Hailey is 5

Hailey's birthday is at the beginning of August. We were lucky enough to have of our MD friends here visiting so they celebrated her birthday with us. That was great because she was sad that she left all of her friends behind and couldn't invite them to her birthday. All of the girls got together and came up with elaborate party plan for her. It was very sweet. She loved it! They had her all dressed up with a sash that said "birthday queen". The other girls had attendant sashes, they laid out a 'red carpet', threw rose petals and announced her at the party :)
She loved being the center of attention and opening her presents. Such a cute, fun loving little girl. I always joke that you could give her scissors, tape, paper and pens as a present and she would love it. It's true. She absolutely loves to write notes and cut out little things and tape them together :) Then she wants me to mail them to her friends - with no last name and no address....... She loves it when I find note cards and stuff on sale to give her.

First broken bone

At the end of July (just a few days before her birthday) Hailey broke her wrist. She just fell at the playground. She was hanging on the side of a playground bridge and when she fell she landed on her wrist. We weren't sure there was really anything wrong with it because she calmed down fairly well and was even using it, although quite gingerly. When she was still favoring it a lot a day later we took her in for x rays. Sure enough - it ws a buckle fracture. That was why it wasn't so obvious that it was broken. She only had to have a cast for three weeks. At first she loved it :) Summer casts are not fun at all - we had to figure out a way for her to play and swim without it getting wet. Our first few attempts with bags and tape didn't work but on our visit to WA my Mom came up with the idea to use a dishwashing glove. Genius. With some waterproof tape at the top she was good to go. That cast got really, really stinky :) but she still got to join in all the activities!

Rafting

Since I am playing catch up all these last posts may or may not be in the right order :) A few weeks after moving here Matt's company sponsored a camping/rafting trip. Happy to be without a million projects and anxious to get out of the apartment - we decided to try it. We got to the campsite fairly late so it was already dark. Luckily I had glow stick necklaces with us. They were great! Each kid had a different color and I could keep track of where they were in the dark. I think that will have to a camping staple - at least for the younger ones :) We just camped the one night - our truck hadn't come with all of our stuff so we didn't have our usual tent. We bought a 4 man tent and squeezed everyone in. The next morning we set out on a rafting trip. The older two loved it. Hailey loved it until she got tired..... Caleb loved it until we went through a bit a  rough spot and he got splashed by the really cold water. Then he would cry whenever he could hear rapids coming. It wasn't long before he fell asleep too. That's him and Hailey crashed out on the benches of the raft :) It was fun but rather long for the younger ones and too tame for Jackson, Matt and I.......

See Caleb's fangs in his picture? He has pretty big canines :)

In the swimming pool

With a swimming pool here at our apartment complex there was whole lot of this going on. All of the kids love water and have no fear. Maggie has the greatest respect for it bu tit doesn't slow her down. She loves learning swimming strokes and practicing. Hailey wants to swim but can't quite get it yet (at the end of the summer she was doing really, really well and would go without her lifejacket almost all the time). Our kids wear lifejackets not because they are afraid but because I am - of them drowing in their fearlessness. I can handle one dare devil at a time :) so Hailey and Caleb would trade off who had their lifejacket on. With Hailey getting to be  stronger swimmer we let Caleb have his lifejacket off more also and he was started to swim some on his own too...... next summer should be pretty fun :)

One down

Just after we moved back here to Utah, Hailey lost her first tooth. She was very, very excited :) She was still 4!! She was so very happy to find her dollar under her pillow the next morning. Kids and their excitement are so much fun.

Camping with mosquitoes

Just to help us remember.... :) We took a last minute camping trip last Friday night - to a campground all of 15 minutes away from us. The weather is getting cold very quickly and Matt has really wanted to camp. I threw everything in the car and we picked Matt up from his vanpool and headed out. It was perfect weather. We explored the campground - went to the store to buy bug repellent - made smores around the campfire - went to the store to buy pullups..... (the store was only 5 min away). We brought the kids scooters and Caleb's bike. They had a great time on all those paved roads. This campground is near a lake so we headed out that way on a walk. We passed a group of scouts sitting around a campfire, then walked out towards the beach. The water is low so it's quite a ways out and through quite a few weeds. Matt looks back and says - "I think the scouts are watching us." Not long after we find out why..... they were waiting for the fun to begin. We started to get bitten by a few mosquitoes, then a few more, and more and more until we were literally running back towards the campground for cover. Maggie was in front of me - there were probably 50 mosquitoes on her shirt and legs. We had sprayed everyone down but not well enough for that attack :) We were all running and swatting and screaming in some cases..... Hailey hates mosquitoes more than she hates bees. I don't think that is an adventure the kids will soon forget :) The next day we found an area of beach that was thankfully - mosquito free. I think that time at the beach was probably the kids favorite part of the trip. As a practice run I would say it went fairly well. Caleb didn't go to sleep forever because he doesn't like the feel of his sleeping bag. He finally laid on top of it with my jacket covering him. Once he was alseep I had to sneak the bag over him since it was so cold. Everytime he woke up he would get back on top and ask for my jacket. I think I need to get a fleece insert or something because he slept on top of it the last time too...... I also hated the inside of sleeping bags as a kid. My Mom sewed a sheet into mine to help (thanks Mom!).