Totally Awesome Thumb Savers

So, my seven year old daughter is an avid thumb sucker. Actually she sucks both of her thumbs. Not at the same time, just whatever one happens to be handy. When we were at the dentist the other day I asked him about putting an appliance in her mouth. He said that because she hadn't yet damaged her teeth with her thumb sucking there wasn't room to put an appliance in. So he suggested that we look for some thumb gloves. My first call was to my sister since her daughter had used one a few years back. She told me that they had just ordered them online but that she couldn't remember the company she bought them from. So I googled it and found a few different brands ranging in price from $11.75-$15 per glove or $20-30 for a pair.  Since I need to be able to cover up both thumbs and would like to have at least two pairs it was going to cost me about $40 plus shipping. But when I really started looking at them I decided that I could probably just make some. The ones that I could be bought online were made of different materials. Some were made of lycra, some of 100% cotton. Well I happen to have just a little bit of fabric laying around, so I decided I'd give a try at making a pair.

The first pair I made out of a T-shirt knit and made a button closure. They were alright, but they needed a bit of tweaking. So tweaking I did. The one thing that she mentioned to me after she'd been wearing these ones most of the afternoon, was that they made her thumbs hot and sweaty. I wondered if I used 100% cotton if they would breath a bit, and on top of that we could make all kinds of funky patterned ones. So I let her pick out some fabric from my stash and I went to work. I got them to fit perfect and started using velcro instead of a button because it is faster to finish. I like the look of the button to add some glam, but I figured we could  just add some glam of some kind to the finished gloves if we wanted.I told her she needed to come up with a name for them, and thus was born the "Totally Awesome Thumb Savers".

Here she is with her 10 pairs of Totally Awesome Thumb Savers. She thinks they are pretty cool, and so do her sisters, they wish that they could have a pair...crazy kids. Right now she is in love with this idea. I hope it lasts. I'm hoping that by the time school starts that she wont need to wear them all of the time, maybe just a night when she can't stop herself. We'll see how it goes.

My Birthday so far

Last night, my fabulous hubby brought me home these pretties.

Kathryn told me yesterday that we wouldn't be jogging this morning because it was my birthday and I was supposed to sleep in until 10am. This morning, I was served breakfast in bed at 7:30am. I guess the kids were to excited to pamper me that they just couldn't wait. After breakfast, I went back to bed for an hour. When I got up and got dressed the girls then gave me a manicure and a pedicure and they did my hair.

My Happy Birthday Balloon

Kathryn once heard me tell someone that I hadn't had a birthday cake since I'd been married because I haven't had anyone to make me one. My husband is more of the "bring me a slice of cheesecake" type, and I have no problems with that. Last year Kathryn made me a mini cake in her Easy bake oven. This year she took it up a notch and baked me a real cake all on her own. This is no ordinary cake mix cake. No this is the best chocolate cake recipe that exists in the world today, "Grandma Paxman's Best Ever Chocolate Cake". I told her that it was important to follow the directions exactly. She did. I snuck a little taste before the cake went in the oven and it was spot on. When those cakes came out, they were PERFECT. I then told her how to make icing and I got out the left over marshmallow fondant from the b-day cakes I had made in May. I made sure it was still mold-able and then she told me to go have a nap so she could decorate it.

She even had to go and put my age on it...

Kymberly let me borrow her special crown.

Blowing out the candles

Perfection!

Now we have just finished eating the cake...before supper. It's my party, I can do what I want to....actually the kids were begging so I gave in. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. The cake, by the way, was delicious. The kid may have found her calling in life.

My Birthday Dinner. YUMMY!!!!

When it's this hot, water is the answer.

It's been hot. The kind of hot where the fan doesn't help because it's just blowing hot air around. The kind of hot where the only solution is to stay cool with water. However, I am cheap and I have no desire to take my 4 kids to the pool by myself. Mostly because there isn't a baby pool at our local pool, and two of the kiddies need me when in the water. NO FUN. So I like to stick around home and play in the water. We have a little purple wading pool that we fill with water, and all the kids love to play in it. They'll also put a sprinkler under the trampoline. But lately, we've decided to get creative with our water play. Check it out.

 First we made a hanging sprinkler from a 2L pop bottle by heating a nail and melting holes in it all over. All you need to attach it to a garden hose is a male to male end adapter, which I happened to already have hanging around the house. The kids loved this.

 We made a tinfoil river and floated all kinds of things down it. We used a whole roll of dollar store heavy aluminum foil and then put the hose and the top running at full strength. We found that the pop bottle lids worked the best and the kids had a blast racing them. James had fun being the giant and stepping in the river or snatching the "boats" out as the passed by him.

 Next we played with ping pong balls, golf tees and water guns. I drilled holes in some old 2x4's that were sitting in the garage for just such a purpose. Then I put golf tees in each hole and balanced a ping pong ball on each tee. The idea is to be able to shoot the balls off all the tees before the other person. This was tricky, but only because Mr. James kept grabbing the balls or knocking them off before you could even start shooting at them.

It has been a fun couple of days, and we'll be playing with all of these fun things again this summer, as well as some more new and fun water activities I've got planned.

Chief Mountain or bust.

Monday July 2, 2012 was the day. I had been planning and looking forward to this day for a few months. I knew it wasn't going to be easy. But I was determined to give it my best shot.

We headed out with a group of 15 people. Four boys between the ages of 9 and 12, two women, and 9 men. Us women couldn't keep up with the pace of the men and boys.

My fabulous husband had stayed back with us, but at one point we told him to just go on and we would do what we could. He ordered us to stay at the ponds when we got there because he didn't want us getting lost in the rock field that had covered the path. He's climbed this mountain 4 times already. He's been itching to get back on it for 5 years but the weather and timing just hasn't worked out. This was his year, and I didn't want to be the reason to keep him from reaching the top. So we told him we'd stay and off he went to catch up with the others.

The pond we did not stay at

Well when Donna and I got to the ponds we weren't ready to be done yet. Going at our own pace we found the going so much easier. We saw where they had climbed up to the next ridge, so we decided that we would head up that way and see what we could see. If we couldn't see where they had gone then we would stay. When we got to the top of the ridge, there was no sign of them or where they had headed, but we still weren't ready to be done. So we picked a landmark, a big huge rock, and we said we would go on to the next ridge, and as long as we kept that rock in view we could get back to the ponds. When we got up on the next ridge, we were a little tired and a lot hungry and there was no clear sign of which way to head from that point. So we sat down and had lunch and enjoyed the beautiful view.

View from our lunch spot.

The view of Chief from our lunch spot.

 After about an hour we looked around and said, "what if that path just picks up over this ridge?" We discussed for a bit, and then decided to head on over the ridge to see what we could see. This became a theme. We would pick an obvious land mark and then head on to the next ridge, if we felt we couldn't or shouldn't go any farther, we would make our way back to that landmark. Ponds, Big rock, Grassy ridge where we had lunch, Grassy knoll, Black earthy hill, Another big rock. (it kinda sounds like it's right out of Dora the Explorer). As we pressed on I'd see an area that looked like it could be a path so we would follow it, and then I'd see foot prints so we'd keep following them until we'd lose the path in the rocks again.Then we would just stick with what looked like the easiest route through the rock. We ended up on the back side of the mountain where we could see others climbing up the scree to the summit. At this point we knew we shouldn't go any farther.I knew that the way wasn't marked and without someone who knew the way it would just be stupid to even try, not to mention the fact that it was now 4pm.

The view from where we waited for the men.

The view of Chief from the back.

So we sat and waited for the men to come down off the mountain. About two hours later they started to come down, slowly a few at a time, but then we saw two of them head back up the scree. Immediately we knew something was not right, someone must be hurt. NOBODY wants to head back up the scree after already having been up once.

Donna and I waiting

We hoped it was one of the boys and not one of them men. Not that we wanted anyone to be hurt at all, but if someone was, it would be easier to back out one of the boys than one of the men. It ended up being my 9 year old nephew. He had fallen on the scree and cut up his hand and leg pretty REALLY badly(6 stitches in his hand and 16 in his leg). Thankfully his dad, an avid hiker, was prepared and had a first aid kit. So he bandaged him up and they got him down off of the scree. When they got down to where the others were waiting, it was suggested that he should be given a priesthood blessing. Seeing how all but one in our company was LDS, there was a pretty good chance that one of those men had oil with them. I wasn't there to witness it, but my husband says that he was blessed that he would get off the mountain in a timely manner and that he would get the care that he needed. You should have seen those men move with that 75lb kid on their backs. They took turns piggy backing him out, and we couldn't keep up with them.

So I didn't make it to the summit. But that's OK. The overall outcome was phenomenal. The experience was amazing and the company fabulous. Would I do it again? Yep, but my husband says I have to give him at least two years to recuperate.

Let the Wind Blow

I originally created this post for a friend for her Summer Camp series on her blog. You can check out my guest post at Welcome to the Madness and then you should look around and check back each week for a new Summer Camp posts.

****************************************

The girls and I decided to make these fun tie wind socks again. We had made one a few years ago, it has long since been blown to pieces, but I have a box of ties left over from that project that have been waiting to be used for something wonderful. So why not recreate the original something wonderful?

So this is what you need; sour cream container, old ties, glue gun, fishing line, scissors, knife, a heavy big needle and pliers.

First you cut the bottom off of your container with a knife. 

Cut each tie in half .

Now glue the cut side on the inside of the container and then fold it over to the outside and glue it down. Don't be afraid to use LOTS of glue, especially if you live in a windy area like we do. If you are ambitious you can finish the edges of the cut tie with a sewing machine, or do like we did and just use more glue gun glue to hold it all together.

We alternated between the fat end of the tie and the skinny end of the tie. When that was all done, we glued the skinny end of the tie all the way around to give it a finished look.

The next step is to thread the fishing line through the needle and using the pliers push it through the top part of the wind sock to make the hanger.

Now go hang it up and let the wind blow...or go jump on the trampoline with it.

And here they are blowing in the wind.

I'll get back to you...

For Mother's day, my oldest daughter gave me a "Mommy and Me" journal. The idea is that we'll write little letters to each other. When we've made an entry we leave it on the other's pillow to find. Since school is winding up, in my last entry I asked her a series of questions about the past school year and a few about what she'd like to accomplish next year. She answered my questions, and then in response she asked me "What would you like to accomplish as a mother next year?" I don't think she realized just how deep the questions was. It's a good question. And at this moment, I just don't know how to answer it.

She's a real chef

For Christmas this past year, Kathryn asked for a cook book.  I headed over to Chapters and looked through their kids cook books. There was only one that caught my eye. It was beautifully put together with beautiful pictures and recipes that actually sounded kid friendly AND good. So I bought it.

Kathryn has made many of these recipes. But today I am certain that she made the best recipe in the book. She made the "Best Hamburgers". And they were GOOD. Honestly I am convinced they are the best homemade burgers I have ever tasted. This recipe is a keeper. It is simple enough for a kid to make, but it is bursting with flavour.  I would love to share the recipe with you all, but I  believe that is considered a no-no when it comes to copyright laws. If you want to give the recipe a try, you will either have to borrow the book from me or buy it yourself.