Robyn's 13 Year Gallery

Phew. Got this on here before Daisy's birthday. I will call that a success. I actually took these a while ago, before Pearl's pictures even. (Life gets busy, what can I say?) I was saving them for a special day. Today!

See, I'm having one of those forgetful days. I was supposed to pick up Robyn from swim practice. Well...Tricia dropped off her girls, and then there is this hive of bees in the backyard and I'm trying to find someone to take them. (They are honey bees we think, so no killing them.) With all the added distraction, I totally forgot to pick up Robyn. Forty-five minutes later, I jumped in the car, but she was already almost home since she walked. Ug.

Then I sat down to type this and forgot I was boiling eggs on the stove. Sometimes I think I should not be allowed to turn on the stove. Sheesh, just one of those days. So, it makes it a perfect day to share a photo gallery. They make me happy. Just remind me to go get the eggs in ten minutes, okay?

Robyn is thirteen. She is a bit sassy, but oh so beautiful and smart. She is musically gifted and I love listening to her play the piano or her new Marimba. (Hmm, I should get a picture of that.) She is good at art and funny. She can be a bit bossy and a total pain to her sisters, but I think that is normal. Most of the time, I love being around her. Those other times...well, I will just lock her in her room with Moxy until therapy dog does the trick.

We decided to get some pictures out by the amphitheater in PG. It is close to Robyn's percussion lessons, so we went bright and early. It was a great trip. Check out this lovely.

Haha. I love the mismatch socks.

After, we grabbed a treat. Donuts seemed like a great idea in the morning. This picture makes me laugh so much. Robyn said she looks like the Inconvenient Stenographer. (I hadn't even seen that sketch. Check it out.)

It was a wonderful morning and then we headed over for lessons. Selfie in the car. 

Love you Robyn. You are growing into a wonderful young lady. I'm glad you are mine. (Even if I forget to pick you up sometimes.)

Teenagers Can Share

Tyler decided to have surgery on his ankle this year. We decided it would be best to do it after the cruise. The doctor only did surgeries on Thursday and it just so happened that the first available Thursday after the cruise also happened to be Robyn's birthday.

So she shared her big day with her dad, who did his best not to steal her thunder. And in honor of Robyn, the rest of this post is not about surgery boy. (I promise we'll get to him later.)

Robyn got up a year older and teenager looked good on her. She opened a gift from Grandma Dargan first thing. (Her only gift since she opted for a party.)

She did lunch with Dad the day before since he was going to be busy on the actual day, but I think they forgot to take pictures.

I was a little worried about being there after school with balloons. I actually left while Tyler was in surgery, bought balloons and left them at the school, so that either Granny V or I could pick up Robyn and balloons would already be present. As luck would have it, we were coming home at the perfect moment and both of us were there to see Robyn.

I had to laugh though. When I was picking out balloons, I was trying to get a rainbow assortment to go with Rainbow Dash. I had a green balloon that was okay, but on the way out, I saw another stand of balloons and one said, "You're the best!" That seemed like a better choice. It wasn't until after it was blown up did I realize they were all Mother's Day balloons, so it actually said, "You're the best...Mom!" Hahahaha. (I just don't want her to forget it.)

The evening was very relaxed. We had a couple bottles on hand so we let Robyn saber one. I tried to record it, but she was so darn fast, I didn't push the button in time. (June...you weirdo.)

Marinn was over and we let her saber a bottle as well.

I can't even remember what Robyn requested for dinner, but I thought it was funny that from where I was sitting, it looked like Pearl had a mustache.

Robyn hit the official teenage years. I think she is mostly excited to watch PG-13 movies, although there are plenty that she still can't watch. June is funny because although she hasn't seen that many, she is always making suggestions of what we should watch. (Really, in 19 months, I think we've only shown her Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, Stardust, Pirates of the Carribean, and Back to the Future. We are slow movie watchers.)

Robyn enjoys the limelight. Everyone sing Happy Birthday!

And candles out.

Let's not forget the important step of measuring self worth height. Robyn has hit five feet. I hope she gets a little taller. Momma hope all her girls beat her in the height race.

It may not have been the most exciting day, but we sure love that Robyn is in our family. And there are pictures from her photo shoot and her party coming up.

Crack For My Neighbors

How is your summer going? I'm enjoying these longer days with less on my plate. It doesn't mean we aren't busy...we just aren't over scheduled. And that is all I could ask for at the moment. Especially with my pile of blog posts waiting for me.

Today we are going back in time to our final Crack Offs. I really didn't like leaving our neighborhood one until after the cruise, but I couldn't fit it in beforehand. And it doesn't really matter. I could do a Crack Off in the middle of July and be happy.

I think my absolute favorite part of any Crack Off is seeing the egg designs people come up with. Some are simple and fantastic. Others are intricate and amazing. Some I wish I had thought of first. Let's take a look at what our neighborhood produced.

The Shark and Scuba Steve were done by Megan. I have to give her some props because she has never decorated eggs in her life. I'm glad I could be there to see her first creations!

Here is our group (for my memory). You have the Keens there. I think this is their fourth year coming in a row. Jana won 2014, and Chris won '15 and '16. Next around the table (going counterclockwise) is Burgundy and her brother Bronson. (Her hubby Dean ended up with another obligation, but I'm so happy that Burgundy came anyway and roped her brother into coming.)

Vicki was still hanging out at our place, so we included her. Thania and Steven Budd came and then the Tenney's as well -- Megan and J.J.

I feel awful that I didn't get a picture of the winning deco egg. Bronson stole the show with Eeyore. I think Tyler came in second with Maui and Megan, third, with Scuba Steve. There were some great eggs!

The cracking is always fun. It is even better when some people have never done it. Weirdly, I think we had more double cracks than ever before. We had some extra eggs and almost all of them were used up.

I was killing it. I actually thought I was going to win a neighborhood Crack Off for the first time. But it wasn't meant to be. Here is me losing. Look at Pearl's face. She is so distraught for me.

And who did I lose to?? Jana!! The best irony is that her original eggs had cracked in a double break, so she was using one of our extra eggs. I was beaten by a Cazier egg wielded by a Keen. (I never saw it coming.) That makes the Keens, champions, four years running. They have won every neighborhood Crack Off we have had in this house. Is it magic? Or a curse? I don't really mind. They can keep coming.

Also, I did one Crack Off at school this year in Ivory's 5th grade class. Since I was running it, I didn't get any pictures, but another mom sent me a few. The kids had a great time. Ivory wasn't in the pictures, but she was there, I promise. Our winner was Xander and Olivia came in 2nd. Good job!

That is enough cracking for this year. Sorry to be slow, but it is worth it to get all the eggs on here.

Monkey Highlights One

I haven't had the time for blogging that I thought I would be swimming in, once summer arrived. Instead, I have monkeys who are under foot and more often than not I am playing a game or making a meal than sitting at my computer. (Why is the plural of monkey, monkeys instead of monkies?)

I have a LOT of back posts piled up, but I am stressing about summer slipping away and then being behind on it as well. Luckily, our summer is not the jam-packed schedule it usually is. Instead, we are taking it easy and throwing in events here and there. So I'm just going to do weekly highlights. And I will add them as the summer goes, despite how behind I am in my blog posts. So it won't all be chronological like my OCD would like, but it will save my sanity at the end of the summer. (Small concessions.)

So let's highlight this first week of summer.

The kids got out of school before Memorial Day weekend, which was nice. The first thing we did was take Ivory in for a haircut. It was supposed to be Pearl, but long story short...it wasn't.

Ivory looks super cute with her new shortness, although she has always been short. (Good thing it looks good on her.)

Our Memorial Day was so chill. Tyler and I were supposed to see a movie, but our friends got sick so we stayed home and played with the kids. Mark came over for dinner and we BBQed some dogs and soaked in the stillness of no homework. Then the twins came down and we played untold numbers of games of Ninja Destruction. (It is the new favorite.)

The rest of the week included things like birthday lunches, swim team, piano lessons, a strange rash, orthodontist appointments, babysitting, percussion lessons, well check-ups, physical therapy, chiropractic, night games, and you guessed it...lots more Ninja Destruction. (Actually, maybe you didn't guess that.)

Finally the weekend arrived and we all jumped in the car to head to ID. Kaysen was getting his mission call and we wanted to be there when he opened it. I read to the kids in the car, which means I sat in the back for a bit. (Man, the back seat is uncomfortable. How do the kids sit back there all the time?)

Driving by some mountains we saw a bit of snow that had melted into the letters 'il'. Looks like this mountain is partly ill.

In Idaho, we kicked it with one of our favorite crews. Kolby, Kat, and the boys came over. They are always a good looking group.

So we played some (guess what?) Ninja Destruction with them. Even Granny V was getting in on the fun.

But the real fun was going to see Kaysen open his mission call. There was a globe with a hoard of guesses. Our family picked place from Alaska to Australia. Where do you think he's going??

Check it out to see if you guessed right...

Oddly enough, no one guessed Mexico on the globe. Kaysen will be an amazing missionary. He has a strong testimony of the gospel. In the end, it doesn't matter where he goes. He is called to serve, and that is exactly what he will do.

Here he is checking out his papers. There is a lot of info in there. He has a few months before he leaves. Maybe he will try to get a head start on his Spanish. His official mission is the Mexico, Torreon mission if you couldn't hear the video.

Kathryn is a proud mom. And she should be. She has great boys. We are proud of you too, Kaysen!!