Really this began two weeks before summer's end with Mom Dates and then Dad dates. I got a sitter for a few afternoon's in a row and took Marianne, Sam and Kate each on their own personal date. I don't have pictures because I had to leave my phone with our babysitter. Kate and I spent her and my afternoon together getting pedicures and eating Hawaian Snow Cones. She was sure I was taking her to get her ears pierced to she was a bid disappointed. But we did enjoy finding the largest snow cones. She tried to get along and be kind by offering me her bites of her snow cone and being happy. Sam and I played everything there is to play at the Rec Center for hours. Basektball, Soccer, Raquetball. And then we went and got ice cream. A bunch of tourists told me how handsome my son was. Marianne and I went to the store and picked out treats and a painting project. A bird house. We took it all to the park. We painted her bird house and ate our treats. Then we went together to the pet store. Marianne had been going to bed every night asking what we should do the next day. And every day when I turn the question around to her she would say "painting". And although we painted pictures many times I think this finally cured her desire to paint things. A few days later on a Saturday I watched all the kids while Jake took each kid on their own date with him. Beth got to go to the Pet store and the Dollar Store to pick out a treat, Marianne got to go to lunch at Mcdonalds and play at the play land, Sam picked to go play basketball at the rec center again, and Kate went with Dad to buy a new book.
Then it was the last week of summer.
On Monday we met our cousins in Lehi. We went to the store and picked out a picnic. Then took it to the splash pad in Highland that we love. We spent hours with our cousins splashing and picnicking and splashing some more. Then we all went together and got a slurpee.
Tuesday we went to the store and got all the things we needed for the most epic neighborhood water party every. We invited most everyone mom could text on her phone, filled 500 water balloons, a cooler with 200 popsicles and then played for hours with all our friends. There was slip and slide, and water balloon games, and water balloon fights, and the river and water guns and the kid favorite jumping with ice on the trampoline.
Wednesday we went to the Minion's Movie. We rarely go to the movie, and when we do it is usually jake taking some of the older kids. But I decided Mom's Summer Fun Finale warranted me by myself with all the kids. I did take lots of candy for backup. The kids loved it! When we got home we made chalk paint and painted the driveway. It actually didn't work that well, but painting bikes and wagons were more fun to paint. Then we got a pizza and went down to the lake when Dad got home. We splashed in the cold lake water and tried to build sandcastles and swam until it was too dark to do anymore.
Thursday I took the kids to pick raspberries in Payson. This is one of my favorite things to do each year. The kids and I leisurely picked raspberries and strawberries in a pleasant summer day. We picked 6 or more lbs. And later the next day we turned them to jam. I love that my kids love farm activities as much as I do. We also did three or four more brag tags. Then I set up the tent in the backyard and let the kids play in it as much as they wanted. They decided to not sleep in it though at around 9pm and all came inside..
Friday Mom was loosing steam. Doing all the chores all by myself and planning and executing all the fun was wearing me out. So we spent the day playing in the backyard and playing in the culda sac on bikes with our friends. The kids got to play video games and watch movies and they thought that was pretty fun. That night we went to the last brag tag activity. There were raffle kind of games like eating donuts off strings like you can see in the pictures above. There was also a ton of prizes given out in the raffle. Even though we had maybe 250 tickets because of all the brag tags we did all summer, I think only two other families had gotten more. But all we won were school supplies. There were money gift cards and bikes, but all we won were binders and pencils. Oh well. The kids had decent enough attitudes about it.
Saturday we went as a family to Seven Peaks for the last time. It was super crowded. Everyone was trying to get in their last trip to Seven Peaks. The kids have loved our Seven Peaks Passes this year and swimming. I think we will continue to do this in the future if we can.
Sunday we went to church, but afterward we planned a fun outing. We drove out to antelope island. We had never been there before and thought we might just see a few bison. But there were museums and pioneer activities. Of course we had a picnic there too. And we saw hundreds and hundreds of bison! We all thought it was a hidden gem we were sad we hadn't thought to go to before.
Monday was the last day before the first day of school. And although it wasn't super fun, we went shopping for lunch items and organized them into lunch making stations. Got all our school supplies and organized them in our homework cupboard. Hung up our backpacks, set out our clothing, and even got to go to back to school night and met our teachers. I also planned a Back to School Dinner. It was centered around Gordon B Hinkley's "Be" Talk. I used all the dishes I have with bees, yellow plates, flowers I found around the yard and street, then honey glazed chicken, honeycomb, honey dew melon, cornbread with honey butter and a honey cake and some yellow soda and some Oreo's I made to look like Bees. I had decorated our calendar with all the new things we were starting and all of the Be's listed.
This week was a great week. I often look back wishing I had been a better Mom, a more fun mom. But at least for one week I feel like I did my very best. I really enjoyed this week. It is really hard for me to put aside the things I feel need to be done- like laundry and dinner and such. But I did, I picked up every day with spontaneous or planned ideas and we went and had fun!
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