A Touch Of Tyrell

About half way through Kindergarten Roxy joined a dance class.  She really loved it and it was right up her ally... it was more of an interpretive type of dance. The recital was in May and she did so good! We were super proud of her! *These are pictures from the rehearsals* *she's the only one in blue The sign up for this year was a few weeks ago and at the last minute she decided not to sign up. Even though I was confident she loved the interpretive style, she said she wanted to do the type of dance with costumes.  She's also in Gymnastics so I actually don't know if I'll even put her in dance unless she asks incessantly. She's pretty tired by the end of the week with all-day school anyways. But I didn't want to forget about the year she did interpretive dance!

This summer we bought passes to Cowabunga Bay... well, the girls and I did. And I talked my neighbor into buying passes for her girls.  Everett is far too cool and old to be doing fun things like this 😅 It was pretty fun... well, at least for the kids! (waterslides, waterslides, waterslides, water spraying in your face, a lazy river and a baby pool...) I get overwhelmed by the heat, crowds, trying to keep the kids happy... Plus, you couldn't take any food into the park (and the food there was like $4,000) so we had to leave and eat our lunch in our car. Which was lame. And the hours were super weird.  But, you know, it's the law of 50/50... it was half great and half terrible!

When we first moved to Utah, last June, I met a mom that has the same number/age/gender of kids as we do. I asked her about sports and she mentioned that her son played lacrosse and Everett should sign up.  She sent me the link and I signed him up... and then I told Everett.  He asked me what lacrosse was and I said "I don't know... we should youTube it!" *back row, black adidas shirt+backwards hat) He played that Fall and then again in Spring. And he's playing again this Fall.  (I told him he couldn't have screens unless he played a sport!) It's been REALLY good for him in a lot of ways.  Last year was a bit easier because it was 5th/6th grade but this year it's 7th/8th so the competition is a lot stronger. He's still one of the biggest boys on the team but he's just so kind and gentle... and I can't be mad about that!  Lacrosse is a REALLY fun sport to watch and we've really enjoyed watching Everett play. 

We have a cool little patio area right out our back door that is the perfect place to put our outdoor furniture and pots of flowers.  Since this was our first year living in this house I wasn't sure where the best place for a garden would be so I just worked plants into the existing landscape.  I find gardening super exciting. It's like a magic trick... the kids love it too.  I grew everything from seed, which makes it even more rewarding and magical when things grow! We have a really big (big in my mind) pumpkin growing, we grew two miniature cantaloups, bell peppers, lemon cucumbers, zinnias, petunias, TONS of cherry tomatoes, two watermelon (but they stopped growing, rotted & died), and a couple of other flowers and vegetables.  It's been fun and a learning process. I think I have a better idea of where to put the garden for next year and I'm pretty excited about it!  

I've been so blessed to be adopted into a fun group of women. We've been to 3 plays together this year.  It's been super fun to be apart of their community.  The first play was a total bust. It was almost like a Napoleon Dynamite. Kind-of entertaining, but confusing and lacked a clear plot. We're still scratching our heads over it! The second one was really great and the latest one was great too. It was To Kill A Mocking Bird and several parts were very touching, and ironically, really funny too.  We've got some lined up for next year and I'm pretty excited about it.   

  Roxy is always asking  demanding me to "watch" "take a picture" "send it to Gus' mom!" These are just a sampling of the pictures.  *in the left picture below she put on some eye shadow and glittery lipgloss. Because she sucks her thumb (still), the added pressure on her front teeth have caused them to fall out early. She lost the two bottom teeth in Kindergarten and she lost the top two last week.  I have to admit, I absolutely LOVE her toothless grin!!  She made quite the contraption for the tooth fairy: She's the best! She still only eats a handful of things so this is her practicing making her own mac and cheese.... with some bonus poses thrown in there! She is REALLY into the Disney movie Zombies and Greatest Showman so she is always singing and dancing and making "music videos". She's quite the entertainer.  Another view of the toothless grin:

In the act of juggling life and all that I want to get out of it, the blogging ball got dropped. And that's ok. Kindergarten, 3rd grade, and 6th grade for my kids might just have to exist only in their memory because I didn't do a very good job at documenting it. I've been busy this last year (I mean, I did only post 6 times 😅) moving again, establishing ourselves again, raising kids, etc but this year has brought a lot of opportunity for emotional growth. It's been a lot to sort out and experience and I don't really know if I'd want that experience heavily documented or to have accessible to the general public.... however few might stumble upon it.  I think the best option I have is to just start back up where life is now and catch up on important things as I'm able.  The second half of August marked the beginning of school. Everett started 7th grade/middle school. He's been reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid since the 2nd grade and has been excitedly lookin...