Ending Summer with a Bang

 All the kids played on the same Tball team this summer and Derek coached.  Derek was a great coach particularly because he could pitch so well to the kids.  Every kid was able to hit off his pitches, and everyone improved throughout the season.

All 3 of my kids did a cooking camp this summer at the Provo rec which was fun.  The theme was local favorites and their learned to cook J. dawgs, Café Rio salads, Smash Burgers, and crumble cookies.  They were excited for me taste their creations every day when I picked them up.

 

Liv did a fun summer mini musical camp at the Hale Center Theater Orem.  It was Beauty and the Beast and she actually was cast as Belle which was super fun for her and made for quite a busy week of memorizing lines and learning new songs.  Hallie came to watch her which was super fun, and then we went to lunch with them at Carl's Jr. so the kids could play at the playplace.

The kids and I make it a point never to miss free slurpee day on 7/11.

On my birthday, the kids made me the best breakfast in bed to date all by themselves complete with candles (glad the house didn’t burn down in the process).  They unknowingly put sour cream on my bagel instead of cream cheese, but I ate it anyways without complaint.

The two boys finally qualified to take their first hockey skills class on the ice rink this summer and Liv did a figure skating class.  They all passed.  Liv’s teacher really encouraged her to think about skating competitively, but she doesn’t love it enough or have the time for that.  Carter was so happy that he passed off his swizzles which had frustrated him so much that as soon as he found out he passed he excitedly skated over to me and called up to the top deck, “Mom I passed! I passed my swizzles!”  It was the cutest.

The kids and I enjoyed the Scera Summer Movie series again this summer.

Derek had his 20 year HS reunion.  It was like a marathon date day for all his high school buddies.  They started the day off with a guys only golf game.  Then the wives and kids met up with them for a lunch BBQ at a park.  We went to the reunion and they all stayed in the gym visiting until they literally kicked them out.  And then they went back to one of their HS friend's parents's house and hung out until 2am in the backyard.  Here are as many as we could wrangle together for a picture and all the wives felt like we needed to take our own pic too.

Liv tried to break Camden on his nail biting habit this summer.  By taping paper over his fingernails.

The big mother’s day gift this year was 2 tickets to the Hugh Jackman show.  Derek told me I could take Liv because she would appreciate it more.  We had such a good time.  And she loved the show.  Every slow song she would steal my phone and sway the flash light with the rest of the audience.  I loved the show too honestly one of the best more interesting shows I’ve seen to date.

My good friend Tiffany from London came out this summer with her family.  The kids and I met her at the Lindon pool.  My kids had a great time swimming, and I had such a great time catching up with Tiffany and reminiscing about out London days together.

 

I got Jens to babysit one day, so Annie and I could float the Provo river together.  It was such a relaxing beautiful day.  I have been wanting to repeat it every since.

 

The Leeper family invited us to hike Battle Creek falls with them one summer evening.  That is the best way to gets kids not to complain about a hike—go with some of their best friends.  We had a great time and afterwards they introduced us to Italian Ice which was a treat we all loved.

One of our neighbor girls decided to do a sewing camp for girls this summer to make some money.  We convinced Hazel and Lilah to do it with us.  She taught the kids how to sew scrunchies.  I bought Liv her own sewing machine, and she spent the summer sewing scrunchies for all near and dear to her heart.

 

For the first summer ever we got the Pass of All Passes and put it to good use.  We went to seven peaks twice, the Lehi fun center a few times, Derek and the boys went to an Owlz game, and Liv and I got free tickets to Peter Pan at the Scera Shell with the passes too.

 

I hosted the last neighborhood art group of the summer.  We decided to make back pack charms.  The kids loved it.  Liv made an million and they decorate her backpack every day.

 

The Watkins asked us to bunny sit while they were on vacation this summer.  My kids all enjoyed that—not sure how much the bunny did.  While that bunny was super soft and sort of therapeutic almost to pet…I am glad it is home with the Watkins and Liv’s bedroom no longer smells like bunny.

 

I asked the kids what they wanted to do on the last day of summer before school started and they all wanted to go to the Springville reservoir.  We invited the neighbors to join us, packed up the kayak and had a great last hurrah to our summer.