Back to School!

Summer ended and school began! As sad as it is to see our fun summer go, it is also so exciting to have school start and all the excitement that brings! We did our traditional back to school feast. I think the boys have decided on a firm menu that might be our menu forever- Salmon, Rice, Salad, mandarin orange jello and a poppyseed cake for dessert.

After our feast, Ben gave the boys very sweet back to school blessings. I can't remember a thing he said, but I do remember the sweet spirit that was there.

The boys were up really early and completely dressed for the first day- like before 7 am! I made them take a million pictures before we headed out the door.

Chase is in 5th grade with Mrs. Flynn- who seems super nice. He has his friend Clayton in his class, which was super exciting for him. After just two weeks of school, he's already saying that 5th grade is his best year yet!

Hudson is in 3rd grade with Mrs. Hubbard and Bland. Chase had them in 3rd grade as well, and he was stoked for Hudson to get them. He has his buddy Hyrum in his class, but not Richie this year. They still play at recess though. Also, the deepest desire of Hudson's heart was to have a plain white t-shirt to wear for the first day of school. Okay, buddy! Whatever you want!

Davis tried so hard to get dropped off at school too! He had a backpack on and insisted on first day pictures just like the big brothers! Luckily he only had to wait one extra day for preschool to start.

And Lila assumes if a camera is out, it probably should be pointed at her. She dutifully sat on the steps and smiled and said "Cheese!" for me even while I was photographing her brothers. Oh, I could eat her!

The boys came home tired and a little grumpy for the first few days, but all around reports from school have been positive. This year has been a little anxiety filled for me, especially since there are NO Covid precautions whatsoever at school and the kids can't be vaccinated yet. But we decided to have faith and hope for the best! Also, I get to volunteer in both their classrooms this year every Wednesday morning, so it's nice to be able to see them at school a little bit and get to know their teachers and classes.

Davis got to start his little preschool! We are doing a little co-op with a few friends and so far he is absolutely LOVING it. He runs out of the van each day with a huge smile and waving "BYE MOM!" over his shoulder. It's a stark contrast to the other kids in his class who cry and want their moms to stay (although Lila might be that type of preschooler). He's so confident and social and is loving having his own little activity!

I love the structure back to school brings to our lives. I am so thankful my kids got good teachers and have friends, I think it's going to be a great year!
 

August

 August absolutely fell by! The whole summer did actually. In August, our scheduled stuff settled down a lot and we had time to just BE a little bit. Of course, we still stayed pretty busy, but in a slower way. This was one night after a fun swim night with cousins- Chase was unfortunately sick this day, but I love how crazy these pictures are. True form with this many little guys running around.

Davis quit naps. I was kind of sad about it, but we transitioned to having story time and then quiet time (aka- TV) during Lila's naps and it's gone pretty well. He's going to bed a little earlier and easier at night too. But that means that he frequently falls asleep somewhere around 5:00 pm- like this particular day after swimming.

Lila and Davis are kind of competitive with each other- especially when it comes to their parents laps. Frequently if we are holding one of them, we have to be holding both.

Heidi came to town! We had so much fun with her here, and despite Davis's pleas, she actually did have to return to Boston. But we made the most of her time here. One day we went to lunch and took Lila along for the ride- she was darling the whole time and seemed so excited to be included in girls lunch! I think we'll bring her again.

Little miss Lila hit the 18 month mark- which means nursery at church! Much to my surprise, she's doing awesome with it! She usually doesn't love being left, but she loves nursery! She's also starting to say so many words! She loves to talk about "buddy" the "doggy" who says "woof woof". She LOVES her baby dolls and loves to hold, feed and push them around in the stroller. She decidedly does not love to share her toys. She is 22 pounds (50th percentile) and I can't remember her inches, but she was 70th percentile in height. Our tiny, tiny baby is now a pretty average sized toddler! She let the doctor check her out this time, although she glared at him the whole time. She's just the sweetest little gem and we all love her so much!

Ben took this picture of Chase reading to Davis- I have so many pictures of this same scene over the last four years but it never gets old to me. Davis is lucky because he really has the BEST brothers ever.

The boys have worked hard in their garden with Papa all summer and now it's finally time to sell their produce and reap the reward of their hard work! They put together salsa kits that include bell peppers, hot peppers, onions and tomatoes and they've been a huge hit! So far they've made $200! I'm proud of them and grateful for the lessons they are learning.

Chase wanted to host a party for his friends, so we squeezed it in right at the end of summer. We had all his little friends over to swim and I got 4 pizzas and Chase made some cupcakes. It was perfect! So easy and the boys had a blast!

Chase has grown up so much this summer! He's getting really close to being taller than me, which happened way too fast. He also read so many books this summer- we'd check out a big stack from the library and he'd be through them in a few days. He finished the summer by reading all three Hunger Games books- in 3 days! 

Davis continued to just make my laugh all summer long. This boy is just delightful. My favorite memories of this summer will probably be him learning to swim, and how cute and fearless he is in the pool. He also just loves riding his bike so much. His tire got a hole in it, and instead of fixing it, I just kept pumping it up every day. Which was annoying, but made more tolerable by hearing his adorable, raspy voice say "It's flat as a pancake!" every single day!

Papa Ray is slowly, but surely working on winning Lila over. She was completely content on his lap one Sunday night as long as he let her pick and eat strawberries straight from his garden.

We had a fun day at the Aquarium. I promised Chase a trip here after Covid ruined his field trip that was supposed to happen back in 3rd grade. Only a year and a half later we made it happen! What a cool place! We took my mom too, which was so helpful, since Davis and Lila like to divide and conquer in places like this. Davis was completely entranced and so excited to see everything "SNAKES! I LIKE SNAKES!" "JELLYFISH! I LIKE JELLYFISH!"

The funniest part of the day was in the shark tunnel, Davis yelled out, "Hey sharks, follow me!" As he ran through the tunnel. This is seriously the coolest part of the aquarium. True to form, Chase was more interested in reading all the informational displays than looking at the actual fish and animals. And Hudson was so quiet and interested we almost forgot he was there! And my mom and I scrambled after Davis and Lila the whole time and everyone had a blast!