Dinosaur!

Aunt Dee gave us a heads up that there would be a dinosaur skeleton being assembled in Pleasant Grove on Monday evening. A lady she works with is a Paleontologist and gave her the scoop on this dinosaur. It was found near the boarder of Wyoming and Montana and what they have to assemble is 85% real dinosaur bones. There is a warehouse in Pleasant Grove where they work on dinosaur bones and fossils. Who knew? I guess this group that found this dinosaur sold it for well over 1 million dollars. It's being shipped to Singapore on Friday. When we arrived, they already had most of it assembled, but it was amazing to watch them connect the rest of the pieces and watch a dinosaur be built before our eyes. Adam and Tessa thought it was amazing and Gwen growled at it. 

 Tessa tripped on the asphalt and scraped her hands and knees. Eventually she got over her pain and had some fun. She was so excited to see the dinosaur head!

 Assembling the neck.

 It took 6 men to lift up the femur bone!

 Some of the men had to get insanely high on scaffolding or be hoisted up on a fork lift to attach some of the bones. It made us so nervous watching them!

 It was dark and after 8:30pm by the time they had everything done. I ended up chasing Gwen around a ton so I didn't get pictures of the head and final product. I'll have to get some from Dee. We loved watching this process and are just amazed at how they find, ship, and rebuild a dinosaur. I think I see a trip to Vernal in our future....

Summer of Fun-Final Week

Our summer of fun has come to an end. We are sad to see it go, but excited for fall weather and the holidays! We tried to have some fun this week, along with getting some much needed work done. I have neglected several projects all summer and finally tackled most of them this week. I have to say, my craft closet looks beautifully organized!!

Monday we just hung around at home. Adam had fun shooting his Lego people off of towers he built from cups and blocks. (When Gwen wasn't knocking his towers over for him.)

 Tessa spent most of Monday doing art projects. We had stamps, markers, crayons and glitter all over the place. She made lots of cards for her bff, Camdyn. 

 Adam read a book about pioneers a while back and at the back of the book was a recipe for Johnny Cake. He decided he wanted to make it and see what it tasted like. I decided this was a perfect opportunity for him to learn how to cook all on his own. I helped him gather everything he needed, but he measured, stirred and poured everything all by himself. He was quiet proud of himself!

 I loved his Jazz hat over his chef hat. I told him he looked like a cafeteria worker. 

 Tuesday we had planned another adventure up to Thanksgiving Point, but I just couldn't get excited about going. Instead, we decided to have another day at home. We spent most of the day outside playing with all of our neighborhood buddies. Mommy also got the garage cleaned. It was nice to just have a day at home to play and get things done. 

Wednesday we had our Wizard of Oz party. Our book we read together this summer was, The Wizard of Oz. Wednesday we did some Wizard of Oz art projects and watched the movie.

 We got our summer bookshelf all filled up. When we counted everything all up, Adam had read over 50 chapter books and Tessa and I had read over 40 books together. I had hoped to read the entire Anne of Green Gables series this summer, but I only got to page 4 of the first book. So much for my summer reading, but I am super proud of my kiddos for reading so much!

 Wednesday afternoon we had a Back to School Open House. Adam and Tess love to read the books in the school office. 

 Tessa finally got to check out her classroom and see Mrs. Hales. 

Mrs. Hales told Tessa she was excited to see her name on her class list this year. She remembered how cute Tess was when Adam was in Kindergarten. 

 Adam got to check out his classroom and do a scavenger hunt his teacher had set up for them. He is so excited to have Mrs. Woodhouse this year!

 Wednesday night we headed up to Provo for the Cougar Kick-off! We are so excited for some football!!

Tessa found some cheerleaders as soon as we got there. She lucked out because the 2 cheerleaders she is standing next to are both named, Tessa!

 With the George Q. Cannon.

 Doing some football drills.

 Go Cougars!!

 We have been planning a backyard camp out all summer, but it kept getting pushed farther and farther towards the end of summer. We had put it on the calendar to do it on Friday, but as luck would have it, we got rained out. We made the best of it and moved it all inside. We cooked all of our campfire food on the stove and had a picnic. 

 Gwennie was being a puppy during dinner. 

 We moved our living room furniture and brought the tent inside for everyone to sleep in. 

 Daddy rented a fun movie to watch with the kids.

 We roasted marshmallows over the stove. It worked great and we had delicious s'mores. 

 All tucked in and ready for bed. 

Adam and Tessa loved sleeping in the tent with Daddy. It was a fun way to end our summer!

2nd Grade!

Today was a bittersweet day at our house. It's hard to be sad when your kids are so excited. Adam says he has had a great summer, but he has been so excited for school to start. He got a letter from his teacher this week telling him that their class theme this year would be Camp Learn-a-Lot. A perfect theme for our little explorer. 

Adam was up before the sun this morning-around 6:30am. When I asked him why he was up so early he said, "I just wanted to get a head start on everything because I am so excited to go to school!" He was ready with all of his chores done before the girls were even dressed. 

 He had his favorite breakfast of cinnamon rolls, sausage, cantaloupe and apple juice.

 What happened to my baby?! I can't believe he is already in 2nd grade. 

 Showing off his new backpack. He LOVES it!!

  I tried to linger in his classroom a little bit to get a few more hugs, but one was good enough for him. He was anxious to start on his work. 

 When we drove away from school, Tessa said, "I miss Adam." Hopefully they will get a peek at each other every now and then this school year. Every time I asked Gwen where Adam was, she would run through he house yelling his name and looking for him. She is going to be lost with out her big brother and sister around this year. 

When we picked Adam up this afternoon, he said he had a great day and he loves his class! He said Mrs. Woodhouse is super nice and he is so excited about their theme because they will be learning about the highest peaks on each continent. He could probably teach that portion to his class, but he is so excited that they will be talking about different places in the world that he loves to learn about. 

He is excited to go back tomorrow and have more fun! 

Tessa got a little bit of Adam's spotlight today. She had her Kindergarten assessment this morning with Mrs. Hales. She did really well on almost everything. Mrs. Hales said there were a few math concepts that she struggled with-mainly counting by 10's and adding 1's to groups of 10's. (Sorry Tess-you get that from your Mommy). But other than that, she said Tessa was super smart and she wouldn't expect anything less from our kids. On our way out Mrs. Hales told me that Tessa had walked in and said, "Heavenly Father is going to help me". I'm glad she knows that at such a young age!

Tess is really bummed that she has to wait another week to start school. She is so anxious to wear her crayon dress and take her backpack with her. She is going to love school!