Rebekah's Friend Party

 Can I just say how much easier teenager parties are than little kid parties?

I love it.

Rebekah opted for the "invite a bunch of friends and hang out with music, food and games" party.

These are pathetic, clandestine, through the family room window photos, but at least I got a few, right?

 I am so glad that we live in a place where she has so many good people to choose as friends- these are a bunch of really, really good kids.  And they're fun, too!

This last picture was taken not long before the trampoline bit the dust.  We had seen before the party that one of the top rails was cracked.  Well, teenage boys ended up being the last straw, and by the end of the party it was over.  Sad.  Not unexpected, though, since my mom and dad bought this trampoline for my brothers for Christmas almost 17 years ago, and it has stayed outside every winter since, and traveled to the Azores and back.  It had a good life. :)

Rebekah's 16!

I am NOT normally sentimental about my kids getting older... but when Rebekah walked upstairs the morning of her birthday, and I looked at her and thought about how she was 16... 16!  I have to admit I got a little lump in my throat.  She was the sweet baby who made me a Mom- the long-suffering toddler who suffered through 2 screaming baby brothers before she was two, the independent preschooler who wandered away from home multiple times because she didn't see any need to have an adult go with her, the precocious kindergartner, the brave 6th grader going to school across an ocean, the atypical junior-high girl who thought less about what her friends were doing and more about what she felt was right.

All of those memories and more were present that morning.  I'm grateful motherhood doesn't end when they grow up! :)

I snuck over to the school and brought her lunch, and we had a fun family party that night:

This was the present she was most excited about- tickets to Les Mis in October.  I get to go with her!

That cake was an adventure.  I tried a new recipe- a note on it said that a few people had had issues with the batter overflowing the pan, so to only fill them 2/3 full.  No problem.  I was very careful not to overfill the pans.  Partway through baking, I noticed a burning smell, so I opened the oven... TOTALLY overflowing.  I'm not talking about a few drips... there were huge mounds of batter on the bottom of the oven.  Ugh.  The cake remaining in the pans was not attractive, but it still tasted good.  So I improvised.  That cake was not coming out of the pans, so I made a peanut butter filling, topped it with chocolate ganache, and called it a Reese's Peanut Butter cup cake.  It was really rich, but quite good- especially as a comeback from disaster!

And now my oven is really clean, since I was motivated to run the cleaning cycle for the first time!

Happy Birthday, Rebekah!  I love having you in our family, and I'm excited to see the amazing things you do with your life!

Eliza in her nest

That's my bed, of course- and it's where she sleeps best!

Evening at the Park

Yep, he's tall, but he's not THAT tall...

That was a really low basket. :)

A while after I took this picture, I was on the other side of the park watching the younger kids play on the playground.  I looked back toward the basketball court, and saw Price and Josh having a great time- laughing, teasing, roughhousing, and they just made me smile.  I sure love those boys!

Adventures in Biking

This is Josh's bike after the teachers spent a day mountain biking in Moab.   Somewhere along the way (okay, about 16 miles into their 25 mile bike ride), he hit a rock and broke the derailer on his new bike.  They used an old inner tube (yes, he'd already changed a flat tire) to tie it up to the frame so it wouldn't drag, and he apparently walked his bike/coasted down hills for the last 9 miles of the trip.

Amazingly, he said he had a great time.

Not sure I actually believe that one, but I am grateful for his great attitude!

By the way, after further examination, Tim says it's not that the derailer's broken, but that the frame is bent. Hope that can be fixed!

And can I just say how grateful I am for scout leaders?  I love that there are such amazing men in our ward who are willing to take my boys to do crazy boy things.  Next up is kayaking (in kayaks that they have made themselves) down the Green River.  Pretty awesome.