Sailor Girls

I never could have dreamed that some day I would have two little girls who could wear Anna's size 12 month and 4T sailor dresses at the same time. We had to take pictures. The last picture is Sarah sulking about something. I don't remember what, but I think she was a great sport. She loves this little sailor dress and would wear it several times a week if I let her. Sorry, linen isn't for Tuesdays. 

Anna and the Neon Atom

Anna came home on Thursday and said that she needed a 3-D model of an atom by Monday for 7th grade science. The fence project is still all-consuming, so it was a pretty amazing Dad who helped engineer this model of a neon atom. I think it took about eight hours, plus a trip to the store for spray paint. We have lots of ping pong balls thanks to Anna's science project last year about the volume of ping pong balls and how many degrees of pi you need for an accurate measurement (I'm already lost trying to explain the project--can you feel Travis's influence in the design and execution of both of these projects?). Anna learned a lot about atoms because Travis insisted they don't simplify the shape of the orbitals by making them all round (to represent spheres) when some of them are really dumbbell shaped. It was a late night, but I think Anna learned a lot. We weren't thrilled when she came home, pleased that her teacher wanted to keep her project--what were we going to do with it?--and somehow it slipped that she could have drawn a model of an atom. 10 minutes?

Both Anna and Michael have been excited about Rick Riordan's latest novel, which is the third in a series they have each been reading. You should have heard the squabbling over who got to read it first. Michael hit me up to acquire it a long time ago, and somehow negotiated a promise that I would purchase it the first day it came out. Anna claimed she was just being good-natured and trying not to harass me, but she 1) wanted to read it more, being a bigger and earlier Rick Riordan fan, and 2) was more worthy of reading it first for a long list I won't include. We finally settled everyone down and I took a picture because I thought it was so fun that my 12 year-old and 9 year-old were clamoring to read the same book. I thought we had settled on Michael reading it first, but you can see that there's still some tension.

Michael won, but then he suddenly gave in and Anna disappeared up to her room with the precious book. In an uncanny imitation of his big sister, he described her likely behavior if he was taking too long to get through it, or putting a slight crease on one of the pages. I don't know if that should have been allowed, but harmony returned and Anna did read it awfully fast. Michael was free to read at his own pace. Now whose bookshelf does it live on? I should have thought about this a long time ago when Anna was reading series and Michael was just looking at Transportation Bibles (what I call his oversized picture books of vehicles of all kinds). I bought a lot of books for her that he is now interested in. I insist on sharing, but it's hard when despite his best efforts the books don't remain in pristine condition. I understand both of my kids. I love my books to remain beautiful, but despite my best efforts, they always show use after I have read them. I'm so grateful that my dad and Angie still allow me to borrow their books. Somehow they each read without creasing the spine or even slightly bending a page. I try so hard, but how can you read a book without actually opening it? 

Picnic with Grandma Thompson

We have been slaves to the enormous project of building a vinyl fence with our two neighbors. We're doing all of the work--including a new mow strip--except for placing the posts. If you roll your eyes and think, Well, that's all the work, you haven't pulled out our old fence posts or tried to dig trenches for forms with a neighbors as fastidious as ours. (He's a great guy and we're going to have the best-looking mow strip ever.)We've had some great family help, which we deeply appreciate, and Travis has spent every spare daylight minute working on it. He doesn't have a lot of spare daylight minutes, so that means there haven't been bike rides with the kids or playing catch with Michael or autumn hikes  . . .. BYU ballgames are being watched on the DVR late at night, his desk has becoming an embarassment at work, and so on. I realized that our only outdoor autumnal family activities are going to be working on the fence, so I've got to get my myself and my kids on some walks, hikes, picnics by myself, while my poor husband works (indoors, in the dark.) My mom came up for a day last week and we took Sarah and Lucy for a picnic at Glassman Pond, which is a tiny pond about a half-mile from The Condo. We took Michael fishing there once, and just ask him, we haven't been back to fish. Not because it wasn't fun, we just haven't gotten to it. Like everyone else, I love the changing leaves. Fall is my very favorite season, and we had a lovely picnic. 

Happy Birthday to Dad Dastrup

I love this picture of Dad Dastrup--Grandpa Max Dastrup--holding Lucy on her blessing day. (It's not the clarity of the original, taken by Aaron, because it's a compressed email file.) The focus is intentionally on Lucy, but I love the soft presence of Grandpa holding her on his knee. I think this picture is representative of Travis's dad. He's always there, rock solid and fixed where he needs to be. He's helping to support and anchor everyone else, but he doesn't want the limelight or too much fussing. He wants to quietly be surrounded by the people he loves, and to quietly serve them. The following two pictures are only two examples of the many times he has finished my ironing pile for me. Once was when I was coming home from the hospital with Lucy, and the other while we were getting ready to put our Indiana house on the market. Travis wears a shirt and tie every day to work, and then several white shirts for bishopric duties. My ironing board is usually out with a large ironing pile just waiting for me to have time to attack it without little people pulling on me. This quiet act of service means so much to me. I love you! Happy Birthday!

Music Lesson Thursday

Thursdays are my busiest day. There tends to be some cello cramming early in the morning and for a few minutes after school. Anna doesn't need to cram because she practices almost perfectly from 5-7 every morning. In theory Michael and I practice from 6:30-7:30 a.m. Early morning practices, as opposed to having to do in the afternoon, have been a bit spotty since, well, my pregnancy with Lucy, but September has been pretty solid. We rush to eat dinner at 3:30; otherwise it's 8 p.m. when we can eat or I have to pack a dinner to bring with us--and this just isn't going to happen. Then I take Michael to Kaysville for a cello lesson, leaving Sarah and Lucy with Anna. I race home from Farmington to load my three girls in the van along with Anna's violin, and drop off Michael's cello. Ideally she has played for twenty minutes so she is warmed-up for her lesson, but this doesn't always happen while she's babysitting. I drive to Farmington and drop her off for an hour lesson while I find some way to entertain everyone else (and often feed Lucy). This feels so easy after five years of attending lessons with Anna. I was spending too much money window shopping at a nearby Home Goods and Marshalls, so we've been playing at a playground in my friend Emily's neighborhood. I hope she won't tell the Neighborhood Watch on us. We're also going to show up on my cousins Scott and Elisha's doorstep one of these times--just in time for dinner--I mean a visit. It's an exhausting, but satisfying afternoon and evening. No one can believe it's bedtime when we get home, and unless I'm really grouchy, everyone gets to bed a little later on Thursday nights. I plan to enjoy the playground as often as we can until cold weather forces us to do some more window shopping. One might ask where Travis is for all of this running. He's still at work most of the time, but every now and again he makes it home to take Anna, and that's always a welcome surprise for all of us.

Lucy at 9 months

Thompson Family Reunion

In June Sarah, Piper, Mia, and Sammie were signed up for a summer camp run by some girls in Grandma Thompson's neighborhood . For five days, two hours each day, they enjoyed games and activities organized by these girls. We didn't have an official reunion or trip planned as an extended family, so we planned other fun activities all week with whomever in the family could be there. Of course Travis wasn't there and many people were working, but we planned things for the kids each day and gathered for dinner in the evening. We enjoyed a beautiful evening at the Christensen's cottage at Sundance, took the kids swimming at our friends the  Diederich's pool, and we even planned a treasure hunt. The number of activities we planned would be considered lightweight by Dastrup standards, but as Thompsons, we were pretty proud of ourselves. Wonderful to see the friendships between cousins strengthened every time they're together. Wee Scout Sandgren is such an adorable addition to our pack of girls, and sweet Finny is very outnumbered with all of his little girl cousins!