We wrapped up summer vacation mostly at home. We started with some necessary things like going to the dentist and diabetes doctor.
Kids in the dentist waiting room. And girls enjoying the fun stuff they always seem to amass at Primary Children’s hospital.
We also wrapped up our summer reading. This year we very proudly completed the Harry Potter series by reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We celebrated in our customary way by having a big movie party with lots of themed treats. We only did the party with the Part 2 movie, though. We also had our turn to host Fay’s summer book club.
We came up with our own design for edible “deathly hallows” signs. We were very proud of them, and they were yummy to boot!
The snacks (deathly hallows, chocolate frogs, snitches, every flavor beans, edible Nagini snakes, and resurrection stones) And the friends!
Another very fun event from August was “Muhlestein/Monson Man Camp” in which my brother George, who has all boys, invited Josh and Carter over for a backyard campout with as many manly activities as they could reasonably fit into a single overnighter. Things I recall include: starting a fire with just a knife (?), Carter making his own bow and arrow out of a PVC pipe, grilling dinner, sleeping in tents, mountain man breakfast, and flying drones. Everyone had a blast, and Carter is already dreaming of the next one. Thanks, George!
The evening. And the next morning.
But man camp wasn’t all! We Monson girls invited George’s wife Chelsea (and honorary girls for the evening, two-year-old Kasper and baby Max) over for a girls night! We had a fancy tea party (with delicious homemade macarons courtesy of Chelsea!) followed by a fancy pasta dinner, a barbie movie, and a manicure and pedicure for Chelsea. It was all sorts of fun!
Our last big hurrah for the summer was all thanks to Grandmother! (Also my nephew Daniel for really needing to go inside a cave before he went back to school.) Grandmother took us all down past Fillmore to see the lava tubes. They are really cool to explore. We even had some great chances to use the nifty headlamps she got for us as we found side tunnels in the cave we were exploring. I believe all the kids felt like they were real spelunkers during this expedition! And I was even more impressed by Grandmother when I was reminded that she was nearly 70 years old when she took us exploring through these caves! I told her that I hope I’m still doing cool things like spelunking when I’m 70.
The lava tubes group (Grandmother was taking the picture).
We all had such a fun time! We’re so so grateful that Grandmother made this amazing adventure happen (and that Daniel was kind enough to let our family crash his cave trip)!
And then …
We now have ALL FIVE KIDS in full-time school! So far, they’re all doing great and even enjoying themselves at least some of the time.
Right after school started, we had a fun little family reunion with my Muhlestein aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was fun to see people and hear family stories. And I’m glad my kids got to get a little better idea of who these relatives are.
The singing of the famous “Chicken Farmin’ Man”
And just some final fun pictures from August:
Cute kids on a Sunday morning. And family party shave ice.
This hair is a frequent activity for Bianca to do during family scripture study. Also, Valencia came to visit for another couple of days! We learned that she is still cute and that she LOVES tomatoes!