School Days

Today was Dallin's first day of kindergarten. There was crying and holding on, not wanting to let go--- and all that just from ME! Dallin, on the other hand, did great. He was excited to go and happy at the end of the day when I picked him up. Although, I'm finding that getting information about the day's events from a kindergartener is HARD! After prompting, quizzing, and using all of my "mommy clues" I have learned the following:

1. They went to art class today (I found this out after looking through his backpack and finding an art project, then asking him about it NOTE: I had already asked MANY times what he had done and this never came up)

2. If you buy lunch at school you get to choose either chocolate milk or regular milk (this by the way is apparently VERY exciting) He brought his lunch from home today.

3. They read 3 books today. He doesn't remember what books they were, but there were definitely 3 of them.

4. He likes his teacher.

5. He DID NOT have to go to the nurse today (ummmmm. . . . .good?) After picking him up and walking back to the car, this was the first piece of information he told me. Apparently someone was throwing up at recess today-- I guess that is what prompted such an odd piece of "important" information to be shared in response to "How was school today?"

Things are good and it looks like we're off to the start of a wonderful school year.

The shoes.
Scott took Dallin shoe shopping for new school shoes. Since he is required to wear uniform, this was the one thing he could pick out. Dallin's eyes lit up when he saw the Converse sneakers. (really, converse?) He is very proud to tie his own shoes each morning.

Dallin outside of our house before we left for school. Yep, I was already crying.

Outside of his classroom. By now he is ready for me to lose the camera. . .but I can't. . . if I take the camera away from my eyes, everyone will see that I'm crying.

Dallin was excited to sit at the table with his nametag and to put his backpack and lunch box in his cubby.

In celebration of Dallin's first day of kindergarten, Sierra and I made a cake. Dallin really liked it. We ate it for our Family Home Evening treat--- YUM!

Rainy Days

It has been raining here for the past few days and the 10-day forecast predicts several more days (7 out of 10) of wonderfully rainy weather. While I LOVE cooler rainy weather, but my kids don't seem to enjoy it as much as I do-- especially when it's your last week of summer before school starts. Yesterday, after running errands in the rain, baking cookies, reading stories and other fun rainy day activities, I found my children staring longingly outside at their new swingset. Very "Cat in the Hat"-ish I think. Anyway, I left the room for a moment talking to my mom on the phone. When I returned I found Dallin and Sierra in their swimsuits outside playing-- Grant can't change into his swimsuit by himself, so he was left peering out the window saying "Ow-sigh (outside), ma, I sing (swing). MA! Ow-sigh!!" It was pretty cute, and the rain had subsided for the moment, so I did what any good mom would do. . . I left them play out side and get soaking wet while I took TONS of pictures. Afterward they were all thrown into the tub and scrubbed really good. All VERY HAPPY.

Rainy Day

The Greatest Show on Earth

Today I took the kids downtown to Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus matinee show. It was the kids' first Circus experience, so I wanted to make sure we got the most for our money (OK, the kids tickets were free through a reading program at the library, but I had to pay for my ticket and parking!). We arrived early to get a good parking spot and to go through the animal open house where we get to see all the performing animals before the show and then to the All-access preview show where we got to go down on the floor and watch some of the performers, dress up in costumes, get free clown noses etc. . . We all had a good time! Here are some of our pictures. I didn't take any during the show because I figured they wouldn't turn out anyway. Enjoy!

Showing their Circus tickets as we head out the door!

Acrobats and guys on stilts

Silly clowns!!

She climbed up the rope and then began spinning in circles upside down. It made me dizzy just watching.

Dallin trying on the hat. . . it was a little too big.

I bought some cotton candy for the kids to share (it came with a hat too--- hence the incredible price---I had to repeat "Twelve Dollars" in disbelief twice to the vendor to make sure I heard him correctly.) Here's Sierra showing me her sticky fingers during intermission.

Grant trying on his clown nose.

Sierra "clowning around" at home.

Lost and Found

Have you ever lost something and after retracing your steps and all logical and not-so-logical places that it could possibly be you are still left wondering if you've completely lost your mind? A week and a half ago Grant's blankie went missing. That's not too surprising considering that was the weekend that I decided to assemble bunk beds, swap the boys room with Sierra's and then frantically clean and organize so the house was somewhat put together for Scott's arrival on Monday. Well, after a week of looking EVERYWHERE. . . TWICE! I began to think that amist all the chaos I must have accidently thrown it away (garbage day, by the way had already passed---- oops!) This was a VERY sad thought since this blanket was made by Scott's Grandmother. It was the last baby's blanket she made before she passed away-- the day before Grant was born. Well, the other day, Grant was sad and came to me crying. After changing his diaper and trying to console him, he went to the door leading to the garage and proceeded to try to open it, and then requested my help. I opened the door and he ran straight to his little wagon, opened the "secret compartment" under the seat and pulled out his blanket and began to hug it. I had torn the whole house apart and looked in the garage too--many times, but never even thought about the little storage spot in the wagon!! I guess he must have hidden it there when he followed me out to the garage on Monday. Anyway, now he won't let go of it (although I WILL NOT let him take it away from home-- especially since we lost it for a week just within our own house!). If you come over you'll likely find him dragging it around like this. . .

Doesn't he remind you of Linus from "Peanuts"?

Up the slide

Cheesing with the blankie (and a dirty face).

Weekend Warrior

Now that Scott is home, we put him to work this weekend! Two large and HEAVY boxes were delivered on Friday-- it was our swingset! The kids were/are still so excited! Scott got to work Saturday morning and it took ALL DAY to construct-- seriously, the kids were all in bed by the time it was all done. (of course, it was over 100 degrees, so a few breaks were taken and A LOT of water was consumed!) It was quite a project, but our weekend warrior came out conqueror! Way to go Scott, it's awesome!

In the beginning-- LOOK at all that wood that needs to be assembled!!!!!

WAITING. . .

Grant "inspecting" Scott's work.

Grant was a Great helper! (Just ask Daddy!!)

"Helping"

While Daddy worked, Dallin supervised the construction.