It's summer! The older three finished the school year last week. Avery has to go this week but we are taking him out two days early to go on our summer holiday. Tristan started passing the sacrament two Sundays ago. He's a pro. He doesn't seem nervous or unsure at all. Cory's parents arrive tomorrow! The kids are very excited. We haven't seen them in over two years. We haven't seen any family for over a year and a half. My birthday is tomorrow too. I'll be 39. I always feel like I am older than I am. Thursday we are leaving for our trip so I am busy and stressed about getting ready to go. I am the planner so I don't relax and get excited until we actually get there and things hopefully go smoothly. I went ahead and gave Aiden and Cory their birthday presents because they might want them on the trip and also because if there is a problem they have to be returned within a couple of weeks. Luckily there were no problems. Aiden got an iPad mini and Cory got a Go Pro 3+ black. Cory turns 40 next month! I told Cory not to get me anything for my birthday. I'd rather go shopping and buy myself something.
We celebrated the 4th of July here, sort of. Work had their annual picnic which was fun and we had our ward BBQ that Saturday too. We didn't get fireworks but that's ok. We did let the kids make a fire in the back yard yesterday and burn all their old school papers. They also roasted marshmallows. Avery didn't contest going to school today luckily. He is looking forward to his little Roman play tomorrow. He is the emperor. Year 6 had their play last week and I went to watch Cameron. They did a junior musical version of the Tempest and cameron was Prospero. I made him a cloak for the part which he loves to wear. It was good. I love to hear the children sing. It was funny to me though that there was a major scene and song where they were all pretending to be drunk and clinking beer bottles. That wouldn't pass in the states and for good reason. There is a real drinking culture here. It's unfortunate. The head did say at the end that he doesn't condone irresponsible drinking. This was Avery's first exposure to the meaning drunk. He though it was so funny. I told him that being drunk was very bad and he said it was ok because they were just pretending.
Tonight we are feeding the missionaries but we are just getting Chinese takeout. We are getting dim sum. The elders have not had it before. We love it. The missionaries meet a lot of Chinese students here and sometimes get Cory to help teach people. Cory tried speaking to one guy the other day and was getting his mandarin and cantonese mixed up. It's fun to have the missionaries over and a good example to the kids. We have two elders from Idaho right now, a sister from Utah, a sister and an elder from Australia, and an elder from Scotland.
I better get busy with laundry and packing!
