Blanky withdrawals

Mabel is having blanky withdrawals. Now, you may think I've taken her blanky away permanently, but this is not the case. It is being washed. Mabel had a leaky diaper last night.

Mabel has asked me for her blanky about 10 times in the less than an hour it has taken to wash the thing.

I told her it was time to dry it. As I was switching the load from washer to dryer she asked 3 times if it was in there. Finally, I pulled it out in one of my armloads and stuffed it in the dryer. She grabbed an edged and played at the soft fringes while I completed the switch. I told her she could have some time alone with blanky (while I went and grabbed the camera). She did not capitalized on that option. She chose to follow me instead and whine about her blanky.

I went back in to start the dryer. She went for the blanky again.

I gave her a moment. Let her get her fix.Then I started the dryer and came to blog about it before my visiting teachers show up. That's when the REAL drama started. Here she is saying the "EEE" sound in blanky.I snapped more pictures.

She didn't appreciate it.

I thought it was funny and laughed, so she did too.

Then she was over the funniness and sad about blanky again. She needs her blanky. Only 30 minutes to go!

And on a separate but equal note: these girls are completely different creatures from boys.

Grandpa Yellow's Birthday

On Saturday we had Bret's family over for a little party for his dad.

Aiden suggested we have water balloons for all of the cousins.

Somehow this turned into a not-so-secret ambush on Grandpa Yellow. He was a good sport and let all his grandkids pelt him with the balloons. I would not have been quite so accommodating.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

AMOCOCO

I don't know how you pronounce it, but on Friday the kids and I went to Amococo!

It's a giant inflatable piece if art that you can go inside. The neighbors, Rene', Faith and Max joined us.

The kids liked it. I thought it was pretty cool myself!

The kids found a few spots where cool air was pumped into this thing. REFRESHING!

There were a few large domed spots were you could lay down and look at the ceiling. It was pretty cool looking.

Ride 'em Cowboy!

On Friday night we went to the Parada Del Sol Rodeo in Scottsdale. The kids enjoyed it in spite of it being a late night for them. FYI, the pictures are terrible because they were taken with Bret's cell. We forgot our camera. They had a bunch of booths set up outside of the arena. One of them had a mechanical bull. The kids just HAD to have a ride. Aiden took the first go round...
He actually did well in spite of the terror on his face! I wish we had a better camera so we could have captured it.
Then it was Gray's turn. I have to admit, I had more faith in Gray than Aiden. Gray is usually the more adventurous one. Boy was I wrong!

The controller guy started off by just spinning the bull in circles.Then he gave it one gentle rock and Gray was DONE! He scrunched up his face like he was gonna cry, but the guy went back to making it just spin. Gray kept his eyes on the bull's head the entire 3 three seconds he was on. Bret asked him if he was done. He nodded his head and he couldn't get off of that thing fast enough!
Then it was the cousins' turns. Kaleb and Talon weren't as terrified after seeing Aiden and Gray do it, so they did much better.
They had a great time, but I don't think any of them will become rodeo cowboys any time soon!

Soccer

An awesome lady in our ward had the GENIUS idea to come up with a neighborhood sports group! It's cheap, all the practices (no matter the age) are at the same time/place, the games are at the same time/place. It's truly a wonderful thing!

Aiden an Gray had their first games two Saturdays ago and everything went swimmingly!

Aiden scored the first and only goal for his team!! But the other team had a little ringer who answered back with 5 goals of his own! This kind of put a damper on Aiden's mood, but I wish he could see how good he's gotten since the last time he played (which was 2 years ago!).

The parents volunteer to be coaches. This is probably the only drawback to the program...the lack of volunteers. Bret was assigned to Gray's age group, so it's basically him versus fourteen 4-5 year olds. It gets a bit chaotic.

But the kids seem to enjoy it. And when they decide to take a break for half of a game or run off to throw rocks, I don't care, I didn't pay $90 for them to play!