SALEM DAYS!!!

Here is a recap of Salem Days for the Marbles~
It started on Thursday, July 30th for us. Samantha, Lindsey and Camille were in the Little Miss Salem Pageant. They had a dress rehersal on Thursday night. They learned their opening dance and practiced their talent. It was fun, but it was a long night. The cutest thing about this night was Camille, (she sang "Tomorrow" from Annie) they wanted her to practice her talent and hold the microphone, so she did. She had to do it twice. When she came down she said, "Mom, aren't you glad I didn't wipe my eyes." She was SO nervous about singing that she started to cry, but she just kept going. What a cutie!!
The Pageant was Friday night. The girls did so great and had so much fun! Samantha really sang her heart out! She sang "The climb" by Miley Cyrus. She did absolutely amazing!
Lindsey sang "Popular" from the Musical WICKED. Super cute, super funny. Had me cracking up--big time!
Camille is 2nd attendant for Mini Miss. The other girls didn't place, but they are fine and had a great time. Sam said "next year" Me? I was sad, I really thought Sam should have placed. I had to go home and let it go. Sam was a very good example to me!!
SAT: Mud Volleyball.
Rick and D'Ann came up and we had quite the mud volleyball team. I didn't go down and watch as much as I should have. I didn't want all the kids to get completely covered in mud, but we did watch a little bit. I don't really know how they do that year after year.
SUN: The fireside. Robert Millet was the speaker. He was excellent. His talk was quite political and religious. It was about how the problems in our country aren't economical but that our problems are the morals and values of the people. I was very impressed. He talked about esteem and confidence. It was very similar to dad's view on it. He has written several books too!!
TUES: The duct tape regatta. This is such a crazy fun activity. Each group is given 2 large pieces of cardboard and 2 rolls of duct tape and a 2x2x10 piece of wood. We then have 2 hours to make a boat that we will paddle around the pond. We did pretty good this year. Our boat was pretty good. Bri and Sam won our heat with a tim of 2 minutes and 23 seconds and our boat didn't sink!!! Last year Bri and Em got as far out as they could and then it sunk and they had to swim back with the heavy boat. People come up with some crazy ideas. It was hilarious!!
WEDS: Baby contest & Family Movie
Nico wouldn't "perform" he said hi but that was about it. I tried to get him to dance, to sing, to kiss my owie, all of his tricks, but no! It's really ok though. He has a really cute picture from it. (He didn't cooperate with that either!)
That night was the Family Movie--Kung Fu Panda. This was at the ballfield with a 30 ft. screen. I think the best part about that night was listening to Bubba laugh so hard. It made Chris, Whitney and I laugh just to hear him cracking up so much. The sponsors give out unlimited soda, popcorn and glow sticks. I think that was my girls favorite part.
THURS: Rodeo, but we didn't go...I had Enrichment. (I learned a lot of great cleaning tips)
FRI: The children's parade and Salem's got Talent
The parade is for all the kids, they can walk or ride bikes. We walked from Salem Elementary to the ballfield. It is a very short parade, like a block. They kids love it though. They always get a popcicle at the end. Lindsey and Camille rode scooters. (way ahead of us) Nico was in a wagon. Bubba was at a birthday party so he didn't go. Sam was at Belly's house practicing with Quincee. Bri was at soccer practice. So it was quite funny for Em, Lexi and I to be walking in a childrens parade bascially by ourselves.
After the parade, it was time for Salem's Got Talent back at the pond. Samantha and Quincee sang "What is this feeling" from WICKED!!! WOW!!! WERE THEY EVER GREAT!!!! Sam had green skin, a long black wig and a green frock. Quincee had blonde curly hair and a pink sparkly dress. They did so good!!! They sang so well and were just cute! There were about 30 groups that performed and the top 10 got to perform for the Pageant on Sat. night. The person over the show came up to me the next day and told me that Sam and Quincee were number 11. They missed it by --that much. Bummer, it would have been fun to see them do it again. But it is ok, they had FUN!!
SAT: The family fun run and 5k. Brianne was the only one of us to run the 5k. The rest of us just did the mile. I think I was like 5th from the end. Chris won his division. He was the only one in stroller division for men, but he still got a gold medal. hee hee We laughed about that for a long time. He was even invited to ride on the float as a winner. ha ha!
We then went to the breakfast. The council members stand there and greet everyone. First it was Stanley Green, he hugged me and turned to Lynn and said, "This is my family." Then Lynn said, "But they are my family." She is in Whitney and GG and Gpa's ward. (our old ward) Then Mayor Henderson said, "Wait a minute, they are in MY ward." It was so funny! It was kindof fun to be fought over for a minute. The Mayor thanked us for supporting them in everything and he also said that he gave Sam and Quincee a 10 the night before in the Talent Show. I thought that was nice too.
Then I took the kids to the carnival. They had SO much fun! Kaelys went in the dunk tank. Samantha won 8 3 liter sodas at the ring toss. They had cotton candy and pizza. Lots of games and prizes all around. I think my favorite though was Bubba trying to win a sword. There was a football throw and a basketball game that were handing out swords. He tried and tried to get a sword. You had to get all 3 balls in the basket or through the hole. He was really good at getting 2 of them. He jumped ALL over the place with excitement. Then he would miss. He said to the boy at the game "I'll be back" then go to the end of the line to start again. We did this probably 5 times. He got Samantha to try. A neighbor boy tried. Another one succeeded and gave him a sword, Bubba gave it to Nico. He just kept saying, "I'll be back." Finally he got 3 balls in the football throw!!! SUCCESS!!!!! He carried that sword around with him for the rest of the day!
We had our fill of the carnival and we home to get ready for the BBQ dinner. After the dinner was the pageant. It was fun. We basically saw it already because of the night before, but it was still good. There was another performer that we hadn't seen yet. Then it was time for the FIREWORKS!!!! They were awesome, we have the best fireworks ever!!! Nico, of course, slept through them. Something cool about the beginning of the pageant was our Mayor, he said that he has received some complaints about having an opening prayer at community activities, but that he didn't care. He said we were founded on religious beliefs and it would continue. He said it would come before the flag, because like always, God first. He gave no apologizes. AWESOME!!! LOVED IT!!!!
We got Harry and Whitney really good!! Whitney was worried about her chairs and blankets, she thought someone could sit inbetween her stuff, because they weren't close enough together...well, our neighbors decided to come to the pageant with us, and Corey set his chair up right in the spot that Whitney was worried about. I was just dieing inside. When they walked up I had to look away. They were so polite. Whitney was trying to get Harry to ask him to move a little bit and Harry was like, no, I'm fine. Then I couldn't take it anymore and had to give it up. We all had a good laugh! I guess I better watch my back. :)
It was fun week, but I am EXHAUSTED!!