Vacation Snapshots

Look at that beautiful Utah sky and all of those wide open spaces

Fun times with aunts and Rosie

Legomania with Opa

Loving the patriotism at small town parade

Nannie's gorgeous flag cake

Mmm

Waterfight!

Beating the heat on a hot 4th of July

Mountain roller coaster in Park City

Loving the Lego train 

Lilly has a tender moment with Sophie before saying goodbye

My nature girl in her element at Bridal Veil Falls

Giant Bubbles thanks to Aunt Jen

This little guy is loving the freedom to crawl all over the place

Ryan showing off his tricks

My grown up girl went to her first Broadway play for her 9th birthday

We all fell in love with cousin Max

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

I love my Ryan so much and I cannot believe he is 4 years old!  On the morning of his 4th birthday, I over heard him saying, "I feel like I'm 4!" And then the morning after his birthday, he woke up with a bad dream, seemed to fall back asleep, and then his eyes popped open, his face broke into a grin, and he said, "I'm still 4!"

Ryan's birthday this year involved a baseball party with friends, a party with family in Utah, lots of Legos, Giant's apparel, a Jedi costume and a scooter. We ended the day with an outdoor viewing of "The Lego Movie" in my parents' backyard.  He snuggled with me the whole time. This boy continues to delight me every day.

Summer Reading

The Tale of Despereaux

What do you get when you combine a brave but tiny mouse, an evil rat who can't help but step into the light, a lovely and enchanting princess, a plain and lowly servant girl, and some delicious soup?  A great story which left me in tears. I know that this book has been out for awhile - about 10 or 11 years I think - but it was new to me.  The kids and I had so much fun reading it together.  

At the end of the story I was delighted to find a coda at the very end which said:

"Do you remember when Despereaux was in the dungeon, cupped in Gregory the jailer's hand, whispering a story in the old man's ear?

I would like very much if you though of me as a mouse telling you a story, this story with the whole of my heart, whispering it in your ear in order to save myself from the darkness, and for it to save you from the darkness, too.

"Stories are light," Gregory the jailer told Despereaux.

Reader, I hope you have found some light here."

I feel like this little coda captured why I love stories . . . even stories that "aren't true."  Because a really great story has light - it has truth - and some essence of what life is really all about.  And great stories make me want to be great.

Knuffle Bunny Free

The other book that brought tears to my eyes this week was this one.  I am a big fan of Mo Willems, but hadn't read any of the Knuffle Bunny books yet.  We lucked out and got two out of the three at the library. I loved this story in particular, which is about Trixie, aged 9, who loses her beloved bunny, only to discover that she doesn't need it anymore.  I won't spoil the ending for you, but there were a few cute surprises that really hit a true chord.  Emmy slept with Baby Kate until she was just past 8 years old.  When she decided she did not need to sleep with her anymore, I was so sad! She'd made a decision to grow up just a bit more. I could barely get over the nostalgia of my own passage from childhood to the grown-up world - how can I bear seeing my own children do the same?  

This book gave me a little hope that I might survive it - not without a few tears, but with the sense to rejoice in the passing milestones and to celebrate the beautiful, wonderful bigger people that my littles are becoming.

Mommy Camp

You think she's happy now?  You should have seen them all when the whipped cream made it's appearance

We've survived the first 10 days of summer - and we've done more than that - we've thrived.  Not without some bumps on the road - of course.  Every single day Ryan removes all of the clothes and pajamas from his drawer and from his dress-up box.  He probably puts on 5-8 outfits/day.  And every day he cries when I ask him to put it all away.  My request for clean up usually has him doubled over in pain or exhaustion.  And speaking of clean-up, my almost 9 year old cried today when I asked her to unload the dishwasher.  She cried about this, I tell you!

But despite this, we've had some great moments.  These are the children's goals for the summer (created with some help from me):

Emmy 

Read a lot

Learn cursive

Memorize multiplication facts

Practice piano 5 times/week

Say morning prayers

Learn to bake cookies

Improve on cartwheel and round-off

Be Happy and Grateful!

Sophie

Read one book/day

Practice handwriting

Practice piano 5 times/week

Say morning prayers

Happily ride bike to school

Learn the monkey bars

Learn to do a cartwheel

Be Happy and Grateful!

Ryan

Read with mommy every day

Learn to write name

Say morning prayers

Swim in the deep end

Learn to do a backwards somersault

Be Happy and Grateful!

Will

Stop growing so fast!

Every day we try to work on a couple things from the goal list.  We usually go swimming.  We usually go to the park.  We meet with friends.  We eat cold treats.  One day we took off for Happy Hollow spontaneously and ate juicy chicken and waffle fries from Chick-fil-A for dinner while listening to the audio book of Ellen Tebbits (by Beverly Cleary).  Each child has a job or two per day - which is as much as I can handle.  We are reading The Tale of Despereaux together in the evenings and we are all hooked.  I try to read a fun or inspirational or creative book to the kids as they eat their breakfasts.  We watch TV.  We do art projects.  Life has been good.  And my summer goal - is to enjoy this time and to capture it by writing more.  Very few of my friends blog anymore.  Most have gone the way of Instagram - which I love - but call me old-fashioned: I still prefer the blog.  Because it forces me to write more.   And write more I will.  Not for my friends - who probably aren't reading this.  Sort of for my parents - who are reading this (thank you, Mom and Dad!! and Jo Ann too!) - but mainly for me.  I am trying to give myself the gift of memories.  

FULL of THANKS

My kids have so much - and if I can teach them anything in life, one of the BIG things would be to be GRATEFUL and to pray morning and night.  One of my goals this summer is to have the kids memorize this scripture - we'll see how it goes.

"Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings and He will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night, lie down unto the Lord that He may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning, let thy heart be full of thanks unto God."  (Alma 37:37)

Life just doesn't get much better

I don't cry very often, but you can always count on me shedding a few tears at the end of each school year.  I am moved by hard-working, children-loving teachers who put their hearts into their job day after day - year after year - growing to love each new class and then saying goodbye again. Kindergarten is magical - so I am particularly sad that the year has come to a close for Sophie.

Despite the sad goodbyes, the last day of school is also one of my favorite days.  The summer in all of it's glory lies ahead of us.  We have so much to look forward to, so much to be grateful for.  I have declared this to be a summer of gratitude.  I love Thanksgiving - but my heart is always happiest in the summer, when I can wear skirts and flip flops, when we can hop in the car and head to the beach, when we enjoy fresh berries and tomatoes, peaches and watermelon.  Lazy afternoons at the pool, books to read -- more time for kids to be kids.

We started off with a bang today - the kids played with friends at the pool from 3 until after 7.  Then with windows down, we followed the sunset to the Farmer's Market where we arrived just in time for the last shaved ice treats of the night.  Blue-tongued kids sat on the curb listening as the street musician ended the night with James Taylor tunes.  On the way home, hair blowing in the wind, Emmy and Sophie sat side by side and sang their hearts out.

I recently saw the movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - and in the movie a photographer goes to quite a bit of effort to take a picture of the elusive snow leopard.  When the animal finally makes his appearance and the photographer has the perfect shot he doesn't snap the picture.  When asked why, he explains that some moments are so perfect he just wants to soak them in.  That is how I felt this evening watching my girls sing in the car and that is how I felt watching toothless Sophie beam from the stage last night (though in that case, I couldn't help but snap pictures).

Sophie in African clothing as part of her Kindergarten celebration performance

In this picture Will is pointing at a dog - he has just started to notice them and will say "Dah" and pant like a dog when he sees one - isn't he adorable?

 

Nothing like 3 and 4 year olds doing a little graduation in bathing suits

My summer birthday girl shared Drumsticks with her class today

These girls hopped back and forth from the pool to the Rainbow Loom - here Emmy is showing off two original creations - a butterfly and a mermaid!

Farmer's Market shaved ice - Welcome Summer

My Ryan Boy

I can't go to bed tonight without saying a little bit about my Ryan.  He is just so. much. fun.  We have had a great week - he is my buddy.  He is enthusiastic, eager to please, conversational, cheerful, and just has a lot of personality.  And did I mention what a lover boy he is?  

Tonight we were playing Legos and he sat right down next to me.  Then he announced, "we are sitting right next to each other because we love each other."  And then he leaned in to give me a great big smooch.  And apparently he is an expert on kisses because he then instructed me that we needed to turn our heads to the side so that our noses don't bump into each other.  After sitting with me for awhile, he realized that he needed to bless the rest of his family with his presence, and so he'd take a turn with each person - saying, "Sophie, now it is time for your 'sit'" - or "Daddy, you didn't get your 'sit' yet!" 

Also today, while playing Legos, Ryan said to me, "I like it when I can't do something and then I can do it."  I love how his mind works - I love that as he sat making a Lego ship he was pondering upon the joy that comes with learning something new that seemed really hard at first.  We had a great little talk about how we can do hard things.

Every time we say a prayer in this house, Ryan insists that we pray for him to grow up and to learn to swim without a vest.  This week both prayers were answered (since they sort of go hand in hand.)  Ryan decided he was ready to try to swim without his vest and he did an amazing job! The best part of all is just how proud of himself he is.  I asked him how he was able to do it and he told me that he just didn't give up. I love my growing water baby.  And when I pray for him to grow up, per his wishes, I don't tell him that in my mind I also add, "but not too fast!" 

Ryan's Mother's Day card to me said, "Dear Mommy, I love you because you have prettiness, you give me food, you are soo nice, and you play with me.  Love, Ryan" 

I feel sooo lucky to have this little guy in my life. 

  

Kissing me on Mother's Day - love that pucker!

Ryan insisted I be a princess and he be a knight - I squeezed into this Snow White dress and he was pleased as punch

Could there be a happier face? 

Proud after showing off his new skills to Daddy