Board Meeting

I was invited to a girl's night Halloween party last Friday night. The invitation asked everyone to bring a charcuterie board.

I panicked.

I'm willing to learn carpentry skills so I can build bookcases, but the prospect of creating a charcuterie board terrifies me. I complained to Bryan about my task and he reassured me it was easy to make one. Then we went to the store, bought a few items, and he came home and put one together for me to take.

He's good at making things look pretty.

Class of 2024

We finally got Peter's senior pictures. They were taken almost a year ago and then I didn't think about printing them until May. Here are the three shots that I liked the best:

The Wayback Machine

This gem of Sophie celebrating our return to in-person activities popped up in my Google Photos memories yesterday. I had no idea it existed before that. I can't believe it's already been two years that we've been back in person. It both feels like it hasn't been that long and that it's already been much longer. I'm so thankful for the inspired church leaders that gave us opportunities to watch church from home and had outside activities whenever possible. And I'm incredibly thankful that we kept to go to church in person now.

And this reminds me, it's time for us all to get our COVID booster shots.

Aloha

All the members of the Ukulele Orchestra were given leis to take home at our practice last night. Sophie enjoyed weighing her options.

Sing Out Strong

I was in charge of singing time this past Sunday. We were practicing songs for our upcoming Primary Program. After singing through a verse, a nine-year-old girl raised her hand and said she could hear me singing more than she could hear the Primary kids singing. I agreed and asked them if they thought they could sing louder than me without yelling. I told them that might be tricky because I'm exceptionally loud.

They accepted that challenge and ran with it.

I love that her observation did more to get the other kids to sing loud than me just asking ever could have. Yay for simple, unplanned teaching moments.

So Long, Farewell

Saturday was nearly gone when I realized it was the last day of summer and I hadn't been outside at all. Bryan was driving Cooper and Phoebe to a church activity, so I called Sophie and Topher downstairs and said we needed to go outside and say goodbye to summer. We were out there for as long as it took me to harvest a small mixing bowl full of cherry tomatoes. Sophie and Topher bounced a few beach balls and ran around. Then we stood on the edge of the deck and called out, "Goodbye, summer!"

Sophie said she thinks this should be a new tradition. I think it will be.

Hobbled

Sophie had her first day of Girls on the Run yesterday. She's been so excited to start training. They'll end the season with a 5K in December. They spent a long time learning about the program and getting to known each other. They did finally go outside and start running. Sophie made it through six laps, then she rolled her ankle. The coach reported to me at pickup time that it looked like a pretty bad roll. She suggested maybe getting it looked at by a doctor.

Sophie and I went home and she continued to hobble around on it. By dinnertime she was in so much pain. We talked about having her get a good night sleep, then going to urgent care in the morning, but she and Bryan both felt that she should be seen that night.

That is how Sophie and I ended up spending two hours of our Thursday night at urgent care. She rode around in a wheelchair, thanks to the kind woman that was exiting as we walked into the office but then ran back in and came out with said wheelchair for us. Sophie's ankle was examined and x-rayed. The x-ray looked mostly fine, but there was a weird spot. We're still waiting to hear back from radiology about the final read.

Sophie really wanted to take a selfie in the exam room. She'd been off the ankle for about an hour at this point, so she was feeling more cheerful. 

The doctor decided Sophie should be in a boot. It's much fancier than the one I wore for my foot injury many years ago. The boot made it possible for Sophie to go to school today. She's definitely already tired of it though. And she's hoping that she heals quickly so she can still participate in Girls on the Run.

Rockin' Out For a Good Cause

Sophie is part of a group at the library that helps plan activities and does service. Yesterday they gathered together and painted rocks for veterans. These were her contributions.

Down On the Farm

After visiting with my friend Beth, we drove south of BYU to visit our good friends Brett and Ben and their kids. The remodel they're doing on their new house is still under construction, but the basement was done and is beautiful. We loved getting to see them and stay the night at their new house. The highlight, other than visiting with our friends, was getting to play with the kittens their family had recently found in their barn. The kittens were such a big deal that very few pictures were taken of anything else. Many thank to Phoebe, Cooper, and Peter for sharing their pictures with me for this post.

Most of the kids got to sleep in this amazing bunk room.

The next day Brett gave us a tour of their farm. 

Horses.

Cows.

Topher's one goal for the day was to hold a chicken. Brett made that dream a reality.

After the tour the kids played for a bit while Brett and I chatted.

Phoebe particularly liked this waterfall. She spent some quiet time here.

Thanks for letting us visit! We always love getting to spend time with you guys!

Pretty as a Picture

Cooper, Phoebe, and Sophie have all had their school pictures taken already this year. Topher has to wait a little longer for his and Cooper's were just taken today, so we don't have them yet. But we did get Phoebe and Sophie's pictures! They each picked out their own looks, including their backgrounds. I think they're both beautiful.

Book Buddies

When I was writing up our Disneyland adventure last year Blogger started having trouble moving pictures from Google Photos into the posts. To circumvent that issue I had to download everything, then upload it all to the blog. This was a pain and took more time and I ended up not ever finishing the posts about Disneyland. I also never wrote about our trip to Utah right after that. I hope to fix that someday. For now though, I want to make sure I don't make the same mistake with our most recent trip.

After spending a few days at Ron and Shari's house, we headed to down Utah County to see friends there. Our first stop was BYU. We tried to get a tour of Peter's new apartment since it looked like he wouldn't be able to move in until after I had flown back to PA with the other kids. When the sweet receptionist told me no, I almost cried. I quickly regained my composure and she gave me some good news: Peter could move in on Saturday instead of waiting until Monday! We would still be there and would be able to see his home for the next eight months. I was thrilled!

After that, we grabbed lunch at the Cougareat, then headed north to see my friend Beth! We were in the same married ward at BYU, but I don't think we ever actually talked to each other then. We found each others blogs and she and I have essentially been blog pen pals since Cooper was a baby. Her kids are just a little older than ours and she's a fellow bibliophile. There are lots of other great things about her, those are just two things we have in common. When we were in Utah in 2023 I stopped by for a quick in-person hello and we've been trading Marco Polos since then. I love that we got to stop by for a bit longer visit on this trip! And our kids got to meet each other, which made me happy.

Thanks for making time for us, Beth!

Off to a Good Start

I went to Topher's 1st grade open house this week. His teacher seems very sweet and is excited to teach the kids. Her classroom theme is frogs, she has frog pictures and frog stuffed animals all over the place. This sample of Topher's work was in the hall outside his room.

Fourteen!

Phoebe is fourteen! Cooper helped me put up decorations the night before her birthday.

Her birthday celebration lasted for three days this year. Her actual birthday started with doughnuts for breakfast.

She opened presents,

ate some yummy pizza for lunch,

and had a birthday visit/dance from one of her Young Women leaders. This was seriously amazing.

Then she and Cooper spent the evening at a multi-ward (including our old ward and new ward) youth activity. The fun included singing happy birthday to her and eating cupcakes.

Because of the youth activity (which they both agreed was so fun), Phoebe opted to have her birthday dinner the next night. Sophie helped me make the birthday cake.

Sadly, I only sprayed the pans, I didn't butter and flour them as the directions indicated. It fell apart coming out of the pans. Cooper tried valiantly to mash it back together. He was ultimately unsuccessful. I said I'd try again the next day.

Thankfully, the crepes she requested for her dinner turned out much better.

Sophie set a place at the table for Peter and Cooper used his phone to display this picture while we ate. We texted Peter that we had included him in the birthday dinner. His response: "Awww."

The next day came and I got swept up in other projects, so I didn't make another cake. Bryan ended up taking her to Costco to pick out her own birthday cake. Would she have preferred a homemade cake? Yes. But would I have made the scrumptious Orange Dreamsicle Cheesecake that she selected? Probably not.

Happy birthday, Phoebe!!! We love you!!!

Just a Little Off the Ends

Sophie, Topher, and Cooper got haircuts this week. Sophie opted for a more grown-up look and the hairdresser curled Sophie's new curtain bangs to show her how to do it.

After hearing Sophie's hair request, Topher kept insisting that he wanted curtain bangs too. It took quite a bit of convincing before he realized that he had gotten a regular haircut and that he didn't have long enough hair for curtains bangs.