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Nicole started summer school in June, only they have strict rules about picture taking so I had to make arrangements to come in and take pictures after school when all the other students were gone.

Nicole is attending the BYU practicum summer school which is set up for BYU students who are working towards their special education teaching certification.  Ironically, it is the same requirement I did before she was born when I was working towards my teaching certificate.

It has been hard to get her to tell us much about school.  For the first several days the only thing she told us about was the bathroom (which she described in detail to both her father and I on separate occasions).  The week I took these pictures was pirate week.  I don’t know if they had themes for the other weeks, but Nicole loved the pirate theme and got really into it.

Nicole was so excited about pirate week, that she started dressing like a pirate every day for school.  Here’s one of the outfits she picked out because she thought it looked like pirate clothes:

After school she pretended her bed was a pirate ship and dressed up her stuffed friends.

On the morning of the next picture I was exhausted.  I came home from dropping Nicole off at summer school and all I wanted to do was sleep.  I laid on the couch so that I could close my eyes and still hear the children.  I told Thomas that I just needed a little rest and the next thing I knew he brought his pillow and blanket all the way up from his room to help me rest.  Then he insisted on resting with me, only it’s not restful to have a squirmy three-year-old hugging you and talking to you while you sleep.  Before long Ila wanted to climb in for a snuggle.  It became clear that there was no way I was actually going to get any rest so I got up.  Ila and Thomas decided to stay on the couch and hug.  I had to snap a picture because it was so sweet to see how much they love each other.

My kids are really good friends with the kids who live next door.  July has been a rough month for my kids because their best friends have been gone a lot to their dad’s house.  Charlotte and Ila love to play with Lucie.  They all pretend to be animals and create imaginary scenarios that last most of the day.  In this picture they are eating like cheetahs:

Isaac and Evan build with Legos or play computer games.  Sometimes they ride bikes or have Nerf wars with some of their other friends as well.  The main two games they play lately are Terraria and Duck Game.  I can tell when they are playing Duck Game because they laugh and laugh when they play that game.

Ian is Thomas’s buddy.  They have been best of friends since they met and they love to play together.  I always enjoy listening to their little conversations.

Thomas loves to splash in puddles.  On this particular day he asked me to take pictures of him splashing.

Thomas wears holes in all of his shoes because he uses them as breaks when he’s riding his wiggle car.  I keep buying him new shoes, but they all suffer the same fate.  I currently have two pairs of his shoes that don’t have holes in the toes and I have to make him change out of them whenever go goes out to ride on his wiggle car.

I found Nicole taping paper to herself.  She said that she was decorating herself to make herself look more fancy, then she decided that she looked like a chicken.

Charlotte still has wheels attached to her feet as often as possible.  She wishes there were more chores she could do while rollerblading.

Here is Thomas on one of those shoe-destroying wiggle cars:

There’s something about the way Ila’s hair is blowing in the wind and the word Free on her shirt that seem connected.

I told Nicole to look up from playing with play-doh for a picture and this is what I got:

Zach was simultaneously playing a game with Nicole and helping Thomas with a puzzle on a Sunday morning before church.

I took advantage of a free day at the Natural History Museum with the kids.  I wanted to leave immediately because of the crowds, but the kids enjoyed it so I guess we’ll count it as a win.

Nicole was excited about the solar panels.  She recognized what they were immediately and then talked about how the museum is powerful.

This isn’t a great picture of the kids, but I love the way the background turned out.

Charlotte likes rocks:

Thomas has been dressing himself lately.  You can see one of his lovely outfit combinations in the pictures above.  On this particular morning he brought up three complete outfits and laid them out to choose from.  I love how he laid them out, underwear and all.

He decided to go with the truck shirt:

I’ve been wanting to get Ila a pixie cut, only I didn’t know it had a name so I kept referring to it as an A-line cut and feeling a little frustrated that they never cut it short enough.  The hairstylist and I finally figured out what I really wanted.  Ila liked it at the salon, but the next day she became a little worried that it was too short.  Charlotte stepped in and offered to style Ila’s hair.

Since then Ila has gushed over how great Charlotte is at fixing hair and Charlotte has repaid Ila’s compliments with several new hair designs on several different days.

Charlotte wanted to spend her allowance on a Lego Friends kit so we all went to the store together.  Nicole fell in love with a duplo ice cream truck that was on clearance and Thomas picked out a duplo race car (also on clearance) and all my kids spent most of the rest of the day playing with Legos:

My 37th birthday was on July 16th.  I didn’t take any pictures of myself on my birthday, so I don’t think I have to post any, but here’s a picture of my birthday dessert:

Isaac went on his first scout overnight camp-out with Zach.  I wasn’t there to take hundreds of pictures, but here are a few from Zach:

Nicole’s summer school class had an art show at BYU.  This is Nicole holding her art and making a rather terrible camera face:

After the art show, I let all the kids roll down the hill.

We finished the night with a movie night: