Summertime

This summer went by way too quickly for us! It was so busy with people visiting and family reunions and camping trips. It seemed we had very little time around these things for us to do our normal summer things. But these are the things we managed: 

• Brooke did cheer over the summer again. She loves doing cheer in the summer. We always do it with the Legacy Center, and at the end of the summer, she had her showcase. 

• Sarah and I managed to do a couple of temple exchanges. Our kids liked playing with each other while one of us went to the temple. It's nice that we can go to the temple once a month and leave our kids with the other. 
• We had the usual wave of birthday parties. Brooke went to Claire's birthday party and Swayze's birthday party, and Camille had Taylor Ruben's party and Lexi's birthday party, and we all went to Pepper's birthday party. 
• We had art lessons a couple of times a month with Tenille, like usual. We canceled a few times when we had things going. But the girls liked doing art over the summer. 
• I had a girls night with DeAnna and Sarah, going out for Korean food. We went to this amazing place in Orem, and I ate so much food. It was so good! Then to this fun dessert place just across the parking lot. It was overall way too much food! We went to DeAnna's to get in the hot tub afterwards and stayed too late relaxing and talking. 

• The kids went to a couple of days of Kimball Camp with Bristal and Ari. They had a great time. Sawyer was the only one that couldn't go because he was too young; and I'm surprised that Brooke still wanted to go, even though she's getting old for it. One of the times, I took Sawyer on his mom date. We went to the curiosity museum together. ❤️
• We had friends over to play sometimes
• I helped with a couple of baby showers: one for Melissa Hiatt, and one for Kimberly Davis
• Daniel and I had a double date with the Pearsons one night. We went out for Thai food, ate a ton and stayed to talk for at least an hour after we were all done eating. We had a great time! 
• I went on a couple of awesome hikes with the ladies hiking group in our ward. It was nice to get out and do some hiking, longer hikes without the kids and with some friends. 

• The kids had a stake primary activity while I was at girls camp. Sarah took them and picked them up for me. The activity was centered on the Saratoga Springs Temple, and it looked really great. 

• In the last couple of weeks of summer before school started, we tried to get a bunch of our summer bucket list done. We drove out to the gas station near Daniel's work building to get slurpies with him. I took the kids to a summer dollar movie one morning. We went swimming as a family one Saturday. I took the kids on a super short hike one morning. It was, like, a quarter of a mile up to this tiny waterfall with a steam and rocks and stuff. We climbed up for 8 minutes, and then played near the stream and on the rocks for like an hour. We did our family water fight.
• Jack learned how to ride his pedal bike this summer!! Daniel went out a few times with him to teach him, and after that, he and I worked on it together during the day a few times. I really pushed him to be able to start without me helping him, which he got quite frustrated about. A couple of times he even said, "Dad is better at this." 😂 But by the end of the summer, he could basically start off by himself, and then he was riding his bike on his own! 

• Camille got her expander out this summer. She was so excited and happy to get it out. 
• We went swimming a couple of times with friends, the Freis and Christensens. 
• We put our slide up on our deck one Saturday, and the kids had a great time all going down the slide a million times. It's so fun to have the side in the yard. 

• I took the kids back to school shopping the week before we started school. The kids got new outfits and we got a bunch of cool school supplies. 

Summer was so good to us this year. We had so much fun, all summer long, and I, for one, was so sad to see it go. But. On to bigger adventures! 

Brooke's 11th Birthday

Brooke was so excited to plan her 11th birthday party this year. Because she was turning 11, she wanted it to be a Harry Potter party. We stayed planning her party weeks before her birthday! And I think we put together a pretty fun party. 

We sent out actual invitations a little more than the week before. Brooke really wanted to hand-make the invitations. She and Camille worked together to make the paper look like parchment, and then we wrote the invitation on them, making them look like letters to Hogwarts and a ticket for the Hogwarts Express. They were pretty fun. 

We held our party on the 18th of August, after school. We spent most of the day cleaning up the house and getting things ready for our party. Brooke's guests arrived starting around 5pm (although Claire came over earlier to help make food). I managed to go pick up pizzas with just enough time to get home. While we waited for all the girls to arrive, we played "Don't Eat Dudley", kind of a spin off of "Don't eat Pete". 

For our first activity, we had a kind of sorting game, kind of like pin the tail on the donkey, only we had the house crests on the wall, and they pinned a broomstick on the wall and whichever house crest was closest was the house they were sorted into. This was a lot more fun than I thought I would be. They all loved it.

Once they were all sorted into their houses and we had 3 relatively equal groups (Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin), we did house competitions in the form of minute to win-it games. The girls LOVED this. I had three games, and I was going to have them rotate who competed in every game. But they all wanted to try every game, so we played games for much longer than I'd intended. I think Ravenclaw house won the competition. 

We ate then, because all the girls were starving. We did simple food: pizza, grapes and soda. Then we did cupcake decorating... big girl cupcake decorating, using frosting and FONDANT. We had made cupcakes earlier, and the goal for each girl was to make a Dobby face for her cupcake out of fondant. They also loved this so much. They all said it was such a fun idea, because the fondant is kind of like play dough, and they had to mold it to the shapes they wanted. It was so fun to see everyone's own creation. Baylee had the funniest Dobby, and Brooklyn made a bubbling cauldron for her cupcake. 

We played pass the parcel when everyone was done, with 3 different presents. Brooke is the one who wrapped the parcels, and she wrapped each one so many times, so it was pretty fun. And then they watched while Brooke opened her presents. They all got her really cool things, things she wanted and will use: art supplies, bags, crafty things, etc. 

While we waited for parents to come get their kids, we put on the first Harry Potter movie to watch together, and I made popcorn for everyone. I asked Brooke afterwards how she thought the party went and if it was everything she wanted, and she said she loved it and it was. 

We celebrated as a family on her actual birthday a few days later. She opened presents first thing in the morning when everyone was up and ready. We didn't get her much, because her birthday party was a big portion of her present, and her friends got her so much stuff. But we got her a kids fitness watch, a small sketchpad and a drawing kit with pencils and erasers, and Mom got her a nice crochet bag. 

She and I made her birthday cake together, a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, and she and the other kids got to watch a movie... I think they watched Balto.

She requested my cream cheese breaded salmon for dinner and carrots. It was a very delicious birthday dinner, and the cake was so good too. After dinner, we relaxed outside and she harvested her little carrots from the garden. 

Her actual birthday was pretty laid-back and low-key. But I asked her if it was a good day, and she said it was the best birthday ever. So, I did something right. 

Some things I'm loving about Brooke lately: 

• She is the best big sister. She loves playing with her siblings and doing things with them that they love. Lately she has been begging for us to let her put Sawyer and Jack to bed, and sometimes we let her. We've had her babysit a couple of times when Daniel and I go for quick errands or dates together, and she's done a great job. Sometimes she prefers to be by herself and do her own thing. But she still very often loves to be with her siblings. 
• She is getting very interested in playing piano. Sarah has her playing things that she really likes, and so she plays all the time. 
• She's funny. She's developing such a fun sense of humor, and it's pretty fun to talk to her. 
• She is obsessed with dogs. She wants a dog in the worst way. She always gets dog books from the library and reads about different breeds, and when Emily brings Sammy over, they talk all about dog things. She's also really good about taking care of Sammy. I think she's ready for the responsibility of a dog. 
• She's a great writer! She's been writing books for the last year+, mostly about animals, and they're pretty good for her age. She's always just had a gift for reading and language. 
• She's happy and cheerful, usually up for doing anything and mostly willing to try new things and go on new adventures. She's pretty good about traveling and wants to see new places. 
• She's cute! So cute. I love her blue eyes and little dimple, her sweet personality and easy going disposition. She's so wonderful. 
• She loves to bake. She also likes cooking, sometimes, especially if it's pancakes or German pancakes (she's been in a real German Pancake kick lately, making them for breakfast a few days a week). But she's really a baker. She's always wanting to whip up some tasty dessert, and I usually assign her that task for Sunday dinners. 
• She loves movie nights. Whenever I say we're having a movie night on Fridays, she's always so into which movie we're going to watch, making sure we have popcorn at some point. 
• She loves being with her friends. She and Claire are buddies, and they love getting together whenever they can. It'll be harder now to do that, since school has started. And I keep trying to encourage her to make a few more friends. But she loves the friends she already has. She also loves her cousins. She and Baylee are thick as thieves when we get together, or she and Anna, or she and Makai. I love how much cousin time she gets and how close to them she is. 

Beginning a New School Year

We started school a week after everyone else did. I wasn't ready to let summer go quite yet, and I needed that extra week to get some things ready for school. We went back to school shopping for clothes and school supplies, we hit up the Good and Beautiful store for some of the things we were missing, and we went on one last hike. It was a nice final week of summer. 

The week of Brooke's birthday, we had our back to school dinner on Monday night. It was a fairly simple affair, with my usual school decorations and I think tacos for dinner. But it's always a nice tradition. We talked a little about our school year theme for this year. I prayed a lot about what this year's theme should be, and I kept going back to President Nelson's most recent general conference talk about being a peacemaker. So that is our theme this year, our focus: I can be a peacemaker. 

That day was Sawyer's first day of preschool. We joined a preschool group in the neighborhood with 5 other families, 6 kids in total, all around Sawyer's age. He was so cute and excited to go to preschool that day. He insisted on having a backpack, so I pulled out the little drawstring mickey backpack we have for him to use. He put a truck in it. 😊 Daniel and I drove him to preschool and walked him up to Sam Clarke's door. But once we got him there, he didn't want us to leave him. He got all nervous and sad when we left. He's my least cautious and nervous kid, so I was surprised. 

I got a text from Sam just a little bit later saying he was fine after sitting with her for a few minutes. And he seemed to have a great time when I picked him up. 

The day after Brooke's birthday (because we never have school on someone's birthday), we had our first official day of school. I took pictures of the kids outside for their first day, and then we got right down to work. Our first day of school went pretty well, I think. Everyone was enthusiastic and excited to start, they were all excited about new books to read, and we got our schedule set up. 

Girls Camp

 Girls camp was wonderful this year. I was not in charge this year, which was also great, though I didn't mind planning it last year. We had girls camp July 31 - August 2. So only 2 nights and 3 days. 

We drove up after meeting at the church and having devotional and breakfast. We went to Wallsburg Camp again this year. I loved it last year, so it was awesome to be going back. And our reserved site was smaller, and therefore, we didn't have to share it with anyone. It was a little farther from bathrooms, and from the activities of central camp. But the little walks down were not a big deal. 

We had our orientation and set up camp. Then after lunch, we did a craft, the craft that I prepared for camp: creating a flower pressed frame. We had pressed and dried flowers and some frames, and the girls glued flowers between two pieces of glass inside their frames. They were so fun and turned out so cute. 

In the afternoon, we did games and archery. We split into 3 groups, and one group would go do archery while the other 2 played human Foosball. Then when everyone had done archery, we played 9 square and gaga ball altogether. Our girls were obsessed with gaga ball this year! Not all of them loved it. But enough of them loved it so much that we played multiple times each day, whenever we had some time. 

After dinner, the girls prepared for skits, and then we had Hailey Caswell come give us a family home evening lesson. And after her lesson, the girls performed their skits. They were given a theme (Broadway play, Shakespeare, soap opera, etc) and a few props. They were so funny! It was a fun night. 

We tried to get to bed relatively early that night. I shared a tent with Hailey Shoemaker (our young women president) and Jessica Tanner. We asked each other for life stories, and we ended up talking for hours. I don't think we went to sleep until well after midnight. 

I got to sleep on a cot and the pad and sleeping bag I brought with me, which was all so much more comfortable than I thought it'd be. But I still struggled for sleep. It started raining early in the morning, and it's so loud when it falls on the top of the tent. It also ruined our plans for a sunrise hike. But at least we got to sleep in a couple more hours. 

Tatum Norris did food again for girls camp, and so we ate so well! After breakfast and devotional, we split the girls into 2 teams and they ran the obstacle course games. We waked through several different scenarios where they had to communicate and work together to accomplish something and get through the task. It was way fun. We had a few minor injuries, but I think overall it went well. And I hope they learned something through it. 

We mostly had lunch and scripture study and free time in the afternoon. Some girls went to play gaga ball again. And we had a little rain and the threat of storms. We did a service project that afternoon as well, helping the camp by cutting tree branches and cleaning up the road leading to camp. 

That night, the Bishopric and their wives came up for dinner and Bishop's devotional. Hailey and the girls really wanted to play gaga ball with the bishopric, so after dinner we played for a nice long time. I won one of the rounds, demolishing Schyler Shoemaker. It felt nice. 🤣

The faith walk that night was so amazing. Jovani Van Orden, our camp director, gave this amazing lesson centered on our theme: root, grow, bloom. About how we're all unique, but lovely in our own ways, and how when we are centered in Christ, we can start rooted, grow, and bloom in our spirituality and character. Then we walked through a path in our campsite, one by one, and stopped to read little pieces of Jesus' life and how we can apply them to ours. We carried a rock with us on our faith walk, as a symbol of sin and other burdens that we carry through life. At the end of the faith walk, we laid the rocks at a picture of Jesus. It was so beautifully done. 

Bishop spoke to us and then we had testimony meeting. A bunch of the girls bore their testimonies, which I thought was amazing. The Spirit was so strong. I hope that all the girls felt it and that their faith grew that night. 

We went to bed later that night. After eating dessert, we played games for a little while, and then the bishopric and wives left. 

It rained for hours again that night, making it hard to sleep again, and also a pain to pack up camp the next morning. It was very muddy and wet. But we broke down camp and cleaned up pretty quickly, all things considered. 

Our last day of camp, after leaving camp, was spent at Deer Creek Lake. A brother from the stake agreed to bring his boat so that we could play on the lake. It was so much fun! Hailey and Julie Lefevre brought their blow up kayaks and paddle boards, and the girls took turns going out on the boat and hanging out on the beach and using the other water things. We were there for a few hours and started packing up to leave, just before a storm kicked up. It hit so quickly, and the wind was so insane. We were lucky to leave when we did. 

Girls camp was so great. Jovani created these special journals for all the girls and leaders, with the schedule, menu, young women's theme, words and music to our girls camp song, devotional and scripture study notes pages, and coloring pages. It was so awesome. We spent so much free time coloring in our books, along with the crafts we did and bracelet making. 

There was very little drama (a little bit with girls wanting to switch tents, which drives me a bit crazy. Very annoying), the girls were mostly helpful and kind (aside from one girl, an inactive girl, who I struggled very much with), and we had a great time.