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.