Did you know that heaven offers Computers 101?

My mom says that they must have started offering Computers 101 in heaven for these new little souls because they all come down to earth instinctively knowing how to use all of this new technology. Spencer proves her case. By the time he was 2 1/2, he could hop on the computer, log out of my user, log into the kids' user, open up a browser (which Austin has set up that only has the options of Playhouse Disney, Nick Jr., Noggin, etc.), choose which site he wants to go to and then find the game he wants to play. It just baffles me! Neither Austin nor I ever taught him anything...apparently he came trained (and they must have told him that sticking his tongue out helps!)

What in the world....

This look pretty much sums up how Jack felt about eating rice cereal for the first time. He'd make that face every time I would put the spoon in his mouth.

Fun in the Sun

This year we had a "fun in the sun" themed birthday. We had different stations for the kids to enjoy where they could eat, drink, decorate visors and make wave bottles, pin the shades on Sam the Sun, and of course, get wet. It was extremely hot that day, but I think all in all everyone had a good time!

Happy 5th Birthday, Kamae!

Of course, we have to start the day with the Orton Family tradition of breakfast in bed. It's funny because the birthday kid is usually awake before we are done making their breakfast. Then we will start heading upstairs with it and we will hear a scamper of little feet and a jump back into bed. And, low and behold, they are still asleep...with a huge smile across their face!

4th of July with the Rogers

Well, we learned this year that apparently this is such a thing as too many fireworks. Austin and Scott decided to split the big pack from Costco. By the end, we're telling them to do five or six at a time before all of the kids high tail it inside. Honestly, I don't think the boys, uh, I mean men, would have cared. I think they were having the most fun of anyone there! We had a great time and the kids loved being in their matching shirts. The part that makes me laugh is if you look at the picture with the kids on the stairs, Paige didn't want Jack to be on her lap because he "might hide my flag and then people looking the picture won't know that I had my flag shirt on too". Seriously, what six year old thinks about that stuff?

Get Your Lemonade!! Only 25 Cents!!

This summer, our project was a lemonade stand. We converted a puppet theater that Austin had made for the kids several years ago into our stand. We got an amazing response and lots of very generous customers. In the first two times they did it (a total of about 3 hours), they made about $40! They would have people stop their cars and just throw money out of their windows! One very nice construction worker paid $10 for his little cup of lemonade. How crazy is that!?! Needless to say, it was worth our efforts and the girls even learned a little about how money actually works (except now they think that all you have to do is stand out on the street and people will give you money for nothing...hmmm...I'm not sure that that is the lesson I was trying to teach them.)

Swim Lessons

To me, the essence of summer is swim lessons! The kids had a great time. Their lessons started at 6:30 pm and it was perfect. It wasn't too hot, Austin was there to help and because we were the last lessons of the night, we were able to stay and swim until they closed at 9:00. Paige got brave and started going down the big windy slide (about 3 stories high) all by herself. Kamae and I loved to just float around in the lazy river.

Paige's Dance Competition

Paige was in a competing dance group this past year at Progressions Dance Academy. Here are some pictures of her and her team getting ready for their second competition. They did a jazz dance to Someday My Prince Will Come by Ashley Tisdale (blue costume). It was so dang cute. At the beginning, Paige has her back to the audience and they are supposed to bounce their hips to the beat. She'd get so into it that her head would start bobbing too. I loved it! The other dance was a lyrical dance to "Second Start From the Right" from Peter Pan. In their first competition they took 1st in their lyrical dance and 2nd in their jazz dance and in their second competition they took 1st in both! Way to go, girls!

Can you even believe it?

My friends have been trying to get me to create a blog forever now and I've just been dragging my feet. I guess I just know that it'll probably end up being one more thing for me to feel guilty about because I'm not doing a very good job keeping up with it. However, I enjoy reading about other people's family and I think it would be a good attempt at a journal as well (yep, feeling guilty about not keeping up with that at all!). So, wish me luck and if you see me slacking, give me a gentle nudge...I'll do my best!