Quarta Settimana

These weeks are filled with such busy-ness. Most of it is fun, some of it is sad. Tyler has spent many of his weekends up with his father, who is still suffering from cancer. Barry does not have much time left, but he has been around longer than anyone could have hoped for. At this point, we actually desire that he can return home to his Heavenly Father soon. It is hard to watch a loved one suffer.

Tyler was in ID for Father's day, and he almost didn't return in time for all the girls to love on him. A tire on his car suddenly had a strip of rubber come off. In order to avoid losing the tire completely, he drove at a very slow speed to the next town. (He was about 30 miles out from Malad, but that is a long drive at 8 mph.) In Malad, he found a tire repair place, but nothing was open since it was Sunday. So I drove out and picked him up. It didn't seem right to leave him in ID on Father's Day. (Actually, I would have picked him up any day.)

We had time to give Tyler notes of appreciation and draw on his back. (Yes, we show love in weird ways.) I love that you can see Tyler's back dimples. I think only Daisy inherited those.

Monday morning, bright and early, Tyler and I drove back out to Malad to get his car working. I'm impressed with how he has all the tools he needs and knows how to use them. I would probably just play the damsel in distress if I got a flat.

This tire is not exactly flat, but there is certainly something wrong with it.

3R Tire in Malad opened early and took great care of us. They were stupendous. They even fixed Tyler's spare tire which was flat. We may drive all the way up there to do business with them again.

I was able to get back home before 10, so the day could continue as planned. We didn't want to miss our fun craft after all. I'm not sure if you recall how much the girls enjoyed scrapbooking last summer? I wanted to give them the chance again, but I knew we would have less of a frenzy since they did almost all their pictures last year. Sure enough, some girls only had ONE picture to do. (The one that came off the wall when I switched them this year.) I liked how they all turned out.

On Wednesday, we were supposed to go up to the Leonardo Museum in Salt Lake to see their new SPARK! Exhibit. On display they have all the entries from Reflections that made it to the state level, and that includes June's story. She would have had free admission and the rest of us would get 10% off. However, I am not very inclined to drive to Salt Lake City often. It is a long drive and I figured by the time we got there, kids would already be hungry for lunch. It just seemed like too much. (Even Supermoms can be overwhelmed.) So instead we played the witch game at the library.

The kids always beg to play the witch game when we go, so it is nice to actually plan it in advance. It was super hot, so there were many extra breaks to go inside for drinks or just to bask in the AC. Afterward we used our weekly coupon from the library to go get Menchie's. Naturally I forgot to take pictures of anything the whole day. I did have Curtis take a shot for us when we got home from Menchie's, but it is blurry. But that is what we have.

We all went out to watch Ivory do gymnastics in the evening. That was supposed to be our field trip next week, but the gym is closed next week for the holiday. I didn't get any pictures there either, but that may be because it all ended with a bang when Pearl smashed her finger in a folding chair. We thought it might be broken, but it was just a chunk of skin missing and it healed quickly.

Even later that evening, the activity day girls had a party for Father's Day. It is only fair since they did one for the Mothers. For the fathers, they built little wooden trucks. They were really cute. Tyler, of course, had two girls to manage, so they came home with two trucks.

They also played This Dad... The three clues I sent for Tyler were,
1. This Dad caught a pigeon in Ukraine.

2. This Dad draws hearts on his kids during church.

3. This Dad got a dozen missionaries to bow down to him on his mission.

The kids picked him out easily enough, although Ivory didn't know about the pigeon. They had a fun evening.

Thursday, we made a rich, chocolatey, caramely treat. There is an official recipe here.

First, we melted chocolate and butter in the microwave. Then June cracked some eggs in the mixer for us.

As it mixed, we added our melted chocolate slowly so it wouldn't cook the eggs. A few more ingredients later, we had a gooey batter.

I felt like it used a lot of dishes, but that meant there were plenty of things to scrape or clean. Daisy and June took care of the paddles.

Pearl had already gotten the melted chocolate bowl. Ivory got the mixer bowl.

Robyn just helped me with some of the extra Rolos. (By the way, I used Rolos but no extra caramels like the recipe asks for. I knew that Ivory would have some trouble if there was too much caramel chewiness.

We chilled the batter for an hour so it would be easier to work with. It was actually quite stiff when it came out. Robyn makes this look easy, but it was a bit tricky.

The finished product was super tasty, but very rich. No eating a dozen of these at a time. And they were still a bit caramely for Ivory. (Don't worry, I managed to eat hers.) Yummy.

That evening, Robyn and I had a date. We are saving money for some home projects so I told the girls we would have to keep the dates cheap. Robyn chose eating ice cream and playing games...on the roof. It was really fun. I enjoy getting one on one time with the kids and Robyn is always fun to talk to. We didn't think we could eat a whole Ben and Jerry's, but we managed. (Even after cookies that morning. Good thing I'm still going to boot camp.)

The funniest thing was Moxy, who was super nervous that we were out there. Apparently she was pacing inside the sun-room waiting for us to return. When we didn't come fast enough for her liking, she finally jumped out the window onto the roof. What a crazy dog. We let her stay out there with us. She had earned it...not an easy jump, that one.

Friday, we watched Paddington. The kids really enjoyed it. Pearl and I had already seen it on a date, but it was good to watch it again and see the parts I missed during bathroom breaks.

I'm going to add on the odds and ends here, since I don't think they are quite enough for their own post. Curtis still comes over to play games. We introduced him to CLUE Museum Caper. That game is so fun. We all took turns being the thief and most of us were caught.

The kids don't play as much Crossy Road anymore. (They have been enjoying Minion Rush recently.) But I did see them playing the other day. They added something new to make it more exciting. Upside-down Crossy Road. It is a little tricky. I took my turn and got the high score. Go Mom!

Tyler changed office spaces this week. We went to visit and we let the kids find his desk. It wasn't too hard to figure out where he sits.

June got ahold of Ivory this week and made her really fancy. She wanted to take a picture with a serious face. It took her a while, but I think we got it. I give you the Duchess of Romania. (I guess they don't smile in Romania.)

And that wraps up week four. One month of summer gone.