Giant Chalkboard

Even though it's a pain when the city repaves our street, we always love it. Our circle becomes one giant chalkboard for the girls to draw on. Today we shoved chalk pieces in spare pvc pipes I found and they used those to draw all over. So much fun!

Joseph

We have been waiting for this night for months! Josh's good work buddy was cast as Joseph at the Sandy Amphitheater's production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. We have taken the family for the past 2 summers to shows here...first the Little Mermaid (Josh's buddy was Prince Eric) and then Beauty and the Beast (his buddy was Gaston.) We were thrilled he was in another production and I knew the kids would all love the play if they knew the music. So I've kind of forced them to listen to the soundtrack for the past few months and they have absolutely loved it. They know all the songs and sing them word for word. So finally the night came! My parents, Josh's parents, and Rachael came along. We headed to La Costa for dinner then over to the amphitheater. We had the perfect seats and the kids LOVED it! We all were in awe with how good of a production it was. The kids hardly blinked as they watched and sang along with the music. Thanks Russ for being so talented!

Salt Lake County Fair

Josh's mom sent out a text hoping that we would all join her at the county fair. We haven't been in years and had the evening free so we headed over there. Alexa and Whitney were with us to spend the night for dance early tomorrow morning. The fair has gotten SO small over the years it was a bit disappointing. But we were able to see some animals, play some games, and walk around. We were all hungry but didn't really want to go to a restaurant with 10 kids so we picked up pizzas and took them all to a park. The kids all had a lot of fun playing and running around so it worked out great!

Crystal the Caterpillar

Yesterday I saw Lexi acting really weird outside. She kept sniffing the ground and kind of jumped back a few times. Today Brielle and Britney came inside telling me that there is the biggest worm they've ever seen outside. I went outside and realized it's a caterpillar! That's what Lexi was so afraid of yesterday! It was in the middle of our patio, which I didn't think was the best spot. So I read online what to do to catch a house a caterpillar in hopes that it would make a cocoon and turn into a butterfly. The kids loved watching Crystal for a few days...until she dried up and died. It was a bummer that it didn't survive, but fun while it lasted!

Slip 'n Slide

The kids had so much fun on the 4th of July doing the slip 'n slide at the Ericsons that they wanted to do it again at our house. So they spent a few hours outside running around enjoying the hot weather!

Dance Camp

The girls had their first dance camp weekend. It's fun that they love dance so much!!! They have loved the summer break, but are ready to get dancing again.

Long Walk

Brynlee decided she wanted to take the little girls on a walk, even though it was extremely hot outside. So she got them all packed up and headed out! They made it to the end of the street where the neighbors had a lemonade stand. So Brynlee left them there while she ran home to grab some money. Then she ran back so she could get cups of lemonade for everyone. Then she walked the girls back home to give me a glass of lemonade, then headed back out to finish their walk. I thought they would've been done at that point, but she REALLY wanted to take them around the corner and down the next street. So she set back out. I had to drop Brooklyn off at dance so I looked for them on my way out and didn't see them...I even asked the kids at the lemonade stand if they had seen them. When I came back into the neighborhood a couple minutes later the kids at the lemonade stand point to where they saw Brynlee running by the Jensen's house. So I drove around the corner and found Brynlee alone. She said they were really thirsty so she left the girls and ran to Marc's house to get cups of water but he wasn't home. She really wanted me to leave so she could be in charge and finish their walk, but I looked up the street and saw the little ones in the wagon on the side of the road way far up the street. A neighbor was talking to them and I'm sure she was confused and concerned, so I drove up there to explain why there were 2 little kids in a wagon on the side of the road. lol. I drove home and waited for Brynlee to bring the little ones home and quickly got them some water. Brynlee was clearly hitting the heat exhaustion stage and started getting really sick. She had just run up and down the streets multiple times, plus pulled the wagon of girls around. So I got the AC blowing and had her lay down by it until her body was able to cool down. Wow. What a walk! It touched my heart how much she wanted to do this for her sisters and do it by herself. I sure love these kids.