Monkey Highlights Four

Another busy week under our belts. This was week four of summer, and I'm in denial that this is the last week of June. Summer really flies.

What did we have going these past moons? Last Sunday was Father's Day and that deserves its own post. Tyler tried some new fashion trends. (It is rare that he can embarrass me, but sometimes he is just a bit over the top.)

Bright and early Monday morning, I took Ivory to the designated area to relieve all parents of children for five days. They call it camp. I call it a blessed relief. Just kidding, I already had almost a week without Ivory. I wasn't ready for her to leave again, but she was more than willing to take off on another adventure. We got her easily checked in, with, I might add, no misspelled names. (Small summer miracle.) She had plenty of friends to go with and I knew she would make plenty more.

One more selfie with mom.

Onto the bus, and then off into the wilderness. She took pictures which I plan to have developed sometime in the next year. (At least that is honest, if not optimistic.)

That afternoon we made it to the park with friends again. Highlights included all the little boys gathering snails from the small stream. And definitely the fact that no one knew the word archipelago. We brought Probe and I thought that would be a great word. Too bad no one had heard of it. (And I'm not just talking June. Jonny, Beth, and Lindsay didn't know it either. For the record, it is easier to win when no one knows your word. Do you know what archipelago means?)

In the evening we had a block party. Potluck style led to plenty of amazing food. We played games well into the evening. The twins taught us 'kill' that you play with a ball. I was really bad at it, but it was fun to play anyway.

Then we played a couple more games at home.

Robyn suddenly decided on a haircut. Look up there at the hoola hoop picture. Her hair was really long. She brushed it out on the way to Kellie's and she looked like Cousin It because it was so fluffy.

Her hair is still plenty fluffy (when its dry), but now it is shorter.

June started school on Wed. We all laughed at her Tuesday night, because we said it was a school night and she had to go to bed. She opted to take P.E. over the summer so she would have room in her schedule for other things. It sounded good at the time, but I think part of her regrets it. However, no choice about it now, and she has a good attitude as she goes to school for four hours a day. At least it is only for 3 weeks.

When the kids are at home, we play lots of games and do hair often. Here is a fun thing I tried on June's hair.

Daisy was taking some pictures and it makes me laugh that she took a picture of her face over Mr. Flibble. Something seems fishy about that picture.

After getting some cheap chips at the store, we've played more Fan Tan recently. This isn't my hand, but I wouldn't mind four sevens.

Our friend gives us tickets to the Parade of Home every year. We usually run out of time and never make it over, but this time Tyler got our cabooses in gear. Luckily, there were four houses right next to each other, so we browsed around there. There are always some fun ideas. I think I like different walls.

Tyler took a picture of a small door leading into a pantry. It made me laugh because some lady stooped down just as he took a picture. Is it still photo bombing if we caught her instead of the other way around?

Friday rolled around like Fridays do, and Ivory was back. Still smiling.

She had such a great time. She said she didn't miss me at all. Not surprising really.

So I sent her off to babysit and went to the temple with my honey. (Don't worry, I caught up to her at bedtime and let her yak my ear off about camp stories.)

Finally just a nice relaxing day of church. We had Stake Conference and I loved every session. Robyn was doodling during the general session today. She drew a mom with 14 arms. That is really how I feel; always running and doing. I guess moms are pretty amazing.

p.s. Speaking of moms, we had our family book group today. It was fun to catch up with Granny V and Grandma Dargan and Tim. We read the Hollow Kingdom series. (Well, I've read them before, and we were only assigned the first book to read, but it was great to reread the whole series.)