Electronics bad luck

THIS happened over the weekend. Right during our Book of Mormon marathon. I was streaming the audio through the TV. Quite sad. I heard a pop and the screen went black. It's only 4 1/2 years old. It shouldn't have broken yet. Paul called LG this morning and so we are in the process of seeing what can be done. Hopefully we can get it fixed and not have to buy a new one. 

Last week in review

Okay, so I guess I was two weeks behind. But I kind of like the one big smash post, so I'm gonna go for again so that I will truly be caught up with our summer activities. My hope is that one day my children will look back and realize that "hey, we did go and do fun stuff". Maybe that will squash out all the memories of being bored wandering around the house wondering what to do. Or better yet, the memories of me getting after them to do one thing or another (like keep their room clean. Sheesh. I may never win that battle). 

On Monday we swam...surprising huh! But I took no pictures.

On Tuesday, I took the kids to the dollar movie again. "Yogi Bear". It was your typical live action movie with talking animals, but we went with Brooke and her kids, who were laughing hysterically, which I think made my kids laugh even more. So they had fun and that's what mattered. Plus we got a large popcorn for $4.00 with a free refill. Can you tell I like movie deals? Maybe cuz I love the movies so much, but hate how expensive they are. Which is ironic considering my husbands job depends on movies making lots of money. Haha...oops.

Brandon caught a cricket. I'm always so impressed with these crazy boy skills. I would never even try to catch one, but I'm not sure I could even if I did try. He was quite pleased with himself. 

On Tuesday night I got to go to combined YW/YM activity. They had a human battleship game going, but really it just turned into one big water fight. Which I'm sure was the most fun part of it all. I didn't get wet, but I sure had fun watching all the kids get wet. 

Then on Wednesday we got invited over to Leah's school friends house for an afternoon swim and BBQ. The kids had such a great time. Leah had a blast playing with her friend Kayla, and Ashlyn's friend Linsey happened to be there too. So it was win-win. 

Got home from that and my SIL, Heather, had dropped off a HUGE bag of clothes for Brandon and a bucket of bakugans. Brandon was in major boy heaven and immediately stuck them all to the fridge to "activate" them. He's been playing with them almost non stop since then. 

Then later that night I had the Activity Day girls over for a summer swim party at our pool. 5 of the 8 girls were able to come, so I let Leah stay too for an even number. I loved watching them swim and play and have a good time together. They all get along so well and were laughing and swimming non stop until we finally pulled the three remaining girls out of the pool after 10 pm. Oops. Late night, but I just couldn't help myself. They were having TOO much fun together. I couldn't break up those fun memories.

 By Thursday I was ready for a little me time, so after my chiropractor appointment I headed for a pedicure and treated myself to lunch at The Habit. A few friends were able to get away and join me and we decided we might need to do this one more time before summer is over. 

That night I had a lot of shopping to do for prep for Saturdays YW event, so we hit up Trader Joe's, Sam's Club and Target all in one afternoon. This about sums up how well my boys behave in stores. Hulk "smash" (as Carter calls him) comes out and it's a pretty brutal sight. But I survived (probably thanks to my relaxing morning) and got everything I needed.

Friday we headed back to the beach. A new gal in our ward just had twins (2 months ago) and she came with her two other kids (age 3 and 1 1/2). I know....impressive huh! Maybe it was possible though because everyone at the beach was fighting to get their hands on those babies. Here's me and my girls each taking a turn with William. Isn't he just adorable? 

Saturday was our big Young Women Book of Mormon reading marathon. We started at 8:30 in the morning with breakfast. Started reading by 9am. Read until noon. Stopped for a lunch break and then read until 3. Finished the entire book of Mosiah. The girls loved it so much that we're gonna try to incorporate it into our mutual night once a month. Even though we'll only read for an hour then, it will still help them get a little bit closer to finishing their "virtue" project.

While I was busy with that, Paul was super Dad and took the kids down to Universal City Walk. They had lunch and walked around and played in the water splash area. And then spent a bit of time watching the people in the "ifly" attraction. 

By Sunday I would say we were pretty beat, but we got to sleep in a tiny bit since we have afternoon church and that helped us get through the day. Now to get to bed (semi) early to refresh for the new week. 

Trying to catch up

Trying to condense the events from a couple of weeks ago into one post, so that I can get caught up on this week. I got so behind and it's been bothering me.  So here it goes.

Found out me and my friend Becky were planning on taking our kids to the same movie on the same day (Despicable Me 2) so we met up and then headed to CPK for dinner afterwards. Yes, the hostess probably thought we were crazy when we walked in with 8 children and only 4 adults, but surprisingly they all did pretty darn well. Granted we weren't there terribly long, but still.

Spent the good part of one day cleaning out the girls room. Like REALLY cleaning it out. Their room is ALWAYS a mess and it's kind of yuck to walk in to it. So we took everything out of the corners and cracks and crevices (where they like to hide trash) and really gave it a good cleaning. Threw away a ton of stuff and reorganized other things. The girls wanted to get rid of their princess rug and chair so we donated those to Goodwill. They also wanted their Barbies out of their room. Not ready to get rid of them, but it is weird to see them start to grow up and grow out of some of their old favorite things. Kind of makes me sad. Sniff sniff.

Made cake pops for a Relief Society event. They turned out pretty well, but they were extremely time consuming and not very cost friendly for a church function. But oh well!

I got to take my Laurels down to the Temple for a Laurel's temple trip. They did baptisms for the dead and Tina and I got to be the "helpers". They are a great bunch of girls and I just adore each of them. This was only 4 of the 6 that I teach each week, but 3 are heading off to college soon. They sure are amazing and strong Young Women.

Luckily I get to keep these 2 for one more year. 

I'll be SO sad when they graduate. 

Had a tea party with Leah one day. Her favorite part is that I let her fill her sugar bowl with real sugar, which means she gets to eat it all.

Leah had a playdate with Gracie. They swam and played for hours. And yes, it was a coincidence that they happen to have the same swimsuit. We didn't buy them together.

Beth came over too that morning and even though it was a strange overcast day, it was really nice to be out at the pool and not sweltering in the sun.

Yes, there are some random pictures in this post. Leah was giving Carter a horsey ride, but I swear Carter looks as big as her in this picture. He's growing so fast. I feel another "sniff sniff" coming on.

Took the kids to the beach again. We plan on going a lot this summer, even though Ashlyn JUST told me tonight when I talked to her about going soon, that "she doesn't really ever LOVE going to the beach". LOL She said it so diplomatically that I just couldn't help but laugh at that sweet little thing. Okay, so we are still going to the beach again soon, but maybe I'll have to cut our planned weekly trips down just a tad. But just a tad. I do love it and it's getting pretty "easy" to be there with all four kids. 

And finally....Paul got to take the kids to a free screening of Turbo last weekend. They loved it and had a blast. I love that it was free and came with free snacks too. Going to the movies with a bunch of kids is NOT cheap in Cali.

Okay....yay. That's it I think. Now I'm at least caught up to the present week. That makes me happy.

First official summer beach day

The day after Fourth of July we headed to the beach.

And it was a huge success. Lots of fun friends came. Most of us had our hubbies with us. No major incidents. And the kids all seemed to have a great time. 

And Renee was there too with her family. So we got to see her twice. Yay!

Me and my favorite teenager Callie. 

Christie and Callie. Two of my laurels that I adore.

 Emily and Beth. These two girls have been through a lot 

with me over the years. Sure love them.