Stake Acheivement Day

We had originally planned on staying overnight at Grammy Jo's house on our way home from Utah, even though they wouldn't be there. Halfway through our trip, however, Sareny mentioned how excited she was for the stake acheivement day activity and asked when it was...that's when we realized it was in the morning of the day we planned to get home from our trip--which meant we would miss it. So instead of sleeping at Grammy's, we drove all night and got home in time for the special mother and daughter achievement day.

It was such a fun time! We made hair accessories, learned a new type of braid, and tied quilts together. So glad we got to have this special time together.

A Campout

The kids decided to have a sleepover out in the clubhouse. Actually, although he is pictured here, Sareny and Finley decided to have a campout, and Isaac opted to sleep inside in his nice warm bed. Isaac and I went outside to check on the kids, and as soon as I opened the back door, I could hear the lovely sounds of a child screaming their head off. The above picture is blurry, and the only reason I included it here is because you can see that Finley holds nothing back when she is upset. And upset she was!

Still angry...Despite the bloody murder types of screams that would have led you to believe something major and shocking was occuring, I believe it was something along the lines of, "Sareny is crowding me."

She finally settled down and promised to be quiet...I'm surprised we didn't have the cops over here for a noise violation! After these pictures, the girls snuggled down and went to sleep, and Isaac went back in the house. Fun times!

Twilight!

My friend Bridgette invited us to go see a special showing of the last Twilight movie that started six hours before the midnight premier for the regular public. Lexi and I thought that sounded like fun, so we bought our tickets! Above is Lexi, me, Bridgette, and Jenn holding up our special tickets. I'm surprised that Bridgette has decided she could remain friends with me, since she is a complete die-hard Twilight fan, and I am a lukewarm at best Twilight fan. She later told me that she had forgotten when she invited me that I'm not quite as into it as her. ;)

It was a fun girl's night out, especially because we didn't have to wait around for the midnight show! The 6:30 time was much more better. Above is Beth J., Bridgette J., Jenn, and Jen U. Below is Lexi, me, Kenya (Deseret's sister), Deseret F., and Lisa H. Yep, I took another cheesy movie theater photo of us at a Twilight movie!

I love going to the movies! I've frequently said it doesn't have to be a great movie for me to be up for going. And we'll just leave it at that as far as the movie is concerned...

Crackle!

I bought some silver crackle/shatter nail polish, and as soon as we got home with it, we gave it a try. I thought it turned out so cute! Finley had hers over hot pink and Sareny had hers over black. I had black on my hands and pink on my toes. We thought it was a lot of fun, and would love to try some other colors. Sareny's and my hands.

Fin's cute little hand.

That's what sisters are for

I love how well the kids play together sometimes. Finley loves to get down and do whatever her big sister is doing. They sat and colored together for quite a while.

Such good friends!

And then for something you'll never believe...we opened up the Cars! All 120+ of them. The kids arranged them into a long line.

We all picked out our favorite(s).

Some of our Lightning McQueens.

One benefit of opening them up--it is now far less important to me that we have every single one. In fact, the other day at the store we saw Burnt McQueen, and did we buy it? No we did not. Baby steps.

Like Mother like Daughter??

I was shy as a child. Painfully shy. In fifth grade, my friend Amy and I walked to the local gas station with a couple dollars of spending money to blow on the candy aisle. I remember the panicky feeling in my chest as I realized that--gasp--I was going to have to talk to the cashier and pay for my items myself. I begged Amy to take my money and pay for mine. It took a couple minutes to convince her (shockingly, she thought it would be good for me to do it myself!) At restaurants, I would always tell my parents what I wanted before the waitress came over so that they could order for me.
So is it any wonder that I sometimes wonder where my daughter came from? At the deli counter when I order sliced turkey, she always says loudly, "And can I have a sample of that please?" I have occasionally been a little embarrassed by her extremely outgoing behavior.
The boys are currently out of town on the Father's and Son's campout, so last night we had a special girl's night. We went out to dinner at Panda Express, which is Sareny's favorite place. I ordered my meal first, and as the girl was putting it together, Sareny said "I would like the Mandarin Chicken. A lot please." At the checkout, she kept telling them we wanted cookies, or the bottles of drinks (which, we didn't.) It was getting a little obnoxious. Later, after she finished eating, she wanted fortune cookies, which I had forgotten to grab. I was still eating, so I told her I would get them in just a minute. She said, "I'll go get them." Since she can't reach the dish of cookies, this meant asking for help from the workers. She promptly walked up to the counter and said, "Excuse me." (It took them a minute to spot her.) "I need eight fortune cookies." I'm dying over at my table, and told them she didn't really need eight. But the nice lady got a bag and counted out nine cookies for her. This whole encounter just makes me shake my head and think how different we are. And mostly, I'm glad.
Before we went to Panda, I painted Sareny's nails. Her fingernails had a white background with blue butterflies. Her toenails were white with hot pink and light pink polka dots. Very cute! Even Finley got her toenails painted pink, although she smeared them within a couple of minutes.
After putting Finley to bed, we did a couple science experiments from a kit I bought that is designed for ages four and up called Funky Science Experiments. Sareny told me this was her favorite part of our evening together. We had fun mixing acids and bases and turning some water colored with purple cabbage juice pink and blue.
To finish the evening off, we had popcorn and watched the old movie Yours, Mine, and Ours with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda. Maybe I'm crazy, but that movie always makes me feel like having a bunch of kids. They make it look so fun and easy!
I sent the camera with Keith on the camping trip, so we don't have any pictures, but hopefully he will!