Elyse's Month of June

Well, Elyse hasn't had the excitement Carolyn has. She stays close to home and prefers it that way.  She's been busy with dive four days/week plus a meet and that's about it. She hasn't had the ortho appointments or the camps away from home. She has been content to hop in our pool now and then, go to her dive class...and she has personally taken it upon herself to keep this  house supplied in dessert. She has mastered the No Bake Cookie, the Chocolate Chip Cookie and Rice Krispie Treats; as well as chocolate pudding and Jell-o.  She enjoys making cupcakes as well and makes a darn good cup of coffee.  I'm happy with her making anything that does not require turning on an oven. And like my mom told me, "Just clean up the mess."  Like any chef or cook, she does not like that part!

Elyse had almost ten days of being the only child.  I looked back at a post or a journal entry from a time that Carolyn stayed in Tucson without us several years ago. Elyse could not have been much more than three....so Carolyn was not even six.  Elyse wasn't quite sure what to do without her sister around to bug her or for her to bug...and I remember feeling a little lost myself with just one child to deal with. I felt much the same this week!  Elyse is very self sufficient, so I had even less to do!  We enjoyed a couple late nights and a sleepover here and there...it was good Elyse-time.  Elyse is a home-body. She enjoys quiet time and being home.

Yesterday was our final day without Carolyn and since I am finally done with summer school, we (I) decided we needed to do something fun. I mentioned this to my neighbor and she suggested a couple of things to do at home and I said, "I think we'll go wander the mall. Get out of the house....go somewhere." Within 15 seconds she emailed me a list of 46 things to do at the mall - sort of a scavenger hunt - with the directions 'complete 15 and I'll take you to lunch."  Challenge accepted!  We had  fun doing and finding the items, taking pictures and texting them to Renee;  we made her day at work much more fun as she got 30 texts showing her what we were doing and what fun pictures we were taking. We more than earned our lunch: we completed 30/46 items. Here are some of my favorites:

We combined two:
get a makeover
(the girl a the Chanel counter at Dillard's was great!)
wear blue eye shadow
(the girl at the Chanel counter made blue eye shadow look nice!)
Elyse loved having make up applied.

Hold a live small animalWe had to leave quickly or she would have taken the baby dachshund with us.

take a picture in a bathroom stall together

take a picture wearing one red high heeled shoe
If I could wear high heels, I would like this shoe.
Elyse wears it well and doesn't she have a great leg?!

try on ugly prom dresses
This one was a challenge!
1.  Elyse didn't know what a prom dress was.
2.  It's not prom season so dresses were hard to find.
3.  There are not many dresses in Elyse's size.

Find people to spell out YMCA
Renee's day was made by the man's armpit sweat.

Wear a feather boa
this was hard to find! We found it at our last stop.

And my personal favorite of the day:

dress like a mannequinWe'd have gotten extra points if we'd put her in a window.