Camera Ready

My kids read the blog post from yesterday and all commented that I had the beautifying filter turned on in my camera settings. I never activate that function and Sophie quickly took credit for turning it on. I grabbed my phone to set the camera back to its normal, we-look-like-regular-humans setting.

But I couldn't find it. Certain that they could, a few of my kids tried as well. Guess what? They couldn't find it either.

I'm sure we'll figure it out eventually (surely my phone won't hide that setting forever), but for now I guess we'll all be showing up with flawless complexions in our pictures.

Way Down to Hadestown

Tonight Phoebe and a friend hung out by seeing the filmed version of the Broadway show Hadestown. The theater is about 30 minutes from our house. Since I had to drive there anyway, I took Cooper and Sophie and we saw it too!

The five principle actors were the same that I saw in the original cast in 2019. It was so cool that I got to share this beautiful show with some of my kids.

All the World's a Stage

There was an afternoon last week when Topher and I were the only people at home. He decided to hold a talent show. I played the ukulele and sang a song. He performed an original composition and played his homemade banjo, then he beatboxed and danced, then he demonstrated sword fighting. It was an entertaining show.

Peter: Week Four in Pictures

Making Music With My Friends*

Sophie and I had a ukulele gig on Saturday. We played in a room with really amazing acoustics.

It's such a blessing to sing and play with this group and I'm so glad we're both in it.

It fills my soul.

*This is a line from one of the songs in our concert set, does anyone know the song without Googling it?

The Benefits of Good Taste in Music

About a month ago, one of Phoebe's Young Women leaders, Tisha, told me she had a funny request. She had bought tickets to a concert for herself and her sister, but now her sister wasn't able to go. Tisha could take her husband with her, but he didn't really love the band or the style of music. She thought about all the people she knew who would want to actually go to the concert.

And she thought of Phoebe.

She asked if Bryan and I would be okay with her taking Phoebe to this concert. It was an hour and a half away, and it was just them. I should add that this leader is still in her twenties. She's closer to Phoebe's age than she is to my age. Bryan and I discussed it and prayed about it and pondered it and discussed it some more. And then we finally asked Phoebe if she wanted to go.

She said yes.

Hold on, that's not quite right. She actually screamed, then said, "YES!"

And that's why on Saturday Phoebe attended the BTS concert at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. If you're not familiar with BTS, they're a KPop group and currently the number one band in the world.

It was a very big deal.

These are some of the pictures she sent me. The size of that crowd is staggering.

And yes, she had an amazing time.

Peter: Week Three (Which Was Week Before Last) In Pictures

This picture deserves context. These two elders have known each other for over a decade, ever since their dads were in the BYU MBA program together and we participated in a babysitting co-op with them and two other families. Every Friday evening for about three months these boys, and their siblings, got together for a playdate while the parents took turns going on dates. Did either of them realize this and recognize each other? Nope. But the other elder's mom saw a picture of Peter on the mission Facebook page and knew right away what family he belonged to. She contacted me and told me they were serving in the same mission.

And I think that's very cool.

I don't know what church this is. I should probably ask.

Reading for Prizes

After school got out for the summer I signed Topher up for the summer reading program at the library. 

And then totally forgot to have him work on it.

He's read voraciously for the last two months, which is great. But the summer reading program has specific reading prompts, plus some art projects and local field trips. So reading what he picked only checked some of the boxes.

On Monday I realized that the summer reading program ends tomorrow.

On Tuesday I asked Topher if he wanted to pull out the booklet to see what he'd already accomplished. Just from regular reading, he'd gotten through a quarter of the one hundred and twelve prompts, seven weeks with sixteen prompts per week. He decided he wanted to try to finish it. I pulled books from our home library that would fulfill some of the assigned tasks, then we went to the town library for the rest. He read a lot when we got home that day.

Then on Wednesday he did some of the art projects with Phoebe and read some more.

On Thursday I wrote out the remaining tasks on post-it notes so he could easily see what was left. This worked so well for him and he knocked through many of them on his own pretty quickly, moving them from one side of the wall to the other once he'd finished each task.

Today Topher read the last few books, grabbed some paper and a crayon, and drove around with me for the local field trips. He finished the art assignments while we found the community garden, ginkgo trees in town, and life in this creek.

Then we went to the library to present all one hundred and twelve finished tasks in his summer reading booklet. He earned several trinkets of his own choosing, plus coupons for two ice cream cones, a hot dog, two doughnuts, and six dumplings. They were all well earned.

Web Slinger

I followed last night's Shakespeare with Spider-Man today. I took Cooper and Phoebe to see Spider-Man: Brand New Day this afternoon. It was excellent! I took this very dark picture of us during the previews.

You can't tell, but Phoebe and I are both wearing Spider-Man shirts in these pictures. She suggested I borrow one of hers, which I thought was very sweet.

This was the first time either of them have seen a Marvel movie in the theater, which made the outing extra special. I'm so glad these two teenagers were willing, and even excited, to see a movie with their mom rather than their friends.

When In Rome

I had a great time tonight with friends watching a Shakespeare production I'd never seen or read. Coriolanus was very well done. For me, a mark of good Shakespeare is how easy it is to understand. The actors did a great job making the meaning of their words clear. I was also pleased with how quickly my brain switched into Shakespeare mode. It's good to know that knowledge still exists in my brain!