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!