::first day::

What a day!! It started at 6:30 this morning. I got Chloe up at 6:45. She popped right out of bed--she was SO excited! She got dressed, we fixed her hair, brushed her teeth, she ate breakfast, Bubb came out to the kitchen, I made Chloe's lunch, she woke up Portie, I got the 2 boys breakfast, I fed Ava, got me, Coop, & Port dressed, fixed Port's hair, got a few pictures of Chloe, and we were all out the door by 7:40.

The second grader...

...the kindergartener

Then all 5 of us went to Chloe's school to see her off. We went in, took some photos, found a desk for her to sit at (she got to pick where she sat), hung up her backpack, took some more photos, kissed her goodbye, and we left. Back to our house (Port's school didn't start for another half hour). So I took a few pictures of Portie, grabbed his backpack, put on a bit of makeup, and we left our house by 8:25.

(Chloe's school. 2nd grade. Mrs. Barker's class)

Then the 4 of us took Portie in to his class. We said hi to his teacher, found his chair, said hi to his buddies, hung up his backpack, took some pictures, kissed bye, and left. Then it was just Bubb, Ava, and I. Bubby kept saying "no big kids, just us!" We played in the pillows on my bed, did the dishes, showered (me), and took BeeAva to Grandma Snowman (because I volunteered to ride Portie's bus with him-parent volunteers help the drivers figure out their route and which kids get off where). Portie and Bubb thought the bus was the awesomest thing ever--until we'd been on our bus ride for over half an hour (first day of school-takes longer).


(My baby boy in his big school. It's not preschool, it's kindergarten! He was so excited. I thought he'd follow me out the door and grab my leg like he used to do in preschool, but he didn't. I felt pretty good about him being there, but was still a little worried. I hoped he'd have a good day and make friends.)


(He had an awesome day! He told me all about it too! He colored a gingerbread picture, learned about gingerbread, and ate gingerbread (strange time of year for gingerbread, no?). He played outside with 3 little friends. He likes his teacher, and said he loves to be in big school. )


(Us on the bus. His bus driver seems a little scary. He's kind of a grumpy-old-man, and yells at the kids who are being loud. Even at the ones not being loud. He just yells-and he's kind of gruff-even to the parents. I just told Portie to be good on the bus so he won't yell at him! And also a photo Bubb & Port having some lunch after school.)

Then, a few hours later, Chloe came home! She had an awesome day too. She told me about a game they played, a new friend she made, how she sat with 2 girls on the bus she knew from last year, and her lunch was SO good! She was a little bummed that Portie played games and had a treat at school and she didn't. She had to listen to dumb rules all day. Poor 2nd grader!


And that was our first day of school.

In other news...

Bubb is showing Chloe his owie. He fell off his little bike and I guess he hit his mouth on the cement. It was all bloody. I felt to see if any of his teeth were loose-they weren't, but he chipped his front tooth. The chip isn't too bad, but it's a little sharp. I called the dentist to see if we could have it filed down a bit (got an appointment for tomorrow). As the evening wore on, his gums started to show a pretty dark purpley bruise. Now I'm nervous that might've done some major damage like kill his tooth or something. Cross your fingers that he didn't! Portie chipped his tooth last year, and when Matt was little, he completely knocked his front ones out! Welcome to life with boys, I guess.

::back to school dinner::

We had our 3rd annual back to school dinner tonight. I made my Aunt Jeri's spaghetti (oh! it was goooood!), olive oil dip (for the french bread), and some little cupcakes.

(Remember how I wanted to do a theme? Well, that's what I came up with. I figured Portie would be learning a lot of new things this year, and he tends to give up easily and get mad any time he has to learn something new. He thinks it should come easily, and it doesn't always. Anyway, I thought this was a good one.)



(mushtashes and my "I feel like I'm smiling, but I'm really not" face. And also a very fingerprinty fridge-don't look!)

Now they're in bed. Their clothes and backpacks are all ready. I'm so excited for them! I'm a little nervous too. Chloe's going to a new, big school. She has some friends in her class from last year and church. I hope she has fun and learns a lot. I hope she likes her teacher (Mrs. C set the bar pretty high!). School starts earlier and gets out earlier for her-so that'll be interesting. I can't believe Portie is going to kindergarten! I hope he likes it. I hope he has fun. I hope he makes lots of friends. I hope he learns a lot. He's a pretty cool kid, so I think he'll do great in school. I hope Bubb doesn't miss him too much. He thinks he's going to school with Port. We try to tell him he's not, but he insists that he is. Tonight at dinner, he said "I'm gonna miss you, Pohtuh." I wanted to cry because it's so true.

Good luck, you little babies! I hope you make good choices, are good examples, and always remember who you are.

And also...
Do your best, and NEVER give up!!

::swimmin'::

Yesterday was my mom's birthday, and also swimmin' Saturday (part of our last week of school acivities-more on that later). So we decided to combine the 2. We all got together here...

That's the barn. It's Uncle Kerry's (Papa Kitty's brother) & Aunt Eunice's house. Their pool is SO much fun! There are cliffs, slides, a hot tub, waterfalls, all kinds of fun stuff!!






The cliff was pretty scary! It's gotta be about 10 feet up from the water. We all took turns talking ourselves into jumping off. I only did it once. It took me a few minutes to actually do it. I was scared. Matt did it a few times, so did Papa and Billy. Chloe did it about a million times! Such a tiny girl on such a big cliff!!




(Grandma & BeeAva played together a lot. She fed her and dipped her feet in the water. She liked the baby pool best. It was quieter and not deep.)


(The baby pool. Isn't it great? Bubb liked it and the hot tub best)


(water cannons)


(Portie didn't want to jump off the big cliff, so he jumped off the rocks. Bubb liked the black slide. A lot.)

We all had lunch @ Shakey's (a pizza buffet in American Fork) before swimming. It was pretty good. We gave Grandma a sparkly purse and a little compact mirror. She loved it. The purse is a little crazy, but Chloe insisted that we get that one for Grandma-because she's fancy. Grandma likes it. She said she'd take it to work on Monday. After all our swimming, we got ice cream and called it a day.

Happy Birthday, Grandma! We sure love you!
(and tell Uncle Kerry & Aunt Eunice thanks for us. We sure had fun in their pool :) )

::fire::

As part of our last week of summer, we had a campfire in Mantua last night. We took dinner stuff to cook on the fire. It was good, the s'mores were delish, and the kids had a great time. They all got muddy, threw things into the fire, caught their marshmallows on fire, climbed in the trees, broke some sticks, and got dirty.

(Hot dogs for dinner. Avie (5 months) has some baby cereal :) )

And that was our Friday night.