Bennett's and the Chocolate Factory!

We had some friends in our ward invite us to tour Mrs. Cavanaugh's Chocolate Factory this morning.  It is just off of Redwood Road in North Salt Lake, and I have driven by it many times thinking I would love to go and try some of the 'free samples'.  We got there a little before the 10 o'clock tour time....which was great since they gave us a free sample while we waited!  A yummy caramel chocolate!  It also gave me a chance to take a few pictures and we got to watch a worker hand dip some chocolates, using roasted coconut.  

 We watched a few videos throughout the tour, including an episode of "I Love Lucy", the one where her and Ethel work in a candy factory and make a mess trying to wrap chocolates off the conveyor belt.  It was great!  After the tour, we bought a few treats to take home with us and share with Dad.  I am sure he will love them!  We got my favorite...turtles! :)

 We have been enjoying our summer so far, and this chocolate factory tour is just one of many things I have planned to keep us busy.  We start summer rec with WX City next week and Carson starts Tball with a practice tonight.  Nick offered to be the coach for the team, and Carson is excited about that.  On Monday, we had a rough start to the day since both kids just wanted to go and PLAY and they didn't care that it was only 8:30 in the morning.  It just made it chaotic, especially when Kaylee came in five minutes after leaving the house covered in dust and dirt...and sand all over her freshly sunscreened face.  I was in the middle of cleaning, mopping the floor, and doing laundry, and I just wasn't happy about it and how the kids were acting, and it wasn't even 10 AM yet!  In my mind I thought, 'If this is how every day is going to be....I won't make it through the summer without pulling my hair out!'.  So after some thinking and talking with Nick, we decided we needed a daily chore chart so help give the kids some structure, goals, and to make sure the important things get done before they go and just play the rest of the day.  So Tuesday morning, this is what the kids and I made.  A daily chore chart.

 Carson has to Practice Piano, empty garbages, Make Bed, Read Scriptures, brush teeth, and unload the dishwasher before he can play or go out.  Kaylee has read scriptures, brush teeth, make bed, and take medicine.  It isn't too much to do, but it just gives them some focus to help remind them what needs to be done.  It has worked good for the past two days, so I hope we are onto something good here!
I have also really struggled with Kaylee lately with her not listening and just overall being a bit of a brat and completely unaware of anything or anyone around her.  She never turns off the light or shuts the door to the house.  I am constantly reminding her to put on shoes to ride her bike, or to put her shoes away....they don't belong in the middle of the floor.  She will just completely ignore us all the time.  We were at walmart Monday night, and we told the kids we would get a donut for a treat if they were good while we were in the store.  Well...it was a disaster, with Kaylee mostly.  She had a meltdown in the middle of the produce dept, so Nick took her out to the van and waited for me to finish shopping with the other two kids.  She didn't get a donut and went right to bed when we got home.  I don't think we are that we are pushovers as parents, but she is just so frustrating, because we know she knows how to act and behave and we can't figure out why it is so hard for her behave for us.  Even today, we were doing good until she had a friend over and came up from the basement wining about her friend not wanting to play what she wanted to play.  She doesn't get the concept of having a friend as a guest no matter how many times I tell her.  We tell our kids that the guest gets to choose what to do and play.  She wouldn't listen to me and let me even try and talk with her about the situation without interrupting me and trying to tell ME how it should be.  So I sent her friend home and she sat on the couch in time out...for quite a while.  I was so upset with her and for how she was acting.  She also ignore my request for them to stay downstairs since Alivia was sleeping...so of course Alivia woke up becuase they were so loud and so that didn't make me any happier with her either.  So now she is sleeping since she has been sitting on the couch for so long in time out.  Normally we only make them sit in time out for a minute or each year they are.  But in this case, I wanted her to sit there all day.  I was just so mad. So right before I started blogging this I took a picture of her....she fell asleep on the couch.  Just sitting there, no tv, to talking, no snacks, no toys.

It is just hard some days being a parent.  And being pregnant, irritable, and tired doesn't help.  I love my kids, but some days they just really push my buttons.  I try so hard to be nice, take them fun places, let them do fun things, but maybe I am just spoiling them and that is why they act like brats sometimes.  Where is the happy medium?  Somedays, I wish I had super nanny here to tell me what I am supposed to do!  Wouldn't that be nice?  Until she comes though, I guess I will have to figure it out myself!

Last Day of School....First day of Summer Break!

We had such a blast on Friday!  It was Carson's last day of First grade and the beginning of summer break!  Carson rode his bike to school and was excited to have his last day!  On Thursday, he got to meet his teacher for next year!  He will have Mrs. Sadler for 2nd grade.  I don't know her, but I have heard good things, so it makes me excited for him!  

                                       

After school got out that afternoon, we all met up for a neighborhood water party to celebrate the last day of school.  It was a blast and there were tons of kids there!  It was the perfect way to spend the HOT afternoon!  Alivia was in heaven, and I think she ate at least three popsicles!  Granted, most of them melted and fell off the stick before she finished them, but she had a riot!  There was music, water, and lots of fun conversation between the moms.  I don't know who had more fun, us or the kids!?!

 We got home and cleaned up before taking the kids out to eat.  We thought it would be fun to eat out to continue the celebration of the last day of school!  We ate at the pizza factory!  Yum!  I was just happy not to have to cook or clean up!  We stopped at Kohl's afterwards to buys some shorts for Carson.  All of his shorts are a size 5, and even though he can fit into them, they are a bit on the small side, so I figured it was time for some new ones!

 The fun didn't end after dinner.  We kept the fun going by attending the neighborhood outdoor movie night at the Yospe's.  We watched the Sandlot.  There was a great turnout and lots of yummy treats and popcorn!  The weather was perfect and it was such a blast.

 We got home around 11:15 and I got the two kids to bed.  (Nick and Livy stayed home and went to bed early, so it was just the three of us).  I went to bed SO tired, but so happy.  It was such a fun day.  I am always telling people how fun and awesome our neighborhood is, and this proves it once again that it is true.  I couldn't ask for better neighbors and friends!  It was just an outstanding day, and to top it off...just yesterday, a neighbor used a bobcat and built a race track with hills and jumps in one of the last empty lots, so the kids will have a super fun place to ride their bikes all summer long.  Seriously....this is the best place to live.  We are so grateful and blessed to be a part of it!

Kaylee's Preschool Program

On Wednesday, Kaylee had her Preschool Program.  It was held across the street at the park, which worked nice and conveniently for us!  She has been attending the same preschool she went to last year.  But this year, Miss Trish had four classes total instead of 2, so it was a BIG program with lots of people there.  They sang songs, showed us how they knew their letters, and then each got a trophy and award.  It was a fun evening!  Afterwards, we enjoyed some yummy treats everyone brought to share!  Here are some pictures from that evening.

Kaylee still has one more year of preschool, and will be going back to Miss Trish at Learning Lodge Preschool.  She adores Miss Trish and it is nice and close with only being a few houses up the street.  Kaylee is learning a lot and I wouldn't be surprised if she is reading before she graduates preschool next year!  But in the mean time, we are going to enjoy our summer!

Memorial Day!

I woke up on Memorial day to a wonderful sweet boy offering me breakfast in bed...and it wasn't even mothers day!  Carson had brought me in a bowl of Raisin Bran, but told me it was just a little bit since we still need to go have breakast and watch the program at the park.  I just laughed!  He is such a cute little boy!  We got up and ready, and had to wait for the girls to wake up before we left for the WX City Memorial Day program and Breakfast they do every year.  We got there a little after 8 and enjoyed a yummy breakfast.  At only $1 a person, it is amazing!  They do a 5K run before the program, which I have done in years past, and the runners get their breakfast for free!  There was a great turn out, probably the most people I have seen there compared to years past.  I think the beautiful sunny weather helped!  While eating we enjoyed music from a pipe band!

 After we ate, we walked around the park and saw the different things they had going on.  They had a rock climbing wall, fish pond, and even the life flight helicopter came and landed in the field and let everyone come and take a look!

 The kids also got to check out the fire engines and ambulance that were there on display.

It was a fantastic way to spend the morning!  We got home and Nick and the kids got started right away digging in the dirt some more to get ready for concrete.  I did some grocery shopping and got food ready for dinner that night.  Just hamburgers, hotdogs, and yummy corn on the cob!  The kids love corn!  

Okay, so maybe the kids didn't do as much digging as they did riding and playing in the dirt that day!  Nick made some good headway that day and I know he is excited to be done with this project.  Overall, Memorial day was pretty fun, low key, but perfect since we got to spend it together as a family!