to many more years of her music filling our home!  

More paint!

With all of the painting we have done in the family room we really wanted to keep painting the house.  Some of the walls are so high that I don't want to tackle them yet, but there are a few places we can keep painting.  There is this one wall by the stairs that used to match the family room... where we painted yellow behind the TV.  It had gotten chipped and dirty and really just needed to be painted.  I must say that flat paint and little children fingers don't mix well!  

Here is the before photo!

It took me just an evening to get it done... but it was pretty bright.  

Did you notice how it matches the wall in the room behind it.  That yellow just is a little bright for me.  It is great paint, but I'm not sure how much I really want to stare at it.  

After talking with Jeff and thinking about the house colors etc. we decided to paint it neutral instead.  This will bring down some of our crazy colors and help us as we try to stick with some sort of color pallet.  


Jeff helped me out and we got the wall done, the nook to the bathroom under the stairs, a small wall by the master bedroom, and the inside wall of the stairs! It was a very productive night!

Here is how it turned out! 

I know that it can be hard to see the color because it is a neutral tone, but it really just feels more calm.  It is also amazing to have at least one of the walls by the stairs looking clean!

This is the wall I didn't do.  The flash probably makes it look better than it does, but there is pencil, crayon, and lots of dirty hand prints all over this wall!  

I'm looking forward to doing more painting, just not for a few months.  It's always nice when it's done, but it can be tedious work!

Homeschool Fun!

Sometimes as homeschoolers my kids may feel that they miss out on some of the fun going on at the public school.  I think we do a good job of being involved and doing fun things so they don't complain :).  Before we started homeschooling Talmage got to go on a field trip to Hawaiian Falls water park!  What a fun thing to do, right!  Well, the water park also has a homeschool day!  I must say they also have plenty of other kids there on field trips, but it was nice to get to go at a discounted rate and bring the whole family!  This is one of our favorite summer activities!  We get to hang out with other awesome homeschoolers and just relax!  We didn't get to stay the whole time since Sandra had piano in the afternoon, but it was still great to get out and play!

Here are the few photos I snagged while kids were around me :)

Lorna ... not sure she was happy to be there yet.  It always takes her a few ... hours to warm up!

Clark

Grant

Talmage, and Owen (Grant is there too, just can't seem him behind Talmage).  The kids love doing these things with their cousins!

Lorna finally having fun!

Mhari

Tiffany and I got to go on a few rides while Nathan hung out with the little people.  Going on rides is always my favorite part!  We even went on a bigger ride, Pineapple Express, with Clark!  He was scared, but he did it with us!  I love that the kids are getting bigger and getting to enjoy these fun places!

Cherry Blossom Tree!

About a year and a half ago my sister-in-law, Tiffany, asked me to paint a tree on her wall.  It was just the tree, no leaves and she was going to hang pictures of her family on it.  I did it and it turned out really well.  She really loved it and gets compliments on it all of the time.  Since painting the tree I have thought about what I would do for my house.  After talking with Jeff we decided on a cherry blossom tree.  I did some searching and found some trees we liked.  I searched more and more and after collecting lots of trees these were my favorites:

I love the branching and the birds.  I love the petals and flowers floating in the wind.  I decided I didn't need to have a trunk to my tree, but rather just the branching.

It was time to get started on my blue wall.  Before painting I taped the outline of the branches.  I wanted Jeff's input too so this made it easier for him to change things before it was done.  

This was my first outline where I gave a general idea of where I wanted the branches.  I taped out more of the branches on the right than the left side.  

After showing Jeff I adjusted (and he adjusted) the tape and added in more branching.  The rectangle is going to be some decorative doors we will be hanging on the wall.  We wanted to know how much would be hidden by the doors so it helped me map out the branches.

Then it was time to paint!  It was pretty easy to slowly peel a section of tape off and fill in with a dark brown as I peeled.  

After I started I found that the sharper the edges the better the branches were.  I also added some knots to the branches to help them feel more real.

The flowers were fun to do.  I made a few templates of what I wanted the flowers to look like.  Then I used craft sponge to cut out the shapes and then sponge on the different colored flowers.  I didn't care for the sponge texture so I went back and filled in the flowers so they were solid.  The sponges made it so I could get the flowers up quickly and also keep them the right size and shapes I wanted :). 

The last thing to add to the tree was the birds.  I let each kid pick a bird and we found a good image online to print and cut out to use to make into an outline.  

Here are Jeff and my love birds :).  I really wanted them to be the biggest birds so once they were on the wall I still adjusted their size a little!

Waiting to be outlined.  Grant's Crested

A little closer look at the left side.  I really love the way it all turned out!

So here is the finished wall.  Now, if you have been paying attention you will notice that this one is not the same as some of the earlier pictures...

I actually took out a branch on the right side.  It seemed like there was too much on the wall.  Once I took out that branch it really balanced out!  I'm glad I made my tree wall and I'm really happy with how well it turned out.  I'm looking forward to getting the doors on the wall to see how awesome it all looks once it's officially finished!

Yay for cherry blossoms all year long!