Puppy Unloads the Dishwasher

I love this kid!

Puppy Falls Down (or Rock On Puppy)

James broke his leg at the park on Wednesday, September 23.  The girls' response to hearing their brother had a broken leg--Can we sign the cast?!!!  Don't worry though, sisterly love abounds.  For proof I submit as evidence the following exhibits:

Exhibit A:
Liffy drew a comic of what happened:

Note the cookie in his hand in frame 1.

Exhibit B:

Caroline mugs for photo with invalid

Exhibit C:

The girls worked hard on a get well sign.  They also put together a large box of fun toys to help stave off boredom.

Oh, how we love our little Puppy!  But don't worry, Puppy will be just fine:

Exhibit D:

 

 

 

Sometime during the Summer...

We went to the Huntington Library to visit the art galleries. Caroline was at Grandma Pickle's house for a visit. The rest of us packed up our gear (Lauren actually did all the packing) and headed out for a day of masterworks. You judge the results:

Liffy had a birthday tucked into all that too:

Liffy had a Max and Ruby themed birthday party. Every one had a role to play. Liffy was Ruby, Lauren was Bunny Scout Leader, Caroline was Louise, James was Max, I was Mrs. Huffington and Steve, of course, was Mr. Huffington. Being Mr. Huffington came with the very special privilege of participating in the "Mr. Huffington" game. What is the Mr. Huffington game you ask? Well, I did, too. Lauren told me that at the school carnival Mr. Huffington wore his swimming suit and they would throw a ball and Mr. Huffington would splash into the water. A Dunk Tank! I told Lauren that if she could figure out how to make it work then they could certainly play. If you look at the bottom row second picture from the left you can see what they rigged up. The bucket went on the top of the ladder, we had to throw a beach ball at a knot on the swing rope (harder than it seems, by the way) and then the person at the top of the ladder would dump the bucket on the person standing below.

As you can imagine Steve was no longer willing to be Mr. Huffington. He does not like to have water dumped on his head. Not to be deterred, Lauren graciously agreed to be Mr. Huffington. BUT, he had to be Bunny Scout Leader, and he had to wear a skirt. As you can see from the photo on the top left, Steve would rather wear a skirt than have water dumped on his head. The game was a huge success--lots of laughter and fun. I love handing the party planning over to Lauren. She has a great imagination! I'm in charge of the cake baking, though, so we had cupcakes with pink frosting and yellow buttercream roses.

All in all between birthdays, outings, cousin camp, a San Diego vacation, and just hanging out at home we had a terrific summer.

Hey, You Remember Cousin Camp?

We had such a great time with our cousins and second cousins and aunts and uncles. You could probably just call it a family reunion, but everybody has one of those. And we can't be like everyone else, now can we? I loved having all that family around, with time to talk and play. I felt a real understanding of why family is the key to happiness in our mortal journey. And the kids had a great time.

Lauren Also Made a Comic

She actually made this the same day, but my scanner was giving me fits and I couldn't get it on my computer. I love the third frame. She captured James exactly!

This Is How Last Night Went

Click on the image to read it better.

Summer

Here are a few pictures to let you know how summer is going at our house.

Here is the dollhouse version of Liffy's Birthday Party.
Should I get an over-sized picture of the First Presidency for my living room?

The birthday feast.

I bought James a wading pool.

A wading pool is not just a wading pool at our house. The pool only survived one afternoon.

Oh my goodness that child can get crazy.

But oh so sweet. This is her cousin camp list.
And a close-up.