Around the World in Sadie Days

Ruby's plight as the second child is to always be in Golda's shadow.  (In this case, a little shadow would have helped with that glaring sun!)  Here they are, on Ruby's first date.  She and Golda asked guys to Sadie's, and this is the "day" activity, the Friday night prior.  They went to Farmington Station and did a scavenger hunt, then made the shirts at Emily's.

Anyway, the next day was the dance.  Scott and I got the fun job of decorating the conference room at King & King for the "Around the World in Sadie Days" dinner for the kids.  We gathered all the travel-related stuff from around our house and piled it into a centerpiece.  We hauled out my dad's big globe, Chinese fans, Turkish shadow puppets, Hawaiian driftwood, travel guides, and Araceli's cool messenger bag.

Scott set up his record player.  The sound, I have to admit, is pretty cool.

See my little house from Sevilla?  I love that little house.

Oh, and a bundle of old letters that Scott sent me when he was on his mission.  They looked so vintage and cool.  I'm glad we have those; people don't write letters anymore, and that stack of different kinds of stationery with carefully selected stamps, in Scott's block handwriting is way better than a bunch of emails.

Emily's mom Jillyn brought food from Royal India.  The kids loved it.

Scott keeps this fish at his office as a pet.  We got him in Venice and carried him in our backpacks through Italy, Greece and Turkey.  He's just the kind of pet Scott likes.

And here they are:  Carter Erickson, Ruby, Golda and Dan Nybo.  These guys were great dates, talkative and lots of fun.

After the dance, the kids came to our house and had sundaes and played games.  Scott set it all up while he was watching March Madness.  Watching basketball is a different experience when you're a a dad.  Thursday night during the Utah game, Scott was at a Daddy-Daughter dinner with Xanthe, then Golda's ballet class.  So Saturday night, I took the littles to a movie.  Freestone was at a big game tournament at the Haj with Sam (Thanks Susan:) and Araceli was shopping with her friends (Thanks Audrey and Tyler:)  It took a village to give Scott an hour or two of March Madness, and even then he was setting up a sundae bar and cleaning the house.  He doesn't even complain.  We love all this stuff.  We would rather have all our kids around us doing all their interesting activities and needing us and being wonderful than have down time.  We gave up on that, and sleep, years ago.  I laugh when parents say, "I'm not a taxi driver!...I'm not a cruise director!...I'm not a short-order cook!"

 Um, ya you are.  That's exactly what you are, and more.  Why did you think that wouldn't happen when you had kids?  Scott spends most evenings waiting for the kids in his car at various venues.  It just makes it easier if you just expect to be there for your kids all the time.  That doesn't mean I don't hide in my closet and eat chocolate, though, once in awhile.  :)  Gotta stay on top of your game, right?