Lagoon Day!

We had such a blast at Lagoon! Our family + Manda +Abby + Manda's friend, Sam, spent the day riding rides and playing in the water. Cam is getting braver and trying things that scare him like the big roller coasters. I was so proud of him for going on Wicked! Josh,on the other hand, can't get tall enough fast enough for some of the rides! He's dying to go on every upside down ride and luckily, he barely made the 46 inch cut-off requirement to ride most of them.Sam was able to ride more than we thought he would and once he found something he liked, he had to ride it 2 or 3 times! Jake loved riding everything, he just couldn't get off the last ride and onto the next one fast enough!
While Jared and Sam napped, the rest of us went to Lagoon-A-Beach for a couple of hours. We hadn't been to the water park part before, but the boys had fun on the waterslides and the cold water worked it's magic so we could stay at the park for another 6 hours! (Sorry there's no pictures of the water stuff, but you're better off. Believe me!)

A huge THANK YOU to Uncle Craig who got us Alumni priced tickets and to the dentist that gave us back our overpayment so we could go!

Cedar Hills Park

How many new parks can we go to this summer?
It's kind of become a challenge!
This park is in Cedar Hills - some friends went for Wacky Wednesday and we missed it, so we went for FHE.
There was a playground and plenty of grass for kicking a soccer ball, but I took all of my pictures while the boys played in the stream.

Sam collected a bazillion rocks just so he could throw them back in the water and make splashes.

Jake (unknowingly doing a KMart pose for Aunt Libby) and Sam. Jake taught Josh how to skip stones in the creek - wish I had a picture of that!

Josh and Cam collected a bazillion rocks, too. They must get it from their Grandma Louisiana. They thought they were going to bring them all home, but I think that's where most of Sam's collection came from!

Impress your kids!

What would happen if you put a bar of soap in the microwave?

Yep! Your kids would think you're pretty cool!

(we put a bar of Ivory in the microwave for 2 minutes.It got so big that we tried a quarter of a bar for 1 minute and still had awesome results!)

Cooking Camp

Our second summer camp that the boys helped me do was a cooking camp. I got a few pictures of the 6 younger kids I had in the morning class. For the afternoon class, I was planning on five Monday morning and ended up with twelve by the time class started at 1:00! So, I didn't have much time to grab the camera with that many cooking friends!
The younger kids (3-5) made Nilly Dillyicious Pops, Ants on a Log, Play-Doh, and a few other things.
The older kids (6-10) made French Bread, Calzones, Turtles, Dillyicious pops, Glurch, Play-doh, Baggie Ice Cream, and a bunch of other stuff !

Cam's 9. What happened to 8? Or 7 for that matter?

Cam is my passionate one - whether he's excited or angry, he's passionate about it! You know how he's feeling without a doubt.
Cam is also very creative. He likes to make things out of other things that are made out of other things. Get it?
Cam loves macaroni & cheese, web dinner, and pizza.
Cam is really good at math and memorizing math facts.
Cam is crazy about Batman and MightyBeanz right now.
Cam is seriously the wittiest kid I know! He's always coming up with goofy things to say and funny expressions. He makes his brother shoot drink through his nose at dinner on a regular basis. Just last week, his aunt was quizzing him on family relations and asked him what her husband would be called if she ever got married. His answer : CRAZY!

We went to a pizza buffet for Cam's birthday dinner. He couldn't eat it fast enough!

We went over to the Water Pad in Highland after dinner to celebrate some more.

This is some pose the boys have made up during their karate training sessions. None of them are in karate anymore, but they train together. Train for what I'm not really sure. But, they train a lot. And, they do this pose together at the end of training sort of like a Charlie's Angel thing, I think.
(Anyways, it's posted now for future blackmailing needs.)

Cam's 9th Birthday

If Cam could have it his way, we'd have a Batman party every year for his birthday! But, I've run out of ideas and Batman parties lead to Batman gifts and I really don't think there's anything Batman left that he doesn't have already!
So, we had a Drive-In Theater Party for his birthday. We played some movie trivia games to earn tickets for the concessions and prizes to take home. The kids also had to use their tickets to enter the 'theater'. Jared brought the projector outside and we watched How to Eat Fried Worms on a panel of the fence.

He asked for a Popcorn Bucket Cake (and he didn't really care that the stripes were slowly melting into one another).

He loved his Matching shirts Manda made for him!

I LOVE how excited Cam gets about every gift! He squeals over underwear from his aunt just as loud as he squeals over the watergun or MightyBeanz he was dying to get! There's no way you can come to his party and not feel like you are his favorite. He is so good about making sure every guest is welcomed.

Shelby

Reasons we now have a dog:

1. The boys have wanted a dog for sooooo long. Especially the boy in the first picture.
2. Manda has wanted a dog for sooooo long and we've kinda accepted her as the boys' sister.
3. One day she'll have puppies and pay for herself.
4. It may be the only way there's ever a girl baby in the Meiners' house.
5. Manda and I made the mistake of holding the puppies in the WalMart parking lot. Suckers!

Jake and Shelby - he's in Heaven, doesn't even complain about cleaning up poo!

Shelby and Sam - best friends and worst enemies!Sam doesn't enjoy having his toes or ears bitten and Shelby doesn't enjoy being picked up by his head or toes!

Such sad, droopy eyes. Manda says she's depressed - may she needs a sodie.

She likes to chew on EVERYTHING! Toys, shoes, ponytails, children, etc.

Internet Wisdom

Sam has been walking around this morning with his thumb hooked in his jaw pulling it out and saying, " Owwie". I checked it out and I think he has a canker sore. Seems a little young to me, so I Googled it, of course, because the internet knows everything!
Come to find out, the babycenter.com says 2 year olds can get cankers. And, according to the picture on their site, it really helps if you stick your dirty finger in their mouth!

Deee-scusting!


addendum : k, so I've worried about it all afternoon and I have to make sure you all know that's not my picture! His owwie isn't that bad and my hands are never that dirty!OK. Whew! Now I can stop worrying about what you all think of me!

Camping Trip!

The boys were very eager to try out the new Father's Day tent so we took it for a spin this weekend.We were only there overnight, but it was plenty of time to play in the fire, make a new friend, and go fishing.


The fire was the first thing we had to do after getting the tent set up. And, all five boys looked for things that cold be burned. Pyros!

Josh took a picture of Sam and I roasting our marshmallows.

Cam was really proud of his "Perfect Marshmallow". It was soooo golden, until he ate it!

Sam made a new friend in the chipmunk that previously owned our site. He immediately named it Cookie and called to it the entire time we were there. If you find the rock in the grassline and follow that curve to the part that's sticking out, you'll see Cookie.

Saturday morning, we packed up and drove back to Tibble Fork to fish. Well, I read and Sam fell in teh cold water, but the boys and Jared fished. Josh was the only one to get a couple of bites, but they all got away.