Catch Up

I haven't been thinking about much else but upcoming YW's camp lately.  However there has been lots going on.  So a little catch up before I get to far behind.  Tuesday was Leah and Blake's last day of school.  Cora's was Monday.  She made it through her final exam and is anxiously waiting for her report card.

Cora and I went to the awards assembly.  Leah did make it on the honor roll.  She was pleasantly surprised.  She was sure she had blown it with her LA final.  She was M.C. for the assembly.

Blake and Leah also got some class awards.  That night Bishop hosted an End of School BBQ for the youth in our ward.  It was pouring as we were driving up.  Cora was behind me in the other car with some of the kids and they called to make sure it was still on.  Half hour and the sun came out.  They had so much fun.

After eating we played laser tag.  Leah and Luke's guns died and they had to get more batteries so they missed my picture.

While some groups were playing laser tag, other groups played Cranium.

It was a really fun night.  We stayed a couple hours later than we thought.  Perfect school's out celebration activity.

I have been trying to get as much cutting done as I can.  I won't be any help the next two weeks with camp and my Smith reunion.  It has been fun to get out on the tractor again.

Yesterday I took the kids in to get a big pile of library books.  We got groceries and most of the things we will need for camp. (I really can't wait until this camp is over)  Dave met me at the library and we went to a funeral.  Cora drove the kids home and put away all the groceries for me.  After the funeral we had some things to sort out in town that we had been needing to do.  Than we went to dinner.  We finally got our date in.  Thank you Myrna for the gift certificate.  I was starting to wonder if we would ever use it.  :) We were a little rushed, Dave had to drop me off and then run to a meeting with the missionaries and stake president.

The kids have been doing the afternoon feeding of the calf.  It has been nice to turn that over to them.  We have a lot of things coming up in the next few weeks.  I will try to keep caught up.  But YAY!! for summer and hopefully some relaxing days.  

Full Day

The other day is was so warm outside, we went out to read scriptures as we waited for the bus.

Yesterday was a fun, full day.  Cora had another final and was off early.  I went to the school with the kids.  First off was the talent show.  Both my kids had a number they were performing.  Leah and her friends did an awesome job.  It was very well put together, fun and upbeat.  Blake and his friend had been practicing for weeks for a lip sync number as well.  He showed it to us at home an I was very excited for the school to see it.  Unfortunately the person that put the music on for them did the wrong version of the song.  So they sat on the stage lip syncing, waiting for their cue to get up and dance, but it never came.  So they just sat the whole time.  He was disappointed.  It really was cool, I wish everyone could have seen it.  During the Talent show I got to hang out with these lovely ladies.

We have a good time together.  After was the elementary track and field.  Kym and I were in charge of the Grade 5 boys.  We got them around to all their events and got all the ribbons handed out.  Blake did well.  He placed first to fourth in every event.

The junior high kids ran the events.  Leah did a very good job raking.  :)

Blake broke the school high jump record by 3 cm for his age.  He was very happy about that.  After he broke it I was trying to convince him to keep going.  He was hungry and thought once it was broke he was done.  It was later that he understood to keep going and was disappointed.  Again! What a day for Blake.  

Cora stopped by on her way through after her exam and watched or a while.  Then home to study for her last exam on Monday. Her most dreaded one. Physics 30. 

Watching relay after all the rest was done.  After track, we loaded up Blake, Leah and all her friends and came home.  They spent hours curling and straightening hair.  

doing make-up and laughing.  Melanie had done Alyssa's hair and then dropped her off.  When she got here, Melanie hung out with us in Leah's room, helping me decide how to best lengthen Leah's dress.  They are so good about supporting our standards.  At the dance later she even told me that she had made sure that Leah had the extender on.  I wasn't worried, but it is nice to know others are helping and watching.

Everyone is getting pretty.

When they were all ready, I feed them taco's and cheesecake.  They performed their number for Dave.  He wasn't able to see it earlier. During the talent show he was flying back from another business trip.

Look at those gorgeous girls.  All ready for the dance.  Blake was excited to go to the dance.  He let all the girls spike his hair in the front ( he calls it a mancorn. Lije unicorn but in a man. I don't know if he heard that somewhere or made it up. Strange either way. ) They also picked out his clothes.  Three of these girls, including Leah, have brothers in Grade 5.  They also are all friends and agreed to dance with all the girls.  They had a fabulous time at the dance.  Dave and I came close to the end.  They were all dancing away.  I had jokingly told the boys that I would give 10 cents to who ever danced with the most girls.  I thought they would laugh, who cares about 10 cents.  But when I arrived they came and told me how many they had dances with.  Guess I will dig out my money.  Cora and Leah slept in this morning.  Blake was up early and helping Dave with farm chores.  They cleaned the garage and got the doors set up in our paint booth.

Dave got all ready, hinges taped, everything set up, and then went to put the paint in the sprayer.  We are almost out.  Guess we are making a trip to town.  Oh joy!!  We got a touch of rain and now he is getting the baler ready.  I planted my flowers.  It has been a whole week since Kym gave them to me and they are still alive.  That is amazing for me.

Favorite Things

I have been wanting to have a Favorite Thing party for a long time now.  I looked back to see how long ago I pinned it, and it was four years ago.  I finally got around to it.  I thought this would be a great way to get to know the moms of my kid's friends.  I made up some invites, handed them out, and then waited for the RSVP's to come in.  Unfortunately the moms I don't know were not able to come, but the ones I already feel we are good friends could.  Once I knew exactly how many people were coming I let them all know how many things to buy.  The item you bought had to be a favorite thing under $5.  (The one on Pinterest said $10 and you only bring five.  Then draw names to see who goes home with it.  But I wanted everyone to have one.  Also my ward just did something similar were you brought and told about favorite thing, but just showed.  So there are many different ways to do it.)  Anyways, I then made up some cute bags for them to all take their stuff home in.

To the bags I added some Lindor chocolates, a notebook, small Kleenex packet, and I made some lime mint foot soak and put it in mason jars.  I love how cute and simple the bag is.  I then made some of my favorite food.  Veggie and dip, 7-layer dip, watermelon, BBQ chicken pizza, Reese peanut butter cookies, and Mel's lime mint slush.

(Pizza still in oven when picture was taken)  Of course I served the drinks in my mason jars. :)  We snacked and talked.  I had them each fill out a fun questionnaire.  Ei:  What do you think the worst job would be, If you could travel anywhere, Worst fear, Have you ever meet someone famous......  Then we pick one, read it and that person would tell us about the favorite thing they brought.  We all went home with some cool things.  I had one other game planned, but we didn't get around to it.

I did the mini tongs because they are awesome.  I have 4 pairs and use them ALL the time for everything.  I thought it turned out really great.  It was fun to be with all of them.  Such a great group of women. A few times through out the night I thought, "When we are done this I will get a picture of the group"  Totally forgot.  I was very upset when I didn't have one.  Cora asked if I needed one just to prove that I really do have friends.  Why yes, my sarcastic daughter, I certainly need prove.  And what an awesome group of friends it is.

Sunny Days

Last few weeks have been filled with sunny days, baseball, track, and fun.  Definitely almost summer.

I don't have a chance to take pictures during Blake's games since I am score keeping.  This is a good friend of his.

He did well in county track and field.   Placed second or third in all his events.

There was a For Fun School baseball tournament that grades 5-8 were in last week.  Spent the time watching Blake and Leah and chatting with friends.

Run, Leah, Run!!

Nice hit.

Thursday night the kids went to town and watched Civil War.  I have been wanting them to go and have a kids day since Cora got her license.  We just now finally had a free weekend.  I got home after baseball and got laundry done and started some bread.  The warm sun coming in my patio door was the perfect place to have it rise.

Dave has been getting the yard ready and most of it planted with grass.  It rained last night after he came in.  That was good timing!  We had heard that some friends and neighbors wanted to see our house.  We invited them to come last night.  I made a few ice cream toppings and served sundaes.  We did a tour and snacked and talked for a while.  It was a very nice evening.  Cora and Leah had been invited to a party by the girls they meet at youth conference.  They got a little lost finding the house.  But Cora got them there.  They played games outside and had a fire.  Both girls really enjoyed themselves.  They came home wet, dirty, smelling like camp fire, laughing, and filled with stories.  This morning Leah and Blake were trying to put off chores as long as possible.

They sand a song with many wardrobe changes.  Procrastination!!  Leah has been preparing a talk, Cora studying for finals, I was preparing a lesson, Blake had homework, and Dave worked on our railings.  They are looking great.  I ran Cora up for the opening ceremony for the solar park that she helped design.  Than back to finish all mentioned above.  We are trying to graft a cow.  My dad came up, brought Levi with him, and lent his experience and knowledge to help us.  It was fun to work with my dad with cows again.  Later we were sitting for a moment when we saw this tent rolling quickly through the field next to us.  Jared's tent had blown away.  Cora, Dave, and I grabbed our shoes, I told Leah to text them and let them know.  Dave and Cora took off running through the field chasing this tent.  Dave finally caught up to it about the time Jared raced up on the 4-wheeler.  It was so funny, I really wish I had had time to grab a camera.

LDS Youth Conference

Friday afternoon we got all packed up and traveled all the way out to Fort Steele for our church Youth Conference.  The Cranbrook stake had invited us to spend this weekend with them.  We dropped Blake off with Dave at his work on the way.  Dave was just finishing.  While we were gone Blake had two ball games and he got to pitch.  They also worked lots on our yard, getting it ready for grass seed.  We finally arrived and set up our beds.   We had straw filled mattresses in bunks to sleep on in the barracks.  It was really cool.

Each youth member was given a bag.  In the bag was a candy bag, water bottle, map, itinerary, and a bandanas.  The color of the bandana was your group for the weekend.  We had some get to know you games, introductions, and fun until about 9.  Then it was pizza and dance time.  Cora usually hates dances, but had so much fun.  They both meet friends right away and had some they already knew. They got right in and just got involved.  Cora's foot was killing her that night after jumping around and dancing.  After the dance we all got ready for bed and had a devotional.  Our YW devotional started at 12:45 pm  It was a late night.

Up by 7 for clean-up and breakfast.  The missionaries came and cooked us breakfast.  We had some giant pancakes.  Tons of fresh fruit all day.  All the food was delicious.  

After breakfast we had an opening devotional, which was wonderful, than divided into our groups for the activities.  I did not get many pictures of Leah since I was with Cora's group.  I tried to walk back and forth some.  We did some gardening.  Lots of weed pulling.

There was gold panning and archiving.  My girls didn't get to do the gold panning, there wasn't time.  Leah and this girl from the other stake, Journey, hit it off right away.  They had so much fun together.  At the end they exchanged info and hope to keep in contact.

The Fort gets a lot of donations.  They had to catalog it all.

Another station was pioneer photos and Dutch Oven cooking.

Leah had an awesome group.  They pick a girl and boy in grade 12 and they are the youth leaders for the weekend.  Leah's would high five her every time the walked past and make sure she was dancing.  They always had all involved.  Cora was not even sure who her leaders were.  She still had a great time.  We just all learned a lesson in being a good leader.  This is Cora's group.

Making buns for dinner in the Dutch Oven.

Then last they had a wagon ride and played old fashioned games.  The wagon was pulled by Clydesdale.  We tried to get a picture but were to late.  I love Clydesdale.

Awesome action shot.  I'm always surprised when my phone takes a nice photo

 A picture at the gold panning station. 

 There were some leaders I enjoyed talking with and also learned ways to involve some of my yw better.  It was educational for all of us.

Lunch time.

It was a very hot day.  Anytime we could find shade we took full advantage of it.  After lunch we had free time to wander around the town, see all the shops, and buy souvenirs if we wanted.

I am not sure what my kids think other churches are like.  Cora is praising something.  No idea what is happening below.   Weirdos!!

Being bored in school.  Cora is trying to get detention by dipping Leah's hair in the ink well.

Leah does not really appreciate taxidermy animals or life like dolls.  Journey convinced her to sit by this one for a picture.

We all gathered at the Theatre at 2 for a fireside.  We talked about what to expect for Trek next year.  Cranbrook has invited us to that.  We had a mini reenactment, and a wonderful talk by the other stake YM president.  And then testimony meeting.  Going up the girls were not to excited and wanted to leave early.  Cora told Leah that they could not miss the testimony meeting. It was the best thing about youth conference.  And it's true.  Youth will say things with their peers that they will not talk about in a sacrament meeting.  It was just over and hour and a half long and I think we could have gone longer.  But dinner was ready.  This is another group of girls that my girls hung out with.  

Just as it was time to leave, they all decided to play spoons together.

These two girls are sisters, from our stake, and we are good friends with their parents.  No idea why we haven't got them together before.  Leah and Emily (also in blue) are the same age.  Two month apart.  Cora and Maycie (in flowered shirt) are the same age.  I hope to have them spend a lot more time together.  They are fantastic girls.  Cora and Leah loved hanging out with them.  They are also third cousins:)

We loaded up and headed home.  It was and wonderful, exhausting, strengthening, hot, uplifting, fantastic weekend.  It is such a great experience for my kids to spend time with others from our church.  I love that this church is world wide.  That we can go anywhere and get that unity and spirit.  I love their friends at school.  They have made wise choices and all have good standards.  But there is a difference you can feel when you get together with those of your same believes, a freedom to be you.  Cora comment about that in her testimony.  It is so true.  Despite the fact that there are no showers, I am looking forward to camp.  They will get to spend time with the girls they befriended this weekend and feel of that same spirit again.  Thanks to all for EVERYTHING that happened this weekend.  It was a ton of work for those that put it all together and a huge success.