Back to school!

 OH how exciting it was to wake up on August 22, 2012 and send Kedzie to second grade and Ethan to Kindergarten.  They love school.  They love their friends.  I love school.  I love their friends.  

Yes, it was a major adjustment to have them go back to school.  I can't say that I love it, because I miss them while they are gone.  But, I love it because they are learning and growing and changing and becoming better people every day.  It's amazing.  My kids are growing so quickly.  It's bitter sweet I suppose.  I love them dearly.  And I'm so proud of them for all they are learning and doing on a daily basis.

So, Kedzie is off to second grade with Mrs. Nienaber.  She has many friends in her class including her favorite Cali and favorite Cameron.  

Ethan is off to his first day of Kindergarten in Mrs. Weins class.  I wasn't sure how he would act going to school again.  He's been in pre-school for the past 2 1/2 years and the only change here is a new school.  But, he was soooo excited for the first day and after the first week, he couldn't wait to return on Monday!  He loves that he brings things home to read and he enjoys being dropped off each morning to walk in with the "big kids."  It's fabulous. He's also in the same class as his friend Camden. 

So, that leaves some time for Alex and I to hang out.  He's been to the gym with me and he's had a lot of play dates with Matthew and Colten over the past two weeks.  He's so social and loves being with his friends or his siblings.  I don't quite do it for him. But, this is my last school year with him, and we are going to have fun!  

Summer 2012 was FuN!

Oh we have had a very fun and very busy summer!  I'm really tired!  It probably has something to do with me watching the olympics until late every night and getting up no later than 7:30 every morning, but nonetheless, we've had a great summer, and I hope my children will remember!  

Remember the free bowling we did at AMF!  Awesome.  And the fact that Alex won every time!

Remember how we began the summer studying different countries?  We learned about Italy, Brazil and France.  Hopefully we'll get to more countries next summer!

Remember how much you love bath time and especially the shampoo suds!

I hope I will remember dressing up and going out with Travis on a beautiful July evening!

Remember when you were too tired to take a nap Alex? 

Remember when I finally got the shirt of my dreams and of nine options, I happened to select drug paraphernalia! "usually when you roll something this good, it's illegal."  I still wear the shirt on days that I can get away with it!  I love Chipotle!

Remember how much fun we had on the 4th of July?  Shopping it up and then watching fabulous fireworks from 120th with our glow sticks?

Remember when we went to the Butterfly Pavilion for four weeks in a row?  Ethan and Kedzie took four bug classes there while Alex and I entertained ourselves for two hours.  One day, we took Matthew with us and went and saw the butterflies.  So much fun! 

Remember when the Asian Tropics exhibit opened at the Denver Zoo and we got to see the awesome new elephants and the huge fruit bats?

Remember when we went to Aurora Reservoir and had a fabulous day in the water and sand?   

Remember when Kedzie was "LV" the Elf in Drama camp?  She was wonderful.  

Remember when Travis turned 34 and we celebrated with crazy candles and carrot cake of course?

Remember when we'd go to the pool at 10am and we were some of the first people there?  Kedzie passed the swimming test and Ethan figured out he was tall enough for the slides.  Joy!

Remember when we danced in the rain? 

Remember when Kedzie got all the kids at McDonald's to follow her lead? I do.  It was rather amazing. 

Remember when Nuf Said took us to the Rockies Game and we ate anything we wanted? Go Rockies!

Remember when Kedzie when to her friend Ehla's pirate princess birthday party?

Remember when Enuly Rausten got a tax refund for the deceased Mary A Anderson?  Awesome. At least the check cleared in my bank account.  Thanks for the new carpet mom!  You are always taking care of us.  Love and miss you.  

Remember we got together once again with the Bair's and the Stapelman-Rea clans at the zoo?  It's great to have friends.  

Remember when we had a girls night out with Cali and Amy Cottrell for pedi's and mani's?  So wonderful. 

Remember when we won over 100 medals in the 2012 Olympics in London?  So much fun to watch.  My kids aren't quite convinced that they can make it to the olympics, but we figure Kedzie can do equestrian, Ethan swimming and Alex diving?  Now to get them some coaches.  Are we too late?  

Remember when Alex and Ethan took a drama class as well?  Wonderful experience of expression and imagination all rolled in one.  Love Backstory Theater.  

Remember when you hipped and hopped throughout the summer?  You two had a lot of fun in your hip-hop class!  It was great to see you dance it up.  

Remember the Boulder County Fair Kids Rodeo?  

Ethan rode for about two seconds on his sheep and got a score of 79.  

He was so brave as he did a backward summersault  off that sheep!  

Remember when you all wanted to go fishing every single day and dad finally took you?

Remember when we went to Chuck E Cheese's with Karen and Sam? Alex and Ethan earned enough tickets to get two bags of cotton candy! Yum!

Remember horse camp with Mya and Peyton?  No broken bones this year!  You rode Jake and Gus and scooped up a lot of horse poop!  

Remember when you braided Goliath's hair?  It made you so happy.  

There are other things to remember about summer, all your friends and family that you saw.  The reading that you did with Miss Donna and the daily work book that I "made" you do even if it took you two hours to do two pages (Kedzie)!  It was all for a reason.  You even had to do chores and help pack and unpack the house as we got new carpet and hardwood.  

We all worked hard this summer, but we certainly played harder.  It was great for me.  I hope it was great for you.  I love you so much Kedzie, Ethan and Alex.  Here's to another wonderful school year.  And, what do you think we will do for fun next summer?  Only time will tell.  

SOS - Summer of Service 2012

So, a friend of mine from the singles ward days started posting last year on Facebook, about all the great SOS projects she and her children were doing up North.  I got curious, and asked her to expand on SOS and she did!  Thanks to Melissa, we have the 2nd chapter of the SOS club right here in Thornton! 

Each week throughout the summer on Thursdays at 10am you can expect my friends and I to be gathered together in red shirts to complete some sort of service project with the goal of teaching our children the importance of service.  

I was nervous that no one would have time or desire to participate!  We have nine weeks and 18 mom's willing to head up one of those weeks of service.  I can't even mention the number of kids we all have.  

Week 1...fireman appreciation and practice singing for the nursing home in July.  We delivered cupcakes to local fire stations.  

Week 2...decorate paper that will be turned into placemats and sent to various nursing homes.  In addition, we put together a great crayon/notebook concoction that will be given to children who have to leave their homes without their crayons and paper.  

Week 3...spent a few weeks gathering mens clothing, towels and toiletries and then we delivered items to St. Francis Center for the homeless.  We took a tour and we were able to see homeless men and women being serviced at the Center.  It's an amazing place and Sharon was fabulous at explaining all they do there to the 20 kids who were present.  My van was full of donations.  I think we doubled their inventory!  It was great for the kids to see how some other people live.  

Week 4...weed Sister Barbara Bell's lovely yard!  It was a hot one, but the kids worked hard to fill individual bags with weeds.  We followed up with some otter pops to cool us down.  Sister Bell called the kids "angels."  It was a great project. 

Week 5...what could be better than an otter pop on a hot day followed by some song practice and playing at the park?!  Um...nothing!  We passed out a few hundred otter pops to kids at the park.  We all loved it!  So much fun.

Week 6...We beat the July heat by heading to the basement to make tissue paper flowers and cards to pass out to the senior citizens at the independent living facility the next week.  They turned out so cute and the residents absolutely loved them.  

Week 7...Here are the cutest kids I know!  Singing their hearts out.  We sang "primary" songs about summer in addition to "take me out to the ball game!"  The residents loved us and we loved singing.  

Week 8...In honor of the 2012 Olympics, we had our very own "Penny Olympics!"  We played various games with pennies and collected $22.40 for the Special Olympics Team.  Aren't the medals for the kids (and adults) so cute!  

Week 9...I had a better picture of the whole group, but I don't know why it didn't download.  Anyway, we ended up donating five boxes worth of books to the "Friends of the Broomfield Library."  They sell the books and give the money back to make the library better.  Although turnout was small in numbers, we made a large impact.  It was great.  Thanks to Elaine and Dorothy for their efforts.

So, there you go...goal met!  My children learned more about serving others this summer through our first Summer of Service Club.  It was rewarding for all who participated.  It was educational and fun.  I'm so grateful for the mom's and children who had the desire to spend an hour with us each Thursday morning to help make some kind of impact on the world.  It was a great experience.

I'm really excited to see what we will do next summer. 

Thanks to the Busch's, Fillerup's, Shiner's, Bruggeman's, Shafenberg's, Holland's, Bell's, Hosfelt's, Knabb's, Thornton's, Cone's, Gibson's, Flint's, Marx's, Nelson's, Lisa Thornton and the Jensen's for a wonderful summer of service!