City High Homecoming Parade

Since this is Ammon's last year before he'll oficially be walking in the parade we decided to watch it. Simeon walked with his Boy Scout troop and Corrine and Johann walked with the school.
The parade wasn't very long mostly filled with the homecoming court in fancy cars, alumni either walking or in fancy cars and elementary schools passing out more candy then a kid can eat in a lifetime!
Ammon was one of those lucky kids who got candy poured at him the entire parade. It was coming so fast that he couldn't keep up with it. Most kids just put it in his bag since he was busy picking up all of it on the ground!





Rebecca watched the entire parade and was happy, then feel sleep as we were walking to the van. She didn't get scared at any of the loud noises from the band or police sirens.


Our elementary school won the award for having the most participation. They stretched over 2 long blocks.

Today I'm 30 years old!!

Today started with breakfast in bed-Cheerios and juice. I got to open my present which I was told was some sort of Star Wars Wii accessory. I wasn't so sure what Star Wars accessory I'd use, so I was excited to see that what they got me was actually for Wii Fit. I got 3" risers for the fit board, making the board 4" off the ground. I really enjoy doing step on Wii Fit, and now i can get more of a workout!!



Then the "normal" day things started-take kids to school, take Ammon to gymnastics (go shopping with Rebecca) then pick up lunch on the way to take Ammon to preschool, then home for a few quiet minutes. Then it was off to pick Corrine up from school, drive across town to get Ammon from preschool. But when I went to pick Corrine up, Simeon was also there. He was suppose to have gotten a ride to the library for play practice. So monkey wrench in the plans. Pick Ammon up, then Johann, drive to the library to drop Simeon off. Realized while there we needed a few things from home (remember I was suppose to be at home right now, not at the library). Johann runs home while I play with the kids at the library waiting for Simeon to get done.


Then to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. We had the best waitress which made dinner even more fun. Ammon was in love with his applesauce and wanted to take the last 3 bites home with him. She went and got him a small container with some applesauce in it for him to take home, which just made his day! And my birthday ice cream had 4 spoons and 3 cherries on top. She was thinking!!

We came home for homemade ice cream and cake. Johann made both strawberry and peach which were so yummy. Johann's parents came over for desert and presents.

The day passed without a single picture getting taken, so these pictures aren't from the actual day I turned 30, but whats a few weeks anyways. They're with my sweet little Rebecca taken by Ammon.

Take Flight

A few weeks ago the Children's Museum open thier newest permanet exhibit called Take Flight. We had been patiently waiting all summer for it to open(they pushed back the opening a few times), and it finally opened 2 weeks before our pass expired.



The kids LOVED the exhibit. They could go into a real plane and pretend to pilot it, climb into the basket of a hot air ballon, go into the flight control tower and slide down the spiral slide, or do Simeon's favorite thing-fly the flight simulators. We were able to get to the museum 2 times after the exhibit opened and we stayed for hours each time. Simeon had to be pulled away from it, when he usually lasts just a short time.






Ammon just loves going to the museum and could spend hours there on a daily basis. With his preschool schedule and the germs that are flying rapidly around here we decided we needed to not renew our pass. I was bummed to see it go, but I know the kids enjoyed the year we had it.
Ammon was so into making this pizza. He dropped it after it was "baked" so he had to remake it, and it had to look just right. He is such a good little pizza maker!

Dad reads the best stories

If ever Ammon is having a tough time-read him a book and he'll everything will be alright. That's what happened tonight. He was so tired from playing (check out his grass stained and wet knees and dirty face and shirt) and didn't want to take a shower or go to bed, or anything else we asked. He was sitting for a calm down time in the hallway with some books. Dad sat down and started reading and our tired, grouchy, cranky Ammon, was once again our sweet, hugable, loveable, calm Ammon.


One of our favorite book-Green Wilma by Tedd Arnold

Simeon and Rebecca

Simeon and Rebecca have a cute game they play together. Simeon lays down with his knees up and sits Rebecca on his stomach. They talk with eachother and then Rebecca dive bombs Simeon's face. Simeon thinks it's the funnest thing to do and apparently so does Rebecca since she smiles and does it again and again.




Simeon is such a great big brother. Corrine, Ammon & Rebecca are so lucky to have him as their big brother!!

Box Tops

Tonight Corrine and I counted the Box Tops that we've been saving for nearly a year.





We counted 272 to give to the school. Since each one is worth .10c we had $27.20 of Box Tops to donate to our school.

Pudding Fun

This afternoon we went to the Dance Marathon Fall Family Picnic. One of the activities they had was painting with pudding. They colored vanilla pudding all sorts of colors.
The first time Ammon would only get the tip of his finger in the pudding, but then got up to handfulls. He made sure the paper had pudding drops all over it.

After lunch they did some science experiments. One was slime which Corrine loved! Anything wet and messy she is all over it!


The 2nd time we went to the pudding table, dad was with us. The kids dug right into the pudding. They ended up with overflowing handfuls of pudding, in a very interesting shade!





Corrine was filling her hands with it when Johann came up behind and pushed her head into it. She luckily came up smiling. After that it went downhill and we didn't walk away so clean, but with big smiles.

Fishing at Kent Park

Today was such a beautiful day to go fishing. There were some puffy clouds in the sky, the temperature was warm but not hot and we had no plans.
In July right after Rebecca was born the boys went fishing with scouts at a pond in Kent Park and they wanted to go back again. Simeon wanted to fish from the same spot as he did in July since he had caught a fish there.


Ammon's fasination with worms means that some worms never get on hooks because that's to mean to do to them-and sometimes they end up whole in the water so they don't end up on hooks! A piece of info I've learned from Ammon about worms-the worms with a band around them are girls-so for some reason we only end up with girl worms since all the worms have that band.


Corrine caught the 1st fish of the day and the 1st fish for her. She didn't want to hold it, but wanted her picture with it. Ammon wanted to hold it-he said it's teeth felt like sandpaper.



Rebecca enjoyed her 1st time fishing. We brought a huge beach umbrella that her and mom hid underneath to stay out of the sun. She was so happy and talkative.




Corrine came over to me holding her hook so I could see the grass hanging on it. She was so cute with what she told me about her hook.
Corrine-"I caught 3 more fish and they ate my fish and they have hair!"
Mom- "Why so you think they have hair?"
C- "Because there's hair on my hook."
M-"Do you think that might be grass from the bottom of the lake?"
C-"Maybe"


Johann caught the 2nd and final fish of the day. We wanted Rebecca to see her 1st fish-she wasn't so impressed!

After a very fun time we head to the big lake to play in the sand, only to find out that they had closed it the weekend before. So we stopped for ice cream and planned to go swimming at the pool that night instead.

New Couches

Summer 2001
When we fixing up our old house, we were given a couch and 2 chairs by the Andersons. They were getting new ones and passed their old ones to us. The couches were at least 15 years old.

Summer 2009
The couch finally met it's match-4 Smith kids. It was time to send it to it's finally resting place at the Johnson County Dump. To get it out the basement door we were either going to have to take the door frame off, or cut the legs off the couch. The saw won the battle with the legs.

We ordered a new couch, love seat and ottoman from Homereserve.com

What's really neat about this company is the furniture comes unassembled in boxes! It can fit through any door and can be taken back apart when you need to move it. The fabric we choose was Cricket Berry which is very kid friendly. It's machine washable-every piece of fabric is-even the back of the couch-and there's storage under the cushions.

The boxes arrive-50 lbs each.


The frame pieces


The ottoman frame started


The cushions and fabric-you put the fabric on the cushions yourself


The kids watching tv while we work-you can see the cushions for the couch in the background. It was so neat to watch the cushions expand when you opened the bag. They vacuum the air out of the bag so they fit more compactly.


The finished product!


It's so nice to have the ottoman to put your feet on and to have more places for us to sit.

Another lost tooth

Today at recess Simeon was play kickball with his friends. He got picked to be on Jonathon's team and he got so excited he punched his mouth. He saw blood on his hand and he realized he had knocked his very very lose tooth out. Luckily the kickball field is on blacktop, so they we able to find his tooth. He went to the office to get cleaned up and put his tooth in an envelope, then he went back out to play.

I think he looks so cute without his 2 front teeth. Both of the adult teeth are already coming through so he won't be without teeth for very long.

Lost tooth count=4