Monet's Place

For over a year I have been excited to do this co-op: Monet's Place! There is a beautiful garden that is inspired by Monet's artwork, so for a co-op we met at the garden, learned a little bit about Monet, and then painted/sketched his garden. It turned out great- despite the threat of rain.

Claire's favorite part was catching tad poles after the drawing:

One thing I learned was that Monet was one of the first artists to paint outside instead of in a studio, and he had to deal with the elements. It was a bit windy, so we got to experience some of the trials of painting outside instead of in.

Raingutter Regatta

The Cub Scouts at church challenged the Activity Day Girls to a Raingutter Regatta- basically, where the kids build boats and race them. The girls were super excited, but me? I felt overwhelmed. Just one more thing to do- ugh!

But, thankfully, my dad came to the rescue! He saw the packets of supplies for the kids, and he took it over and helped the kids make their boats. I was SO grateful!!! Even though in the end it only took about 10 minutes to make the boats, it just one ONE MORE THING on the never-ending to do list, so having my dad help them out was huge.

And, the girls did great. Audra really didn't want to race the boys- she was really nervous. But, both Claire and Audra did awesome. They both won most of their races. Unfortunately, though, they did have to race each other. Audra won, which devastated Claire and she no longer wanted to race.

In the end, Audra took second in the second bracket.

Camille made a boat with leftover parts and insisted on getting in on the action:

Overall, it was a really fun night.We really did have a great time (but, it made me SO glad to not have scouts! All the work that goes into Scouts- no,thank you!).

Our Last Hike Day

I can't believe it, but our hike days have come to an end. This summer has gone so incredibly fast! These hikes have been so much fun, and I really do feel like we have gotten out and explored nature. I read an article that said kids need to be outside for 3 hours a day. I'm pretty sure we easily hit that mark most days. They watched very little TV and really just played, played, and played this summer. Which is why, I suppose, this also happened to be the fastest summer of all time.

I Can't Wait Until I'm Eight!

There's a song the kids learn at church that says,

I like my Birthdays every one,
Each brings a special joy to me,
But I can't wait, until I'm 8,
For then I'll be baptized you see!

We have been very excited for Claire to get baptized!

Claire was REALLY scared to have everybody watching her. In fact, she said she didn't want to be baptized because she didn't want people watching her.

I was surprised by this. She did the Fashion Revue. She wanted the main part in the play they did last winter. She does get nervous, but at the same time she seems to like being front and center. We did our best to assuage her fears. She kept asking us who we invited. For Audra, we invited a lot of people and made a big deal out of it. Because Claire seemed afraid, we didn't invite nearly as many people.

But, my parents were here, we  had family, and one of her best friends, Mia, came which was wonderful.

She was baptized with another boy in the ward. Thankfully, his mom did almost everything. I have really felt out of it. I haven't had the energy to do all the things that I should have done, but she totally picked up the slack which was awesome, and I am so grateful!

But, either way, it was a fabulous day! Claire ended up not being nervous at all. She did great.

And Audra gave a beautiful talk on the Holy Ghost (Camille helped her by holding up a visual).

Afterwards, the family came over for chicken salad sandwiches. It was really nice, and not overly stressful (since I didn't hardly do anything).

I had to bribe Camille with cookies to get her into these pictures. Overall, she was really well behaved, but she did NOT want her picture taken!

I know this seems really weird, but I really love religion. I don't care what religion- Catholic, Jewish, Islam, Mormonism, whatever. I think religion is so incredibly important to ground families together and to teach virtues, and to give kids (and adults) a sense of self, belonging, self-worth, peace, and hope. Obviously I love Mormonism and I am ALL IN on Mormonism, and I'm so grateful to pass my testimony on to my children and for them to grow up in faith. I hope my kids know how much their parents love them and love our Savior!

Anyway, it was just a really special and beautiful day. Claire is a special, special girl. When Ben bestowed upon her the Holy Ghost, he said, "I bless you to bring good to the world." I LOVE that! I think I'm going to have it blown up and hung up in our living room. What is better than bringing good to the world? I thought it was perfect.

Audra's Going To State!

Audra ended up making it to state for THREE items! She was pretty excited, and surprised. Her pillowcase, skirt, and even her scones made it.

The got third place for her doll dress and pillow.

I'm also super proud of Claire. She did a lot of different sewing projects, learned how to use a sewing machine, and even put together a scrap book for the club to be on display throughout fair. Patience is a skill that she needs to work on (as any 8 year old needs), but she really did use a lot of patience to put together her different sewing projects. She's just awesome!

We went around looking at the animals, they each got to ride one ride, and we had a fun time seeing the Fair.

Piere Michele

It's officially a tradition: When family comes into town, we go to Pierre Michele to eat. The girls make sure we don't forget!

Broncos Training Camp!

Ben and I are on the fence about continuing to be Broncos fans. It is so exhausting! And time consuming. And I do feel bad that the players are basically modern day gladiators- killing themselves so that we can enjoy a good show.

But, Ben had never been to training camp, and he wanted to take Monday off to have a rest day before he went back to work after our vacation, so we decided to go. Lesson learned: Never take kids! We should have left them at home- they were bored out of their minds. But, Ben and I had a really good time.