Summer Break is ON!

The last week of school - it was rather crazy and insane.  Monday was the elementary school talent show - Evie was performing in it, so David and I went - and sat through all 2 1/2 hours of it.  Some of it was pretty cute and some of it was fun.  Evie did a great job!  Eileen and Anna had a band trip for most of the day and had a great time, but came home rather tired!   We had the Perkins family over for dinner - her husband is out of town and so we invited her and her kids to join us for dinner and FHE.  It was really nice!

On Tuesday, Evie had her year end STUCO trip.  She had a BLAST - they were gone all day and did all sorts of fun stuff. James had piano lessons that day, but Evie had to miss, since they still weren't back.

Wednesday morning, I met with the primary presidency to prepare and discuss.  What a wonderful group of women!! I'm so excited to get to serve with them.  I will be working with the cub scouts and 11-year old scouts.  It will be a blast!  I left that to go pick up Anna and Eileen who got out early, then headed home for a late lunch and a nap for David before getting the elementary school kids.  In the evening, the youth activity for the night was the seminary graduation, so Dan also needed to go, So I took the younger 4 kids to the pool for a bit.  The weather is finally getting nice and warm for the pool!

Thursday was the last day of school.  I met up with the other music ladies to figure out the music stuff for June, then  I watched the Perkins boys while their mom went to her PT.  Then we picked up the kids from school.  After dinner we headed to the local ice cream shop. They do free jr sno-cones on the last day of school.  The kids had a blast and we had some yummy cold treats on a hot day!

Friday was a day of packing and prepping.  We did laundry, packing and preparing food stuff and straightening up the house some.  The kids are so excited about this trip!  After dinner, we went to the pool again for an hour or so before heading back, putting the kids to bed and finishing the packing as much as possible.

Saturday morning, we loaded the food and kids into the car and headed off.  The trip went pretty smoothly.  David did as well as could be expected.  We stopped at a park and had a yummy lunch and stopped at IHOP for dinner.  After snacking in the car all day, I didn't expect them to eat much dinner, but they polished off pretty much everything!  We got in at a half decent hour and got the kids to bed before passing out!

Today we went to the Sable ward for church and it was wonderful to see old friends and catch up!  Then in the evening, Kay and Reggie came over for dinner and games.  It was so good to see them again!!!

Now we are looking forward to lots of fun time with family and friends next week!

Before the Storm

Apparently I didn't do a good job of taking pictures this week, but except for this weekend, this week was pretty slow - it felt a bit like the calm before the insano-storm.  Next week is the last week of school and I'm already exhausted looking at the calendar.

Friday night, we took Eileen to see Avengers: Endgame.  Eileen cried for almost the whole 3 hours.  But we had a great time together as usual.

Saturday morning, Anna and I went to go work out with Grandma, then I dropped Anna and Evie off at Sandi and Jon's house for Kai's birthday party.  We spent the rest of the afternoon getting the house and everything ready for Dan's birthday party.  His surprise birthday party was a success, we had a great turn out, but still ended up with a bunch of leftovers!

I got a new calling this week - in addition to being a chorister in Sacrament meeting, I will be serving the kiddos in primary as the second councilor in the primary presidency.  Last Sunday was the calling of the presidents of all the organizations, this week was the calling of the councilors.  It's all going to be wonderful!

Now we just gotta brace for next week and all the crazies of the end of the school year plus getting ready for our trip to CO.

Excitement!

Monday was beautiful - so we spent our Family Home Evening time working in the front yard together.  We put stone around our flower bed and around the tree and planted some flowers and got the front of our house looking much nicer!  It's so exciting!  

Tuesday I drove over to Frisco to meet up with Lori for lunch.  We had such a great time!  She could just spare a lunch break, but it was so great to get to see her! 

The weather this week started out great and sunny, but it took a turn for the cold and the last half of the week has been chilly and rainy.  David still always wants to take his walks, so unless it is actually raining, we are out and about most mornings and some afternoons.  Evie put him in Aaron's coat to keep him warm one afternoon and I just thought he looked so cute!  

Friday, we had friends over for dinner and games, but by the time dinner was over, we were all tired, so we just sat and chatted for a bit, but we still had a great time with them! 

Saturday was rather crazy.  Dan too James and Evie to the PJ's and Pastries thing at the elementary school, but there was hardly anyone there, so they got some donuts and headed home.  I had our Stake Women's conference in the morning.  I was singing during the meeting with a few other ladies - it went really well and they were a wonderful group to sing with!  After, Anna had a friends birthday party - she was there all afternoon and late into the night!  But she had a blast.  Dan took the van to get a movie player put in, while he was gone, James fell off his scooter and split his chin open, so I took him to the urgent care to get stitched up - just 2 stitches on his chin.  Evie was so cute and got very solicitous and nurturing with James while he went through this.  He was a little nervous, so while we waited for the doctor, I told him about my stitches and how it would all happen.  He was so brave and did a great job - Evie came to help and was fascinated watching the stitches get put in. 

Then in the evening, Dan and I went to the temple, we did some sealings and got dinner and headed home.  It was a wonderful way to spend an evening together.  

Today was Mother's Day.  Dan made my Heart Shaped Biscuits breakfast - it was wonderful - and gave me a neat book about women teaching in the church.  Church was wonderful and a bit crazy.  I've been called as a ward chorister and got to start today.  It was a lot of fun - David stood on Dan's lap and helped me direct the music from the pews.  It was really cute! 

In the afternoon, we played some games and took some naps and had fun together.  We learned and shared and read.  My mom came up for dinner and we had a wonderful time with her.  I am truly so blessed by the amazing women in my life! 

I'll finish by posting this bit of fun - David can be so fun to play with - and while he can also be a bit of a tyrant, he can be adorable too!  I'm so glad these kids are part of my family!

Big Changes

We have had a crazy busy week.   Monday night for Family Home Evening, we went to Eileen's induction ceremony - she was inducted into NJHS.  

They were supposed to dress up for the ceremony - so they put on these dresses - dresses that have been worn by both me and my mom!  

Tuesday was a typical Tuesday with piano lessons and institute.  

Wednesday was the full busy day with the kids - activity days, scouts and Young Womens.  It was a bit bitter sweet knowing that it was the last such event with our ward they way it is.  

Thursday we all headed to the high school for the year end band concert.  Both the girls bands performed very well - it was a fun evening and David loved clapping and pointing out his sisters on stage.  It was really cute - Eileen even had a little solo-type part and she did super well on it!!  

Friday, we had our ward family party - it was going to be a camp out, but the weather threatened rain all week, so it got moved to Melissa High School and we had a fun dinner together with a fun slide show remembering the ward fun time - but Dan and I left with the kids a bit early so we could get them to bed at a decent hour, and so by the time we left, we had just barely gotten to about the time we moved into the ward :)  It was a fun evening though!  

 Saturday morning was crazy busy, but at least we finally got to have a bit of a quiet night - We got up early to clean the church building, then I had a rehearsal for a musical number next weekend.  Dan took the kids to the library.  Anna and I went to work out with Grandma and Aunt Sandi.  Anna then spent the rest of the day with Sandi and her kids.  Dan and I took the younger 3 with us to Home Depot to get some stuff for our flower bed and then to Costco before heading home and starting dinner.  When Sandi dropped off Anna, we invited her and the kids to stay for dinner since Jon is out of town, then after we did scriptures and prayers, we sent the kids to bed, then I made a dessert for Sunday and then we crashed! 

As part of the Come Follow me program, we have been asking each of the kids (except David) to share something they have learned from the weeks's lessons.  It's been great having them participate more!  James told us about how the Lord doesn't care about what we look like on the outside - he cares about our hearts - so Dan got his face all dirty with frosting to illustrate the point - James thought it was hilarious!!  

This morning, we got up bright and early for church.  There was a big meeting with the two Melissa wards for the purpose of creating a new ward.  We are now part of the Anna ward.  It's exciting!  It will be a big change, but it will be amazing.  After church, we headed to our friends house for lunch and games.  We made a special gluten-free dessert to bring with us since half their family can't tolerate gluten.  It was a lot of fun!  

After, we headed home and some of us took naps, then we had a lesson about sheep and shepherds and apparently dinosaurs...  It was fun and a great lesson from Dan!  Then we spent the evening outside enjoying the amazing weather!  We played on the trampoline, played catch and then did our family scriptures and prayers out on the trampoline.  After getting the younger kids to bed, Dan and I played Code Names with Eileen and Anna.  the teams were Dan and Anna vs. Eileen and I.  We did 6 rounds and each won 3.  It was such a wonderful day!  Truly the Sabbath is a delight!