Sharp objects popular with 5 year olds

This is from Lily:

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Thank you very much! Today I substituted Lily's class at church. Oh, nearly 2 hours with five 5 year olds...Can somebody get me a Valium? There is a reason I have never been called to serve in the Primary. I might actually crack! It's one thing to have a bunch of kids at your house where they can play & be rowdy and when they get obnoxious you just send them to another part of the house or outside. But trying to get 5 kids to sit still, stop jabbing each other, stop talking, stop whining, face forward, pay attention to the leaders, sing songs, etc. is enough to try any one's patience. It wasn't as bad once we finished Sharing Time (songs and short talks with all the kids under 8) and got into our own little classroom. I tried to woo the kids with my superior story-telling skills (the story of the Gold Plates and the Angel Moroni is very fascinating, you know.) When that got old, I let them carve their names into a soda can with a sharp nail. Oh yeah, that got their attention! This was to demonstrate how difficult it was for the prophets to engrave their words onto the metal plates. Man, give a kid a sharp object and they are like putty in your hands! I know this activity seems to go against better judgement and safety sense, but I'll have you know that it was suggested in the lesson manual. Please direct all complaints to the Church Curriculum Department!

I've been meaning to email some pictures from some fun cousin activities, but it always gets pushed out of the way by other computer work, so I'll post them here. At the end of March Dan's sister Dianna and her family came out for a ski vacation. She and her husband Jeff have twins, age 8, named Shea and Alex. It was their first time skiing and they absolutely loved it! One of the nights they were here they had a sleepover with Lily. It was good rowdy fun! Lily has a tent over her bed (a birthday gift from Nana & Papa) and another mattress that pulls out from under the bed. At one point during the evening I heard loud thuds. I went in to assess the damage and found the kids jumping from the window seat onto the floor mattress. I told them to take turns so they wouldn't land on each other and Shea said, "I can't believe you're letting us do this!" Once the rowdiness hit a fever pitch, I had the kids get into their pj's and ready for bed. I put on Scooby-Doo Meets Batman and all together they broke out in the theme song. It was so funny! I had assumed that Lily and Alex would sleep in the tent and Shea would sleep on the floor, but he wanted to sleep in the window seat. I told him it wouldn't be that comfortable, but he sure did sleep there the whole night!

The following morning the kids played in the backyard in their pj's while they waited for Amelia and I to wake up. Don't you just love the ski sunburns? We tried to warn Dianna and Jeff about ski sunburns, but out-of-towners never listen! :)

My mom was tickled to find that the kids thought it was really cool to hang out in her bottom basement. It's mostly a storage area, but it has my Grandad Cox's workbench that he used to braid rawhide at in Sheridan, Wyoming.

The kids made the basement room their clubhouse and dubbed it Club A.S.L. (Alex, Shea, and Lily.)

When it was time for the kids to head back up to the ski resort, there were lots of tears from Lily and Alex (gotta love the female drama) while Shea was like, "OK, see ya...I'm off to ski!"

Now, for some Garlitz cousin pics. Nicholas is playing soccer this year and we went to one of his games a couple weeks ago. Nicco really hustled out on the field and looked like he was having fun with his buddies.

What were the other kids doing during this awesome display of athletic prowess? Playing in the dirt, of course! Naturally, Lily instigated the whole thing and Luke & Faith were all for it!

Ahh, to be a kid!