Summer Bowling

I love the spontaneity of summer.  Most days you can wake up and decide what fun stuff you want to do that day.  On a super hot day, one that even feels too hot for swimming, what better activity than bowling.  We invited Briggs and Hailey to join us, which made it even more fun, but who knew that Briggs has the form of a professional bowler at age 10!  I was quite proud to beat him the second game!  Max had enough of the gutter balls in the first game and opted for bumpers the second game.  And you know what makes bowling complete?  Greasy french fries in between bowls.  What a great combo...sweaty bowling hands and greasy fry hands! 

My wish granted...sort of

This is my Mother's Day card/gift from Max.  It is so thoughtful but that three minutes sure went fast!!

Sophie's Fiesta

My sweet little Sophie had her seventh birthday and was it ever a fun one.  She wanted her birthday party on her actual birthday, even though Max tried to convince her that it's better to have it the next day because then it's like your birthday lasts longer, which is what he did of course!  It started out perfectly because Sicily spent the night, so they each got breakfast in bed.  The only difference in their trays was that Sophie got a little vase of flowers.  We celebrated all day long...and then it was fiesta time.  The only thing Sophie wanted for her party was a pinata, and the fiesta theme emerged.  As each guest arrived they were given a nametag with a new Mexican name.  Sophie was Isabel for the night!  They played rojo-verde light, and I even tried to teach them amarillo (yellow)!  They did the macarena. They ate tacos. Party favors came from the mercado (market).  We set up a little shop in my bedroom with all kinds of fun things like flip-flops, sunglasses, lotion, treats, glow necklaces, etc., priced in pesos, and they were each given pretend pesos to buy items.  Max was Pedro all night long, helping serve food, run the games for me, and he did the best job as the cashier at the mercado.  The party was topped off with the bashing of the pinata.  It always makes me a little sad to ruin something so cute!  Sophie is always so good to me that it makes it extra fun to spoil her for a day.  She really is a light (a bright amarillo one) in our lives.

Juvenile Revenge

Several months ago there was a little mixup with our bill-pay and the balance on our checking account got much lower than normal.  I didn't realize what had happened for several days and in the meantime our mortgage payment, our student loan payment and the transfer to our retirement account all happened like bam bam bam...three big withdrawals in a row on an underfunded account.  Needless to say we were charged overdraft fees and another fee I can't even remember each of those days.  It totaled over two hundred dollars.  Because it was a mixup, and because I usually get my way, I thought it would be no problem to get these fees waived.  I didn't get my way this time.  I was so angry about the situation, that I decided to change banks.  I had been meaning to close these accounts out at Key Bank (I had to throw the name in here just in case any of you are searching for a bank, you will know who to steer clear of!) since March, but it was not on my priority list.  I finally went in on Friday and discovered that each of the last three months I had been charged an inactivity fee on both of our accounts.  What the?  Yeah, apparently it's in the fine print.  Another $150 down the drain.  I said to the teller, "No offense to you because I know you don't make these decisions, but I am so glad to be finished with this bank."  I signed the little keypad as hard as I could, said thank you without smiling at all and then I turned really juvenile...I grabbed a BIG handful of their mints from the table in the lobby.  Sophie said, "Mommy, I don't know if you should do that."  Capri said, "That's a bad bank huh mommy."  I called Steve and told him about it, laughing hysterically, and he said, "Good for you.  You should have grabbed more".  Thanks for having my back sweetie when I am getting my juvenile revenge!  

Women's Rights

Max had a big project in 4th grade called the PACE project.  He had to do lots of research, write a detailed report, make a powerpoint presentation, and give an oral presentation to two adult judges, all on a person from Idaho history.  Max picked a hard one!  He chose Emma Edwards, who is famous for designing the Idaho State seal.  She is the only woman to have designed a state seal.  Other than these two sentences I just stated, there is really not much more information out there in cyberworld or the library in reference to her, which is why it was hard.  Other kids chose Chief Joseph...you get my drift!  He was just really impressed by the state seal and that she is the only woman to have designed one.  He did an impressive job of stretching the little information he could find into a very interesting presentation.  When he practiced it at home for Steve and I we were on the edges of our seats.  He is such an animated speaker, so he really did make it very compelling.  He threw out a few jokes like "I am going to take you on a tour...and I don't mean like Star Tours at Disneyland...I mean a tour of some important parts of the life of Emma Edwards."  At the end of his presentation he said, "Enjoy the rest of your day at Disneyland!"  Clever I thought.  He would throw in all kinds of little spontaneous sidenotes as he was presenting to Steve and I, and here is my favorite:  "Emma Edwards thought that women should have the same rights as men, and I think they should too, infact women should probably have even more rights than men because they are so kind and gentle."  I'm not sure if he shared this thought with the judges, but I hope so, because I love it and quite possibly agree!

Birthday time for Daddy

I'm pretty sure Steve had a really fun birthday overall this year...but their was a moment I think he could have done without. He took the day off of work, which is always a most joyous occasion. We started out by eating the most amazing french toast for breakfast at Kneaders. We even let the kids miss the first hour of school, and buttered up their teachers by sending Max and Sophie to school with an ooey gooey cinnamon roll. Then my Mom watched Capri for a few hours while we went to a matinee, which is also a most joyous and rare occasion. For dinner we met Pat and Dick at a delicious restaurant in downtown Eagle...and this was the moment. Well, it was many moments, way too many moments. Our children, largely Capri, were not on their best behavior. This picture captures the climate at dinner perfectly. Steve finally couldn't handle it, and lost his cool a bit. I thought his birthday was going to end dreadfully, but I hit a homerun with the nightcap...a foosball table was waiting at home for him, along with all of his favorite dudes. I had all his favorite snack foods and beverages for all to share. They played foosball, halo on the x-box, more foosball, more halo, and I was downstairs enjoying a book and enjoying hearing my hubby act like a little boy. Did I mention that the culprits that caused his birthday meltdown were sleeping over at Grandma Pat's? Yeah...that was the best part!

All Kinds of Random Fun!!

I have to admit that Capri is not my favorite shopping buddy...yet, because she knows how to make messes in stores just like she makes messes at home! She must make shoe sales people especially aggravated because she finds every super shiny, super high-heeled, super red light district shoe in the department and tries it on, and then leaves them right where they came off her feet, in search of the next pair. I try to pick them all up but sometimes I just want to get out of the store and rush to the kids play place asap! At least she is a cute shopping buddy. I get all kinds of attention when she comes with me. I should rent her out to single men as a pseudo niece and they would get dates for sure...but then I would have to do fingerprints and background checks, which is way too much work. I'll just keep her all to myself.

We went to a new indoor play center and it was quite the hit with my girls. Sophie stayed in the grocery store section nearly the entire time. She was cashier and stocker and greeter...you name it she played it. Actually, she didn't really play it, she WAS it. It was serious business to her. She wasn't even smiling most of the time because she was so busy! I made her smile for the camera in this picture. You could tell she was having a fabulous time. That is her way of having a fabulous time. I told Steve that she is going to make the best employee when she gets older. I don't think I'll let anyone else hire her though...Steve and I are going to monopolize her. I'm thinking she'll be cleaning and organizing his office by 12...really.

While Max, Caleb and the Dad's practiced baseball, the girls enjoyed the playground at the park. I love that my girls play so well together, and Aubrie fits right in.

Capri loves Grandma Smith's chickens...behind the fence. I am the same way. In fact, I milked a cow nearly every day in high school, but I wouldn't ever gather eggs. The chicken always scared me with their squawking, and I thought for sure they would attack me as a mob if I entered the gate. I still have yet to enter that gate! By the way, this picture was taken just prior to our visit to the Romney for President rally. Again, Capri got lots of attention at the rally, but I could have done without that attention seeing as I had to carry her nearly the entire rally (and waiting for the rally to start) because the crazy conservative crowd scared her more than the chickens do!