Phone Photo Updates

Our camera is lost (as well as my gym shoes and sweats and two shirts of the girls' - I think they've all disappeared to the same place, but I don't know where that is). So, I've been using my phone to take pictures. Here's our life lately - in low definition (maybe I should make all the pictures square to look like instagram photos and then it will actually be cool instead of low-quality).

 Aubree's legs are finally long enough to reach the pedals on her trike and bike. Maybe the training wheels will come off her bike this summer. Aubree is usually found with a backpack or purse of some kind. She fills it up with bows, coloring supplies, books, and a spare pair of panties.

 Carly (below) and Ellie (above) had their spring concert for school.

 Almost every time we go to the Boston Temple we go to this park a couple miles away. Last time we spent about 5 hours at the park! We've only actually been in the town of Boston once or twice (the temple is in Belmont) but I just love the Boston area and I'm so glad our temple is there so we get to go there every month or two.

We have a membership at the YMCA and they were offering a free family Taekwondo class this spring term. (This is a phone photo courtesy of Aubree.) The girls have always wanted to try some form of martial arts, so we thought this would be a good way to try it out ... for free! I'm glad we did this free class, because come to find out, the girls don't really like it all that much. But we're going to stick it out through the whole term - today is our last class. One thing is for sure - learning a new skill usually isn't very fun until you get good at it.

 My parents moved out of my childhood home (another post about that coming soon - I hope) over Memorial Day weekend. I was so sad I couldn't be there so we decided to make our Memorial Day busy and fun so I wouldn't have to think about not being at home. We went to the beach (and drove past Taylor Swift's new home), had a BBQ, and watched What About Bob. It was a fun day.

 Chocolate Harvest Cake. I've had the recipe for this cake sitting in a folder for about two years. Even though it's definitely a fall recipe, I was finally feeling the motivation and craving to make it. Isn't it pretty? It was yummy too - but I think I'll wait until fall to make it again ... in about two years. :)

 Ellie had her dance recital. This was her first year doing dance - she and Carly have always done gymnastics in the past (and Carly stuck with gymnastics this year). So, this was the first dance recital I had been to in a long time. It brought back such great memories of when I was in dance. I loved the the excitement and nervousness and rush of adrenaline that came with performing. The end of the year recital was always so fun - it felt laid back because it wasn't a competition, and a little bittersweet because it was the last performance of the year.

 Another beach day with Aubree while the big girls were at school.

 Carly and Ellie have made about 47 of these fortune teller thingys - this is one of the miniature ones. So far it has been foretold that I will live to be 100, I will win something soon, and I will fail in a school project.

 A few months ago Ellie stuck a branch in the ground to trick me into thinking a tree was growing there. After she took the branch out they continued to mess around with the little hole making it bigger and bigger - big enough that they could stick their entire leg into it. Finally a few weeks later Aaron decided to fill up the little hole they made and when he put a shovelful of dirt in it, the dirt just whoosh - disappeared out of site. It was then that we realized the girls hadn't made the hole, but actually discovered a much bigger hole in our backyard. When the excavator came he told us it was the old septic hole - about 5 feet across and 9 feet deep. Well, he covered it up and we are so grateful that the girls didn't ever fall in and get hurt.