Summer Activities

Well, Summer’s in full swing, as you can tell by the heat, and there’s LOTS going on!

**Marching Band** Cole is doing marching band for the high school this year, even though he’s only going into 9th grade. He’s having a good time (so far), but then he’s only done one parade. Their first parade was at the developmental center, and it was the perfect practice parade. They marched for about 20 minutes, which was perfect for the watchers and the marchers. I don’t know how they are going to survive marching in 100 degree heat for long parades, like the 4th of July parade, but I guess they have lots of water. This is my favorite picture, because if you notice in the far right, you see some concerned mom helping out with her child’s hat.

**Activity Days** I’m the 10 year old activity day leader, and it’s really fun. We had a fun little tie dye activity, and then launched water bottles. because they always finish the activities WAY faster than I think they are going to, and we need to have some filler.

We also threw together a skit for our stake Activity Day, where each ward was supposed to do a skit from the scriptures. Well, we found out about it on Sunday, and had to have the skit ready the a week later on Monday. And did I mention that each of us has at least 10 girls in our class, and there are four classes? Minor detail. “Paige is theatrical, she can think of something,” said one of the other leaders. So, while we were standing there in the hall of the church, I “handled” it. “OK,” I said, “let’s do the story of Ammon cutting of the arms. Your class can be sheep. Have them wear white shirts. Your class is the oldest, so you guys figure out who’s going to be Ammon and the King. My class will be servants of the king, and your class can be the robbers who get their arms cut off. Ok? Practice in your classes and we’ll talk about it before we do it.” Yeah, that’s how I handle it, because does anyone want to get 40 something girls together to PRACTICE? Not me. I did write up a simple script and give it to the three girls who were playing King Lamoni, Ammon and the narrator. And I went over the story with my own girls and told them what they would be doing, but that was it.

When we showed up at the activity and saw that there were girls in actual costumes with props, my heart sank. We are going to stink at this, and the girls are going to feel stupid, I thought to myself. But luckily, the sheep had their own ears and black socks for feet, the King had a costume (bathrobe and crown) and Ammon had a costume and a sword. It turned out fine. And besides, our audience was a bunch more 8-11 year old girls. The problem was, with 12 (or maybe it’s 13) wards in the stake, the girls were NOT paying attention to the last 4 or 5 skits. I was glad we were in the first third.

**Field Trips**
It wouldn’t be summer without some fun field trips, and we are doing our share, I must say. We got ourselves a membership to Thanksgiving point, and it’s worth every penny. The kids love the dinosaur museum, and farm country’s fun, too. We haven’t been to the gardens yet, but I’m sure we’ll go soon.

This week went went to Classic Skating with our friends, and the kids had a GREAT time! We ended up buying the “kid’s club card” for $10 each, and then all the activities are $1 each for the rest of the summer. So, they can bounce until they are tired, then do some skating or scootering, while Mom chats with a friend or reads a book. There’s also a small waterslide park, and I haven’t taken the kids there yet, but my friend Tess tells me it’s great.

We also had a superfun water party at Tess’ house. They have a creek that runs right through their property, and the kids took turns tubing down the creek, and then walking back up. They had so much fun! They say it’s about a 5 minute ride in the water, and there’s a grate at the end that prevents them from floating off too far. And the little kids did slip-n-slide and water guns. It was the perfect Friday afternoon activity. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera, so there are no pictures (sorry David!).

**Rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal** Yes, I am still involved in this play thing, and it takes a LOT of time. Four hour rehearsals four times a week are getting tiring, but it’s fun. Except for yesterday. You know when the dance instructor tells us that we should “warm up a little ’cause I don’t want you all getting shin splints” that it’s not going to be fun. Now a lot of the people in this show actually are dancers. I am not one of them. And my “partner”, the Mayor (since I play the mayor’s wife, I am always paired up with the Mayor) is even less of a dancer than me. So imagine our frustration doing these dances that are for DANCERS. What the heck is a “lindy” and why can’t I get it? I’m finally thinking I’m getting it, and then she says, “OK, let’s do it with the music!” NO, not the music! It, like every other song in this play, goes incredibly fast! So any confidence I had in my dancing skills goes right out the window. After a couple of hours of this, most of us are dragging. Our faces are red and our legs are extremely tired. I decide that I hate her when she tells us “Run it again!” We only have two more weeks of rehearsal and then we do this show, so we need all the help and practice we can get.

If you were to come to see the show (which I hope you will, by the way), and I told you what song this was, you would go, “Oh, that song? That wasn’t that long! How come it took you three hours to learn that part?” Because it’s HARD. And I don’t dance. Ugh. Rock step kick, kick up and out. Going through my head until I die. (And I’m finding it hard to move around today. I feel like an old lady. Ouch, Ow.)

But last night we did something that was fun. We put on an ice cream social/ticket sales kick-off. The whole cast came and we all wore our matching yellow t-shirts that say Seussical on them, and we sang parts of a couple of songs from the show. No dancing, no moving, just singing. Fun. And our families and friends sat on the grass and ate ice cream and played on the playground. After a HOT HOT day, it was wonderfully cool and nice in the park. After we did our songs, the Little Big Band from the Music School did a wonderful concert of big band music. Although my muscles were sore and I was extremely tired, it was a fun event for the family.

And now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to come up with a talk for Jenna to give in Primary today. Maybe I’ll use this one. That’s easy. Cole is also giving a talk in sacrament meeting today, and he’s already written his. John has to give a talk in primary next week. Do you think they’ll notice if it’s the same one?