School and more

First day of school pictures.

All the kids were almost ready by the time Jessie left at 7:15 to walk to the bus.  Then there was just a lot of waiting around until they were supposed to leave an hour later.  Only there was a little mix up about where the bus picked the kids up.  I had called the school district to see where the stop was and they told me it was right in front of our house.  Sweet, right.  Well, there is a stop in front of our house but it’s at noon for the afternoon kindergarteners.  So there we all were waiting on the porch for the bus to come and a little kid from around the block runs by.  Huh, we think….where is he going? Should we tell him the bus stop is at our house?  We wait a few more minutes and another little guy comes running past, in a hurry.  “Where are you going?” we ask him.  To the bus top around the block he tells us!  Ahhh..so the kids all jump up and follow him and they catch the bus ok.  But we are all a little confused until we find out they only told us the kindergarten stop.  What a crazy way to begin the day.

Isaac finds his toes.  Yummy.

Ken’s parents came over after they returned from their Brazil trip.  It was so fun to see them again.  They filled us in on their fun travels and different customs etc.They brought each of the kids shirts and they love them!!  The boys especially love to show them off and wear them often.The kids had a pep-assembly at school and came home with these gold medals.  Spencer and Neil played with them for weeks.  And Neil kept Spencer’s medal safe for him while he was at school by wearing it.

Neil and I keeping busy during the day while the kids are at school.  This painting book was a big hit.  He did half of it in one day.Yummmmm…peach cobbler for breakfast.Here’s another Saturday in pictures: waiting for leftovers to heat up for lunch, playing Parcheesi, reading, mowing, playing with the cute baby, helping Neil wash his hands for dinner, Mark made a reading timeline for school of benchmarks and books he remembers reading from birth to today.  It took 2/3 of the day to get it done – and he did a fabulous job.  We decided to grill hamburgers for dinner – Yeah! and then put Neil in bed some uncountable number of times until we finally told him to just lay down on the couch while we did whatever we were doing.  He finally fell asleep at 11:52 pm – silly little goose.

Mark earned his second and first class ranking in scouts and he was so excited.Jessie made brownies to take down to Grandma Jennie when she and Mark and Ken went to visit.  We enjoyed them after dinner too.  And everyone got one for dessert in their lunch on Monday. Thanks Jessie.  Neil lining up his cars again.  This time they went up a big hill and he got most of them to balance, but when the line got a little longer he could hardy reach around them without them falling off the arm of the couch and that really bugged him.  He lined them up over and over again until finally he took my suggestion and just drove them on the cushions and then the world was lovely place again.Shoe boy strikes again.

Spencer took these pictures for us.Neil loves to hold Isaac.  Not for very long, but he does love to do it.Another sleeping baby pictures.  I just love this boy. And he goes down SO easily.  I’m getting spoiled.Soccer shoes are fun to wear too.Abbie’s soccer game.  Tag team soccer this year made for an exciting September.  I had to leave early with Mark to take him to his game and get Jessie back for mutual where Ken was.  Thank goodness for Grandma to bring the rest of the kids home.Addie, Quinn and Neil and I went to Fat Cats for the last day of summer bowling prices.  Quinn had never been before and he did a great job.  Neil was excited to wear bowling shoes for the second time.  He and Quinn shared a game each rolling one ball per turn, switching back and forth who went first. And I bowled my best game ever – that I can remember that is.  Now every time we get in the car to run errands after the kids are gone to school and before lunch when we turn onto the highway Neil asks me if we are going bowling, so I guess it made an impression on him.

The end of Summer Vacation

This is not how you want to end summer vacation: Jessie made this sign to post on Mark’s door.  The poor kids was sick for a whole week.  Eventually, about all the kids got it but Jessie and Isaac and that was over the Sunday that Ken and Jessie and I gave talks at church.  Talk about some team tag going on with sick kids at home.

Ken brought me home these beautiful roses one day.  They lasted forever.

Little smiley baby – who isn’t the biggest fan of tummy time.  But then what baby is?  Abbie is our little tummy time reminder girl.

Ken and I were in the living room one evening and he was talking to me while I worked on the computer and he looked down and said, “Man I hate those fake spiders Jessie has.”  Then doing a little thinking he picked up a little toy and threw it at that fake spider he was about to pick up and it moved!!  YUCK.  This is the fourth one of these spiders we’ve seen.  Calling the bug sprayers tomorrow.  It was huge and we googled it and couldn’t figure out what it was.  I swear there are 7 million kinds of spiders.One of our peach trees spontaneously died this summer, but our other tree was loaded and we were so excited when it was harvest time.  Ken came home for lunch so I could sun and ended up helping to pick all the peaches with us first.  YUMMY!Sweet Spencer.Peaches…peaches….peaches…here are the peach muffins we made.  And they were fabulous!Jessie was having a late-over at one of her friends, so Mark had a late-over with us.

Here’s the last Saturday before school started.  Rachel came down to do her laundry, as usual.

Then we went swimming at the Payson Pool.  Ken even came with us and swimming is one of his least favorite activities unless it’s over 100.  But we all had a great time.  Neil’s ready to get in now that he borrowed Spencer or Abbie’s goggles.That cute baby is so cubby!One of Ken’s work friends from the east coast sent us a swim outfit for Isaac and it fit perfect.  And since it was long sleeves I didn’t even have to coat him in sunblock.  Boy was that nice; what a thoughtful gift.playing in the lazy river.  This is my favorite part (except for the vents that tear up your feet, you’ve got to be careful about those).

Someone started getting cold.  But before that Ken and Mark and Abbie went on both the slides.

and another one getting cold…Pool check…man these always seem to take forever.still waiting…Isaac got hungry and Rachel fed him for us.  She was so proud of him holding the bottle.After swimming we had waffles and ice cream for dinner.  Doesn’t that sound like a good way to end summer vacation. 

And Abbie and Ken made us some peach cobbler for dessert.  YES!Oh, and I almost forgot my favorite swimming picture.  I played with it in Picasa and used it as my desktop picture for months.