Last weekend

Last Friday Rachel's school had a community fair with lots of inflatable toys (jumping castles, obstacle course, slide, etc.), games where they could earn points towards prizes, and food. We went and the kids had a blast eating Eegees and visiting the different games/attractions.

 There was a hair coloring station where they could choose what color they wanted sprayed in their hair. Rachel got green on one side, orange on the other, Ryan got a skunk stripe of orange, and Annie got orange around the crown of her head. Unfortunately our kids' hair is super fine and super blond and absorbs hair coloring really well. Annie has had her hair shampooed and shampooed and a week later the back is still as orange as ever and likely will be until it grows out. At least the top came out okay. Ryan's scalp has a couple orange spots, but those should be gone sooner than Annie's hair since skin regenerates faster.

Annie's favorite was the obstacle course. After several times through I finally convinced her we should go join the rest of the family at the playground where Ryan had been playing for 15ish minutes and Rachel for a little less.

 We didn't get pictures doing anything else at the school fair, but a fun time was had by all.

Sunday Cari drove down to join us for dinner and stay over night. She recently moved to Mesa to start a job with Anasazi. We (especially the kids) are excited to have her close by. 2 hours is way better than 18 hours away in Rexburg.

 The kids did some coloring and cutting with Cari.

 Then when it was time for bed they wanted to sleep next to her. When Ryan saw Annie and Rachel laying on the ground in the playroom, he went and found a pillow and his blanky and planted himself between the girls. We let them lay there for a little while, then put Ryan in his crib to sleep and let the girls attempt to sleep on the floor. After a good long while Annie finally fell asleep, but Rachel never could and ended up sleeping in her own bed with the promise that next time Cari would sleep on a mattress in the girls room so they could sleep close to her. Apparently it's important to be close to one of your favorite people when you're unconscious.

The next morning Cari stuck around until after Rachel got home from kindergarten so we could all eat lunch together before heading back up to Mesa. That was probably the easiest parting from Cari that we've had ever--no tears at all because they know they'll see her again soon since she lives close by now.

And the last bit of excitement from last week is that our lawn is finally coming in thick enough and tall enough to require mowing. I've done spot weed whacking up until now as needed, but the whole lawn was in need and I finally remembered to fill up the gas can a few weeks ago, so Jake whipped out the lawn mower and went to work. Ryan loves the vacuum and anything that sounds like it, so he was in heaven watching the lawn mower at work.

Ever since then he asks if Dad can mow the lawn every time he sees the lawn mower in the garage, and just whenever it crosses his mind. At least 3 times a day. The lawn had come in nice and green when we originally planted it last August/September, but then the heat killed it and we replanted in October/November. It came in slowly the second time, then in January/February we started watering a little more and the temperatures were ideal for this type of grass to grow, so it started coming in nicely. It's supposed to be able to survive hot temps once it's well established, and is made to be green all the way down to the 20s or 30s, so ideally we'll have a green lawn year round. And in the fall when it cools down a bit again we'll over seed the spots that are looking a little sparse at the moment. But for now we're enjoying our lovely back yard. Especially watching Daddy mow the lawn.