Summer Day 4

With no swim team practice this morning, the day started LAZY ... I even had to wake a few of the girls to get things moving!! We started the day with a trip to the bowling alley with the Wilsons! An hour of bowling finished off with pizza and root beer made for the perfect morning :)

Cougar

Alex

Amanda

Kendyl

Kayla

Ashton

Brinley

Of course, we had to spend some time in the arcade, too. I love that they were thoroughly entertained without actually paying to play a single game!!









After a break at home, we headed to Krispy Kreme to celebrate National Doughnut Day with free doughnuts!








Next, we hit Costco and bought every snack that they carry so we can start our summer snack buckets on Monday - YAY! After a quick trip to drop a smoothie off to a friend who had his tonsils out on Wednesday, it was home for some pickup and some Wii time ... Just Dance 2 *WOO HOO*


After a super speedy dinner mac & cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches for the kiddos, Steve and I snuck away for dinner at Rubio's followed by frozen yogurt. It was the perfect start to the first weekend of summer 2011!!

Summer Day 3

We took the kids to lunch at Wendy's where Cougar had some fun with French fries ... he's kinda obsessed with mustaches right now.


Then it was off to see Kung Fu Panda 2 - loved it!! After a little time to relax, we were off to the first swim meet of the season *YAY* Here are some of the highlights ....

Waiting for the meet to start

Cougar and Alex snacking (all meet long)

Ashton freestyle

Ashton backstroke

Kendyl backstroke

Kendyl freestyle

Both girls swam in a freestyle relay and then individual backstroke and freestyle. They did great!! Brinley opted not to swim in the meet tonight, but will be swimming next week :)

On the Fourth Day of Christmas ...

It rained.

We started the day early by making a batch of Addiction for Brinley to take to her math class. They could make a recipe for extra credit showing the calculations to double or triple the amounts and then share it with her class ... aren't they lucky? I haven't done hardly any baking yet this year due to the kitchen disaster of 2010. Good news on the horizon, though - countertops go in tomorrow, plumbing will be done Saturday {dishwasher, sink, disposal, RUNNING WATER} just in time for company to arrive on Sunday, and they will be here to finish up and clean the tile (and grout *WOOT*) on Monday!!! Don't worry ... pictures will follow ;)

I headed into Ashton's class to help with some Christmas crafts today. She is a lucky girl to have such cute and sweet friends! I had so many kids come up that were excited to see me ... I love that! I also got to stay and enjoy the holiday feast with her {although I didn't eat - I had a lunch date with my guys right after and Chipotle sounded way better than the ham and tamales they were serving}!

As I was frantically preparing food for my Bunco hosting duties tonight, a sweet girl from my ward stopped by to drop off some goodies, a Christmas card, and a darling thank you gift. I didn't feel I had done anything "worthy" of a thank you, but as I read her note I was humbled by her overwhelming thoughtfulness and gratitude toward me. It reminded me that I need to take more time to express my own gratitude for others and the impact they have on me ... not just for the big things that we might normally show our thanks for. It was just what I needed and I will definitely go back to her note when I need a pick me up!!

Then it was off to Bunco! I was invited to be part of a Bunco group several months ago and it is such fun - I had never played before that!! I chose to host in December because it is the one month out of the year that I feel like my house has any style. This was, of course, before things fell apart in the kitchen! Lucky for me, my dear friend Beth came to the rescue and offered for me to use her house ... even nicer since she's not even in the Bunco group!! I convinced her to sub for another girl who couldn't make it this month. We made Cafe Rio salads and fruit salsa along with lots of peppermint goodies and some amazing peppermint oreo brownies that Beth made.

I made a little gift for the girls, too. I had been wanting to make a little something and I knew I also had teacher gifts, office gifts, and friend/neighbor gifts to make, so I worked and created my very first subway art {inspired by so many designs that I had seen online}!! I love the way that they turned out and I can't wait to give them out to everyone else ... hope they like them!!

I asked if everyone would be okay with bringing donations this month rather than bringing gifts to hand out after play. Everyone was on board and I talked with the nurse at one of the local high schools (after being tipped off that there were some specific needs there) about what could be used. We decided to collect lots of hygiene products - pads, tampons, shampoo, lotions, soap, deodorant, combs, brushes, etc. These will go to help students in our area who are homeless, displaced, or without some of these everyday basics. It felt so good to gather everything up in my car tonight and I can't wait to deliver them to the school tomorrow!

While I was at Bunco, Steve attended Brinley's "regular" band concert. She has been playing the french horn for months now and is improving as she practices! She really seems to enjoy it and I'm sure she did a great job!

On the Second Day of Christmas ...

Today we became the proud owners of 116 sq. ft. of Giallo Fiorito granite. Whoa. It's getting kinda real around here!! I won't go into all of the gorey details, but we looked at this granite before our trip and didn't love it ... it wasn't what we were expecting based on the small sample we had seen. We went back this morning with our cabinet door and floor tile to look at 2 other types and didn't like either of them - they seemed too "generic" with our current materials!! So we revisited the Fiorito and looked at a few different bundles and found some that we loved! It's not at all what we anticipated choosing but I can't wait to see it in my kitchen ... on FRIDAY!!!!

Tuesday means LUNCH DATE!! These are the two I got to spend my afternoon with ... love them!!

We tried to get a picture of me and Beth together and this is what Cougar captured - we laughed so hard while he was trying to take pictures with my phone!!

Unfortunately, with Alex being in school this year, Cougar seems to tire of our lunch dates sooner than I would like. This is what we ended up with this afternoon ... nothing says clean like rolling around on the doormat of a restaurant.

Tonight we had Ashton's choir concert at school - it was fabulous!! They had a jukebox 50's type theme and it was so fun. Ashton had a speaking part and had it perfectly memorized!

Please note the converse high tops with her skirt. It doesn't help that my children have no shoes that fit them, but this speaks to her personality to a T!! She often tells me she is not a "girly girl" and I love that she is true to herself :D

Ashton and Bryce have been in the same class more than once now in the past 5 years and he is just darling ... and we love his entire family!! They are such great buddies and I appreciate the sweet friendship they have.

Similar to the doormat incident, Cougar went a little crazy after the concert, too ... it was getting late and he hadn't had a nap for the day!

Middle School Mama

First I have to say thanks so much for all of the sweet comments that have been left or e-mailed to me ... you sure know how to make a crazy girl feel the love!! I hope my reentry didn't leave you feeling like I was in the bottom of some dark abyss - it never got that bad ;) Life is fabulous most of the time and the rest of the time it is the pits or somewhere blissfully in between ... like everyone else's.

Last week met us with another milestone in our house - Middle School. That's right ... summer is over {in the blink of an eye} and the kiddos are back in school (can I get a little WOO HOO? We really did have a great summer but it was time for ALL of us ... the kids miss it just as much as I do)!!! Brinley has stepped up to the big leagues of Middle School. I'll be honest - I've been dreading it for at least 9 months. The mere idea of the new campus, administrators and teachers I didn't know, lockers, "tween" clothing {including training bras}, cruelty, language, "outside influences", etc. were enough to make this mama want to lock her up and homeschool her!! That, however, would never be an option for me because she is too passionate about school (and I couldn't do the homeschool thing ... having been a public school teacher). Toward the end of 5th grade I started to notice her attitude toward "moving up" become more nervous and I was afraid that my own fears were rubbing off on her - yikes. A change of attitude {for both of us}, 2 tours of the school during open houses, some fun school shopping for clothes and the MANY school supplies required by the middle school and we were both feeling much better. She dove right in last Monday and is loving the whole thing. She was accepted into the honors program so she has the same group of kids in her 5 core classes ... some of which she knows from her elementary school. She has a few friends in her homeroom class, too, which was comforting to find out. She's got a group of girls that she eats lunch with every day (I had nightmares of her sitting alone in the cafeteria). She got into band and has decided to play the french horn which, by the way, is one of the most expensive instruments to rent or buy ... just learned that last night. Ugh. Tonight she announced that she wants to run for Student Council which is awesome - she's a great leader. The kicker about that? She can start hanging posters and campaigning on Monday and has to have a speech ready for approval on Monday ... and I have to teach Relief Society on Sunday. How in the world am I supposed to have the time to work on a campaign over the weekend?!? No sleep is the only answer, unfortunately.

Now so you don't think she's the ONLY one who started school last week I should mention the other munchkins. Ashton is in 4th grade this year and Kendyl is in 1st grade. I am the luckiest lady around because they both got the teachers that I wanted them to ... both of which we have had before!! I am thrilled to work with these ladies again and plan to do some extra "spoiling" just cuz I love 'em. Kendyl's teacher is actually the one that I babysat for after she had her first baby so there is an extra special connection there ;) Both of them are doing exceptionally well and are loving being back in the classroom.

And now a photo of the girlies ... with a preview of my new product releasing in my shop on Monday!

How about the littlest of the bunch, you ask? He started preschool two days a week! I was really torn about it, to be honest, because he is still very young and has 2 years before he will start school. What it came down to was that socially he needs to be around other kids more. He is so lonely when his sisters go back to school and while I try to plan playdates for him, it's nice for him to establish his own "routine," too. He's loving it so far and his teacher says that he is doing very well in terms of participating and focusing {when required}. Here are a few shot of him as he headed out the door on his first day:

That kid cracks me up!! Well, I think that covers our first day of school happenings ... I'm sure I could go on but that is MORE than enough for one night!!