A New Kindergartner!

Abbie started school on Wednesday.  We hung out together in the morning and did boring things like washing bedding and clearing off the table with Abbie asking every couple of minutes if it was time to get ready to go.  We did color some in a coloring book and play with Marble Works to pass the time.  And amazingly enough the time finally arrived. 

After pumping up my bike tire and strapping Spencer into the seat on the back of my bike we were off.  And boy were we off!  Abbie was zooming!  I commented to her while we were riding that we weren’t late at all and we had plenty of time to get to the school.  “I know,” she tells me, “but I’m just so excited!”We went in with her and watched her put away her backpack and find her seat.  I think Spencer would have pulled up a chair and stayed with her all day if I hadn’t took his hand to leave.  Here’s my happy girl home from the first big day.  She was ALL smiles.Her favorite part was finding “pie-rat” treasure.  A collection of thing to write with and on.  Because real treasure is learning, right!  That night she was totally worn out from all the excitement.  She fell asleep with in minutes of getting into bed and then rolled out of bed and landed on the floor still totally asleep.  Jessie called out to me that Abbie had fallen out of bed and Ken went to pick her up and put her back in and she didn’t even move.Soccer and flag football also started this week.  Here are a few of the pictures.  Jessie’s had two games so far and in the first one she was not really, shall we say, “into the game.”  But tonight she did way better, running and setting herself up so others could pass to her.  She even got a couple of good kicks.The first game her team lost 1-5 and I thought this might be a repeat of last year’s losing games.  But tonight they won 7-0.  I felt bad for the other team, just because Jessie had so many games like that last year.  Jessie was happy tonight because a lot of different girls scored and there wasn’t just one star player.  I was happy for that too. Flag football surprised me and I had a blast watching.  I couldn’t even come close to keeping track of downs or yardage, but that’s OK because I had fun cheering and playing with the camera.  Grandpa Fry was visiting and got to come to the game and that was so fun for Mark.  Steph and Grandma also came so we had a huge cheering section. This is Mark right after he caught the only interception of the game. Mark’s in the far right of this picture pulling off the blue guys flag.Oh, and one last picture.  Here are Ken, Mark and Abbie (Spencer was a little further back) racing around the soccer field.  Ken was so great to cheer and to keep little kids entertained.

To school and beyond

Abbie got a letter from her teacher in the mail with this doll to color and cut out and bring to the school open house.  She was more than excited.  She even reread the letter to me after I read it to her.  When she got to the end she said, “Man, that had the word assessment A LOT!”  She was worried about coloring it just right and wanted my help so I talked her though what to do, but what she wanted was for me to do it so it would be perfect.  I had to explain to her several times that whatever she did WOULD be perfect.  She was also a little unsure what color to do her hair, “because my hair really isn’t yellow.”Our last Pack Night was a car race.  Jessie and Mark came up with all the ideas for how his car should look and they painted it together in the driveway one afternoon.  Then I helped him draw out the shapes and he cut and glued most of them on. It took us two evening to get it all done, but when we finished it wasn’t even the day of the race.  I was SO SO SO happy we’d actually planned ahead and got it done.  That way it was just fun and not stressful.  Oh, and he got his jersey for flag football that night too, so it was a good night. First day of school…. And I just had to put this in because this is a Spencer thing and it’s so normal that I never think to take a picture of it, but someday he’s be all grown and I’ll have forgotten.  Spencer thinks that the piano is his own personal race track.  Sometimes the lid is over the keys and sometimes the cars have neat little parking spots between the black keys.  His cars go back and forth, running into each other and winning the races from his head and it’s his own little world right at his level.After the kids left for school this morning Abbie and Spencer showed me that if you hold this blanket up to the light you can see the rainbow animals from the front “glowing” through to the back.  And so Abbie and I made a little tent by the piano so they could lay under the blanket and the sunlight from the front door could work it’s magic.  I guess my tent wasn’t fancy enough because soon Abbie had added the stools with book to hold the blanket up higher and she and Spencer had their own little art studio all set up under there. They drew pictures for almost an hour. It was so fun.

Here’s the big race…

The boys had to stop in the pit and wash their windshields (they got sprayed in the face with a water bottle and then wiped off with a paper towel – hence the goggles), drink a cup of water to refuel, and take off their shoes and put them back on for their tire change.  Mark’s shoe stop didn’t go quite so quick so he didn’t win the race, but he still had a blast!  His car won a “best paint job” award.  At first he thought that just referred to the blue paint he and Jessie had put on.  “We did a good job,” he told me, “but it’s not the best paint job ever.”  I had to explain to him that that really included all the decorating.  “Ahhh…”  after that he was excited about the award and told us that he wished we’d have that same pack night every month.

Here’s a little domino playing we’ve done… …and a get together for Ken’s little sister’s birthday.  The weather here as been so beautiful and the dessert for the party was so delicious – little cups of chocolate heaven.  I don’t have the recipe yet and that may be a good thing….

The last few days of summer vacation

The last day all my family was here we went to my cousins wedding.  It was a beautiful day.  The sealing was one of the best I have ever been to.  Here is my favorite of the pictures I took.  My mom and dad with his mom…

At the reception Mark was SO bored…until he found a way to help and then he had a great time.  He was the official cup filler and kept the number of glass of water right between 5 and 15 all night long.  Of course at times, even he had a few helpers.And in case you haven’t seen enough flowers on my blog – here’s one more.   Her flowers were so beautiful!  My cousin did all the arranging herself.When she threw her bouquet no one actually caught it, but it was snatched up pretty quickly.  Some of the flowers fell out when it hit the ground, so Abbie picked up the petals and my cousin’s daughter picked up a rose. After that we said goodbye to all my family and since my kids take after me they cried for part of the ride home.  Lucky for us, my mom was able to stay a few extra days.  Unfortunately, I think I was a little camera tired and so I didn’t get many pictures of the fun things the kids got to do with her.  That was silly.  Just so your not worried, I have recovered.  (I’m even getting a couple of filters for my camera in the mail this week – it’s going to be so fun!)

One afternoon they drew this fun train, just my mom and Abbie.  Then Jessie joined them and helped draw one of the animals.  Can you guess what animal Jessie drew?  Abbie had originally tried to draw the track the train would ride on, but it looked kind of funny so they turned the “track” into the animal cages.

Here’s Jessie drawing of Tiger, the neighbor’s cat, who thinks he belongs to us.

My mom brought a bunch of craft supplies out and Abbie and Jessie were in HEAVEN!She also made a couple of dresses for the girls, new scripture bags for the boys, played four square, read books etc.  The kids had a ton of fun.  When Mark told me Grandma had finished his new scripture bag he said, “Mom, you have to see it.  It’s so awesome!”  Thanks mom!  And thanks dad for letting her stay.A couple of other fun things we finished out that week with were going to the County Fair and meeting the Berry’s at, can you guess??, Thanksgiving Point.

I loved the flags they had lining the street at the fair.  The kids enjoyed seeing the animals.  I’m not sure any of them had ever really seen a pig that big.

Seeing the bunnies reminded Abbie of her bunnies we had for a couple of months and she wanted some more.  She assured me that if we got more they wouldn’t eat the carpet or the scrapbooks.  This baby goat was SO tiny!  We also watched some barrel racing in the “under 8” category and the 8 to 12 year olds.  They kids were amazed at some of the kids their age out riding.  We walked past the free popcorn on the way back to the car so the kids have great memories of the fair. On our way up to Thanksgiving Point it rained for 5 minutes and cooled the day off just right.  Plus a bunch of people packed up to leave not wanting to get wet and the Discovery Gardens weren’t crowded at all.Mark does not like to have his picture taken.  Especially if I ask him to smile, so Grace is holding him in case he tries to get away again at this second try of taking a picture of them going through the hedge maze.Jessie was so silly today she kept dipping her head in the water upside down so her hair would all fall in front of her face and then she’d style it.

While the kids had a pony ride I got this funny picture of the goat that was watching us. The kids favorite room is the Harvest room where you “plant” crops and harvest them and take them to market.  We played here for quite a long time.  Abbie and Spencer are planting. This last picture is from Saturday. Mark and Ken were going to play a game of St. Petersburg and asked Abbie if she’d like to be the banker (she’s really good at making change) and has been their banker many times.  But she didn’t want to be the banker, she wanted to play.  After all, she told them, “I know how to play because I’ve watched you play this game a ton of times.”  And she was right…with just a little advice she did pretty darn well and I think they all had a ton of fun.

Need some after school fun?

Check out this fun website http://www.5orangepotatoes.com/blog/ She has just posted some really fun things to download including a bunch of different play dough recipes (one uses kool-aid), and how to raise your own caterpillars.  I’m so excited to try some of these fun things with my kids and thought you might too.

Caves and Birds

For our last BIG hike we went up to Timp Cave.  This time we did get out early enough to beat the heat. Can you see what Mark’s doing?  He’s giving us the “I love you” sign.  I used my telephoto lens to get this one, because they were WAY in front of the rest of us. We caught up to them a few minutes later and Karina switched drivers.Before we started hiking, my dad stopped in at the gift shop and bought the kids a reference book on Utah birds.  Well, that was the prize possession on the hike.  Spencer was trying to look at every bird in it.  Each page has a color picture so that was great.  He’d turn the page, tell us this was his favorite bird and ask what it’s name was; then he’d turn the page, tell us he had a new favorite bird….Not quite sure how Jessie talked Spencer out of the book… but boy is she happy to be the current possessor.At the top!  YEAH!  It took us about 1 1/2 hours to get there. And we were rewarded with a bird we’d seen in our new bird book.Ready to enter the cave – all jacketed up.We were almost done going through the cave and Spencer in addition to not wanting to walk also “knew” he was about to freeze to death.  On the other hand, I was in heaven – so nice and cool in there, about 45 degrees.Spencer hiked down with my dad because I was tired of his whining to be held, bless my dad.  They of course had to stop and admire a few birds from the book first.We got home in time for some us to go watch Jessie at vaulting and for Mark to go to flag football team selections.  Everyone slept well that night…isn’t this sweet.