American Girl Store Outing

We finally made it! All the way to Los Angeles to visit the American Girl Doll store. Jenna has been waiting patiently since February to use her birthday gift cards and since buying on-line didn't allow her to see items, we decided to go to the store. Heather had to tag along and was quite envious, but she was a good sport.

One the freeway, I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a van following me with Pac Man characters on it's hood. What does this have to do with dolls? Nothing! I just thought it was funny.

Jenna purchased Julie, the 1974 historic doll, had her ears pierced, and then picked up some eye glasses and a healthy teeth set. This store is insane with all the cute little (very expensive) things you can buy. I would have loved it all when I was little, but seriously, who can afford all this stuff? I saw no movie stars, but I'm told they shop here with their daughters.

Random side note: Julie's "room" where all her things were displayed, had 70's theme music playing. I started singing along to, "Sunshine Day", the song the Brady Bunch kids sang on that one episode where they entered a contest to win money to buy something for their parents. Do you remember that episode? Heather and Jenna both said, "Mom! Please stop!". I assured them that I could find several other mothers to sing along with me for which I got double eye rolls. I had to sing happily in my head.

After our excursion, we went to the Cheesecake Factory. You are probably thinking way expensive. However, a kid's pasta with butter (my girls' go-to favorite) and a drink was $3.95. I marveled at the size of the portion when it arrived! It was at least three times the size of Corner Bakery's kids pasta that they charge $6.95 for. We did not splurge here (however, if my children were cheesecake lovers, we could have done some serious damage).

Although I've been to The Grove a few times to park and walk to So You Think You Can Dance tapings, I have never wandered through it. There are so many shops and the area is really pretty. The pond in the center was amazing with its dancing water feature and colorful Coy. It's too bad this is so far from home or we could have spent more time exploring.

We've made plans to check out Tim Burton's art at LACMA, the La Brea Tar Pits and the Natural History Museum's new dinosaur exhibit, so we'll be going back to the area soon.

Camp Pictures and Current Projects

Heather and Kelly pulled in from camp around 2:00 p.m. Friday afternoon. They were grungy and tired and happy to be home. Kelly didn't take many pictures of Heather (I think she appeared in 2 photos), so I am awaiting emails from friends and cabin leaders before posting camp photos.

meanwhile...

I have two projects in the works. The first is organizing my recipe "drawer". For years, one of the drawers in our hutch has been deemed the drawer for recipes that are not neatly written on a card (even some of the cards have been tossed in there). After nearly 24 years of marriage, I am confidently declaring myself a woman not of the recipe collecting variety. I have been able to toss many magazine scraps of recipes I "may make someday", and keep those that I actually know I look for time and again on special occasions. It's such a great feeling to have that drawer empty and to finally have my favorite recipes in one place. This project is still under construction, but I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

My other project involves setting up a budget with a program I purchased about a year-and-a-half ago. It looks like such a great program, but getting started has proved to be an overwhelming task. I am digging in and moving this mountain one shovel-full at a time. I'll post progress on both projects soon.

I love summer. No schedules means more time to catch up on things that go by the wayside much too often. I love not peeling my children from the covers each morning and walking their grumpies out to the kitchen table for breakfast. I love that they don't have to sit through six hours of school, more hours of homework, and that we don't have to rush to get playtime in. I realize during the summer how much of a stress-case I am during the school year, worried about how they are doing in school, how they are doing on homework, which project is due when, who is being nice to whom on the playground, wondering if teachers are going to be kind to my girls, wondering about all the stuff that my pre-teen hears at school that she's not telling me and how much it is stressing her out, worrying about deadlines and showers and bedtimes and oh-my-goodness I'm getting hives just typing this.

I love summer! Enough said!

A Bonus Swimming Day!

The Hansons invited us to swim a second day which was such a treat for Jenna (and the mommas too). Jenna hasn't had much of a chance to miss her sis too much with all the playtime she's had this week!

Summer Swimming

Just got home from spending nearly six hours at the Hanson's pool. Jenna and the girls had so much fun. What a great summer activity and nice, relaxing day. We're watching MegaMind right now and will probably turn in early. Summer. Le sigh...

Lazy Wednesday

Jenna and I were lazy, lazy, l a z y on Wednesday. We slept in, went slow, had breakfast at lunch time. It was great. I was able to do some laundry, dishes and clutter control. Later in the afternoon, Jenna had a piano lesson, and then we went shopping and got her a couple of darling bathing suits. She hung out at Sarah's house while I met 'the girls' for dinner at El Torrito to celebrate Kat and Tricia's birthdays. After dinner, Michelle, Trish and I went back to Tricia's house to watch SYTYCD so we could vote for our favorites before midnight. It was a great laid-back day with no schedule, and no particular place to be. It was great fun.

Girls Camp!

We sent Heather off on Tuesday morning for her first Girls' Camp experience. Her bag was a little heavy, but she carried it! Many of the older girls were already up getting the camp ready, so Heather had a car and movie all to herself with Sister Tomsik. We can't wait to hear about her week when she returns on Friday!

After seeing Heather off, we picked Sarah up and met Trish at Corner Bakery for her birthday. The girls were so cute in their own booth. When presents were opened, they sang to Trish over the bench.

Jen and Sarah hung out for the rest of the afternoon. Jenna went to the School Closure Committee meeting with me, we got McDonald's for dinner, and we went to Baskin Robbins for $1 scoops. At about 9:45 p.m., we met back up with Trish and drove to Michelle's house to watch the SYTYCD results from last week. We were up so late, but it was so fun.

Two Dads and a Grandpa

Both my dad and Heather and Jenna's dad got breakfast this morning, but my dad gets his posted with a picture. I had to show my sister, and any of our posterity, that I made grits for my dad. You can't really see them on the plate, but they are closest to the bacon. Just wanted to record that I finally made this southern gentleman his grits (and will hopefully not be compared to my grit-making sister anymore, hee, hee).

After church and taco dinner, we opened presents. Grandpa got some gourmet brownies from the Fairytale Brownie Company, a Fry's Electronics gift card and a book titled, 501 Golf Jokes.

Kelly got some new hiking shoes, hiking socks, a small duffle bag for volleyball and some Mint Meltaways (best mint chocolate ever from a fundraiser). Jenna give Daddy a rock from Utah. That sounds silly, but this girl is serious about the rocks she collects, and she gave one up for her dad.
We love our Daddy and our Grandpa. We are SO lucky to have them to celebrate on Father's Day.

Piano Recital

Wow. Two posts in one day. I know you're impressed. And hubby, these posts are not about me at all! Woot!

Piano teacher, Mrs. Holbrook, held a summer recital this afternoon for all of her students. These recitals are very low key and not nerve-wracking at all (for the parents). This is the first time Heather did not dress up, although she tried with an up-do and nice shoes. The girl has outgrown all of her clothes, and there was no time to try to find a skirt and matching top in her closet. Jenna heard me prodding Heather to gussy up, and she got dressed all on her own. She did a very nice job.

The girls were fabulous. I love watching them play the piano, Jenna with her nervous perfection, and Heather who puts her book up and never looks at it once. She's so memorized she even knows where to turn the page. It cracks me up. Heather definitely loves the piano more than Jenna does, but we're hoping Jenna will come to love it too.

Service Project/New Bike

Kelly, Jenna and I participated in a church service project today. We put mulch around trees and helped to plant and water new trees at Los Alamos Park. It was a really successful project.

Heather was at a slumber party last night and this morning. When she got home, she found a new bike waiting for her. It's an early birthday present since she'll need it for Yosemite a few weeks before her birthday. She picked it out last month, but it was so expensive. We accidentally found it last night on sale while looking for other things at the sporting goods store. Score for Heather!

Rug Give-away

My friends at BLOOM are doing a rug give-away. Since I need a new rug in my office to replace the four little ones that are in there, I am entering and posting this here for extra entry credit. Hee, hee. Click on BLOOM above if you want to check it out. xoxo

Summer Blast-Last Day of School

After dropping the girls off at school, I drove to Target to get candy for the Summer Blast carnival at school. This was the view from my front window in the car...

In the years we've been at Moiola doing Summer Blast, there hasn't ever been rain. My hub called it June gloom, but this was full-blown Scottish mist. If you've lived abroad or in Canada, Washington, Oregon, etc., you'll recognize the really wet mist. The field was empty when I got to school to set up, but I found the backup plan in the "bowl" or lunch area. Still wet, but it worked. The misty clouds burned off enough to dry up a little as the morning progressed.

Heather got to leave 6th grade movie watching to come help with the potato sack race booth we were sponsoring. She had to take a turn first to get it out of her system, but then she went on to be a stellar carnival booth operator! Jenna and Sarah came out in the second shift and stopped by on their way to other events.

Heather was doing so well running the booth that I had time for a photo of my sun/rain hat. Isn't it fab?

Upper core kids don't take pictures with their teachers (apparently), but the little guys do. We said good-bye to Mrs. Naughton before leaving campus.

After school, we merged a couple of friendship groups and had lunch at Corner Bakery to celebrate our release from bondage (the end of the school year).

Rachel and Hannah

(yes, it was Hannah's choice to pose in this manner)

Sarah and Jenna

Madi, Grace, Heather and MacKenzie

Me, Trish, Michelle and Sheryl

SCHOOL IS OUT! LET'S ALL SHOUT! SCHOOL IS OUT, SCHOOL IS OUT,

SCHOOL IS OUUUUUUT!

Our Own Summer Bucket List

We did it! I was so inspired, we made our list after lunch. I had this paper roll, markers and some bulletin board embellishments, so it was easy. This is not a "to-do" list, but rather a list of the things the girls look forward to doing during the summer. I don't feel pressure, because I know we'll be doing all of these things in the course of the summer. It is fun to see what they think is important. I didn't know Disneyland would make the list and because of blockout dates, it will be tricky. We'll make it happen though before we go back to school just because it was important enough to make the list. Mom added a few too, but they were all welcome additions. We thought of more later in the day (i.e., ice cream truck, water balloon fight), so we may figure out a way to add to the list. For now, we're gonna be busy having fun!

Happy Summer!

Summer Bucket List

I loved this image from my friend's blog (you can check out Jessica's blog here). I am so going to make a list with my girls this week of what they want to do this summer. We've talked about it before, but we don't usually make a list. How fun would that be?

How do you plan your summer activities?

Utah Part 6 - Last Hours in UT

Saturday 6/4 p.m. - After the Abravanel concert, Heather and I headed back to pack up at our hotel. We took pictures from the window near the elevator. We were on the 12th floor of the Marriott and had quite a view. Heather had been so patient waiting around for me during both concerts that before checking out we visited the pool for a few minutes. She also tried out the revolving door at the Marriott.

On our way back to Lehi, we snapped a random photo on the freeway. We wondered if people in Utah who drive this freeway take for granted the view of the mountains we were getting. We decided they probably did, just like we take for granted that we live four miles from the beach and can wear the same clothes through all the seasons.

We went from Salt Lake to Elise's house in Lehi for a bbq. We were a little later than we thought we'd be, but there was still some yummy food and play time to be had in the huge water slide they had in the back yard. We ended the night having brownie/ice cream sundaes. Yummy! This was such a great trip in so many ways. I could never have done it without my sister's help and the hospitality of Elise and her parents. We headed home to California the next day, Sunday 6/5, and made it home by 5:00 p.m. Cali time. We have plans to return and a long list of things we want to make more time to do.