Scout and NayNay got talking, and they realized that they both own a hammock, and that they both love “hammocking”.
So NayNay took Scout down to Doheny, to “hammock”.
Dash was lucky to be invited along, and apparently they hung out in the hammock, and talked all about hammocking.
Every once in a while when we have time to kill, I stop at the park down the street. It’s rad, because nobody is ever there, and my kids have it all to themselves. We also stop there when I have to get an important call in, because I park right in front of the park, and get a view of my kids playing and the ocean.
My kids know we are stopping at the park when I turn left at the stop sign, instead of right. Today, we turned left, and there were celebrations from the back seat.
The kids picked up where they left off the last time we were there. The kids play, while Navy “cooks” at her restaurant.
When she needs them to, she asks them to go get ingredients. AKA different types of flowers.
And when she is finished, I am ordered to make an order.
The funny thing is, whatever I order is NOT what she made.
I tell her that I like crab legs and souffle.
She tells me to settle for pasta.
I think my kids may have been the only ones to have down pillows, and full beds at the outdoor movie. Between Britni and I, we set these kids up. We also set ourselves up. To the left of this picture, we had our table and chairs, with a bunch of homemade salads, and really good homemade treats.
We had quite the big showing at swim lessons today. I think every sibling (minus Navy) was there. It was a party. But I’m not sure if the party is helping out that spa water’s cleanliness. It’s looking a little murky.
When I go walking at the harbor, I often have some of the kids along. Sometimes in strollers, sometimes walking with me, and sometimes scootering. This day, Scout and Navy were on scooters. They go the opposite way from me, and we meet in the middle. Today as I walking, I ran into Don Laws, one of my dad’s friends from long ago. I saw him right after I had just met my kids in the middle, and they took off to then meet me at the car. When I saw him, we caught up for a moment. And then he said the words I would pay any amount of money to hear… he said, “Are those your kids on the scooters”? I told him yes, when he then said, “They would ride and stop, and ride and stop. I kept catching up to them, and really observed them. I have to tell you that they might be the two nicest siblings I have ever seen. When she needed help climbing the side of the wall, he helped her. When she saw something interesting in the water, she called him to see it too. Every time they passed by someone, they said excuse me. And when I passed them once, they called from behind that they were coming up on the right of me. You have really done a nice job with them.”
I think my jaw dropped to the ground.
I know what I have taught them, and I know they have it in them, but it’s kind of rare that I see it with my own eyes. Micah said to me recently, “I think the true test of a parent, is how your kids act when you aren’t around”. I agree. And even though I have gotten white slips from school, and many strangers think my kids are little punks….today, I will focus on this time when they nailed it.
Scout’s graduation ceremony was yesterday, and today was their class pool party.
We are going to miss Ms. Dianne. There is nobody greater — nobody.
I am so glad to have one more child who will have her.
Although he was so excited for summer break, he loved his class and was bummed to leave them.
But…life is about moving on.
And this boy slam-dunked preschool!
Pippi has a love of QTips. Ever since I have started cleaning her ears, she tries to clean mine back. She says, “Come over here, and lay on my lap”. Then she pats her lap, and licks the QTips to prepare them. It is the exact replica of what I do to the kids. But lately, she found out she can get a good laugh by putting them in her ears, so I have seen this exact silly girl with QTips coming out her ears for three days straight.
It is a farewell to DHHS today for Skilly.
It must have been a bittersweet day for Skilly.
But forget her…it was a bittersweet day for us!
The Bitter…
Have you ever taken four kids to a very hot, and very looooong graduation ceremony?
Good thing there was a lot of help, and my kids are creative.
Pippi spent her time in Nonnie’s purse.
The other kids (including Doey) spent their time under the rafters, playing almost the entire time.
And Scout dominated the creativity category, because he started retrieving fallen object for people for a small fee. He literally made $9! Way to go son. And the best part was when I was just thinking how thirsty I was, he came up with a case of waters that had fallen. I told him to give them back to the owners, but her didn’t have a clue who they were, and the ceremony was completely underway…so I’ll admit…I indulged.
The ultimate bitter came when the ceremony was over, and Pippi realized that we didn’t get to go home yet. But instead we got to stay for another hour to take pictures and follow Ka around.
The Sweet…
Ka’s a big girl now!
I guarantee you that there was no mom who was more excited for her kids to get out for summer break. I count down the days, the minutes, even the seconds. I was stoked because their last day was a minimum day. So I downloaded “School’s Out For Summer”, and I planned to blare it out the windows of my car as I picked them up. As I drove up to the school, I was cuing the music, and saw a completely empty parking lot. I couldn’t believe how many people were absent for the last day?! I kept driving, and saw no kids whatsoever, except one little group of about 7 kids. What the heck was going on? Right as I was looking at everything, Katie Nichol called me and said, “Where were you at school pick up? I waited for a long time, but ran to the grocery store. Do you want me to go back and wait with your kids?” That is when I realized that I had mixed up the early-out day’s time with the minimum day’s time. Give me a break — 12:50 and 11:50!
Look at my poor kids.
That was what Dash would call, “an epic fail”.
The only silver lining — someone had a bird that Navy got to hold.
I guess that makes it a “fail” and not one of epic proportions.
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As we drove away with Bergeson in our dust, we blared, “School’s Out For Summer”!!!!
Scout, Navy and I had a goal of finishing the Book of Mormon before the school year was out. It is the kid version, and is almost exactly the same. But the kid version has added pictures which help them learn visually too. It came down to the wire…I mean the wire! But on our very last day of school, we read the last word. I am SO proud of these kids who sacrificed sleep every morning, to sit next to me as I read to them. And in an effort for them to really understand the scriptures, I would read, and then explain and compare it to the life we live in. Some days, we would only get through a page. But we did it!!!
And I must say that some of my most precious moments of my life were in those wee hours of peace and quiet, next to my two oldest kids. They were also some of our most hilarious moments. Navy would always make comments that were so funny, and Scout and I would be rolling at her. One of the most famous was when I read about how the early Nephites had to till the land so they would produce an abundance of crops. Navy stopped me and said, “MOM…don’t you mean CROTCH”? I looked at Scout, and he looked at me, and we started laughing hysterically. She was so serious. We told her the difference between the two words, and then she realized why we were laughing, and she laughed about it too. And from that point on, every single time the word “crops” came up in the scriptures, someone would make that same remark.
I thought hero stories was the best thing ever with my kids. But early morning scriptures tops even the hero stories.
These kids were really proud of themselves.
And I was so proud of them also.
Nice work Scout and Navy!
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