Last Days of Summer Vacation

We are counting down.

Yesterday was spent shopping at Target for school supplies, Justice for Heather's new wardrobe, and having a fun lunch at Corner Bakery.

Today we hung out at home and then went to Disneyland when Kelly got off work. What a blast!

Tomorrow we will be at the mall in the morning shoe shopping and then off to swim at a friend's house.

I can't believe it's almost over!

Making Salsa With Style

I came home from a meeting this afternoon to find Jenna and Daddy making salsa. The shades were too cute, and Jenna informed me that they were her protection from the onions and other smelly things.
I love it.

Camp Half-Blood

If you are familiar with the Percy Jackson and The Olympians series, you know about Camp Half-Blood. For those who don't, it's the secluded camp where all demi-gods live and train (these are the half-human, half-god children of the ancient Greek gods). So....

Heather wanted so badly for her birthday party to center around mythology and the Percy Jackson series that we created our own Camp Half-Blood. This was the first week that we could celebrate Heather's birthday in this very fun fashion (her birthday was in July), and all of her party guest were Percy Jackson experts. The photos below show some of the fun had during our camp experience...

These awesome camp t-shirts were created by my genius husband, otherwise known as Hades. The registration forms were collected, the children divided into Cabins (cabin choices resulted in a cabin for Zeus, Athena and Poseidon according to the registration forms). Then the camp t-shirts were distributed and the activities began!

The happy campers pose for their camp photo.

The activity schedule began with combat skills. Here is the sword training...

and the archery practice.

Hades (Kelly) jumped in and became the target for the archers.

The Quest to retrieve Persephone's Pearls began in Medusa's lair.

Then on to a lush garden where a Fury was waiting to ambush the children.

And finally to the River Styx where the children had to cross to retrieve the last pearl.

After retrieving all three pearls, they were smashed (a.k.a. water balloon fight), and the children returned to camp. The next activity was a game of Capture The Flag over at the park.

We had many determined campers on both the Red and Blue teams who were out to win.

Unfortunately for the Blue team, the Red team was victorious...

in all three games played.

All the campers were great sports, and the activities ended with a feast in the Great Hall.

After some super fun present opening, we continued to feast on Heather's Pegasus cake, an Oreo creation from Dairy Queen that was out of this world!

Happy 11th Birthday, Heather!

The Bonanza Resumes

The Bonanza reconvened on Wednesday. Grace had returned from a short family trip, and Sarah was due to leave for a long trip to Utah on Thursday. These girls were so cute together. Grace and Heather wore their limbs out on Band Hero, and Jenna and Sarah played all kinds of dress up. There was a bit of water play and then a picnic dinner they all shared. It brings a momma joy to see her girls having so much fun.

In The Mail This Week...

There is a new blog that I follow called, Dreamland. The author is a very talented artist, seamstress, scrabooker and more (check out her Etsy shop Lettergirl). I was drawn to her beautiful printing/handwriting which is something that I enjoy doing myself. Over the summer she began to write favorite quotes on fun paper and post them on her blog, and she invited readers to share their favorites. After some sharing of my favorite quotes and a few emails back and forth, I received this in the mail this week...

What a perfect quote. I was one day into The South Beach diet, and the timing was so perfect. I so often waste time dreaming about the great life I'd like to have, and much too often, weeks and months go by. I have many times thought, "If I'd started months ago, I could have done...".

I promptly framed the quote and it sits on my bookshelf among my favorite literary works. Thanks so much Gina!

Friendship Bonanza

The Peterson women have been gone a lot this summer. As we returned from our touring around mid-August, it was clearly time to begin to reconnect with our good friends. Oh boy have we missed friend time (and I'm not just speaking about the kids)! Both Jenna and Heather were priveleged to have a four-day run of friend time with dear friends this week. My friend, Sheryl, named the period a bonanza. I like that word as it truly fit the description, "a large amount of something desirable."

Sarah and Jenna began their time on our beach vacation...

and finished back home with four straight days of play (I was not smart enough to grab the camera).

Heather and Grace spent 4 blissful days together. Between the two houses there were moments of water play, Band Hero, and gobs of giggling, gibber-jabber.

One of the days was spent swimming at our house. I was stunned at the amount of time these girls spent on YouTube watching video of Weird Al singing his latest hits. I'm sorry to say that these songs are stuck in my head. Thanks Al.

Friends Growing Up

Our friends, the Holbrooks and the Reynolds, are sending their oldest children to college this month. We have had the pleasure of watching these "kids" grow up from about age 10 until adulthood. They are both the finest of young adults, and we are so excited to follow their next adventures.

Here is Brittany many years ago...

and today...

Here is Jordan many years ago...

and today...

We had a farewell barbecue at the Holbrook's house on Thursday. We have had many barbecues over the years as we've grown closer and become more than friends. You know they say that friends are the family you choose. I like that. Here are a few candid photos of our evening together...

One White Dress

In February of this year, Jenna turned 8 and was baptized. She had a pretty white dress that she wore after the baptism, but I hardly got a photograph of it. It was covered with a sweater, and we were so busy that we hadn't focused on pictures sufficiently.

We haven't been able to meet up with our photographer, so when we went to New Mexico, I took the dress with the intentions of getting some photos of Jenna in it. I took these in my sister's backyard, and then played with them in iPhoto. I'll eventually do some prints. I'm glad we captured Jenna in her dress while she was still 8. I can't believe how time flies and how fast 9 is approaching.