dinner conversation...

No photos... sorry! But tonight, Jaiden was quite a bit down about his homework load, and just trying to get it all done. He tries very hard and it's good... most of the time. Tonight at dinner though as he was talking and somewhat complaining about his workload, he said completely in the moment...

"I still don't understand why teachers get paid when we do all the work!" 

Dennis and I were laughing, and Dennis said "that is something that Mrs. O would probably like to put in her book!"

and Jaiden replied "I read that in the boy scout magazine's joke section!" 

But if you could have seen him say it, it was so natural and nonchalant you would have seriously thought he had come up with that on his own! And quite truthfully, I think in a way he probably does wonder why that is!

breakfast friends...

Jaiden was off and running early this morning for a new 5th grade MESA mentor program... and literally running. He'd really like if I didn't follow him to school but that's another story. In the meantime, I had set out breakfast for Alyssa and when I came around the corner to check on her, I found a table full of friends!

I love Giraffe and pink bear's paws are on the table... and I love that she still does such sweet things like set them all up for breakfast and then talk to them. I really hope she doesn't outgrow this anytime soon.

the much anticipated...

first day of school! 

This year I only took photos on our front porch, and really just a couple of quick photos that I personally love even if this is how it started...

 he'd really like to ignore the fact that I put him up to this ...

 ... and clean up that cute face a bit too! I couldn't believe what I thought was a scratch on his left cheek was really something that could be wiped off!

and of course, one silly one from him. I wonder when he will stop doing those kind of faces?!

Then it was her turn. Unlike last year, she didn't rise at the crack of dawn and have her shoes on ready to go over an hour early ... instead she spent her time eating breakfast and then frantically looking for her new boots...

and this was her 3rd grade fashion statement... she is definitely improving in her coordinating of colors.

 but it is the close ups that melt me and this one was so cute of her and one toothless smile.

This was her request for her one "silly" photo and she loves it. In fact, she is planning to use it on a homework assignment already!

The first day went very well for both kids. Jaiden really likes his new teacher contrary to his original tears and mini freak out... and even though she assigned him homework on the first day, he was still enjoying her class on day 3 ... 

As for the little peach, she was beaming when she came out the door. She declared that one of the girls she was apprehensive about had decided they could be friends again. Alyssa then told the other little girl that if she wanted Alyssa could give her lessons on how to be nice... 

yes, she really did say that to the other girl and I nearly choked when Alyssa told me... oh dear this may be a long year of drama...

the last weekend of summer...

Yes, technically not as in the true last day of summer and tomorrow's the first day of fall but more like the last weekend of summer and the next day school starts... and there goes our carefree summer days but we made sure we ended the weekend on super high notes.

Friday started out with our annual summer trip to a local water park where we did our usual and forced Alyssa to go down slides and rides that she has sheer panic over, screaming and crying to get off ... and then when it is all over declares she wants to do it again and again... yes, that is part of our tradition as well. What can I say? We're those parents forcing our screaming child on the ride. Jaiden goes for it all and loves every minute so thankfully it's only one screaming child, not two!

Then Saturday we awoke super early to head down for our big hemophilia walk ... which was fantastic except that Jaiden ran the entire walk (3 miles in roughly 90 degree weather) while we dragged a "stink in' hot" little girl around the lake. She did it though in 52 minutes. Jaiden was the 4th across the finish line and he was beaming when we finally made it across.

I grabbed this photo but should have done one after the awards. He managed 3 medals this year! 1 for crossing the finish line, 1 for being the third top fundraising team and the last one for being the top individual fundraiser!! And by top I mean he was in first place as an individual at almost $4200 and his goal was $3000 - a super HUGE thank you to family for helping him get there!

We finished out Saturday to a trip up the mountains to visit our dear friends and enjoyed a relaxing cooler afternoon at altitude (as if 5500 ft isn't enough altitude, we go to 9000 ft to cool off and relax?!)

Today was lower key but we did manage a trip to the pool for one more afternoon baking in the heat and cooling off with friends. And with that we bid farewell to our carefree summer... sigh...

it's a great day...

today was THE day that Jaiden finally saw his name on the door... oh, the countless number of times he wanted to see his name on that door and today was THE day...

 it's a bit hard to read but it says "today is a great day to your braces off!"

Some retainer love... and the only photo he let me take of him!

Strangely, he's in a little bit of discomfort and he actually got in the car and cried saying he wanted his braces back on. My heart sunk because like him, I, too, was anxiously awaiting this day. The bummer side of it was they put this wire behind his bottom teeth that is called a placer, I think. It's meant to keep his teeth in place as he looses the remaining baby teeth and the adult teeth come in. He can't remove and it feels rather uncomfortable. He also said it was difficult to eat with it in but I hope in another week, he won't even notice it is there. The top wire is his retainer and that is removable, although they request that he wears it 24/7 for the next two months, but at least he can remove that to eat.

Also, tonight was back to school night... the good news for Jaiden is despite the tears earlier this week, he met his teacher and I asked what he thought... "I like her, she is nice"... so it may be a better year than he thought!

burnt toast...

a funny story and then a photo... because I have to remember both...

It all started mid morning when I drove home from working out (quick side note: the kids were home with a babysitter for the one hour class that I thoroughly enjoy)... back to the story...  I was on the phone with my dad and pulled into the driveway. Nothing unusual but as I turn off the car and get out, I smell this odd smell. I tell my dad something is strange - my car really smells off and what should I do? He asks about the temperature gauge - no it looks normal. I sniff the hood of the car. He asks is hot out? Yes very hot but I am not sure if that smell is my car it seems to be my car but when I sniff the hood it doesn't have that strong of a smell. He says it might be the catalytic converter. Oh great what I do about that? wait for an engine light to come on but it's probably fine. I step out of the garage to go put some trash in the bin and I say it smells stronger outside, maybe it's not my car but I am still worried. We hang up. 

I walk in the house and am overcome with smell of burnt toast. I come around to the family room and  I ask the kids what is that smell. And they all start talking at once. Something about Alyssa burning a pretzel rod in the microwave. Setting the microwave for 13 minutes and that's about when I take off my sunglasses and see the thick black remains of smoke in the house. I have a slight panic but looking at all 4 kids, I know they are okay so I say was there a fire? No, she just set the microwave for 13 minutes and we didn't catch it in time so we opened all the windows and doors to try to air it out! But no fire, right? No fire. Anyone hurt? No one hurt. A HUGE sigh of relief and then I start to laugh because that smell I thought was my car was really my super independent, I can do it myself daughter burning a frozen pretzel roll in the microwave.

now for the photo... Jaiden comes home from choir practice and I can't seem to find him. He isn't pestering me to play his DS so I set out to look for him and find him in his room reading?

Truth be told... Jaiden discovered comic books... it's his latest obsession and we discovered a cool comic book store. I should have known he'd be there reading as he insisted on making a pit stop while we are out and about so he can pick up two more comic books - Figment and Batman 66 meets the Green Hornet. How cute that as his days of summer dwindle, he chooses to spend some time relaxing and reading comic books! 

Now if I can only get that smell out of my house... 

back to school so soon?

Depending on who you ask, today was the day we either anxiously waited for or terribly dreaded... the day class lists were posted outside the school office. For me, I think it was a bit of both and I felt a huge range of emotions as I saw whose class they were put in and then who the classmates were.

For Alyssa, I requested for Jaiden's 3rd/4th grade teacher, Mrs. Potter. Simply put... she is amazing and Alyssa, of course, was on her list. The frustrating part? Seeing that 2 girls that tend to push Alyssa around and do unkind things to her were also on that class list... I really wanted a year off from at least one of those girls... but both girls? Oh dear... it will be a long next two years of coaching and working through these things with Alyssa. 

For Jaiden, he got hit hard twice. He got the teacher he dreaded but I secretly was pretty certain he'd get her and I kind of feel needs - now lets hope that intuition is correct. Mrs. Lange - she has a reputation of being tough, strict but I have also seen her be very caring and very good at getting the kids ready for middle school. The second hit, however, was the class list, in particular two twins that he will officially gone through all 5 years with. One of the twins is the infamous twin who kept getting annoyed with Jaiden and finally one day, he said "I know why you do these things!", her reply "Why?", and his? "because you like me!" ... yes, that twin. Oh dear... it's going to be a crazy year...

the county fair...

Well, this is it! My last post and I am caught up with the year and isn't it appropriate that I catch up at our local county fair? After all, I started this blog 5 years ago and my second post was on our local county fair! Wow - has it really been five years? 

I left my good camera at home... I blame it on all the distractions of getting out the door but I did manage a few fun memorable moments with my phone... I'll take it!

I snapped this photo because I love how the two of them were excitedly chattering about which rides to ride first and I also laugh because 5 years ago, they would have been holding hands!

Tutu was visiting and got the pleasure of riding all the twisty, spinning rides with Alyssa. No idea what this one was called but I am quite certain, I'd have been very sick after that!

Another one of their favorites. Jaiden with his good friend, Tyler, who just happened to be at the fair at the same time. That's another thing I love about this fair. It's small and we always, always find friends!

Here comes Tutu and Alyssa!

Then we wandered through the stock yards to check out the pigs, goats, sheep, rabbits and when we stepped outside, this was there! Alyssa gives it a go!

Then Jaiden! He was laughing until it really got going and then he didn't like it so much!

It was hot, it was dusty but it was definitely fun!

Oh and we came back at night, the lights were so cool! Temperature wise it wasn't much cooler and it was still dusty but the lights?! super cool! One year, I will capture that!

magic sky continued...

We had a full day ahead of us and woke to have breakfast delivered to our camp site! Breakfast involved several things... including our yummy Ziploc bag eggs! The crazy thing about those plastic bags of egg? You boil them! for about 10 minutes and it's like having a cross between scrambled eggs and an omelet without the skillet mess! So using this idea when we go camping next summer!

and strangely boxes of cereal and bananas hung in the trees. Alyssa was thrilled about this... not to mention she found Apple Jacks... something she never gets at home!

Then it was the morning flag ceremony which our girls did so no photographs of that because we were helping... and then onto a traditional Girl Scout hike

 It was a beautiful walk and Alyssa is not much of a hiker so we played and ABC hiking game that got awfully creative on a few letters!

 This is our cute unit of Brownie girls and our fearless leader, Bandit!

Next up ... crafts because it just wouldn't be camp without crafts and even the mommies and daddies got to make their own if they wanted.  This was a cute no sew bag made from tie dyed bandannas and you tie up 3 of sides to connect the two bandannas... very cute!

Then we did some knife whittling and learned all about knife safety.

 Some edible fires ...

 And roasting marshmallows...

 Game playing...

 And at downtime, building their own forts aka animal lairs!

 I also realized at this point that I didn't take a photo of our tent... the praying mantis back from my college days! So much smaller than our family tent. A funny side note was that we were on a slight incline so we did quite a bit of sliding in the night!

That night we also did a campfire under the stars, a fun paper bag skit program which was hilarious and a dance that Alyssa pooped out on she was so tired from the previous activities!

We did a few activities Sunday morning and a beautiful closing ceremony! It was such a nice fun special weekend for Alyssa and I!

magic sky

Almost caught up... this next series is from the beginning of August... and just a short summary of an amazing weekend that Alyssa and I had at a parent/daughter Girl Scout camp. We have tried unsuccessfully to attend for the past two years. The first year it was cancelled due to a massive forest fire in the area, the second year was cancelled for staffing issues... and well this year, as they say third time is a charm... and it was!

We went with another Girl Scout friend from our troop, Zoë and her mom, Jean, which turned out to be totally awesome! We arrived and were immediately sent into the kitchen to make our breakfast for the morning...

Alyssa and Zoë sealing their bags...

 ... and shaking them up. I was a little skeptical about this but a bit intrigued too. We put our names and unit number on the outside of the Ziploc bags and then we were instructed to crack 1-2 eggs into the plastic bags and then had choices to add cheese, onion, green bell pepper, real bacon crumbled up or sausage pieces. They went into the cooler and we finished checking in.

 It took a while to set up our tent and get situated but we came back down for dinner and the closing flag ceremony. While we were waiting the older volunteer staff girls got up to lead songs, they asked for anyone who knew the songs to come up and sing with them and to my surprise, Alyssa bounced up and enthusiastically joined in!

 She knew all the songs! And hand motions! 

Then we were off to a get to know you...

she was very much into the games and I loved watching her. We had to wait quite awhile for it to get dark and then we did a night eye's hike which apparently was a long standing tradition at camp where we go on a short hike looking for eyes of animals ... which thankfully were cute photos of random animals with glowing eyes and a fun treasure at the end of the hike.

And off to bed! The first night was a great start!