See ya later August!

The end of August was filled with little activities and outings - even though school has started, the summer heat is still going strong, so our activities continue to cater to the heat.  We got season passes to the Desert Botanical Gardens (through a sweet Groupon deal!).  They have flashlight tours in August in the evenings - even though it was humid, the sun set and it was so nice to be outdoors in the beautiful desert at night....

My cute friend Lisa came to Arizona from Utah for a work trip with her husband.  She was so nice to contact me so we could get together with our kids.  I took her to a nearby splash pad - it seems she had been doing a lot of that during her Arizona visit - there's not much else to do with the kids in the heat!  :)  She's got some cutie kids...

Lisa and I grew up in the same ward in Sandy, Utah.  She's a mom of 4, just like me, but earlier this year she began a battle with brain cancer.  She's been pulling through it so amazingly.  She was taking chemo pills the week she was here visiting, but still had a smile on her face.  Love you Lisa!  Thanks for coming to visit me!

Storytime at the library is becoming a weekly staple lately.  I usually go just with Claire while everyone else is in school - but we had a Saturday to keep busy while Ben was working a weekend shift - so we all went to listen to some stories and play...

They were playing a silly song and having the kids do silly actions... what a priceless picture of Becca...

Bubbles!

They get a stamp on their hand at the end of storytime - Jake was simultaneously showing me his stamp and his muscles...

One of our favorite family activities lately is eating out - some of our favorite restaurants to take the kids are Fudruckers, Smashburger, and Red Robin.  Claire's favorite part of eating out is chewing on the crayons...

She also loves her drinks... Ben is very proud of his little trick he does when we eat out - the straws are always way too long for the little kid cups, and then the kids have to tip their cup so much to get the straw to their mouth, that it leaks out the side when it's full - so now Ben whips out his pocketknife with the little scissors and always cuts down all the kids straws...

Ben has been working a lot, doing extra moonlighting shifts at the hospital.  We went to visit him to eat dinner recently.  It's definitely not the Mayo Clinic cafeteria, but it's still fun to get to see Ben while he's at work.

We got a little after hours tour of his area of the outpatient building...

They had a great deal in August at the Children's Museum, where it was only 6 dollars per person.  Plus I had a culture pass to get 2 of us in free.  So, for 12 dollars, we had a really fun outing - Ben was at work and Emma was at school, but it was fun to just play with my little kids...

Part of the large climber in the front room...

I like that you can pack in a lunch... sometimes a lunch of a sandwich, grapes, carrots, and fruit snacks is just perfect...

Becca was amused the Claire was the cashier...

Becca made me a lot of pizzas....

Such a tough biker girl...

They climbed up into the climber one more time before we left...

Summer Family Fun...

I told Ben to take some pictures of what they did while I was gone in New York.  Here's some of the evidence of their good time...

Ben took the kids to Jump Street - they love that place...

For dinner one evening, Ben took the kids to the grocery store and let them pick out what they wanted.  They ended up with hot dogs, blackberries, and cheetos...

Shortly before I left town, we took the kids to Anthem for some back to school shopping, and to play.  They all got soaked in their clothes at the splash pad, because I was too lazy to put them in their swim suits (even though I had brought them).  We also got ourselves some fudge at a chocolate shop.  Claire especially enjoyed her warm summer evening fudge...

Flour + Water + Egg + Pie...

We had our traditional Fannie Farkle party - bring on the mess!  I didn't get many pictures of the various activities... just mostly the mess afterwards - it's dangerous territory to have your camera out at such an occasion.  :)  This was all part of Emily's birthday party - I love that we do this - it's fun for the kids to see the grown ups get silly, messy, and crazy!  And this year, the kids were more involved and enjoyed it more.  Claire, on the otherhand, did not enjoy it at all - she made an early exit to go to bed.

The games included- digging for pennies in flour, tug of war over water (floury bodies dumped in water, results in sticky, icky goo all over!), egg toss, water balloon toss, and finally a pie eating contest...

Caroline was the most fun of all - she LOVED getting messy!

Poor Claire - this just wasn't her thing...

Beware of flour in the eye...

Scout loved it too - she was all into the flour...

Becca being a good sport about the egg smashed on her head...

This is a funny picture - but we were lining up getting ready for our plates of pie - I didn't get any decent pictures of the actual pie eating contest - partly because we were all too busy getting our faces shoved in pie.   We all agreed that the pie was very good.  I was disappointed that I didn't get to finish eating mine, since Peter took what was left and shoved it in my ear.  ;)

Happy Fannie Farkles!  And Happy Birthday Emily!

Cheese!

Jake finally had his first trip to the dentist this week.  Jake loved his movie star sunglasses he got to wear under the light while his teeth were cleaned.  And we're happy that there are no cavities in that winning smile of his. :)

Afterschool Outings

Ben worked late one evening this week- so I took the kids out for a marathon outing after getting Emma from the bus stop....

First stop- to the splash pad (the waterpark is only open on the weekends now, or we would have gone there instead)...

Look!  Claire stood up on her own and walked some without me telling her to.  Someday she might actually start using walking as her main means of getting around - but for now we all cheer when she decides to actually do some walking - it doesn't happen very often (she's now officially 15 months old)...

This might be some of the reason why she doesn't walk much... because her older sister is always carrying her around everywhere...

Sibling huddle...

Second stop: Dinner at Sonic...

You see how Emma is awkwardly using the side of her mouth to eat - that's because she hardly has any teeth in the front.  She definitely has the typical 2nd grade smile right now - but I think her holey smile is cute, although not practical for eating...

Final stop: the mall play area...

It was a fun evening and the kids stayed out a bit late... on a school night... :)

We've also been going to the library a lot recently.  And today I took Claire to storytime, just me and her - while Jake was at preschool.  She loved it!  And it was fun to do something one on one with my Claire.  That's a new thing for us!  I love her :)

2nd grade, Kindergarten, and Preschool!

The first day of school finally arrived!  I have to admit, I've been extra excited for the summer to end and for the school days to begin.  Now if only the summer heat would end too - the girls couldn't have recess the first couple days because of a heat advisory. 

Emma started 2nd grade and Becca started Kindergarten!  I have TWO elementary schoolers!  The girls were most excited about getting to ride the bus together in the morning.  Becca is doing half-day Kindergarten, so she rides home earlier than Emma on the Kindergarten bus.  :)

Becca was so happy and excited all morning.  She did get nervous once she got to class though.  I followed the bus the first day and then walked her into class to help her get settled.  The girls both missed the back to school night where they would have met their teachers the Friday before - I was in New York and daddy wasn't going to get done with work in time to take them.  That made the first day a little more scary than it would have been.  I think she was overwhelmed by all the parents and the first day chaos.  But once she saw that some of her church friends were in her class, she let me go.

Here's Becca's nervous face...

Emma and Becca came home from school very happy about their day.  They've now almost finished their first full week and they seem to already be happily settled into the new school routine.

On Wednesday, my big Jake had his first day of preschool!  How is he old enough for this?!  Jake is such a ball of energy, humor, and smarts.  I love him.  After I dropped him off at school and drove away, I actually cried.  I've never done that before with the girls on their first days of school.  He's my special guy, even though he drives me crazy.  As he got out of the car to go to school on the first day, he says to me, "you are going to miss me mommy".  How did he know?  :)  What a sweet dude...