School Is Here

 School started last week. We did on last summer hurrah, at Cater Lake. We met the cousins there and luckily for us it wasn't really that busy. The weather was good, the sand perfect, the water frigid, and the company very fun. It was a really good end to summer.

Abby in the tube.

Roxy and Tia in the water.

Kylee and Allen

Kade, Abby, and Betty in the sand.

Hope feeling pretty tired.

Tia was the first to go back to school. So far so good. She loves her teacher Mrs. Legg. She also had lunch this week with the school counselor and a few girls from class.  She is hoping to get some skills for how to make friends. She also found out this week that she was accepted into student council for the year, so she is super excited about that too. Its been a little bit rough getting back into the groove of homework, reading, piano practicing, and chores but she (and I are getting there).

Tia's first day of 5th.

Everyone sending Tia to school.

Kylee started the next day. She was ready after having spent all day at home without Tia the day before. So far school has been good for her too. Kylee and Betty have FCS (home ec) and math together. Kylee also has a couple of classes with her friend Parker Merritt. For the most part she likes her teachers, so I think the year will be okay. She has started volleyball, but this weekend I found out that they are going to have a middle school dive club, so she is going to try that. So, if we can get a refund for volleyball, she will just do dive otherwise she will try to do it all. Kylee caught a bug plus had some pretty bad anxiety and her lungs were hurting terribly and her headaches were back, but luckily it seems to be getting better. Its kind of tricky to navigate and sometimes we don't do the best job, but we are working on it. She seems to love school and youth activities.

First day of 7th for Kylee.

While Kylee was at school the twins convinced me that they should sell cookies for 'real dollars.' These two had been setting up a shop the day earlier with dirty water the wanted to sell, but I didn't let them. So, then they wanted to do something for real and we decided on cookies. They measured everything but the grease for the cookies. I helped with mixing and with the oven but they did most everything else. Then they sold the cookies. They went to neighbors doors and told them we were selling cookies and then ran off. Most neighbors came and got some. Gaupo sold some to some co-workers who thought the pic he sent was so cute. Then when they had three left Abby insisted she wanted to sell them all, so I put her cookies on the tray and taped her sign to it and took them to a couple other neighbors so they could finish selling every last one of them. The neighbors were so generous buying cookies, and some even paying a little extra. These two made 17.50 each. They loved it and want to do it again. 

Cookies for sale. It was threatening to rain so they had to setup back by the garage.

Kade and Abby started Kindergarten the next day. They are both in the same class. They seem to be doing great. They come home happy and tired every day. Between the two of them I have heard more about kindergarten then I have ever heard before and its pretty fun. They had blue and red day this week and it was fun to watch them get dressed up and then hear the songs they learned and hear the excitement of the day. They both seem to have their own friends and seem to be doing good. I love that they love it. It makes it so much easier to send them.

Kade first day of Kinder.

Abby frist day of Kindergarten.

Carpool crew. Tia, Kade, Abby, Logan and Ellie Bailey.

These four cuties.

Together.

Hope is with me. We have managed to stay pretty busy despite the fact that its just us. We get everyone where they need to go. Sometimes we hangout and play, sometimes we do chores. Fridays we go play pickleball. This week our neighbor Laura came and played with us too. We managed to not get bored and do plenty of things. The trick is I got to make sure we aren't in car after about 11:00/11:30 or she falls asleep and just like that nap time is ruined or at least harder. Potty training is still a work in progress. She can do it all, but waking up and getting to the bathroom from naps or in the morning is still a little dicey. Oh well, believe it or not I am still glad we don't have diapers anymore.

Crazy post lake hair.

Hope squeezed half a tube of toothpaste on her and on the bed and floor. Plus she pooped her pants and walked in it and then around the upstairs.

She got my mascara. But that was after she squirted my facewash out and rubbed it on her legs, then after I washed that off, got a hold of the lotion and started applying that to herself. Then once I had rinsed the shower with her she applied aquafor to herself. Then finally the last thing was the mascara. All this while I was distracted cleaning the bathroom and talking to Klaire.

Sometimes she talks me into doing things like getting in the cabinet to play with her. Yes, we both fit, but it is a tight squeeze.

We have done a couple of activities besides school. Monday we went and picked corn at the church farm in Greeley. We didn't really need corn this year, but we love going and so we took Jason's co-worker Donne and picked corn and then they took theirs home and we shared with neighbors. I processed about 10 cups for the freezer and about 5 more that I made into salads this week. Its so good.

Kade and Abby in the corn patch.

Hope picking corn.

I spy Kylee.

Tia went in once and then stayed on the outside.

Another thing we did this week was on Friday we went to Unity in the Community. Its a fun event where the kids walk around collecting all the free swag they can from different vednors. It sounds lame, but my kids love it. They rode a 'train', made derby cars, and collected tons of free swag. It was a fun night. It was made even more fun by the fact that Gaupo was there 'working' but could still spend most of the evening with us. I have no pictures. I was too busy keeping track of kids.

Yesterday I threw my first baby shower. I did it for Averee Pulley. She said she didn't really need one, so I said that fine how about we have a party then. So, we had a few people come and we had food and play get to know you games and visited it was fun. I was feeling pretty insucure about the lack of 'cute' in my home, but you know it didn't matter and it was super fun to host the party and watch my home be used for a gathering other than family. My kids favorite part was making Ma-mosas (juice, 7-up, and berries, in any proportions that you want) and decorating their rooms with all the baby shower decor. I don't have very good pictures because I didn't get pictures until it was over. We had naps that afternoon, and then finished off the day watching Kung Fu Panda 4 as a family. 

The almost undone food table.

This sign said "oh baby" but we like this one better.