It all Started with Frosting...

I made cupcakes for Activity Days today and Kensley was eating one tonight after dinner.  She was begging me for another cupcake when I noticed she had some frosting on her chin.  I told her she had frosting on her chin and then continued to read my book.  Next thing I know, there is a loud crashing noise and I look up to see that it is Kensley crashing to the floor along with a decoration on the wall and a desk and Pyper's dinner.
So, here is the story.  After I told Kensley there was frosting on her chin, she wanted to see if this was true by looking in a mirror.  In her infinite wisdom, she decided this mirror on the wall would be the best bet.

It is no longer on the wall, but it was when she decided to look into it.  Since it was too high for her to see into, she decided to use this desk for height.

Yes, she decided to stand on the table.  Of course, the thing flipped over and everything came crashing down.  The mirror, the table, Kensley, and noodle soup!  She was screaming hysterically and as I was trying to untangle her from the desk and see the damage, the first thing she said in the midst of sobs was, "I don't want to go to the hospital!"   She was trying not to let me see where she was hurt for that very reason!  She kept telling me it wasn't that bad all the while her body was shaking.  She then told me she was cold.  Yeah, right, you are totally fine!

She is now laying on the couch, bundled in blankets, and watching a Barbie movie.  I am trying to get soup out of the carpet.

Arizona State Capitol

Stephen had an assignment for one of his classes to visit a historical site.  He decided to go to the Arizona State Capitol and me and Pyper decided to tag along, Kensley was in school.

Pyper had a blast!  She wanted to climb up and down all the stairs and everytime we passed this middle part she would say, "we need to be careful".

This is part of the USS Arizona that was sunk at Pearl Harbor and is still there.

Model of the USS Arizona.

It was a fun outing for the day and after we picked Kensley up from school, we took advantage of Happy Hour at Sonic since it was also a very hot day!

I Want to Live Here!

I don't know what this house is, but I want it!  It looks like it is used as some sort of business now that no one lives in.  It was near the Charlestown Navy Yard where the USS Constitution is stored.

Bunker Hill

This is the part of our walk that almost killed me.  We had already been walking for several hours seeing all the sights.  We arrived at Bunker Hill and climbed the steps to this monument when Stephen told me that you can climb to the top of the monument!  Of course, I agreed because I am a tourist, after all!  We climbed the 294 steps, enjoyed the view for a while, and then climbed back down, which was harder for some reason.  I got outside and my legs started shaking and cramping while I was exclaiming, "oh no!" over and over.  I thought I was going to collapse!  I powered through, however, and finished the entire Freedom Trail that day and we still had a lot more walking to do!  I walked over 23,000 steps and climbed 57 flights of stairs on this day!

 

 

The Bunker Hill Monument stands 221 feet tall at Breed's Hill, the site of the first major battle of the American Revolution fought on June 17, 1775. Control of this high ground near the harbor was important to the British occupation of Boston. When colonial forces chose to fortify Charlestown, they bypassed the more dominant "Bunker Hill" and dug in on Breed's Hill which was lower and closer to the water.
"Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes" is the legendary order attributed to Colonel William Prescott to make sure that each shot would count. The poorly trained and ill prepared colonial forces repelled two major assaults by the British Army before retreating. Almost half of the British soldiers were either killed or injured. Although the colonists lost the battle, their bravery and strong showing against the British encouraged them to fight on.

 

View from the top:

 

U.S.S. Constitution

Fire Station

We passed by this fire station on our Freedom Trail walk and I just thought it was kind of neat. :o)

Copp's Hill Burying Ground

Someday, I will finish blogging about our trip to Boston and the rest of the summer!

Copp's Hill Burying Ground is Boston's second oldest burying ground. It was first founded in 1659 as Windmill Hill. The area was named after shoemaker William Copp who once owned the land.
Thousands of artisans, craftspeople, and merchants are buried on the Hill. Additionally, thousands of African Americans who lived in the "New Guinea" community at the base of Copp's Hill are buried in unmarked graves on the Snowhill Street side.
Also interred at Copp's Hill are the Mather family of ministers; shipyard owner Edmund Hartt; Robert Newman, best know for placing the signal lanterns in the steeple of the "Old North" Church on the eve of the Battle of Lexington and Concord; Shem Drowne, the weathervane maker who crafted the grasshopper atop Faneuil Hall; and Prince Hall, the anti-slavery activist and founder of the Black Masonic Order.

Tooth Fairy Fun!

Kensley had a loose tooth for a few weeks that was bugging her.  Stephen tried to pull it out for her to no avail.  It was pretty tragic for Kensley and she wouldn't let him try again even though it was dangling from her mouth.  This past Sunday, we were sitting in Sacrament Meeting at Church listening while the Bishopric was being re-organized.  Right at the same moment we were sustaining our new Bishop, Kensley exclaimed that her tooth fell out!  She was so excited and we carried it around in a little baggy that was the earlier goldfish snack.

So, Sunday night also brought a first for me and Stephen as well as Kensley!  A visit from the tooth fairy for one of our kids!  Kensley had a lot of kids in her Kindergarten class last year lose teeth, so she is a little behind.  The tooth fairy left a dollar bill under her pillow and I woke up Monday morning listening to her singing, "tooth fairy, the tooth fairy, tooth fairy!"  over and over.

 

The note from the Tooth Fairy tells her not to forget to Brush and Floss!  She was very excited about her dollar, but kept telling me that her friend in school got $3 for her tooth so she should have, too.  I said, no, you only get $1 from the tooth fairy so her parents must have given her the other $2!  Then, Kensley says she should get $6 since she is 6 years old!  I told her that was not happening, but even with all the negotiating for more cash, she was still happy and couldn't stop posing for the camera.

 

On a side note, this same friend who received more money than her is the same friend that introduced Kensley to "msg" and now she is obsessed!  She won't drink chocolate milk at school anymore because her friend said their was "msg" in it and it is bad for you!  Everytime we eat, Kensley wants to know if there is msg in it.  So annoying!

When A Mom Takes a Shower...

This is the sort of scenario she may find when she is done!

Notice that Pyper did start her graffiti on a piece of paper that you can see in the background.  Apparently, she ran out of room on the paper and had to improvise.

When I came downstairs to check on her, she immediately threw herself down on the floor, covered her face and refused to acknowledge me.  She knew she was a naughty girl!

Problem Solved???

Since Kensley was about 2 years old there has been a common theme that always ended in vomit.  We have gone to doctors, put her on medication, kept food diaries, had x-rays, etc.  It has gotten to the point that she only throws up about once a month at night in bed.  Enough to give me anxiety every night wondering if this is the night I will be cleaning up throw up again, but not enough to warrant extensive tests by the G.I. specialists.  So, I decided to fork over the cash and send her to an Herbalist.  I am not really one to rely on alternative medicine, but the thought just kept coming to me that I should do it and I finally decided to follow the prompting, whether it was a prompting or not!  When I made the appointment, I was told it would be $125 plus the herbs suggested if I decided to buy them.  Okay, so this is what our emergency stash of limited funds is for, right?  If my car were broken, I would spend the money, so why wouldn't I spend it on Kensley?  Her appointment was last night and her name is Harriet and has been doing this for years.  First, she sat Kensley in a chair and took off her shoes.  Harriet pushed on Kensley's feet in different places and Kensley had to tell her if it hurt or not.  Most didn't hurt and I was told she was a very healthy little girl.  She asked a series of questions, which apparently Kensley's body answered, and then Harriet said that Kensley's lymph nodes were blocked and that is the garbage disposal of the body that filters all the toxins out.  Okay, simple fix.  Dandelion Root twice a day for a month.  Then she said that Kensley's stomach needed to be pulled down....what the what?  What does that mean, I asked??  She said that her stomach was high and needed to be moved back to where it should be.  Huh?!  She laid Kensley down on a bed, put oil on her tummy, and started massaging her chest in downward motions to "move" her stomach.  So weird, but okay, I will go along with this.  Harriet kept saying, it is really high, I haven't even reached the top of her stomach yet.  She did this for a couple minutes, did a couple little thumps and said that her stomach was now in the proper position and said "See, you can see it right there."  Harriet said that because her stomach was high, there was only one place for her food to go and that was up and that it also caused a lot of stomach acid.  So she prescribed aloe vera juice twice a day for one week to get rid of all the extra acid.  She also said that Kensley could stop taking Zantac immediately because she had fixed the problem with her stomach and she should be fine from now on.  She kept saying what a healthy girl Kensley was and these were easy fixes and then only charged me $75 because she didn't have to do everything!  I can't express what a relief this all was and I really, really hope the problem is solved and we can move on!

Happy Birthday Old Man!

I got up super early this morning and went to the store for doughnuts, chocolate milk and balloons.  I expected everyone to still be asleep when I returned home.  Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be.  The complex was swarming with police officers who had found a two-year old little boy and were trying to find the parents.  So, they were going door to door waking everyone up!  Oh well, we still had doughnuts!

It was also supposed to be picture day for Kensley, so the night before we put curlers in her hair.  Pyper didn't want to be left out so we put some in her hair, too.

The curls were a little crazy!  I didn't take a picture of Pyper later in the day, but they looked much better as they fell out a little!  We did tame Kensley's hair before school, though.

Unfortunately, there was a torrential downpour right about the time she was scheduled for school pictures.  I was worried that she would look like a drowned rat in her pictures.  Instead, the school canceled the pictures until a later date!  So, we will be going through the process all over again soon!

 

Dance Concert

Kensley loves to put on dance clothes and put on concerts for me.  She turns all the lights out and makes me put on "ballerina" music and starts dancing.  Sometimes Pyper joins in with her.