Once Upon a Summer......Presents.......

Once Upon a Mattress..........

Every summer my kids usually make a movie or make up a play and act it out. This year, I decided with so many cousins in town I would formalize things and do a "real" play for them. My sister Del has 5 kids. I have four kids. My sister-in-law Annette sent her two kids from Utah, and my brother-in -law Clint has 3 kids. Also add in 3 other friends and we have ourselves a cast! Okay so do the math, 17 kids, six of which are boys and all the rest girls. What play do you choose? Well, if you are me, you find a good script (once upon a matteress) and then you cast an Evil Queen (Kim), Princess Fred (Kayla), and Daunty (Prince Dauntless = Gavin). You then write in some ninja jesters: Carver, Matthew, Corbin, Michael, and Malachi, who by the queens command go to the nearest Princess Academy filled with Princesses: Rachel, Savana, Caitlyn, Avery, Karina, Farrah, Hailey, Mckei and Parker who are practicing princess skills and gaining pricess attributes. They kidnap the princesses drag them back to the castle where the queen auditions them to be Daunty's wife. Each princess displays a skill or talent and are all rejected until Princess Fred sleeps on the pea, light saber, hanger, nose picker, scythe and anything else Prince Dauntless can get under the mattress. then they lived happily ever after.... Oh yes, did I mention this is a musical, so they sang solos and songs. Whew.....


I wanted them to get the full effect, so we also had a couple of set days to design, build and paint the set. This involved making pink and gray castle walls. Pink for Princess academy. Making thrones, and planning costumes. The impressive thing is that they did all of this during a very busy two weeks. Aunt Del was music director and Grandma Bell was Ninja/Jester coordinator and this could not have happened without them! A shout out also goes to Aunt Jenn who finished painting the set in the garage when it was literally 106 degrees. Gavin, Kayla, Savana and Hailey ran warm ups and games before every rehearsal. It was so much fun!

This is a rehearsal before we had the set done.
The kids are doing warm ups and generally having a good time.

Queen Kim and her Ninjas/Jesters

Princess Academy

Princess Avery's Task: Proper Way to Eat a Cookie: Pinkies Up!

Evil Queen Kim and the Pea

Prince Dauntless putting everything sharp he can think of under the mattress.

Princess Fred counting sheep.

Chariots of Fire Moment followed by High 5!

We all had a great two weeks. No TV was watched at my house for the entire time we worked on this.

Would I do it again? Well...you will have to ask me next summer!

Swim like a Fish

I had made a goal for each of our kids that they will all swim on a swim team for at least one summer. I want my children to know how to swim. I just didn't realize it would all be the same summer. I decided to put Gavin on a team. After going to his practice and watching all the kids swimming, I realized that I could probably put all of my kids on a swim team too. Gavin's team was full, so I went to a different pool and signed up the other 3 kids on a different team. And that is how I ended up leaving at 6:30am on Tuesday through Friday for a 7-8 am swim practice for Savana, Avery, and Carver, and also have a 8-9am swim practice at a different location for Gavin. While I sorely miss sleeping in, thanks to my sister and a couple of friends willing to help, I am very happy I did it. Swimming is a whole new world to us. The meets go fast and are very exciting. All of my children have improved their times significantly and I am so proud of them.

Summer Baby

We kicked off our summer with a birthday party for Avery. She invited a couple of friends and a couple of cousins for some fun in the sun at Grandma Bell's pool.

It was a lot of fun.

Avery's 9 year old Birthday list!

1. You were the best class vice president in 2nd grade!

2. You joined basketball this year and were fabulous at it. You scored every game!

3. You also played soccer and were excellent at it.

4. Played a wonderful song at your piano recital.

5. Joined swim team and raced in your first swim meets.

6. Is thoroughly embarrased by dad.

7. You love food, eating it, making it and sharing it with everybody.

8. Earned the Gilly go Getter Award at school and got to eat lunch out with the priciple.

9. Is the best sister and daughter a family could ever have, we love you!