I'm 44

We came home and jumped right in with school preparation. I had a mammogram on Tuesday, that was "fun." The little girls were excited to get blue-screen glasses from the dollar bins at Target. I was looking for nice water bottles and soup thermoses for the school year. I learned later that school breakfast and lunch will be free for the year. That is very exciting to me. Hopefully, we can lower our food budget a little. Justin enjoyed torching the batch of goat head weeds cultivating on the south side of our home. It's dangerous to tread back there. I read the only real way to kill the seeds is with fire. He was happy to buy a blow torch attachment for some afterwork fun. Carson was nearly hopping on his toes with excitement! Hilarious. Wednesday we spent the day tending a little 18 month old names Brixley. She was obsessed with Vader, cried whenever he left. Amelia spent the morning with Jocelyn making clay charms. 

The kids woke me up (after instructing me to stay in bed until they came) with a breakfast tray. I had a cup of Noosa, a glass of milk, and toast with homemade jam. Thank you Phillip and Evelyn! The best was an entire kid dog pile! My dad called so he was witness to the epic kid pile. I had a stack of cute cards from all the kids. Amelia drew a darling frog with a sweet note inside. Phillip gave me a card he made with Josie, his arms were longer than 40 wet noodles. Evelyn had a card and a wrapped gift of her last dollar, Everett made a treasure hunt with lots of random clues. His treasure was a cup of 5 watermelon gummies and a dollar. Bless their sweet hearts. Justin was giddy over his gift of a gnome door hanger, his hands are interchangeable with 12 different signs. Josie and I played hide the gnome hands around my room, she really wanted to hide Easter eggs but I convinced her otherwise. Josie donned a Princess dress to have a tea party with me. We sipped lemonade and dined on apple sauce. Sara and I went to get birthday pedicures at the lame place near our house, it actually accepts walk-ins. That was boring but nice, I was disappointed the foot grater thing never made an appearance. My summer feet are gross level. My polish peeled off within 12 hours. Evelyn, Josie, and I drove 30 minutes each way to pick up a used set of doll toys Evelyn will get on her birthday. She loved Emmie's doll kitchen, I found a used one in our area. I chose Teppanyaki for dinner. It's been a few years since we last enjoyed a fun meal like that. Josie scored a new doll with the doll lot picked up for Evelyn. She toted that along with her for the rest of the day. Amelia worked really hard making a Raspberry jell-o dessert variation Jana made for my "cake." The Ostler's joined us for a rowdy birthday song and cake. All in all, a very lovely day. Thanks to everyone for the texts and phone calls. 

Friday Phillip had 6th grade orientation. He got to choose his elective classes of drumline and art! He toured the building, generally knows where to go when school starts. He even got to practice opening a locker. I paid all the dues and got him a fun shirt. Around 4 pm we went camping at Roy Hot Springs with our ward. Sara took Evelyn in her van so we would have room to drive the truck. It was easier to load everything up in the truck for us both. The camp ground was very pretty with lots of mature trees, grass, and fun games to play. We swam from 7-10 pm in the springs. Evelyn and Ambree were thrilled to finally use their mermaid tails in a deep pool. Amelia slept in the small unicorn tent for a spot of privacy. Next morning the ward provided pancakes, sausage, muffins, eggs, and juice for breakfast. Evelyn discovered she really likes to play volleyball! Most everyone left around 9 am or soon after. We were stragglers taking our time packing up and going home. After dinner we attended Lexie's wedding Open House at Darrel and Fawn's home. It was sticky hot! Phew. I enjoyed connecting with Logan Rice, April Horak, and Timmuri Robinson (Fawn's kids). Lexie's husband was absent due to car troubles. I subbed as Primary Chorister on Sunday. We played a spur of the moment game, stick the mustache to the face! I was frantically drawing faces and cutting 'staches after the sacrament was passed.