Cinderella

Presented by Lily and Lochlan Millward, Hans and Zara Geddes, Gigi Vasquez, Evelyn Grow, avd Sloane, Bear and Esme Willardson.

The play was pure greatness. My favorite part was Bear as the carriage wheel. Zara was wearing her giant glass slippers and caught a paver and took a spell. She shouted, “oh no! I fell out of my carriage!” 

I die. So cute. 

Or after Esme’s line, “YOU, Cinderella, go to the ball? What a joke!” Corbin and Quincy laughed out loud at hearing her drop such a burn on poor Cinderella. Ironically, our kids are now saying, “what a joke!” to each other as an accountability check when someone isn’t being kind. 

We also loved the adapted ending where the narrator announces that Cinderella and the prince went on lots of dates and discovered they had many shared interests and values and then THEN decided to get married. 😂 just gold. 

Willy Weekend

We went to the lake twice (thanks Grovers and Hayes!) 

Quincy also hit the lake twice. Last week was tubing on Bayles’ boat with Henson, Shef, Gavin, Luke D, Luke C, and Josh. This weekend on Gorden’s boat with Scotty G, Piper T, Cadence Clive, and Ethan V. She tried knee boarding again and loved it. EVS avd Cadebce tried wakeboarding for the first time and Scotty shredded it. 




For Shef’s last day pre-mission, Aaron and Quincy went fishing on the Crabb’s property in Pineville, Mo with Matt Toland, Byron Shefchik, and Makenzie and Zack Shefchick. Matt and Q were the only ones who caught fish! Q was so proud. 

I stopped at Culvers to pick up a fundraising check for Orchestra and got to talk with Jackson B and Avery R for a bit while they were at work. 

 Brightyn came over on Thursday while Q was working and I helped her get registered for fall classes at BYU. 

I’m not their Sunday school teacher any more, but it fills my cup to visit with these great emerging adults! 

Tate G is about to be a senior and came by for a senior year “hair glow up”. He has a cowlick right in front, so we gave him what is now by the kids their age called “the Henson cut”.  

Before: a grown out prohibition cut/soccer player combover. 

After: look at this guy! Ready for senior year :)  



Sister Willardson comes home in two dayssssss! This photo is from the beginning of the transfer. Her comps are from Korea and Australia (New Zealand born) I love videos of their accents! One comp has had covid so they’ve been quarantined for days and are going a little batty. With the riots and civil unrest happening in LA right now, I’m a little relieved that she is serving over in Torrance. I honestly never worry about her safety though. She’s in pretty excellent hands. 

There have been some laaaaate nights for my teens this week. I finished this puzzle. New out of the box and it’s missing several pieces. I’m starting to think it’s the puzzles and not our family losing pieces. Missing pieces disappointment aside, it was a cutie summer vibe puzzle and great for waiting up for Corbin and Quincy.


Reese declared a major in the School of Family Studies. Quincy is a Biology major. Their schedules are almost set for fall. 


My next door neighbors put their house for sale! Wild to imagine living next to anyone after all the memories my older kids created with the Fousts. I hope a family with pals for my littles moves in. 

Also, let’s discuss $220/sqft. Whaaaaat?! I asked a realtor friend if that’s accurate and she said it’s on point! Um That values MY home at $940,000. Madness. 


It’s shareholder week! Aaron and I went to the Meghan Trainor and Jason Derulo concert. Quincy happened to call us right during Me Too, which is one of her and Reese’s fun songs to sing to. Those backup dancers were something. 






My sister gave Sloane this incredibly soft sweatsuit. She’s obsessed with it and feels very urban 😂😂


Ryan (the turtle version) is thriving. He eats little fish food pellet and dried meal worms and they make the water in his tank smell like death. Changing the water in his tank twice a week is now on the chore chart because I can’t with the smell. 

Soren is such a snuggler. Most of my children are snugglers. Quincy is either very prickly or right up in your grill breathing your air. Corbin is similarly extreme. Soren is still very tolerating of Sloane’s need to be on someone. 

Mattie organized a readers theatre production of Cinderella for the kids. They had a few rehearsals and a performance last night. It was the best Christmas pageant ever. Absolute cinema. I love Mattie’s efforts to make childhood magical and memorable for the kids. Sloane was the evil stepmother, Bear was the stagehand and props guy, and Esme was a wicked stepmother sister. The play was darling. 

This monster was lurking outside my bedroom yesterday! 


NBA finals = a gathering of Y chromosomes. We made the boys join us for family scripture time first. Sloane and Esme were highly irreverent. Sloane got in an argument with Landon W, and Esme took rogue photos of everyone with my phone. 






In this gem you see she captured footage of me telling Sloane and Landon to knock it off. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I love teenagers so much. I also made everyone go walk two laps around the island before dinner just to have half a minute to breathe. These boys can be so intense. I passed on traditional nice Sunday dinner and instead put out a steady stream of snackies and called it dinner. Ham sliders, a veggie tray with taziki and hummus, leftover mango quinoa and chips, wings. Bagel bites, taquitos, chips and salsa, edemame, crackers cheese and salami. It was a weird smorgasbord of whatever but they were happy to eat it.

Neighbor Oliver is back from Wisconsin to stay with dad for several weeks this summer, and that means bikes and basketball. They made a bunch of jump ramps and went crazy the other night with tricks. The moms watched their bike exhibition anxiously and after a few crashes we were grateful when the boys chose to quit while they were ahead. 


Shef is a missionary! Quincy sobbed on the way to church and smiled like a proud mother through sacrament meeting. We’re going to miss having him and his music around. Fake Band is officially on world tour. Sammy B was also set apart as a missionary last week and is off to Peru today! 

There were several more youth but they left for their own wards before getting in the group photo. 

Elder Blake, Landan S, a friend from byu xc camp, Tyler B, Ethan S, Cade B, Josh T, Luke Douggie, Audrey J, Piper T, Davey S, Luey G, Shef, Gavin F, (Celeste P ?), Baylee G, Ena R, Sarah H, Lance R, Cadence C, Quincy, Parker O, another friend of Sam’s, Kate K, Gracie D, Kate W.  (Not shown, Cannon C, Kate A, EVS, Garrett M, Scotty G, Holden C) 

“Ok one last hug, make it count cuz it’s all handshakes or fist bumps this afternoon” 

It’s turtle season! The kids have found many box turtles to corral and play with each day,  

We’ve been to the library many times already. The maker space is our favorite thing so far this summer. Today we are using the Glowforge to engrave cutting boards for Father’s Day, and the tshirt press to iron on the Camp Wild patches they made. 

The kids are reading so much this summer, which is a miracle for Sloanie and Bear. They brought home 5 early chapter books each and both read them all last week. I signed them up for the library summer reading program—-I need to figure out how to enter their reading logs now. Maybe some drawings for prizes will keep them motivated throughout the summer. 

She cooks

Chia Pudding

My boys never stop eating or exercising so I’ve been experimenting with new ways to increase our protein. I remembered that our hotel in San Diego had the most delicious overnight oats and chia pudding. I looked up some recipes, and wow, internet fitness people are serious about their chia pudding. 

The ratio is 2 cups liquid to 1/3 cup chia seeds. Mix/shake and then it sits in the fridge overnight and thickens up to a tapioca consistency. 

Our favorite liquid is SO yummy. 

1 core power vanilla protein drink is just shy of 2 cups and it’s perfect. 

No sweetener needed, just the shake and chia. We eat it plain. 

We also made it with almond coconut milk and it took longer to set up and it was less sweet. The consistency could be related to being a higher ratio of liquid, but either way, it was good. We topped this one with fruit. 

I’ve been sending a dinner plate or two up to my parents lately. This is a good thing because my dinners have been pretty lazy most nights over the past month with all the different activities we had going in May. 

One thing I’ve been doing pretty consistently is smoked chicken. Last night I made a rub with garlic, coriander, cumin, and chili powder. 

We put the sliced up chicken on salads of romaine lettuce, roasted diced sweet potatoes, a big scoop of quinoa salad with green onions, cilantro, sweet peppers, red wine vinegar, black beans, and diced mangoes. Recipe for that, here: 

https://ourbestbites.com/mango-quinoa-salad/

Topped the salads with avocados and a homemade smoked paprika vinaigrette that was SO good! 

Do yourself a favor and make this. It’s like a lays BBQ potato chip. 

Smoked Paprika Vinaigrette: 

Blend together: 

⅓ cup honey, 1 tablespoon dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon lime juice, ¾ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, ¾ teaspoon kosher salt, 1 ¼ teaspoons smoked paprika 1tsp minced garlic, 1 chopped green onion, 1 pinch white sugar, ½ cup olive oil. 

Blueberry Picking

Summer is here when it’s blueberry picking season! We changed it up this year and instead of sunrise picking at the blueberry barn, we joined Dragoviches Perla, and Shefchiks at Neal Family farm for an evening pick. Wow! This is way preferred and I can’t believe we’ve been missing out on golden hour blueberry picking all these years. Everyone but Sloane (who opted to go to bed) went, and we took Ammon with us. 

Let’s discuss this photo. 

1) WHY IS SOREN JACKED? Kid is not even 13 years old and has biceps and a legit 6 pack. 

2) Corbin has started carrying around a 15 lb dumbekk everywhere. He knows this is ridiculous. “I’m getting gains, Mom.” 

Don’t be fooled. Quincy picked zero berries. She finished a 12hr shift, showered and joined us late and just followed everyone around and snacked and talked and talked and talked and she and Shef convinced Byron to fund dinner plans for them and Luke D. 


I love Arkansas. Here’s a dude with a pet hawk. Does he live nearby? Is he an farm associate? A patron? No one knows. But he’s got a tie dye Jesus tee shirt and a masked hawk chained to his wrist. 


The big boys went to play sand volleyball after picking and took Soren with them. Their energy and antics are like a reality tv show. I asked them what their show would be called and they replied, “Goon Activity”. It’s a valid suggestion. 


This is what blueberry picking looked like for them. Empty baskets, one playing Clash Royale, and the other napping (but still texting in one hand and getting a bicep pump in with the other?) 






They did join the group and contribute. Corbin practiced his Spanish with our new friend, Perla, and had her rolling in laughter. 

Nisha (Perla’s daughter), Shef, Byron, Kenzie, Mirabella, Amber, Me, Roxanne, Bear, and Q.

Not shown are Aaron, Ammon, Corbin, and Esme 

And now we get to make blueberry everything! My favorite! 

Lawrences in LA

Aunt Melinda, Uncle Marker, Cousins Garrett, Zach and wife Emma, Cousin Brock and his friend were in LA this weekend and got to surprise Sister Willardson at church!