Back to School

On August 19th the girls started school again! Maddie is in 3rd grade with Miss Thinn and Ella is in 1st grade with Miss Coburn. 

At the back-to-school open house they were each given a t-shirt that represented the "house" they were assigned. Meadow started a new program dividing all of the kids into houses representing a value, and theirs is Fidus the Gorilla, who is responsible, dependable, and trustworthy. They have weekly activities as a house to encourage teamwork and spirit, and earn points toward the House Cup at the end of the year! Everyone was asked to wear their shirts on the first day, and even though it messed up first day of school outfits, it was so cool to see the whole school in their bright shirts!

I am seriously  in love with this picture. I'm finally being brave and letting my girls ride scooters to school. I'm so happy they have this neighborhood brigade to ride with! This only includes the families next door and behind us, and they also meet up with more kids down the street. The moms walked with them the first day, and since then they've done great to stay together and take care of each other.  It's such a fun rite of passage for them, not to mention the social aspect!  

When we got to the school we were met with music, balloons, and the whole staff outside welcoming them. It was a party! What a fun way to start off the school year.

Ella's back door buddy Braxton is in her class too.

Maddie's back door buddy Maycee is not in her class again and they feel jipped, but she is with two other close friends she is excited about!

To be honest the boys and I were bored all day without the girls. It felt so quiet and long! I didn't plan well to keep myself busy so I spent the day worrying and thinking about what they were doing. It was Ella's first whole day and lunch at school, and she was so excited about it but I still wondered how she was faring. After Jake was down for a nap, Ty helped me make cookies for our after school snack. He is going to be my little sidekick this year!

And turns out it was a great day! The girls had raving reviews of their teachers and friends. The main
theme of the day was the heat, because they spent a lot of time outdoors in their houses learning rules.

The second day of school the girls chose their own outfits so we took more pictures.

On the third day of school Ella came home with a lost tooth!!! How exciting! It was her third, and first bottom tooth.

 About a week into school the boys and I decided to visit the girls at lunchtime.

It was an exciting treat for us all! Ella was the line leader and the boys thought it was so fun to follow her into the lunch room.

 

After lunch we joined them on the playground. Ty and Jake were popular with all the kids!

Here's Maddie's class lining back up to go in. She is always the line leader too, with an A last name! Miss Thinn has her hands full with 33 kids, but she seemed to have quiet control.

These little school girls are sure happy to be back "in session!" I am getting used to missing them and releasing my grip. It's hard to let other people have an influence on them outside the home, but so far so good!

Goodbye Summer

Summer don't go! I was worried summer would be hard and long with this pregnancy, but it flew by and we loved it competely. Now school is starting and I'm not ready to let go. 

There is nothing like sunflowers against a summer sunset.

We have been really into dutch oven cooking since we went camping. One night we met up with the Abrams again at their friends' awesome backyard, and we tried a breakfast casserole with hash browns, sausage, and eggs. It turned out delish. Our favorite treat is still peach cobbler, which we've made two more times!

My friends Erin and Jo invited us for an end-of-summer playdate. We were all freshman roommates at BYU and still call each other close friends! Between us we now have 13 kids! They have a blast together and sort of let us moms get some talking done.

Maddie continues her obsession with babies, and had to hold baby Violet as much as possible.

Another afternoon we had our last backyard water day The kids love to put the hose on top of the slide and land in the baby pool. 

Gotta love some slip n sliding!

That night our neighbors invted us for a weanie and s'more roast... a great way to enjoy a summer night and good company! These kids cannot get enough of each other.

The day before school started we had a full day with cousins! Noelle and her kids came back from North Carolina and we met them and Dana and her kids at Neptune park for a pizza picnic. 

These four 4 year olds are pretty cute little ducks in a row! They have so much fun together.

That night we had a BBQ in the backyard and played the night away... as much as we could before the "school night" hour came along! Then it was off to take showers, pick school clothes, and have school father's blessings before the big day!

Palisades

We made it a yearly trip and went to Palisades again with our neighbors. The Manti Temple is one of my favorites, and we like to stop there first to explore and roll down temple hill.

This hill is so huge! The kids have serious stamina to go up and down it over and over. They also think it's fun to run around the huge field at the bottom. It made me tired just watching them.

All the cute kids touching the temple doors.

The sun was right behind the spire, making it seem like it was glowing.

The kids enjoyed climbing the trees all around the grounds.

 Mike asked me to take this artistic shot of the reflection of the temple in his glasses.

We had to continue our other traditions from last year and stop at Miller's Drive-in for doughnuts. Unfortunately, this is what they had left! Good thing they had ice cream too, or they would have had some grumpy customers.

Palisades campground was actually full, so we ended up at Temple Hill campground with a beautiful view of the temple. Jake thought camping was pretty awesome and loved the doggy door on our tent.

 The kids played Kubb while they waited for dinner to cook.

Maddie and Ella thought they were super cool to sleep in their own 2-man tent for the first time! We are just too crammed in our 6-man tent with the pack and play for Jake, so we borrowed this from Janell. It worked our perfectly!

Another family, the News, joined us later in the evening and they have a tiny 3 month old baby Gracie that Maddie could not put down.

We enjoyed tin foil dinners and Jake thought he needed to eat with the tongs, silly boy.

Later we enjoyed s'mores around the campfire.

Sleeping went pretty well for camping. Jake has been waking up lately talking about his dreams, and sure enough at about 3 am he woke up crying about something, so I pulled him into my bed until he settled down enough to go back to sleep in his own bed.

Ty did great and didn't wake up till morning. It was cute to wake up to this bed head.

On our way down to the lake we tried Miller's again and were not disappointed! Those were some tasty and fresh doughnuts!

The lake was jam packed, but the New's found us a good shady spot and we set up a for a fun day of water play.

Maddie spent most of the day swimming out to the dock with the boys and jumping off. They all enjoyed the floatie toys and making sand castles. I spent most of the day in the shade! It was a great day of friends and fun, and we're happy to call it a yearly tradition!