Summer is Coming to a Close

Have you seen that office store commercial (maybe Staples?) where the dad is prancing through the aisles picking up school supplies with his kids and the music, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" is playing? I think that commercial is hilarious, but I don't think it's the most wonderful time of the year. I LOVE summer. I don't want my kids to go back to school. In fact, they are more excited about it than I am.

We had a great summer and we had a really long list of things we want to do. I think we put a pretty good dent in that list this summer, although there are some things we never got around to. Good thing we have one more week to go. Here are a few pictures of our summer activities that I will miss when Sarah and Natalie are gone all day. )o: sniff sniff

A fun birthday party for Lauren at the Children's Museum
Playdates with friends.

Our local library had some great shows this summer. This juggler was highly entertaining. He made me laugh until I cried, oh, and the kids had fun too!

We worked on chores together . . .

Corn on the cob. Winco always has the yummiest, freshest corn all summer from local farmers. Ohhh will I miss the corn.

The girls were often in all kinds of dress ups during our days at home. Playing all sorts of creative things. I love that they have played so well together this summer. We've hardly had any playdates because they have so much fun playing together. (But don't assume that we don't experience huge, screaming fights requiring a referee at times.)

Watching movies together.

We worked on keeping up our mental skills - Natalie continued reading lessons and has progressed so much farther in her reading. All the girls have workbooks they do "homework" in each week. Luckily, they are fun workbooks so the girls think it's fun. Not sure how much longer that will last.

This was a big puzzle we did together in a day! We had so much fun doing this and even Angela did really well! My dad would be proud! (o:

The girls had lots of time playing with Littlest Pet Shop and Polly Pockets. I love the carefree time that summer brings.

The girls all participated in the summer reading program and loved picking out their books at the end.

Sarah got to have a couple playdates with good friends from school.

Little Sis

This is my little sister - isn't she cute? (o:

She turned 19 this month!! I waited extra long to get a sister. I always wanted a sister growing up, but it didn't seem like it would ever happen. I prayed and prayed for a sister. Don't get me wrong, I love my brothers, but I envied my friends who had sisters - even though at the time, those friends didn't see what the big deal was about having sisters. (o:

Finally, when I was 15, my mom got the shock of her life. The youngest in the family was my brother Andy. He was 8. Now that I have kids I can better relate/understand to why my mom was freaking out about being pregnant. I was in heaven and I prayed and prayed again that it would please oh please be a girl.

Well, I think you can figure out the end of the story. My mom always said it was actually my fault she got pregnant, that I prayed my sister here. I think for a while she actually resented me for this. (o: I got what I wanted, but she had to suffer a pregnancy at almost 40 years old. (Again, my perspective has changed and I understand what a big deal that must have been much better now!) I'm 125% sure my mom is glad I "prayed her here" now. Our family wouldn't be the same without her.

Christine gave me great practice for being a mother of my own kids - she was my guinea pig. I was her sister-mommy those first few years of her life and I still remember getting funny comments from strangers who thought she was my baby. (I always looked older for my age as a teenager.) "Ohhh, she looks just like you." and "when did you have her?" and the one that freaked me out the most, "Are you breast-feeding?".

Nope, I didn't get THAT much practice in motherhood with her. But I got good at changing diapers, feeding her, bathing her, etc. Those were fun times and even though my mom had to deal with pregnancy later in life, she got a pretty good deal having a live in nanny/babysitter!

Another funny thing - I remember when I was 15 - holding baby Chrissy and thinking that when she was 15 years old, I would be 30!! I thought that was sooooo old at the time, yet here I am long past 30.

So happy birthday this month Christine! I am so glad that you decided to join us and that I finally got my sister!! LOVE YOU!

Fellow Blogspot Bloggers

Grrrrr - I am having technical difficulties. I'm finally sitting down to do some blogging and when I click on the little icon to insert a picture the box comes up, but the button that says "Browse" and allows you to find what picture you want isn't showing up. I've opened and closed several times. What in the world? Has this ever happened to anyone else?

Nackie the almost first-grader

Natalie has been working hard on her reading with me this summer. I am so proud of how far she's come. It wasn't easy, but it seems like things really clicked and now she has confidence and enjoys reading. For a long time, it was a dreaded chore. She is so ready for first grade! Way to go Nat! She also has very nice handwriting - every reading lesson has a couple letters to practice writing and she is a pro now.

Natalie has always been a pro at drawing. This is what she LOVES to spend her time doing and she is so creative. Her pictures always make me smile. If there's one thing the girls are good at and enjoy doing, it's definitely drawing pictures. I think this particular drawing is a park design with winding sidewalks and gardens and teeter totters. All the makings of a great park in my opinion!

Water Fountain Park

This seems to be an end of summer tradition. It wasn't even that warm this day, but it didn't stop the girls from having fun, plus there were fewer people. We met with the other moms/kids in Angela's preschool group to make some plans for this coming school year. We got a lot done and had fun too!

Sage came along for the fun too!

Soccer Begins

Sarah and Natalie were excited to start soccer this year. The league we play in has grown quite a bit since we started playing two years ago. The field at our stake center is full to the brim with over 300 soccer players plus all their parents and siblings! It's such a convenient and cheap way to get the kids involved in soccer that the word is spreading fast. A little too fast!
Angela is officially old enough to be on a team this year, but she wasn't interested enough and I didn't want to be running between 3 soccer games. She was just as happy playing on the sidelines with mommy, daddy or whoever was around.

Pictures of Sarah playing coming up soon . . . (o:

Hagg Lake fun!

A refreshing mud mask!

He he - sorry Missy and Lizzy - I didn't mean for this to be the top picture (although it's my favorite for the day) but it accidentally got erased and when I add a picture back in it goes at the top. Oh well - serendipity! (o;

Our second annual summer outing to Hagg Lake was a big hit this year! We didn't have the boats to go waterskiing in, but I thought it was even more fun staying close to shore. The kids thought of lots of creative ways to play with the Cochran's raft. (o:



Here are the girls who chose to watch all the craziness! Me included. I think they had fun too.

This kayak was a lot of fun. I got a turn and loved it! It was such a beautiful day and the surroundings are gorgeous. Kayaking is a very peaceful thing to do. Then when I came back into shore it was definitely not peaceful, but it was a lot of fun! See a couple reasons why...

A Girls' Day Out

This Saturday we got the bad news that daddy had to go into work. Boo )o: To make the best of it, I decided to take the girls to use their free meal coupons they earned from the summer reading program at the library. We went to a fun restaurant and ate outside in the gorgeous weather. Our waiter was great, the food was great and so was the company. The only thing missing was daddy. After lunch we decided to explore the shopping area nearby that seemed to be having some sort of event going on. It turned out to be a summer festival with free bike helmets, free food samples, lots of goodies from the local police and fire departments and some sweet deals on rocks and gems from the local rock museum that we love. We had a great time and came with all sorts of neat stuff. The girls especially liked the rocks we found. And now Angela has a helmet that fits! Yeah for serendipity.

Later that day we went to the mall to visit the Lego store. Across from the Lego store was a dress and gown shop that the girls longed to go look at. I thought it would be fun to let them look around and challenged them to find a modest dress. This peach one below was the only one we could find besides the dresses that looked like "mother of the bride" dresses. There were some gorgeous dresses in there, sleeves just aren't in style. And holy cow were they all expensive. Most of them were around the same price as my wedding dress! I better learn how to sew quick because we could be in trouble!

Silly Loo

Angela fashioned this very silly mask out of a little toy in our messy drawer and some silly putty for a nose. Quite creative and very hilarious! (o: She looks like Gonzo.

Boycott

Sarah told me the other day, "Someday I'm going to lead a boycott, mom."
I asked her what she'd boycott and why.
She said, "I don't know, I just think it sounds so heroic."

A few days before, we were watching Whale Wars on Animal Planet and talked about how the Japanese should boycott whale meat so the whale hunters would stop killing whales. That must be where this train of thought started. (o:

Primary Talent Show

Our ward primary had a talent show last weekend. After discussing different ideas, the girls decided they wanted to dress like princesses and do a princess dance like they do at home all the time. Originally, the idea was for Sarah to play "I Know You" the waltz song from Sleeping Beauty. Angela and Natalie are always dancing while Sarah plays this or other pretty songs on the piano. But as it got closer, Natalie decided she needed the support of her big sister on the dance floor. So we recorded Sarah playing the song and all three girls danced a very professionally choreographed dance routine. (I have about zilch experience with this, so we all just made up very simple steps for them to do.)

It turned out so cute and the girls were proud of themselves for performing in front of such a large audience. They did great. Below is their ending pose! (o: It got lots of claps!

Watching the other numbers was lots of fun too!

Sarah was thrilled to do a special number with her primary Activity Day Girls group. (the 8-11 year old girls get to do bi-monthly activities together) Their awesome leader and one of my good friends, Angie, is so cute - she taught them all a Macarena dance number. Much more sophisticated choreography than I could come up with! (o: They all made matching T-shirts and hair and wristbands. As you can see, Sarah had a BALL! She had quite the moves too. Maybe I should sign her up for a dance class.

Impromptu Water Fights!

Every once in a while, my girls see an opportunity for a water fight and they seize it! It's usually when we are all outside and a friend comes by and we start chatting. On this particular day, we got to have Lauren over at our house for a little while. When Elizabeth came to get her, we got talking (surprise!) and the girls disappeared and reappeared in swimming suits. Lauren did not have a swimming suit, but didn't let that stop her. She got wet anyway and Elizabeth ended up just taking off her clothes and letting her run around in her underwear. It was so cute! (I got lots of cute pictures, but since this blog is public, I didn't want to post them.) Anyhow, the girls had a blast and laughed their heads off. It was one of those wonderful spontaneous moments that was such a happy memory. Plus it gave Elizabeth and I more time to visit! Daddy came home in the middle of all the fun and joined in. What a great night! I think we ended up ordering pizza that night because I didn't get dinner started on time. Bonus! (o: