Here's the Scuttlebutt

My sister has a million nicknames and Scuttlebutt is one of them. I cannot remember how we came upon this nickname (we both refer to each other that way) but it seems to be fitting since we spend each day discussing every single detail of our lives with each other. But who really cares about that, when really the scuttlebutt around town was that Scuttlebutt came to town.

We planned a million and one things and managed to fit most of them in. Amazingly, we kept it a secret from the kids who all walked into the house on a Tuesday afternoon to the very best surprise ever.

After homework and Activity Days, I hustled everyone out the door to the waffle truck for dinner. This might have been my worst idea of the week. The kids were hyper from the surprise and not in great "take us out in public" behavior.

 

They were climbing all over everything, couldn't sit down and on top of that my sister actually hates breakfast foods. She also hates cookie butter, so I was curious as to why she ordered a biscoff waffle. Mine was delicious.

Ellie's birthday was the next day and before she went to bed, she whispered to my sister, "Don't let my mom forget to decorate my door." The major problem was, she didn't actually have a door. Kathleen took over her room, Olivia and Nora were in with Sadie, and Ellie didn't want to sleep in our room or with the boys. She ended up on the couch, which we managed to decorate anyway.

She is so adorable. When she woke up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, she didn't want to mess up her streamers, so she slipped in and slipped back out.

We had donuts for breakfast, and Kathleen took her Freddy's for lunch at school. For dinner she wanted homemade pizza and pizookies before she headed out for mutual. We also had a little sign making party for the Girl's Camp Fundraiser that weekend.

Thursday we went shopping for birthday party goodies, I hosted a lunch for my sister at my house, Pack Meeting for Nate and then off to Book Club. We also lost Nora in the grass.

Friday I had to teach Art Masterpiece, while Kathleen hit up playgroup with my girlfriends and then we went out to lunch at So Cal Tacos. We ate on the patio in the shade while the kids sat on the grass. It was perfect.

That night was our Ward service and dessert auction. I was in charge of the decor, almost forgot to make my dessert and managed to come home with 5 desserts. The cutest part was sweet Luke, who really wanted to buy something. He ended up bidding and winning his own plate of rice krispie treats.

Saturday morning started early with camp certification, Nate's football game, decorating and then Ellie's birthday party. I'm so glad Kathleen was here to help with that because she's a hundred and one times more fun than I am.

Dustin (the amazing) took all the other kids out to dinner and a movie. When Nate's crush came along to drop off her cousin at the party she asked where Nate had gone. I explained where they were for dinner and not so shockingly, she and her Grandma showed up for dinner at the exact.same.place.

Church on Sunday begins at 9 am. I woke up and realized that there were only 2 of us to get 6 children fed, bathed, dressed and hair done (plus ourselves) in just over an hour and a half. Then I freaked out even more because we were going to have to get 7 children to sit still for sacrament meeting. We took up a whole row with all the kids, but I think they were actually really well behaved.

 

I forced everyone to play games all afternoon. I can't remember if everyone ended up having fun or not because someone was always upset and there was a certain element of chaos to the whole thing.

Monday we dressed the kids in swimsuits and headed to the zoo for the day. I asked Luke what his favorite part was: "Eating my sno cone." I went and bought a sno cone machine 2 days later.

After a week of non-stop partying, it was time to say good bye to my sister and her adorable girls. Everyone was so sad and we still miss them. The other day Olivia asked my sister, "Mom, do you miss your sister?" When Kathleen said yes, Olivia responded, "I miss your sister's kids." Everyone had the best time and they all entertained each other so well. It was the best trip ever. Can't wait for Idaho!