dream big READ!

in an attempt to enjoy this small town life a little bit better (for some reason it's been really hard for me to live here...if you didn't already know that! :) i decided to volunteer to start up friends of the library again.  

friends of the library is a little organization that helps out with the summer reading program and other activities at the library throughout the year.  i'd heard that the library used to have all sorts of fun activities but about six years ago the ladies in charge got burnt out and no one wanted to step up to the plate!  so i stepped out of my comfort zone and volunteered.  

the librarians were soo excited that i was willing to help and they immediately gave me the contact info of a few other ladies who had shown interest in helping out as well.  things came together really quickly and i met with gini (a former librarian) to get things going.  we decided to have a kick-off party for the summer reading program and then have a little activity every wednesday in june.

this past wednesday we finished up the last activity and even though it was all a lot of work, everything worked out so well and we had a great turn out for each activity!

i was able to meet a bunch of new ladies and i've learned a lot working with other people.  since we pulled this all together in a matter of a couple weeks, i'm excited to see what we can do next summer since we'll have the whole year to prepare :)

...

before the kick-off i made this sign for the arts council board & little fliers to pass out to all of the elementary students before school got out:

for the kick-off i made signs to stake out front and we had balloons on the signs & inside.  it was all very festive :)  i stayed from about 11-1ish to sign kids up for the summer reading program and oversee the coloring station.  kids could decorate a little paper star with crayons & glitter glue which we later hung up around the library.  we also handed out little dreamsicles for a treat (the tag below was stapled onto the wrapper.)  we had over 150 kids sign up at the kick-off!!  it was all a great success.

(yes...avery looks like a little vagabond!  it was a crazy day...)

i was unable to attend the first activity (we were in sf) but i was in charge of the next week "dreams & wishes."  we had four stations that the kids could rotate around to (each station was 15 min) including: storytime, paper bag puppet making, bingo w/popcorn, and an outdoor game.  it went well--we had over 120 people there!

for the next week "night adventures" gini made a rocket launcher out of pvc pipe.  the kids were able to make their own rockets out of paper and launch them outside!  it was a huge hit and some of the rockets went so far.  

for our last activity (until the swimming party in august) we had some teenage girls come in to read their favorite bedtime stories to the kids "under the stars"...in the city council room.  it was so much fun!  i thought it would set the mood to hang christmas lights from the ceiling + gini brought the lantern.  we put blankets down for the kids to sit on while they listened & ate their "smores in a cup."  not sure how the idea came to me, but the treat turned out really well...and we only had a few marshmallows smashed into the carpet :) 

after all was said and done i treated max & ave to smore of the smores in a cup :)  they didn't mind one bit.  they were such good supporters & even though it was a little crazy at times trying to juggle two kids AND being in charge, somehow it all worked out!

noah's ark

danny finished up the school year a whole month ago (wow that has gone fast!) but he just took down all of his room decorations & it's time to start brainstorming for next year: new testament!

we came up with a pretty sweet room for this last year (old testament) and i thought i'd share some pictures so you can see how awesome it turned out :)

just a few thoughts as you're scrolling through:

+ the rainbow is the jewel of the room.  it is made of paint chips!! woot woot.

+ know when to get in the boat is referring to the story of noah

+ and when to jump out is referring to a talk by elder bednar given to seminary & institute employees last summer.  danny clued the kids in on the talk the first week of school.  the gist of it is having the faith to participate in class aka jumping out of the boat.

+ noah's crew was added to throughout the year by one of danny's more artistic students.  i think they add so much & are way cute.  she even added a skittles bag to the top of the rainbow!  clever.  she may have been doodling during class...but at least it was productive right? :)  

what do you think??

have any ideas for next year?  we want to use paint chips again...

ps. happy july!!!!  best month of the year :)

silly boy

most day's max still naps but on this particular day he was fighting it with all he had.  he wanted to sleep on his big boy bed...and then he had to sleep in avery's crib...and then he insisted on sleeping on the floor!  i really didn't think he would actually fall asleep on the floor since he's never done that in his life but a few minutes later when i went to check on him i found him like this:

danny and i had a good laugh about this and i couldn't help but think of my dad who falls asleep like this all the time :)  

...

and this is totally unrelated but it was one of those silly little conversations that i don't want to forget:

mom: max, what would you like for breakfast?

max: eggs... (long pause)

i wish! :)

he is a funny one!  it did however get me thinking...i'm not a morning person at all and usually after rolling out of bed all i feel like doing is pouring a bowl of cereal.  that has definitely become a norm for me as a mom and it's so much easier!  but when max said that to me i realized that he actually notices what i make (or don't make!) for breakfast so i'm trying to do better!

any yummy & easy breakfast ideas for me???

ps. for the record, max did get eggs for breakfast that day! :)

moab.

one week ago danny and i packed up and drove 3.5 hours to moab for a quick quick trip.  every year we get to meet up with all of the other seminary teachers in our area, have meetings, and be spiritually fed.  this year it just so happened our meeting was in moab.  score.  we arrived a little late since we had to wait for danny's byu class to get over but we made it in time for the talent show + dinner.  then we changed into our hiking gear and hiked to delicate arch with a few of our friends from the area.  

it was sooo incredibly hot and we didn't take nearly enough water but we had a great time.  it is beautiful there!!  the blue sky + red rocks make a fabulous combination.  

we stayed in moab a total of 24 hours but it was 24 hours well spent :)

the last full day.

by the end of the week i was exhausted!  we crammed a lot of things into our little trip (as i'm sure you've noticed) but we weren't about to sit around on our last day in san francisco.  we packed up our belongings, said goodbye to the sweet hardisty family and met up with dave + sarah and emily (and henry!) at a little italian restaurant in north beach.  it was all very fancy with tablecloths, real flowers on the tables, waiters dressed up in tux's, and i really enjoyed my fresh trout that had just been caught.

from lunch we drove down lombard street--the crookedest street in the world!  fun little tourist attraction :)  it was actually really beautiful and compared to the other roads that are so steep you feel like you're going to roll down this was a nice change.  plus it was such a nice day--we really lucked out on the weather (or so i've been told).

we made our way to ghirardelli square next.  it was a little hyped up for me since i've heard so much about it but it was still fun to walk around and get a free sample of yummy chocolate.  emily introduced us to kara's cupcakes--my hummingbird cupcake was delicious, danny's chocolate peanut butter was ok.

we had a little bit of time before the giants game so we drove down to golden gate park.  i really wish we could have spent some time exploring since i've heard such great things about it but we drove down to the coast, walked to the windmill (which was a little disappointing) and then hurried back to the car because it was sooooo windy.  we had the car door open for two seconds and when we closed it, there was sand all over.  we enjoyed the park from a distance and then headed back to at&t park.  this is my second mlb game and we had a good time.  the giants didn't score so the game could have been a little more exciting...but it was still fun to be in the park with all of the crazy fans.

after the game we spent a little time back at emily + elliot's place (since elliot had box seats and didn't sit by us during the game) and enjoyed some donuts before taking off for the night.  we stayed in a sketchy  sketchy hotel (i slept through it but apparently there was a lot of scary drama at four in the morning next door!) and woke up early to make our 7:45 am flight back to our kids!!!!  we had such a great time but there is something so great about joining back up as a family.  we sure missed those kids of ours.  they were good at grandma + grandpa's...even though we had to deal with the post-spoiled aftermath the entire next week :)

thank you to all who made this trip possible!  and thanks to our good friends (you know who you are) who made this trip so incredibly awesome and special.

and that wraps up our trip!  if you missed any installments, you can check them out here :)

day one

day two

day three

day four