Diez El Dia de Fete

Even as Summer was slipping away from us, we were partying to the very end. It helps that we have our own holiday in August, but we wouldn't need it to stay busy. This was also our last week of the art themes and it ended up being my favorite theme. All the entries were tremendous. But hold on...art show stuff is at the end of the week. We still have a lot of other stuff to cover.

I can't remember exactly, but I think this was the week we almost gave Nova away. She was really having trouble with getting house trained and I was worried about what we would do with her once school started. So we put her on KSL. We had one family that was interested, but they decided not to take her. By the time another person asked about her, we had decided to keep her after all. She really is a very sweet dog. She still barks whenever someone comes to the door and she still chases off all other dogs who come near our property, but she also fetches and plays like a champ and she loves to cuddle.

Although Robyn's big band camp week was over, she still had post band camp stuff going on. One day the Pit did a photo shoot and dressed in period costumes. Robyn took some selfies in her attire. I can't wait to see what they use all the pictures for.

Speaking of photo shoots, Robyn dressed Pearl up, dying her hair and painting her face and then she took lots of pictures of her. Lots. Here is an example of her google photos.

I think there were around 80 pictures taken. I wasn't around for any of it. I was very impressed with the outcome. When I came home I found Pearl with red hair and face paint. It looked pretty cool.

Some of the week was spent getting ready for Fete day. The color this year was Neon and we went to Saver's to pick up some last minute bright colors. We also made sure we had our gifts. Check out these adorable rocks June painted for Hannah. (Yes, she just happened to randomly draw her best friend for Fete day.)

Sadly, we also did some school shopping which makes the beginning of school and the end of summer much more real. Thanks for reminding us for a month and a half before, Wal-mart.

We managed to watch our movie, The Neverending Story, but our treat was a little slow in the making. I didn't get around to it until Friday night. And then it needed time to chill, it being a cheesecake. Not just any cheesecake, but a chocolate swirl cheesecake. The base was chocolate graham cracker.

And then of course, lots of cream cheese. Blend it right up. Daisy did a lot of our beating. Great job! She's a whiz in the kitchen.

I forgot to get a picture when we swirled it, but I got one when it came out of the oven. Looks mighty tasty.

The slow timing ending up being perfect. The cheesecake would be ready right in time for Fete Day. And when Curtis brought over a huge box of Crumble Cookies, I decided for the first time that I would NOT make ice cream cake and we would eat the desserts we had on hand. It was a break from tradition, but an okay one.

For Fete day this year, I tried a new activity. We did a puzzle dash. What is that, you say? Well, get three puzzles and put them on three different tables. From here, you can see the three tables in the different rooms.

Then divide up your Fete day people onto teams. Here we have the pink team: Robyn, Esther, Allie, Jared, Rachel, and James.

Next the green team: Logan, Denise, Jana, Ivory, Tyler, and Bethany.

And the yellow team, which happened to have no adults: Hannah, June, Rachel, Anna, Pearl, and Daisy.

Our puzzles were bright, almost neon puzzles (to go with the theme). Each team had about five minutes to work on the puzzle at their table. It is always hard to get going. Look for the edge pieces and the corners.

After the five minutes, each team had to rotate to the next puzzle. I'm sure it was hard to keep switching their brains to a different pattern, but all the teams did great.

One puzzle was just colored blocks. It looked like it should be easy, but it turned out to be the worst. Organizing by color was helpful but not perfect.

The door puzzle came together quickly.

And the lion was in between. Are those eyes different colors??

One of the rules was that you couldn't take pieces out. But there was no rule about flipping them over. When the timer got close, the pink team flipped over as many as possible to slow down the yellow team.

But it didn't matter. They finished the doors. It looks great. Way to go girls. Who needs adults?

The pink team finished the lion next. Nicely done!

Which left that blasted block one. So tricky. Everyone pitched in to help finish it.

Good job green team (and helpers).

Time for cheesecake.

And then gifts. It was really fun to exchange neon presents. People were pretty clever with their ideas.

How did I not notice that these two were opposites of each other?

I took a selfie later to prove that I made it to Fete day. I had chosen to take pictures since we had one extra person. And it worked out nicely.

It was a fantastic Fete Day and we are so happy the Mason's and Keen's could share it with us.

The week ended with our last mini art show of the summer. The theme? Volcanoes! (That is Ivory's little volcano there.)

This was our biggest show yet. The Hulse's (who judged last week) came and submitted several pieces of art. It was so great to have extra creativity in the house. Henry did an awesome video. Check it out.

Daisy did a experiment display of her own. Great minds think alike.

Robyn also did a video. It was a spoof on one of our favorite videos.

If you didn't understand that, check out the original here. Skip forward to a minute in. (I am a terrible person. I laugh every time.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRoYCpjMPyk

Now for some other art pieces. Here is Ivory's Blown Away. She used a stray to blow the paint out.

Daisy did this volcano. The smoke seems very genuine.

I really like the bubbles in Pearl's volcano. I feel like they are going to burst any second.

June worked on her project for a couple weeks AND taught herself how to quill. I think it turned out amazing.

Recognize these photos? This is called Awakening.

June was inspired by the song Pompeii by Bastille for this next piece.

Maggie did this awesome Narwhale Rainbow Explosion.

I love the pineapple coconut, 'Tropical Explosion' by Jane.

Robyn worked hard on her pixel volcano and didn't quite finish it, but you can hardly tell.

I did a scratch board underwater volcano. I really like the jellyfish.

Maggie did this camel which was one of my favorites. What a great idea. Jonny helped her title it, "My Hump Runneth Over"

Jane also did this Lava Sunset. Great idea.

I worked really hard on this paper Hawaii Sunset. I think it turned out very well. Check closely. The red is all connected.

Phew. That is a lot of art for one show. Kendra was so kind to come judge for us. I know it is a lot of pressure. It ended up sliding in Robyn's favor this time around. (Three out of four categories. Judge's favorite was her video if you can't tell.)

Can you believe that we did 10 weeks of art and 10 mini art shows? Now we just need to have the big final art show. We need to share all these great pieces from the summer...