I told them to clean their rooms...

I thought the laundry had been on the light side lately.  Looks like they were saving up for me.

Oy vey.

Girl's Camp Prep

 Emma was packing and getting ready for her very first year of Girl's Camp, when I came upstairs to check on her.  I found all of the girls in Emma's room.  I think they are all going to miss Emma.

Emma is so excited.  I think she has been counting down the days since the end of school.

Celebrating Dad

As today was Father's Day, we let Ryan choose his dinner.  He wanted macaroni salad and hot dogs.  

 He also got to choose the Sunday night family movie- The Princess Bride.  Can you believe he'd never seen it before he met me?

Pacific Crest Trail

For Father's Day, Ryan really wanted to hike part of the Pacific Crest Trail.  We aren't exactly equipped for the family to go on a overnight hike in the woods, so we opted for a day hike.  This one started at Lake Tipsoo at Mount Rainier, and provided some amazing vistas.  Sometimes I get lazy, and only take pictures with my cell phone.  Coming home and uploading our pictures on the computer, I am reminded how much better pictures our camera takes.  

 We couldn't sit or stand still for long.  The mosquitoes were so, so thick.  Bug spray did not keep those suckers away enough.  Although, I would guess we would have come home with many more bites without all that bug repellent we administered.

Beauty and the Beast

Everything this week led up to the big performance- the singing, the costume making, the rehearsal of lines, and, of course, the dramatics from dawn to dusk.  Emma landed a speaking part this year.  You know that super creepy guy who comes to haul Maurice away to the insane asylum?  Yah, him.  He has a name- Monsieur D'Arque.  My lovely 12 year old daughter got to be a creepy dude whose name sounds like Mr. Dark.

Annie and Maddie were candle sticks, and happy ones they were too.

 Emma's age group was walking on, and I could not for the life of me pick out my daughter.  I knew she was supposed to be wearing a black shirt/costume of some kind, and would be wearing a man's wig.  But I could. not. see. her.  Ryan found her and laughed at my stupidity.  But seriously, without the arrow below, could you?

 She was wearing a horrendous wig.  I never managed to get a really good photo of it, mostly because Emma ran off the stage as soon as the performance was done to take the thing off.  Think black colonial wig, with a pony tail all the way down her back.  Ryan wants one to go with his mullet wig.  It's that bad.

Elizabeth was much easier to spot.  She's sitting down:

You can tell Elizabeth spotted us too.  She's sporting a great smile.

And a better picture of Emma with the cast.  She has an awesome brown vest to go with the wig.  Emma got to be a male villager when not Monsieur D'Arque.

 Elizabeth's number- the Bonjour song at the beginning of Beauty and the Beast.

 Annie and Maddie's song was Be Our Guest.  The soon-to-be-1st graders were candlesticks and the 2nd graders were food.

And here's Monsieur D'Arque, looking very sinister in the long, black robe.

 And trying to haul Maurice to the Insane Asylum.

 The action was riveting.  Elizabeth's group was entranced.  (Elizabeth by this time had rearranged the stickers on her apron about 5 different times.

 Finale!

One last thing about this performance of Beauty and the Beast.  This has nothing to do with my kids, but it's worth remembering.  So, as the Beast lies dying on stage, Belle says, "I love you," when the Beast suddenly gets up, leaves, and is replaced by a much shorter boy (Ben A who is from church) who lies down flat for about 3 seconds.  Belle is still weeping, and Ben sits up, stands up, and tells Belle, "It's me!"  Belle gets up and has to look way, way down to see that this smaller boy is indeed her true love.  They stare awkwardly into each other's eyes, and fist bump.  No pretend kisses for this crowd!  Ryan loved it.  He thinks we should tell our kids that fist bumps are appropriate displays of affection at least until the end of high school.  We'll see how well that goes over.

Dress Up Days

Drama Camp has been this week, easing us into summer vacation.  Sometimes we get a bit cranky when big changes come, so I was glad for the chance for the girls to see friends and have something to do for half of the day.  

Monday was "favorite costume day."

 Obviously the kids are practicing their dramatics.

 Maddie- a mom, Annie- princess, Elizabeth- a fashion model, Emma- an artist

 Tuesday was pj day.

 Wednesday was crazy day.  Frankly the kids were a lot less crazy than years past.

Then this picture I took to illustrate how almost every day is "crazy day" at our house.  These are examples of perfectly acceptable outfits for the everyday wear, in the eyes of Annie and Maddie.  Some days I think the kids are going to be appalled at the outfits I let them wear.  But they pick out their clothes, and they think they look nice.  What can I say to that?

Summer Time

With all of our raspberries, I feel like I need to do plenty of baking.  I've made a few batches of freezer jam already, several pies, and then this is my latest delicious excuse to eat raspberries:

 They are Raspberry Cheesecake Crumb bars, recipe found here.  If you like cheesecake, I highly recommend checking it out.  Just a note- I added some spoonfuls of raspberry freezer jam in addition to the fresh raspberries.  I took a batch with us to a Spanish Branch (church) activity, and they seemed to be a hit.  I've also made these with blackberries.  Mmmmm.  Speaking of which, I think we are only a couple of weeks away from blackberry season.  We will be swimming in berries.

I came across Maddie and Emma playing a game of checkers and listening to music today.

It made me smile.

Play Time

We are so excited for summer free time!  Today we spent a couple of hours at a friend's house playing.  The kids came up with something that mine probably would not have come up with on their own:

 Double-decker swinging!

We were actually invited over to play in the pool.  There were 5 families worth of kids in the backyard, so there was plenty of running around and noise.  Once again though, Emma was the oldest kid there.  She is tired of that.  Good thing Girls Camp is next week.

I thought Elijah was tough/brave having Elizabeth sit on his shoulders.  She is an entire year and two days older than he is.

Fail

I have decided that making scrambled eggs on our griddle isn't the greatest of ideas.  Even though the griddle was preheated, it was no match for the grease hole.

Silliness

Elizabeth has always been extremely flexible.  Several years ago we discovered she is the only person I know who could actually lick her elbow.  I mean, isn't one of those things no one is supposed to be able to do?  

We were being silly tonight with the can of spray whip cream.  Well, most of the time the bottle is out is silly time.  We can't seem to use it without spraying it on body parts.  Sometimes it is just in someone's mouth, and other times, something like this happens.

We thought Elizabeth might have outgrown her ability to lick her elbow.  Not so much.