Temple with my Girls & Fletcher Family Pool Party {August 17}

Carly got her temple recommend back in March when she turned 12.  Our youth had a temple trip shortly afterward, but she missed it for some reason.  We’ve been talking about going with the girls for several months, but finding a time that both me and Justin could be there (with both our in-house babysitters) proved more of a challenge.  It didn’t help that the temple was closed the first five weeks of summer.

Today we finally made it happen and arranged a babysitter for the three littles.  Justin took a half day and met us at the temple at 12:30pm.  We had 14 family baptisms and a friend in the ward gave us another 14.  It was a neat experience to be there with two of my kiddos.  Abigail has participated in baptisms several times, but this was the first time I’d been with her.  Makes me excited to attend the temple with my entire family some day.

We enjoyed some ice-cream in the cafeteria while we waited for everything to be recorded upstairs.  I love that Abigail suggested the cafeteria over Dairy Queen for economical reasons.  I’ve got such great girls!

We weren’t home long before it was time to head down to Kent Swim & Tennis for our annual Fletcher Family pool party.  Somehow Grandpa Fletcher has become responsible for feeding our crew of 14 – he always does a great job bringing drinks, sides and plenty of meat which he barbeques while we play in the pool.

Can you tell which kid spends the summer at the pool?    

The kids had a blast enjoying the pool with their cousins.  There were lots of flips, jumps, and diving off the diving board.  Tami has a cool underwater camera and took some cool shots of the kids throughout the night. 

the above water shot from the picture above 

   

The kids also took some fun pictures with her camera.

Such a fun night.  Made me so sad to think that we’re just down to a few summer nights before we get back to the grind of school and busyness.  Glad we’ve still got lots of fun to come over these next two weeks!

Fall’s a Comin’ {August 16}

While Carly cleaned containers this morning, the rest of us spent some time trying to get the house in order.  We were planning on swimming with friends this afternoon, but had to bail due to too many other obligations popping up.  Abigail had a short babysitting gig in the early afternoon and Jason and Katie played outside, per usual, in the afternoon while Drew napped.  Once 3:30 rolled around it was go-time. 

4-5pm             Jason scout activity planting flowers at City Hall

5-6pm             Jason soccer practice (back on the Ridge)

6-7pm             Katie’s first soccer practice (thankfully close enough that Carly could walk her there with Drew in tow.  Carly = Substitute Soccer Mom – again)

6-10pm           Abigail referee clinic in Issaquah

7-8:15pm        Carly youth activity in North Bend

Fall must be on its way cause things are getting crazy busy around here.  Thankfully, Justin was available to take over the local activities while I took Abigail into Issaquah.  This is the first year Abigail won’t be playing soccer since her league has now moved to Sunday games.  Instead she’s planning on earning some money by referring soccer games.  She had to do some online training and then is attending two 4-hour clinics and a written test this week to earn her certification.

While she was at the clinic I planned to run some errands.  I also brought along a book and my iPad thinking that somewhere in that FOUR hours I’d have some time to kill, but instead I packed in some serious productivity.

• Left home Issaquah bound
• The Grange (pick up a new Bear Scouting book for Jason)
• Taco Bell (Abigail begged and pleaded to go.  The traffic and line at the drive-thru had me seriously stressed she’d be late to class – I don’t do late)
• Eastside Fire & Rescue (location for Abigail’s clinic – see you in four hours!)
• MOD pizza for dinner (cause a girl’s gotta eat)
• Safeway (for grapes and pasta – on sale)
• HomeGoods (Didn’t find the wrapping paper I was looking for, but I did find a fun pillow)
• BECU (to deposit summer earnings in Carly, Jason, and Katie’s savings accounts)
• Costco (just a quick trip – we were all out of bananas!)
• Costco Gas (fill er’ up)
• Fred Meyer (also out of bread!)
• Home Depot (potting soil for Fifi, she’s losing leaves and I’m worried!)
• Fred Meyer (didn’t see any pots at Home Depot so popped back into Freddie’s for a look)
• Eastside Fire & Rescue (pick up Abigail and friend’s son who is also taking the class)
• Reynolds House (drop off Wyatt)
• Snoqualmie Library (drop off books due today, even though it had already closed)
• Home (at last!)

Manic Monday {August 15}

We’ve had piano lessons on Mondays from 9-10:30am this summer.  At 8:40am I got a text from our teacher saying he was out with food poisoning.  The kids are always thrilled to skip piano lessons.  I made a quick decision to try to catch a 9am bootcamp class at the Y – the girls helped me get the three littles ready and we were out of the house within five minutes.  The class was held outside which seems like a nice idea, but the heat sure makes it more exhausting for me.  After the class I hooked up with a friend and we walked “the loop” until my two hours of childcare were up. 

Linda texted me while I was at the gym and asked when she could take Jason and Katie shopping for school stuff.  We were free this afternoon (Abigail was babysitting a neighbor and Carly had plans with a friend) so we decided to meet up as soon as I could get myself showered and to Issaquah.   We met her at Chipotle where she treated us to lunch and then we hit Target.  Jason and Katie both got a pair of new pants and a few shirts for school and Drew even found a few t-shirts on clearance he liked.  Actually, he’d found himself a cute little purse and Frozen character undies in the girls section and had put them in the cart for himself.  We discreetly took them out before checking out and distracted him with a few items from the little boys section.

It was a gorgeous day today and we spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening outside playing.  Yep, even I went outside and I even visited with some neighbors. 

Justin didn’t get home from work until after 7pm, but he brought home Papa John’s so that made everything ok.  We’ve eaten a lot of Papa Johns this summer since we can get it 50% off the day after any Mariners game where they score at least 4 runs.  Go Mariners! A short FHE lesson by Carly and then ice-cream sundaes for dessert.

We finished a chocolate syrup tonight so I mixed milk into the container and served Katie some chocolate milk in a teeny margarita glass.  Drew didn’t get any chocolate milk, but he wanted some sort of fun miniature glass – thus explaining the baby food jar of milk.

Paper Doll Mom {August 14}

Just a paper me made by sweet Katie.

And a nearly naked Drew eating all the yogurt chips out of my bowl of trail mix.  He no longer sleeps in backwards jammies and instead sleeps with only his diaper – hopefully that diaper will soon be replaced by big boy underwear.

Backyard Waterpark & BBQ w/Friends {August 13}

A few weeks ago someone offered up a pool on our neighborhood facebook page.  Justin was the first to reply and today we finally got to enjoy it.  We didn’t have the right kind of air pump to blow it up so Justin and Carly had to get a little creative with a bike pump and some painters tape.  It took a lot of time and patience, but they finally got it inflated.

We also set up the slip-n-slide for the kids to throw themselves down.

The Gibbs invited several families over tonight for badminton and BBQ.  We have a new LDS family that just moved into our neighborhood so it was fun to get to know them better.  

A fun summer-y Saturday!

Cub Projects & Dinner Party {August 12}

Today was the last day of cub camp for Jason and Carly.  Jason enjoyed using all sort of tools this week to create various projects.  He also won first place in archery.  Carly seemed to have a tolerable time as well.

(projects include: rubber band car, matchbox car shooter, foosball game, three-wheeled twisty contraption, robot arm, artwork on pack flag)

Abigail and I spent most of the day in the kitchen preparing dinner for the Reynolds family.  Providing them dinner was a result of my losing of a friendly wager, but we enjoy their family so much we’d have them over anytime.  Abigail made two desserts – brookies and sugar cookie bars.  Yum!  We had a great time hanging out and playing games with the Reynolds and as usual stayed up way too late.  Good times.

Temple {August 11}

My carpool to cub camp left early this morning (without Jason who had to crash at Grandma’s – see below).  Our ward required each scout attending camp to provide a volunteer for TWO of the four days of camp.  I thought this a bit excessive, especially since I know some parents in other wards only had to go once or were able to weasel out of going at all.  Being the slacker (i.e. brilliant) mother that I am, I sent Carly in my place.  She had to go through some training on the BSA website, but nothing she couldn’t handle.  She agreed to go both days (7 hours each day) for a whooping total of $15 – this was before we’d come up with the whole trash cleaning business.  Needless to say she wasn’t too excited about making such piddley earnings when she had a legit business going on, but a deals a deal.  :)  We figure she has enough hours volunteering that she’ll be able to count it towards a personal progress project.

After I got all the boys checked in and Carly was in her place as a “walker” I went to the temple.  Our stake was having a Relief Society endowment session at 11am and I decided I might as well do some initiatories beforehand.  Justin and I volunteered to go this evening for a ward sealing assignment so I thought it would be neat to do the initiatory, endowment, and sealings (to her parents and to her spouse) for the same person all in one day. 

I wasn’t home much that afternoon as I had to get a ride out to North Bend to pick up the van from the shop and then head back down to Maple Valley to pick up the scouts from camp.  It was an exhausting morning/afternoon.

Justin ran into his office after we left the temple that night and grabbed a couple Cold Stone ice creams he’d saved for us.  Perfect end to a busy day.

Lunch Date with Abigail & A Boy Left Behind {August 10}

This afternoon was Abigail’s second and final lunch date of the summer.  She’s known for months where she wanted to go.

The girl sure knows how to make the most of an opportunity.  She was impressed with the décor and ambience of Maggianos, and we both really enjoyed our pasta dishes and bottomless bread.  The chef even came out to talk to her about allergies before preparing her meal.  We had some returns to do at the mall and a quick trip to Costco and Fred Meyer before heading home.

Justin had taken the van to work today so he could get the oil changed.  They found that the brake calipers were leaking and needed to be fixed asap.  We just had the brakes replaced so Justin was able to take it to the shop after work for them to fix it under warranty.  Problem was that I was driving the boy scout carpool tomorrow and would be one seat shy of having enough space in Justin’s car to fit everyone.  The camp is literally right next door to Justin’s parents house so we decided to leave Jason there overnight.  Linda was able to walk over and pick up Jason at the end of camp and he had a great time hanging out with his cousins who Linda was also watching this evening.  Nice to have such a convenient option in a tough situation.

Cub Camp & Cans {August 9}

Jason’s first day of Cub Scout Day Camp was today.  He will be there every day this week from 9am-4pm.  Lots of fun to be had.

I spent all day looking at possible vacations – getting passports was just the motivation we needed.

Things are winding down in the trash cleaning business.  I haven’t put out any advertising since the very first post on our neighborhood facebook page so we haven’t had any new people signing up recently.  I think Carly is okay with that and has enjoyed not having containers scheduled on both Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Carly had a light load of containers today with just 5 containers (which is still a 6+ hour day).

Abigail had a friend over this afternoon.  She was the only one with a youth activity tonight, but once again it had to be altered due to the less than ideal weather.  Her swim party turned out to be more of a game night, but she still had a great time.  

Passports in Progress {August 8}

Getting the kids passports has been on my to-do list for ages.  Abigail, Carly and Jason each had passports but they expired two years ago (kids passports only last five years and we got them for the Fletcher Caribbean cruise in 2009).   The process for passports is no joke – both parents need to be there, paperwork filled out, passport photos in hand, and a checkbook ready to shell out some cash.  We don’t have any travel plans, but we have a few trips in mind before Abigail leaves for college – only four short years away!

After piano lessons I took the kids to Costco for passport photos – Drew didn’t want to cooperate so I had to bribe him with ice-cream which we ate while we waited for the photos to process.  Justin met us during his lunch break at the court house.  Thankfully there wasn’t a line, but it still took a while for the gal to put all the paperwork in order.

The girls each made a treat that afternoon.  Carly made frozen chocolate dipped bananas and Abigail made Oreo truffles.  After Jason’s FHE lesson on service, Carly’s chosen FHE activity was watching having a family movie night.  We watched a strange animated version of Tarzan.  I sure love a day I can check something off my to-do list.

Sunday Scripture Art {August 7}

This afternoon the girls decided to shut themselves up in their room and work on scripture art.  They asked if they could take up some snacks to sustain them.   I was quite impressed with the spread they put together (cheese and ham w/crackers, sliced apples, sliced bananas, fruit rollups, popcorn, goldfish, and a pita sandwich).  They even took up hot pads to keep the condensation from their water bottles from getting the table wet.

Abigail took a picture of me taking a picture of them.

Our ward young women’s organization provided each of the girls a Book of Mormon, colored pencils, stickers, etc.. at the beginning of the summer and is encouraging the girls to do scripture art as they read.

Here are a few they have done:

Abigail:

Carly was too worried about messing up by drawing directly in the BOM so she drew on parchment paper and tape/glue them in her book.  Now that she’s more comfortable with the idea she wants a new BOM so she can draw directly inside the scriptures.

At about 9:30pm I realized I hadn’t made the skillet cookies I was craving so the girls whipped up a batch while we played a game of Skip-Bo.  Yum, yum.