Outdoor Concert for West Valley Symphony

 A member of our Primary Presidency, Natalie, (pictured above but its hard to see her behind her music stand) plays in the West Valley Symphony.  She has invited us to a couple of concerts, but we haven't been able to go.  So when she invited us to a free outdoor concert on Monday night, we went!  Our cute neighbor kids came along with us.

 Here are the kids eating snacks before the concert starts. 

 Shortly after the concert started, they asked if we could please move and sit on the grass. Our seats were much closer, but the little girls, in particular, were antsy.  So in between songs, we moved. 

The concert was great... they played Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, First Movement.  They played Superman and all of the songs for each branch of the military.  They played some classical, some movie themes.  It was a nice selection.  I really enjoyed it.  It was a great way to spend a Monday night. 

Dairy Days at The Farm

We headed down to Thanksgiving Point for Dairy Days at the Farm.  The girls enjoyed seeing the animals.  We haven't been since Gabby was a baby, so none of the girls really remembered the Farm that well.

 The girls got to brush a pony.

Michelle petting a donkey. 

We all went on a wagon ride.

Making ice cream in a bag.  Our bag got a small hole in it, so the rock salt mixed with the ice cream.  It was rather salty.  Still a fun experience, but not the best to eat.

Gabby thoroughly enjoyed her pony ride.  She had picked out which horse she wanted ahead of time, and she was lucky enough to get to ride that horse.

 All three of the girls enjoyed riding ponies.  The line was rather long, but it was okay.  They said it was worth it to ride the ponies.

 We just barely made it on the cow train in time.  We were part of the very last ride for the day!

 Our cow train driver was fun.  She swerved and made the ride extra enjoyable for the kids.

 This peacock was huge.  And it looked like it was dancing.  We watched it, in fascination for awhile.

 All in all, it was a fun day at the farm.  We liked seeing the piglets and the baby goats.  Riding the ponies.  Seeing the chicks.  Seeing the cows.  Going on the wagon and cow train rides.  Fun outing!  (And it rained as we were driving there, but stopped just after we climbed out of our car.  It was overcast and not too warm or too cool.  Perfect day for being outside!)

In Summer

Olaf:  Bees'll buzz, kids'll blow dandelion fuzz
And I'll be doin' whatever snow does in summerrrrrr
A drink in my hand, my snow up against the burning sand
Prob'ly getting gorgeously tanned in summerrrrr ......

When life gets rough, I like to hold on to my dream
Relaxing in the summer sun, just lettin' off steam
Oh the sky would be blue, and you guys'll be there too
When I finally do what frozen things do in summerrrrrrr

Like Olaf, I love summer.  When the school year gets rough, I often hold on to my dream of summer.  Oh, how I love summer!   I love the warm weather!  I love the time off work to rejuvenate.  I love the time with my children.  (I don't love listening to one or more of them complain about me being mean, but other than that, it's pretty blissful.)  I love having a chance to do visiting teaching interviews and spend a few minutes visiting with most of the sisters in my ward, one on one.  I love having more time to read.  I love having time to bake goodies.  I love planning outings for my kids and I.  Here's a little bit about what we have been up to:

*I have been doing a lot of baking.  When we had our faculty end of year party here, Mr. Unicorn gave me a case of white chocolate shavings.  I've been looking up recipe after recipe for white chocolate and making them.  Yum!  I didn't know I liked white chocolate so much...but when it's mixed into raspberry banana bread, strawberry cheesecake, oreo truffles and other scrumptious desserts, I love it!

*For the first time in years, I have pulled out my scrapbooking stuff and have been scrapbooking.  I'm just working on getting the professional pictures we've had taken of the kids scrapbooked.  (And sadly, Gabby has a lot less of those than the other two girls.  So her almost nonexistent scrapbook is still pretty meager.)  I've done about 15 pages in the past two weeks. 

*We've had tons of friends over... I've watched friend's children on several ocassions and the girls seem to be constantly either at friends' homes or have friends here.  We've also had a couple of barbecues.  We also had a friend's dog for a week while they were on vacation.

*Gabby has started piano lessons.  Mostly she is loving it.  Michelle and Ella are also taking piano lessons, and Michelle continues to take violin.  So their daily chores include reading, piano practice (and violin for Michelle) as well as some chores around the house.  Two or three days a week, I try to make sure they do some math also.

*I have been tutoring two darling little girls, ages 8 and 10, in math and writing. 

*The girls love writing notes to each other and to themselves on the white board that is in Michelle's room.  Yesterday, Gabby decided to write down the words to I Am A Child of God.  She got tired before she had written all of it, and it is chock full of invented spelling, but I love that she wanted to write that song and that she knew the words and was willing to try to figure it out.  Michelle started to say something about the spelling and Gabby proudly pronounced, "I know.  I spelled everything correctly!"  Love her confidence.

*We've been to Thanksgiving Point several times.

*We've been to Seven Peaks twice and will be going again soon.  We have two vacations (to Canada and St. George) coming up before the summer ends. 

Here are some photos of my cute girls on the Fourth of July, right after we got home from our combined wards (all 3 that meet in our building) Flag Raising Ceremony and breakfast:

Obviously I had trouble getting a photo where all three are looking at the camera and smiling.  Ah well.  They're still cute.

My only complaint about this summer?  It is going way too fast!

Curiosity Times Two!

We visited the Museum of Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point again as soon as school was out.  Michelle couldn't wait to do the Ropes Course and talked Ella into giving it a try with her.  Because the ropes course lasts almost an hour, that gave Gabby and I a bit of time to explore just the two of us.  We also all checked out part of the gardens outside.  Another fun day...and we will go back!

The Ropes course:  They were up pretty high.  Michelle loved it.  Ella definitely gave it her best and tried but after about 20-30 minutes, she was getting nervous and was ready to be done and came down and joined Gabby and I.

Michelle is fearless!

So proud of Ella for trying the Ropes course...especially without her dad or I going with her!

Gabby:

Outside:

A slide made for three kids!  How perfect is that!

A zipline bigger than ours at home! (But with a longer line as well.)

 The park area outside was pretty.  There were statues of animals and an area set up as a wetland, signs teaching kids about wetlands and animals, fish, playing structures, etc.   We didn't even explore the whole area outside....so we will have to go back again!  I love having a membership because then you can feel like you can go for an hour or two or the whole day and either way, you are getting your money's worth!

He Never Stops!

Alfredo is amazing!  He is always working on some type of home improvement project.  A few months ago, we redid what was Gabby's room and turned it into Michelle's room.  (Now Ella and Gabby share and Michelle has her own room.  For the most part, this has worked out pretty well.)

Michelle picked out the colors...bright pink, black and a light green.  She has enjoyed decorating it and enjoyed having her own space. (Although humorously, quite often, she sleeps downstairs with her sisters.  They often all curl up in the same bed even though they each have their own bed.)  Alfredo painted the walls, replaced the outlet covers so they would match, painted the closet doors and bedroom door.  We bought her a new bed.  We painted a dresser so it would match.  Alfredo found curtains that match very well.  Michelle has loved it!

 Sorry this last one is blurry.  She has a little table with some decorations and her supply of decorative duct tape.  She has photos hanging on her wall and a little corner that she has named her art wall where she hangs up her own artwork.  On her door, she has a self portrait and two fancy signs that say her name.  I love that she has made it her own.

We have a dining area in our backyard near our grill.  Our old dining room table and chairs are there and in the summer, we often eat outside.  A couple of years ago, Alfredo put bricks in that area.  He's been wanting to have grass in between each brick.  So a little over a month ago, he bought sod and laid sod between each brick.  It looks great.

Alfredo built the girls a small treehouse (which they use to launch themselves on the zipline) a few years ago. But the wood planks he used as the floor were warping and cracking and it was in need of repair.  So he began work in April and worked off and on until June on making the treehouse bigger, better and more stable.  He added a set of stairs and a bridge.  Attached a slide.  Added a "roof".  The girls and neighbors all love it!  (And they love the zipline...it has long been a favorite of friends and neighbors.) The girls enjoyed helping him.

When we bought our house, it had a deck from the kitchen to the backyard.  But it was in disrepair.  When Michelle began walking, we knew we needed to fix it because there were holes in it and it was a safety hazard.  So Alfredo pulled out most of the old wood, (leaving the frames but replacing all of the other wood) and rebuilt it.  He added pretty wood paneling and wood bars on the top to provide a bit more shade.  But that all happened ten years ago.  It was looking a bit sad this summer...   so Alfredo borrowed his friend's power washer and power washed all of the wood.  Got it really, really clean.  Then he repainted all of the wood with wood stain and sealer.   It looks almost like new again.

Finally, our dishwasher hasn't worked for a couple of years.  We were able to buy a new dishwasher a couple of weeks ago.  Because it was expensive to have them install it, Alfredo did it himself.  It was a real pain!  It took all day.  But he did it.  And now, I have a beautiful...and more importantly working... dishwasher!  I love it.  I'm having to retrain my kids about loading their dishes straight into the dishwasher since we haven't had one in so long.  (Before, we often used paper plates and just threw them away...my kids were trained to do that or to scrape their plate and then stack them in the sink and we took turns doing dishes.)  I love having a dishwasher.  I run it each evening and unload it either before bed or first thing in the morning and then most of the dishes throughout the day can go straight in.  I usually still hand wash pans or big bowls (and since it's summer, I've been doing more baking...so there have been bowls and pans to wash) but it still eliminates so much work!    The photo is not great...the dishwasher is in a location that it was had to get a good angle to take a photo.  But I am thankful for it!

I am not the least bit handy.  I am so thankful for a husband that is such a hard worker and that has the skills and knowledge to do these kinds of tasks to make our home nicer and bring such joy to our family!  He is wonderful.  He really never stops... he is always working on or making plans for some kind of way to improve our home.  He's already determined the next project...refinishing the tub while the girls and I are in Canada.  Love him so much!