Las Vegas

It's birthday month for my friend Kim and let me tell ya, the girl knows how to party. On her birthday she went out to eat and had a huge dance party. DJ, lights and no kids, although I'm sure the kids would have loved it. I danced like I was 12 years old sneaking into a stake dance. It was awesome. But why not enjoy a little shopping trip to Vegas as well? Our group: Cassie, Kyra, Kim... and Liz. Should've gone by my middle name to fit in?

I've never shopped so much in my life and thanks to a little Dr. Pepper and no kids I didn't even get grouchy!

Cassie originally told me she couldn't go, but I asked her husband for her and he said yes. Totally out of her comfort zone to leave her 3 year old and husband at home for a few days, but she had a blast. Can't wait to do it again!

Joan of Arc

We are learning about Joan of Arc, a little more hands on than a text book and Kennedy is ecstatic. She's gone through her family history and found a family member who was within a days walk of where Joan fought for France. Kennedy's reply was, "Good. I don't want to be English, they're mean." Ha!

This is the girls piano teacher, Giselle, as Joan.

We all had to dress in 1400 time period clothing. Grayson was beyond happy to be involved and pretending to be in France. However he wanted me to know he was "Merlin" and not a boy wearing his sister's stretchy pants and his mom's shirt.

Kennedy loves learning history. All she can talk about is what Joan might have done when she was alive. It's only been a week, but MacKenzie has decided she wants in. At first she couldn't give up her Mrs. Hobson, but after she saw these pictures she's been beside herself with envy. She's joining homeschool starting this morning. (Wait, what? Did I just say we're home schooling out loud? Yes, I did.)

The Swing Set

We have gone back and forth over swing sets for years. Wood will rot, cheap ones are cheap. It's got to be heavy duty to survive our family and 300*-10* weather changes in the high desert. So that leaves you with nothing to choose from in our price range. And then I was on Costco.com... I saw this and bought it immediately. Couldn't help myself and I'm SO excited. Even better we had it up and working in about an hour!

Pure joy. How could you not smile at that face?

Nothing says good morning like sleeper jammies and boots.

Justin can't handle all these new changes. Cats, swings... he got this weenie dog for free last night to even it all out? We're calling him "Hotdog" (the dog, not Justin).

Shootin' at the range

I'm really good at trash talking, but for real I'm kind of a wimp. The first gun I ever shot about ripped my shoulder off. The second made me deaf and turned me off altogether. When the girls kindergarten teacher heard about my experiences she took me under wing and had me shoot a 22 (translation: smallest bullets/least about of kick back/beginner gun)... not so bad. In fact a little bit fun for the first time. I now am excited to get out every now and then for a shooting date with my teacher friend. Here's from earlier today.

I'll leave out the part where I invited my other friends Cassie and Brandon to shoot with us today. They brought their 9mm guns (cop guns with LOTS of power) and I took one shot with Cassie's and about pooped my pants.

I'll stick with my wimpy guns for now.

Sparky the cat

Justin HATED that I brought Tiger home, until the next day. Then he was SO SAD that Tiger won't let anyone hold him (my favorite animal of all time). He took Kennedy and MacKenzie cat shopping and adopted Sparky from the pound. This animal is Justin in cat form, loves to play and socialize. The kids are in animal heaven!

A few days ago neither of us would admit it, but we're cat people. I've got my mouse hunting antisocial Tiger in the garage and everyone else has Sparky.