Princess Camp

Every year during Cub Scout Camp some of the moms organize a Princess Camp for the girls. My girls (and Aaron) love getting the chance to play with friends and do fun activities. 

I let Catherine decide what she wanted to do. She opted to do exactly the same thing we did last year: sprinkler, kiddie pools, face painting and nail painting. I lucked out and got Brinley and Libby to come help out. And by "help out" I mean "basically do everything." I told them next year they need to just run the whole thing. I will happily pay them to do fun things with my kids!

Brinley paints Elise's nails...

...then moves on to Catherine's face.

Libby called dibs on painting Elise's face.

She specifically requested a green fish.

Brinley put Elise's hair in a bun.

I seriously need to hire her as a surrogate big sister. 

All the Princess Camp girls.

Notice that Catherine is not in a gown?

She refused to call it Princess Camp. "It's GIRL Camp, Mom!"

Princesses are not her thing anymore (thanks, Seth). 

Enjoying some cookie with her icing.

Mermaid face paint and rice krispie treat.

A very enthusiastic mermaid with her tail.

I'm not sure if Catherine will be up for this next year, but Elise is excited already!

Cub Scout Day Camp

I seriously can't believe that this is Seth's last year at Cub camp. Where did the time go? 

This year Seth had a...special den. Lots of very strong personalities and leaders who were very relaxed. VERY relaxed. Seth loved it. We moms weren't as impressed, but we're not complaining! Grateful someone was willing to spend a week chasing a batch of 10-year-old boys around in the heat!

Senior Webelos.

Seth is in the back on the right.

His buddies Jack and Thatcher were also in his den.

Seth acting as management while Jack designs their boat.

Because it was his last year (and because I'd never been able to go before), I volunteered to go with Seth to camp one day and help out. Aaron and Catherine got to go along as Tags. Jonny was awesome and took off a day to hang out with Elise (she was too little to be a Tag). My kids LOVED being Tags: they're already asking to go back next year. I loved having the chance to hang out with Seth for the day!

Seth observes his buddies attempting to light a fire.

Not sure what's happening here...knots?

Possibly the least attractive picture of Seth I've ever seen.

My warnings that he will regret these pictures still fall on deaf ears.

Seth says he's going to go back next year as a volunteer. We shall see how inclined I am to deal with the insanity of dropping off and picking up with 700 other Scout moms...

Glassblowing

I love having so many homeschool friends who find out about cool stuff and then invite me to go with them. My friend Mindy invited us to join her for a glassblowing field trip, which sounded super cool. I figured there would be a demonstration of some kind and maybe the kids could help. But I was so excited to find out the kids would get to make their own piece! Seriously: they did the whole thing from start to finish, not just a sort of "helper" in the process. I was so impressed!

Catherine chooses her colors

Heating the glass

(It was already hot outside, so it was REALLY hot)

Shaping the glass

Aaron's turn!

He did not enjoy the heat.

Also, observe his nice Sunday shoes.

He needed close-toed shoes and those were all we could find.

Seth shaping his cup

Stretching out the opening

The finished products:

Seth's glass, Catherine's pendant, Aaron's icicle

A better view of Seth's glass.

He planted wildflower seeds in it for me.

This is possibly the coolest field trip we've ever done! I love how many amazing things there are for my kids to experience locally. 

Seminary

For the past 15 months or so, Jon's alarm went off at 4:45 am every school day. He never snoozed it. Not even once. 

At 5:45 he'd head out the door. From 6-7 am he'd teach an early morning religion class to a group of nine high-schoolers. Then he'd head straight to work. 

After work it was a careful juggling act between being a dad, a husband, and a seminary teacher. It was never an easy balance. And there was rarely any time just to relax. I can only remember two days in the last year when Jon took some time just to play (for himself--he took time to play with the kids because that's what a dad does). 

Every evening he'd take time to prepare for the next morning. He prepped on Saturdays and Sundays. During our vacation to Arizona he prepped a lesson or two every single day that we weren't travelling. 

It wasn't easy, but he never complained. I did! I often felt like my kids didn't see their dad. I worried that he was burning himself out. Every spare moment went to seminary prep. And I hated the inflexibility of the alarm clock, never leaving us time to stay up a little later in the evenings. 4:45 comes really early. 

A few weeks ago at church Jon was released as a seminary teacher. Neither of us expected it: we were mentally prepared for at least one more year. I thought it would be a relief: no more 8:30 bedtimes! No more single-mothering in the evenings while he prepared lessons! 

But it feels like a loss, somehow. Jon is sad. He had already started preparing for the fall. When you put so much of your soul into something, it's never easy to just let it go. But that's what you do in our church: you let it go and you move on to wherever else you are needed. 

So here's to more sleep and more time to play. And here's to all those teenagers who make huge sacrifices to attend these classes for FOUR YEARS. And here's to all the seminary teachers and their families who make it work even when it seems impossible. The Lord really does provide a way. 

(And yes, I found out when it was announced over the pulpit, even though he'd known for a week. It was a "surprise", apparently. All I could do was give him the stink eye from the stand where I was playing the organ).

Jon with (most of ) his seminary class.

Summer Adventures

Three kids on a teeter-totter.

Obviously Elise and Seth are very well-balanced.

Annual trip to Plumpton Park Zoo!

We began by feeding the koi all the food for the goats. 

Apparently they did save a bit of food for the other animals.

Crazy kids with a gorilla.

(They made me take this).

The gorilla punches Seth in the face.

(He made me take this one, too.)

Aaron got invited to several birthday parties, much to his siblings' dismay.

This one involved swimming.

Aaron in goggles is my new favorite thing.

We got to babysit Miguel the Leopard Gecko while the Knoxes were in Utah for 3 weeks.

Miguel was deeply loved by these two girls.

I thought a snake was a pretty easy pet, but this guy has Nadara beat!

Lady Baby

Grandma Cathy sent one of my old Cabbage Patch dolls and her clothes. 

Elise was in heaven.

What Grandma failed to send were shoes for Elise.

Being a clever girl, she improvised.

Doll shoes totally fit, even if they do make walking rather difficult.

Catherine never did the baby doll thing, so this is all new territory for me. Elise loves all baby dolls. My favorite part is how she immediately strips them down. I suppose she does the same thing herself, so why not her babies?

We told the girls that during the summer Elise would move into Catherine's room. I brought it up casually one afternoon and Catherine decided it would happen immediately. We moved all of Elise's clothes into the room and crossed our fingers that she would stay in bed. She didn't. I had to return her to bed several times and threaten her with a return to the crib. It took a week or so, but she's now a full-time big bed girl! 

It was a little sad for me. It's the first time I've ever moved a baby out of the nursery without the knowledge that there would be another baby taking her spot soon!

Elise's current favorite outfit.

For some reason it's highly offensive to Aaron.

"No, Elise! I hate that dress!"

"If I fits, I sits."

Elise needed a new swimming suit. I usually go for the cheapest ones I can find, but this one has ruffle sleeves and lemons! And so she got a new (overpriced) swimsuit because I'm a sucker for cute lemons and ruffles. 

We are constantly on our toes with this one, but I love every piece of our dinosaur cat!

May Stuff

Seth is always my most thoughtful child. He made this place setting for Mother's Day, plus hung a little banner of construction paper in my favorite colors above my bedroom door. It's still there two months later. 

Aaron made this in preschool and it's my absolute favorite thing ever.

Our ward took a picture and I love it. 

Catherine is center front (behind the boy with his head down).

Aaron is the last sitting kid on the right

Seth is the first row of standing on the right (with fabulous hair)

Jon, Elise and I are in the crown straight down from the rightmost bush by the church.

We also survived another piano recital. This year's theme was Music from Around the World. The students picked traditional songs from various locations. After the recital we had a potluck dinner of ethnic foods. Delicious and so much fun!

Catherine's turn! Did you know there's a Mexican folk song called "Japanese Clapping Song"? Well there's not. But there are little girls who can't say "Chiapanecas" and seriously confuse everyone at the recital.

Seth played "Mas Que Nada", a samba from Brazil. One year in school he did a report on Brazil and now it's his favorite country. 

Finally warm enough for the kiddie pool! 

And for nude swimming, apparently.

A very chilly Memorial Day breakfast.

The cold didn't stop Catherine and Jon from kayaking!

Since our birthdays fell on/right after Memorial Day this year, we opted to have friends over to grill and eat birthday cake/fruit pizza with us. At the last minute we were invited to play kickball at the elementary school and decided to move the party there. A birthday is always more fun with friends and food! I think this will have to become tradition now. (Not pictured: my cheesecake, which was delicious. Thank you, Wegmans). 

May is for Field Trips

School may have ended, but that just means more time for field trips! Our first one was to the local recycling center. I had heard great things about this field trip and we were not disappointed. This picture is from the top of a hill created by buried garbage. The kids were quite impressed.

We also went strawberry picking/eating:

Whatever we didn't eat got made into delicious jam, smoothies and milkshakes.

We also visited a cool little science museum in Pennsylvania.

Aaron was fascinated by this ball contraption:

Catherine and Talia trying out the recording studio.

Talia does not need any sort of microphone to be heard.

Seth was there, too. I just failed to take any pictures!

A friend also arranged a field trip to a local grocery store. I wasn't sure how fun it would be (especially since we couldn't go in the back room that day), but it was awesome! We got samples of bananas, cheese, and Haagen Daz ice cream. We also got to play with one of the lobsters from the tank. And on the way out the kids got a goodie bag full of treats. Pretty great for a free, local field trip! 

Looking forward to lots more fun field trips this summer!