Hannah’s Dance Class

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNDcZl3ii4Q

Hannah just started her very first dance class.  She loves it, and I never get bored of watching her.  She is wearing the same shoes Emma did when she started dance class, and I can’t believe how big my kids are getting.  It’s going so fast, but I love watching them all grow.

Her class has a lot of little girls, and they all have fun dancing with their spunky teacher.  My favorite parts of this video are when Hannah turns to wave at me and keeps waving.  I start to do hand motions through the window telling her to turn around, but she doesn’t get the sign language, and starts doing what I’m doing… and then when she got all of the girls sliding on their tummies while they waited for everyone to finish their turns.  When she first started sliding out and then all the girls started to follow, I was trying to get her attention to get her back to where she was supposed to be waiting, so I only got the part after she was shooed back by the teacher.

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Hannah and the Marshmallows

On Saturday, our ward had its annual Corn Roast at Corona Del Mar Beach. We all had a blast socializing and playing in the sand and the waves. It was also a chance to try out the new video camera that Amy got me for my birthday (or more accurately, let me pick out). It’s a new kind that records to a little SD memory card instead of to a tape or dvd. One of the benefits is that it’s way easier now to get video onto the computer and then uploaded to YouTube. This will hopefully mean we’ll use the camera more and have lots more clips to share with everyone (You’re just going to love it!). To start us off, here’s a little clip from the Corn Roast. It was a cute moment when Hannah was working on her “S’mores Kit” that the ward provided. Enjoy!

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2vTCcEQ0hQ

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Always Remember – Hero Camp 08

Last week was “Hero Camp”, an amazing church camp that is planned and run by the mothers in my ward (congregation) and a neighboring ward. Last year Hunter and Emma had a great time, and they have been waiting all summer for this big week.  This year’s theme was “Always Remember” and focused on the wonderful examples of heroes we have had throughout time. Every morning the group of 99 children would meet together and get a visit from a hero that came through a Time Machine. Then they would split into groups by age and rotate through activities, music rehearsal, and a lesson.  I didn’t see everything that went on, but here are some of the highlights of the week:

Monday’s Hero: Old Testament – Joseph and the coat of many colors. The focus was on choosing the right no matter what happens to you, and having a good attitude. They talked about “CTR Power” quoting the scripture in 2 Samuel 22:33- “God is my strength and my power: and he maketh my way perfect.”  They also learned about other heroes in the Old Testament: David’s power of courage (they used sling shots to throw marshmallows at an amazing painting of the giant Goliath), Moses’ power of faith, Daniel’s power of prayer, Esther’s power to stand for what is right, Noah’s power of hard work, and Joseph’s power to forgive.

Tuesday’s Hero: The Book of Mormon – Ammon’s wisdom. God helped Ammon to be wise by giving him ideas in his mind and in his heart.  They did activities related to living in Nephite times, making an arrowhead necklace, a little clay pot, a headband and painted each others faces.

Wednesday’s Hero: New Testament – The Good Samaritan. This is the day I was most involved with and I helped teach a lesson about Christ and how he taught us to serve by the way he lived. We talked about how he used his hands for service, made painted hand prints and special pencils, did an obstacle course and assembled hygiene kits.

Thursday’s Hero: Doctrine and Covenants – Mary Elizabeth and Caroline Rollins (They saved many of the pages from the Book of Commandments when a mob destroyed the print shop). The theme for the day was “We can do hard things.” Much of the focus was on the early Mormon pioneers and the hard work and sacrifice they gave to live and defend themselves from persecution.They made covered wagon snacks, played games that pioneer children would have played, and made butter.

Friday: The kids all performed the songs they had rehearsed through the week.  Each group had a song they learned together, and there were two beautiful group numbers as well.  (I can’t remember the name of the CD that so many of these songs were on, so if you know please tell me!) Each child was given a memory book with pictures of them and the things they did all week.  Then we all went to the Lagoon for swimming, sand and water slides.

It was such a special week.  The kids felt the love of their Heavenly Father and learned so much while still having fun with their friends.  There were tears shed by one of my girls because it was over so fast and she just loved learning and singing.  A huge Thank You to any of you that were involved in making this week happen.  It will be something that my kids will always remember.

Hannah’s group singing Nothing’s Too Hard For The Lord

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT4tPi2GnCg

Emma’s group singing Good News

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t53cieMeMGA

Hunter’s group circle dancing

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTaE8sXHWBw

The whole camp sings together

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Hcnq-hU82Q

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Citrus

On Saturday we went to the Festival of Flight at Orange County’s Great Park.  There is a huge orange hot air balloon that gives people rides straight up and and down for a view of the area. Unfortunately for us the event was pretty popular and the time slots for a ride were all filled two hours after the festival started.  We walked around and saw the different displays, made birdseed art and got some free frisbees. There was also a place to make a simple kite, but the line was super long, and Sabrina was super cranky, so we decided to pass on that one.  The park was also giving out free frozen orange sorbet in orange peel bowls- yum!

 

 

We also got the lemonade stand and the kids set it up for the first time yesterday. The neighbors got in on it too, and there are plans to try again today… Fun!

 

 

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232 Years Old

We had a blast this July 4th weekend.  It started with the bike parade.  The night before we decorated our wheels with streamers, bead, pom poms, pipe cleaners and stickers. That morning we walked and rode two bikes, a scooter, and a doll stroller over to the community childrens’ parade.

After getting there, Hannah was a bit overwhelmed by it all, and she and Sabrina did not want to take part.

Emma loved every minute.

Hannah sat with Sabrina and observed for a while then she warmed up to the idea and rode her scooter for a while.  Sabrina’s doll stroller stayed in our stroller next to her the whole time.

Hunter was Mr. Cool on his bike.

Emma brought the American Girl on her bike for a ride too.

Hannah was so fun to watch on her little scooter.

Fireworks were banned because of fire danger, so we got party poppers instead.

Pop, Bam, Boom!

That night we went to the church for dinner in the parking lot while some bands of members of the stake played patriotic and popular songs. Then it was off to watch the fireworks show put on by our village association.

The next day, we cleaned out the garage and then decided to try out Hunter’s new kite at the beach.  We tried out a new beach which we heard was fun for families because of the mellow waves and tidepools.  A lot of people had the same idea.  It was packed!  So we weren’t able to fly the kite, but had fun playing around in the sand and tidepools.

Little Corona Beach

Rob and Hannah look for hermit crabs

Emma was great at finding the little guys.

Sabrina was not interested in being near them.

She was excited about finding a little purple shell though.

Sabrina and Hannah made initials on the sand.

Emma, Hunter, and Rob took a walk way out over the tide pools.

Hannah and Sabrina covered Mommy’s legs and feet with sand.

Sabrina made a fun game out of coming right up to the lens for me to take her picture.  I love this one.

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Summer…Summer…Summer

Sabrina in ribbons and a sun dress

Hannah in ribbons and a sun dress

Mormon night at Angels Stadium

Emma with her friends Mikayla and Emma

“Dads are Rad” Mini Golf

 

Our Dad is Rad!

Happy Father’s Day Daddy!

A “new” playhouse I found on Craigslist

Water fights!

Emma gets dumped on by their friend Kate

Kate gets triple teamed

Unfortunately, I never remembered to bring my camera to swim lessons, but we just finished a session of classes for Hunter, Emma, and Hannah. For a bunch more pictures go to the gallery. More fun ahead…

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