Aren't Munchkins Just Wonderful...

Look at her. Completely and utterly adorable. Love that girl.

Ambra has been involved in Music Camp this summer. Since the day school was out, she has had practice EVERY SINGLE DAY, all morning long (well 5 days a week). 101 fantastic young performers put on a beautiful Musical Review called The Wickedly Wonderful Land of Oz, and a play spoof of Alladin. So darling. All the performers were fabulous as well as the directors. This was Ambra's first time doing something like this and she loved it.


Look at her give some attitude. Love it.

This is her cute little costume for Alladin. She was a "slave girl".

For Wizard of Oz, they wanted Whoville type hair. We copied Cindy Lou Whos. A styrofoam ball is holding up that hairdo. Believe me when I say we had SO much fun doing this hair for 4 performances plus the dress rehearsals (NOT). Well, it really wasn't too bad- took about 30 minutes and the first few times around were extremely exciting, so at least no complaining.

Her cute little friends in the neighborhood that she did the camp with.

Lots of singing and dancing and lines and memorizing. She did so awesome for her first time. We couldn't be more proud.

She is already talking about next summers performance. (Cole is too, watching this performance 4 nights in a row, he has a ton memorized himself. Guess we'll have to put him in it too.)

Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth! It always brings tears to my eyes when we sing the Star Spangled Banner. There is such a spirit with that song, and my heart soars to sing it. I loved the fourth on Sunday. A full weekend of partying and I am always for the party.

Here we are in our 4th Church duds.



Cole refused to wear a tie that day, and we were to much in a hurry to force the issue. Hate that.

Yummy. Sugar cookie fruit flag. A tradition in our home.

Here we are waiting for our Layton parade to start.

We sat with some friends at the parade.

Adam's chair fell apart during the parade. He did a stellar job holding it together with his hands so he could still sit.

Some of my fav floats.

We did the Ogden River on Saturday and again on Monday. It was a blast. The first day I got thrown in during one of the little water falls. Second day I wised up and made Adam go last. ( we tie ourselves together so we don't lose the kiddies, when you slide down the falls it whips the last person pretty quick and creates a suction. I couldn't handle it and went in. Cole about freaked out to see me in the river. Poor kid).

The second day we pioneered it and went for the further route. There were a few obstacles we weren't expecting and it got a little hairy a few times. We had an audience of about twenty in a family that were picnicing as we went over large rocks, the current sucking us under brush, Ariah was crying and we were all screaming trying not to get poked by all the brush and pop holes in our gear over the rocks. When we finally got it together, the poor little mexican fisherman was just staring at us with his mouth wide open.

Yes we are crazy and yes we're going again this weekend. :)

AHHHHH...Love the summer time yard

Every year it seems like we try and try to do something nice with our yard. It has always looked nice, but something has always been wrong. Either my flowers wont grow, or we put to much compost in and burned everything, or our lawn has grubs, or we don't water enough... or I could go on and on. Well this year we wised up and bought lots of shrubs that will stay green all year. We are trying to cover our flower beds (we have 8 plus 5 garden areas) so that we don't have to keep buying annuals. I also sprung for the Miracle Grow. I have never taken the time to do this and it has made such a difference.


I planted my pots at a nursery this year and she kept them there to feed and water - WHOAAA - huge difference. My pots are huge and lucious this year. Totally love it.


My delphiniams are getting bigger this year. Love those flowers. (the tall blue and white ones).

This is the first year I have bought zinnias. I was so worried about them and swore I would never plant them again because they took like a month to do anything. Even get one bloom. But I am totally sold now. Love them. They look like their straight from a magazine.

See that grey fence in the background? That has been on our project list for the last five years. Well we spent the last few days staining it and it is looking awesome. I will post some after pics soon.

Camping

Well I decided I as done with camping. It takes an entire day to pack, and entire day to clean up and you get a rough nights sleep every single time. Plus, Cole usually gets sick and we have come home in the middle of the night several times. Ugh.


Adam is all about doing things for the kids sake and decided to step in on this one. (and this from a guy that I had to force to camp in the past. I bought this guy and tent trailer and that still wasn't enough. - we finally sold it because we don't have a cement pad and he wanted his parking in the garage back).

Anyway, we usually go for at least 2 nights because if your going through all the hassle you might as well right? Well he decided to go for one and make the camp pack list. He told me to plan 30 minutes for packing and lets go. OK - lets try it your way.

Much better. Half the hassle with camping is all the food. We took way easy stuff - nothing that even needed to stay cold - and I didn't have to stress ab0ut that. He cut out alot of the hassle and it only took me about an hour to get ready for. Sweet. I can do that. Leaving early on Friday and coming back Sat. was just fine. Especially because we chose Farmington Canyon and that is super close to home.

I can do this again.

Love those swim lessons!

My kids count how many more "sleeps" we have until very exciting things. Swim lessons was one of those "sleep" counters. We started as soon as school got out. Cole and Ambra are great swimmers thanks to their great swim teacher that lives just around the corner from us. The bonus is she lets us use her pool at other times to come swim. Thanks Jeanyce, your great! :)


Ambra loves to dive for rings. Here is her load.



The last 15 minutes of lessons, the kids get free time. They can use floaties and tubes and do whatever they want.

Ariah isn't quite old enough for this swim teacher. She doesn't take them until 4, but she would always get in during free time. She has NO FEAR. That girl jumps the diving board and does the slide with the rest of the older kids. GO ARIAH.

Nice toe touch Ambra :)