On top of the world

This was from our night in the canyon with my family on the 16th. The kids did a little rock climbing and Derek got a great picture with his camera phone!

First BBQ of the summer

It is finally summer here, it's even a bit hot! You're all shocked, I know. So last night we had a family home evening barbeque at our house. Derek gave a great lesson on how sticking together with our family will make us stronger. (Has anyone seen The Straight Story? He got the idea from that.) He gave us all small twigs and asked us to break them. We did it easily. Then he passed around a bundle of twigs and asked if we could break those, none of us could. He talked about how our family is there to support us and help us through the good and the bad, and if we stick together and help each other then we can't be "broken". It was a great object lesson and the kids actually paid attention!

It was a great night, and it was so fun being outside in the evening without freezing or having to wear a jacket!!!






Yay for summer!

Metal Stamping

I recently saw an online tutorial on how to "metal stamp" and I loved the end result! I decided to get some stamps (Harbor Freight has some inexpensive ones) and order a few metal blanks to try it out. Here's one that I made:

These are the tutorials:

I'd love to be able to sell these for a bit of extra cash after I get more experience!

Monopoly

I do not like the game Monopoly. I used to like it when I was a kid but my patience has since diminished and I don't want to sit for hours playing a game. I was actually thinking of getting rid of our Monopoly game so my kids wouldn't want me to play it with them.
But when there are lots of bored little boys at your house something that can take up hours at a time starts sounding pretty good! I am grateful that I still have that Monopoly game...

Family Reunion in Wallsburg

So we did make it to the reunion, despite the strange turn in the middle of Wallsburg to stay on the Main Canyon Road, and it was lots of fun. We didn't stay overnight, but we still had a great time seeing everyone! We did miss those of you who weren't able to make it though! Some pics from Friday night:

The game table.


The other end of the game table.

Andrew, Kristen, and Char gettig dinner.

Ethan playing ladderball. I was lucky to get this shot, he kept running from me when I had the camera out.

Julia started running from the camera too after she saw Ethan doing it, but I finally convinced her (or threatened her?) to let me take this picture. This is the frisbee she was playing with.

A shot at sunset.

Another sunset shot.

Julia roasting marshmallows.

Mmmmmmm...

Note Julia's BYU hat and shirt-- Aunt Char complimented her on them and she said "Dad plays for them", lol, and when Aunt Char told her that she went to school there Julia said, "You played basketball?" Apparently BYU is just a school for sports in Julia's eyes, and when Dad goes to play basketball at the church on Thursday nights he plays for BYU.

Ethan looking for bugs. (No, he didn't know I took this picture.)

My cute Grandpa and Grandma.

Thanks everyone for a great night!

Laminate floor cleaner recipe

I finally gave this recipe a try, and I really like it. My floors look better than when I was using the Pergo brand cleaner. I didn't have any essential oils so I just made it without.

Laminate floor cleaner
Ingredients
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup rubbing alcohol
1/3 cup white vinegar
3 drops liquid dishwashing soap
5-10 drops lemon essential oils (optional)
Directions
1. Combine all ingredients in a clean spray bottle.
2. Spray sparingly on laminate floors and mop up. (I use a microfiber mop.)
3. The rubbing alcohol helps speed up the drying process.

Photo of the day

This was our sunset the other night!

And a few happenings... (Sorry the blog has been so random lately!)
Not too much has been going on around here. On Monday we had my family birthday dinner in the canyon. The weather was perfect, and the kids had tons of fun running around. We barbequed and had cake at Mom and Dad's after. Thanks for a fun evening everyone!

Ethan had Scout Daycamp on Thursday. He wasn't super excited to go, especially since he had to be at the church at 6:30am. We were able to pull him out of bed so he could make it and he ended up having a great time. They got to go on a raft, make crafts, shoot a bb gun, and he got to buy some fun things at the Scout store. He is super excited for the next time they get to go.

Derek is working from home for the next few months while his office in Midvale is being renovated. Our home office where he works is set up right next to the playroom, so we'll see how that goes, especially since it's summer break!

The kids are in swimming lessons and are enjoying it. Julia saw her Kindergarten teacher, Mrs Wendt, at the pool on Wednesday and she was very excited about that.

We're heading to the Hendriksen reunion tonight, so hopefully we'll see lots of you there!
Quentin was heading to the reunion yesterday when he got in an accident and rolled his truck and trailer. I don't know many details about the accident, but he and Sharisse are both fine. They won't be able to make it to the reunion now though.
Hope everyone's having a great summer!

New summer haircut

Today after Ethan's piano lesson at my parents' house Ethan got a new summer haircut by Grandpa! He wanted it super short so he wouldn't have to comb his hair, and so he wouldn't have to get it cut again for a while. He got his wish!

2nd Fieldtrip

Our second fieldtrip of the summer was going to the carnival at the Orem Summerfest and going to the parade. I should have taken the kids Friday afternoon like I had originally planned, we didn't go to the carnival until after the parade and it was crazy. Lines were super long and the kids were hungry. They did have a great time on the rides though, and even went on the big rides together this time, Julia is barely tall enough now.

Here they are watching the parade.

And on one of the kid rides at the carnival.

DVD coupon

For anyone in the market for dvds, deepdiscount.com has their semi-annual dvd coupon available right now. I've ordered from them several times before and have never had a problem. They do ship media mail though, so it may take a few weeks for your dvds to arrive.
Code:
DDAF for 20% off entire order (see exclusions below) - exp 6/20/08 (So you only have until FRIDAY)
**Offer valid on currently available DVDs, Posters, Fun Stuff, and Storage Accessories. Previous sales are excluded. Prereleased DVDs are not included in sale. Coupons do not apply to video games, CDs, Books or electronics. Coupon may only be used once per customer. See site for details. We reserve the right to limit quantities+ always free shipping!

Happy Father's Day!

There are so many wonderful fathers in my life-- my Dad, my husband and father of my children, my father-in-law, my brothers and brothers-in-law, my Grandpas, Uncles, Cousins, and friends, to all of you, Happy Father's Day!!!

Fathers Are Wonderful People
by Helen Steiner Rice
Fathers are wonderful people
Too little understood,
And we do not sing their praises
As often as we should...
For, somehow, Father seems to be
The man who pays the bills,
While Mother binds up little hurts
And nurses all our ills...
And Father struggles daily
To live up to "his image"
As protector and provider
And "hero of the scrimmage"...
And perhaps that is the reason
We sometimes get the notion,
That Fathers are not subject
To the thing we call emotion,
But if you look inside Dad's heart,
Where no one else can see
You'll find he's sentimental
And as "soft" as he can be...
But he's so busy every day
In the grueling race of life,
He leaves the sentimental stuff
To his partner and his wife...
But Fathers are just wonderful
In a million different ways,
And they merit loving compliments
And accolades of praise,
For the only reason Dad aspires
To fortune and success
Is to make the family proud of him
And to bring them happiness...
And like Our Heavenly Father,
He's a guardian and a guide,
Someone that we can count on
To be always on our side.

Father's Day gift

For Derek's Father's Day gift this year we wanted to do something special, so I decided that we'd get the kids' pictures taken and frame one for him.
We ended up having to go twice because the kids weren't exactly cooperative the first time:




But we persevered and ended up with some great shots.





Thanks Mom and Melodie for your help!

Birthday at the Bees Baseball Game

When I was a kid my birthday always seemed magical. Nothing could go wrong on that day, and I could do anything I wanted! (That shows you what a great memory I have.) Too bad grown-up birthdays aren't quite the same. It's not as fun growing a year older as it was as a kid! But today was still a fun day. I got breakfast in bed! And we opened presents right after because the kids couldn't wait any longer.

Tonight we went here:

to a Salt Lake Bees game, it was Derek's office's summer party. We had dinner there and then got to hang out and watch the game. The weather was perfect, it is finally getting warm (and yes, I'll miss this cooler weather in another month but right now I'm ready for it to be summer).

Derek kept hinting that my birthday was somehow going to be announced at the game so when he finally relented to the kids' constant whining for ice cream I heard my name over the loud speaker. There, on the scoreboard, was "Happy Birthday Rosie Borsky, Love, Derek, Ethan, and Julia". How fun! Too bad Derek and the kids missed it! I wish I had been quick enough to get a picture of it, but these will have to suffice.




They serve ice cream in this little plastic baseball cap, isn't it cute?!

Our first fieldtrip of the summer

In an effort to combat boredom this summer, and to get out of the house, we have one fieldtrip a week planned. Today's was to Chuck E. Cheese's. This is a place I avoid at all costs, but when the kids and I sat down to plan our fieldtrips they really wanted to go, so I relented. After all, they ask to go there every single Saturday and we always say no, so I figured it wouldn't kill me to take them there once. And it was the first fieldtrip so I could get it out of the way! They each got only 10 tokens but they learned to make them last a bit longer by sharing rides, and going on the slide and climbing areas. (The ball pit is now gone, they were a bit sad but I didn't mind.)

The kids had a fun time, and it wasn't too awful for me.

If any of you would like to join us on one of our fieldtrips just let me know! Here are some things we are planning on doing this summer:

Scera Summer movies

Orem Summerfest and parade (Does anyone want to sit with us? The parade is June 14th at 7pm. I put out blankets the day before to save our spot and I'll put an extra one out if anyone wants to join us.)

Orem Library

BYU Bean Museum

Nielson's Grove Park by the Orem Walmart

Salt Lake Children's Museum

Lunch and play at the Carl's Jr play area

See the animals at the pet store and then to Sonic

Scera Pool

Hiking

Provo wilderness park to feed the ducks

And we're always open to new ideas if you have a great one!

We had a surprise visitor this week!

The tooth fairy!!! For quite a long time now Julia has been looking forward to her first loose tooth. When Ethan was losing teeth 3 years ago and getting money from the tooth fairy she kept asking "When will I get a loose tooth?" This year in Kindergarten she had lots of friends who lost teeth and were visited by the tooth fairy but she had to patiently sit by and watch, it seemed that her teeth were not ready yet. Last week she took a bite of her dinner and told me that her tooth hurt. I looked at it, and it was loose!! She has been wiggling it ever since. Monday night, with my parents and sisters over for family home evening, it fell out! She had a hard time falling asleep that night in her anticipation for the tooth fairy's arrival, and she was thrilled the next morning to find a $1 bill in her tooth fairy pillow.
She's growing up!