Creative Friday--Masterpiece Theater Edition

I found this video from Landon on my camera, kind of funny.

This was actually our 4th Creative Friday of the summer, but I haven't blogged about the other 3 yet. I will probably end up backdating those and slipping them into the weeks they actually occurred whenever I finally get around to posting about them.

Our self-portrait.

Michelle, Lucas and Eva came to our house today and Michelle was kind enough to bring me lunch from JCW's! This was particularly generous of her considering she's still on her Carb-Addict's Diet and didn't get anything for herself.

The girls got busy coloring right away. It's so nice that they have several activities they both enjoy doing, otherwise filling the time together would be more difficult because of the 4.5 year age difference. I have taken to paying Whitney $2.25 each Creative Friday stint so she'll play with/entertain Eva. It's working out brilliantly and giving Whitney a chance to earn some money.

The cloudy weather broke into a crazy rain storm (like the rain couldn't fall fast enough kind of storm) so we opened all the windows and enjoyed the rainy breeze. We suggested that the girls go outside to play in the rain, but they were too busy coloring. Of course, it stopped by the time all four kids decided to go outside to play in it.

Lucas has caught up to Landon in height! They are a year and 4 days apart in age.

I wrote a bunch of cards and Michelle wrote cards and then made some of her very cool tags.

Here's my little side table (i.e., beat up dining room chair) with my stash of Cadbury Eggs kept out of sight so as not to taunt Iron-Willed Michelle.

The kids ended up playing together most of the afternoon. They got costumes from the our dress-up box in the garage and filmed an entire movie.

We never knew what they were going to come out wearing.

This is the abduction scene from their movie, Whitney steals the show with her bad-guy's sidekick lines at the end.

Strangely, the weather changed again and got all sunny and beautiful...weird.

Here are some of Michelle's very cute tag fixins.

Miscellaneous happiness.

When the kids were finally done with their movie we all crowded around the laptop to watch it.

My pleasing output for the day!

**Have you done anything creative lately?

Don't you just love a rainy breeze?

Did you ever make your own movie?

When was the last time you wrote and sent a card?**

Comment Window Tidbit:  I got two birthday envelopes in the mail today, but I'm not opening them until Saturday, woohoo!

I've Made a HUGE Mistake

Remember how Amie shnockered me and then I shnockered Michelle into buying Season Passes for our local water park for many years in a row despite an ever-growing list of grievances, but then they changed their food policy in an effort to infuriate us even more so we didn't buy passes for the past two summers. Well, since then they have offered a great deal on a Season Pass that also includes two fun center type places, so my mom kindly bought our family these passes for Christmas (the main draw was NOT the water park, but the fun centers for batting cages, mini golf and so on).

Monday was our first official day of summer vacation AND the first forecasted 80 degree day, and thanks to a text from sent  Amie the previous Friday, we ended up agreeing to go to the water park together on Monday. Of course all the kids were very excited (they don't have the scarring we as mothers suffer from dealing with this place) so we reluctantly agreed to go.

Max will be turning 16 in a few weeks and has completed drivers education, so he drove us there!

Happiness from the backseat.

 

Cautious optimism from the middle seats.

It's about a 15 drive to the water park from Michelle's house, and we were all in good spirits (even me!) but things began to unravel as we approached the park and joined a ridiculously long line of cars just waiting to get into the parking lot! Amie, ever the smart one, had arrived at 10:00am and experienced no lines.


Immediately I began to feel my good mood draining and my years of frustration with this place resurfacing. Why don't they have the lower parking lot open? Why can't they have a line just for those with paid parking passes? Why can't they have more people working there to direct traffic and take payment so we don't have to inch along? Aargh!

After another 15 minutes in the car (with increasingly anxious children) we were finally able to park and make our way to the entrance to stand in a LONG line so we could get in. Since they changed their food policy to no outside food allowed in the park (we used to be allowed to bring coolers) and only one 20 ounce SEALED water bottle per person, we get to increase our time in line as they search through everyone bags and shake out their towels! What's next body scans and cavity searches?!

 

Needless to say, my ire was in the red zone by this point and I felt like I was going to lose it completely. Michelle and the kids had already made it into the park, so it was just me standing in line with a ton of irritated strangers wondering why I was putting myself through this. I texted Amie while I stood in line (she was happily lounging in her chair inside the park) and said, "I remember why I hate this place" and she texted back "I was expecting that, ha!" By the time I finally made it through the bag search and pass scanning into the park I was enraged. Michelle was standing there waiting for me and I yelled, "I HATE THIS PLACE!!!" to her and then again to an employee walking by. (This is not something I would normally do of course, but this place brings out the worst in me.) I had to rant to Michelle as we walked down to our camp where Amie and the kids had set up and then seriously had to take some cleansing breaths to try to pull myself together. Clearly this was not my finest hour.

 

Eventually as I sat in my lounge chair talking to Amie (Michelle had to watch Eva over at the kiddie pool) I was able to calm down.

But then I saw this sign (which hasn't been there in year's past) and got bugged again. What in the world? The whole place is full of unattended items...what does this mean? (FYI--I had sunscreen on my camera lens for a bunch of these pictures.)

The weather turned windy and cloudy on us, so though it was pleasant for Amie and I who were dry and just chatting, it made the kids freezing. Max returned from a slide run to try to warm up.

When it was time to eat lunch (this place wears us out and makes us starving) we had to leave our spot and go outside the park to their "picnic area", which is a small barbed-wire fenced in area where outside food can be eaten. We felt like we'd been banished. Plus we got the added delight of having to wait in line AGAIN to get back in the park, though we this time we didn't have any bags with us to be searched!

There were some amusing moments.

And the kids had a good time, so that's the reason I'm willing to do this at all.

I'm really hoping that our future visits won't be this nightmarish. We will go earlier and it won't be the first official day of summer vacation again, so hopefully everyone in Utah County won't be joining us there.

Comment Window Tidbit: Just writing this post got me all riled up again...I may need anger-management treatment.

The Girl Can Sing

The elementary school did their annual Christmas Sing on Friday, and Whitney ended up having a rather big part in the 4th grade portion of the event. I was seriously impressed that she had the guts and the voice to pull this off...of course I cried.

**Would you have had the guts to do this in 4th grade?
Ever heard this version before?**

Hey, I Actually Did Something

While getting my hair done at 8:30am this morning (ouch, so early), I was talking with my stylist Sharolyn and discovered that I had absolutely nothing to report about my summer! That must be why I'm feeling like I'm not ready for school to start...apparently I'm waiting for our fun summer to happen.

At the end our my 2.25 hour appointment, I happily declared "I'm going to a concert tonight!" So hooray, I had something to report.


Lori and I met Adam at Goodwood for dinner tonight, then squeezed ourselves into his tiny Porsche for a potentially vomit-inducing ride.


Here is Adam imitating Amy's dad's (and mine really) reaction to riding with him. Adam really loves his car, enjoys driving fast, and really loves hearing us scream. Amazingly though, he drove nicely there and didn't makes us scream once (after the concert was another story).


Lori recently found out Colin Hay was coming to the Sandy Amphitheater and scored us some great seats. I used to feel like it wasn't a great summer if I didn't go to a concert, but haven't been to one for the last few years and haven't really minded. I guess I got sick of the high ticket prices, gross crowds and heinous traffic, but this one was affordable, a small arena and nearby so I couldn't refuse.

Woohoo!!!

It started raining as soon as we got in there, so we took cover under part of the front/side stage for about 10 minutes until someone kicked us out of there (we were by vital plugs and equipment).


It worked out though and had stopped raining by then so we took our seats and finished listening to the wonderful opening act (sadly, none of us know his name).


And then mighty Colin came out with his Scottish accent, keen wit, and glorious voice. Ahhhh.


The sun appeared just in time to set, and the rain went somewhere else.

He played for over two hours and was wonderful!

He played a bunch of his hits from the 80's mixed in with his newer stuff. I only have one of his albums (which I love) and was very happy that he played 4 of my favorites from it.

He played my very favorite song almost at the very end of the show (phew) and it did NOT disappoint (my memory card was full at this point so it cuts off too soon). (I posted about it back in 2006.)

**Have you done much this summer?
Do you like Colin Hay?
Do you go to concerts very often?
What's the best concert you've ever been to see?**

Comment Window Tidbit: My hair has been cut and colored and my eyebrows waxed properly so I am presentable once again. I just wish I had some hair styling skills so it would always look this good. I suppose 12 hours of sassyness will have to do.

Finally Pink!

A week ago today (this is a time-lapsed blog) Whitney had her first softball game of the season. It had rained like crazy earlier in the day, but had stopped in the afternoon so her game wasn't canceled.


On the way to the game I was telling her various rules and thinking "good heavens, she doesn't even know how to play!" She played tee-ball a couple years ago and seemed so little then, so now to be playing machine-pitch feels like a substantial step up in her sports progression.


The main thing is that she finally got a pink team shirt!! In all her years of playing soccer she has never had pink or purple, so she was excited to finally have pink. Plus, one of the moms put the girls' names on their shirts for them, so these feel deluxe compared to what we normally get.



Not surprisingly, Landon opted to wear shorts to the game even though I warned him that it would be cold. He changed his mind as soon as we got there (apparently he CAN feel cold) and snuggled under a blanket with me. I wore my trusty orange jacket and my Paris scarf (oh how I love it) and was still cold. #$@!


Whitney played right field, and by "played" I mean stood there while wearing a mitt. The ball never came her way, so she pretty much wiggled around saying how cold she was.

Rainy video.

As an added bonus, it started to rain during the last inning so we all got soaked. The pitching machine couldn't pitch properly with the wetness, so the umpire girl ended up pitching the balls. It was comical, especially since our team sucked so much.

The entire hour there was comedic to me, from the hilarious lack of softball-playing skills of all but 3 of the girls on our team, to the freezing May weather, it was just plain funny.

**Do you have softball-playing skills?
Have you ever had to wear a scarf in May?!**

Comment Window Tidbit: I got a bad headache last night and had to go to bed at 9:30 when the kids did because I was useless. Why oh why must it be this way?

Mother's Day Rewind

On Saturday evening everyone gathered at our house (except my dad and Andrew) for a Mother's Day celebration. Lori and my mom had gone to a Quilt Expo most of the afternoon, then came here to meet up with the rest of us.


We gave her our gifts and talked for a bit (Adam had a headache and his eyes were bothering him, hence the sunglasses indoors).


Adam made this hilarious card for my mom which lovingly mocked her habit of sending us all kinds of inflammatory and crazy emails. (click to enlarge it)

We had to explain Adam's card to her.

But then she saw why it was so funny.

I gave her this framed notice regarding the Relief Society (which I bought at the downtown Deseret Book), which felt especially fitting for her since she's currently serving as the Relief Society President in her ward.


We had Randy take a photo of us together before we went out, and oh my goodness this should be my "before" photo.


We went to California Pizza Kitchen (it was my mom and Amy's first time going there) for a tasty dinner.


Robyn was freezing, so she put on my mom's hoodie and then modeled the very short sleeves for us.

We got these scrumptious, yet small desserts.

It was nice to go out with just the girls because it was a different dynamic and felt like a treat. I think this should be our new tradition.
_____________________________________________________

Sunday--Mother's Day

I do believe this was my most, non-mental Mother's Day so far! It helped that we celebrated with my mom the day before and that I actually had a gift for her that I was excited about, but really I was in good form this year.

I just found this video on my camera today.

They woke me up (at 9:30) with breakfast in bed, and had wisely brought my camera with them.


The kids both made cute cards for me and had gifts they'd made at school. Randy gave me 2 (woohoo) gift certificates for pedicures! They also made me this breakfast of champions.

Whitney's card included this removable award.

Whitney also made me a coupon book at Activity Days which includes coupons for a hug, an uninterrupted bubble bath, a foot rub, a back rub and a breakfast. She also made me (at school) a cute key chain with a #1 mom charm hanging from it.


Landon made this nice, standing picture gift at school. I can't even tell you how thrilled I am that he's NOT wearing shorts or his BYU or Michigan shirt in this picture!!!


I found this sweet poem Landon wrote for me sitting next to the computer keyboard (where he knew I'd see it!).


Landon typed up this sweet message to put into our typewriter. He sure knows how to boost my ego.


It's our tradition to take pictures for Mother's Day and Father's Day after church.


We never know what level of cooperation we're going to get with the kids, so we've had a wide range of expressions over the years.


This year Whitney looked scruncheled and silly in most of the pictures.

This was Landon's most cooperative year so far.

A rare, artsy shot by Randy.

Ahhh a sincere smile from this crazy girl of mine!

It was a good day for us both at home and at church. I am thankful to be a mother, feel the weight of this responsibility but feel committed and hopeful about it.

**How was your Mother's Day?
What would be a good gift for you?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Today is the 12th and I forgot until I saw Amy's blog this morning. I hope you're all documenting your day for 12 on the 12th!