Funny Kids

I have to share some funny things that my kids said this week...

The other night about 10 minutes after we put the girls to bed Joel and I heard wailing coming from Lily's room.  Not just crying, but WAILING.  We rushed in there thinking maybe she had gotten sick or fallen off the bed or something, but when we opened the door and ran to her bed she seemed to be perfectly fine other than the screaming and crying.  So I scooped her up and held her tight and asked her what was wrong. 

Her answer was, "I DON'T WANT TO GROW UP!!!"  

I honestly didn't know whether to laugh or cry.  It was hilarious and sad to me all at the same time.  I wasn't really sure how to respond because she obviously WILL have to grow up, so I just said, "Well, honey, you don't have to grow up tomorrow or anytime soon.  You've still got a lot of time to be a kid."

Zora also cracked me up recently.  Anyone who is around my children for very long knows that there are A LOT of words that we don't say in our family just because I don't think they are appropriate for our household, especially our children.  I'm not just talking about cursing - even things that aren't kind.  We don't judge others who say those things, we just don't say them in our family.  We try to teach them the great life lesson that "If you can't say something nice then don't say anything at all". 

Because of that it's a joke with a lot of our family and friends that they need a list of all the things that our kids aren't allowed to say so that they won't slip up around them.  Well, we had a bunch of the young adults - who don't have children - from our church over to our house to eat.  A few of them "slipped up" with some "foul words".  As usual, they started laughing and one of the guys said, "I need a Summers' Dictionary so I'll know what I can't say."  Zora ran down to the playroom and brought back her actual dictionary that she uses for school.  He laughed and told her that he didn't really need a dictionary, but a list of what he couldn't say.  So she went back to the playroom and made her list (shown here with her spelling)...

stupid

dumb

shut up

da in a sassy way

(this means DUH! with attitude)

holy cow

hate not to peaple

(this means we can't hate people)

carp

(what she meant was crap)

whatever

(this also is said with attitude)

This actually isn't a complete list because there are obviously a lot of other words that aren't kind, but it was a good start and we all got a good laugh :-)

Gymnastics & "Ice Skating"

This week was our last gymnastics class for this year.  We are going to take several weeks off to enjoy the holidays and spend some time with family.  Here are some pics and videos of this week...

On the uneven bars

Girls on the balance beam

I also found some other videos on my camera - some of the girls "ice skating".  Apparently they both have this dream of being ice skaters because lately they love dressing up "skating" around the kitchen.

THEY CRACK ME UP  

They got ahold of my camera and videoed one another doing their "routines".  Maybe I just think the videos are funny because they are my kids, but I can't help but crack up because they are so SERIOUS about it and really think that they are doing a beautiful routine.  See what you think :-)

Homeschool Activities

Our homeschool group, C.U.E., recently had a fun little get-together.   At our meeting they created their own country and were given the task to choose leaders, divide into states, and create flags.  I think the kids really enjoyed themselves.  Not only did they have fun, but they also had to learn to be cooperative and work together.  The boys actually were more successful at working together than the girls, but there were also less boys involved!

Zora & Lily working on their part of the flag

 The girls flag

 The boys flag

I was so proud of Zora because she went way out of her comfort zone and ran for President!  I was shocked that she did this because she does not like being in front of a group talking.  She wrote her entire speech by herself.  Even though she was not chosen as President, I think giving the speech really made her gain some self-confidence.

Zora's Speech

(please pardon my pitiful camera skills!)

In case you couldn't understand her this is what she wrote/said:

Hi! My name is Zora.

I am running for President.

The reason why I want you to vote for me

is because I would take care of the country very well.

And I would also make sure there was enough protection.

Also I would make sure there was enough hospitals

and enough people to care for the poor.

I would make a good President because I am strong, kind,

and would make a good leader.

So vote for Zora.

Thank you!

Another fun activity we did recently was a nature walk at a friend's home near the lake.  All of the girls explored the land for interesting nature finds.

My little explorers

 Exploring with friends

They had some fantastic discoveries!

 At the end of our nature exploration the girls decided to just play on the shore with pails and buckets.

Right as we were getting ready to leave we had a visit from a flock of seagulls.  They were beautiful!

It looks as if we might get one more short taste of warm weather so we will be exploring there again soon.  Then we'll have to find indoor activities to do because the cold weather will be moving in to stay :-(

This week we had a little art lesson about sculptures.  We then took a little trip with some friends to The Purple Glaze to paint some sculptures of our own!  The girls did great! :-)

My little painters

Lily painted the funny little monkey and Zora painted the mermaid...

Halloween Festivities

This year for Halloween we had an astronaut...

...and Indian Princess Pocahontas.

We started off our celebrations with a trip to the library on Thursday for a little party. I didn't get any pictures that day. However, on Friday we also had a party with our playgroup friends and we had quite a crew! I must say that the kids were absolutely adorable! The kids and parents alike got really creative with their costumes :-) Here is most of the crew!
Friday night Papa and Mamma treated us to a night at Camp Cute & Spooky. The girls had a lot of fun.

Zora dancing

Lily patiently waiting for a balloon sword

Zora's ghost
She did NOT want them to put it on her face

Jupiter Jump!

Pony Rides

Trick-or-Treating in the Enchanted Forest

Lily & Papa

Ready for a hayride!

Saturday night we met Papa, Jen & Jake for little Trick-or-Treating in Broken Arrow. We also had cousins Nate & Alli with us. Here is Jake, Zora, Lily & Alli posing on the Chik-Fil-A firetruck.

Lily & Daddy walking the streets.

We finished off the evening with a frozen yogurt treat from Cherry Berry. Jake sure had a hard time moving around in his costume, but the good news was that he had a built-in-table! :-)

On Halloween night we spent the evening at church where we had a trunk-or-treat after service was over. I think the kids raked in more candy than we could eat before next Halloween! It's a good thing we're going to the dentist this morning!

ZOO x 2 = WOOHOO!

Our family loves the zoo and within the past two weeks we were able to go to two different ones! The last day we were home before our trip to AZ, we took the day to visit our local zoo. Daddy took the day off and went with us since he wasn't going to AZ with us and wouldn't see us for several days. We also had many of our playgroup friends there with us so we had lots of fun with everyone!

I think the chimpanzees are by far the favorite. That particular day the chimps were VERY active. They truly put on a show for everyone!

Three little friends watching the elephants...

Sweet little group of friends...

...and again...

...and one more time!

When we got to Arizona we worked hard day after day helping my mom unload, unpack and organize. On our last full day there she wanted to treat us to a day of fun so we went to the Phoenix zoo. It was absolutely beautiful. I can't even begin to describe the beauty of the scenery, and although these pictures don't quite do it justice, it will give you an idea.

Just a small portion of the entrance

Vibrant desert flowers

Papa and the girls pose with all the trees

I love this picture. If you look closely you can see desert rocks, mountains, palm trees and cactus all in one view.

Desert scenes

This plant is actually a cactus, but it looks like a miniature palm tree

My beautiful little flowers in front of the pretty desert flowers

This picture pose was their idea

HUGE tree trunk

They had a lot of really neat kid play areas and statues for the kids to play on. Here's my little joeys :-)

Cactus slide

Elephant cradle

Zora's coming out of her shell

My two beautiful little pearls

Zora practices tractor driving

The girls practice cow milking. I think we might need a farm :-)

We really did see animals while we were there, too! They have animals at their zoo that we don't usually get to see because our zoo doesn't have them. Here are some of our favorites.

Koala Bear

Petting zoo...couldn't pass that one up!

Free roaming peacocks

Cheetah

Top Dog
This was an animal I had never heard of... it is native to Africa.
It looks kind of like a cross between a hyena and a dog.

Baboons. This one was hilarious. It looked much older than all the others and it had a crimped fro. It seriously looked like someone had spent hours crimping it's hair. None of the other baboons had that much hair and all of them had straight hair.

Mandrills - such interesting and unusual animals. They almost don't even look real. Their fur is rainbow colored in the back and their faces are such vibrantly colored it looks like they are wearing a plastic mask. We sat and watched them for quite some time.

The male lion apparently didn't like us... he stuck out his tongue :-)

At the exit of the zoo there was this beautiful little pond with brightly colored fish. The girls enjoyed watching them.

Family pose!
Papa, Me, Nana, Zora, Lily