My Baby Started Kindergarten

It was bound to happen.  She just kept getting older and older each year.

   

Purple is her favorite color, thus the shoes, folders, backpack…. are all purple.

       

We bought her school supplies a couple of weeks before school started.  She drove me insane at how many times she would drag her backpack into the living room to make sure she had all of her supplies.  This girl could not wait for it to start!

   

The first day her teacher read the Gingerbread Man story.  They went on a hunt finding all of the gingerbread men hidden around the school and in so doing toured the school so that they knew where the bathrooms, offices, art room … were at.  I feel bad for Jerrica following in Ashley’s footsteps.  The principal immediately asked her if she was Ashley Thompson’s sister, as well as the art teacher.  Ash has a strong little personality and a bit of a reputation to go with it.  Jerrica on the other hand is quite soft spoken.

There are five girls and eleven boys in the class.  Mrs. Lee is her teacher and her tutor is Mrs. Partlow.  She is LOVING every minute of it! 

Best SALAD Ever

I know I have posted this salad here before.  BUT we had it again tonight and it is just SOOOO good with all of the different flavors!  HERE is the link to the recipe.

It is a MUST try!

Randomness

Here is a quick random post.

I love crockpot meals for the busy Fall days.  This is a new favorite from the Picky Palate.  It is SO yummy over garlic mashed potatoes.

 

We have had a ton of tomatoes this year.  The kitchen was filling with ripe ones, so I had to make some pints of diced stewed tomatoes.  I am so excited to add them to some of our favorite soups and sauces.

   

My parents were here a couple of weekends ago.  Whenever they are in town, they enjoy going to the thrift shops.  I took them one night and ended up with a little coffee mug holder with three prongs for 50 cents.  Kaylee had needed something for all of her bracelets and I thought this would be perfect.  I also found a few frames for Rebecca’s bedroom makeover.  I always tell Stephen that I need to run my parents over to the thrift store, but inside I’m always a little excited to see what treasures are there.

As I was cleaning the house yesterday I noticed all the bags of Epsom salt in each of the bathrooms.  You can tell that sports are going strong and there are some sore muscles.  I can’t get over the times of their sports.  Kaylee practices some mornings at 6:00am for volleyball and Jake’s swim practices are from 7:30 to 9:00 at night.

And last but not least are these three tips from the Power of Moms. 

Three Unbelievably Simple Parenting Ideas: 1) Children need a minimum of 8 touches a day to feel connected to a parent. 2) Each day, children need one meaningful eye-to-eye conversation with a parent. 3) There are nine minutes during the day that can have the greatest impact on a child: the first three minutes right after they wake up, the three minutes after they come home from school, and the last three minutes of the day before they go to bed

I feel like I fail on all three.  I am not a touchy person.  I usually talk to one of my kids as I’m doing a task for another one of the kids, thus no eye contact.  AND the nine minutes of time for greatest impact are usually my nine minutes of no more patience!  SO I guess I have THREE things to work on!

Calendar

Yes I’m alive and well.  It has been a busy month!  Thanks for all of the sweet emails and messages. 

I looked at the picture on the calendar for the month of August.  I smiled as I noticed the quote and then how filled each day was below the picture.  It seems like every night I get anxiety about getting everything done, and then it just always works out the next day.

I don’t even have half of the activities written down!  Some our just routine that we do each week.  Then I have it all coded to fit into the space.  MC stands for “Me Carpool” and then I will do NS for “Nathan Soccer” or AD for “Ashley Dance”.  It’s my own little code that no one else can decipher.  :)

I calendar some in my phone but like the big calendar hanging in the mud room for everyone to add their stuff to.

In August we had doctor and dentist appointments for everyone.  Then there were a ton of friend parties and playdates before school started.  Now we are deep into activities after school.  Tonight I dropped off Nathan at HS soccer, Jake at swimming, Ash at acting, Rebecca at soccer, and then Kaylee at MS volleyball.  That is just the drop off and then they all have to be picked up all over the place.  Tomorrow is even uglier with the four older having two activities a piece going on.  I might make Ash spend the night at dance because I have no clue how to get her home.  :)

Of course when we all get home there are chores, homework and piano practice that awaits everyone.  We are busy!

I know that someday I will miss all of this running around.  I sure enjoy watching them in their activities.  I also love visiting one on one with each of them as we drive around.  I only wish that gas was cheaper!

Cranker

I have had the worst canker in my mouth.  Jerrica has always called them “cRankers”.

I started getting after Jerrica about something and she told me, “I wish that cranker in your mouth would go away so that you wouldn’t be so cranky with me!” 

She did gather me a cute bouquet of wildflowers so that I would feel better.  I was surprised at how pretty the little bouquet looked.  Why do I even bother planting when there are so many beautiful wildflowers!

Friend Photo Shoot

Kaylee and her soccer friends did a photo shoot together.  We would have lasted a lot longer if it hadn’t been for the rain.  :(

        

Kaylee has so many different groups of friends.  She has her church friends, school friends, soccer friends, and then basketball friends.  I’m grateful for how good each and every one of them are to my Kaylee!

Getting Ready

We are trying to get all of the school supplies, backpacks, uniforms and school shoes bought.  Oh what a process it all is!

Yesterday I heard this annoying sound going on and on.  I went to see what it was and found Ashley sharpening her 48 pencils so that they would be all ready to go.

We are getting there…. Monday will be here before we know it!

Summer Photo

You know how I always think that certain shots reflect certain seasons.  I think this is totally a summer shot!

I don’t know if she is ever going to cook that hot dog, THAT far up, BUT it looks like she is having fun doing it!

5K

The big girls ran a 5K this summer.  When Kaylee finished I could tell she was upset.  Hundreds ran in the 5K and this was Rebecca’s first time running it.  Rebecca begged Kaylee to stay with her, which she did.  When they reached the last stretch on the highway Kaylee told her all she had to do was go straight now.  They decided to part ways and Kaylee ran for it to make up for lost time.

She ended up with 2nd place.  I told her that 2nd place means a lot more than any of her other 1st places because she helped her sister.  It also helped pace Rebecca and keep her going so that she was able to take 4th place.  I think she was so worried about getting lost in the people that she ran faster to try and keep Kaylee in sight.

I thought Rebecca’s medal was cool.

Some of my high school friends run in this 5K.  I have decided that I need to get my body a moving and run in it next year.  Ashley has already informed me that she is doing it.  :)

Thought for the Day

Loved this speech. 

We live in a world that believes some types of work are beneath us.  Work truly is an opportunity!

I think I’m going to use it in part of our FHE tonight….

Rebecca Rae’s Birthday

Rebecca and I have always had this thing with lucky numbers.  We point out when the time is 2:22 or 4:44.  We shout out, “it’s our lucky time”!  This year Rebecca turned 11.  We have deemed it a lucky year because she is on matching digits.

Today was crazy busy with doctor appointments for the little girls, helping a friend and the try-outs for two of the older kids.  Yet we HAD to make it a great day, SO I snuck Rebecca away at lunchtime.

We headed to Firehouse Subs for lunch.  Rebecca cracks me up with her conversations.  She is such a cute girl.

While over at Firehouse we decided we needed to do a little shopping.  Rebecca needed a new purse TO GO shopping with, so we snagged this little beauty at Plato’s Closet.  She LOVES it, and it’s totally Rebecca’s style.  I personally think the leather flower is cool.

She got some really awesome gifts this year.  However, my favorites are all the sweet cards and homemade gifts from her brothers and sisters.

 

So here is to a GREAT year being 11!

Cotton Jumping

Cows eat cotton seed for fiber and protein.  Uncle Warren has a huge pile of cotton seed at the dairy, SO one afternoon we decided to check it out.

   

This is called the parachute….

 

This is called the cheerleader….

  

This is called bury yourself in cotton so that you for sure have cotton EVERYWHERE!

Then cousins came and the jumping continued.  They all jumped after I took this picture and surprisingly no one got hurt!

I remember as a little girl going down to the dairy and getting a fudgesicle out of the milk truck, but I have a feeling my kids will remember the cotton.

24 of July Celebration

We went down to my parent’s house for the celebration with the girls.  Nathan had EFY and Jacob was on a hiking/fishing trip with friends.

This is what it looked like on the way down …

 

We did all the usual activities, breakfast, parade (Ash and Rebecca were in the parade), BBQ, races, family dance.  By the time night falls EVERYONE is always exhausted.

      

After the races, the fire trucks come out to spray for the tug of war and the start spraying everyone.  I had a hard time keeping track of my kids with everyone.  For a long time I couldn’t find Ashley (surprise, surprise).  I decided to go to the other side of the fence by the trucks so that I could get a better view without getting squirted.  AND guess who was up on the fire truck giggling with the man spraying everyone…

Dad gave “train” rides in the afternoon. 

The big girls love to drive the JD around.

At the BBQ my mom lost her wallet.  We were all sick about it.  We prayed and then went back to the community center to look in the trash, thinking that someone had ditched it.  Hundreds of people eat at the BBQ.  The next afternoon at the magic show, wouldn’t you know that Grant pulls my mom’s wallet out of his hat!  I was SO mad at his trick because we had just been trash digging to find it!

    

Kaylee and Stephen both won their age groups and got a bottle of pop.  Yes, Stephen ran.  He even chose Pepsi for his wife that didn’t run.  :)

 

 

We celebrated Uncle Warren’s 60th birthday at Annie’s.  The homemade root beer and brownies were delicious!

The family dance was awesome!  The girls are still talking about how fun it was.  The next day was Manassa’s celebration with the 5K, parade, rodeo and demolition derby.  It is always so much fun to go down to the celebrations and see everyone.