First Beach trip of the summer

So Friday was our first trip to the beach.

The weather was sunny and warm...up until 1/2 mile away from the water that is.

It was cloudy and cool the whole day. I never took my cover-up off but that's OK the kids still had fun. There were plenty of friends for them to play with.



This year we got Taylor a wet suit and Jacob a rash guard so they would be warmer and they would'nt get torn up trying to boogie board.



They both said it helped but the waves were too small to do much boogie boarding anyway so they decided to bury friends instead...



Make sand forts...



and hang out with their twins...




We had to leave the beach a little early to race back in time to get Ashley ready for her Dance Class pictures. Here's Ashley with Miss Sarah (her teacher) after she received her participation medal.




I didn't want to spend another $30.00 for one picture of Ashley by herself so I told her we would do our own photo shoot. This is what she came up with ... they are all Ashley poses without any direction from me.

Summer is here

We made it through the last week of school!

Every day I was there once, twice or all day attending and helping with parties, presentations and helping sell 6th grade science camp fundraiser stuff.

Here is Ashley at her ice cream/water balloon and bubble party. Great idea for an end of school/beginning of summer party the only down side was that it was cold and cloudy.



Here is Jacob at his mock congressional hearings. All the fifth graders took a question about the constitution and expounded on it.



I was impressed at how in depth they got in analyzing the constitution, our rights and showing examples of it in action. After it was over I asked Jacob how he thought it went. He said it was pretty much boring, except it was fun when he was speaking. I asked him if he learned anything. He said "not really". Obviously other than his part he didn't really pay attention...I wonder if all the other 5th graders did the same.


After the last day of school Jacob and Taylor were able to perform in their paino recital. It was last minute that we decided to invite some family so we were grateful that Cheri and Ryan and Tahna, Jolene and Josh were able to fit it into their busy schedules.



Taylor and Jacob both did a great job! I always get nervous for them when they are up there getting ready to play, you never know what is going to happen.

Jacob played his "Thousand Miles" better than he did in practice sessions which was a relief. But then Taylor's nerves got the best of him on his first song. He played perfectly a million times at home but once he was performing it there was a little fumbling. Luckily he was fast and flawless on his "Bumble Boogie" so his finale made up for it.



Monday was our first fun day. Late Sunday night I made plans with Heather Anderson to go to The Living Desert out in Palm Springs. I had talked with her about it before and when I went to look online I realized that Monday was the last day they were open until 5:00 then they went to off-season hours and were only going to be open until 1:30.



So we dressed our kids in their shorts and we drove out of the Riverside gloom to
instant summer in Palm Springs. The hottest it got there was 92. Pretty mild for Palm Springs but since we weren't used to the heat we kept loading up on water and made sure to have an ice cream break.



It was our first time being there. It reminded me of a mini Wild Animal Park in some ways. There were zoo animals, desert botanical gardens including an oasis, a train display and a petting zoo. We saw wolves, coyotes, giraffes, zebras, owls, and more. We even saw a parrot hanging upside down in it's cage. It looked like it was stuck and couln't move. He would squawk at us and hang by one foot. When we saw one of the keepers she says he just did that all the time. I wondered if anyone else ever thought it was stuck.

Here is Ashley and Jacob "petting" the goat with a brush. (Smart) The goats eyes looked trippy to me, it took me a minute to realize it was because they were bright blue!



My favorite part of the day was having Heather to talk to on the drive, the oasis, butterflies, birds and the snake we saw on the trail.



Ashley's first favorite was playing with Bryce and then seeing the baby foxes.



Jacob's first favorite was getting back in the car to be in air conditioning and his next favorite was playing with Bryce.

Taylor's favorite was playing with Bryce and then the rest of the day was OK too. Taylor was really impressed with his sign language and says that he wants to teach his children sign language. He had fun communicating with Bryce and trying to teach him new signs.



After we got home we went and signed up for the summer reading program. My goal this year is to keep the kids roughly at the same level. I'm done going to the reward places having to pay for the children that didn't earn it yet and then having to pay again once they do earn it and they want to go back again.


Tuesday felt like old times again. After an early morning orthodontist appointment and a trip to Target to buy fathers day stuff we got to hang out with friends.

Shawna Banagas is back from Costa Rica so she came down we got together with the Pendletons.

Ashley lamented that everyone's babies had grown up. (She loves to play with babies). Luckily Cindy had a new one for her to coo over and Cambry got reaquanted with Ashley and it wasn't long before she was leading her all over the house to play. (even thought they can see eye to eye) :-)

We had 13 kids and 3 adults over for lunch and then we went to our ward swim day to join with more kids. So fun!

All us moms and kids reminded me of when we used to do park days with our preschoolers who are now ...



running around trying to push each other in the pool. Don't feel too bad for Troy though he gave out as good as he got.

and making whirlpools...



and this is the "princess section" I was told. "Only girls allowed no stinky, hairy men." I don't know who they were considering were stinky hairy men but since there really wasn't any around I think they were pretty safe.



Note to self bring lots of snacks on pool day. I had JUST fed my kids lunch but when we were there they were starving! They ate everyone else's snacks and then wanted more. Shawna was the savior with the cherry cheesecake eaten without plates or utinsels, cut with the wrong end of a plastic spoon.

Where does the day go?

OK for the past little while I've spent the majority of my time preparing for, attending or cleaning up after various school events, parties, market days, plays and so on.

I won't bore you with all the details but here's some highlights...

Figure A.



Taylor in his "middle eastern" costume for History Day event. There wasn't too many options for boys. The only suggestions were long, white shirts with pants underneath and a head dress. "Wear your Dad's dress shirt" they said. What do you do when your bigger than your dad?

Wear your mom's fuzzy, furry robe until your too sweaty to handle it any more.


Figure B.









Ashley taking a bow at her "play". It was more like a readers theater but very cute. I actually didn't find out about it until the night before and I had a hair appointment at the same time.

I was a good mom and rearranged it. Good thing because one of her classmates was watching for her mom to come the whole time and when she didn't come she started crying. So sad.

Figure C.



Here are the fruit-ka-bobs that I promised to bring to Jacob's classroom for his party. Being room mom I also agreed to pick up the pizzas for the party. So there was one trip to the school to pick up money for the pizzas. Then there was a trip to the store to pick up the stuff for fruit-ka-bobs along with all the things that parents signed up for and then "forgot". Then it was back to the school to help with the party.



I almost thought I'd lose my "room mom" title when I showed up almost 1/2 hour late for the party.

I walked into Little Caesars to pick up the pizzas for the class party. (The teacher called it in multiple times to make sure that they would be there on time). There were two moms ahead of me picking up 8 pizzas. I counted the stack because that's how many I was picking up and I was judging how hard it would be to carry all of them. When it was my turn and I asked for my order my heart sank when I noticed the completely empty shelves all around me.

The counter girl slowly went back to get my ticket showing my order. "Uh, your pizzas are in the oven, you'll have to wait." she told me as she squirmed.

"What?" I said. "They were supposed to be ready to pick up."

She looked at the ticket and said "They were supposed to be picked up at 2:10."

"Yeeessss." I said. I looked at my watch and it was 2:14.

Then she finally fessed up. "Well someone else came in and ordered 8 pizzas so I put more in the oven." She said defensively.

So basically she had given away my pizzas as I was standing in line waiting to pay for them. "It will only take five minutes." She said.

Not wanting to make a scene there was nothing to do but sit on the plastic chair and wait.

Within 5 minutes someone came in for a "hot and ready" pizza and she passed one off immediately.

Where did that pizza come from? And why wasn't it not put in my stack?

Luckily counter girl was within my sights the whole time so the next time she tried to give up two more of "my" pizzas to the next customer I gave her a pointed glare until she said "Uh never mind" and stacked them on to the rest of my pile.

Is this girl for real???

I ran out of there once the pizzas were done but it wasn't until later that I realized I should've complained more so it doesn't happen to someone else. Just a word of warning to all those room moms out there.

Figure D



Taylor doesn't get plays and parties but he did come home with his own trophies. The first one is the coveted Phat Hawk PE T-shirt that allows him bragging rights and ability to get in the front of the line for the locker room next year. Phat stands for Physically Healthy Active Teen. Only 3 boys and 3 girls in each class received these.

His other trophy was a paper that he had to write for Mrs. Stearns class (you might remember his laments about her earlier this year). One of his last papers of the year and she gave him an A+, glowing comments and praise in front of the whole class (which embarrassed and pleased him at the same time). He's finally getting an A in her class. He did it by ditching the laptop. He never has to worry about forgetting to print out notes or assignments any more.

I'm so glad we bought him a laptop that was only used for 6 months or so...

Figure E



Here is Jacob at Market Day. I helped him and his group sell snow cones and hand made kazoos out of Popsicle sticks and rubber bands. We worked on these booth items all last night in between orthodontist appointments, complaints about our trees from the neighbors and a nice lady from 3 blocks away who found Jacob's clarinet sitting outside her house last week.

He is a lucky boy, since he didn't even realize that his clarinet was missing yet. I guess we should put his name in it huh.

Tommorow should be a little more relaxing with a presidency meeting, followed by a birthday lunch, followed by Ashley's class party followed by one of Ashley's final dance classes. Hooray for summer.

Back from the Land of the Lost

Have you ever been working on a project that ends up becoming all consuming?

You live life around it but there comes a point where you just want it done so you can get on with life. That's how I've felt about my painting.

I finally finished it and gave poor Sharla back her ladder. (No more having to rescue children down from high places and standing on vehicles without it:)

The painting mess is put away and now I can just enjoy it. For the time being anyway there are some areas that are already bugging me so I know I'll have to fix it.

I don't think the pictures do it justice so if your in the area feel free to come and check it out (just don't judge me if there are dishes in the sink or other such clutter:)









Last week I did enter the land of the living to do a few things such as attend Taylor's last band concert of the year (which he told me about 2 hours before it happened because "he forgot")



That's OK I always enjoy hearing them play...



Ashley got an award for outstanding effort so I got to see her get that...



And, Ashley was very excited to get her Dance recital costume. She had to try it on immediately. It doesn't look bad on Ashley but on the rest of the girls those shorts are pretty short! One upside of being short, it's easier to be modest:)