Surviving Recruiting Season Part II

Here we are in the middle of Daniel's second long trip of July. The girls and I are flying to Boston tomorrow so here's what we have been up to.

While Sadie and Elise were at a birthday party Millie and I ran a bunch of errands. At Old Navy she furiously pulled clothes off the shelves and tried to put them on. And of course she posed while riding the dog like a horse. 

Another stop was at Target. I was looking at lotion when Camille started yelling  "Kylie! Kylie!". She was pointing to this picture. Man, my kids really need to be exposed to more diversity. I texted Kylie and told her we spotted a woman who looks nothing like her. 

We had a picnic and tried out the Provo splash pad. We give it a big thumbs down, mainly due to the fact that it was crazy packed. We had to circle for 10 minutes just to get a parking spot. 

 I like to describe Millie as scrappy. She is completely independent and confident. On the left below is her trying to steal water balloons from strangers. She circled these kids and kept trying to jump in when she saw an opening. I could not stop laughing. Then on the right below is her harassing a poor dog. 

 Finally, I am SO relieved I didn't wear my backless pink dress and heels to the splash pad. That would have been embarrassing. 

 After the splash pad we met Amanda (one of Daniel's players) at Rockwell Ice Cream. If I am in Provo of course I have to hit that up. 

 Lou's last book club. 

Meet-up at the Alpine splash pad with Julia and the extended Clark family. I realized when I got home that I had a dried water drop on my camera lens so my pictures have a weird haze to them. Oh well. I love love love love getting to spend time with lifelong friends like Jules. There is nothing like it. 

Now it's off to Boston and Austin!

Millie the Nap Menace

Millie empties her crib every day when we put her down for a nap. This includes stripping her sheets and taking off all clothing that she can. On this day she even took off her diaper. She claimed she had peed in her bed, but luckily she hadn't. I have learned that she can't get onesies or leggings off so she will probably be sleeping in those for the next year. She is a menace. 

Other stuff

We fit in some fun stuff in the week that Daniel was home between trips. 

Sadie lost tooth #4. Finally lost one of her bottom teeth. 

I included this picture from one of my runs just so that I can mention that I have been running 3-4 times a week early in the morning with friends. I am not a runner and I am not a morning person but doing it with friends makes it much easier. 

Pool party with the team. Makenzi Morrison-Pulsipher's parents have a beautiful house in Draper and they invited us all over for a BBQ. Our girls were in heaven. Sadie and Elise both showed me how much better they have gotten at swimming. The whole pool was over Sadie's head but she did a great job without any floaties. Elise swam for nearly an hour without a floatie as well. The girls spent plenty of time in the hot tub also. 

We had some friends over for dinner and we were reminiscing about jobs we had in college. It made me crave my favorite sandwich from the 2 years I worked at the MOA Cafe- the turkey harvest croissant. Walmart only had mini croissants, but it doesn't matter when you have the yummy cinnamon orange cream cheese. 

I can never get enough of kids in goggles. Never.

Sadie and I attended a local performance of Tom Sawyer. Two girls from our neighborhood were in it and it was at a beautiful amphitheater a couple blocks from us. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. I feel like usually the boys in these kind of shows are not great, but everyone had great voices.

 Had to get a picture with the school teacher and Aunt Polly. The girl in the red dress babysits for us regularly.

Don't mind the close up of my face but I wanted to document my harrowing eyebrow journey. I got my eyebrows tinted/shaped/waxed and I love them. This is how they look when I wake up. I have been trying to grow my brows in for over a year and I have done a decent job; however, occasionally when I am stressed I will revert back to my trichotillomania days and pull at them. I am hoping the tinting will keep me from touching them.

Elise was deep in a pretend world

Sadie lost tooth #5. That makes 3 teeth lost in the last month. Tooth fairy has been B.U.S.Y

Some sad good-byes on the day dad left. Millie has begged for him every morning.

Surviving Recruiting Season

July is probably my most dreaded month of the year. Daniel is gone more than half the month with recruiting. My kids are all home so it is harder than the basketball season when we get breaks from one another while they are at school. Of course during the season I will probably claim it is worse, but for now I am whining about July. 

Here's what we did during Daniel's first long trip of the month.

Lemonade stand. This was on our summer bucket list and Sadie made the sign back in June to prepare. They ended up making $13.80! I guess that's the advantage when you live on a somewhat busy corner.

Hair cuts. Cookie Cutters is one of my girls' favorite places. They beg to get their hair cut. Sadie decided she wanted to cut off her long hair. I didn't think she would actually do it, but she followed through.

 It is not fun to bring Millie. She doesn't get her hair cut, but she does run around wreaking havoc.

 Elise was the perfect patient, as usual. She happily watched a show while she got a few inches trimmed off. It is weird to have the switch of hair lengths. Sadie has always had much longer hair, but now it's Lou.

Visit from the Cottles. We met up for dinner at the Alpine Splash pad and then played at our house for a bit after. 

Lots of dress-ups. I took these pictures to document Millie's increased interest in the costumes.

Book club. Elise made a friend and they were very cute.

Several trips to the pond and various local splash pads. Camille loves to throw sand and it is annoying.

Early morning pictures sent to Daniel. 

BBQ with some neighborhood friends. Millie has guts when it comes to trampolines (she is in the red skirt). She did not want to get off that thing all night. A bunch of 8-10 year old boys jumped and she still wouldn't back off. She got tossed around a lot, but loved it and terrified me.

Pizza picnic at the park. Sadie stared at a dad and his 2 sons while they played soft toss. The dad invited Sadie to play and gave her lots of batting pointers. It was adorable. As we were leaving he ran up and offered Sadie a small mitt. He said his daughter doesn't use it anymore. Sadie was beaming. Such a nice guy. Millie was out of clean clothes so she walked around with a onesie and leggings. Little ragamuffin.

Macey's grocery shopping. We get the 30 cent kids ice cream at any time of the day. Whether it's 10 AM or 7 PM. Although the one time they ate it at 10 AM it was slightly runny since it hadn't had time to harden. 

Millie tantrums. These 2 pictures were taken about 3 minutes apart, with the tantrum coming first. I think she was crying about wanting to hear Child of God so I told her to play it herself and she did.

Dance parties. You can't just have a dance party in any old get-up. Gotta commit. Tights and leotards.

More Camille sadness. She is definitely a bit dramatic but she cheers up quickly. Her tantrum abilities are nowhere near what Sadie's were at this age.

 More book club. At this point I have no memory of which books she did, but I love that the girl takes so many picture of the kids. I also love that Elise is so authentically herself. Check out her pose in the third picture below.

Donut run. Camille changed her mind 3 times about what kind of donut she wanted and I wouldn't give in. She finally picked off each sprinkle individually and was then satisfied.