First Day of School

Another summer flew by, and now here we are starting another school year!  How does time go so quickly??

And they're off!

Tyler - Junior year
Notice what Tyler took on his first day - his schedule wadded up and a pencil.
That's it.

Emily - Freshman

Freshman??  Seriously??

Bailey - 6th grade
Love her YW torch necklace!

She grew up over night this summer

Logan - 4th grade

   The night before school started we had our Back to School Celebration. I have friends who do this whole big awesome celebration - and I try to copy them.  They make a big, fancy, dinner.  They wear crowns.  They tell their kids their theme for the school year.  I tried to copy them - some things were hits, some were misses.
    I made a big, fancy dinner - this was a hit.  Anything smoked is a hit with these kids.
    I made crowns - and this was a miss.  My friends make crowns - and their kids love them.  They wear them through dinner.  They save them for heaven's sake!  I have a friend whose daughter has graduated from high school and has all of her crowns!  I made crowns.  And expected my kids to wear them.  And my kids looked at me like I was crazy.  My kids are way too old to start crowns now. If we started this in elementary school, it'd be cool.  And we could keep it  going.  Starting this with high schoolers will make them think you've lost your marbles.  Tyler wore the crown for a picture - because he's polite and accommodating.   The girls didn't mind them - Bailey even liked it.  Logan hated it - wouldn't wear it, wouldn't be in a picture with people wearing them. This was a miss.  A big ol' miss I tell ya.

                                          

Yes, Emily is her nightgown (though it looks like a hospital gown).

 She had been sick all weekend!

  Derek and I talked for a long time about what theme we wanted to give our kids for this school year.  We debated between several - Hold to the Rod, Kindness Matters, Faith, Aim High, Be Your Best Self and some others were tossed around.  We decided on Courage.  We talked about how this covers a lot more than meets the eye - this means courage to befriend someone who needs it, this means courage to ask a teacher a question even though you might feel dumb, this means courage to stand alone when it's the right thing to do, this means courage to share the gospel.  Courage can look like a lot of different things.  And boy do we need courage.  Every day. 

 

   I got the kids these cute zipper pulls to put on their back packs.  A few nights a week I'll ask at dinner if anyone had courage that day.  My kids have surprised me with their answers - "I emailed my teacher because I was confused about the assignment", "I sat by a new kid at lunch", and others.  I have been so impressed!  Courage - that's powerful.

Here's to a great 2017-2018 school year!

Bailey's Birthday!

  Bailey turned 12 this week - how can that even be?  She had the funnest day celebrating!

Her day started with our traditional treasure hunt to find her presents.  

Our kids think a candy gram on their birthday is the best present of all!

This one was written by Emmy, and was hilarious.

We got Bailey a gizmo watch - it can call and text up to 10 numbers.

It also has a tracker so I can always find her.  She was so excited!

  After opening presents, she had her fave breakfast of crepes and nutella.  After breakfast she got to go the funnest Activity Days.  Her leaders had told them they were taking the girls horseback riding and Bailey was so worried that she was going to turn 12 before the activity, and wouldn't be able to go.  Her super nice and thoughtful leaders asked me if they did it on the morning of her birthday if would she be able to come.  She was so excited!  She had a great time horseback riding with all of her friends.

   While she was horseback riding, Emily and I were getting ready for a surprise party for Bailey.  I had wanted to do a surprise party for a few months - I just knew she's the type of person who would love it.  So Emily and I worked on her party while she was gone.  The timing of that horseback riding was perfect!

    She came home for a few minutes before Derek invited her to go to the church to play volleyball.  While they were gone, we got busy!  We got out food and decorated as fast as we could.  Her friends showed up and had to help decorate!  After all 3 girls were here, all the food was out, and the house was decked out - we called Derek and told him to bring her home.  

  When Bailey walked in the kitchen her 3 friends, Emmy and a friend, Logan, Derek and I all yelled surprise - she was so surprised!  She couldn't stop laughing!  It was seriously so fun!  

   We had pizza for lunch and then headed to the water park for the rest of the afternoon.

These cute girls - trying to pose for a picture!

  After the water park we headed home for brownie sundaes - a Bailey favorite.

Logan and Carson enjoyed a sundae as well!

Peanut butter cup pie

The beehives in our ward heart attacked her!

She also got her ears pierced!

Looks cute!

Happy birthday Bailey dear!

Family Camping!

  We just got home today from our family camping trip.  I always tell my family I'm good for 2 nights of camping a year.  It's way too much work to just stay one night - the fun to work ratio is way too low.  And 3 nights would do me in - the dirt, the bugs, the food prep/clean up - 3 nights and the fun to yuck ratio is way too low.  Two nights is the sweet spot.  And just once a year.  But I'm totally good for 2 nights - this year I even made it happen!  Usually we wait to get invited by Kim and Herman, who make the reservations and we just show up.  But this summer they weren't going camping - and so I made it happen!  Made the reservations and invited Tate and Angey's family - and I'm the least camping lover in our house!  I kind of surprised myself.

   The morning we were supposed to leave John got admitted to the hospital so Angey felt uncomfortable leaving him to go camping.  So just Tate and the kids came.  He was quite the sport to drive 6 hours for 2 days of camping!

   We met in McCall - my favorite place to camp.  The campsites are nice - good bathrooms, showers, water, tent pads, and right on Payette Lake.  We set up camp, had dinner and headed to town to hit Ice Cream Alley.  Did I mention the best part of McCall is the food?  They have fun food spots on every corner.  I love camping in McCall because the food can be as easy as you want - just eat out!

Logan and his massive ice cream

After grabbing ice cream we walked down to the lake

A morning cup of hot chocolate always hits the spot when camping

This picture sums up every morning with Emmy.

She couldn't and wouldn't eat breakfast without a book.

These 3 kept our fire going....and going.... and going

Our first morning we went on a hike to Louie Lake

Derek, Bailey and Johnna were brave enough to get in

This gross sight became the highlight of probably the whole camping trip.  Logan found

this snake eating this frog.  And the frog was alive.  And trying to escape. 

And we watched this wrestle for 10 minutes!  And it was so gross!  

The snake hadn't made much progress when we left.

Cutie Bailey crossing the creek

     The rest of our camping involved the water - so I don't have pictures.  We rented paddle boards and kayaks and headed out on the river trail north of McCall.  It was so fun!  There were water fights, and capsizing, and taking over of boats by our own pirates (Kotter and Tyler).  I'm sure I am the only one who stayed on my own paddle board the whole time, and never got thrown in.  We made very little progress in actual distance, but everyone had a blast.
     After the paddle boarding, we headed to the beach and the lake.  The kids swam and built castles and we enjoyed the beauty of Payette Lake.
    And then this morning, we had to pack up and head home. But not before we grabbed lunch at My Father's Place, and of course got shakes.
  It was our last trip of the summer - we start school in 16 days!   What a fun way to say good bye to summer!

Summer in a Snapshot

   This picture perfectly catches our summer.  Kids taking piano lessons.  While wearing swim suits. It just cracks me up!  They had to wear their swim suits because we had to leave the second piano was over to get to swimming lessons.  That's our summer - on the run from one fun thing (ok, not so much fun when it's piano) to the next.  We're going like crazy from swim team (Bailey 5 days a week at 7:00), swim lessons, tennis camp, basketball camp, water park, over to friend's, friends over to our house, movies, and every thing else.
  Usually I hate having many commitments in the summer.  This is my break from being overly scheduled.  It's my break from being a mom taxi.  It's my break from saying, "Hurry".  But as my kids have gotten older I realize that's not realistic.  My kids want to do all the fun things of summer - and I want them to too.  So this year, I'm way more committed than I usually like - but this year I'm liking hurrying from one fun thing to the next.  Yes, I'm still a mom taxi who needs a raise.  And I still have to say, "Hurry".  But we are cramming as much fun into summer as we can - and yes, sometimes you have to "put your shoes on in the car" if we're going to get it all in.

Studio C Fun!

We had the funnest night!  We took our kids to see a comedy show starring the cast of Studio C.  I have some serious Studio C fans at my house - Emmy being the biggest.  Studio C is a sketch comedy show filmed at BYU.  Its fun, clean, and mom approved. My girls watch it on YouTube all the time.  I've tried to get tickets to their filmings, but getting tickets to that is like winning the lottery.  

   I saw the cast was coming to do a show - some skits, some improv.  Derek and I decided to get tickets and surprise our kids.  I've been so looking forward to it!

  Tonight we told them we had heard of a good dessert place we wanted to try.  They all piled in the car and off we went, with promises of milkshakes. Once we got to the venue, we went inside where there was a huge line of people holding tickets.  Our kids were so confused!  We just kept saying, "I think these people are seeing a play, but we're in the milkshake line."  Tyler was the one who figured it out first, saying, "I think there's a comedy show here.  Are we going to a comedy show?" Then Emily saw the sign that said Studio C.  She was in shock.  Complete shock.  As in, couldn't comprehend it.  When we told her we were seeing the cast, she said, "Am I in the same building as Matt Meese?!?"  She was so excited!

So excited!

Excitedly waiting for the show to start!

The cast - Matt, Jeremy, Stacey, Whitney, Natalie, James and Jason

Make it even better?  Go with cousins!  The after shot - all smiles!  

 Thanks Studio C for such a fun night and for thrilling one 14 year old.  I am one happy mama!

School's Out!!!

Another school year has come and gone ... man these years just go by faster and faster!  Slow down already Father Time!  Goodbye 10th, 8th (middle school!), 5th and 3rd grades!

We hosted our 2nd annual water balloon fight.  We invited 12 kids from our bus stop to come straight to our house after school and cool off a little with a water balloon fight. 

Tyler filled 300 water balloons and hid them as caches throughout the yard.  

We were ready for the masses!

The kids showed up and the craziness began!  The water balloons lasted about 7.5 seconds!  Luckily we had sprinklers and a hose to fill the vacancy.  

A driveway full of bikes is one of my favorite sights!

Derek said he saw a car slow down in front of our house and count the bikes!

 The saddest part of our party involved our neighbor Justin.  He's in between Bailey and Logan in age.  He doesn't go to our school so it never occurred to me to invite him to our party.  I didn't even know what time he would be home from his school on Friday.  Needless to say, he wasn't invited but he was certainly home.  While I was outside turning on the sprinklers I could hear that someone was playing a recorder.  Now the sound of a recorder didn't really get my attention ... I'm all too familiar with the recorder.  This year both Bailey and Logan have played the recorder the last 2 months of school.  I've been known to say, "You should play that outside so the neighbors can enjoy it too!"  So when I heard the recorder I thought one of our party kids was playing the recorder in the middle of a water fight.  I've seen weirder.  It wasn't until I was in the backyard that I saw Justin.  Both of our backyards have a hill that goes up towards the back.  If you stand on the top our hill, you can look into our neighbor's backyards.  There was poor Justin, at the very top of his hill, practically hanging over the fence, playing his guts out on his recorder, just begging to be noticed.  It was the saddest sight!  I immediately had Tyler run over and invite that poor kid over.  Don't worry, he was soaked in no time. As we've talked about it, Justin has been dubbed the minstrel of our party - like the rooster in the cartoon version of Robin Hood.  

  After our party was over, we headed to Allyson's.  Having a sister with a pool is a pretty sweet gig.  She invites us over, we swim, eat her popsicles and go home happy.  So we swam with the Al and Jen's families and had a high ol' time.  After 3 hours Allyson and Paul had to leave to watch Josh's football scrimmage.  But the weather was so nice!  And the kids were so happy!  And the lounge chairs so comfy! Jen and I stayed another 2 hours.  

What a great day to kick off summer!

Summer - I welcome you, with your sleeping in, homework free, just let me enjoy my kids days, 

with open arms!

Memorial Day Weekend

  For any long weekend we love to head for the hills - the cabin calls, and we must answer.  This weekend was no different.  We headed up to the cabin after church and spent Sunday night through Monday afternoon there.  A perfect weekend .... grandparents, cousins, 4-wheelers, canoes, games, perfect weather, and the beauty of the valley.  Please don't make me go home to one more week of making lunches and signing homework folders!

Canoeing the river was fun we ended up doing a total of 3 trips so 

everyone could get a turn.  That water was COLD!

I'm sure it was snow just yesterday.

Regardless of the weather or season my mom will say, 

"It's just another beautiful day at the cabin!"

Turns out she's right.  Every time.

Chess Master

  One of the biggest highlights of 3rd grade has definitely been the introduction of chess.  Logan's class learned how to play at the beginning of the year, and then all week they earn minutes to play on Fridays.   Logan loves chess.  With all of his heart.  

   Because of all this love, we started a Chess Club.  I'm not lying.  Our school does early out Monday's, so every Monday they get out an hour early.  For some reason, this extra hour feels like a gift from heaven.  Every week.  I love that it's an extra hour between school and bedtime.  I put all of our appointments (hair, dentist, orthodontist, and on and on) on Mondays because it feels like I have this extra hour. It's like the joy of Daylight Savings (when it goes the good way, not the bad way). 

   I digress... back to chess club.  So Logan is loving chess, and wants to play with anyone all the time.  Since we all got tired of playing him, we started Chess Club.  It's been every Monday this school year that I could have it.  So not every Monday by any means, but if I could have it - we had it.  We invited the 3rd and 4th graders who get off at our bus stop. Including Logan it was 8 kids.  It was so funny the first time inviting these kids - my text to the moms basically said, "so I know this is weird, and nerdy, but Logan wanted to invite some friends over to play chess, and if your kid is free, and not very cool, well maybe they could come over and play chess, maybe, if you don't have anything better to do, maybe, just an idea ....".  They all text back the same thing, "we've been hearing all about Logan's chess club!   So fun!!  My kid's in!"   And chess club was born. 

  So Monday afternoons are hilarious to watch.  The kids get off the bus and then it's the Indy 500 to our house.  They race in, some with chess sets in their backpacks, others finding their chess sets had been dropped off by moms throughout the day.  I always have out what I think is a lot of food - wafers, pretzels, cookies, grapes, tons of food and it's like a shark feeding frenzy.  It's so funny to watch!  And then they really play chess.  Really!  The first time I was shocked.  The played more chess at the beginning of the year, and now that the weather is nice, they play less.  But still they play a game or two before they head outside.  Chess club has been a favorite.  Of Logan's and mine.  

   Last week at school they had a 3rd grade chess tournament.  Logan looked forward to it for days.  He was so excited!   And check him out!!  He came home wearing this medal, and couldn't have been prouder.  He took 5th place out of the 3rd grade.