Home Sick

Blythe woke with a fever this morning, she looked miserable, and she said she didn't feel like going to school.  I agreed she should stay home.  I gave her some Tylenol, and she situated herself on the couch, and we planned to put in a day of lots of TV watching.  Brick was here as he is every Tuesday and Thursday, and mid-morning I had to go out and pick some tomatoes for canning.  Blythe came out with Brick and began to drive him around, and after a few minutes she said, "Mom, can Lilly come over and play?"  At that point I suggested she go in the house, get dressed, and I would take her to school.  In my mind, if she felt well enough to have someone over to play, she was well enough to be at school.  She went right in and went to school quite happily.

It was a short lived thing.  About 1:30, I got a call from Ms. Medaris telling me Blythe had crashed, her fever had returned, and she could barely keep her eyes open.  The Tylenol had worn off and she was in bad shape.  I raced over and picked her up, brought her home and ensconced her on the couch, and kept her there the rest of the day. We hope whatever she's got is of short duration.

Brick was so, so, so, so happy to have Blythe drive him around the cul-de-sac, 

and to have another little person home with him.

Even a sick one.  

Apparently I'm not nearly as much fun as another kid.

Blythe found the camera and took a few shots.

Just for fun.

Still Life with Jessie

Still Life with Skippy

Studio C Premiere

Brandt loves, loves, loves, loves, loves Studio C, a sketch comedy show on BYUTV.  He quotes it all the time, tells me when something reminds him about it, and asks questions about things he has seen on Studio C at random times that tells me he is thinking about it often.  Here is an example.  A couple of weeks ago when we were all in the car together, out of the blue Brandt said, "Do gasoline and water mix?"  We explained that they don't because of the differences in density, and he followed that up with, "Then water can't burn, can it."  Neither Kent nor I really understood what he was getting at, but we said, no, water doesn't burn.  Then he said, "So on The Five Day Forecast, the flire isn't really possible."  The Five Day Forecast is a super funny sketch, and I've blogged about that before, but we did explain to him that it was possible for gasoline to burn on the surface of water so that it looked like the water was burning, even when it wasn't.  Again, all this discussion out of the blue.  He was just thinking about Studio C.

Today, Mikayla texted me that there was going to be a screening of the season five first episode at Kiwanis Park tonight, with a food truck rally and free stuff giveaways.  Knowing how much our boy loves Studio C, we agreed that it would be a super fun Family Home Evening activity.  So we, along with 10,000 of our closest friends, pulled up our camp chairs, snuggled under a blanket, and watch Studio C.  Yeah!  Blythe kept insisting she get a turn to say hit to Jeremy (she wanted to see his mustache up close), but she has to settle for taking a picture from way far away.

The four of us.

There they are.  

The Studio C cast.

They are far away and blurry.

There was a really huge crowd there to watch.

But It's Good For You!

While selecting cereal from storage in the basement this morning, Brandt saw a package of strawberry lemonade. "Can I have some strawberry lemonade?" he asked.

"No," I replied.

"It's a good source of vitamin C!" he countered.

You can't hide much from a competent reader.

DeMartini Family Pictures

In June we managed to get all the DeMartinis together for family pictures, and then the photographer lost them all.  Somehow, during the editing process, she didn't save correctly, and they all vanished.  Poof!  It has taken weeks to get us all together again, but today it happened.  Unfortunately, it absolutely poured rain all day, so while we hoped to have cute pictures of us sitting on the grass, we instead stood up all together.  We went to South Fork in June, but today we just went to BYU, at the foot of the bell tower, and took pictures outside but under cover.  Here are the results, which I'm actually quite pleased with.

 

All the DeMartinis, including Uncle Charles who was in town this weekend.

Christopher and Bryan apparently missed the instruction, "Do something silly."

As Christopher pointed out, he was in picture taking mode.

"Just trying to cooperate and keep smiling."

I just love this photo of my mom with all the grandchildren.

Brick is distraught, even though as a general rule, he really likes Blake.

Milianna is not happy with Ava, and Rowen is not happy with Crew.

Donovan is showing off his chest.

Collin looks like he's doing the macarena or trying to fly.

And Grandma Sue is distracted by the little people and not looking at the camera.

Is this one any better?

Mom looking at the camera, but not Donovan.

Rowen is obscuring Crew's head, and he and Milianna and Brick are still not happy.

Brandt is doing strange things with his teeth.

Field Trip Friday #6--The Really Final Final Swim of the Year at Grandma Sue's Pool

I know, I know!  I've said it before.  We've had three "final swim"s of the year, but this afternoon's was the REAL final swim.  My mom took a couple hours off of work to come home and float around the pool with us, and Uncle Charles is in town for the weekend, so he came.  And Mikayla and Brick were there, and Brandt and Blythe and me, and we swam, just one more time.  Everything was perfect--the water, the ambient temperature, the company, the final end of summer exhale as we sucked the last warm moment out of the season.  We shall miss the pool.

All summer long, Blythe has done this weird thing with that floatie she is hauling around.

She has filled it up with all the pool toys she thinks she must have, 

and then hoarded them the whole time we are in the water.  

She won't let anyone else touch whatever is in there, even if it isn't hers and it's a little kid who wants something.

I've been fairly irritated with her numerous times over the summer about it.

Bowling with the First Graders

It was a big day for Blythe and the other first graders.  After weeks of excellent behavior, they earned the privilege of going bowling for their first First Grade Field Trip.  I met Blythe and her classmates (plus the other three first grade classes) at the BYU game center where much mayhem ensued.  Not really.  They were actually pretty good, but going anywhere with 90+ six and seven year olds is always a bit of a challenge.  Fortunately, there was lots of parental supervision.  

The kids had a great time bowling, and an equally great time fighting over the viewing of the electronic scorer at the end of our table.  They all wanted to sit right next to the screen and have it facing their direction, and then be so close to the darn thing no one else could see.  It was a source of ongoing conflict the whole time we were there.  I finally had to forbid anyone touching the screen at all, and I had to monitor the rotation of who sat in the seats next to the screen.  And I thought it was only my kids who fought over stupid stuff.  Apparently, it's just kids in general.  

When all was said and done and the last ball had been thrown, Blythe came out the winner.  She got a spare in the last frame and that one extra throw pushed her over the top and into the winner's spot.  Yeah, go Blythe!  I'm not sure she was even aware she'd won, or that she really cared.  It was fun to be with her at such a fun activity.

Bowlers Maggie, Blythe, Garrison, Lexi, and Eli

Here is everyone huddled around the screen, trying to muscle each other out of the way.

This behavior went on and on and on.

I love the cocked hip as she contemplates the pins at the end of the lane

 and how she should approach the shot.

Blythe the winner.

She pulled it out in the last frame.

Date Night

Kent and I had a wonderful date tonight.  We went to see Much Ado About Nothing by Actors From the London Stage, a troupe of five actors obviously from England.  The five of them, actors currently working on the stage and in film in London, acted all the parts in a small space on the stage, with minimal props and costumes.  It was fast paced, very funny, and incredibly engaging.  To change character, an actor might put on a hat or a vest of a pick up a prop, and sometimes they would hold the prop and go back and forth from one character to another within the same scene.  They were brilliant!  Even though we have seen with play produced multiple times, and all very well, their approach was so innovative and their energy so high, it was an absolute delight.  I wish BYU would make it an annual thing to bring them here.

Catch Up

I am behind in my blogging.  I have caught up with current stuff, but I still have quite a few posts from past months I am working on.  When I told Kent I still had to finish up posts from our trip to Indiana and Chicago, he asked, "Did you take notes you are referring to?"  Unfortunately, no.  I'm just trying to remember everything we did.  Wish me luck, and look for past entries from April (Tulip Festival and Easter), our trip (June), Heber Valley Camp (August), and our trip to Yellowstone (August last year).  The Yellowstone post at this point will probably mostly be pictures as we were there over a year ago.  I forgot to blog about it then, and even when I was doing catch-up for my blog book, I forgot and so have nothing in the 2013 book about that trip.  I'm going to include it as the first post in the 2014 book.  As of this moment, I have eight posts I need to do.  Here's hoping I can be up-to-date by the end of Sunday.

Field Trip Friday #5--Ice Cream and Ninjas

We didn't actually go on a field trip today, because both children were busy with activities they planned themselves.  Blythe was invited to an ice cream party by Lilly and Emma Bradford which began right after school.  The ice cream party was just because the girls like ice cream and wanted to have a whole pack of girls over to play.  So they ate ice cream with lots of toppings and played.  I didn't really see Blythe until dinnertime.

Brandt and Jarom, our across the street neighbor, planned to provide Ninja training for anyone interested in coming, and all for the low price of $1/month.  Such a deal!  They posted a sign on Sunday advertising their class, and actually had some takers.  Gavin and Quentin Drake and two friends of Jarom's showed up and were given some sort of instruction by Brandt, Jarom, and Sam (Jarom's little brother).  I can't really speak to the quality of instruction, but everyone seemed to have a great time.  They came in after about 45 minutes and told me they were ready for the "healthy snack" portion of training.  I cut up a couple of apples and gave them each a small paper cup full of goldfish crackers (Ninjas are Asian, and Asians eat a lot of fish, right?).  I checked on them throughout the afternoon, and everything must have been good because they didn't finish until after 5:00 either.

While all this funness was happening, I paid bills and tried to clean off the mountain of papers that had accumulated on the desk.  I didn't think to take any pictures until after the fact, and I wasn't at the ice cream party, so nothing there.  Oh well.  I posted a little something on Facebook about the Ninja training and got these wonderful responses.

I wrote:   Brandt and his friend Jarom have just begun Ninja training at our house.  Hurry over if you feel in need of a bit of instruction.

Niece Kristy Orton wrote:  Jake would love to join in, dang, too bad it's a bit far.  (They are in California.)  Are they into Ninjago?

I replied:  With Brandt, it's not so much Ninjago as it is the idea of having a weapon--any weapon--and using it.

Kristy said: I completely understand.  Must be a little boy thing.  (Indeed!)

Niece Sunny Barrus wrote: Jack would love to come!  (We have had a marvelous time when Steve and Sunny have been down for a visit and come over with their kids.  Jack is Blythe's age, but he loves, loves, loves Star Wars, just like Brandt, and the two of them have run wildly around the house and yard, light sabers in hand, fighting Siths and keeping the galaxy safe.  I'm not surprised he would love to be with here.)

My friend Heather Helquist wrote: I could probably benefit from you--you can never be too prepared!

I responded:  Heather, I hate to disappoint, but I wasn't the one doing the training.  It was Brandt and Jarom.  I'm not sure about the quality of instruction, but it was on offer for those willing to give it a go.

She replied:  Ha ha!  That was totally a type.  I meant to say "benefit from that."  The visual imagery of you doing Ninja training though is very entertaining.  Maybe that is what we should do while the kids are at school--"Ninja Mom Training!"  That would probably increase the cool Mom factor in some of the younger kids eyes.

Too true.

Final Swim

My mom has been telling us that we need to come get some last swimming in because it's going to turn cold and she's going to shut the pool.  We did have a whole week of rain and colder than normal temperatures, but this week it has been in the 80s.  So today I gathered up a group of friends and we all went over to Mom's right after school for a final swim.  It was 87 degrees.  The water was probably about that warm too (maybe a bit warmer), the sun was shining, and we had a marvelous time.  We splashed and talked and laughed and made sure the little people didn't drown.  And while it didn't turn out to really be the final swim (we swam on Saturday for the truly final time), it was the last time we gathered with a group.

I've included both these pictures because some look better in one than the other.

Swimming with us were:

Heidi, Simon, and Jack Tanner, Connor Phillips, Karen, Ethan, and Tanner Watkins

Briahna, Greyson, Everett, Hadley, and Ada Bushman, and Angela, Lilly, Emma, David, and Olivia Bradford.

Also Ellen Mason and cousin Donovan who, from the house, saw the pool open and took off his clothes to come swim.  His mother did make him put on his swimsuit.