June 2011

Evelyn - Went to the dentist twice this month to get all her cavities filled. She is our cavity queen (unfortunately). The dentist prescribed some special vitamins with fluoride to try and help strengthen her teeth.

Lydia - Saw her orthopedic surgeon 3 times this month. On the second visit she got her cast off and on the third visit she was cleared for all activity! She also got to take swim lessons (2 week session) on her own since she did not get to do an extra-curricular activity during the school year. She loves to be in the water and was able to move up to the next class. She is now caught up with Felicity.

Lydia modeling her new swimsuit.
She really wanted one with shorts or a skirt.

Felicity - Went with the Beehives to do baptisms at the temple. Also learned how to do Family Search indexing and did a few batches here at home even. She really enjoys it!All the Young Women had a bake-off for one of our activities. The secret ingredient was marshmallows. One group decorated cupcakes in a Madagascar theme with them and the other group made s'mores cupcakes and marshmallow fondant and decorated cupcakes with it. We took some of the extras to the Bishop's family. Felicity has been enjoying trying out some different recipes this month also.Felicity's mini oreo cake. Frost two oreos together, roll in coconut and drizzle with chocolate. Let sit (covered) overnight to soften a little if desired.

Felicity's Cherry-Cola jello snack.

She also did an awesome job helping me clean
all the hard water deposits off the basement windows!

Lauri - I really enjoyed going to the temple to do baptisms with the beehives. Even though I only helped them, it was still enjoyable and it was my first time seeing the baptistry at the Idaho Falls Temple.

Shawn - Went to the annual IDAMFT retreat in Hailey, ID. For Father's Day Saturday, we made Daddy breakfast in bed and then went and played disc golf. On Sunday we made Daddy a German Chocolate cake. Shawn earned his first Brown Belt at the end of the month! Way to go Shawn!The Girls - We went on our annual "girls week" trip to Mayfield with my mom. We always look forward to this week with our grandmas! This year it was a short week - 5 days - but still fun and relaxing. We stopped for lunch in McCammon and visited with Grandma Sorenson on our way down. Our first night out mom took us to dinner at Cracker Barrel and to see Seussical the Musical at the Hale Center Theater in Orem. It was a really fun, cute show! It was great to see how many of the Dr. Seuss stories they could weave into one musical tale, and all the actors were very talented. We drove to Mayfield after the show and didn't get there until around midnight. We had a hot dog roast, played at the park and Grandma treated us to dinner at Lishy Lou's - the cafe in the little Mayfield market/gas station. We also helped grandma plant corn and flowers in her garden, move sprinkler pipe and clean up some branches in the far pasture. Shawn was able to drive down in Mom's car on Friday and spend the weekend with us. We went into Ephraim to see Kung-Fu Panda 2 and to eat at the old Fat Jack's. Even though it is called something else now, they still have the "fat sticks" that we loved to get during our college days at Snow! After going to sacrament meeting on Sunday packed up to leave. We stopped at the cemetery in Fayette to see Grandpa Olsen and Blaine's graves and then all the girls got to have a turn to ride with Grandma alone until around Brigham City.

Waving to Dad at our "Wienie Roast".

Swinging on the hammock.

Climbing the tree after cleaning up sticks in the pasture.

We also had a family yard sale during our neighborhood garage sale. It was during the weekend Shawn was gone, but he helped us set up tables and bring everything up from the basement before he left. He rocks! We tried to sell cinnamon rolls, hot cocoa, water, lemonade and rice krispies treats, but they didn't do too well. I wouldn't mess with that again. We did sell most of our "big" items - a bike, microwave, stereo - and made about $100. Afterwards, we loaded up the van, took all the leftovers to the D.I. and then went to McDonald's for drinks - frozen lemonades or a smoothie - with some coupons I had.

We've also been working on our summer reading and went to the library to participate in a couple of their Greek Myth plays. The kids are assigned parts with simple props and then the children's librarian narrates and feeds the kids some lines to tell the stories. In June they did Orpheus & Eurydice, and Tantalus & Pelops.

Lydia as a sad Persephone (Hades' wife) in the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Evelyn as a sad Hippodania (wife of Pelops) in the story of Tantalus and Pelops.
Felicity as the "stable boy."

For "Summer School" we did some science experiments one day. This is a picture of the girls experimenting with some water-proof sand. We did a couple of others but our water/oil lava lamp didn't turn out very well and I can't remember what the other one was. Another day, Lydia taught us an experiment with milk, food coloring, and dish-soap that someone did in her class during the school year. (I'll explain it on our Crazy House Creations blog.)

Family - We spent a FHE planting our garden and working in the yard. This year we planted corn, zucchini, yellow squash, radishes, onions, green onions, peas, and carrots. I also planted some canna lilly bulbs I got from Grandma Olsen.

On the last day of June, we left for Boise and McCall for the Sorenson family reunion. We got to mom and dad's house in time for lunch, and then we followed them up to the house in McCall that they rented for all of us to stay in. Andrea and Taryn were there along with Bryan and Gina's family. That night we played some "Minute to Win It" games.