First Day(s) of School!

My goal for September is to do at least one new blog post a day until the baby comes in hopes that I can catch up before the real craziness sets in.  To be honest, life is crazy enough now.  I don't know how we can possibly add a baby to this madness, but it's too late now!

Rowan starting 3rd grade!  Can I say how much I already love his teacher?  Mrs. Lee has homework turned in once a week so if we have a crazy day or two, I don't need to keep Rowan up late to finish it.  She also has them earn play money for good behavior and homework completion that they can use at the class store.  Rowan wasted no time in telling me that there are LEGOs at said store, so he's super motivated.  Kids can also bring in toys to donate to the store that they are no longer using.  His class also puts together an opera every year that they perform for the whole school.  Previous years' operas included "Bad Baby on the Loose" and "Angry Birds".  Rowan remarked how happy his teacher is this year (last year's teacher is on the verge on retirement and it showed).  Yay for happy, creative teachers!

 Rowan wanted a Lego Chima backpack, but I wasn't about to spend money on a new one, so we ordered a transfer off Ebay and put it on his old backpack.  It turned out really well and I'm glad we didn't have to get one of those backpacks that only last a year. 

 Third Grade!

Rowan now walks to school everyday with his friend Austin and Nadia.  I'm grateful for the exercise this provides and that I don't have to worry about rides anymore.  At least until bad weather sets in.

Nadia had to wait a whole week before it was her turn for kindergarten.  There were tests to take in order to place her in a class and since she is going to two different kindergartens this year (Rock Canyon-public and BYU-private) it made for a more complicated enrollment.  Nadia and I have been working on learning to read this summer and she is doing amazing!  Her tests went really well.  One of the teachers brought out a box of blocks and asked Nadia to make a pattern.  She utilized all the different shapes and colors which impressed the teacher, but the really impressive part came when the teacher asked her to describe her pattern.  The teacher started to help her by naming the colors of the shapes and Nadia promptly interrupted her and started adding "Blue Octagon, Red Trapezoid..."  She's a smart cookie.

First Day of BYU

 Elsa wanted in on the action.  She requests to wear a backpack most every morning.  Don't you love Nadia's shirt?  Her favorite song ever and Grandma Dorothy was only to happy to indulge Nadia when she saw it.  Nadia is obsessed with foxes now.  I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up being one for Halloween.

 Rowan got to decorate his backpack, so Nadia wanted to put this deer transfer on hers.  She's quite the wildlife aficionado.

 Elsa misses Nadia quite a bit even though they fight like tooth and nails more often than not.  Elsa is a lot more patient with Rowan for whatever reason.  Girls.  Good thing we're having another one!

 Nadia's teacher is in the background.  Mrs Shavon.  I can't tell you how highly recommended she came.  We're excited for a good year!

Elsa was not happy to leave the fun classroom.  Poor thing.  Only 2 more years until preschool.  Until then I've joined a babysitting coop in our ward to help give her some playdates of her own.

Nadia's first day at Rock Canyon

 I can't believe she's in kindergarten!  The next day she walked to school for the first time with Rowan and Austin.  There were no tears until I saw my little girl walking down the street holding Rowan's hand.  It still makes me teary-eyed for some reason.  I'm so grateful that she is happy and that I won't have to hear "I'm bored" all day.  We were desperate for a routine by the summer's end.

 Nadia also has a really great teacher at this school as well who is in our ward so I can get more stories about how she is doing than I may have otherwise.

 Nadia's classmate seemed more interested in posing than Nadia was.  I blame the book she found about foxes.

One day Elsa.  One day.

July

Provo has a pretty great fireworks display for the fourth of July.  It also holds sentimental memories for Steven and me because it was our first official date.  Who knew that 12 years later we would end up married with 3.5 kids just blocks from that very spot on the hill?  I certainly would have never guessed that.

The kids enjoyed the fireworks and it was a pleasant evening had by all.  We got some cotton candy and glow sticks from vendors and enjoyed laying back waiting for nightfall.

 Rowan is still honing his photography skills.

 Love this man!

 Rowan is also honing his posing skills.  He refused to sit still for anything.

I know the camera has the ability to take good shots of fireworks, but I never really learned how.  Most of the ones I took didn't turn out.  It was a great show and we were thankful to be able to just walk a few blocks to watch them.

We went through 2-3 slip and slides and a whole lot of duct tape this summer.  Eventually I had to come to terms with the fact that if we put the slip and slide on our slope, the speed of our kids going down will burst the seams at the bottom.  In the end, it turned out to work better to just place the hose at the top without attaching it to anything.  This was one of their favorite activities in the backyard. 


Grandma Dorothy came to spend the summer in Utah again this year and we had lots of fun while she was visiting us.  She bought a pile of Barbies and doll clothes at a yard sale and Nadia had fun sorting through them all with her.  We intended to sew some, but ended up losing interest when the complexities of doing so became evident.  I guess it's not hard if you just plan on dressing Barbie in a muumuu.

With everyone out of school, we also had a few cousin playdates.  One sleepover was enough for the summer!  Those kids don't appreciate sleep, especially when there is fun company around.

Lest you think all we did was fun and games, we also put the munchkins to work.  They were surprisingly interested in chores that didn't involve picking up their toys.  Or at least everyone besides Elsa was.

Love that facial expression!

It was a bit of an adventure getting the compost for the flower beds in Grandpa Judd's old truck.  My mom was the only one available who could manage it's tricky stick shift.  She apparently felt like the truck was going to roll over with every turn since we had so much weight in the back.  It saved us a lot of money though in the end and it was good for our kids to get their hand dirty for a good reason.

 Another event in July was our ward's annual Cub Scout Camp.  I've only just been released as Rowan's Wolf Den leader.  Admittedly, I was never really that good or invested in it.  We combined with 2 other wards and the leaders from those wards were much more experienced and willing to take the reins.  I was essentially the token leader with only 2 cubs and absolutely no idea what cub scouts was about.  Thankfully they released me since I'm not much for hiking or even bending over these days.  But I did go to help with the camp as much as I could.

I was also not much for boating.  But Rowan enjoyed himself along with the other cubs and I guess that's all that matters.

This was probably my favorite activity.  We made foam swords and had sword fights afterwards.  Even I joined in, but I made for a rather large and obvious target.  I pray that no video of such theatrics ever sees the light of day.

 Classic archery.  Rowan really enjoyed this as well and wishes his had his own set to practice with in our backyard.  Considering he is never out there without Elsa following his coattails, I would say it's for the best that he doesn't.

Props to the camp for a delicious lunch!

Orienteering.

 He probably wasn't too happy at me for distracting him by taking pictures at this point.  You can never have enough foam sword fights I guess.

Another favorite of his- BB gun shooting.  I actually bought him a BB gun after we went to this camp because of his interest and also because we had a rat that was living under our deck that I wanted him to take care of.  I still need to get him a target to work on and of course I'll need to ensure Elsa isn't hanging around while he is practicing.  The rat met his demise through other means, so that no longer remains on our to do list.

I love my one on one time with this little man.  He is a light in my life.

Take me out to the ballgame!

We're not very athletic people, so when Rowan expressed interest in baseball, we were kind of surprised.  I wish I was better about throwing a ball around with my kids.  We signed Rowan up for the city team and he had a lot of fun going.  Provo creates teams according to what schools the kids attend, so Rowan ended up playing on a team with several of his classmates. 

He did great!  One thing I loved about this league was they didn't even keep score.  It was more about kids having fun and learning skills.

 Alex and David are two of Rowan's classmates from school on the left.

We'll definitely be back for more next year!

Rowan's Unbirthday Party

Inadvertently, we had an unbirthday party for Rowan exactly 6 months after his real one.  It wasn't a traditional birthday, but everyone had fun and I'm grateful for my son who is easy going about this kind of thing.  He invited two of his best friends and his cousin Isabelle.  Nadia was thankful for the female companionship so she didn't have to go play laser tag with the boys.

We started out at home with pizza and doughnuts, then proceeded to Seven Peaks in Lehi for laser tag and other adventures.  Aunt Krystal was kind enough to take Elsa so that we could have our hands free for the other kids.  She came home talking nonstop about "Aunt Kwystal" so apparently she didn't miss out on too much fun.  After laser tag, we went and saw How to Train Your Dragon 2 at the Thanksgiving Point theater.  It was relatively pain free to put together and I think fun was had by all.

 Alex and Austin are the friends Rowan invited.  From the first day of 2nd grade Rowan came home and said "I have two best friends already!  They're names are Alex and Austin, so double AA!"  Nothing has changed since that point and I'm thankful for their friendship.

 Steve took the boys to go do laser tag and I went with the girls and explored the other options.  So I mostly have pictures of the girls.  I doubt I would have gotten good shots in the dark with laser tag anyways.

They look like they are digging here more than golfing.  :)

I love this picture of the two of them.  We made the mistake of going on the bumper boats and getting soaked in the process.  It was nice while we were outside in the hot sun, but going into a cool movie theater with damp clothes afterwards probably wasn't the brightest idea.  But it was probably our favorite feature there!

I have to say, it is really nice to not have to take Elsa into a movie theater.  She likes to wander around, which can be stressful when you are trying to enjoy the show.  It was a great movie by the way.

No cake, but we had one back at Christmas.  Hopefully the ice cream and doughnuts sufficed for the sugar requirement.  I love this little boy!  He brings so much joy to our family and his sisters adore him.  Happy Unbirthday buddy!!