A lesson on examples!

We're beginning to have a problem at our house...Loa does EVERYTHING that Laex does!  Sometimes it's not such a bad thing like when he's being helpful, obedient, and sharing.  But then there's the rebellious, ornery, mischievous side and she is pretty convinced that whatever her BIG brother does is the coolest thing on the planet and she should surely be doing it too!
One of the biggest problems we've dealt with lately is Laex's behavior at the dinner table (and therefore, Loa's behavior).  If it's something that doesn't look, smell or feel exactly right he says he doesn't like it, pushes the plate away, refuses to eat, etc. (If only he was still the toddler who ate absolutely EVERYTHING I put in front of him!) Loa then does the same, even though she's already tasted it and responded with a, "Mmm, yummy Mom!"
LeGrand & I decided we needed a lesson about being an example and behavior at the table.  So I played the 'ol "April Fools" game and whipped up some of this for dinner...

 Meatloaf & Mashed Potato Cupcakes

Pudding & Candy Chicken Pot Pies

Laex thought it was a bit weird we 'wanted' him to eat his cupcake first & it took us a good 15 min. of convincing to get Loa to taste her 'Pot Pie' even though Laex was devouring his :)  Our point was that food isn't always what it seems to be so we need to taste and try everything and never make inappropriate comments we accompanied the dinner with a story and discussion about being an example.

Laex now talks about our crazy dinner at nearly every meal time, I'm glad it stuck a little :)

Helping Daddy + an Eclipse

How many does it take to mow the van Gass lawn, on a riding mower??

There are some advantages to living in company housing (okay, A LOT of advantages) one of them is that LeGrand gets to 'maintain' our yard on company time :)  Last week he showed up with the riding mower and zoomed around cutting the grass (which was MUCH needed), pretty soon I looked out there and saw both kids on the mower with him. They had a blast!

On another note...
We couldn't help but get in on the Eclipse hipe last Sunday.  Here's the best we got up here in Idaho--

Reflected with a mirror

Tiny hole shadow

A trick I found online, see all those cool 'Eclipse' shadows!

22 and counting...

While LeGrand's job is mostly the same here in Idaho as it was in Utah, there are a few things that are different. 
One of those being "repair the pipe" season!  Every spring they spend weeks repairing the old, OLD pipe. --the one that shoots water like a sprinkler-- the pipe is made of wood, they first drain the pipe then take a walk (inside) of the whole thing (a couple of miles long) and mark the spots where they see sunlight, then they start working on the repairs, they hire about 10 temp workers in addition to the  the 6-8 of them & a crew of contractors.  A few workers are inside the pipe while the rest are on the outside, they chainsaw out the sections that are ruined and replace with new wood.  They've been doing this same thing for decades --it would make much more sense for the company to take sections of the pipe each year and replace with metal (which they've done with about half of the total pipe) BUT, the company won't.

As a result, today marks LeGrands 22nd day of working 10-12 hr. days without a day off!  Luckily for me, the kids & LeGrand, we only have 3 days to go, yehaw!  We are ALL ready for a break!