We've been hanging out around Wellington quite a bit lately. Here are a few things that were picture worthy! There are some videos at the end too.
Mackenzie loves playing in the water
Her little butt was hanging out the entire time, and it was the cutest thing ever!
She's never alone for very long. Someone always comes to play with her.
Just some green plants (there aren't a lot of those around here because we haven't gotten much rain).
Damon's funky hair. We can't figure out why it was sticking up back there.
Bentley loves doing filters on everyone.
And Mackenzie loves dog food. Seriously, she eats it all the time.
We've actually gotten a handful of raspberries this year!! We are planning on installing a drip system for them which we hope will help with all this heat.
Bentley made a throne for herself out of cushions
Getting comfortable at the dinner table
Kyler decided he wanted to learn how to juggle, so he looked up some YouTube videos with Dad and taught himself in 3 days!! Here is a video right after he got the hang of 3 balls.
He got better fast. Here he is just a couple days after the first video.
The boys also kept themselves busy by practicing their dunks Dude Perfect style!
Mackenzie was watching Frozen II and thought this one part was hilarious, so I kept going back just to hear her laugh.
Our kids love playing with cousins at all times. They really wish they could do it everyday, and they tried for a week straight while the Payne family was in Childress. Lucky for them we spent most of our time with them. We ended up driving over 6 hours to spend time with everyone and had a little too much family time. Everyone tried to play with Mackenzie, but as usual she hardly left my side. It's so weird because none of the other kids stuck to me quite as much as she does.
Brek tried so hard to get Mackenzie to like her.
This was a football playing, card trading, inseparable bunch of boys!
The lighting was so weird this night around sunset. There was smoke from fires which added to the weird but pretty light. It looked much better in person.
Cousins cousins everywhere!
Crazy boys with some photobombing girls in the back.
Snow cones!
About as close to Papa as Mackenzie will get!
She really does like most people just not when they touch her in any way, haha
Playing around at the pool.
The 4 older kids stayed with the Payne kids one night and got into some crazy stuff!! That's Radley in the pink head to toe!
More cousins on a different night.
There is usually racing involved when these kids get together. They sure are a competitive bunch!
Mackenzie almost being nice!
Here are a few videos of these kids doing who knows what and who knows why!!!
All of Bentley's cheerleading dreams come true!! She was so excited Brek who takes a cheerleading class was teaching her all she knows!! Not quite sure how excited we were to see Kyler helping, haha, but Bentley loved it.
For our next international adventure, Radley wanted to go to Mexico!! I could definitely handle Mexico cuisine!! The kids and Dad decided on nachos for dinner with salsa and guacamole. We checked to make sure nachos were not just an Americanized version of Mexican food. Nachos actually come from northern Mexico. First we thought of sopapillas for dessert, but some didn't want those. We went for tres leches cakes instead. Radley got a book about Mexico from the library to help us learn more about the culture and traditions. We read about their holiday festivities and piñatas, the day of the dead, Christmas traditions, and a lot more. I was surprised how interested the kids were in learning new things. It was fun. I also spent the week leading up to this making a piñata. Oh my goodness, it took so much time! It wasn't difficult to make; it just took a lot of time here and there with several layers of paper mache. When I finally got to the part I like the most, decorations to make it pretty, I was DONE. I didn't care what it looked like at that point, especially since the kids were just going to be smashing it to pieces anyway! They were so excited for the piñata! It was able to withstand a lot more hits than I thought it would. After the piñata and dessert, we ended the night watching Coco.
With the current state of the world and all of the unrest with race and differences, this has been a great opportunity to talk to our kids about people who are different than us. Our kids don't even realize that they are 'white'. They call themselves peach. (That is the color they use when they draw pictures of themselves) Honestly, I don't want that to change! They don't even know that African Americans are black. Our kids just call them dark brown because their Mexican friends are brown. To them skin color is just a physical characteristic that describes the person rather than defines them, and I never want them to think differently. They looked at me crazy when I suggested that people would ever treat someone badly just because of their skin color. I think the same thing! So I hope this little weekly adventure we take will open my kids to the amazing and great diversity in this world that needs to be celebrated rather than alienating.
Love these ninos!!
Eating our 'authentic' Mexican dinner. We did check and nachos are from Northern Mexico, as well as the salsa and guacamole!
They all wanted their picture taken at dinner
Dad did a great job keeping the pinata moving!
I love her face in this!!
We ate tres leches cake after the piñata. It was pretty good, but I'm not sure I would use this recipe again.
I love how excited and happy Mackenzie was when she hitting it.
Bentley rather enjoyed swinging a bat too.
Radley took his turn pretty seriously.
Damon thought he could bust it open with his first swing!!
Kyler thought the same thing.
Even with the mask off, it took quite a few hits to get it open!!
These kids always find something to do. I've tried to direct some of that energy into doing something a little different than the normal every day. We are trying something new. I thought it would be fun to learn about different cultures and countries. I thought we could do different activities somewhat related to the countries, read some books or watch a movie, and eat some semi-authentic food. Bentley wanted to eat spaghetti and meatballs, so we started with Italy! We didn't do too much learning about the culture this time, but we painted some pasta and made necklaces, and ate gelato!! We all had fun and thought we should try again. There are also few videos, mostly of Mackenzie, of what we've been up to.
The wild hair matches the wild girl!!
She wakes up like this everyday
Fun with filters
They even got Uncle Keyan in on the fun
Getting a treat from Oma! They loved it!!
Painting pasta!!
Is this considered abstract art???
4 kids with paint brushes is always a HUGE mess, but they had fun. I try to remind myself of the second half of that sentence rather than focusing on the first half. It's a struggle!!
Gelato was a massive hit!! We all loved it. Radley took a bite and exclaimed, "Mind blown!" He apparently loved it!
I didn't realize she had been watching us exercise close enough to pick up some moves, haha! She's got some pushups, pilates, burpees, etc.
One day Mackenzie fell down and scraped her knee. It was the first real scab she's had and one she could see. Every time she would see it or look at it, it made her cry. It was pretty pathetic but also cute.
Radley has never really had any fear. Damon jumping off this height isn't too high, but it's high for little Radley.
Mackenzie was kind of nervous about this bug we found on the trampoline, but once I got her to hold it, she loved it!! She will now hold almost any bug she finds and isn't scared of them anymore!
