Lunch In The Park

In Idaho as part of the school lunch program the school district provides free lunches for any one under the age of 19 in the local neighborhood parks. You don't have to qualify financially or anything just be under 19 to get a free lunch and play in the park. We have taken advantage of this a few times this summer. The girls love going to the park and eating a picnic on a blanket. I love it because I have no preparation or clean up for lunch. Sometime the lunch is good and sometimes it leaves the taste buds reeling to try to identify what you just put in your mouth. Note the picture of Abigail above. My favorite thing is it is FREE! My girls never finish their entire lunch, so I let them eat, get full, then go play and then I eat the rest of whatever seems appetizing at the time.

The apple slices were pretty good.

The girls convinced this poor little boy to sit on the nose of the dinosaur while they tried to bounce him off. I quickly took a picture, and then told them that was probably not the safest idea.

Abigail is getting stronger and stronger, I noticed a big difference in the one week that she went to dance camp and now.

Elizabeth's favorite activity was digging in the gravel.

Emily loves to swing high. (Yes, I did crop myself out of this picture).

Elizabeth just sat in the swing and didn't want to move, she is alot less daring than Emily.

She loved climbing though.

I just love those little cuties.

Emily has loved wearing this hat this summer. She looks to wear it every day. Elizabeth does not really enjoy anything on her head.

Chocolate Milk - It does a body good!

Trampoline

Darin got a little bonus on his last paycheck, so we splurged for a trampoline for the kids. It was on sale for $145 off the original price. We couldn't pass up a deal like that, and it makes our backyard so much more fun.

Darin set it up while the girls were at dance camp and it was a big surprise when they got home. They immediately ran out and started jumping on it.

The next day the girls decided that it would be even more fun if we put the sprinkler on it.

Yes, Elizabeth is wearing a wetsuit. (She must have been channeling her inner Grand Nan).

Toe Touch!

Be Ye Therefore Perfect

I don't get to go to Sunday School or Relief Society now that I am the Primary Pianist. We get a newsletter from the Relief Society every month and it has some good quotes in it from time to time. I really liked this quote and it got me thinking. Here is the quote:

"Do we frequently reject the Lord's love that He pours out upon us in much more abundance than we are willing to receive? Do we think we have to be perfect in order to deserve His love? When we allow ourselves to feel 'encircled about eternally in the arms of his love' (2 Nephi 1:15), we feel safe, and we realize that we don't need to be immediately perfect. We must acknowledge that perfection is a process. This is a gospel of eternal progress, and we must remember to appreciate the journey."

(Bonnie D. Parkin,"Eternally Encircled in His Love," Ensign, Nov. 2006, 108)

I remember when I was younger learning the scripture Matthew 5:48 "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." I remember when I learned that scripture feeling overwhelmed at the huge expectations that I had to live up to. There were no exceptions, it didn't say, "except for Misty" just "Be ye therefore perfect." I think there are thousands of LDS women that struggle with being perfect and even women who aren't LDS. Am I the perfect mom, wife, friend, sister, etc? Do I have a perfect body? Am I living my life perfectly? Is my house perfectly clean? Because you know, "cleanliness is next to Godliness" (that is my dad's and husband's favorite quote - more on that another day). When you look at things that way it seems like a mountain that we can never climb. I am learning that we don't have to be perfect in everything all at once. We just need to work on these things one thing at a time "line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little" (Isaiah 28:10). It is okay if we aren't perfect at FHE or saying our prayers, or church attendance, or temple attendance, or scripture study, or the one-billion other things that we need to be doing as long as we are trying and trying to progress and get better day by day. It is also okay if we show others that we aren't perfect too. My favorite part of Sister Parkin's quote is: "we must acknowledge that perfection is a process. This is a gospel of eternal progress, and we must remember to appreciate the journey." This quote made me want to read more and find her talk online, so if you would like to read it too, here it is.

https://lds.org/general-conference/2006/10/eternally-encircled-in-his-love?lang=eng&cid=email-shared

1st Day of Summer

Today was the first day of Summer (June 21st). What does this mean in Idaho? Well for me, it means that if it is below 70 degrees during the day, then I can complain and not feel bad about it. It was a nice 78 degrees today, so the girls put their swimsuits on for some sun bathing.

Next it was time for them to sit on the back porch in their lawn chairs and eat Otter Pops.

Then came the real fun. I bought this thing that hooks up to the garden hose and sprays water for $5 at Walmart. The girls had fun running through the spraying water. It was busted by the end of the day, but I don't feel too bad about that. It was a one hit wonder, but the entertainment for the afternoon was priceless.

Samba

Last weekend we took the girls to the $2 theater to see the movie Rio. If anyone hasn't seen it, I highly recommend it. It was really cute. The story was based in Brazil, so there was lots of Samba music in the movie. Darin loved it cause he could understand the Portuguese and said that they did a really good job capturing the feel of Brazil for an animated movie. The girls had to do the Samba when they got home and for the entire rest of the weekend. Luckily for us, Darin had a bunch of Samba music that he picked up on his mission. The girls have been having a blast choreographing dances to the music for several days now.

Samba Movie

To watch this video, click on the picture. You will then need to turn the volume on your computer up and click full screen.

Ride A Little Horsie

Grandma and Grandpa Ralphs have a horse in Rockland that is very docile and loves to have kids ride it. (Adults - not so much). The girls love to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Rockland and ride Odette.

Blogger Is Being Weird

So for my bottom 3 posts, Blogger would not let me type next to my pictures. I don't know what is going on. Does anyone else have this problem? Earlier this month, blogger would not let me put the pictures next to the text that I wanted to. Getting a little frustrated, since I have been doing this for 3 1/2 years now and am just starting to have problems with my posts.

So here is the commentary with the posts.

Garden 2011 - I have been working on planting my garden since late may and things are just starting to pop up. My Tulips have gone away and now I have Iris blooming. I am loving my bulb garden in the front of my house. I can't wait until next year when I will be having more Tulips, Iris, and some Freesia. My vegetable/fruit garden is in sections. I have a strawberry patch, a raspberry patch and a viney plant patch. In the viney plant patch I planted cucumbers, yellow crook-neck squash, zucchini, 3 different kinds of pumpkins, butternut squash, watermelon, and cantaloupe. My viney plants haven't popped up yet, but I hope they do well. The other section is my vegetable garden in it I planted dill, cilantro, basil, green beans, tomatoes, 3 kinds of onions, peas, carrots, radishes, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, and an herbal salad mix which includes arugula. Yum! Yum! I can't wait until harvest. Next year, I hope to plant some fruit trees. We shall see.

Teddy Bear Picnic - We went to the library on Friday for a teddy bear picnic. It was a beautiful day, but very sunny, so the girls had a hard time keeping their eyes open for pictures. We set out our picnic blanket and the kids listened to stories and poems about bears and sang songs about bears and then we had cookies and punch. The best part about this activity for me was that it was FREE! I love the library!

Mudding - Our back yard has a less than desirable amount of grass in it. The people that lived here before us had a bunch of animals that destroyed the grass. We have focused most of our landscaping energy on trying to grow grass this year. There are some patches that have filled in well and some bare spots. The other day while Darin was watching the kids they got the great idea of putting the hose on the dirt patches and creating a mud hole. Abigail then, wanted to drive the Jeeps through the hole. I came out and saw a flash

Garden 2011

Iris

Strawberry

Raspberry Patch - Don't mind the weeds. Weeding is on my list of things to do this week.

The dirt patch is where I planted all of my viney plants.

Things are starting to pop up in my vegetable garden,

Carrots

Peas

Tomatoes

Lettuce

Teddy Bear Picnic

Getting Ready for the Teddy Bear Picnic. Elizabeth is the kid that has to always do something weird in pictures.