Payne Family Wanderings

Here goes another mass update on the wanderings of the Payne family. We have been enjoying having Joe home with us this summer. The kids keep him busy, and he gives me quiet time to work on flowers without interruption. My husband is the best! Thanks honey!

Last week Marvin Payne and The Gifted Seed played at the Utah Arts Festival. It was a great show. If you missed it you can check out a couple of songs on YouTube. Some of my family came up to the show and wandered the festival with us. Max spent most of the festival riding along with Papa. It was fun to see my brother Todd for a quick minute. His kids were able to come to the festival and Amelia and Max ran themselves ragged chasing Gavin, Bailey and Uncle Todd. They were very sad the next morning when the woke up and Todd had already gone home.






This artist is my favorite! I have been eyeballing his work for a couple of years now. One day I will own one.







One of the first things Max saw was this motorcycle. I think this is on his Christmas wish list. Santa needs to start saving!!!


The girls could hardly wait to get their faces painted. The older kids were happy to clean their faces at the end of the night, but our kids wanted to leave their faces painted for days on end. It was the end of the world when I removed Spider Man's paint.


I have been trying to get the kids to eat more veggies and fruits. Some days are better than others. One afternoon I was eating a spinach salad while we watched Hacker. The kids got excited to show off their Popeye muscles every time they ate a leaf. Thank You Popeye!!!

Since Joe has been home more than usual lately I have given him some projects. The first was dividing a closet into two. The kids had fun playing and napping in my NEW CLOSET!!!! It is sooooooo nice! Thank you Joe! Behind that wall is a nice big closet for Max's room. Both kids spend a lot of time playing in Max's closet now.

The first week we had Max in his new room was fun. Amelia slept with him every night. They are still inviting each other to sleep over in a different room each night.

We are about half way through T-ball now. The kids are having a great time. It is really cute to watch. It is nice to have them on the same team. Max loves to hit the ball and show us how fast he can hustle. Amelia loves to chase the ball and pounce on it. Last week Joe started pitching it to her. She has great hand eye coordination! No more tee for this girl.

I need to get some pictures of Max riding his bike. Joe has been taking off the training wheels every once in a while since January. Last week we were outside and Max said "I peddled." And that was it. We can't get enough bike time now.

This is way behind the times. Amelia graduated from Preschool in June. They had a little program and rang the church bell as a tradition saying school is out for the summer. This is her little class from the blue room.

Amelia and her teacher Miss Cathy. The other teacher Miss Irene has a new baby and I never got a picture of her. They were both great!

We love to paint! Mom was tired of the usual paint mess and wanted something sweet to eat. We made sugar cookies and frosted them with a thin layer of white frosting. After drying the kids painted them. YUM! It was more enjoyable to clean up this painting mess. There was a yummy reward at the end.

Amelia and Joe dug out the scraps in the garage and built a snack shop. This week the kids sold Kool Aid. If we are not watching close they will have all the cupboards in the kitchen empty and for sale.

Amelia lost a little weight in June. Helped along by Max hitting a toy out of her mouth. It took about two days for her tooth to finally come out. Now we spend our days discovering new things that fit in that little hole. Things like spaghetti noodles, rice and Max's finger. The new tooth is peeking through. And the other bottom tooth is getting ready to come out.

Well, there it is for now. Whew! That was quite a lot for one post. You would think I would learn my lesson.