Sand Box Fun

A while back I bought a Step 2 sand box, one of those that stands up off the ground so the kids can't sit in it and get sand all over them.(E can and still does climb in and sits in it though) Well I found it at a store here for only TEN BUCKS! Can you believe it?! It has a nice canopy over head to block the sun and it also serves as a cover for the sand box which is way nice to have. I looked up the price they go for usually on the Internet and they retail for $100. So I was pretty excited about my awesome find. The play sand I found at Lowe's for only $3 a bag and we only had to buy two. I got it because I thought the kids would love it and I would like having an outside toy that keeps them entertained. The kids do love it, but I hate it! For many reasons: It's messy which doesn't bother me too bad but they always want to play in it right before dinner and I don't want to have to bathe them before we sit down to eat because that's messy too, E likes to show J how to throw sand outside of the sand box every where, J eats handfuls of it every time he plays in it, J gets it in his eyes every time and cries, E climbs in it and gets sand in every crevice, they track sand in my kitchen every time they play in it so I end up sweeping a million times a day, and the list goes on. I thought it was a good idea to get one of these but I'm starting to second guess my judgment. Oh well isn't that how it usually is if the kids love it you hate it?!Well we got some cute pictures of the kids and their new sand box.Look how cute they are when they play nice together

Fighting over the sand toys......And mom had to separate themJ throwing sand in his hair, lovely! What a cute boy thoughI think he just got done eating a handful of sand in this picture, if you look closely you can see sand all over his chin.E really loves the sand box, she has been getting better at building sand castles all by herself.

Playing in the Rain

I know that any other posts we put on here wont top "The word on the Street" one as it was pretty entertaining, but we have taken some fun pictures of the kids recently so I thought I put some up.
A while Back we got quite a bit of rain here it only lasted a couple of days but we enjoyed a change in weather as it helped cool down the hot summer heat here. It was still fairly warm out even though it was gloomy and rainy so we decided it was okay if E played in the rain. Well she was pretty excited about that and so we took some pictures of her first time playing in the rain and puddles out in front of our place. I'm pretty sure we have not let her do this sort of thing in the past so she was thrilled to give it a try.

The rain was coming down pretty hard and fast so the side walk was like one big puddle for her to play in. She's waring J's rain coat he got for his birthday from Grandma Harker. It's a little big on him still but fits E okay.

As you can see she enjoyed jumping up and down in the puddles.

Poor J couldn't join in the fun! I'm a little more protective of my baby boy, I'm not sure why but I wasn't about to let him out there I just knew if I did he'd catch some thing and I'd feel guilty. So there he is watching and enjoying the rain from inside.

I love this picture. I don't think she though she'd be so cold after, but she was soaked from head to toe. This just goes to show that some times we think things are fun for the moment but we recognize that it really wasn't worth it in the end. She was a little grumpy after word but once she was warmed up she was wanting to go back out again. It didn't happen!

"The word on the street"

This story I'm about to tell is good for a laugh and I could not resist sharing it with you it's too cute.

So E apparently got this phrase "the word on the street" from a cartoon I think it was actually Sesame Street but I could be wrong. So any way yesterday she kept saying "it's the word on the street mom" and it was cute. Well later that day I had pretzels out and the kids were eating them at the table while I was fixing dinner. I know I'm a great mom I let them eat snacks before dinner, they were driving me nuts okay! A week or so ago when E was eating pretzels I decided to show her how to spell her initials "EH" out of pretzels. I told her what they meant that the E was for her first name and the H for Harker her last name, and she thought it was pretty cool. So yesterday as I was fixing dinner I hear E say "mom look it's the word on the street" so I say "yes that's cool" without turning around to look then she said it again "no mom look it's the word on the street" so I turn around to see she had spelled a word out of pretzels, I about died of laughter and called C down to come see what his daughter had spelled. Take a look at E's word on the street.

Look closely did you see what she spelled all by herself?! Yep H-E double pretzel sticks! HA HA HA HA. We got a good laugh out of it and E still doesn't know why it is so funny. I think she thought it was her initials like mommy showed her before. She was so proud of her spelling "The word on the street" Silly girl!

Back to School!

It's been a while since we posted news so I thought I'd take a moment today and update every one on our lives. I may have told many of you by now but E is in Preschool and LOVING it! It is so good for her to interact with other children and to have a different adult to obey besides mommy and daddy. She's been in school for a couple of weeks now. She only goes two days a week. It is so nice to have just one kid at home for those few hours a week. She has quite a few friends in there all from our ward which makes it comforting for me knowing she has some friends and hopefully is making more. Her "best" friend ( I put best in quotations because some days they love each other and others not so much!) MJ is in her class and we actually car pool with her so I only drive once a week, NICE! I think they like being in the class together but I'm pretty sure the teacher isn't so happy about it, I've witnessed her teacher separating them, crazy girls! Her teachers name is Mrs. V who actually used to be in our ward until boundaries were changed, so it's fun that we already knew her teacher. I took a couple of pictures on her first day, and no I did not cry I think I celebrated as I walked to the car! It was cute because the teacher had a basket of "parent survivor kits" to give out on the way out the door after we dropped them off it was a little bag with tissue and the chocolate candy hugs and kisses it was pretty funny. Lucky for me I didn't need the survivor kit.

E was really excited for her first day at preschool I swear she was even though she looks kind of mad in this picture. I think she was just annoyed with me and wanted to get to her new classroom so she refused to smile, oh well.

This wasn't on the first day of school but this is her friend MJ who she gets to go on the "mom bus" with every school day (We both have minivans) E and MJ were pretty disappointed when they found out they weren't going to ride on the yellow school bus to school so I tell them they get to ride on the mom bus, they don't buy it, I tried!