California Mission...

This weekend Caitlyn and I were busy building the

San Antonio de Padua Mission.

Caitlyn busy gluing beans to the rooftops.   This was a very time consuming process,

but it was well worth it in the end.  Almost a whole 32 oz bag was used.

Working on building the fountain.

Theses next pictures are part of the finished product...

This is the poultry yard, and garden.

This is the courtyard.  It has the fountain, orange trees, a couple of grape vines,

the well with an awning, palm trees, and some random plants and trees.

View of the front with the cemetery..

The church, with the bell tower.

Bird eye view... notice on the front right hand corner is the olive tree.

I'm so proud of my Caiti!  Well done!

Father & Son Outing...

The father/son outing has come and gone again.  This was Andrew's 

outing with dad, and Ryan.  The boys gave it a big thumbs up!  Ryan 

came home excited that they got to pretend to be soldiers from the scriptures.

Pretty cool!

Making silly faces is a must!!!

Day Spa...

We decided it would be fun to have a SPA day.  This is all the 

stuff we used for haircuts, and hairdos.

Ryan patiently waiting his turn while reading a magazine. :)

Instead of relaxing bath like mom likes,  the kids had a fun 

bubble bath, and washed their hair for the hair cuts.

I'd like to say I have a finished picture of the event, but I don't.

By the time it was over with, both me and he kids were ready for it to be done.

I love...

the things Ryan comes up with...

Ryan announces: "Free massages for nine dollars!"

Me: "Nine dollars?"

Ryan: "None dollars.  I'll pay you $10 mom."

Me: "Thanks Ry. :)"

Cleaning "CAN" Be Fun...

I'm on a major cleaning/organizing kick lately.  I got this FUZZY WUZZY cleaning mitt from a friend on my birthday.  I absolutely LOVE it, and recommend it.  It cleans up messes twice as fast, and the kids love to use it.

Also, I picked up a great a tip from familyfun.go.com.  A women with kids suggests putting several different chores on popsicle sticks.  Have your kids draw ONE each day.  Examples of chores... sweep, mop, dust, windex, wipe counters and table, bathroom, wipe fingerprints off walls, wipe doorknobs, you get the idea.  Leave a couple blank sticks.  The blank ones mean they DON'T have to do a chore that day.  If a younger child picks something that isn't age appropriate have them draw again (Ryan drew bathroom.  I had him draw again and he got windex.)  When they are done with their chores, they put the popsicle sticks back in it's container.  I've been doing this the past couple days and I love it.  The kids are  helping around the house.  If they are unsure of how to do something, I show them how to do it, and work with them on it until they can do it on their own.  The things that I don't have enough time for are getting done.  The kids can't complain about me giving them a chore, because they picked it.  If you have any cool tips please share them with me....