Our annual cousin swap

Due to crazy summer schedules Our cousin swapping went a little different this year. We got our cousins without sending any away this time so we had a house full. It was so much fun though.

Here's a few pictures for Matthew and Emily so you can see what your girls were up to the week they were here.

Racing go-carts at Trafalga...

Rachel and Jacob were tall enough to drive themselves

They only have one double car and you can only drive someone else if you are 16 or older so this year I had a little help....

I only had to drive Mason

The girls all wanted Carly to drive them.

I liked that.

While they were waiting for their turns on the go-carts...

They made up games to entertain themselves. The chain link provided great jail cells and

the bleacher style seating made great castle rooms

We played games and earned tickets and then we fed them into the ticket counters

Is it pathetic that my shoulder &arm were sore the next day from several rousing games of air hockey? I was the opponent to beat. I'm good, what can I say? I take great pride in my air hockey skills...

fluorescent plastic vampire fangs were the thing to get at the ticket counter

The day the big girls left for their Pioneer trek, Samantha, Gwen, Bethany and I decided to make patriotic tutus.

Each girl had her own style...

her own way of doing things. I loved watching their independence in crafting

Bethany's skirt had 2 styles. one more traditional

and her personal favorite "the firework"

Gwen and Mason felt a little ballerina spirit and practiced

piroueting

until later when it was all about headgear.

Overall I think a good time was had by all and I really enjoyed having them all here together.

Until next year...

What 16 looks like

Helping with her ipod brownie bars...

She rolled out all the gumdrops on sugar

so we could cut them into circles and rectangles while

I melted and colored the frosting to glaze the brownies.

She wanted them to be very colorful so we had yellow, red, purple, green and blue

I was worried about how to present them but the 24 ct acrylic cupcake holder worked great.

We used black licorice stuck into mini marshmallows for earphones and we just kind of laid them under the brownie ipods because our efforts to insert them into an end of the brownie met with crumbled brownie and we weren't sure what else to do....

We planned her party for June 4th because she would be leaving June 5th and would be gone until the day before her birthday. It was the first week the kids were out of school but I was still working 2 1/2 hours a day in summer school so....

We cooked all week to prepare and make it easier. Carly was right there with me every step of the way and it was fun to work together to prepare for her party.

On Monday and Tuesday, we baked 4 pans of brownies and then used a melon baller to make them into brownie balls which we rolled in powdered sugar and then froze. On Wednesday we popped a bunch of popcorn and then made it into caramel corn that you cook in the oven so it is not sticky. We filled up little carnival style popcorn bags with the caramel corn and set it aside in straw baskets lined with colorful tissue paper. Wednesday night we made and decorated the brownie ipods and cleaned the water cooler out and bought table cloths and ice.

Thursday we peeled and cut carrots, trimmed broccoli, picked up balloons, borrowed and decorated tables, filled the water cooler with ice water, took the brownie balls out of the freezer, popped buttered popcorn, bagged it up and made chip dip.

At 7:20 we were ready and she started to panic that nobody would show up and it would be a bomb and she'd be a social outcast and AAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

At 7:28 the first car showed up and kids jumped out and she smiled and all was right with the world. We ended up with about 20ish kids at our house. Thankfully the weather was beautiful and they hung out, outside and played games and goofed around and ate and she opened her presents. Gone are the days where I pass out goodie bags and run the games, I was reduced to peeking out the mini-blinds and refilling the chip bowl and fetching more cups when needed.

The kids were good and not obnoxious. I did have to remove a megaphone from the mix at one point as I worried about our neighbors with small children who might be trying to get to bed...

At 9:30 Mark set up his projector and outdoor screen and they settled down on blankets to watch "The Village". She wanted something spooky. The movie ended at about 11:00 and some left and some came inside for another 30 minutes or so while they waited for rides. The last 2 boys left at midnight.

We all survived and I think she felt it was a success.

She had her first date on her actual 16th birthday the next Friday....

It was his first date too. His birthday is the same day as hers so they had been planning this 1st date together since 8th grade. They're just good friends and she had a blast. She did say it was a little weird at times but weird-good!

Mark did the whole

"come in and sit down young man" thing

He asked him where he would be taking HIS daughter and what time he planned to bring home HIS daughter home.

At one point he laughed and said to Michael "I know this is a little weird for you but to tell you the truth it's weird for me too but it needs to be done!"

Michael seemed nervous.

I felt a little sorry for him but Mark didn't overdo it he handled it very well.

She was home by 10:45 so all was well with the world.

Grandma Donna,

she loved that you remembered her love for In N Out and loves her hat and shirt!

Thank you for being so thoughtful. It was fun.

Overshadowed again

Last year Rachel's birthday fell on the day of Samantha's baptism. We tried to make sure she had her own celebration. I made her a giant ipod cake and her Aunt Abby brought her a beautifully decorated mini personal cake that she still talks about and her young women's class brought her ANOTHER cake so she definitely knew she was loved but still.... there was a lot going on and she was a bit overshadowed by other wonderful things happening that day. She never once complained cuz' that's the kind of girl she is. Wonderful!

This year it sort'er happened again. Carly was planning to attend a medical career camp at SUU in Southern Utah June 7-9th. Since Mark and I both needed to work on that Monday we headed down to So. Utah the Friday before to visit with family there who were going to help get Carly to her camp. We planned to arrive Friday and leave Sunday, June 6th to come home, which was Rachel's birthday.

Rachel asked if she could stay with her grandparents while Carly was at her camp. She didn't want to have a party so I was glad there WAS something special she wanted that we could do for her.

We had a wonderful visit over the weekend with lots of family coming to visit. On Saturday, We had a big meal, 21 family members and cupcakes with candles to blow out for Rachel and for Carly who would be turning 16 on the 11th and their Auntie Jennifer who had a bday June 3rd. I made strawberry bottom cheesecake pie which she requested for her bday cake. It was a really nice day. But it wasn't just her day.

On her actual birthday, we got up, packed, went to church and said quick goodbyes to our 2 girls who would be staying behind and rushed home to a meeting Mark had that evening.

Like I said, overshadowed again....

We picked the girls up on Thursday afternoon. The next day was Carly's birthday but I was determined that Thursday would be all about Rachel to compensate for her overshadowed birthday. I had 2 little presents for her to open that I picked up after her bday so she had something to open. Jacob, Mason and Samantha helped me blow up balloons and put up a happy birthday sign. I made lemon muffins which she loves. Mark and I took her out to dinner at In N Out and then I dropped her, along with Carly and Jacob, off at the movie theater to see Percy Jackson since they've all been avid readers of the Percy Jackson book series.

I think she was pleased. She smiled a lot.

I know she would have never said a word about her birthday not being special. She probably wouldn't have even thought anything about it because she is a very unselfish girl. She does nice things for other people and doesn't like a lot of attention and is grateful for what she has but

Just in case...

I wanted her to know

she was worth it.

Her own very special day.

Because I love her

&

She's such a great kid!

(wow. you think I could have cleaned the table off before I took this picture? geez. there's a half-eaten bowl of pasta salad and junk-mail in the shot. )

a question for auntie Maury

We were getting ready to go ride go-karts, eat dippin-dots, play air-hockey and much much more at Trafalga on Monday with our visiting cousins and all the girls sat around the kitchen and starting singing one of their Auntie's favorite songs. She has introduced them to lots of good music and movies over the years. I had to catch this on tape for you Maury. I thought you'd get a kick out of it.

A Lowe-Quality cover of "question" by The Old 97's

p.s.

Maury, Rachel and I were watching an old movie called "To Catch A Thief" and Rachel said "So THAT'S Grace Kelly" up til then, she'd only been a song by Mika.

communing with Nature. well sort of.

Family home evening at Cabelas....