Fairy Gardens - June 25th

Dave gave me a gift certificate to Linden Nursery for mother's day and after I had picked out the flowers and veggies that I wanted I still had some extra left over. The girls wanted something they could plant so they picked out what items they would want to put in their own fairy gardens - a fairy garden being a little garden where a fairy would want to live. :)

After we purchased all the little plants we came home and they drew up plans of what they wanted their garden to look like. We gathered pots, dirt, rocks and then started planting. Both wanted a coconut shell for a pond for the fairies. They then surrounded the pond with nice soft moss, some little "trees", a few bushes and a nice little stone walking path.



Dave built a little fairy house for both of them to put in their garden. Mieka occasionally adds a few Little Pet shop items to her garden - a wheelbarrow, pet, or bike. You know - things a fairy would like. :) Marianne also gave both of the girls a fairy guard to watch over their garden. They have both been very diligent about watering their gardens every day and I can't believe how much the gardens have grown!

Princess Festival - June 22nd

The Princess Festival this year was held at the Thanksgiving Point Children's Gardens and did they ever go all out. There were 20 plus princesses around the gardens with pen ready in hand to sign autographs. They also had mini shows for many of the princesses where they would put on a little play. Most of the plays followed the story line of the books, but they also stuck in a few little pieces here and there about why it's more important to be kind than it is to be beautiful. Great idea! I think most little girls get caught up on the dresses and crowns and forget about the good things the princesses do as well.

Ready for the onslaught of princesses and magic fairy dust.

There were quite a few little girls there and both Annika and Mieka were not wanting to stand in line to get autographs. We got a few where we could just walk right up to the princess but mainly we watched the shows, got a few treats, and had their fingernails painted.

Mieka climbed up the stack of mattresses to get the Princess and the Pea autograph.

Rapunzel - the must have autograph. These girls are huge Tangled fans.

Playing games with the 12 Dancing Princesses in their cave.

Getting their nails painted - favorite part.

The girl that painted Mieka's nails was very patient. Mieka kept changing her mind and the girl had to redo her nails a couple of times.
She ended up with a rainbow of colors on her nails. :)

Aside from seeing all the princesses and the fun little plays, the thing that impressed me the most about the festival was that all the people working there were volunteers and all of the proceeds for the festival went to a charity in Africa. Amazing.

Sleeping Beauty Dance Recital - June 18th

This year the girls ballet school did a production of Sleeping Beauty. They really went all out and had an almost full production of the ballet. I think Dave and I need to work on our appreciation for ballet, after 2 1/2 hours we were ready to go! Mieka was a bunny in the forest scene and Annika was a fairy in the birthday party scene. They both did a great job. I was so proud of them for getting up on the big stage and performing in front of so many people. The performance was at the Covey Art Center so there were a lot of people there!

Before the performance looking a little anxious. :)

Mieka's little group was helped out by a few of the older girls. Her dance consisted of hopping on to the stage, forming a circle, hopping into the circle, hopping out, doing a few ballet moves, hopping again, hopping around the circle, hopping in, hopping out ... you get the point. A lot of hopping. I think it was the cutest of all the dances. :)

Hop, hop, hop. Round they go!

And ... they are off! Hop, hop, hop!

Annika's group was also helped out by some older girls. I think some of the little girls got a bit of stage fright and forgot what they were doing - so the older girls would help prompt them. You could also see the teacher in the eves prompting them along as well. :) Annika did a super fantastic job! She remembered her part and danced beautifully.

Annika dancing as a petite lilac fairy - nice arabesque!

After the recital we got each of the girls a little gift (instead of flowers) to show them how proud we were of them being so brave. I think that made it all worth it.

Happy to have it done and to get the pony and Strawberry shortcake car.

Kid Car Wash - June 14th

Family Fun had a list of their top 10 fun activities for summer and when we saw the Car Wash we figured we should give it a try. It was actually very easy and we built the whole thing in less than an hour. The girls have had lot of fun playing in it with some of the neighbor kids.

Mieka was the planner - she liked reading the plans and telling Dave what to do.

Annika was the builder. She loved putting the pieces together and even did a bit of it all by herself.

Once it was finished we figured we should let them try it out - who needs a swimsuit to run through sprinklers!

A quick zoom through the wash! I wish washing them at night was as easy!

Their favorite part of the car wash was to use it as a water fountain. They fill up their mouths with water and then spit on each other. :) I think we need to get some little buckets for them to fill up with water instead.

Lawn Mazes - June 11th

Lately when Dave mows the grass he creates a little maze for the girls to run through. I think it's amazing that he can figure out a pattern while he's just walking around. Maybe some day we'll have a big enough yard that we can make a little maze out of bushes - like a real English manor garden. :)

Springville Art Festival - June 10th

Each year we try to do a field trip on Fridays during the summer and this time we started with the Springville Children's Art Festival. I think word about this event has spread like wild fire because we showed up early and it was still a mad house! I can't blame people though - free fun art activities for kids. Yes please!

We started working our way through the booths making sand art, bead book marks, and much more.

Mieka working on a South American Folk Art bookmark.

Annika making her Native American sand art picture.

After each craft Mieka begged to go get her face painted. When the line for it finally died down we headed over and let her pick out what she wanted. This was very much so Mieka's favorite part.

Mieka with her happy little rainbow and Annika with her pink unicorn.

After visiting a few more activities we headed over to eat our lunch while we listened to a story teller telling Hawaiian folk tales. It was a fun, crowded morning of doing great art activities and enjoying time with friends.

Go Cougars! - BYU Soccer Camp June 6 - 9th

Annika is becoming the budding little soccer player, so we decided to put her in a soccer camp to help her learn new skills. BYU had one the first week after school got out and we thought - can you find any better place than BYU for a soccer camp? I think not! Go Cougars!

Annika at the new field house at BYU. This place is huge!
The size of a full football field plus some.

Annika was assigned to a boy coach that is the goalie for the men's soccer team. The first day she was run ragged but had so much fun. The second day she had a run in with another player and got a super bloody nose. But being the ever eager player as soon as the blood stopped she zoomed right back out to play so that she didn't miss anything. Third and fourth day were more drills, games, and other fun activities. The highlight of course was the popsicle break each day.

Annika with her coach Cory. Later we learned that he's a BYU star goalie.

The last day Cosmo the Cougar came and all the kids went wild. I had to laugh because before this camp Annika had never seen Cosmo before and had no idea who he was. (Yes- we are lame BYU grads.) But after 4 days of the kids doing BYU Cougar chants and cheers she has become a true blue BYU fan. :)

Each evening after camp Annika then headed to another camp run by some of the women's BYU soccer players for the Celtic Storm Academy. Poor little thing - if I had known that she was going to have a soccer camp for the Celtic Storms I never would have signed her up for the BYU camp - but she was a super troop and played hard each time. Over all she had a super fun week of playing her favorite sport.

New Bikes - June 3rd

Summer marks outdoor play and we thought it was high time that we got the girls "new" bikes. Mieka being the younger sibling sadly gets a hand-me-down this year - but we added lots of extra pink girly stuff to her bike so she is happy that Barbie and her can bikes together.

A super happy Mieka with her new basket and Barbie mini Bike.
Now Barbie can experience crashing on the sidewalk too!
Hope she doesn't break a nail!

Annika decided that she MUST have a Barbie bike (sigh). We finally found one at Toys-R-Us and she couldn't wait to try it out. Even after a long day of soccer camp she still wanted to go out and ride around the block 3 or 4 times. That's dedication!

Pink wheels! Can you get any girlier? Yes! Add a mini Barbie Ride-along bike! The super girly bike is complete. Side note - The blonde rats nest on the bike is a Princess Barbie - not a run away hamster like it appears.

Now days they are begging us to follow them around the block while they ride. They are turning into real speed demons! Guess Dave and I need to get in better shape so that we can actually run after them and not just limp along. :)