Fun Friday

From sun up to sun down, we had some serious fun today! Hey we take this Friday business seriously! 

Bright and early it was the last day of volleyball camp for Keags and Rys, but more about that on a later post. Avery Lake came home with us from camp and I took three excited little girls to see Despicable Me 3 on opening day! We loaded up on snacks and loved the movie!

After the movie, the girls had even more fun playing at our house together! And then tonight it was Riley's turn to see her school friends! She has been SO excited to go to a pool party at Alessandro's house with Noah and Lane! It was a really great night with some really great families! Thankfully I love all these mommas and Alessandro's sister is also Keagans friend! It works out so great! And of course we love the other two sisters, Phoebe and Hollis too! The kids played hard, the parents chatted and there were no strange looks at any of our special kids quirks! It was great! 

Some amazingly strong siblings! 

And all of this fun is par for the course this summer! We've been busy making memories in all of June, not just today! More later on the last two weeks of camp, but we've squeezed in a lot more including some laziness of course!

Fathers Day was a little rough for me but it was definitely sweetened by a rare Sunday nap with my Riley!

We jumped on the band wagon of 2017 and made slime as is the current trend! 

We had Campbell over one day and ended up at the trampoline park for some serious fun! Why yes, yes Riley is in her Cinderella costume!

Keags had her lemonade stand going and also worked hard earning her money to buy a new lego set. The Joker mobile was built before I knew it. She really is amazing'

Both girls had a fantastic time feeling pampered and loved as Reagan and her friend Elise did their make up and hair and took pictures of them in several outfits for a personal progress project on photography! The teenage girls were seriously SO cute with my little girls who felt so special! 

And not so much fun per say, but we've also knocked out a whole bunch of appointments! Therapy, make up therapy, the eye doctor for Riley, 3 doctors appointments for me and both girls at the dentist! At least the two little Kikuchi girls are lookin good! Thank heavens for no cavities and no need for glasses!

Riley HATES the dentist like her momma! 


Summer has really been good to us so far! So much fun stuff! Tonight I realized I must be doing something right when I saw this...

Keagan brought home a Coke for me from the pool party and attached a note! She knows the way to my heart for sure! Seriously SO sweet I had to document it! That goes along with her saying last night that the way she would describe me is "sweet and kind." Not sure that's always true but I sure appreciate it from my baby who doesn't just freely compliment me! And the other day in the car she said Riley was SO lucky that she doesnt have to go away to college and leave mommy! So maybe I'm doing something right this summer because I think all that means she loves me! 

I sure love them both and love having a job with summers off to be with them! Now let's see what fun we can have in July! 

 

You Win Some

Besides doing VBS this past week, we also had lots of other stuff going on of course. We did what you do in summer and made memories as planned but there was also lots, and lots, and lots of crying. Sweet Riley girl has been having kind of a hard time lately. She is very passionate about what she wants and doesn't easily give in. Sometimes that does us a whole lot of good but other times it is seriously rough!! Rough! 

After one particularly painful tantrum my mom looked at me and said "you win some, you lose some." My response was "I feel like I win one and then lose 25!" That summed up the week. Unfortunately we can't wear our ballet costume to VBS or eat 10 Reese's peanut butter cups for lunch! And that insights 40 mins of tears, yelling and screaming. Yes our smiley Riley who oozes joy can also flip to the other extreme on the turn of a dime! I know full well that she is just trying to be more independent and that is totally typical behavior. But it  is SO hard for her momma! And might I add for her sister! It's a good thing she is SO stinkin cute!!! 

Examples of when I lost the battle...

Wearing our ballet costume as soon as we get home from VBS and then refusing to get out of Sa's blanket basket to eat dinner! 

 

Wearing her talent show costume underneath her dress to church on Sunday including the colorful tutu! I just wanted to go to church in peace! 

 

Tantrums! 

 

Uggg! But when we got her calm and happy we also had a ton of fun this week! 

Keagan was so excited to turn all her piggy bank money in to get $15! She worked hard for that!

 

We have been going on walks because we gotta get it together for Disneyworld in January!

 

On Tuesday we met Audrey, Avery, and Lauren and their fun moms and siblings at the pool for classic summer fun!

 

And spent all afternoon and night on Thursday swimming with the Monson's and the Frenchs. The kids played and swam hard for hours and us moms made unforgettable memories too! 

 

  

I spoke at a mother daughter Activity Days meeting for Parkway Ward about turning lemons into lemonade. I based it on the quote "when life gets sour, sweetin it with gratitude!" Keagan said I did great but that it was much too long! 

 

 

  

After mismatch day at VBS on Wednesday Riley had an appointment at TCH in the Woodlands. She rocked that mismatch outfit for her yearly kidney ultrasound! It did her good because she cooperated so much better then she ever has before! 

 

And we made a summer reading nook underneath the dining room table! One of my summer goals is to help Keagan like reading again so I'm hoping that helps! 

 

 

 

And after all that plus VBS we have stayed in our jammies and had a long, lazy Saturday! I think it was much needed and definitely earned! 

 

VBS Round 1

This week was Mormons with Methodists round 3! It has been another awesome experience going to VBS at Faithbridge Methodist Church! The theme this year was "Maker Fun Factory, created by God, built for a purpose." I love that! 

The girls made robots, marble runs, played lots of games, heard bible stories and did a whole lot of singing and dancin!! 600 kids singing loud about Jesus gets me every year! Don't worry though, we bought the CD so we can sing the songs all year long! Just like previous years. Riley's shadow Kaitlyn was darling and a huge help! And their team leader Monika was awesome. The girls were blessed to have their friends Lauren and Reid in the same group and we saw lots of other Scottie friends there! And we even saw Brill,  Preschool and some high schook friends there which is so fun! 

We have one more VBS to go to later this summer so we have something more to look forward to! Plus the songs will stay with us. Honestly, I'm seriously considering changing my ringtone to one of them! Yes that's how much we love VBS! 

 

Look at all those cute Scotties! Even Mrs Thompson was there!

 

 

Crazy hair day! 

  

Kaitlyn! 

 

Mismatch day! 

 

The VBS celebrities! 

 

 

We LOVED it! 

 

Riley's Remarkable Recital

Yesterday was a parent pay day! Occasionally we get big pay offs for all the blood, sweet and tears that goes into this mommin business. And yesterday was a jackpot! 

It was Riley's ballet recital day! The girl was ecstatic and I shared her enthusiasm! She had dress rehersal Thursday night and it went great. That is when I got it, aka the Sweet Treat Ballet, on video because there was no video allowed at the actual recital. She did great at dress rehersal but even better at the recital! She looked gorgeous in her costume, her smile lit up the whole stage, she stayed on her spot, she did a lot of the choreography and of course she waved! She even kept waving after the lights dropped low and they huddled off stage. That was after she clapped for herself of course! 

It was 100 degrees of darling and we both loved every minute! It has been a semi interesting year of dance with studio location changes but it was a sweet group of 3-4 year old girls including our good friend Phoebe Flores. And of course we have adored Miss Taylor! We were thankful for her and so thankful for Riley's awesome cheering section at the recital! It was me, the supportive twin sister who should have been in the recital herself but she refused to dance this year, Sa, Todd, Nana, Coach and even our neighbor Roxanne who used to be a dance mom herself and didn't want to miss a recital. 

But most of all I was thankful my baby could shine on stage and feel so happy and confident to do so! She deserves nothing less for her hard work and her beautiful heart! I will always count it a cherished memory and privledge that I got to witness her do so!