The last summer Hurrah

I'm not sure why but the last four weeks of our summer were so busy that it seemed like we were trying to pack the whole summer into those four weeks. You can tell by my blog most of what was going on, the Idaho trip, the birthdays, the company, swimming lessons etc. I don't know what happened to those weeks but they sure were fun! For our last hurrah, we had all of Glenn's family coming to stay a couple of days and go to Lagoon. (It was really a last minute attempt at a family reunion which did serve its purpose of getting us all together and also setting an expectation of something for the following year.) To add to the excitement our friends the Wilson's (Trish was my college roommate back in the day) wanted to come stay during the same time because they had to come pick up their son from baseball camp. (See last blog.) Anyway we said the more the merrier and they came as well. They were planning on bringing their camping trailer down to stay in but we have a vacant house across the street from us which the owners had offered to let us use so we took them up on it. It's funny because William now refers to it as the Wilson's house.
The Wilson's came Thursday night and took off on Friday to go to BYU and do some family stuff. Dale came Thursday night at midnight, (Glenn forgot that he was coming that night) and he and Garrett disappeared for most of Friday too. I think they were scoping out fishing holes and root beer float joints.
Glenn's parents and Chanse arrived Friday afternoon and Jill, Mark, Jacob and Alexia came later that night. It worked out that Jamie and her family would be able to meet us at Lagoon on Saturday so everyone was able to be there.
We convinced the Wilson's to go to Lagoon with us too. We got to Lagoon just after 10:00 am and spent the whole day there. Thank goodness for cell phones because we had people everywhere. My girls ended up tagging along with Trish her girls quite a bit, so a lot of the time I found myself with just Glenn and William. I've got to admit that is my favorite way to hang out at an amusement park. I'll take those two guys and the kiddie rides any day.
It's funny that we had 24 people with us but I mostly got pictures of William and Alexia, the little ones.
Dale gave Abby and Emily cameras though so maybe when I get their pictures developed I'll have more.
Anyway it was a really fun day and I would have to say that our last minute family reunion was a success. Everyone left on Sunday (including Glenn because he had a 7:00 am flight to VA for books) and then school started for the kids on Monday morning. Whew, talk about a whirlwind weekend!

The Cake! (And the birthday.)

Is is wrong for me to be this excited about making a cute birthday cake for William's birthday? Really this cake was probably the highlight of my whole week. Here's how it came to be: A couple of weeks ago in swimming lessons one of the other mom's had this birthday cake book with all these cute cakes in it. We looked through it and I thought "Hey I could probably make some of those." I've never even thought about making a cute cake for the kids birthdays, they always get a box mix cake with home made frosting and sprinkles because it's a special occasion, served from the pan. I figure since I actually make the frosting that counts for something. But anyway I noticed that some of the cakes were just decorated with candy and such so there wouldn't be any trying to write or draw with those bags things which I don't own and would never attempt anyway.
We came home and I looked up the book on amazon and found it for 25 cents coming from California, (which was good because it's close) so with shipping my total was $4.24 and I got it in 3 days. I still can't believe there are amazon sellers out there who will sell books for that amount. Glenn has figured out our costs down to the penny so we don't list anything under $1.00 because apparently 77 cents is our break even point. I have already given the seller glowing feedback hoping to keep her kind around the amazon community, but I digress.
Here is the ISBN to the book in case anyone is interested in getting the same deal.
0785351779


William chose the monster cake with only a little prodding from his mom. (The firetruck and the race car were out of my league.) I bought all the supplies I would need and decided that I was buying more candy for this cake that I have purchased all year. But it's a birthday right, what the heck.
I baked the cake and made the frosting early but the day did get away from me and I ended up in a frenzy of decorating madness that was worthy of a food network challenge. The problem was not only that it was late and we needed to eat dinner but that our air conditioning was not working so the frosting was soft and the toes were sliding off. I was able to get it in the fridge and luckily everything stayed in place for the big moment.
And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. I present you with William's chocolate with cream cheese frosting purple monster cake!!!!



TA DAH!
Other birthday notes:
We went to "Wall e" as a family. William fell asleep and missed most of the movie.
He chose corn dogs for his birthday dinner.
Quinn Wilson was with us because he and Dylan were at baseball camp together and they finished that day. The Wilson's were coming the next day to spend the weekend.
Birthday presents- Wall e dish set, hotwheels sunglasses, play dinosaurs, Diego playdoh set, a glider plane, M&M's, Camping set (tent, sleeping bag, backpack, water bottle) and a bike!
The candles on the cake made him a little nervous.
Blakeslie stopped by to bring him a present (the playdoh set) and cupcakes. She frosted and decorated one especially for William.
Emily made William a home made card. She also helped me wrap his presents.
Dylan called William from baseball camp to tell him Happy Birthday.

Swimming Lessons

Swimming lessons was a great way to spend a couple of our last weeks of summer. The kids had something to look forward to and they had a blast.

He's Legal!

Dylan is 16 now and is legally driving, hooray! It has really been great. Glenn doesn't have to take him to work at the golf course at 6:00 am and we didn't even go to his last baseball game. He has been to the store for us several times too. He wasn't expecting any presents because we paid for half the car, the license, the insurance and the first tank of gas so he was surprised to receive the shorts and shoes too.
Way to go Dyl, we are proud of you!

HANNAH I LOVE YOU!

Here's the gang at our Hannah Montana 3D party. This was the night when the Hannah Montana concert movie was broadcast on TV. My sister Leslie was in town so that made it extra fun. Grandma and Grandpa didn't get into the movie very much but we had some good family time.
The blog title refer's back to Oct. when we went to the real Hannah Montana concert. We didn't have seats together and Glenn wasn't really into the concert so he went to the very top to take a nap. There was a girl about 10 years old by him who would yell out "HANNAH I LOVE YOU!" every few minutes. (It's best when he does the imitation.)