The Summertime Disclaimer

It has been AN EXHAUSTING WEEK! (Caution: Whining about to commence, read at your own risk) I have spent the last week simultaneously working on:

* Curty's 8th birthday (a party for friends and a party for family)

* Curty's upcoming baptism which will be in Oregon with our family

* Cleaning, decluttering and organizing the entire house to prepare for all 4200 sq. feet of carpet and tile to be cleaned the day after Curty's birthday.

* Putting the house back together after the massive upheaval of the carpet cleaning.

* Doing laundry and gearing up to pack tomorrow for a 3+ week trip through Utah and Oregon.

* Preparing for Father's day (but forgetting that I have a FATHER not just a husband who needs some recognition!)

* NOT blogging.

I hate neglecting my blog, but that's the way it goes. I have many pictures, garden success stories, funny anecdotes, not-so-funny-gonna-get-turned-into-Child-Protective-Services admissions and witty commentaries that may or may not get written in the future. Hopefully, you're having such an entertaining summer, you aren't checking my blog (or writing in yours) for a while anyway. So, I'll see you in a while -- but I'll leave you with a few snapshots from our busy June. Happy summer everyone!

Curty's Birthday Party

Eight year-olds are apparently crazy!

Curty and Jonah spent two weeks in a musical theater workshop. The theme was School of Rock and they had a blast learning seventeen different rock songs complete with choreography and solos. Being two of only 5 boys, they got their fair share of the spotlight and had a blast!.

Cody opted to try a community dive team this summer. He's learned a front one-and-a-half flip, back dive, back layout, and an inward. He's working on his front double flip.

Here are the spectators at the first dive meet (from front: Eli, Jonah, a friend Noah, Ren, Curty and somewhere back there was Gid) ...still happy because they've only been there 15 minutes. After 2 1/2 hours the natives became restless. The dive meets since have been adult-only affairs!

Zach turned 17 on June 1st. We invited another family with seven kids to come and celebrate with us (although only four of the kids came). Zach has been a full-time chauffeur this summer, running kids to dive team, musical theater, the library, the store, the mall...

We got the idea to do an egg drop experiment from my sister Becky. The challenge is to construct a shelter for an egg that will keep it from breaking when dropped off a roof. Zach was more than happy to get on the roof to be the chief egg dropper. Hannah stayed on the roof of the car to transport the eggs.

The winners: Hannah and her styrofoam sphere and Jonah with his tupperware container packed with (hmmm...can't remember) attached to a parachute. The losers, Zach's egg in a ball of yarn and Cody's egg wrapped in egg crate foam (ironic). Curty just bein' cool doing karate.

I seem to be lacking in pictures of the littles. Well, you can picture them... they're running naked all over the house, yard and neighborhood. I can't keep their clothes on and I'm sick of trying. On the plus side, Gid has just about potty-trained himself. He's especially well trained in the pooping area. If he's naked and needs to go, he runs and gets a diaper, makes me put it on him, poops in it then runs back to get changed. How much more trained can you get?!