...it has begun

So, we are in full swing with summer break. So far, so good.

My fingers are crossed in hopes that it stays that way.

Top reasons for success during week #1:

1) I have implemented summer school for the girls. Oh, they are just thrilled as you can well imagine. Once they got over the initial shock with my announcement at the beginning of the week, it has gone without a hitch. The girls spend an hour in the morning while I'm exercising doing such things as reading, math exercises, writing in their journals, or practicing the piano.

2) We are so fortunate to live next to some of our family, and since John's folks are only 30 minutes away, it was Alicia's turn to spend some time with Grandma sewing up a storm. She had so much fun - and I didn't have to teach her to sew! Win-win all the way around!

3) We made a trip to Discovery Gateway with a freebie pass Kimberly got at school.




The girls even played in the water fountain afterwards - we've never done that before. It is definitely something I want to do again this summer.


4) I got to spend an evening out for an amazing Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert. It was a special thank-you concert for anyone who works for the military, so therefore, John got some great seats for us in the conference center. Sadly, he was out of town working on government business and wasn't able to enjoy the concert, so I took Kimberly as my date along with John's parents. I've never seen a live performance of the choir, so it was a real treat.



5) Last, but certainly not least, freebie lunches over at the school - I don't have to make the girl's lunch nor do I have to clean up after them. This makes for a very happy Dana. We have even been to the park and on a bike ride this week, so I'm on a roll with fun things to keep the girls busy. I seriously hope that rolling continues.

So, one week down, and many more to go, but I have an amazing week planned for next week, so stay tuned...

Let the Good Times Roll

Friday was the girls last day of school, so we celebrated by walking to the rainbow snow place with some of the neighbor kids.

The neighbor's dog followed us and the kids almost had a visual lesson on what happens when you don't look for cars before crossing the street.

We decided to continue the party fest into the evening with a bonfire with some friends. Can I just say that one of my absolute favorite things is sitting around a campfire and roasting S'mores.

On Saturday, after spending most of the day working in the yard, we decided to sit and relax while coaxing the fish to come visit our poles. No such luck, but you can't beat the scenery and company.

- especially for my kids, who love spending time with their dad and grandpa -

Megan was even getting into the fishing by organizing John's tackle box.

Now on to the rest of summer break - filled with fun adventures. I love summertime! Well, not always having the kids home full-time, but I absolutely love all of the fun things we get to do in the warm weather.

Like Sister, Like Sister

Remember this post from last year?

As you can see, I cursed myself with the very words, "Megan, my angel-child, will hopefully never do such things when she turns three." AUGH!! I should have known she would have the IQ of a 3-year-old at 20 months old.

I am seriously considering becoming a non-scissor-owning family since sister #3 left some scissors laying around for sister #4 to start cutting of all things, her hair!! I just took Megan in for a cute hair cut last week and now it is all for not as evidenced below:

At least it's still cute, albeit short. Don't be surprised if my girls come to your door begging for a pair of scissors.

P.S. What's even worse about the situation is that I was tending my neighbor's little 3-year-old, who did the same thing to her hair - cut a huge lock of preciously long blonde hair. I have been sick about it ever since.

I will make no apologies when my littlest one enters preschool with absolutely no knowledge of how to work a pair of scissors.

I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for Ice Cream Cake!

It was John's birthday yesterday. Because I am a most awesome wife and I love him, he got my first-ever homemade ice-cream cake!

I started with pouring only half of the prepared cake mix batter into a round cake pan. Once it was fully cooked, I let it cook on a wire rack, then placed a wax liner in the pan before kindly placing the cake back into its home.

I 'frosted' the top of the cake with slightly mooshy ice-cream, then covered it with plastic wrap and placed it in the freezer overnight.


The next morning, I microwaved ice-cream #2, then whipped it up in my Kitchen-aid, then frosted the second layer of ice-cream over the top of ice-cream #2. I froze that, then decorated it with whipped cream right before eating time. Oh, and I melted some chocolate chips and with a decorator's bag, did the writing.

Can you say YUM-M-Y? Yes it was.

I grew up with a Baskin-Robbins ice-cream cake for my birthday every year, but as most of you all know, I prefer homemade cake, so let me just say, this homemade version is far superior to what I can remember. Though that is not to discount how much I enjoyed my birthday cakes every year, because I did, immensely.

Now for picture catch-up since my last couple of posts were missing the best part of reading other people's blogs:

Alicia loves, loves her baby sister, and is always taking care of her (sometimes more than she or I likes), but it is times like this that are precious. Megan woke up with a fever one morning, so while I was getting breakfast for Natalie, Alicia came over and snuggled with Megan before school.

Kimberly was in a play at school - The Ugly Duckling - as a member of the geese clan. Here she is with her best friend, who was also a geese. (or a goose. or gossling. pick one).

And last but not least, here is troublemaker #1 and troublemaker #2:

I had just gotten them dressed in clean clothes for the day, and before I knew it, they were in the backyard playing in the sandbox, which usually isn't a problem, but we'd had some mega rainstorms during the night, so when I discovered where they had gone and called them back in, yes, you can imagine, they were a disaster. This picture really does not do it justice.

Thank goodness for the nice laminate flooring where I piled all of their clothes and sand, mud, dirt, etc. Until next time...

My Favorite Things

I was thinking this weekend about some of my favorite things, of which I just so happened to enjoy this weekend - so I thought I would share them with you:

* Basking in the sun. Now that the sun has finally made an appearance in Utah land after all that rain, I sat, and sat, and sat some more on my back deck just drinking in the sweet, sweet feel of sunshine.

* Waking up to my hubby in bed with me. After many long weeks of business travel, he is finally home again - sadly, he has a couple more small trips before the month's out, but I am cherishing my time with him. I am luxuriating in his nearness and feel like all is as it should be with my other half finally paired back up with me.

I also enjoyed, well perhaps enjoyed isn't the best term, but... listened to the kids bickering downstairs knowing he was within earshot and could remedy the situation rather than knowing that I, yet again, had to deal with the situation by myself. I even ran off yesterday afternoon for ...wait for it...3 HOURS to go clothes shopping with Kimberly with nary a worry about getting home anytime soon! It was deliciously wonderful.

* Watermelon. It is my ultimate favorite fruit. I have changed up my eating routines a little bit and replaced my evening bowl of popcorn - slathered in butter, oh-how I miss you - with watermelon, and it is delicious.

* That part of night when all the kids are asleep, all the lights are out, the phone is quiet, the street noises outside dimmed, and the type of weather where I can open my window and just lie in bed before going to sleep, basking in the sounds of nothingness and listening to the luscious night noises while relishing the days events and thanking my Father in Heaven for the gift of life and my many sweet blessings. My absolute favorite time of day. May you all relish in your favorite things too.

The Apple of My Eye, Quite Literally

So, for mother's day, I was thinking how my kids are definitely the apple of my eye, only this particular mother's day, I do believe the apple left behind one of its apple seeds, leaving a nice little crater in my eye.

Thinking it was just a painful scratch in my eye last night, turned into a massively painful, red, and swollen eye this morning. I desperately called my optometrist, who thankfully had an emergency phone number and graciously met me over at his office early Sunday morning. It was definitely an emergency indeed, because I could barely open my eye this morning due to a cornea ulcer. Who knew such thing even existed? Apparently for contact wearers, it happens on occasion.

Well, thanks to some lovely, and rather expensive prescription drops, my eye feels a titch better and on the road to recovery.

I know, happy mother's day to me, huh :) I am extremely thankful though for good doctors and good medicine. I'm glad I wasn't a pioneer mother.

Blah, Blah, Blah...

I have the blahs right now - nothing fabulously interesting has been going on here of late at the Rimington household, but I noticed it's been over a week since my last post, and since I usually try to post at least once a week, I'll share a few pictures with you of Megan.


Natalie keeps commenting on how Megan's hair is like "sand" and my hair is "dark, dark, dark." So then I ask her what color her hair is, and she says, "brown." We definitely have a mix of brownish hair in the family.

Isn't she just so dang cute? She loves giving out kisses. I absolutely adore this age - 18 months really is one of the most perfect ages. So cute, sleeping through the night, eating with the family instead of nursing every 2 hours, and it's right before they start throwing massive two-year-old tantrums, so I'll enjoy this stage while it lasts.

Okay, so I shouldn't say the week has been entirely blah because I've gotten to do a few of these too - for those who have been asking how to access my stories, here it is...

http://www.standard.net/authors/dana-rimington