Highlights of the past week

Friday, the 15th - I took Heather out to dinner for her birthday. I had missed the lunch celebration the day before and wanted to spend some time with my good friend!

Saturday, the 16th - Big family cleaning day. Ryan always gets the kids moving and helping out with all the chores. In the afternoon, Ryan got a little "clipper happy" and gave Brevan a short buzz cut. Brevan hates it, but I told him it will be nice for the summertime. That evening, Ryan and I ate dinner at Red Robin and went to the Kansas City Royals baseball game with free tickets from his work. The Royal's lost in the very last few plays of the 9th inning, but it was a really fun game. The stadium has the biggest screen in the world. Very cool!
Sunday, the 17th - Primary was pretty managable, but it's always more stressful when I'm in charge of Sharing Time. Like usual, I took an amazing nap after church and then made a big dinner for the family.

Monday, the 18th - Any of the kids at Southview Elementary that reached their "reading goal minutes" got to attend a Reading Bash at Jesse James Park. I spent the day at the park, because Brynlie was there in the morning and Brevan went in the afternoon. I left for a while and bought them McDonald's for lunch. Brynlie was so excited for me to come, but then when I got there she kind of avoided me. She wouldn't give me eye contact and she went to sit by her friends. Really?! Is she really already hitting the age where her mom isn't cool enough? Dang, I don't feel like I'm old enough to be uncool.
Tuesday, the 19th - There was a family picnic at Lindsey's preschool because it was the last day for this school year. Lindsey is completely fine when I just drop her off at school and leave, but if I'm around she refuses to socialize. Instead of playing with her friends, she held on to my legs and cried. After an hour or so, I convinced her to stand by her friends while I took their picture. This is Lindsey with her good friend, Ella.
And this is Lindsey with her whole group of preschool friends. Addie, Lilly and Ella. One day when Lilly's mom picked her up from school, Lilly said "I only like to play with my white friends at preschool." Lilly's mom was obviously very shocked and asked her what she meant. She replied, "you know Mom, all the girls with white hair like me."
After the preschool party, we headed to lunch for Buffy's birthday. We ate at a Mexican Restaurant in Liberty and took this picture afterward. Even though I took my shoes off, I look like an amazon woman in this picture with some of my cute, shorter friends! I was trying to lean over to hug Buffy, but it just made me look like I have huge hips!
And then, after the birthday lunch, we headed to the elementary to see Brevan be presented with the "Duke Tip" award. Duke University accepted him into their Junior Program, for kids who are excelling academically. What a great honor! That night I was up at the church for a couple hours because I was in charge of a cub scout den meeting and had various Primary duties.
Wednesday, the 20th - I had planned to attend the school talent show because I was sure Brevan would pass the auditions, but when he wasn't accepted he was devastated. It took hours of talking about his talents and reassuring him that he is a great singer to get him to calm down at bedtime. He got off the bus crying and arguing with Brynlie, and it didn't end all evening . . .When Ryan got home I ran errands, got my allergy shot and got my hair colored and cut. I also had quite the embarressing moment this day. After the kids were off at school, I was doing laundry and remembering that Brevan didn't have much that was clean. That got me wondering what he had worn to school. Usually I get up early, wake up the kids and set out some clothes for Brevan. This day, however, the kids had been excited about the festivities of the last full day of school, so they got up before I did and it threw my morning off a little. Long story short, the green shirt and blue shorts that Brevan wore in the picture above were also worn to bed (because he was apparently too lazy to put on pajamas) and then TO SCHOOL AGAIN! How did I not notice he was wearing the same stinky clothes in the morning? Oh well, the teachers at the school already know I'm crazy, so this will be some new proof for them. By the way, when Brevan got home and I asked him if he realized he was wearing the same clothes that he'd worn the previous day, he said, "Ya. I don't care." That's my boy for you.

Thursday, the 21st - Last day of school! It was only a half-day, so I had the kids invite some friend's over for a "Welcome to Summer" party. It took a couple weeks for Brevan to decide who to invite to the get-together. He decided on a boy named Brett that was in his school class. I was so excited that he was actually having a friend come over! I think the boys got along well, so hopefully Brevan can develop more of a friendship with Brett. Brynlie invited Megan, a girl that has been one of her best friend's since they met at preschool, and Lindsey invited Ella, her preschool friend.
The kids did a lot of water activities and played outside for much of the time. We got pizza for lunch and I made cupcakes that I let them frost and decorate themselves.

Even Logan got in on the fun! He kept trying to swim in the big bucket of water that was being used to refill water guns.

I had to play referee many times, when the boys decided to shoot the girls with water guns and the girls decided to spray the boys with the hose.

After enough time in the sunshine, the boys went inside to have a Wii Championship.

The girls cooled off by having a dance competition (thus Brynlie's dance outfit and Lindsey in full-on princess gear in this picture) and then making friendship necklaces and bracelets.

Today, the 22nd - The first official day of summer! I started it with a good workout this morning, then took all 4 (don't ask me why) children to Brevan's doctor appt. to get some warts removed. Oh boy. He SCREAMED things like "why are you trying to murder me?!" and "I'm in MORTAL PAIN!!" the whole time the doctor was freezing off his warts. I had to hold down Brevan's body and pin his arms behind him. Logan was terrified of the screaming, so he sat in the corner bawling and saying "scary! scary!" over and over. Then the girls jumped up on the table with Brevan and hugged him while THEY cried. Needless to say, it was quite tramatic for all of us!

HURRAY FOR SUMMERTIME!!