Tophams on Parade: June

Last Day of School!

Katie had some big and conflicting emotions surrounding the end of the school year. It was a really hard year for her. She lost a teacher that she dearly loved in February, and had a really hard time with the new teacher. She was very sad and disappointed that she never got a chance to say goodbye to the teacher she loved, Ms Todd, was so happy to be done with the year, and yet was still feeling kind of sad to say goodbye to her new teacher, Mrs Walker.

And we can't leave this guy out...

I tried to be there for each of the girls when they got out of their class, but I can't be in 3 places at once. When Katie got out of school, Mrs Walker had the kids line up (just like every day) and give her a high five, as they left. This time she added a hug goodbye. Katie was at the very end of the line, and while Mrs Walker was hugging a girl ahead of her, she just slipped right by and tried to leave...

Mrs Walker says "Hey! What? Get back here!" Katie was SO amused with herself!

And went back and gave her a hug. Funny girl!

This was our first year that none of my girls had any tears!

Rachel saying goodbye to Ms Patel.

I was so sad that I didn't get a chance to get a picture of Maliya and Mrs St Clair. We loved her!
Ms Patel posted some pictures on Instagram, that I stole:

That night, Brian and I headed out on a hot date to the junk yard to "pick and pull" a new door for my dad's car. So romantic! JUST the thing to celebrate the beginning of summer vacation!

Between Friday and Saturday, the weened of the beginning of summer vacation, our kids had 3 parties, plus my nephews baptism! It was kinda crazy. Traditional game with Grandpa!

Pictures from one of the birthday parties Katie went to...

Summer time, and time to start breaking these two of their thumb sucking. We started putting bandaids on their thumbs at bedtime. I'm not sure it's helped Hayden at all, but Katie is doing WAY better...tho not totally broken of the habit quite yet.

Swimming! We put Katie into the summer reading program at the Lehi Literacy Center, which I have been pretty impressed with. I have already seen an improvement in her reading! Since the Literacy Center is right across the street from the Lehi Pool, we got a pass and we go swimming right after we pick up Katie from her reading program, twice a week. Most of the kids have been loving it! And it was my goal to do more biking, swimming, hiking and camping this summer.

Checking on my kids after they were asleep. They kinda crack me up.

Hayden was scared and my sweet Maliya let him come sleep in her bed with her.

Still sitting on the window sill to say goodbye to Dad as he drives to work each morning.

Baby birds from a nest in our little maple tree were out having some flying lessons. Lessons didn't go so well when both the baby birds ended up stuck in our window well. After we removed the grate, one was able to fly out on it's own, but not the second one. We helped it out, while multiple adult Robbins sat on the fence -frantically chirping instructions to the baby- but it took the bird hours to make it''s way back to it's nest.

Then, that same afternoon, it got stuck in the same window well! I helped it out again and propped a large box up so it would stop crashing into the window and falling down there. The next morning, we found the baby bird had made it's way into the front yard and, you guessed it, was stuck in THAT window well!

We took it out and put a big blanket over that window well. The bird hopped around the house, and into the shade of the box that was covering the first window well. Before long, it was down in the bottom again! This bird...I can only help so much!

I took Rachel on a date to get her surprise, early birthday present: a violin, with lessons to go with it! She has been asking to take violin lessons for some time. But I felt like her load, this school year, was too much for her to handle violin as well. So we waited for summer.

The lady who sold us the violin gave Rachel a little "mini lesson" and Rachel immediately took it home and started practicing!

Orem Summerfest with our friends, the Burkes and the Hadleys! I love seeing how sweet my girls are to share and help each other and others with collecting candy and keeping it safe during these parades.

High fives for the police!

We went on a family walk...which for some reason means "Mom and Dad walk, the rest of us ride bikes." At some point Brian hopped on Rachel's bike and put Rachel on the handle bars. It always looks so funny to me when he does that!

Four Wheeler Rides!

We bought camouflage dresses and took camo pictures to give to Brian for Father's Day!

Bike ride with Katie and Hayden. For some reason, this girl insists on riding bikes that are too big for her. She has her own bike, but always steals Maliya or Rachel's bikes. I'm not sure the pictures do justice, but she looks so tiny on those huge bikes!

Date with Katie!

Katie and Rachel each attempted to draw a violin and bow. Not bad!

Cute hat we saw in Hobby Lobby, picking up the frames for Brian's camo pictures for Father's Day.

Weekend of Father's Day and we celebrated by going up the canyon! We had hotdogs and smores, and enjoyed being in the mountains. It was really windy and we didn't have kindling or fire starter...so our fire struggled. But we had a lot of fun, anyway.

It was actually Father's and Son's outing, that night, so Brian and Hayden headed up to the camp, when us girls headed back down the canyon. The girls were offended that we didn't get to go camping too. So we set up the tent in the back yard and camped out there. Complete with a game of Ghost in the Graveyard!

We had my dad over, on Monday, for dinner and a movie and to finish fixing his car!

The finished project!

More swimming!

Towards the end of the year, Rachel's teacher had the kids build "trash robots" out of recyclable materials. At the end of the year, each group was supposed to have a "Rock, Paper, Scissors" competition to see who would get to take their group robot home. Rachel came home VERY upset about another little girl cheating (waiting to see what Rachel did before she decided between rock, paper or scissors) which eliminated Rachel in the first round and she didn't even get a CHANCE to get the robot. She came up with a scheme to build her own trash robot at home, and Maliya and Rachel, together, finally made it happen.

Camping with Scott and Lisa! Unhitching the truck. The girls also helped unload the firewood and make a nice, big pile. And they helped me set up the tent and cots!

Scott and Lisa brought mountain bikes and the kids were on them non stop!

Look at those dirty feet!

We saw several helicopters fly around looking for a lost hiker. They did eventually find him, and as there was very little in the news about it, I assume he was fine.

Coming back to the campground from checking out the helicopter.

After getting the kids to bed and going back and forth between the tent and the fire multiple times due to fights, etc. I finally went in and said "no talking or moving again!!!!" By the time I got back to the fire, I could see them doing shadow puppets on the side of the tent. Clearly, my angry rant did it's job and they were going right to sleep, NOW.

We hiked to Scout Falls. Sort of. Most of the way. It was longer than we had thought, and the kids were tired, and somehow we turned at the wrong spot. Oh, well. It was still a beautiful hike and I was impressed at how well the kids did! Especially for their first real hike of the season!

As soon as we turned around to go back down, Maliya started running ahead of the group, tripped and twisted her ankle. It wasn't too bad, but I carried her for a little while. But then made her walk the rest of the way.

Our brand new bag of marshmallows melted. The kids loved gobbling up the melty, gooey marshmallows straight from the bag.

Painting rocks with Grandma Lisa!

Ahhh! Smoke in the eyes!

They thought the pinata that Lisa brought was so cute that it needed a picture.

A much shorter "picnic hike" for lunch. The Layton's showed up just in time to come with. Just before heading back to camp, Hayden said "Umm, so, Andi, do you want to talk?" He then walked by her and talked her ear off the whole way back!

Hallie put these little braid things in all the girls hair. They LOVED it!

And just when I was about to tell the kids to load up so we could go home, Hayden fell asleep on my lap...for like 2 hours.

One last swing on the rope over the creek before we go!

Annual AF Canyon Half Marathon! There were a lot more people, this year, and a lot more traffic trying to get in and parked and Brian was faster than he said he would be...so I missed him crossing the finish line!! But he did a great job!

And we got to see Sharee and Brandon coming in!

Hayden at the dentist! His face was just too funny.

Rachel came to me, in true Rachel fashion, with an idea of a craft that she wanted to do. She wanted to sew a star shaped pillow with the word "Love" written on it three times. She even provided a visual of how she wanted to words to look on this index card. I have learned that Rachel always has specifics already in her mind, so I have to ask detailed questions before we get started on her project. "How do you want to write out those words?" I asked, "I was thinking of sewing them on with a thicker string, like yarn" she answered immediately. I wouldn't have even thought of doing it that way, so it was good that I asked. She got her project all finished up in time to take with us and give it to Grandma Topham when we went.

Reading, reading, reading! Hayden loves being read to.

We have done a pretty good job at keeping up on our reading over the summer. We even participated in Barnes and Noble's reading program that awards kids with a free book!