First Days of School 2011

So my kids started school on Monday. Ben started the 4th grade, Alex started the 2nd grade, and Chris started Kindergarten. Since he was in Kindergarten though, he just had orientation on Monday and started his first full day today. I'm still not sure I like the way they are doing Kindergarten, alternating between A and B days for full days(Chris is on A, so he goes Mondays, Wednesdays and every other Friday, kind of). They do it that way to save money so they don't have to do a mid-day Kindergarten bus.

Anyway, I did the usual first day of school pictures. Daniel and Abby both decided they needed to join the fun, so they had me take their pictures too.




Ben, Alex, and Chris all ready for school.



All 5 kids lined up together.

Ben and Alex getting on the bus the first day. There were only 5 kids including them who got on the bus that day.

This is Chris at the school just as we were going in for his orientation.

And these last two are of Chris waiting in line for the bus and then getting on the bus with his brothers today. He was so excited.

Girls' Camp

Since I am called to work with the Young Women, I had the opportunity to go to Girls' Camp again this year. Kind of funny how I never really looked forward to going to Girls' Camp when I was a young woman, but it's kind of fun to go back as a leader.

Last year was a totally different experience from this year for a few reasons; we did camp a whole month earlier last year, we slept in cabins rather than in tents, and it was a Stake Youth Camp, so the boys were there too. Last year it was kind of fun to watch the social interaction between the boys and the girls (and to be grateful I wasn't in that time of life anymore), but it was nice this year to be able to just focus on the girls.

This is where we stayed:


It was also very nice to have a husband who was willing (although I don't know that he would think he had a lot of choice in the matter) to take the time off work so I could go with the girls and be there the whole time, from the Tuesday to the Friday. And if you're friends with him on facebook, you probably already know that the kids gave him a run for his money some days.

This year we were close to a lake, so we did get to go spend some time there on that Thursday.


For the most part, we were all pretty laid back the whole time. It was nice to be able to relax and get to know all the girls better and not always have to be rushing off somewhere. But we did have our spiritual moments too. I sometimes think it's easier to feel the Spirit when we're out in nature and away from all the noise and chaos of daily life.

Daniel's birthday and Ben's birthday

Okay, so I was slow in getting pictures on the computer from Daniel's birthday and now Ben's birthday has passed too, so I'm just going to combine them in one post.

Daniel's birthday was back in June. He was very, very excited about his birthday. But everytime we asked him what he wanted for his birthday or what he wanted to do on his birthay, all he said was cake. I guess that's the important part of birthdays for him. We didn't do a lot during the day, except for some of the stuff I already posted about, like the trip to the veteran's memorial, but Bryce came home from work a little early and we took all the kids over to the McD's playground and let them play for a bit.

When we were done at McD's, Bryce dropped most of us off at home and he and Daniel went to the store to pick out a present. While they were gone, I finished decorating his cakes for his birthday. I had talked him into wanting my favorite cake for his birthday, which is chocolate cake with vanilla custard filling and whipped cream frosting. We also did some cupcakes with orange and white frosting, since orange is his favorite color.

Here are a few pictures from his birthay:




This one is of him and one of his presents, which was a toy orange snake. Think he likes orange?


Before we knew it, Ben's birthday came around. Ben was pretty excited for his birthday too, and when we'd ask him what he wanted to do, he'd just say he wanted it to be a surprise. Some of his siblings were pretty sick the week and the day before his birthday, so it was nice when everyone was feeling well. Still, we decided that perhaps we'd better stay home in case someone else would get it while we were out. That, and I was pretty busy getting ready to leave for girls' camp the next day.

We did decide to do a birthday activity during the day. We painted some pictures, which the kids have all been asking to do for a while. They had a good time and made a good mess, but I think that's something they'll remember doing for a long time. Ben also did get to have his friend Michael come over and play for a few hours, so I think that made the day for him, since a lot of his friends are in day care and not home during the day.

Here are some pictures of the kids painting and their finished work:






Because Bryce was taking the rest of the week off and his computers at work hadn't been working very well on Thursday and Friday before that, he didn't get home until about 7:30. So after we all ate a late dinner of ribs and macaroni salad as requested by Ben, Bryce and Ben went to the store to pick out his present and to get a few things that I still needed. Since it was getting kind of late and I was going to have to get up early the next morning, while they were gone I decided to take a quick shower. Abby put herself to bed while I was in the shower, despite being pretty excited for Ben's cake. He had wanted a BTS cake for his birthday and it was all ready to go except for the candy toppings that I had forgotten to get at the store and Bryce and Ben were bringing back.

I think it was about 10:00 by the time they got home and we were eating the cake. All the kids were pretty tired by that time and went to bed pretty easily. They usually do go to bed easily, but when they stay up that late, it's even better.

So now here are the pictures from Ben's birthday:




Happy birthday boys!

Summer Activities

So far we've had a fun summer. We've implemented our summer chores, which surprisingly, the boys do really well without complaint. Most mornings, they get up and do them before I even have to bug them about it. It's amazing how motivating it can be to get paid for their work and to not be able to play until they're done can be for the boys. Abby even does her part, but not as much as the older boys.

Since we have the yearly passes, of course we went to the zoo. They actually have a couple new exhibits, so the kids were excited to see the new animals. And I told Ben that our goal was to go there and learn something new about something that we hadn't known before. Ben spent some time at each exhibit reading the information plaques, so I'd say it was a success.

Here are a few pictures from that zoo trip:




Mom and Cindy and her kids came up for a visit for a few days last week and we had a lot of fun. I never did get any pictures though. But while they were here, we went to the zoo again (and got to see the butterflies this time), we went swimming, and ate out a lot. I'm surprised my kids aren't sick of pizza after that trip. I also had Cindy help me touch up the roots of my hair and we colored her hair too. I think the color took hold on her hair more than mine though. It's funny how using the same color can end up with different results, even on identical twins.

Yesterday I spent some time with Ben working on his wolf for Cub Scouts. His birthday is next month and he'll be moving up to the bears, so he wants to finish his wolf first. We actually now have everything except for one thing done, so we should be able to finish in plenty of time. One of the things we did yesterday to help him complete it was to go over to the city courthouse and the veteran's memorial they have there. It wasn't too thrilling for the kids, but it was interesting to see. I expected to see more names on their Vietnam memorial, but their biggest list was for WWI.

Here are some pictures I took of the kids there:









I'm sure this summer is going to go fast. Hopefully we can find more fun things to do to make it a memorable one. We do have a trip to Utah to see some family planned and swimming lessons after that, so I think we'll be able to come up with more fun things to do that don't cost too much money.

And today is Daniel's 4th birthday! I will do a new post after we've done his cake and ice cream. Happy birthday Daniel!

Preschool Graduation

After 8 months of classes, Chris graduated from preschool last Thursday. It was at the same time as Ben's pack meeting, so Bryce took Ben, Alex, and Daniel to pack meeting and I took Chris and Abby to the graduation. That's how Chris wanted it. He can be pretty silly sometimes.

It was actually pretty entertaining for a graduation like that. She kept it short, so the kids actually paid attention and seemed to have fun. I think Chris' favorite part was the dvd slideshow she made and gave to everyone. He will watch it 3 or 4 times in a row and wants to show it to everyone who comes over.

Here's Chris marching in with his class. I could tell they had practiced a little bit.


In this picture, he's leading the class in naming all the months of the year. They started out really well, but started having problems around September. :)


Here they are watching the dvd slideshow.


After every class, they would end with a class hug, so at graduation they did one last group hug. Chris didn't want to join in, but in this picture, he looks like he was sad to be left out. Nope, that's just him.


Here he is with the gift bag his teacher provided. There was a picture of the class, a school t-shirt in his favorite color, and the dvd.


They sang two songs for us all at the graduation. I recorded them both, but the one I was going to post was taking too long to upload, so I gave up. Chris cracked me up because he wasn't really singing, but was mouthing the words with exaggeration. So funny.

Congratulations on your preschool graduation, Chris!