Putt Putt and Ice Cream

The YM activity this week was a homemade miniature golf course. Dallin and the guys had fun building their course. Dallin was golfing well until he got a 40 on one of the courses!

Since it was held at a park, I brought the little ones along so they could see their dad and not always feel left behind. "More ice cream, please?"
Finishing down to the last drop...

Good Choices

We found a half loaf of white moldy bread at the top of the pantry. It was pretty gross and was so thick that it looked like frosting. We immediately knew that Dayton was the guilty party. Dave called him downstairs, showed him the bread, and asked him if he knew what it was. He said no. He was told that it was bread that hadn't been put away properly. Dave then gave him two choices. He could either eat it....or take it to the outside trashcan. Dayton got a big smile on his face and whispered to his friend, "my dad gives me good choices" as he headed to the garbage can.

Home Stretch

Dayton has only two session of vision therapy left. We're starting to think about how we're going to celebrate.

Since we got to his session a few minutes early, we stopped for a cone.
Devin enjoyed his ice cream, hunting for bugs, and bird watching while we waited.

Dallin's 50 Miler

Dallin got to participate in a 50 mile canoe trip for high adventure this year. Dallin's report was that he had fun but it was a lot of work. One of the highlights was a game they made up called "Rocky." He then informed "all boys can stay entertained if they just have some sticks, rock and some water." There were plenty of bug, snake, and canoe dumping stories, too.

The camp was at Fort Worth Ranch, which was very pretty.

Here's Dallin all geared up, ready to go. He's got his waterproof bag and bailing scoop.

Football Buddies

Nothing makes Devin happier than playing with his big brothers.

"It's summer, we're not supposed to learn stuff!"

So Dave is off to Boy Scout camp for a few days. The kids and I went to see the movie Oceans, which is a documentary put out by Disney. I actually didn't tell them what we were going to see, because I knew what their reaction would be. Devin happily sat through an hour of it and loved the fish and birds (the popcorn, suckers, and licorice that I smuggled in did help of course). Danica got scared of the big sharks and whales. Dayton and Drew tolerated it and acted all tough. Dayton said it was just like when I tricked them into going out for a haircut by not telling them where we were going.
Quotes from Drew, "This is probably the dumbest movie I've ever seen in my life" and "It's summer, we're not supposed to learn stuff!"
We stopped at McDonalds on the way home for ice cream cones to salvage the outing. The kids enjoyed playing in the air conditioned play zone. We picked up a non-educational video for tonight, Tooth Fairy.

Oh, yeah, that's what it was like with one child...

With Dallin gone to scout camp, Dayton and Drew both off at friends houses to play and Danica asleep for a few hours, Devin and I had the chance to pretend he was an only child. We did puzzles.

Caught a fish!
Devin loves puzzles and does them every day.

Then we had popsicle time.

And topped it off with storytime and playing with his train.

I had the chance to take pictures and have uninterrupted time with this little sweetie, something he doesn't get too often. He's such a fun little boy!

First Peach

We got the first peach from our peach tree. Super tasty!

Kami-kazi

Devin has turned into a crazy little water dude. He lines up on the edge of the pool with the big boys and does crazy jumps into the water. His water wings float him right back to the surface and he climbs out to do it again. He loves to do anything the big kids can do.

Dallin left on Saturday for a 50 mile canoe trip with the scouts. In classic Dallin fashion, Dave and I thought he needed to be at the church by 2, but at 11:30 with us on the way to the store to buy some critical last minute items (like a waterproof bag for his gear), he lets me know that he had a meeting that he thinks is at 12:30. Gratefully the meeting wasn't until 1:30, but ya gotta love teenage boys. Hope he's having fun.

Today Dayton, Drew and I were able to attend the first annual patient appreciation party for the Optometry Center for Vision Therapy. They rented out a theater. We watched Toy Story 3 in 3D and had a pizza buffet. I appreciated Joann Mott keeping the little ones. I miss Dallin, my babysitter, this week.

Father's Day was nice. He got breakfast in bed of waffles. The best present was not having any meetings and having the day together. He got an MP3 player for his triathlon training.

Wedding Music

Dave and I had the opportunity to play at a wedding for one of his coworkers. His friend, Janet, heard him playing the piano at a hotel during a work retreat and decided then and there that she wanted the hotel to be the venue for her wedding and Dave to play the music. Dave suckered me in to help out. My vision was playing background music. It turned out that I played Titanic as well as Love Story while the bridal party and bride walked down the aisle. Gratefully, it turned out beautifully. Dave played an original song that he composed and dedicated to me, naming it Eternity. It was gorgeous. He also played Waterfall after the vows as the ceremony ended.

We enjoyed the tasty buffet and relaxed after it was over.

Here we are with Janet.

The wedding was beautiful. Loved the flowers.

Janet wanted me to have one of the centerpieces- so pretty!

Twilight Camp

This week was Drew's Twilight Camp. I got to go along as his group's walker and enjoy camp with Drew. Danica was also able to participate in the "tot lot". Drew made a very small fire and made smores. I stood ready with my camera to get a picture of his fire, but was asked to come talk to Danica for a quick minute since she wasn't drinking enough water. By the time I got back, his fire was lit, marshmallow was cooked, and his fire was out.

Unfortunetely, Drew didn't feel well on Thursday. We ended up leaving early.
Danica just loved being able to go. Last year she and I both had to stay home.

The smallest size shirt still drowned Danica, so I did some alterations for her. I made a little scrap into a hair ribbon.

She had fun with some of the girls from our ward.

Camp had a Star Wars theme this year. Drew's group was assigned to be the planet of Hoth.

Our amazing cheer was "Hoth is made of Ice. Our yeti has lice." Archery and wrist rockets are always the highlights of camp for the boys.

Water games helped us keep cool.

There were plenty of fun activities to keep us busy. At the end of the week, each boy got to take a cool lightsaber home (half a water noodle with taped handle). They loved it.

Sleepy Head in Katy

Danica got to spend several days with her Shurtz cousins in Katy. Looks like she just wore herself right out!

Jen and I met at a midway point to swap back McKay and Danica. She had all the girls wearing matching hot pink shirts and white capris. She had taken them shopping and gotten them all an outfit. I know Danica had a blast. What a fun aunt! Thanks for letting Danica join the world of girls for a few days. We loved having McKay here (I'd post pictures, but I had left my camera in Katy.) It was definitely an all boy weekend.

R Rated Showing at the High School

Dallin came home from school the second to last day and shocked me by telling that his Geometry teacher had put on an R rated movie for those who didn't need to take the final. "So what did you do?" I asked him. We have a family policy of not watching R rated movies (we are careful about what PG-13 we see also.) He said he kept his eyes on a worksheet, but heard all the bad language, although the language wasn't any worse than what he heard every day. I couldn't believe it! There is a district policy that a parent permission slip has to be sent home for movies rated over PG. After some stewing, talking to friends and my mom, I called the school to let them know what had happened and that I'd be coming over after school.

This was my first visit to the high school. I met with the head principal and let him know that it wasn't acceptable for this to happen. He assured me that the Matrix wasn't what was planned for the day; that the teacher was just "0ff script". The teacher has been talked to, but the principal said that realistically, it would probably happen again. I asked him what my children should do when it happened again and he said that they should just ask to be excused to the library.

Something about his response was unsettling. As if the fact that it is distric policy didn't mean much and that the teachers are probably going to ignore it as something to shrug off. I need to send a letter to the superintendent.

My kids gathered around when I returned from speaking with the principal. I could see that Dayton was particularly anxious to hear the report. I told them what we'd talked about. When I got to the part about it "would probably happen again," Dayton looked ashen! We had a good chat about what they would do if in that situation.

Welcome to high school...

My Little Organizer

At 21 months, Devin is in the "House Terrorist" stage. There are always train tracks, cars, puzzle pieces, books, and a variety of other toys sprinkled through the house. One day he was playing with the pots and pans and took me by surprise. When he finished, he found the matching lid for each pan, placed it on it's match, and restacked them in the drawer under the stove. I only noticed because he started sqwacking because he couldn't get them all to fit back in. The next day he was terrorizing my closet and came across a shoe box stuffed with tapes (yes, tapes...love my honey and his unwillingness to part with those so they stay stored in a box for years, but that's another story...). He proceeded to dump them all out while I got ready for the day. I anticipated that after the tape dump job he'd move on to the next mess, maybe unloading everything from under the bathroom sink. Instead, when I peeked in on him next he had every tape but one back in the shoe box. He was working hard to get it to fit. He actually had the tapes in orderly rows in the box! Nice to know that with these tendencies, he may grow up and be clean.

Horses!

On the way home from Dayton's graduation walk, we saw a man with some horses by the school. We quickly drove home for some carrots. After feeding the horses, I asked the fellow if I could take a picture. He said the picture would be better if they were sitting on the horses.

Devin thought that was great!
The smiles got even bigger when he asked if they'd like to ride the horses!

Oh, yeah!

Last Day of School

On the last day of school, the fifth graders were all given a "graduation shirt." They got to walk the hallways and give high fives to all the kids while graduation music played over the speakers. I confess I teared up a little. Hard to believe Dayton's going to middle school!!

End of School Parties

The school year is winding down! Danica, Devin and I came over to help celebrate the successful year. Drew and these friends played a lot of soccer on this field in third grade!

We had drinks and popcorn while we watched Looney Tunes.
The Fifth graders had a swimming-luau party across the street. There were hamburgers, snow cones, drinks, music, and lots of sun.

Surfin' right out of elementary school.