Splish Splash

Our kid choir summer concert is this Saturday, Monday was our dress rehearsal. After two long hours of standing and singing and sitting and waiting, we surprised the kids with roughly 800 water balloons. The clean-up was kind of miserable, but the water balloon fun itself was pretty magical.

Thanks go to Cooper and his friend for filling all the balloons in the janitor closet in between their musical numbers.

Cake Masters

We hosted the Youth activity last week. They were planning a bake-off and we have two ovens, which turned out to be pretty important since they split into two teams. We worked hard and got our house company-ready. The evening was loud and fun and chaotic. Two of the leaders brought their kids, one leader had driven his son, plus another young man and his little brother who is Topher's age. That meant instead of going to bed, Topher also got to stay up and play host. It's a good thing I haven't given away the toys our kids have outgrown, because all those kids sure had fun exploring our playroom.

First the teams mixed up their cake mixes (not from scratch, no, we didn't have that kind of time), one gluten-free and one gluten-full. When those went into the ovens, we pulled the already-baked-and-cooled cakes (using the same brand and flavor box mixes the youth had just prepared) out from the panty for them to decorate. We had frosting and sprinkles and one of the leaders brought two secret ingredients that had to be used: raspberries and mint leaves. These are their final creations:

The leaders announced a tie, so Sophie arm wrestled the other team leader and came out victorious. Cooper, who doesn't attend these activities anymore, came and helped since his friend who moved away a few months ago surprised us all by showing up to the activity. Phoebe and Sophie were on the other team. I'll give you a hint about which cake they made: Phoebe really loves Spider-man.

When we bought this house I could envision the Young Women, who I was serving in church at the time, gathering for activities around our kitchen island. I'm glad a version of this was able to come to pass.

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.

Bye Spring

The last day of spring was spent having s'mores at a campfire with friends after a rainy morning. We even got a double rainbow.

Jump Around

While the girls were at camp and Cooper was out with friends, Topher and I spent an afternoon at a trampoline park. It was an hour well spent.

Water Attack!

Today was the last day of school for the year! One of the moms at the bus stop had the idea to greet the kids coming off the bus with various water sprayers. I was the designated videographer. This was the result.

The Better Butter Battle

Last Saturday we had some friends over while their parents went to the temple. Sophie and her friend Gemma used the time to make this chocolate cake.

And have a butter battle, or course.

It's Not Even Mother's Day

I came out of my room one day this week and discovered these signs in the upstairs hallway, followed by the arrows down the stairs.

When I got to the great room Topher, Phoebe, and Cooper jumped out from behind the couch and yelled, "Surprise!" Then Topher handed out the hats he had made for us to wear and pushed play on the Megan Trainor song Mom that was cued on the TV. He said we were having a mom party and he invited us all to dance. When we finished the dance portion of the activity, he led me into the kitchen and gave me an "ice cream sundae" he had made for me. That's cottage cheese, in case you were wondering.

I thought it was so sweet of Topher to put this all together. And yes, I did cry a little.

Feels Like Summer

We've had two exceptionally hot days in a row. It's supposed to get cold again over the weekend, so we tried to enjoy it while we could.

Fun at the Fest

While Cooper was at prom, Topher and Sophie were at our elementary school's annual fun fest. There were several inflatable bouncy houses and games and a DJ running a dance party. Topher spent most of his time on the school playground with friends. Sophie debated if she was too old to attend, but she came at the last minute. She quickly found a friend who needed someone to hang out with.

The Happiest Instrument

Sophie and I joined some of our ukulele orchestra mates and watched The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain perform on Friday night. They were amazing! They were hilarious and their playing was insanely good. The concert felt way too short, even when they came back onstage and played three more songs for an encore.

The Best Day

Monday was the last day of our spring break. It was actually a four-day weekend, but it's all we got. To celebrate, we took the kids to see The Super Mario Galaxy Movie in the afternoon. Before that, Bryan took Topher to the park to play. On the way home from the movie, Topher announced that it was the best day of his life.

Oh Mr. Moon

On Saturday Sophie and I, along with our fellow ukulele orchestra members, got to perform two shows with Kate Micucci. She wrote a children's book and came to our library to do a reading and ukulele performance. It was such a fun experience!

Our first show was at 10:00 at a local church. There were 100 people at this performance and 50 people at the 2:00 show at the library. Apparently there were 300 people still on the waiting list.

We got seats for these guys! A local bookstore was selling signed copies of the book, so we bought one before our first show.

Kate was delightful and gracious. We learned one of her songs, Mr. Moon, and she played that plus three others songs with us. She read her book and taught all the kids how to draw their own puppet. She answered questions from the kids in the audience, then stood in line and talked with everyone that wanted to say hi. When it was our turn, Topher showed her his favorite page from her book, so she signed it!

Kate had come a few days before to practice with the ukulele orchestra. Unfortunately, neither Sophie nor I could be there. The rehearsal was recorded so we could watch it at home and be ready. It helped a lot. 

Before we started our first show, before the audience was allowed in, Kate came over to say hello to the ukulele players. She asked the names of those that hadn't been at the practice, including Sophie. But when she got to me, she said, "Wait, I've met you before." She was in town two years ago and attended a library function where the cast of The Little Mermaid was performing. She and I had chatted briefly (I wrote about it HERE) and that was it. I was SHOCKED that she remembered talking to me. She didn't know my name, but she remembered my face. I'm impressed with her memory!

I'm not sure who took this picture, but it was sent to me by another member of the ukulele orchestra.

Phoebe attended the morning show, but then she had to dash off to rehearsal, so she didn't get to talk to Kate afterward. Kate announced that she would be at a local coffeeshop at a specific time, in case anyone else wanted to come by and say hello. So I picked Phoebe up from rehearsal after our second show and we went to a coffeeshop to say hi to Kate. They had a nice chat about Phoebe's love for theatre and Doctor Who, then we took a picture with Kate and her son.

It was a very full, very fun day!

Green Day

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day by wearing green, eating good food, and having fun church activities. I spent most of the day in the car shuttling the four younger kids between seminary and school and rehearsals and church. That's what happens when Bryan needs to go to work in person and Peter needs to drive an hour away for Zone Conference. The van became the sole method of transportation.

In between the driving, we had food prep,

a picture to prove that we were both wearing green,

a Leprechaun trap courtesy of Topher

that even had a pot of gold inside,

a delicious and festive dinner that was made even better by the green Jell-o that Topher contributed,

and an exceptionally fun Valiant Activity. According to the leader who planned and carried out the activity, they did "shenanigans." Every child came home with glitter on their face and many sweet treats. This activity saved Topher's St. Patrick's Day fun. Due to a severe wind storm last night, his elementary school was without power and was canceled for today. He had a good day hanging out with me at home, but the only celebrating I did was in the form of a festive dinner. This awesome hour at church made up for not getting to do fun stuff at school.

Cooper walked in while I was writing this post and asked what I was doing. I told him I was writing about St. Patrick's Day and that there weren't any pictures of him since he was showering after track practice when I took the picture of the other kids at dinner. He quickly fixed his hair and posed so that he could be included.