Recycled Craftiness

Ever since we moved to Wisconsin and were informed that it is illegal not to recycle and we could be fined for recyclables in the trash, Chris and I have been avid recyclers. In Wisconsin it was easy, the city provided blue bins for curbside pickup. In Texas and Virginia, it takes a little bit more work, we actually have to drive to a recycling facility and separate out our recyclables, but for the environment, we do it. We are such nuts about recycling that we will often bring home recyclables from friends houses and pick them up off the road when we're on family walks or hikes. We also compost all of our kitchen scraps and burn our mixed papers (because Radford doesn't recycle them) to then add the ashes to the compost. Basically, recycling is a big deal in our household. Unfortunately, there are some plastics that are not recyclable in Radford as well, so we find other uses for these. We have found out that we can make many useful crafts by reusing these un-recyclables. For instance, we have magazine holders from cereal boxes; book covers from crackers boxes; desk sets (pencil holders, paper clip holders, etc.) from tin cans; the kid's money banks are made from hot chocolate containers; watering cans from syrup containers; berry picking "necklaces" from sour cream containers; and most recently...a sandbox with sandbox toys! Friday was a rainy day with nothing planned so after the kids cleaned their rooms we pulled out the non-recyclable stack along with some recyclables, some paint shirts, paint, foamy stickers and our imaginations and voila!

Some rainy day sandbox fun complete with water squirters, funnels, buckets, scoops, castle turrets and more. By using a rubbermaid container, we can keep the sandbox on the covered porch and when the fun is over just sweep the excess sand through the cracks and put the lid on the sandbox to keep it fresh for the next time.

And the best part is...blue hands! Thanks to Crayola for making colored sand.

Geekoes and Geek-up

So I had just to write these down. Two of Amber's funny words as she continues the quest to be an English speaker are geekoes and geek-up. What do these mean you might ask. Well, she can be heard saying geekoes when she wants you to trace her hand on a piece of paper, or when she wants her nails painted, or when she is showing you an owie on her fingers. That's right, geekoes=fingers. And geek-up? She recently stole her sisters lip gloss and carts it around all day long, putting it on her lips occasionally and calling it geek-up. So geek-up=make-up. So cute!

Some things that make me smile

Small horses (Big ones scare me): One Sunday after church, the kids and I went to Shadow Ranch to see their foals. This one is named Rain because she was born in a thunderstorm and she was only 2 weeks old in this picture.

A snake on the front steps. One day I walked out to the car to grab something and when I turned around to go back I saw this snake just hanging out.

Amber's silly faces. She has many, this is just one of them.

Playing in the creek with the kids. July 3rd, my friend and I took our kids to the creek, we had tons of fun.

A dysfunctional family of carrots. Meet Jellyfish, Ned Scarecrow Pants, Bedhead, and the twins Billy and Bob (the kids named them). Thank goodness not all of our carrots looked like these ones.

A new porch light. A new stormdoor. A new welcome mat. New pots for my blueberry bushes. And our patio set all set up for 4th of July guests.

And my Young Women. Maria is all comfyized in the back of the Suburban on our drive back from Washington D.C. for the temple trip on July 10th.

An Independence Day Blast

Our 4th of July began with a flag ceremony at the church Pancake Breakfast. Jared is the one with the flag up by his face. It was so cute, as they were unfolding the flag, he kept putting his foot up under it so that it wouldn't touch the ground. After the pledge, we enjoyed wonderful pancakes, sausage, and dutch oven egg casseroles...

...followed by games. Here Clarissa is playing a football game with some of the other kids. Chris participated in the egg toss with the kids and I did the three legged race. It was fun. Amber spent most of the time hanging out with one of our friends who sometimes babysits the kids for us. Thanks Tracy!

Here's Krystal hanging out with her friend Janet.

After some yard work and housework, we ended the day by having some friends over for dinner. We sure enjoyed the company of the Paxtons and Coiners.

After dinner we headed down to our firepit to roast marshmallows, here are all the kids waiting for their s'mores.

Once it got dark enough, we broke out the sparklers. I was surprised that Amber didn't mind holding a burning stick, actually, she rather enjoyed it.

Clarissa with a sparkler and Krystal "writing" with a sparkler.

When all the sparklers were done, we headed back up the hill to watch the fireworks show put on by the city of Radford. The kids played with light sticks while we waited. We had a perfect view of the show without all the noise. All in all, it was a blast!

Summer = summer camps and baseball

Jared and Clarissa watch the Red Sox play.

The week of June 22-27 was camp week around our house. Jared attended Cub Scout Daycamp at camp Altamons. The theme this year was Space. Jared was in a den with nine other boys and a Boy Scout leader. They called themselves the Spacebobs. Jared designed their flag. The boys participated in many activities including: swimming, archery, BB guns, sports, bike safety, crafts, and rocket making and launching. Jared had a lot of fun and was sufficiently tired as he came home each evening. He really enjoyed the friends he made, Ben is standing next to him hidden under his hat and Logan is in the yellow shirt. Go Spacebobs! The same week, I had the opportunity to go with Jared to daycamp on Monday, then I headed up to camp Roland on Tuesday night for Girl's camp with the church young women. One of my favorite parts of being a youth leader is getting to go with them to Girl's camp.

Here are the leaders and the girls from the Radford ward. This year's theme was a cruise and our group chose the Island of Cozumel. This picture was taken on Friday evening after the awards ceremony. I really enjoyed my time away from my duties at home and loved being out in nature with these girls, they are wonderful.

Courtney, Meredith, and Alexxis are being silly.

On Monday, the 29th Chris and I decided to take the kids to a baseball game. After dinner we drove up to Salem, VA to see the Red Sox play.

This is the first time our family has been to a baseball game and we loved it. We found a fun spot to sit that was outfield, but very close and on a grassy hill. The kids were able to run around and talk to the players, we liked that they didn't have to be confined to a chair.

The best part for the kids was that after the players would practice in between innings, they would toss their practice balls into the audience and Jared was lucky enough to get one of the balls.

So now that we've gotten the camps and baseball done, we can officially say it's summertime!

Playdate with Mom

a couple weeks ago Jared went over to a friend's house to play and the girls decided that they wanted to have their own playdate, but with me. so, they put on dress up and gathered their play dishes together for an impromtu tea party. no tea party is complete without lispstick and fresh flowers.

while the girls put the finishing touches on the table on the porch, i prepared the food: fairy bread, strawberries, crackers, and chocolate.

the girls enjoyed their pink lemonade, although it made their lipstick come off, and i enjoyed some granola, a rice cake, and water, part of my medical diet. it was just one of those perfect summer moments when it's fun to be together.

sorry about the lowercase typing, our keyboard's acting up.