Honestly, I am back blogging after getting only three hours of sleep last night, so I am blanking on what happened Saturday. It was General Conference so we listened to that. I think I cooked a lot in the evening. In the morning I went on a run. I have no idea what the kids did or what Abe did during the day.
I think this picture is of Ammon on Saturday night, when Abe discovered that Ammon had made himself a nest in his trunk, tucked himself in, and fallen asleep.
Abe came home late Thursday and took Friday off from work. He has been working SO HARD, and the two trips in one week nearly did him in. But he did take some pictures of a couple memorable meals he had!
In the morning I took a walk with my neighbor, Brinay, and our kids. We went to see the skeletons. Brinay is a hair stylist and she specializes in my type of hair. I am so excited about that. She tried to convince me to color my hair blonde. It was a fun (funny?) thought.
Then in the evening the Harbucks arrived! We were so happy to see our friends. They had a mission reunion so Abe and I got to spend time with their kids and our kids while Dan and Preethi attended the reunion. Abe took them on a walk to see the skeletons. All of the kids played together so well, and everyone went to bed at appropriate times.
It was a much-needed, very laid-back day.
Today I spent a lot of time listening to Josh Groban, Frank Sinatra, Michael Bublé, and Andrea Boccelli croon all sorts of fun love songs while I cleaned. Too bad Abe was on another work trip (he had two this week!). I am currently back blogging while he drives home in the middle of a traffic jam. He sounds very tired on the phone, but it sounds like it was potentially a very productive trip.
Mary made this for me after yesterday’s piano practice:
She definitely didn’t make it today because I was not as patient today. I was up a lot last night because Clarissa was teething, and then I was up by 5:15 for yoga. But I have to say, even though I was not super patient today, the girls have both been generally SO AMAZING during their practices lately!! I don’t know if we just hit their routine groove for the year or what, but it’s been dreamy.
On Wednesday I took Ammon and Clarissa to a new park before going to pick up Mary and Lydia. The girls’ track team was out, and two of our babysitters are on the team. Ammon wandered over and said hi. Pretty soon he had a band of girls oohing and aahing over him as he showed off.
He also made a friend in the playground. He also fell off one of the structures onto his face. Luckily it doesn’t seem like there’s damage, but it was a big fall. I’m starting to wonder if he’s going to suffer from those injuries professional football players get because he keeps hitting his head. I hope not.
Here are more pictures from the park. The weather was glorious.
In the evening we all went on a walk to see the skeletons:
On Tuesday I took the kids to lots of parks.
Lydia has begged me for years to play on the playground by her harp teacher’s house. We never have time, but on Tuesday we did!
On Monday we went on a walk to check out our neighbors’ skeleton family. Every day the skeletons do something different. On Monday the dad was opening a package with his mail order skeleton bride because someone stole Mrs. Bones last year.
Then I took the kids to the church field and told Ammon to run. Mary helped out and offered to race him.
On Sunday the kids had their Primary program. I was sad to miss it, but it was right during Clarissa’s nap. Abe has some pictures on his phone, but he is traveling right now so I will amend this later.
Abe left on his first trip of the week on Sunday. The rest of us took a nice walk after church and then came home and scrambled to help Lydia with her Ecuador report. We just weren’t organized enough to get it done earlier, and it was due Monday. She worked for hours and finally got it done.
Saturday morning was a marathon. We didn’t even have time to eat breakfast. By the time the kids were ready for the day, we had to drive straight to Lydia’s harp recital. She did a great job playing “Goodbye to Winter,” but I forgot to get a picture or video. Sorry, Lydia!! You did really great.
Then we drove to Harmon’s to pick up Mary’s cake, utensils, and juice for her party. I was really stressed out because I always seem to get dates and times wrong. I was terrified the staff at Color Me Mine would have forgotten about the party, and on the way there I basically told the kids we were never having any more parties. Abe reminded me to calm down. When we got there, thank goodness everything was right on track. The staff was SO helpful and wonderful, and everyone had such a great time.
Then we came home and took turns collapsing. Abe napped while I watched the kids play outside in the glorious weather, and then when he woke up I collapsed on the couch. The kids set up on a blanket on the lawn and played with Mary’s presents with the neighbor kids. After we were somewhat rested, we cleaned everything up and piled in the car to go to see our neighbor perform at the Lantern Fest. On the way, I called Ethline to see if we were running late, and thank goodness I did! The festival had been postponed because of wind.
So we ended up just driving through Chick Fil-A and going to Trader Joe’s instead. Then we came home, cleaned everyone and everything, and watched The Good Wife until the wee hours of the morning.
On Friday morning after Lydia’s music lesson we came home and the girls experimented with Mary’s new light board. Mary drew a lot of her signature, happy art:
It was the last day of Abe’s worst quarter. We are so glad it’s behind us.
We spent a lot of time outside in the beautiful weather. I visited with my neighbors, Emily and Matt, quite a bit. It was so fun chatting with them. I also finally convinced Emily to come to book club with me. That was a huge win!
In the evening we went to book club and had such a great time chatting with friends. There was a mouse there, though, and so I did almost die when that appeared. Afterward I also had crazy social anxiety and over-analyzed everything I said and did and felt like I must have been the most obnoxious person ever at book club. Sometimes I wish I didn’t have so many opinions. I wish that the opinions I have weren’t so strong. And I also wish I didn’t share them so freely–it must be so annoying to have to listen to! On the other hand, I love everyone there, so I just feel so darn comfortable that I overshare. On the other hand again, when I overshare, the conversation always gets a lot more juicy. This time around my oversharing prompted Jill to share SO many helpful things about parenting. She has such an awesome perspective, and I love her a lot. I am so grateful for my friends, even if I wish I were less obnoxious when I am around them!
Thursday was Mary’s birthday! She woke up to balloons, presents, and her new hula hoop.
We sang to her over her breakfast plum cake:
She opened presents and went to school. At school she brought Krispy Kreme pink-frosted donuts with sprinkles for everyone, and somehow somewhere someone gave her candy too. So when I picked her up, she was sucking on candy. At that point she had had cake, a donut, and candy. I am not sure she ate much of her lunch. I also snuck a small present in her lunch bag to unwrap. (It wasn’t candy. It was a Hello Kitty nail polish set.)
Then she came home and played with some of her new things with Lydia and Ammon. I had spent the whole day cooking, cleaning, and listening to the Brett Kavanaugh senate trial and was still listening at that point, so I encouraged all of the kids to just play away and forget about homework or music. I could not tear myself away from the trial for a minute, so I was a bit checked out while the kids played.
Then Abe came home and set up the piñata. We invited all of the neighbor kids over and batted that poor seahorse down.
After the piñata we sent home all the kids and ate outside in the GORGEOUS weather. We had exactly what Mary requested: homemade rolls, grilled salmon, peas, and broccoli soup.
Then we cleaned everyone and everything up and headed over to Menchie’s for yet MORE sugar. Mary said on the last daddy-daughter date that she wanted to go to Menchie’s for her birthday, so we obliged.
Then we came home and Mary had another round of unwrapping presents.
This girls is so darling and dear to all of our hearts. She is so sweet, so smart, so tender-hearted. Her heart and mind are full of rainbows, unicorns, and every sort of bright color imaginable. One day this past year she was showing her drawings to her Nana and explained that she wanted her drawings to help people feel the love of Jesus. She is just the sweetest. We love our little Mary Berry. Happy birthday, sweet girl!!