♪ Workin at the car wash ♪

He was pretty excited! I like the look on his face in this one.

We collected all his cars, got some soapy water, a spongue and the spray bottle and headed out.  It was fun to watch him focus while scrubbiing the cars with the spongue.  Good, clean, simple fun. I also made two pear pie filings today to add to the three peach cobblers I have in the freezer.  Stocking up for fall/winter, I can't wait!

Don't take offense...

You know its going to be good when someone starts a sentence with this particular phrase.    How can you not take offense?  It's hard. This recently happened to me and when I told Mark he simply said "April, consider the source" which was very good advice.  It's amazing how lives are changed and relationships altered by this simple phrase.  As most people who know me are aware, David A. Bednar is my "favorite" Apostle. I love his talks and how he approaches things.  He gave this TALK awhile ago and I thought of it after this experience. The following is a quote I really like from it.
"When we believe or say we have been offended, we usually mean we feel insulted, mistreated, snubbed, or disrespected. And certainly clumsy, embarrassing, unprincipled, and mean-spirited things do occur in our interactions with other people that would allow us to take offense. However, it ultimately is impossible for another person to offend you or to offend me. Indeed, believing that another person offended us is fundamentally false. To be offended is a choice we make; it is not a condition inflicted or imposed upon us by someone or something else....we primarily are to act and not just be acted upon. To believe that someone or something can make us feel offended, angry, hurt, or bitter diminishes our moral agency and transforms us into objects to be acted upon. As agents, however, you and I have the power to act and to choose how we will respond to an offensive or hurtful situation."
Like I said it's hard. Mark is a really big supporter of the whole "don't let other people decide for you how you feel" philosophy which I get but sometimes people are just irritating. I just have to make sure I don't dwell on it and hopefully this blog post will help me with that.  You can't please everyone.

Do you have a spray bottle?

If you do then I have a super fun and easy idea.  Give it to your child and let them have fun.  Jared thinks our spray bottle it the coolest.  I gave it to him awhile back when we went outside to play and he loved trying to figure it out and I loved seeing his reaction when he did it and got himself right in the face.  So easy and fun. Adding some food coloring or Kool Aid in it would be fun too. I haven't made Kool-Aid in so long.  I bet it would make good freezer pops.

Mark goes back to school a week from today.  Even though it will still be hot out it gives me hope. The summer months are more then half over. I used to think February was the worst month but now I think its July.  It's so hot and really long and it's also a month where Primary teachers seem to forget to get subs and the most people move away leaving us with 5 million callings to fill. In three weeks it will have been one year since I was asked to be in charge of the Primary. Besides the filling callings part I really like being the Primary Presisdent.  It's fun.

Tennis Ball Painting

So even though I am not a big fan of summer I have been trying to do some fun activities and I do actually enjoy summer mornings before like 10:30.  Then it gets too hot.  Which is pretty pathetic seeing as how it has only been over 93 here a few times. Jared and I go on a walk almost every day and then I try to let him play outside for awhile because it's very unlikely I would be willing to go outside again after his nap.  So this was an activity I saw online.  It was fun but Jared was more excited about running around the parking lot.  We never let him play in it or even really walk on it (even though there are very few cars, we figure we might as well get him trained to stay on the sidewalk or grass) So we went over the the far corner and began "painting."

I mixed up some water with cornstarch and lots of food coloring. Then we rolled the tennis balls in the mixtures and started throwing them. It was cool to see the liquid spray off of it when it hit the ground and to see the prints it left behind.

Jared got sprayed a little too.

 It was fun and I recomend it.  I think kids a  little older then Jared (21 months) woul really get into it.

Here's to finding some ways to enjoy summer...

Homemade Fruit Popsicles

Jared and I colored some construction paper popsicles this week that we can use to work on colors.  After we colored them I decided we should make some real popsicles too. We used strawberry-banana yogurt, strawberries and bananas.

 

I thought they were a little bland and you can see what Jared thought of them.  We will have to try some vairations. Mark wants to try some cheesecake yogurt and raspebrries. He wasn't too impressed with the flavor either. We do really like the popsicle holders because they have a little base attached to the bottom and it has a straw on it so if it melts it doesn't spill and you can drink it up. Very clever.