Summer is over

Last Wednesday Easton received his Bobcat as well as the Leave No Trace award at Cub Scouts.

                   Some fun was had pushing Adriana around in a play baby stroller.

I am a Bear leader and Easton had been attending scouts with me until he turned 8.  He is such a good little scouter and really enjoys it.

Last Friday was back to school night and we went and met the kids' teachers.  Marielle has Mrs. Manterola for Kindergarten and Easton has Mrs. Newton for third grade - but I was unable to get a picture with her.

The night before school started we had our back to school dinner.  The menu included:

Turkey breast

Mashed potatoes and gravy

Sautéed zucchini and onions

Watermelon

Cherry Limeade to drink

 

The theme for our school year is "I Am Like a Star."  I told the kids that they are a light in this ever increasing dark world and to always be kind to others.  I explained to them while working hard and getting good grades is important, being kind is what matters most.

For dessert the kids were able to decorate a dessert pizza.

Monday morning was off to school.  Marielle had a mishap with her chocolate milk spilling all over her brand new butterfly shirt she was planning on wearing for her first day.  We had to roll with option F because Monday is laundry day for me and all her clothes were dirty - except her pony shirt.



Summer went by too quickly- it always does.  I miss these two cute faces while they are away at school. 

Two weeks before school started I received a phone call from Marielle's teacher letting me know funding had been approved for all day Kindergarten.

 I said I would like to opt out to which I received the response I had no choice, she had to go all day long unless I transferred her to another school.  Most parents were happy about the news I was told, while I almost started crying on the phone. 

I had plans for dance lessons and trips to the children's museum and helping her with homework in the afternoon.

 I have decided to give all day Kinder a try and if it doesn't go well then I will consider homeschooling her.

 We are a week into things and so far so good.  She is loving school and looks forward to it everyday.  I sure miss her cute bum around here though.

A Fresh Coat of Paint

Our house was a foreclosure property.  As a result the previous homeowner simply walked away from the home leaving bills unpaid for-including the water- which in turn was shut off.  Therefore, all of the greenery went without water for an entire hot summer last year killing a majority of it.

 

I failed to take pictures right before we started working on the front yard but captured a few shortly after Clint had ripped out the dead shrubs and tree.

The home was also a nice dingy peach color.  We never liked the exterior of the house from the moment we saw it.

There was a painting crew going around our neighborhood about a month ago, painting several houses in our area.  We had been wanting to paint it and so we jumped on the chance.  After we gave the go ahead the crew was on it like Blue Bonnet.  We were leaving to go to Utah right at that exact moment too so it was a bit of a surprise to come home to our freshly painted home.

Notice how the screen in the upstairs was put back on sideways?

Clint planted grass, baby palms and cypress trees in May before it got too hot.

We are very happy with the way it turned out.  Once more thing checked off our to do list.

Another Utah Trip

We took another quick trip up to Utah last week.  Our last one for a while I'm afraid.

 

We were planning on hiking Timpanogos Cave and had brought along Marielle and Easton's friends Heath and Gwen whom they miss dearly.  However, one must have a reservation to hike said cave.  Who knew?  We obviously didn't so we went on our own little hike.

The girls loved climbing on every rock and asking for their photo to be taken.  This rock had a smiley face according to Marielle so we had to get pictures with it.

 

 

A little pose on the rocks.

This guy decided to photo bomb the rock posing girls.

 And some more photo bombs.

 One can never photo bomb enough photos.

I love this little face so much. 

 . 
The reason for our trip to Utah was to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary.  We could not break from tradition and had to go on our usual pilgrimage to Park City.  Clint's parents watched the kids for us while we snuck away and stayed the night.  We went shopping and saw the movie Defenders of the Galaxy in 3-D (which I really enjoyed by the way.)  We also went out to eat and to the Olympic park.

While at the Olympic park they had kids practicing skiing down the slopes and jumping into the pool.  Some of them were pretty good doing flips and twists and such -making it very entertaining to watch.

While those kids were skiing down the slopes, other people were doing Psicobloc climbing.  Once the climbers reached the top they would drop right into the water.  It was a pretty high drop too.   I'm too old and scared for things of that nature nowadays.  Very cool to watch though.

We usually bring our scooter and cruise around town but it was too difficult to bring our scoot all the way from Las Vegas.  It was nice to relax, not have a child clinging to my body for a full 24 hours, think a complete coherent thought and spend time with my Clint.  I sure like that guy.

Flashback Friday

I was looking through some pictures on our computer and saw the birthday pictures from last year.  Esme was turning two and Marielle was turning four.

Clint had just started working in Vegas and was commuting home on the weekends.  Adriana was just two months old at the time.

 

Esme wanted a "meow, meow" party.  The girl loves cats so much so that my hope for her is that one day she will not grow up to be the stinky cat lady.

 

 

        There was a "decorate your cat" station.   With cupcakes and sugar cookies you could decorate with candy.

 

We had cat themed food with cat chow (cracklin' oat bran), fish, furballs (meatballs), milk, scratching posts (pretzel sticks), cat nip (cheese nips) and cat poo (fudge).

    A couple weeks later it was Marielle's birthday.  She wanted a Princess and the Popstar Party.

 

                     We had a family party the night before with lots of pink and purple treats.

 

The next day we had a friend party.  Marielle invited all of her little girlfriends as well as one little boy- friend.  Her cousins Nathan and Jane had stayed the night and were there as well.  Each of the kids dressed up like a popstar (or a rockstar.)

                                       Esme and Grandpa Bob having a balloon fight.

                                  We started the party by making crowns or a guitar.

               This is the stage Clint helped me build so the kids could sing their little hearts out on it.

                                                         Baby Adriana

                          It was so cute watching them sing.  They were all a little shy at first.

After singing time everyone was hungry so it was time to eat.  Everybody enjoyed a princess sack lunch.

                                I love creating special birthday memories with my kids.