April Photos Lead to May Photos (it rhymes)

Hello.

I need to purge pictures off of my phone. Great day for all of you. Random photo posts are the bomb! And you get inside my mind a little and see I bother to take pictures of when I deign to pick up my camera...er, phone. The phone camera is not my favorite, BUT I tend to have my phone with me all the time. That is pretty convenient for a photo op. And so I have stopped caring whether the picture is taken with the nice camera or the phone. Usually I'm just glad the picture was taken period.

This first picture was taken back in March. Oops. Jenaca came to visit. Now that she lives in Oregon, if she visits, I'm going to make an appearance. I think I was hosting the neighborhood book group that night, but I cut out early (not the most hostessy thing to do) and arrived to spend a lovely evening with these ladies. Such fantastic ladies.

Mary Anne, Maleen, Trisha, Jenaca

Some of my pictures are requests from the kids. They also know that I have my phone with me all the time, so if they see something interesting, I hear, "Mom, take a picture." This day, Pearl and I were walking to the bus. I love a rocket trail in the sky as much as she does.

Moxy still loves sunning herself in any patch of sunlight she can find.

Here is Ivory and Jane. They both got into the A.L.L. program and they are excited to start in the Fall. I don't think they have ever been in the same class, so it should be fun for them.

Oh yes, I chopped my hair. It was time.

Lunch bags. I haven't had to do any of those for a while now.

As usual, I got a flower for Mother's Day. (Ivory made this cute container.) It is not alive anymore. Also usual.

June and I watched all the Hobbit movies together and then all of the Lord of the Rings. When she needed a new journal, I tried to talk her into this one. :)

I happened to be in the library the last day Ivory's class came through. They do Karaoke on the last day since they can't check out books.

Sunday Selfie.

Daisy's teacher, Miss Thomas got married the last month of school. We attended her reception. She looked so lovely.

We had a good time. It is weird to think that someday it will be weddings for all of these chicklets.

Pearl and Mom Selfie.

June and I went to Sleeping Beauty Jr. for our date in May.

She thought the Prince was really funny. He had a slow motion scene that was quite hilarious.

One stormy night, Robyn and I went to read out on the roof. Sadly, the trees blocked our view of all the good lightning, so we eventually went inside.

When Robyn turned 12, she was interviewed by our Bishop for her limited temple recommend and her graduation from Primary. We had to wait a while in the hallway for our turn. Guess you can't guess what we did with that extra time?

I think the Bishopric members were very patient to let Robyn take pictures of them as well.

Love my color changing roses.

Ivory's teacher (who took the last month of school off for health reasons) came back one day to make these Whirlpool-in-a-bottle crafts. Ivory had a lot of fun with this contraption.

Token hair. It is all the rage.

And lastly, these two. Pearl loves Moxy. Moxy loves to lick Pearl. Moxy will always be Robyn's dog, but Pearl is a close runner up.

Whew. That is a lot of random photos regurgitated out there. Feels good to clean out the innards. Until the next time....

THREE Blind Mice

There were so many things to possibly blog today. I have a slew of phone pictures edited and ready to roll. It is Father's Day, so naturally that would be a good topic. I also have quite a bit of catching up to do on my Photo Challenge, but eventually the weekly post won out, because I don't want to fall behind on those. It keeps me sane to be somewhat up to date.

So here comes week 3 at you in a blur of pictures and activity. Monday was a craft. Some of our crafts are purposeful and others are just for fun. This was a fun, simple, craft that came together quickly, although it took me a long time to finish because I did all the hot gluing at the end. We made Egg Carton Turtles. Just cut up an egg carton, and paint the pieces the desired color. Some people chose green, but not everyone.

Here are Daisy's finished purple turtles.

We glued the turtles in different styles. Ivory's were very unique and reminded me of racing turtles.

Everyone cut out their own fins. Pearl's ended up being very tiny.

Robyn was very creative. She left two egg carton pieces together and made them into a boy and girl turtle.

They even have their arms flippers around each other. Her other turtle seems to be getting an eyeful. (I guess that happens when you only have one eye.)

June went to a movie with a friend, so she didn't make any turtles. Plus, the older girls were getting ready to head out for a week of Girls' Camp. I took them to the buses bright and early Tuesday morning.

Goodbye you two. You have no idea how much I will miss you. (So happy they can go together this year.)

Tuesday, at the library, there was a recital of sorts being performed. It was a telling of Alice in Wonderland, but the music was very unique and most of it was dancing with a little narration. Here is the caterpillar. (Robyn calls them calipitters. Still. It's cute.) Look, I have never seen a caterpillar with such pointed toes.

The Queen of Hearts was having trouble holding on to her scepter. It is hard to get good minions these days.

We had to shift some things around this last week. Tyler's work party was on Thursday and that usually involves swimming, so we made our treat on Wednesday instead. We made S'mores Bars. It involved a 9x13 pan, and I have a really big one, but I didn't want the bars to be too thin, so I used a shorter pan. Unfortunately, that led to the bars being too thick. Oops. First, there is a layer of graham cracker crumb crust.

Then cookie dough with chunks of marshmallow, graham cracker, and chocolate on top. Looks good enough to eat.

Bake that baby until the cookie is cooked. In my case, we cooked it well past what the instructions said, and it was still a bit doughy. (I see thinner would have been better here.)

So, the middle was still a little doughy, but amazingly no one complained. You burn dinner and everyone notices, but if the cookies are a bit doughy, the sacrifice for sugar is expected. There is no recipe attached because you could probably make these with your regular cookie dough recipe.

Wednesday was the evening that Tyler returned from Wisconsin. We sure missed him oodles and oodles. He had a great time and did very well in a new environment. (I never doubted him.) He had high praise from everyone at the conference. He has instructions to blog his trip. (We'll see if he can find a moment in his busy schedule.)

Thursday was the DHI summer party. Ivory got up early to do the fun run. No one ran last year, and I thought June would love to run this year, but no dice with Girl's Camp. But Ivory killed it. She came in first in her age division and scored herself $30. (Maybe I should have dragged myself out of bed...)

We played at the Provo Rec Center in the afternoon and Tyler was able to come with us. I didn't realize that Robyn has missed this event two years running. Darn. But the rest of us had a blast. Check out my three little swimmers.

We went down the slide a lot and played all over. It was great having Dad there too, and thanks to the lady who let us borrow her sunscreen since I forgot to bring any for Tyler.

Ah...swimming selfie.

Ivory was very good this time around and remembered her punishment when she went missing last time. Everyone stayed where they were supposed to when parents were on slides with other kids. Ivory also likes to go on all the scary stuff. And she always wants me to go too. I guess it keeps me young, but I didn't want to go off this high jump more than once. Ivory was doing flips and all kinds of cool moves.

pssst...isn't it amazing that I not only thought to take pictures, but it is at the POOL as well. (Props to me!!!)

In the evening, we went to the BBQ. I love the salad, Tyler loves the steak, and everyone loves the ice cream bar. Delicioso.

Love hanging out with this hunk-a-chunk of burning love.

Last year Tyler got a frozen t-shirt on first. This year, they stuffed marshmallows in their mouths. Yuck. I think he only lost by one marshmallow. (Really I think he lost because he had to stuff marshmallows in his mouth at all.)

Friday, we field tripped it over to Miracle Bowl. They have a sweet deal with games for only $1.25. With only three kids in tow, that was pretty affordable. We met up with Tricia, her MIL Yvonne, and Annalise and Camille of course. It was very fun. I told the kids that I would kill them at bowling, but honestly, I was just barely a couple points ahead each time.

That last photo is what you call bowler feet. Not quite as cool as a bowler hat...but close.

Saturday dawned and with it brought two children who were a little redder and dirtier than last I saw them. But I sure was happy to have them back.

Also, it was finally time to open gifts and trinkets that Dad brought back from Wisconsin. (The littles were so patient to wait until Saturday.)

Robyn made some cute little beanie hats for Pearl and Daisy. I think they look like two little roosters. Very cute.

Saturday was full of adventures, including a baby shower, birthday party, and shopping for one baptism dress. But I put the camera down and just enjoyed time with the family. June eventually crashed on the couch around 7:30 and we just left her there. (Robyn had already napped 3 hours in the afternoon.) It was a long, busy week full of good memories. But everyone needed a good night's sleep. After all, it was Father's Day in the morning...