Ella Begins

Ella Bella's turn! Yesterday was the first day of kindergarten and this girl was ready! The wait was long, not only the 5 1/2 years she's waited for this moment, but the extra week after Maddie started school! She missed Maddie a lot, but that wasn't really the problem... she was best described as a caged bird. Ready to take flight, but restricted... and now she is free to soar!

This is somewhat remarkable if you knew Ella when she was younger. She used to be extremely shy, and she was the one that cried in nursery for a whole year. But she is definitely blossoming and becoming more confident in new situations. 

Maddie wanted to walk her in, and I was okay with that since we had practiced the night before at the open house. So I waved and stayed outside! It pulled at my heartstrings, but not so much because I was sad... more because I was proud of them for sticking together. 

I snuck in a few minutes later and watched her line up in the courtyard with all the other teeny kindergarteners. There she is by her teacher, Mrs. Caldwell, who is filling in for Mrs. Kendall while she's on maternity leave.

And there's that cute girl, still grinning 3 hours later when I picked her up! She was brimming with things to tell me. I asked her what her favorite part about the whole day was, and she said reading a book (The Kissing Hand). She also loved recess and was tickled to tell me all about the kids in her class. Later she sang me a cute song she learned about fish. It was nice to have just the boys for the morning, although I felt a little off balance without her.

Ella is also beginning piano lessons with Grandma! Last Saturday was her first one, and she was so excited to go with Maddie and Daddy. Again, Ella has been very interested and ready to learn more, and I feel like she is finally free to fly!  We have been practicing after school when the boys are napping, and she is a very enthusiastic learner. (Maddie, on the other hand, is going through a trough in her piano practice when everything is too hard.... hopefully it's just a phase and she'll pull out of it! But Ella's enthusiasm is refreshing.)

Not done yet... Ella and Maddie also started gymnastics again yesterday!

I had to wait for open registration to sign them up, and by then the kindergarten classes were full. I got permission to try Ella in a Level 1 class, which is usually for 1st graders. She didn't bat and eye and was so excited to be back, whether she knew anyone or not. I was happy about it too, because her class is before most kids are out of school and there were only 4 other girls.

Maddie jumped right back into Level 2 and enjoyed it as well. Gymnastics definitely makes them happy.

 And so this begins as well... brothers watching sisters. They don't last long, but we try.

Milestones

Well, it's that time of year again, back to school. Summer was gone in the blink of an eye, and now we're back to #2 pencils, carpools, packing lunches, and homework... but we get to learn new things and make some new friends too. "Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold."

Speaking of old friends, we got a chance to help Maddie's 1st grade teacher from last year, Mrs. Terry, move into her new classroom at a new school. She is also in our ward, and when we heard she needed help (they got clearance to move in two days before school started!) we jumped at the chance. Maddie was in heaven. She wrote name tags for the new class, set out math books, and we even got to unpack the teacher's desk (Maddie was sure to tell me where the lip gloss went!). Those new 1st graders are some lucky kids... it's going to be hard to top a teacher like Mrs. Terry! She is truly golden.

Maddie also wrote out name tags for our family, in case we forget anybody's name.

While we're on the subject of learning, Jake learned how to climb! Oh boy. 

And Ty is learning to draw! This was his first legible drawing, a sun for Grandma Osmond's birthday.

The back-to-school open house was Monday night. We finally got to meet Maddie's new teacher, Mrs. Scribner, and found out who is in her class. Out next door neighbor Nathan is, and Maddie's best friend from last year, McKinley, so Maddie couldn't be happier!

She picked her desk (next to Nathan) and got acquainted with the classroom while I did paperwork. Unfortunately Mrs. Scribner just injured her knee and may need surgery, so they have a substitute for a week or two.

Ella was thrilled that we bought her a Meadow Mustangs shirt to be like Maddie!

After the open house, we came home and played Fox and the Pie for FHE. Then we read a story in the Friend about saying a prayer if you're scared about going back to school, and Mike gave Maddie a father's blessing for the new school year.

The girls wanted to wear their matching mustang shirts to bed.

It was a good time to measure everybody and see how much they've grown... which was a lot!

 Look at that 4'1" girl, next to that little tiny baby picture! How did that happen?!?!

Ty is taller too, just since his birthday in June!

And finally the moment we'd all been waiting for... presenting Maddie the 2nd grader!

As luck would have it we arrived at the same time (in the rain) as McKinley and walked in together. 

I had to drop off some supplies, so we went to the classroom with her. This look says "Mom, you're embarrassing me." That's the assistant principle that subbed the first day.

They let me come in and take a picture of her in class. Her room is in the new wing of the school and is really nice.

When we picked Maddie up at the end of the day, she really loved on baby Jake. I think they missed each other. She helps with him so much. For example, the other day I had to report for jury selection and Dana watched my kids. Jake wouldn't have anything to do with Auntie Dana (stinker), so Maddie played with him, held him, and even rocked him and sang his song for naptime. Thankfully I didn't get chosen for the two week trial, because Jake would really be having a hard time at babysitters without Maddie!

Not to be left out, Ella is having milestones of her own. She has her first loose tooth!!!!

While Maddie was at her first day of school, we went to the library and checked out lots of books! Ella loves to read. She had her kindergarten assessment yesterday, and next Tuesday is her first day. She can't wait!

Fun Visits!

My sister Noelle and her kids came home from their summer in Texas and stayed at Dana's house for a week. We got to play with them almost every day!

The four 3 year olds were so cute together! They played really well together and are forming little friendships. They bee-lined for the dress-ups and didn't take them off the whole night.

The bigger kids got pajamas on in preparation for a cousin sleepover. They had been looking forward to this all summer!

Somehow I missed getting a picture of the actual sleeping arrangements in the loft, but I did document this craziness the next morning! While I was outside with some of the kids, the rest stripped the house of all blankets, pillows, cushions, and comforts to make a landing pad for their jumps.

Crazy cousins! It was such a mess but they had fun.

We also went to a new beach in Herriman. It's on a little man made lake in a neighborhood. Good times.

The sisters even got a little night out! We got sugar cookies at Swig, went school shopping, and then went to the new movie "The Giver". It was so good and so fun to visit without the kids.

Last Sunday my good friends from Las Vegas met up in Midway at a family cabin. These were the girls I went with on morning walks, swimming, playgroups, and girl's nights. They were my family away from family and I'm so glad we can still keep in touch!

Maddie is a little dare devil and hopped on a mini motorcycle up there. She wouldn't get off she thought it was so fun!

Manti Temple and Camping at Palisades!

Our awesome neighbors invited us to go on a camping trip and we thought it was a great way to end the summer. We haven't been camping since Ty was Jake's age, so it was about time!

After our work party at Boondock's we drove down to Manti and met the Abrams at the temple. The architecture and views are breathtaking! I have many fond memories of my 4 favorite cousins getting married here.

This is the hill where they do the Manti Pageant every June. I can't believe how steep it is for those actors to stand on!

 

The kids thought it was a prefect rolling hill, and it was until they got so dizzy their tummies hurt! 

 

Ty and Jake opted to scoot on their bums. Much safer, I would say.

The dads stayed at the top and relaxed.

We went around the front side of the temple looking for a perfect photo-op. Silly kids!

The Abrams Family

The Andrews Family. (Erin has a fancy camera and took beautiful pictures for us!)

After the temple we stopped at a donut shop in Ephraim. Spoiled the kids' dinners but we were not disappointed!
  

We continued on to Palisades State Park just down the road. The Abrams got us a double site so we could do everything together. We got to work cooking our tin foil dinners... there's nothing better when you're camping! The potatoes were from our garden, and we don't buy grass fed beef very often, so we were in heaven!

This little Blake is sure cute, and you can see in the back ground where Jake spent most of his time, wandering in the road!

After dinner the kids lined up their camping chairs and thought it was hilarious to tip back wards. Going...

Going...

Gone! Except Ty, he didn't think it looked fun.

Of course you have to make s'mores when you're camping. Sticky faces tell all.

About this time a cold wind started picking up and we felt some rain drops. The weather app said it was clear but we must've been under the one raincloud!

The dads put the tents up and my kids got bundled in their fuzzy jammies and sweatshirts.

Since it was still light outside we tried to entertain the kids a little longer with Uno. It was a little interesting to hold the cards down in the wind, but we had fun anyway.

I was not looking forward to bedtime, but they kids surprised us and did pretty well! We set up Jake's pack and play in the van and left the window open a crack to hear him. He slept the whole night without a peep. The other three kids got silly with the flashlight in the tent and got up for a late-night potty break, but then they fell asleep till morning!

Mike and I would have had a good night's sleep except that our new queen air mattress "forsook us" as Mike would say. We ended up on the ground. :)
 

After a simple breakfast the next morning Maddie and Ty found hiking sticks and begged to go up a trail they saw by the playground.

Mike took the girls first, and then came back and rounded up the rest of us to hike up for the beautiful views.

 

We made it to the top!

Good thing there was a reservoir to jump in because we were hot! 

The moms and kids headed to the water while the dads went to rent a paddle boat.

This has been my favorite kind of swimming this summer... shallow water and lots of sand to play in! The kids really entertain themselves.

 

Finally we spotted the paddle boat headed toward us. We spent four hours taking turns on it. My girls surprised me and loved to jump off the boat and docks into the water and swim along side. 

The weight limit was 805 pounds (we got a kick out of that) but Ben thought it would be fun to put our whole party on even though we went at least 100 over! Water was filling the holes but it held us!

It was a great day. The guys packed up camp after lunch, and after a long afternoon of playing in the water we loaded up our sandy selves and headed home.

Ben wanted to stop at Roy's Pizza in Ephriam for dinner and we were not sorry. It was delish. All the kids were full and tired and slept on the way home.