Nudity, YW, & Fashionable Shopping

Sometimes when she's being thorough, Wren sings "Tinkle, Tinkle, Little Star" while she washes her hands. (She's just not good at the "tw" sound.) I looked in one day and got a kick out of her singing and washing with bare buns.

In other nudity news, Tiny opted one Sunday to sit strapped into a stationary stroller in the garage for a while. 

Partially dressed girls played outside.

I can't remember if I already recorded how I got called as the second counselor in Young Women this summer. Maggie Long was called as the president. I worked with her and her husband, Al, for a long time in nursery and immediately loved them. Amber Sorenson is the first counselor, and she's one of my favorite people. Anyway, one night the girls came over and decorated cakes to depict scenes from the Book of Mormon. The girls did a great job. Jim and Derrick Karner were independently able to identify the scenes quickly. 

The following week, the Beehives decorated cupcakes to deliver to Jane Thompson to wish her a happy birthday and welcome her to Young Women. 

While shopping with the girls for a birthday present for one of their friends, I was struck by how poorly dressed the littles were. Clearly I let my kids pick their own outfits. Tiny adamantly refuses to wear shoes that fit her. It's gigantic slippers all the way.

Tiny found a new way to ride on the cart.

Family Date Day

Ever came up with the idea of a family date day. Every member of the family would pick an activity, and we'd all spend the day together doing all the activities. Ever got the littles to pick activities that she wanted, so it was a real win of a day for her.

Jim and I chose to go on a family run in the morning. Then we went to Dave & Busters. I think that was supposedly Wren's idea (but really Ever's).

Tiny refused to wear her shoes and threw a fit when I tried to insist on it. I took her, in the midst of a tantrum, off to the side and let her work it out. 

This was one of the only games Wren was even remotely big enough to play.

Tiny was really too small to do anything, but she pretended to play a driving game:

Ever's activity was bowling. Thanks to bumpers and a slide for the bowling ball, everybody could do that one.

Jim fed the baby birds Dipping Dots for the fun tims.

For Tiny's activity, we went swimming next door at Cikaneks'. It was late by then, so it was a pretty short swim. 

It was a fun, somewhat pricey family day. Jim told Ever we could do a family date day once a season. She's been asking when we're going to do the fall one.

The End of July, Including a Brief Visit from Tutu and Papa

Kids are hard. Sometimes life is like this, for no good reason:

I tried to get a video of Tiny's incredibly ineffective method of consuming frozen yogurt. When I pointed the camera at her, she started saying "cheese" and wouldn't stop. Also Jim distracted me by forgetting my phone number. 

Tutu and Papa went to Europe, and they laid over here on their way home (hooray for our team!). They got in on Monday afternoon, July 23, and left Wednesday morning, so we really just had a day with them. It was really hot that Tuesday (as it was much of the summer), so we decided to go to the Birch Aquarium. We had a nice time, and the littles enjoyed it. Wren, in particular, seemed quite enthralled.

Ever was at an art camp at the Oceanside Museum of Art that week, so she missed out on the aquarium. She really enjoyed the camp, though.

Tiny's rendition of "The Little Drummer Boy," aka "Pa-rum-pa-pum-pum," goes like this: "A newborn king to see, rum-pa-pum-pum," repeated ad nauseum.

Wrenzy sang "Tinkle, Tinkle, Little Star" and the alphabet song, while Tiny provided backup vocals.

The girls - primarily Tiny and Wrenzy, as Ever is usually at school - are my dishwasher helpers. Bear-ba-loot unloaded one day wearing only her Bear-ba-loot suit.

We had friends over, and Tiny, who is the worst eater, refused to eat the watermelon but enjoyed licking it.

Despite the bird poop, the girls enjoyed some time on the tramp one lovely evening.

I found two memos Ever had written on my phone. When I saw the first, I thought, "Aw, that's cute. She loves Daddy."

Then I laughed out loud when I saw the second one:

Ventura

Thursday, July 19, Coco, Antone, the girls, and I drove up to Ventura. Deetrix was at work, but we hung out with Shan and the chillun. The kids enjoyed the pool Tristan, Betsy, and Gunnar had been playing in that week.

Shan made a lovely dinner for us, followed by cookies because we're Hastingses. The littles and I took over Tristan and Betsy's room that night. Tristan and Betsy are very nice about being displaced. Ever went to sleep in my bed, and then I moved her into the living room with Tristan and Betsy when I went to bed. She can't stand being separated from those two. Sleep positions were odd. Wrenzy ended up on the floor next to her bed again, while Tiny was crammed sideways in the pack n' play.

Friday was Deetrix's birthday, and he had the day off work. We didn't get out of the house until late, mainly because I'm so slow getting the girls ready. The beach was lovely and practically empty.

Ever and Betsy had fun boogie boarding.

Something happened to Tiny. She got very upset and was totally irrational and inconsolable. She went up on the hill behind us and cried her little heart out.

Eventually she calmed down and returned to me.

Coco and I took the littles home to nap, while Ever stayed at the beach to play with Dee and Shan and their kids. Back at the house, Coco and I hosed down the littles out back, and they enjoyed it.

After the rest of the gang returned home, Ever and Betsy went to great lengths to get lemons off the neighbors' tree so they could make lemonade.

The littles had chicken nuggets for dinner. I really enjoy the way Tiny says "nuggets," as if she's swallowing the word.

The biggers got amazing ramen takeout that I'm going to need to enjoy again next time we go up there.

We celebrated Deetrix with German chocolate cake.

Ever drank the remnants of her ice cream, as is her wont. If I remember correctly, she fell backward and injured herself right after this:

TKan is really good with the littles.

We got the kids in their jammies, said our goodbyes, and headed back to Oceanside that night. 'Twas a short and sweet visit. 

Coco and Antone flew out the next day. We barely squeezed in a visit to Handel's ice cream shop in Encinitas before they left. Tiny didn't do so well at eating neatly.  

Family visits are A no. 1.