Tea Party - Sammy Style

We are so lucky to have our cousins so close! Unfortunately for Sam, the girls way outnumber the boys (three girl cousins and a sister, with only one boy cousin) so he knows how to do things like tea party. We had Lizzie today, and in an effort to keep us all sane and happy until nap time, we painted then had a tea party. Lizzie and Sam looked so cute sipping and stirring in sugar, that I decided to video it. Unfortunately, Sam had reached his tea party max, and it turned into stack all of the tea party items and dump them on the floor... I guess that's tea party, boy style! Apparently all of the girls haven't affected him quite as much as we think.

China

We have been preparing for the possibility of moving to China for a few months now. We got the word yesterday that we will not be going. I am disappointed, but luckily there are a lot of good things about staying here. Those who live near me will be expected to eat out of my winter garden (boy, do I have plans!), and Pearl will now be subjected to having her mother as a piano teacher:) I also hope to start accepting clients - see lots of good things about staying. Not to mention my consolation trip to Italy next time Jared goes there on business. Life is good.

Sunsplash with our cousins

We went to Sunsplash today with the Weir cousins (actually, it's been quite a pary week with Jared out of town!) The kids loved it, but their favorite section was this little kiddie slide area (not so popular, we were the only ones there for a long time) where they could go down

these little slides that had a little squirt of water on them. Not too scary, no big splash at the bottom. They had a great time, and after a nice greasy In-and-Out burger (or if you're Pearl, an entire basket of fries) they fell asleep on the way home so that their tired mommy just had to put the dirty things in bed. Fun times!

I loved this picture of Pearl going down the baby slides - it just demonstrates the drama we deal with on a daily basis here. She screamed as if it were really scary!!!

Water Park

We went to the water park in Folsom with the Larsens(Tami, Makayla, and Evan), Maryann and her two babies, and Mara and Lizzie. The kids had a great time. It wasn't too hot, so they only went in the water when they were given the 15 minute warning... I think Pearl and Makayla could play together forever. Sam and Evan are beginning to play well too, and Cumorah thought Lizzie was the best thing ever - the same size as her beloved Sam, but definetly a girl! We stayed for like 2 hours, which is marathon for us (at one point, Lizzie even laid down with her mom, as if to say, why are we still here?). It was fun, and Pearl likes to remind me that we are so lucky to have our friends (and cousins) so close.

Farm days

I love to garden. Well, Jared does all of the really hard work (like the infrastructure) and I do all of the fun stuff, like planting, weeding (ok, that one's not so much fun) and harvesting. This morning was a typical morning, doing housework. At about 10:30 or so, I decided to take the kids outside and do our "farm chores." You know, like feed the chickens and the cat, and pick the vegetables. We came in with quite a haul today. We harvested a few handfuls of green beans (the kids eat a lot of those on the way to the basket), our mandatory 8 crookneck and 2 zuchinni squash (thank goodness I pulled out our second crookneck plant already!), 6 japaneese eggplant, our first red tomato (yippee!), two heads of romaine lettuce and 4 cucumbers. Pearl was ready to pick some basil too, but I told her it had to stay. The we went to the orchard, where we got some chicken eggs (7 yesterday, only 2 today), half a basked of pluots (the spotted ones and the green ones) and one ripe peach. We were pretty proud, and took our wagon to display our spoils to grandma and give some veggies to great grandma. I am truly sad that my mom doesn't have a kitchen at the moment, or she would definetly be getting her share of squash!

So, later in the afternoon when Sam was napping, I decided I would rather weed the garden than clean the kitchen (yep - it is that bad). My watermelon plant is growing on the edge in the bottom corner, and it is a tangly mess with a bunch of weeds on the edge of the garden, so I thought I'd work over there and see if we had any baby watermelon yet. I got the bestest surprise ever! A ripe watermelon, and a huge one too, it is 14 pounds! Lucky for it I didn't see it before, because I always get excited and pick them too early. This one just fell off of the vine when I touched it. Plus, there's another huge one out there waiting for me. I think the plant that survived is the orange watermelon - it's in the fridge, I can't wait to see how it tastes. I also got two butternut squash - they had better be good with all the squash beetle battles I have been having. We love to cube the flesh and roast it with potatoes. So, the question now is, who wants to come and eat all of these vegetables?

Summer fun with Auntie Amy

So, we had Cumorah over to play today. Just to illustrate the differences between Cumorah's mother and me, when my kids went over to swim in the kiddie pool under Maryann's supervision, they were decked out in their matching swim outfits, had on hats, and were sunscreened to the max for 15 minutes of pool time. At my house, I dragged the pool to the shade and removed all non-essential clothing items and let them have at it. As we see, Sam is in his (now very full of water) diaper, Cumorah lost her overalls (the shirt remained for the sake of modesty), and Pearl, who is old enough to know that this is very wrong, was sent in by herself to find her bathing suit. When she couldn't find her bottoms, she was instructed to just wear her underwear (they were Ariel, how appropriate). Despite the lack of decorum, they had a great time!

Anyone who knows me knows that I hate feet. They are stinky, smelly, and dirty. I can only handle my own feet when the toenails are painted (something that Pearl has already picked up on, our toes always look fabulous). Poor Sam has the biggest fattest ugliest feet ever, and I thought it was just a boy thing. Having Cumorah here this summer has made me aware that it's not just a boy thing, it's a Hulbert thing. Sorry, Cumorah. (Sam is on the right, Cumorah on the left)

I have a sister

These pictures of Sam declare irrevocably that Sam has a sister. Furthermore, he has the fairiest, princessish-ist, pinkest, girliest sister imaginable. Of course some of it was bound to rub off...for the record, at least he doesn't think he's a fairy - he says he's a butterfly (I'm not sure if that makes it better or not...)

Pearl Reads!

So, this is the week that Pearl learned to read all by herself. I attribute it to her brilliance and my dedication as a mother, or maybe just because we were home from vacation for a whole week and I was bored so we got out Hooked on Phonics. Anyway, she read her first book, Cat, and she is hooked! She read it to Sam (who wasn't very interested), read it to both of her grandmas (who both pretended to be VERY interested), and read it to her dad. I can't believe she's growing up!

Hulbert Vacation

So, the Hulbert clan is not so good at taking vacations. Usually, there is just too much work to be done and besides, we live in a beautiful place. However, since all of Jared's siblings are in town, we decided to take the opportunity to use Uncle Brian's cabin for one night and spend the day at a little resivoir near there. It was a great success, we got to play in the canoe and the paddleboat, and nobody even got sunburned! It was such a short vacation, that Jared worked in the car on the way up (he tried to use Skype in the car to call Russia, talk about dedication!) and we were home by 4 so he could do more international calls in the evening. The kids had a blast, I think Pearl is addicted to vacation! What a rude awakening Kindergarten will be!

Her very favorite part of vacation this year is her roomate, Crystal. She is totally thrilled to sleep in a sleeping bag on her floor so that Crystal can have her bed. Hope that lasts a bit longer for you, Crystal! I sure wouldn't be excited about sleeping on the floor for you!

Sara's pictures

So, my sister in law, Sara, takes great pictures. She got these pictures of my family at the beach, aren't they amazing?

Pearl's dance recital

What a beauty!






This is Pearl and her bestest friend ever, Makayla. They go to church together, had ballet together, and will be in kindergarten next year together. A definite recipe for friendship!

Pearl had her first dance recital in June, and luckily Auntie Sara was in town to take pictures. She had a great time, and just thought her costume was the most beautifulist ever. Even though it was itchy.

Pearl's first pedicure

So, all of the Hulbert clan are in town this week, and pretty much every time we all get together, we get a pedicure. This time, we decided Pearl could come with us (mostly because Sam was napping and Jared wanted a nap too, so she had to come). She liked the part where it was just for girls, and she picked out "ruby" nail polish. She also asked me if they were speaking Spanish, which was pretty funny. So, I had to find out which language they were speaking (Vietnameese) and explain that to her. She was very patient, becasue she didn't get her toes painted until the end. When they were painting her toes, they moved her on my lap, and that was a bit traumatic because apparently I pinched her arm when she was moving, so I got lectures for the rest of the afternoon about how I shouldn't have such sharp fingernails. All in all, it was a success, as we left with cute feet!