Those Little Moments

I just got back from Girls Camp (and it was a blast). The last night I stayed up really late, so when I got home, I just slept pretty much the rest of the day.

This morning, while playing around on the computer, I opened a sticky note Rachel had typed up. It read, "try to call indi for a playdate soon and ,make sure lindsey gets enough sleep."

Oh how I love my sisters...

Promotion

The summer is finally here. I am glad to be out of school, but I'm also a little sad, 8th grade has been my favorite year so far. But the end has also been so much fun! On Tuesday night I had promotion, which is basically a ceremony to commemorate graduation followed by a dance. That was so much fun! A lady in our ward came and did my hair really pretty and I got to wear a dress we picked out last week and experiment with a little bit of makeup. The end result was so exciting for me! It's hard to believe that I will be a freshman in the fall.

Arrived!

We finally bought a new car. After a lot of research, test driving, research, and pressure from a sick mini-van, we bought a Honda Pilot. It is very exciting. Our first new new car. Rachel and Gracie have checked out all the cool things about it and think it's the best car ever. At one point I was telling them they they can't climb over the seats. Rachel, who was in the back and wanting to come into the front asked how she should get there. Before I told her about folding the seat down, I asked her to get the seat belt that is in the ceiling in the back. She immediately said "Oh, I can swing from the seat belt to the front?" Truly this was the coolest car!

2/10 Madsen CA trip

Music picture video of our trip to California.

10 thoughts on our California vacation

Thoughts on our trip:
1. If traffic laws were similar to pedestrian traffic at Disney Land, we would have a far less successful nation.
2. There are a lot of Mormons at Disney Land. Since only (roughly) 10% of church membership wear BYU sweat shirts, and I must have seen a dozen BYU sweat shirts, I'm guessing upwards of 25% of the people there were Mormon.
3. You can go to Disney Land just for the flowers. They are lovely!
4. Disney Land isn't such a happy place that kids don't ever cry. Nor that moms don't yell at their crying kids.
5. Captain E.O. is super stupid, but was Michael Jackson's prime time for looking good. When he appeared, everyone applauded, including me.
6. I had to take lots of pictures of the Dumbo ride because when I went to Disney Land with my niece Kaila that was the only ride she wanted to do, so as a 12 year old that was my Disney Land experience--Dumbo.
7. We opted not to go to Sea World and rather stay at the beach, and I think we had just as much fun.
8. Military lodges are the best place to meet friends, especially for kids. Every time my kids have fond memories of new friends they made.
9. My kids can spend hours and hours in the sand and not ever get bored (which explains our giant sand pit in the back yard).
10. Family vacations are the best. They are worth the long drive and the money spent. Really.

Rachel

Rachel has been home from school with pink eye for a few days this week. When she went back to school she decided that she needed to go to the nurses office. She LOVES the nurses office, something about being sick and having special attention paid is so motivating to her. She went to get her eye checked, since, well, it hadn't been checked in a while. She wasn't feeling sick and her eye had no pink it it, but somehow I got a call to come and get her. So today when she went to school I gave her explicit instructions to NOT go to the nurses office.

Yesterday I was doing her hair and noticed that all the clippies were not on the clippy board. I asked her where they were, and she answered as casually as possible "I know, I saw that they weren't there and wondered where the hell they were." I just laughed, so much that I didn't even correct her.

Today on the way home from piano lessons Rachel got a special treat from her teacher for practicing a certain amount of time. She came into the car and read the back of her gummy life savors. One was blackberry flavor. Now, I've been trying to teach my kids to try new things, even if they don't think they'll like them. Rachel is one of the worst at this. But when she read the flavor options she said very sweetly: hm, I've never tasted blackberry, I might not like it--but I'm going to try it. How brave of her, to taste a new flavor of candy. I'm getting somewhere.

Homemade Gifts '09

We have joined the home made is best bandwagon. Here is our first year projects:

Kimmer had Rachel and tied a fleece blanket for her. Rachel loves it. It was a favorite especially for the long drive to Utah and Idaho.

Rachel had Gracie and tied her a tulle skirt. She told me that sometimes her teacher would teach them something and they would learn it so well that the teacher didn't need to help them any more. That was a subtle hint for me to leave her be. It took me a bit to get that hint--she had to be more direct. But she did a great job, and Gracie loves to dress up, so perfect.

Lindsey had Kimmer and made her a bow and clippy board. It is darling and super useful. Now we can invest in more bows.

Gracie painted Jane's name, which she loved to do. Several times when I checked to see if it was dry I noticed that she had "worked" on it a bit more. She really did the painting and the polka dots. Cute!

Janie had Lindsey and "helped" put the flower stems in izzy bottles. Lindsey has a shelf above her closet and these will go nicely there. It's amazing how Janie is so smart like that.