Weekly Review - August 23-29

Sunday, August 23 - I went out to water my garden and my tomato plants are MASSIVE and my watermelons are growing really well.

Monday, August 24 - We found a fabulous produce stand right next to the girl's school. They have the most amazing produce at fantastic prices.

Tuesday, August 25 - There are 2 things that can help make a grocery shopping trip so much more enjoyable...1: Go while kids are at school, 2: go to a store that has kids size shopping carts and let the kids push the groceries around for you. We went with option 2 and it was a very enjoyable shopping trip.

Wednesday, August 26 - After school the girls enjoyed playing outside. My neighbor brought her doll house out for the kids to play with.

Thursday, August 27 - My friend just bought a new house...with a very overwhelming paint job in all the rooms...including the trim, baseboards, and the doors. there were murals, and very dark colors. Gabby and I went over to help with a little bit of painting while Kaylee was at school. The rooms (and baseboards, and everything else) have been transformed back to white and look much better.

Friday, August 28 - After school we headed up to my parent's house. Kaylee's and Gabby's "Bestest Boy" Steve (my brother's old mission companion). They convinced Steve to help them build a little doll house (he's becoming an engineer at BYU). After he finished with the dollhouse they convinced him to play with them until bedtime and then read them a story. I don't know who was more excited to see each other Steve or Kaylee.

Saturday, August 29 - Wow! What an insanely busy day! We started out going to the Farmer's Market downtown. We got some fresh produce and the girls got their balloon animals (their favorite thing there). We met my sister at the fountain downtown. Stopped to grab some lunch. Went to Ikea to get some new TV stands and shelves for my moms house. They wouldn't fit in my car so we went to help my friend move into her new house. I wasn't much help with the moving because I found my puppy (Bella) at her house. She moved to Idaho and her new family came to help my friend move too. My puppy still remembers me and comes to me and listens to me. It was amazing. We went back to Ikea to meet Janeene and buy the stuff the wouldn't fit in my car and put it in her van. Went back to my parent's house and ate dinner and put kids to bed. Built a small TV stand and an entertainment center. Cleaned up a bit and finally made it to bed about 1:00. Wow, that was exhausting typing it all out.

Weekly Review - August 16-22 - First Week of School

This past week was the girls first week of school. We still have some adjusting to our school schedule but both of the girls seem to really like their classes.

Sunday, August 16 - We celebrated Marla's birthday at my parent's house. We have an inside joke about buffalo (because Marla LOVES the buffalo in Yellowstone so much). So, Wendy and I got her buffalo stuff for her birthday.

Monday, August 17 - First day of School! Kaylee started FIRST grade this year! Gabby started in the 4-year-old preschool class. When did they get so old?!?

Tuesday, August 18 - While I went to a dentist appointment Gabby went to the aquarium with Wendy and Roman (and Kaylee went to school). They had lots of fun and Gabby even got a stuffed pink turtle.

Wednesday, August 19 - Kaylee and Gabby were playing school with the whiteboard. Kaylee was showing Gabby how words work and how you use letters to spell things. It was very entertaining, and oh so very cute.

Thursday, August 20 - The girls gathered up their stuffed animals and brought them all down to the family room to brush their hair and give them "makeovers"!

Friday, August 21 - Happy Birthday Marla! It was my little sister's birthday. After I picked Kaylee up from school we met Wendy and Marla at the zoo. We always love going to the zoo. Especially with all the new baby animals.

Saturday, August 22 - We started our day out helping Wendy and Spencer re-stain their back patio. After we were done with that we went over to my parent's house to play in the water and on the slip and slide.

First Day of School!

My kids are back to school. I can't believe summer is over, but I am so happy to have them back in school. The best part is how much they love going to school. Kaylee is in 1st grade now and gets to go to school all day (and she loves that she gets to eat lunch at school now too), and Gabby is in preschool. Today I babysat Roman so he got to go with me to take kids to school.

Gabby was so very happy after school, and even more happy when she got a sucker. She was pretty concerned when we left Kaylee at school (since Kaylee is all day now).

School can be pretty exhausting. Gabby was fast asleep on our way to get Kaylee from school.

Weekly Review - August 9-15

I am so happy this week is over, and I am happy that the kids get to start school on Monday. It was a very long week, and I need a break for a minute.

Sunday, August 9 - Wendy had a little hair salon set up in my parent's kitchen. Kaylee and Gabby both got their hair cut (as well as several other people). Kaylee just got her hair a little bit trimmed, Gabby got about 3-1/2 inches cut off in the back to get rid of her wispy hair and even it all up.

Monday, August 10 - Wendy, Nic, my mom and I took kids to the zoo on Monday to see the new baby giraffe, and the baby snow leopard, and the bird show. (While we were there a baby elephant was born but it was in the building and we had no idea.)

Tuesday, August 11 - We got stuff done around our house. Got things cleaned up, played outside, rode Kaylee's scooter in the garage...all sorts of fun (and not so fun) stuff.

Wednesday, August 12 - Once again we hung around our house getting stuff done...I didn't get a picture for today. But I liked this picture of Marla so much from Monday that I thought I would share it again...enjoy.

Thursday, August 13 - We went to "Meet the Teacher" at the girls school before lunch. It was nice chatting with their teachers. On our way home we stopped at a toy store and while we were looking around the kids found some funny dress-up hats. Here's a picture of Kaylee in my favorite dress-up hat with wig.

Friday, August 14 - Since the girls start school on Monday we decided to do one more final fling and go to the Gateway fountain to play. That has been one of our favorite spots this summer. While we were at the Gateway we went into Build-a-Bear and let each of the kids build something as a back to school thing. Kaylee built a pink unicorn, Gabby built a pink fuzzy bear, and Roman built an owl. We had lots of fun with Wendy, and Nicola, and Bobbie and all of the kids.

Saturday, August 15 - It was my sister's wedding anniversary so Marla was babysitting her kids. We turned on a build-a-bear game on the Wii and they were having all sorts of fun.

Oh what do you do in the summertime?

I know that Watermelon is a summertime favorite...but Marla may have taken it a bit overboard.

I'm going to the zoo, zoo, zoo!

Recently the zoo has had a few baby animals make their appearances. A baby giraffe was born 10 days ago, and a baby snow leopard was born in May but just recently moved out where people could see the cub. We went with my Mom, Wendy (and Roman), and Nicola (and her kiddos), and Nic's friend Bobbie. We started with the elephants and rhinos (one of the elephants is being kept inside until she has her baby).
We ate lunch and then went on the conservation carousel...one of the kids favorite things.
We went to the Bird show...
Then it was off the see the baby animals. We started with the giraffe...then we took an ice cream break, and then to see the sleeping baby snow leopard.
The kids were totally exhausted. While we were standing in line for the train the kids did not want to stand anymore.On our way home from the zoo Gabby zonked out and Kaylee (usually doesn't stop talking in the car) was very quiet all the way.