The Last Week of Summer

We were grateful after the last few crazy weeks to have at least 1 more lazy summer week before we jump back into a school year. We were also grateful for the instant drop in temperature with days in the 80s and even 70s!
We took full advantage of the free time to play games, play with much-missed toys, visit the zoo and children's museum, and do projects.
This one was a flop. They're supposed to be bubble blowers but the plastic bottles kept caving in on themselves and then wouldn't produce bubbles.
And even when they did produce bubble it was more of a bubble mass than bubbles to chase or play with. Oh well, a bit of fun anyway.
And the boys decided to turn themselves into potato heads.
Unfortunately no holes in the head to make things stick.

And I took full advantage of all the extra reception food that got left in our fridge. My mom used to do this each winter too. Almost all soup recipes call for onions, celery, and carrots but then it's time consuming to have to chop them up each time and make sure you even have them in the house to use. So to make things easier she chops a huge amount up with a food processor and measures them out into 1/4 cup onions, 1/2 cup celery, and 1/2 cup onions.
Then stores them in little baggies and puts them in the freezer. Then when you're making soup it's as easy as pulling out a bag and dumping in the frozen vegis. And since they're chopped up so small my kids almost don't realize they're there and also they take less than 5 minutes to thaw and cook through. Yeah for easy, fast dinners!
Can't wait for a little colder weather so we can start eating all this goodness.
We also spent some time this week getting ready for Joy School. I can't wait! Honestly I missed it last year and even though Isaac isn't 3 until Christmas I found a good group of moms and 5 fun little 2 and 3 year old boys so here we go again!
Isaac will you stand up and let me see you smile? I honestly had all the silly Joy School songs going through my head as I was making the joy house and puppets. Silly, but oh so fun and 5 boys this time should be quite an adventure.
Last night we all headed downstairs to play the Wii. Miles of course is not interested in watching or playing so I set out a huge box of plastic food and dishes so he could entertain himself. This lasted for a while until he discovered that several dishes when banged on the table made fabulous noise and then if you flip them upside down they make even better squeaky noises. Not annoying at all!

Wedding in Manti

Because of the amount of driving required (2 hours from Provo to Duschene and 2 from Salt Lake to Manti or Manti to Duschene) Jeff and Jessica decided to have their reception Friday night and then get married Saturday afternoon in Manti. A great idea I have to admit since Taylor and I did the same thing.
Manti is absolutely beautiful and the crystal clear day was perfect.
I was grateful to leave my 3 boys behind with Taylor's parents all day but poor Evan and Joseph got dragged along on yet another long car trip followed by waiting outside the temple, then pictures, then a lunch. They were both troopers- love the monkey on his back.
And here's the happy couple after it was finally official.
After a hike around the entire temple and grounds, and climbing/dragging/pushing 4 sets of elderly grandparents all the way to the top of the temple hill, the photographer finally found the perfect spot for pictures. L to R bottom: Dad, Mom, Jessica, Jeff, Betty (mom's mom), Darrell (mom's dad) top: Dave, Jim, Me, Kristina, Kelli, Mary (dad's mom), Dave (dad's dad). Unfortunately I don't have a picture with all our spouses or the whole group and only got these shots because Taylor took a few behind the photographer.
After wedding and pictures we have a nice lunch at the Manti Lodge. It was outside but perfect with just a few fans and shade. It was nice to get to talk to my grandparents who I don't see very often.
A beautiful setting.
And then they were off- and so were we. Saturday night everyone crashed at our house to eat leftovers and play games. It was fun to have everyone together but exhausting after 3 straight weeks of reunions and wedding and receptions. Wohoo! We made it though! And now a few days of peace before school starts.

Reception in Duchesne

My wonderful mother has handmade all the food for each of our receptions so when Jeff asked her to do his (even though it was in Utah) she happily agreed. But poor woman has had a crazy summer too. Luckily she has her 2 best friends that are more like sisters who volunteered to run the kitchen and help with everything and fly out from Chicago too. And aren't they cute with their matching aprons? It was so fun to watch these Marcia and Jean and my mom on Thursday while they took over my house, made plans, chopped everything up and got everything ready. They chatted and gossiped the whole time. It was fun to see them all together.
Because of their hard work and my mom's excellent planning and food skills (and lots of others helping out) the reception turned out beautifully and the food was to die for- literally if you ate this every day it would kill you off pretty quickly.
Chocolate Dripped Mint Oreo Truffles
Hand Dipped Strawberries
Pecan Tassies with perfectly flaky crust
Okay so you can tell what I ate more of. They also made chicken croissants, meatballs, fruit trays, vegi trays, cowboy caviar and I few other things I can't remember.
Since my boys are hard to contain, I wasn't much help with the food so I made up these food tags. It was fun to figure out a little more photoshop.
The wedding cake was beautiful.
Here are my boys before the reception started trying hard to resist grabbing food off the table. They did a pretty poor job of resisting but who can blame them when the food is so good.
All the siblings that night.
I'm not sure if there was a plan for music or not, but there was this beautiful baby grand there and after a few requests from people Taylor gladly stepped up and showed off his fine skills.
And my last contribution was Jeff and Jessica's guest book. Taylor and I went to a wedding a few weeks ago and instead of just a plane book for you to sign your name, the couple had made up a book entirely of their engagement photos. When I saw how cute Jeff and Jessica's pictures were, I couldn't resist making them one- and 60% off at Winkflash didn't hurt either.
Of course even with food that good, my boys couldn't be contained for long and went outside to catch bugs and have races on the ramps.
And climb a bizarrely painted rock.
We were happy to get to enjoy the reception and not have to stand in a line.
And we were happy that Miles was so engrossed with the food that he didn't mind being left alone in his high chair for over 2 hours.
What? I'm missing the party?
This food totally rocks!
Just some of the craziness going on in the kitchen.
Most of my siblings left most of their kids behind since it was just a quick weekend trip and since we'd just seen everyone 2 weeks before at the reunion. Two of the youngest got to come though- Evan and Joseph.
Can you believe how grown up this kid is? And starting Kindergarten next week!
It was really cute to see my grandparents with my kids. I wish we lived closer so they could get to know each other better. This is my dad's dad.
And behind Miles are my dad's mom, and then both my mom's parents. We feel very fortunate to have all 4 of them still with us and relatively healthy. And they're a riot to be around.
Since these 2 were getting married the next day and wouldn't have time to dry clean their clothes if cake got smeared on them, the idea was suggested that they borrow Marcia and Jean's matching aprons. And even though Jeff turned beet red, he complied and they looked adorable.

How to make a boys necktie

In the past few years, projects and sewing have truly become a welcome release for me from the daily stresses of life. As a friend of mine put it, "they're the one thing that STAYS done". Every day I cook food, do dishes, clean up toys and guess what, I get to do them all over again the next day. So even though I don't have much time to spare (mostly evenings and nap times) I'd rather spend those making things. I always come away with a sense of accomplishment and joy at making something new and useful.
At Arty and Esther's wedding, her mom had little seafoam green ties made for Ethan and Isaac. So when Jeff and Jessica announced their wedding plans I thought- ahah! I could make ties for them to match the wedding party. Jessica chose Emerald Green, Black and White as her colors and since their little suits are already black and white I went for a beautiful, bold green.
It turns out ties are SUPER easy! I carefully ripped out the stitching on the back of one of their seafoam ties so I'd have a pattern to follow. Then I just cut out the 4 pieces you see in the picture. The green part is obviously for the tie (it's fatter than normal so you can fold it over) and the long monkey piece is because you need a thicker fabric center to give the tie more weight.
First cut your pieces, then turn the right side of your tie material to the right side of the monkey fabric and sew just around the outside.
Flip them inside out and press.
Insert the middle monkey part into the top and bottom so it fits snuggly.
Fold and press gently the outside edges of the tie.
Then carefully hand stitch the back of the tie. This was the only time consuming part of it but I just plopped myself in front of a movie and it was easy.
Seriously how cute are these? Next time I'll make them a little longer since the boys have grown since April and these were a bit short on them (didn't matter with their vests though). Also you'd have to sew them longer if you wanted to tie a fancier knot like a double Winsor or something. There was a huge debate about how to tie ties on Friday with 2 brothers, 2 brothers-in-law, 1 husband, and 1 great-grandpa all trying to get them done at the same time. I got asked a lot why the monkey fabric. Really you could choose anything, I just thought it was fun.
And just for fun I found a tutorial on how to make bowties online.
Don't they look darling. Of course they're too distracted by all the fun things at the reception hall to even look at me while they say cheese.
Love the alfalfa curl going on with Miles.
My boys with the bride and groom. It was so cute to see Isaac flirting with Jessica. We've gotten to spend a lot of time with these two since they just live an hour away and Isaac is officially in love with her. Totally cute!

Reunion Hangover

Okay so there wasn't a literal hangover, but after 2 straight weeks of family reunions, we were all pretty beat.
Even this one who is a non-stop ball of energy and was happy to go anywhere, anytime.
Of course we couldn't do nothing for a day and so we joined in on the fun at the neighborhood block party.
And spent a few mornings doing nothing but staying in our pajamas (the kids playing with all the toys they missed and me doing laundry/unpacking).
After the Children's museum in North Carolina, these 2 have been obsessed with building with blocks. Which is great- except that Miles can now get up to a standing position anywhere he wants and so he can reach (and topple) anything he thinks looks interesting. Poor older kids, always plagued by younger siblings!