Officially Summer

It is star period 5 - that is a literal translation of how the Chinese say Saturday - which is one of the things we have learned during our first week of Summer 2017.

It's been good so far! Really good.....and I was nervous it wouldn't be because I was unprepared with any kind of a schedule.  I real quick threw it all together in my mind Sunday while giving the boys their summer hair cuts.  I put my homemade, non-artistic, schedules and charts in page protectors so the kids can cross things off with dry erase markers and hung them to the fridge.  It's very NOT Martha or Joanna Gaines, but it's working well for us.  

The boys wouldn't let me buzz their whole heads like Dad, but we have minimal hair to comb.

I decided Tuesdays would be our swim days. In order to get my teen excited about swimming with the fam, AND to help further my guys in swimming levels I also decided that when we choose the rec center I will do a little mini swim lesson with each one. Miriam and I had tons of fun, Byron and Soren both said this was their "low of the day".  On the flip side going swimming was the "high" so I will keep doing it.

So far, I hit the sweet spot with summer classes.  Nothing starts till 11, and there are not multiple things going on each day. Plenty of time to get all chores and lessons out of the way, just in time to get us out of the house before it gets too hot, but also not spending my whole afternoons as a shuttle service.   Next week will be a different story...it's Miss Utah so we are gearing up for a full week of go go go activities....but I am hopeful that we are in enough of a groove to return to the schedule after that.

It's so exciting to see our flowers coming back and doing so well! I planted a bunch of stuff late last fall when things were 75% off at the nursery.  I was crossing my fingers that it would make it through the winter! Our strawberry patch is doing great, getting bigger and bigger every year.  The neighbors raspberry bush made it over the fence and there are lots of berries juicin up! Our herbs are good...if I can get whatever is munching my basil to stop we will be in business.

Our big WELCOME SUMMER family surprise was going to see OK Go in concert at the Ogden Amphitheater.  The kids first ever rock concert!

It was also baby Parker's first rock concert....Alicia and Mike are clearly cooler parents than we are.

  We have loved OK Go's music and videos for a long time, this just made us love them even more.  We've been jamming out to their music all weekend.

Soren and Bub had the best seats in the house.

End of year piano recital. Miriam and Bub both worked so hard and performed beautifully.  They are not perfect my any means, but I have to say they are pretty darn good about practicing in the mornings.
I am giving Soren "Mom Lessons" this summer, it's fairly painful as that kid doesn't like to be wrong ever, but he LOVES it when he gets a song down.  He starts his lessons with Molly this Fall and he can't wait...that kid has seen his fair share of piano recitals.

We hit Menchie's on the way home

I just had to slip this photo in, sometimes Darin and I start discussing things in the car after a trip and we forget that the kids are waiting by the door to be let in.  That happened again today, mid sentence I remembered that the kids were waiting on the porch and rushed out.  Miriam was not amused.

School's Out Forever! (just kidding...for summer)

Soren stars singing "Schoools out...." and Darin and I automatically yell "for summer!..... Schooools Out Forever!" but then Soren finishes the song with "sing and shout, its our vacation!"  A little Twisted Sister/High School Musical round ensues. 

Monday - No School

Tuesday - Field Trip to Natural Curiosity Museum for Byron, regular day for the rest of us

Wednesday - Buy and Sell Day for Byron...but Soren was very much apart of this project and then Byron bought gifts for everyone, super sweet kid that he is.  

Thursday - Field Day for all!! Plus cold cereal party in Miriam's first class.

Boys in swim suits for the water party!

  We actually had cloud coverage most of the afternoon but the temps stayed really warm.  Then at 3:20 it started to rain, which was awesome because it cleared the kids off the party stuff and got them to go home.

Field day is a kids wonderland and teacher/parent nightmare. Things were super organized but 3 hours of dunk tanks, water slides, bounce houses, bubbles, and water games took every ounce of energy I had in me.  Too many screaming kids hyped up on snow cones for one afternoon.

I told Miriam to take photos of her big girl party so she humored me.

 Friday - Year book day! M went to brunch with a friend then went to her house to do pedicures, the boys signed yearbooks, ate popsicles, watched movies and lined the halls for the 6th grade clap out.

We ran to a neighborhood ice cream party



then came home to meet up with Jared Julia Tatum and Wyler who drove all the way up to watch Miriam's ballet recital.  We met G'ma and G'pa at Zupa's for dinner and then hit the recital.

 I did too much mingling with friends after the show and only snapped a photo of Wy-guy. Glad I snapped that one, but sad that I didn't get the others who came to support!

These guys have been working SO HARD this year and it has payed off.  I love how sweet Miriam's dancing friends are.

The next morning we went to breakfast with G'ma and G'pa then sent them off to do all their errands while we came home to do our chores so we could go on a hike with friends that afternoon.

Centerville Pictograph hike.  I took the boys on my own route so we ended up having to bush wack for a sec, which all the kids except for Fielding were not happy about.  Miriam was doubting my navigational skills....

But of course we made it!

There were these gorgeous tiny purple butterflies that wouldn't sit long enough for me to get a photo of but these beauties were good to be still.

Our women's hiking group starts up this week...same hike as above, we need something quick for the first time around.

May

We celebrated Darin's birthday FOR REALS last weekend (we had been doing family events on the real deal). There are no photos...boo, but I do want to document that we marked the occasion.  Darin and I went to a landscaping class for 3 1/2 hours on Saturday morning and then enjoyed a sushi lunch.  We have loved attending this class, which is FREE and so informative and since it was just the two of us we splurged on the good sushi.  We also took a family trip to the Natural History Museum...we were headed to Tracy Aviary but the rain chased us indoors. 

I needed to document some cute Mother's Day gifts as well...

I am helpful as a fox! It's hard to see but there is heart magnet up there as well.

Byron's Cub leaders helped them make and stain this box, the young women made the cute flowers together, and then Miriam's art class made a "family album".

Byron made another mothers day book in school, and both the kids made Mother's Day cards in Chinese

I really felt spoiled by all my kids teachers this year! Byron did mention to me that they might need some help with Father's Day since they wouldn't be in school.

I got to attend 1st grade field trip to the Treehouse Museum, not with Soren, with one of my students but his teacher was cute and put him in my group.  He got the staring role in the Golden Goose play.

He even got to marry the princess.

Ballroom has ended.  Such a fun year of dance and especially sad because Miriam is going to dance on a different team this year.  She loves the people on her teams...she will really miss them.

Soren had so much fun on his Pee Wee team. He was the smallest kid out there but he can totally keep up...that boy has rhythm.

Grandma and Grandpa came all the way up on Friday to see the show and then drove all the way back home for a family Memorial day picnic. Such a hard day for them, I felt bad that they came all this way, but it was so so so fun for Miriam and Soren to have an audience cheering for them.

We drove down to the Memorial Day celebration as well.  We met family in the cemetery and then went to my Grandpa's house for a BBQ Rib picnic.  It's always fun to visit my Grandma's grave and think about her....so good to see family we haven't seen in a while as well.

Attending the picnic meant we would be in the car for 5 hours on Saturday so we decided to do some adventuring on the way home.  We stopped at Huntington Reservoir over Huntington Canyon for a dinner picnic.  We skipped rocks over ice and water, walked around the lake and then flew the kite until the temps dropped and we ran to the car for warmth.

We got 2 family bike rides in, the yard worked on, car washed and waxed and met some friends for snow cones at the park.  So I would say the weekend was a success.