The kids went through a crown phase and enjoyed using masking tape to apply the paper crowns they had created. Michael discovered that when masking tape (with crown) is left on hair overnight the adhesive on the tape melds to the hair in a manner that is quite painful for removal and takes hair with it. I'm glad boys hair grows quickly.
4th of July poppers! Jake could barely get enough strength to make them pop, Michael loved the explosion pop sound and Nicole tried to see how many she could pop at once.
It doesn't get dark until 9:30 so we decided to have fun in daylight. The boys LOVED the fire aspect of things and gave opportunity for much discussion on the matter of fire safety. Nicole didn't like the whistling sounds but we all enjoyed some fun sparkle and smoke!
Chip discussing something with a neighborhood squirrel. And it was a sad day, but The Great Rabbit Experiment is over for us. We returned the bunnies yesterday after much deliberation. The kids did everything we asked of them, but the bunnies refused to toilet train and their excessive generosity in spreading pellets that made their way off the porch encouraged flies which can be dangerous for the rabbits' health. So as a family we made the decision (and said a prayer that the bunnies would be happy) and took them back. Jim and I were prepared for much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth...but we talked about it in the evening (tears and sadness) and after sleeping on it overnight the kids were resigned to what needed to happen and we took the bunnies back yesterday. Today, they didn't bring up the bunnies once. Whew!
We took a big leap to put on a 5k Charity Race, and it turned out really well. Over 200 runners and we got coverage in the big newspaper as well as 2 local tv stations. Here's Jim getting ready for one interview.
A local band "Bryan Drive" made up of church members in our ward (the church is located on Bryan Drive- very clever) donated their time and talent to the cause and made the atmosphere really fun and positive in a way recorded music can't offer.
Start of the 5K. The guy in orange finished in something like 18:13. I would have still had another half hour to labor over that course I am sure!
Overall winners! The amputee on the far left was a great inspiration to everyone and his mom was able to share how this young man in racing in many World and US events this upcoming year and it was awesome to hear everyone clap and cheer for him in support. His story is symbolic of why we did this event.
The kids were great! We had to get up super early to go set up and the kids were troopers. It is a very rare event that sees ME waking THEM up! They waited by the finish line and cheered for 45 minutes as each runner came by (I told them I'd get them a snow cone if they did :). I was so grateful they stuck things out hour after hour and even stayed until everything was all cleaned up!
This week began a 5-week course of summer camps all designed to give the kids opportunities to learn and grow with their friends. Some I teach, some other teens/adults in the ward teach. This week was Theater Camp put on by a 9th grader in our ward who does theater at school and is in plays. One game "The Hat Bag" involved the kids picking a hat out of the bag, then acting out possibilities of what that hat represents. The kids loved this game (kids imaginations are awesome!) and Mike LOVED the British Police hat.
Dress rehearsal for the play they put on. In such a short time, they couldn't really memorize a whole play, but they learned so much about positioning, voice inflection, and timing.
Last-minute advice from their "director"
The "Apex players" with their director! We had a fun start to the summer camps and I look forward to sharing the delicious success of this next week's camp I'm teaching: Junior Chefs!
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