Luke starts kindergarten!

Tuesday, August 1 - Luke was very excited to start kindergarten! Blondie was upset that she wasn't able to go too!




It rained a little bit while they were waiting for the bus...

Exciting times for M&M!

First day of 3rd grade!
Tuesday, July 25 - M&M has 2 teachers this year for third grade - they team teach. One teacher teaches on Monday & Wednesday and the other teacher teaches on Tuesday and Thursday and then they alternate Fridays. One of the advantages to this arrangement is that the class will usually not need a substitute because the other teacher can fill in if one of them gets sick. We've heard from a couple of people that have had them that it works very well for them and the students really like both of the teachers.

Birthday Party!


Saturday, July 29 - M&M had an outdoor birthday party this year. The theme was "Fun in the Sun" (Mom N. - we finally used the sun pinata). The girls all wore their swimsuits to the party. They decorated some foam visors, ate pizza for lunch, played with water balloons & squirt guns, broke open the pinata, opened presents, and then decorated and ate cake cones & ice cream. M&M really enjoyed herself!

Baptism!
Saturday, August 5 - M&M was baptized by her dad on a beautiful Saturday morning. (I definitely started feeling older once I realized that my oldest child was going to be baptized!) It was a nice baptism program. She was baptized with another girl from our ward. Grandma N was able to give a talk and I played a flute solo of primary songs with Grandma S accompanying me. Then there was a talk from the other family and then the girls were baptized and confirmed. We are grateful to both sets of grandparents for making the trip out to be there on M&M's special day!

Potty training early?

On Monday I was asking Blondie how old she was while I was getting her dressed in the morning. Since she just turned 3 last Saturday, she it still learning that she is now 3 years old. So when I informed her on Monday that she was 3 years old, she said, "Oh, now I can start using the potty." (Up to this point I haven't really pushed her to use the bathroom - it's a lot of work on my part - and had decided to wait until Luke & M&M start up school.) After informing me that she could now use the potty, Blondie then proceeded to go into the bathroom and sit on the potty. She did that off and on throughout the day. One time I was upstairs with her, Kitty joined us and thought it was all pretty interesting watching her big sister. When I went back into the bathroom after getting a pull-up for Blondie, this is what I found:



Kitty had climbed up on the toilet all by herself trying to be like her big sister!

First pet!

In addition to playing in the water at Thanksgiving Point (see previous blog on Water Fun!), they also have crafts & learning activities for the kids to do on Tuesdays & Thursdays. The one day that we happened to go, the crafts & activities they had for the kids were about the life cycles of different animals. So the kids drew a life cycle of a frog and then they had tadpoles for the kids to take home - fun, huh? So we took home 2 tadpoles - one already had both sets of legs (with a tail still) and the other had the front set of legs. Everyday the kids can be seen checking on the frogs/tadpoles throughout the day and yesterday Luke said, "I love having tadpoles for pets." Whenever there is some kind of change, i.e. the frog on a different rock or some of the food gone, the kids have to tell me about it.

Water fun!!

The last few weeks we have been taking advantage of some water parks here in our area to try and bear the heat of the summer. Plus we've been trying to enjoy ourselves before M&M has to start school next week (3rd grade!) and then Luke starts kindergarten the following week.

Thanksgiving Point
This was a fun water park at the Children's Garden at Thanksgiving Point. They have a nice little garden area you can walk around and then there is a splash/water area with a big model of Noah's Ark in the middle. Some of the animals in the ark (like the elephant) would spray water every so often. The kids had a lot of fun here. The downside to it is that it costs $5 per adult & $3 per child over age 3 (luckily we went 2 days before Blondie's 3rd birthday so she and Kitty were free).


Herriman Water Park
This is a fun free water park located in Herriman that I just heard about last week. The different fountains turn on and off randomly.













Swim Lessons
M&M & Luke have been taking swim lessons this summer and have really enjoyed it. The lessons are at the new indoor pool in South Jordan. Hopefully they will be able to swim soon so we can go to the pool more often (it's too hard to go with 4 kids that can't swim).





I think Luke's teacher looks a lot like Cherylyn. Cherylyn - do you have a twin you haven't told us about??

Backyard Pool
The kids playing in the inflatable pool we bought this summer. You have to watch out for Blondie though. She's a pretty good shot with those squirt guns!

Daddy/daughter bonding

Kitty & her dad spending some quality time together...



She is by far our best imitator.

Blondie turns the big 3!!

Blondie had a lot of fun on her birthday! She loves Cinderella & clothes (especially dresses, skirts & shoes)...


All of the kids had fun playing with Blondie's new Cinderella tea set (poor Luke really needs a brother...)


















Blondie posing with her Cinderella cake (we need to work on that smile for pictures...). This was the most difficult cake I've made so far. The eyes and mouth were very hard to do. I was pleased with how it turned out though...

Yummy dip!!

The other day Luke came downstairs and said, "Mom, Kitty's making a mess at the table." And this is what I found...

















Kitty was certainly grateful to her sister Blondie for leaving her plate with chip dip on it at the table.

Pebbles look-a-like?

Kitty's finally getting enough hair that I can pull it up into a ponytail. DH & I both thought she looked like Pebbles Flintstone on Sunday.




...And the other kids' response to that: "Who's Pebbles?"

White Reunion Day 3

Working on the family service project on Sunday. We made surgery dolls which will be donated to the church's humanitarian department.