Lessons I've learned this week:

We've had a pretty busy but fun week. Below is a slide show, but I'll share a few interesting things about the pictures.

One day I was getting some things done (although my husband swears I have a phobia of cleaning. Um, no, it is called at three-year-old and a two-month-old) and I hear, "Ok, Elle, blue. See you have a blue right there." I then stepped out of the kitchen and found Sydney teaching Elle how to play a few games such as Colors Bingo and Scrabble (because they are both such great spellers).

Lesson learned: put games with lots of pieces higher than where you think your three-year-old can reach.

Friday Sydney, Elle and I spent the day making strawberry jam. I remember making jam at Nanny's house when I was a little girl and the smell still brings back a lot of summer memories. So, I decided that Sydney needs those same memories as part of her summer. She used her plastic knife to cut a few strawberries, but her favorite part was squishing the strawberries. Some people have a potato masher, but according to Sydney we have a squisher.

Lesson learned: Make jam and then mop the floors, not the other way around.

We went to a birthday party for a little girl in our ward on Friday night. I've really lost count of how many babies we've had born/adopted in our ward since the fall, but it is a ton. So, at the party someone decided it would be a great idea to line up all of the little ones and take some pictures. (I didn't have my camera, so thanks Rachel for the pics!) The five babies in the picture are really just a handful of the new additions. Elle LOVES sucking her hands (which her Daddy hates) and since she apparently couldn't get to hers, took the liberty of sucking on Addison's.

Lesson learned: If you can't get to your hands, borrow a friend's.

Saturday night we ate at Mad Pizza (I love all of their different kinds of pizza) and then bought some fireworks on the way home. We had to get the traditional rooster, tank, and sparklers. David couldn't leave without a few M-80's - he says there isn't a more fitting holiday for the U.S. than a holiday where you celebrate your independence by blowing things up. We shot off a parachute and it landed a block over. We went to retrieve it and some other kids had already found it, but we ran into our neighbors whose back yard faces our house. They ended up coming over and watching us shoot our remaining fireworks off and we shared some of our strawberry jam with them. Sydney also discovered fireflies, so we had to put a few of those in a jar.

Lesson learned (by Dad): Protect your goods while doing sparklers with a three-year-old who thought throwing a sparkler in Daddy's lap would be a great idea.