End of Summer & Start of School

We had a lot of fun at the end of the summer! I tried to squeeze in as much as possible such it had been a very different summer. Logan and Brooklyn both celebrated birthdays at the beginning of August. Logan turned 9 and Brooklyn turned 4. She is so proud she is a "big girl" now and tells everyone "I'm almost 5 now". Brooklyn has been obsessed with Elsa and Frozen, so many of her gifts were Frozen related. One of which was an Anna dress-up. She was so excited! She put it on and for the first time she exclaimed "I'm Anna, you be Elsa! My hair is the perfect color to be Anna!" She's had some major hair envy recently. She constantly will lament "I wish my hair was blond like Elsa!" But there's no way I was going to bleach a 3 year old's hair so wigs have been our placebo.

We also squeezed in my niece Rea's second sewing lesson. She wanted to make a skirt for her baby sister in the exact same pattern as hers, so we got to repeat that (hopefully) cementing those skills in place. For her next lesson she wants to do a pair of leggings. This will be more challenging because the material will be stretchy, but I'm sure she will do a great job.

The boys were so excited to go back to school a few weeks ago! They happily wear their masks to school if if means they get to see their friends. Brooklyn is so excited that she gets to do internet pre-school daily, although she is devastated that her brothers leave every day. If we run errands after dropping the boys off she will worriedly exclaim "Mom! I'm going to be late for internet pre-school!"

The Friday after school started we went on our late summer vacation with my parents. Dave's co-worker had a home outside of Flaming Gorge and he was kind enough to let us borrow it for a long weekend.

It was just the break we needed! The first day we explored the lake, paddled around, checked out some islands, talked to fishermen and just had a casual day of fun.

The second day we went river rafting. It was a BLAST! We wish we could have done it more than one day and decided we definitely need to do this again.

The temperature was perfect and the sky was overcast! We weren't too warm, and if we did get warm we just stuck a foot off the side of the raft. It was the perfect adventure! Not too rapid for the kids, but enough to keep us all excited.

If the water was "boring" for too long I would start bouncing up and down and exclaim "look out! rapids!" My mom christened those "White Girl Rapids". Eventually the kids caught on, but it was fun for them for a while.

Our roma and cherry tomatoes have been doing well this year. Brooklyn and Logan are tomato fiends and I will catch both of them sneaking tomatoes from the garden and chowing down. We love that they love fresh produce!

Lots of Sewing and Youth Conference

 

It's been such a busy summer! Well, the last few weeks have flown by and I can't believe it's almost time for school to start again. The kids are planning to go back to school in person in the fall. They will be required to wear masks and remain socially distant, but they are very excited to see their friends again. We're scrambling to get all the stuff they need to go back, plus extra sanitization supplies for their teachers.

Dustin created a picture in hopes that it will be chosen to be the yearbook cover this year. It's adorable and he's really hopeful. Brooklyn is super jealous that the boys get to go to school so I've been prepping some home pre-school stuff to keep her busy in the fall. She loves practicing and will tell you that's she's going to kindergarten this year (she's not). Logan's just excited to go back, learn, and see his friends. It's been a LONG 7 months at home.

Two weeks ago we met up with Logan's friend's family at a park and they played like crazy. The park had a merry go round which the kids begged me to push them around on. They all fell off at least once. At one point I was pushing them around and Brooklyn screamed so I knew she was going to fall. I whipped around mid-run and caught her. In the process I pulled or tore something in my calf and limped around for 1-2 weeks. It's still sore but doing a lot better. 

I've been squeezing in a lot of sewing for Brooklyn lately. She discovered my box of "beautiful material" ie things I've been collecting for dress ups. As soon as I'm done with one dress she is BEGGING me to make the next skirt out of the next beautiful material. It's exhausting because the material isn't easy to sew on, but she's so happy after, I can't help myself!

My friend Tenille also helped me learn how to design on my Cricut so I've gone a little crazy designing shirts for the kids and myself. I ordered some Heat Transfer Vynal off Amazon and as soon as it arrives Tuesday, we'll be in business! I'm so excited!

A few weeks ago we tried to pick up some Harry Potter crafts from the library but they were so popular that they "sold out" in an hour. We stopped by 3 branches before giving up. The last one promised they would make up more bags and call us to come pick them up. This helped appease three devastated kids and I promptly forgot about it. They called this week with make your own wand kits. The kids had a blast designing and bejeweling them. 

Last weekend we got to go to a picknic lunch to celebrate Sara's baptism. We couldn't attend because of corona, but we still got to enjoy family at the park. While we were there Rea asked if I would teach her how to sew clothes. I was excited to oblige her and this Thursday we had her first lesson. She was able to complete a skirt and was so proud of herself!

Half way through she decided she only wanted two tiers rather than the 3 the pattern called for because that was the length she prefered her skirts. So we finished with a little material to spare (she plans to make a dress for her American Girl doll out of the leftovers). Next week she requested sewing a skirt for Elizabeth. So I've pulled out some pink floral material to make a skirt with the same pattern.

The last week and a half have been very busy for me. I headed up an electronic Youth Conference with the Teenagers in our church congregation. The youth got to participate in a socially distant water fight for the whole conference. Each day they could earn a new life in the game by doing a spiritual activity (read a scripture, do a service, take a selfie with the temple, do some family history, etc). They had a blast and had some spiritual experiences too. 

We ended with a Testimony meeting on the front lawn of the church and it was a fabulous experience. The spirit was strong and we all walked away uplifted and ready to take on more tough times. I hope we can keep the momentum going because life has just been so tough lately! But I know God loves us and is just itching to bless us if we turn to him. I hope the Youth were able to see the blessings of remembering him daily.