Surprise!!

At the last minute I decided I wanted to surprise Sadie for her birthday. Daniel was going to be out of town for an entire week leading up to her big day and then we were all flying out the next morning for the John Family Reunion. There was no way I was going to pull off a party in that one afternoon we had. I thought it would be fun to do it while Whit and Carolyn were here too. I threw it all together and it was....really fun.

Sadie was so shocked and confused when she walked in with Daniel and we all yelled "surprise!" She slowly walked toward all of us and then a bunch of her friends ran over and gave her a big hug. It was pretty much the most adorable thing I have ever seen. 

We did it at the same place Elise had her birthday party this year. Easiest place for a party. 

 We took a short break for cake and presents

Sadie just kept saying "I had no idea there was a party for me today!" 

It was very fun to surprise her but now Elise is already planning her surprise party for next year. 

Robin Hood

At the beginning of June we heard about a free theater class through the Pleasant Grove library. All you had to do was show up and each kid would be assigned a part in the Robin Hood play. Then they had 6 weeks of 2-hour play practices. At the end of the 6 weeks they put on 2 performances. It was very simple, but it was perfect for Sadie's interests/abilities. The woman who directed it is a saint. I would have wanted to kill all those kids running around being crazy. Sadie really enjoyed it. She was very nervous but also excited. Her role was "child #3" and Sadie's 2 lines were "uh oh, now you've done it" and  "I'm scared of Prince John". 

I was glad I took a few pictures at the dress rehearsal because my phone died during the performance. Sadie is in the black shirt and white skirt on the left side.

 She insisted on make-up because any performance worth anything needs make-up.

Cast picture after their final performance. 

Sadie did a great job and actually memorized pretty much everyone's lines so she could be seen occasionally mouthing other lines. 

Luckily Whitney and Carolyn were here to witness the thrill of the local library free theater class performance. Worth the 22 hour drive, for sure.

Visitor 4

Our fourth July visitors were the lovely and talented Carolyn and Whitney Nielson. The day after Hillary departed, they rolled in from the ATX. That's Austin, Texas for anyone who doesn't know- so basically, anyone not from Austin. And Whitney lives in Lubbock, so I will call it LTX.

We were so happy to see them. Unfortunately their visit coincided with our busiest week of the summer. We happened to have all these random things going on- 2 different weddings, an awards dinner for Coach Judkins, Sadie's play rehearsals/final performances, Sadie's surprise birthday party, swim lessons every morning, etc. Most of our summer has been clear, but we were busy and I feel like we didn't have nearly enough time to do fun stuff. On top of the busy stuff Sadie was a grump and didn't want to do anything fun. Like, Mimi wanted to take them to the park: "no!!!", go on a hike: "no!!!", go to a movie: "no!!!". Sorry Whitney and Carolyn. 

Carolyn and I got in several great walks and explored the Murdock Trail some more. 

Whitney and Carolyn went on a great hike, which my kids refused to do. Yes, I stole their pictures.

One day Elise went to the park and got treats with Mimi and Whitney all by herself since Sadie didn't want to go. 

We did go swimming at a friend of a friend's house one afternoon. I have so many connections to the girl that it is confusing to explain, but she is one of my cousin's best friends and my cousin invited us. The pool was complete with a diving board and slide, which my girls took full advantage of. They went down the slide together repeatedly and smashed each other into the walls. It looked painful to us, but they enjoyed it. 

Carolyn and Whitney helped put together all the party goodie bags for Sadie's surprise party and reassured me that the cupcakes looked great even though they actually looked like a 9-year-old made them. 

 They took on the fun task of watching Camille at the party venue. 

I feel like we spent a lot of time just hanging out at home between our other commitments. Below Camille is shaking her head no while climbing on Mimi.

On the last evening of their visit we had a little dinner get-together at Ron and Lani's house. The girls enjoyed playing with Jack and Sam and we all enjoyed the beautiful views from the back deck.

It was so fun to have them here. The drive from Texas is no joke and we really appreciate them taking the time to come visit us. 

Visitor 3

Miss Hillary John Salazar. She overlapped with my mom for 1 day. Naturally, we stayed up until all hours of the night talking that night with the 3 of us. 

When Hillary walked in Sadie and Lou went crazy. They love Hill so much.
We kept right on with all the fun activities.
We made our first visit to the Provo Rec Center. It was really fun and really packed. It started pouring outside right as we arrived so the outsides pools and slides were closed. Hillary rode around and around the lazy river with the girls.

 The indoor water slides didn't allow lap riders so I waited at the bottom with Millie while Hillary went to the top and sent Sadie and Elise down before going herself. Elise came down crying and said she hit her head, but Sadie loved it. Sadie ended up waiting in line by herself when Lou refused to go again. I tried to get a picture of her coming down, but all I got was her in the big blurry splash at the end of the slide.

We also played at a Chick-fil-a play place.

One morning Hillary put make-up on the girls which made Sadie look like she is 15 years old. Sadie's lashes with mascara on them actually touch her eyebrows.

Another day we visited what we call the dinosaur park. We played a big game of hide-and-seek and left Millie happily sitting in the swing. As Hillary and I were hiding when it was Sadie's turn to count I giggled to myself as I observed the scene. It looked like there were 3 little girls (Elise hid in plain sight every time) just sitting at the park doing nothing with no adults. Just then another car pulled into the parking lot with some picnickers . I ended up coming out of hiding after a few minutes because I didn't want someone to think the girls had actually been abandoned.

Hillary stayed long enough to help me wrangle the kids at church and then I drove her up to her mother-in-law's house for the remainder of her visit. We were all sad to see Hillary go, but it's not hard saying goodbye when you will see people again in a few weeks.

6 Years Old

Our Sadie lady is 6 years old today. Wow.

Her birthdays always cause me more reflection than my other girls'. I guess it's because she is the oldest and our experiment/learning child. Every stage for her is new for all of us. I am so much harder on her than the other girls. I hope some day she can forgive me for that.

Anyway, this last year has been a big one for Sades:

-completing Kindergarten

-learning to swim

-making lots of new friends at school

-sharing a room with Elise (of course Sadie sleeps on the top bunk)

-getting better at forgiving herself for making mistakes

-competing in her first organized sport (soccer)

-learning a few songs on the piano

-giving her first talk in Primary

-waking up at the crack of dawn no matter the season

-having consistent chores

-learning how to pump on the swings

-continuing to ask amazing questions. For example 2 days ago she asked me how the first people got on the earth since they didn't have a mother to give birth to them

-learning how to read fluently and truly comprehending what she is reading

-being in her first play

-saying she is sorry to a friend whose feelings she hurt (that is HARD for Sadie)

Sadie loves: the color pink, reading, playing pretend, shopkins, The Octonauts, Tinkerbell and the other fairies, all things princess, coloring, swinging on the swing set, swimming, water slides, being recognized, dancing, new anything (but mostly new toys), spinning in dresses, candy and treats.

Sadie's current best friends: Jersey, Claire, Hunter, and Bentley. Actually, there are a ton more but those 4 are probably her closest friends at the moment. 

We love you Sadie. 

Somehow I got caught in a trap of watching videos from Sadie's first few months of life. I don't think I have watched these videos since Sadie was a baby because we got a nicer camera when she was 6 months old and I started uploading our videos onto our youtube channel as a way to share them with family. The girls love to watch our youtube channel videos repeatedly, but since these ones aren't on there I haven't seen them in years. 

Anyway, here is Miss Sadie Rose Nielson's first time on camera:

And a cute video of her with Daniel at 2 months old:

Visitor 2

On July 5th we met up with July visitor #2, Nana. I am considering the Cottles as July visitor #1 even though they didn't stay with us, because we hung multiple times at the very beginning of July. Daniel also happened to leave for his first recruiting trip of the summer on July 5th.
The girls and I met Nana in Salt Lake for an extended family dinner. Before dinner we visited Grammie's grave. Sadie's middle name is Rose, after Rosemary (Grammie) and she is very interested in everything Rosemary-related. Maybe I have forced it, but Sadie feels a real connection to her.

Sadie had asked to visit her grave several times so we thought this would be a great time to go. I actually hadn't been back since Grammie's funeral so it was nice for me. It also made me sad for two reasons: 1)my girls don't get to have Grammie in their lives and 2)they don't get to have a grandmother live close to them like I had with Grammie. I really hope one day we get to live within *reasonable* driving distance of one of our parents.

Back to my mom's visit. We had fun visiting with cousins at Sunday dinner and then with 2nd cousins and beyond at another gathering that night.
Monday morning (and every other morning) we were up and ready bright and early for a 9 AM second round of swimming lessons for the girls. A couple of the mornings we got donuts after lessons.

We did our fun outings in the afternoons after Millie's nap.
Monday we met the Sullivans at the Museum of Natural Curiosity.

 Aside from the bloody nose that shut down part of an exhibit for a while, all the kids were thoroughly engrossed and entertained.

 Millie and Andrew loved sitting in the water table.
The huge windows letting in tons of natural light made for some great shots of Camille's gorgeous blue eyes.

 Sadie and Lou loved the wind tunnel

The Alpine splash pad was another afternoon outing. I had never gone with the girls and it was fun, even if the girls spent 1/2 hour playing on the bike racks.  

 

We also played on the playground for a good portion of our visit. Lastly, I left my prized cooler bag, the perfect size for small picnics, at the splash pad. So disappointing. Had to settle for a new huge one from Costco. 

We got a babysitter one day and went shopping for coordinated outfits for the John family photo. This is what we ended up with. 

The dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point was another outing. We met the Sullivans again and the kids had a blast. At one point they got a little too rowdy in their game of screaming tag.

We also made oobleck (called goobleck by my kids), which was an instant hit.

 We ended up with a massive mess of it and the girls haven't stopped asking to make it since.

We all love having Nana here. 

Mom, you were a lifesaver while Daniel was gone so long. We had so much fun with you.