Parentheticals

On Tuesday Alison had a bunch of teen kids come over to do a discussion group. There are two other kids besides Rea, and Rea's friend Marissa Dalyai is going to start coming next week. They're discussing history primary sources, American literature, and doing a high school Biology course together. The first week went pretty well, and Alison is excited about it. On Wednesday all of the kids went to the dentist in order to get their check up. Timothy had a cavity which is pretty unusual for him. They were able to get him in to fix it on thursday, so it was a pretty fast turn around. Also on Wednesday Grandpa Mike was chopping down the tree in his front yard, and so on Thursday we helped him clean up all of the branches leaves and shavings that he produced in the chopping down event. Gideon helped the entire time and was very helpful. Timmy, Rea and Elsa both helped for a little while and Sara helped from the time that she got off of school until the time that it was done and she

Monday was labor day, so Mike took the day off. We went to Grandma Julie's and swam and had pizza. Wednesday was activities, and Dave planned s'mores for the dudes. The boys really enjoyed learning how to start a fire, and then mostly burning their marshmallows. Saturday there was a youth yard service day, so Rea and Sara helped some old lady in our ward to clean her yard. After they ended up going to a yard sale and spent some money to get cool things. Timmy and Gideon also helped Grandpa Mike on Saturday to cut branches of the big tree in the front yard. Elsa wants it recorded that she loves her dog, cat,  her neighbors (the Waters) and her family. She also wants to say that she knows how to dance the Macarena. We also noticed that Jell-O has not been escaping nearly so much recently, so that is good. Finally, we think that we are nearly done picking things out for the home addition, so hopefully they finish up with the work some time.

Since we have a season pass for each member of our family to see every off Broadway theater show this year, and since we don't tend to stay up late enough to watch laughingstock, we decided to see The Scarlet pimpernel another time with the whole family to use up those tickets. Since it was on the closing day they were pretty much as practiced as they ever could be. The show was really fun, and they had added in a couple jokes over the course of the time that they were putting on the play, so it wasn't the exact same play as we saw earlier.  This week we also talked to the cabinet guys on the floor guys and ordered cabinets and floors for our home remodel. Alison has done a lot of planning and is very excited about her new kitchen. It is going to look really cool and be organized in a way that is very conducive to the way that we cook.  On the left is the image of what Alison wants the final kitchen to look like, and on the right is the actual flooring that we picked. On Friday

We have spent our first full week in the Brown's house. So far things are working out. We ended up making meals the nights of the week and having the Browns cook for us the other nights This week was also the first week of school for Sara and the kids. Sara has been having fun and really enjoys it. The other kids have been fussier than usual, however, Alison says that this isn't really all that unusual. On Friday we went to a picnic at Sara's school. We are with the Plastows and had a good time. Friday night we were invited to a barbecue at the Water's and after that, Mike and Alison went to see the Scarlet pimpernel again. It was enjoyable -we like the way they tell the story and the songs they added. We might end up seeing it again this next weekend with the kids. On Sunday Timmy was sick. He threw up at 3am and we kept him gone from church. Here's hoping it was just him eating poorly (sometimes kids forget to eat any real food all day if you don't watch them

With Jell-O living outside in his Catio, he has taken up a hobby of escaping from it periodically. Sometimes it is because someone forgot to zip up the door, however a few times he affected an escape through trickery. One time he apparently chewed a hole through the wall (Mike is not sure how that could have happened, since it seems pretty amazing, however they're definitely was a hole in the morning.)  One time he also was put into the polson's garage because it was raining and then took a nap in a place that we couldn't see and didn't respond to us for about half an hour, so Sara was pretty sure that he was missing. Either way, wherever he gets off to he has always come back as of yet. We are hoping that we can stop him from escaping. This weekend we moved from the Poulson's house to the Brown's house because Sara was going to begin starting school next monday. We have gotten pretty good at moving considering that we've moved so many times in the last few

Last Sunday we went to a Brown family dinner. It was fun. We talked, ate, and the kids watched something on their TV, so it was a pretty normal family dinner. Timmy has decided to save up for the Lion Knights' Castle , which must be one of the biggest Lego sets ever. It is going to be a lot of work for him to save up enough money for it, however, he is motivated, so here is hoping that he succeeds. We had activity dudes and young women's this week. Activity dudes was a bunch of sponge based water activities, and young women's was a barbecue and seminary graduation. The girls had a fun time, and the boys did too. There was also a combined Relief Society and Young Women pool party this week, which was fun. The girls mostly swam and played and the ladies mostly talked, and there was a barbecue and potluck, and everyone had fun. On Thursday we watched the movie of the Scarlet Pimpernel in preparation to going to see the play at the OBT on Saturday. We find that if we watch the