Dinner and dancing...and how we're spending our days

We had three friends have a 3 day sleepover at our house while their parents took an anniversary trip. The girls were so excited to have their friends stay with us. They played, talked, laughed and had a great time. They probably didn't get enough sleep, but they got along well and had fun. Since school was over for us and it was the last two days for the neighborhood kids, we had neighbor friends over to play as well. One night as I was serving dinner, we had 9 children here. That seemed like a lot compared to our normal three.


Gabby loves to sing and dance. She is kind of shy about it though and usually won't sing or dance if we are watching (or if anyone is watching...) So when she grabbed the microphone and began singing her own made up song, and she let me take a few pictures, I snapped away at her. I even managed to get a couple minutes of video of her singing. Such a cutie patootie.


I am trying this summer to capture some of the small moments that make up our days and our lives. It is in these small moments, I realize, that our character is shaped, that our love is cemented, that our personalities shine and that make up the majority of our lives.

Yesterday, I sat and played with blocks with Gabby. Then we played "football". We had a mini football that we had Barbie and Ken kick back and forth. Today we went to the library, checked out a stack of books and signed up for the summer reading program. We've been spending a few minutes each day doing "homeschool." I don't homeschool since I work during the school year. But Gabby's best friend is going to be homeschooled next year, and she told me recently that she wants to be homeschooled. So I said we'd do a little bit of "home school" over the summer. So every day the older two girls do a couple of pages of math or other problem solving pages. Then they read for 20-30 minutes. Gabby and I review letters, numbers, rhyming, shapes (particularly hexagon, octagon, rhombus and rectangle which she has a bit of trouble remembering) and other skills. We're also working on shapes and colors in Spanish. Gabby is eager to do this each morning. Michelle and Ella are perhaps not eager, but still willing. Later in the day after some fun, Michelle practices violin and Michelle and Ella practice piano. (It's time to get back in that habit. Our piano teacher just had a baby and honestly, the end of the year was so busy that we took 2 1/2 weeks off from piano practice. Now we're getting back in the habit of practicing daily.)

I've also got quite a few art projects that I'm planning for us to do. I want to also incorporate some science experiments as well, but we'll see if I really get that motivated. Of course, we'll also go to 7 Peaks (heading there tomorrow) and the park and some museums and other outings throughout the summer. And they will play with friends. I'm also hoping to pull out my scrapbooking stuff and put all of us to work scrapbooking this summer. And my biggest project (aside from RS stuff) is to get some family history work done and get at least Michelle and Ella involved in that. Family history is what I'm focussing on during family home evening this month. Our missionaries are going to be training anyone who is interested on how to use the new Family Search, so I'm eager for that. So while we don't have any major plans for vacations or anything this summer, I am excited to have this time with my children and to complete projects and spend time together.