June

June started out with an adventure! The girls are signed up for Brain Chase this summer; an online learning program. Before the program began they had a library challenge in our area. They gave a riddle to solve and the answer to the riddle told you a specific library in Orange County with a specific book where the key was located. The key unlocked a treasure chest with $1000!!  Here is the story of our adventure I wrote up for the Brain Chase facebook page:

 We started last night and also stayed up way too late working on it. We found "thirteen" and figured it was the 13th book, Murder on Orient Express. It also made sense that the book has 13 murder suspects. We then found the Westminster library branch is on 13th street, so we figured that had to be it! My toddler had swim lessons this morning, so we couldn't make it right at opening. I pulled my big kids out of school at lunch time and we headed to Westminster. We were disappointed to find nothing! And also stumped. We headed home feeling bummed. We took a break and started looking at the riddle again. We figured thirteen had to be something. We kept looking at it and decided to google "rot thirteen" to see if that was anything. Jackpot! When "decrypter" came up we knew we had found something. We decrypted all the authors and began word searching. My 6 year old was so excited to find "book eleven" and we thought it must be Frankenstein. After more searching we found Aliso Veijo. The girls started screaming and we called my husband at work. We decided to wake our 2 year old up from her nap and head down there. We were hopeful but it seemed too good to be true! We headed to the children's section and found an abridged version of Frankenstein with nothing. Bummer. We tried looking on the catalog computer and none of them were working. Finally we asked a librarian to help us, and she showed us to classics. We found Frankenstein and saw the string holding the key sticking out of the book. My girls were beyond excited and tried their best not to scream. I'm sure the librarian thought we were crazy and walked away before I could explain. What a fun adventure!!

Here are the girls unlocking the treasure chest that came in the mail. With their money they have decided to save some in the bank, pay tithing, Gwen bought a Frozen lego set, we are taking a trip to Knott's Berry Farm and Kate is still deciding on a toy to buy. 

Here is Clara with our neighbor Eddie and his brother, Matthew. Clara loves Eddie and he is so sweet with her. She yells his name when she sees him. Loves to look out her window at "Eddie's house" and will follow him everywhere if she could. He let her borrow his scooter for a few weeks and she was so happy about that.

Gwen made me a flower crown like a Hawaiian Princess one afternoon.

Clara took swimming lessons from Miss Debbie for 2 weeks. She is doing so well and can now swim around the jacuzzi by herself. We are working on her learning to turn over and float on her back. She cried her first few lessons but now loves swimming with Miss Debbie and loves to look at pictures on my phone of her swimming in "Debbie's pool".

An afternoon with gak (cornstarch and water) in the backyard. We love our time we spend out back.

An evening at Disneyland with Mimi and Papa before our passes are blocked out this summer. We caught the new "Light up the night" parade and it was so cool! Everyone loved it.

Sweet Gwen. We had a mommy/daughter date to get donuts one morning and played Old Maid. And the other photo is her the last week of school. She has grown so much this year! She is a great reader and we love her fun personality. She is strong willed in all the right ways and know she will get what she wants out of life. She has a style all her own and we love her. She is an adoring and helpful big sister to Clara. Always wanting to sing her songs in the morning and play with her at home. Gwen took the photos below of Clara while playing with her in the backyard.

Gwen's kindergarten class had a "Rainbow Connection" performance the last week of school and she did a great job doing sign language to the song. She's standing next to one of her best friends, Kea.

Last day of school carnival! I worked the "egg roll" booth. Last year I did face painting and the girls told her this year that maybe I should sign up for something else, so the moms who are "really good" at face painting can do that instead. Clara found Eddie and was happy to be a part of the fun.

After school the girls had friends over for pizza, a food fight, swimming and Popsicles. This is our second year doing a food fight and this year we added chocolate and caramel syrup to the whip cream. The girls had a blast and made a huge mess! The pool was a good way to wash off. It was a fun way to kick off summer!

Father's Day we left for our trip to Mammoth. The girls made Paul cards with one of his favorite candy, "Riesens" and made a list of reasons why they love him. Paul is such a great dad and we are all lucky to have him around.

Kate and Gwen performed with the children's choir in our stake 4th of July program. They did a great job singing!

My birthday was a special day. Paul spent a lot of time researching bikes and surprised me with the perfect one! I love it! We tried to go kayaking on my birthday, but got rained out. We went shoe shopping instead! We went to one of my favorite restaurants, Bear Flag Fish Company, for sushi and fish tacos. It was a great day and I felt very loved.