Back to School

I had so much fun planning our back-to-school night feast this year. The theme was fairy tales:

Jack's Magic Beans

Snow White's Poisoned Apple Drink

Little Red Riding Hood's Bread Basket

Cinderella's Pumpkin Carriage Soup

Sword and the Stone Ham

Hansel and Gretel's Gingerbread Houses

After dinner we read excerpts from this talk. Then Jeremy gave the kids father's blessings. Finally, they got all their back-to-school gear. It was almost like Christmas.

Paul had trouble sleeping and had the jitters in the morning. He usually takes a couple weeks to adjust to school again. I don't think it helps that he's in third grade and this is the third elementary school he's attended. But he's making new friends and doing well. He's always the first one up and ready in the morning and usually wakes me up to make breakfast.

 Sam started the day after Paul and he's been great going to school all day. He often needs some help getting ready in the morning, but he's doing better than I expected. I'd been having the boys read every day during the summer, but I hadn't realized how much Sam has improved until we read scriptures that morning before school. He read the whole verse with hardly any help. The other night at dinner we read our fortune cookies out loud. He read "investigate the possibilities" without any hesitation. I couldn't believe it! He's certainly ready for first grade.

Audrey has been terrified/excited to start preschool for awhile now. She started two weeks after the boys. I anticipated a meltdown at school (she still has a lot of separation anxiety and rarely lets me out of her sight even at home). She started to cling and then pulled herself together and said good-bye. I was so proud of her! She had a great first day and wishes she could go every day. She likes doing "homework" with the boys.

Our summer was so busy that I wished we'd had more time before school started, but I do like getting back into a routine and on a schedule. My house is much quieter and cleaner. Jeremy designed a new system for the kids to earn money and then buy screen time, treats,  etc. We'll see how it goes. Too bad no one's excited about chores except for me! Here's their chore charts since I thought they turned out so cute: (I know snack isn't really a chore, but I get tired of them not eating when they get home and then freaking out right before dinner.)

Summer Wrap-up

I can't believe summer vacation is over. Besides camping, we were plenty busy hosting family, playing with friends, swimming, working in the yard, etc. Here's our summer in a nutshell:

We planted a small orchard in our front yard this spring and it grew!

We got a pop-up pool and did some excavating in the back to make a spot for it and 

put the trampoline in the ground. Finally some progress in the backyard!

family night on the trampoline

Aaron's first haircut

 My brothers, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, nephew and soon to be sister-in-law all came into town so the guys could go hiking and camping. 

We took a quick trip to Idaho and Oregon.

Paul and Sam had their first private swimming lessons.

Lake Life

We enjoyed another annual trip to Lake Powell. We are so lucky to have such great friends that let us crash their family vacation! It was so nice to have the tent trailer this year, too. Here's the campsite:

We had all our typical fun swimming, boating to the marina for ice cream, waterskiing, kayaking, water-sliding, digging in the sand, playing games and eating treats:

Jeremy made lizard leashes and took the kids lizard hunting. They caught one big one and a few small ones:

On the last day when we were just about packed up Jer decided to go on one last waterski run. Unfortunately he got hit in the face with the waterski. He was pretty bloody when they pulled him out of the water and I'm glad I wasn't there for that. Once the bleeding stopped he had a pretty jagged gash on his nose and I superglued it as best I could. One side was more swollen than the other and we debated whether or not to have someone set it or take him to the ER. He could feel the bones grinding if we touched it, which was making him nauseous. Typical Jer rested for a few minutes and then finished packing up and drove us home. His gash kept bleeding though.

The next day he woke up to this:

The x-ray shows it's broken straight across the bridge and pushed back. It' not crooked or affecting his breathing so he doesn't need surgery. We're grateful his injury wasn't worse and it wasn't one of the kids that got hurt. And he's already looking much better.

Another year of great memories!