Kiera's birthday party

I love parties.



We always spend a considerable amount of time brainstorming for party themes, but this year I was just out of time and energy. Kiera came up with this one. Have you read any of the Elephand and Piggie series by Mo Willems? They are my favorite books right now. Se clever and funny. The two characters are so endearing in their BFF relationship and interactions. Love Mo Willems. I want to be like him when I grow up.

Anyway, we decided to make one of the books into a movie for the party. We had the party guests play the role of Elephant and let the birthday girl play the role of Piggy. The gist of the story goes that Piggie is invited to her first party. She has a bit of naivety and Elephant is the old sage. He suggests first that the party might be a fancy party, so they quickly ready themselves. He goes on to suggest other party options and they get ready. Piggie's patience is tested a bit, but she trusts her best friend. Remember, Elephant knows parties.

The small screen debut of "I Am Invited to a Party"



We are wild and crazy with our parties. Our neighbor rang the doorbell incessantly until we came to the door. She complained about the obscene amount of noise (coming from a five year old party with 10 children) and proceeded to tell us she was going to call the cops on us. At 3:45 in the afternoon. We wished her luck with that.

Black Rock Memorial Day

Summer kickoff.

I know it has almost been almost a month since, but this was such a fun trip I didn't want to pass it up.

We are going to keep coming to this amazing place as long as we are invited. Please don't sell soon!





This time we went just down the road to Sutter's Mill (where gold was found in California in 1848).  It was fun to see because the fourth graders in the bunch spent the year studying CA history. 



It was also neat to watch the movies about the Mormon settlers who helped establish Sutter's Mill and stayed on to finish the job they committed to,  even when everyone else left to find their fortunes in the Gold Rush.



The rest of the weekend was filled with the usual Black Rock activities.  Four wheeling.



Mule rides.  Canoeing.  Swimming.  Laughing.  Eating. 





Thanks to the Edgren's for another great weekend.  What a great way to start the summer.

Big Five

I am drowning in my life again, but I didn't want to let this pass by (by more than the 6 days that have already passed). My little Kiera is five. Happy birthday my little sugar plum.

I asked told her that she could do anything she wanted for her birthday as long as I could go to the gym for one hour. She replied, "Can we go now?". So off to the gym we went. After the workout, she requested a dounut. Absolutely. Next, she wanted to watch movies all day and be in charge of the DVD player. Check. After school she got the run around to swim team (the sweet photo shoot location) and to dance rehersal. We let her pick where to go for a late dinner (Panda Express much to Maren's chagrin) and ended up her day at 31 flavors. Poor kid. The life of the third child.