She was ready to roll. Off to the races. Tucked in with her cousin as her roommate, and boy oh boy did she ever have the time of her life up there. More about tucking her in up there back HERE, and what she did up there HERE.
We settled into a new version of home with three kids, a little disoriented having so few of them surround us at the dinner table on Father’s Day (back here).
Then we had our little “progression celebration” with our three girls back here.
We weren’t home a lot so we limped out a few summer goals. Usually that is such a big part of our summer but we totally flopped on them this summer. We pushed to at least get reading and exercise in each day we were home, but we were in no way or form organized around here! I loved doing P90X with my three exercise partners when we could fit it in 🙂
We got to fit in a little cousin time:
They always come up with creative ideas when they’re together…
…and some girl time at the temple with the young women:
I love all those ladies!
Lucy played “Lego Friends” with her real friends…
…and we cleaned out closets again (not pictured).
Grace has been part of her class presidency at church for the last little while. The class presidency plans out the activities and sometimes help teach lessons and it’s such a great opportunity to take on some leadership responsibilities. They switch out who is in the presidency about every six months so here she is ready to hand her binder off to the next 1st counselor:
Grace, in other news, was the head honcho at the house while Dave and I went to the BBS conference.
More about the BBS conference tomorrow, but for now let’s just check out this bunch of cute girls she made breakfast for while we were gone.
That girl is a go-getter.
We celebrated her birthday as well.
I wrote about that back HERE, but I never included these pictures that show the adoration her sisters have for her:
That’s one good big sister right there!
In all the intense summer heat our garden bloomed quite surprisingly out of control. This is how it looked when we got home from Europe:
We had some neighbors use a bunch of tomatoes while we were gone and we were glad there were still a bunch we could relish when we got back.
We’re still using the basil and whipping up bruschetta when we can. I have successfully turned my kids (most especially Grace) into bruschetta fanatics and I love it.
The girls taped in tickets from some of their favorite things from Europe in their own journals.
(to add to what they already wrote…I had them write on train rides and airplanes when we were over there so they could solidify all those memories they were making.)
Swimming FHE:
Claire had a little job tutoring these cute boys for math.
She is hoping to continue that in the Fall because she sure loves those boys…and I’m pretty sure they like her a bunch too!
We spent some time at the lake (back HERE), and Claire learned to shave her legs (HERE…big deals over here I tell you!)
A couple times Lucy and Leo (the lion) felt the serious need to FaceTime Elle up in Provo before they could go to sleep:
Why do you have a flag of Sweden over the tv?
I noticed this too. Sweden is a wonderful country 🙂
Usually the stuff on her walls is there for a purpose.
Ha! Everyone has that same question. I found it at an antique store (although it's not antique) and I fell in love with it. My Dad's mom is from Sweden which makes it sentimental but Dave claims we should have a big flag from all of our ancestors if we're going to have one. Of course he's right but bottom line is that I just really like it and we needed some color in there 🙂
maybe you've already mentioned it before, but do you remember where you got your round white kitchen table? and the spinning brown tray on top? i love both and it is so hard to find a round table for big families!