Chloe at Science Camp

This April Chloe went to Science Camp with all the sixth graders from her school. I went as a chaperone and we had a wonderful time in Northern Arizona.

Here Chloe is playing a challenge game where you crisscross arms and grab the person across from you and the entire group tries to stand up together. Not as easy as it looks!

 Here they go!

At this challenge they have to get all members of their group from one deck to another using only these two planks that do not reach by themselves the whole distance. Chloe is so smart and perfect at these kinds of "think outside the box" kind of challenges.

This is Bailey who was in our cabin. One morning I did braids in all the girls hair, mine to. We had tons of fun in our cabin, especially at night when we snuck out to play ninja in a secret room we found or to play games in another cabin. We got busted the first night and had to clear all the tables for the whole camp after breakfast. It was WORTH IT!

We played a lot of super fun games as a whole camp. Here Chloe and our next-door-neighbor, Sam, are the go-to people in a game of scavenger hunt where the kids had to find certain things in the room like, the oldest penny, a bug, chapstick etc. WE WON! Chloe chose the name of our team, 

"Team- Better-Than-The-Other-Team!"

This is the hallway between the different rooms in our cabin. Each room had about 3 sets of bunk beds in it. They were pretty comfy.

In one of our science classes we made Ice Cream in a can. Here Chloe is rolling it back and forth. There is a smaller can inside the big coffee can and then rock salt and ice between them. This class was called "Heat Transfer"

Getting ready to eat our yummy treat with Jordan.

It worked! 

Another class they disected owl pellets (Owl barf) and found bones and other fun things in there. They had to line up the bones on a chart and figure out which part of which kind of little animal they came from. 

YUM!

Chloe and Sweets inside the shelter they made at their survival class. I helped with this class and had fun watching the different personalities of the different kids come out in the kind of shelters they made.

More fun in the hallway!

Playing Ninja in our secret room. This was just before we left and it was SNOWING OUTSIDE!!!

Here are a bunch of the darling 6th grade girls. We had tons of fun. The name of our group was the BEARS and I had fun being "Mamma Bear" to a bunch of cute cubs for four days.

Olivia's New Pet Rat "Caramel"

Olivia's pet rat, Lu Lu died on Monday (May 10th)  from a tumor. The sad day was quickly turned around when we found this darling baby girl rat at PetSmart.

She is so easy to hold, friendly and easy to play with. Olivia has her out for hours at a time every day.

Can you tell Olivia is an animal lover or what?

Caramel was allowed to roam around in my bathtub. She hopped up on the ledge and did some expoloring.

She really liked my collection of sand. Here she is checking some out from Sedona. Most of the jars are from Hawaii plus some from White Sands New Mexico and ash from Mt. St. Helens.

Welcome to the family!

Hoppy Easter!

What a great Easter we have had today. Beautiful spring weather, General Conference talks and music about our Savior, Jesus Christ, and a visit from the Easter Bunny.

The Easter Bunny surprised us this year by leaving this note and Easter card.

It reads "Dear Crawford Family, I hope you enjoy all your delicious candy! Happy Easter! In case you haven't heard the news, your handsome son/brother, Rustin, and I have recently gotten married!! We are planning to move to Easter Island soon and start our little bunny family. I hope you guys are as happy as we are. Anyways, have an eggcellant day!

Love, Mrs. Easter bunny-Crawford

P.S. I have attached a copy of Rustin's and my Easter card this year!!"

Someone had a lot of fun with Photoshop in the middle of the night!!!

Olivia requested that the Easter bunny hide their eggs super hard this year. So she did! Although it doesn't look like it, Liv had fun hunting and hunting for their baskets inside the house and then the eggs outside. 

Chloe is half-asleep as she looks through the bushes by the pool. It's a wonder she didn't fall in!

Tess had just barely got out of bed so NO pictures of her, but I did need proof that she was part of our family!

Here is Rustin finding some of the more difficult to reach eggs!

Got it!

I dare you to look at Rustin and not Sneeze!

Ahhhh Choooo!

Sorting out their candy- yum!

Chloe having another Crepe! Yes, it was an Easter Miracle, Mom got out of bed early and made a big yummy breakfast! Crepes with all the fixin's and bacon!

Do you think that's enough whip cream? The Wilsons are coming over later and we are having Gingerbread cake and whip cream, plus with the crepes, I thought we might need a lot.

I underestimated how much two pints makes!!!

Tess, Jasper, Rustin, Olivia and Nellie listening to conference.

Chloe "listening" to conference. 

When I finally got her to wake up all the way, a Spanish looking (and sounding) member of the seventies was speaking and Chloe pops her eyes open, sits up and says, "It's the President!" 

After we stopped laughing at Chloe, we laughed at Jasper outside sunbathing on a towel left by the pool! That's Nellie behind him in the usual sunning spot.

Happy Easter everyone!!!

Rustin is a Big Tiger Now

After Rustin's Jr. Tiger's season ended, he and three other 8th graders were invited to practice with the high school freshman team. After a few practices their games started and Rustin was told he MIGHT get to play if someone on the team was out sick or injured or if it was a blow-out. 

Turns out that Rustin is a real asset to the team and he plays more and more each game. He played almost as much Saturday as he did with the Jr. Tigers but now instead of being the biggest on the team, he is on the small end- but still one of the toughest!

Rustin also plays a little on the Tiger's JV team!

It's hard enough catching a lacrosse ball but try doing it with this guy in your face!

Here he is again...

This time it's Rustin's turn to harass!

Guys are falling down all over the place

Prayer time for these two guys.

Rustin puts his all into every play.

Even if it means he ends up on the ground

Near the end of the game we were down by one. Rustin takes the ball down...

Plows through two and then three guys...

Gets in front of the goalie...

Doesn't quite make it...  but he goes out with gusto!

p.s. Rustin's freshman team was playing a JV team! 

You go boy!

Chloe and Olivia's Room Redo

A few months ago Chloe, Olivia and I decided that they needed new bedding. It was torn and stained and ready to go!

Of course, if you get new bedding then you need to get new furniture and paint your walls...

Right?

About 7 years ago we spent over a week painting these amazing stripes on their walls. They got these cute bunk beds from Pottery Barn for Kids and bedding from there too!

Above the stripes was a chair-rail molding and green paint. Super fun!

Olivia, friend Olivia is showing that behind her is a desk from Ikea and a big rat cage. The desk was thrashed too and the rat cage wasn't the prettiest thing to see when you walked into the room.

So, we found some super cute bedding at Target and then picked out some paint colors at Home Depot. Next Dad pulled out all the furniture from the walls and sanded everything down. While we were hiking the Superstitions, he painted a first coat of black paint on all the furniture!

Chloe and Olivia both helped roll on the first layers of paint on the walls. Chloe helped paint the dresser and Rustin helped paint the pink above the chair-rail molding.

This is one hard working man!

Bye-bye stripes!

Thanks little helpers!

What a team we are! I put on the second coat of black on the furniture while Russ did the cutting of the wall paint. 

Still a little cutting along the top of the pink to do, but getting closer!

All DONE!!!

See their mix and matched pink and turquoise bedding? We tied in black and whites too.

We kept the drawers from their desk and their lamp.

Chloe and I made some black and white throw pillows to jazz up the beds a little

Olivia's top bunk with her bear named "Trevor"

How strange that there is also a boy named Trevor in her school class! Hmmm....

At the foot of the beds is their dresser, all new and freshly painted. The rat cage looks much better there and I made a cloth for the top of the dresser.

Some other decrations that still work GREAT!

The darling curtains I made and ran ribbon along the bottom to tie in all the colors!

Tied with sheer aqua ribbons.

Last but not least, the cool hammock chair that inspired them to get rid of their desk and really get this room moving. It was a gift to both of the girls from Grandma Crawford! Thanks- they love it!

That is Olivia with her friend Kaitlyn behind her.

Oh ya. One more thing! Chloe made this amazing purse from scratch! She picked out all the fabrics, cut the squares, sewed them together, lined it and the inside, sewed in custom sized pockets to fit all her accessories and a book and then put the handles on and put it all together! 

Is she amazing or what?????