Mommy School

Last week for Mommy School, we learned about the letter B, the number 3, and Fall. Gwen is still tolerating staying home with me, but we had lots of fun this week, so I think (maybe) Mommy School might be growing on her. 

To learn about Fall/Autumn we did some of our favorite fall activities. 

We made acorns out of doughnut holes on Tuesday. Gwen likes frosting them, but only wanted to eat the ones that didn't get frosted. 

 She got to paint and made some beautiful fall leaves to catch the sun in our dining room. Adam and Tessa got home from school and insisted they be included in our activities. So they got to make some acorns too and paint a few more leaves for the window. 

 Tessa went a little crazy with the Nutella. 

 We read a fun book about a Bubble Bee and Gwennie mad a beautiful fall crown. 

She also leaned a new Nursery Rhyme (Hickory Dickory Dock) and wanted to play our Boom Chicka Boom Boom game a bunch. We are having a lot of fun together! 

What's Been Happening

 Life has  been so crazy lately. I feel like I can hardly stay on top of things. Mommy started babysitting for a family in our neighborhood a couple of days a week. So, on those days I am a mother of 7 and that keeps me busy! Mommy also got another calling (another, not new) and is now the Bear Den Leader for Cub Scouts. I love being with Adam, but this calling is a lot of work and I am trying to figure out the new program, which is taking some time. Our den is huge too, which makes things...interesting. Hopefully it will get easier as the weeks go by. Keeping 15 nine year old boys focused for an hour is not for the faint of heart. 

 So far, the kids are loving school this year and are learning so much. This past week, Tessa and her class recited the Preamble at their weekly assembly. 

 Gwen is still not a fan of Mommy School because we she doesn't get to go away to school. She is always so happy to have Tessa home in the afternoon to play with. They love playing make believe together. Gwen and Tessa's best friends have both moved away in the last few weeks. They are both pretty bummed about losing their friends, but have grown closer having each other to play with. 

 We had a lot of extra kids at our house last week and one of them was Baby Gia. Gwen was so happy to babysit her favorite cousin. 

 Caleb has had a rough couple of weeks. He was sick for like a week and a half with a tummy bug and then his molars all started coming in. He has been really fussy and not eating great and pretty much stopped sleeping again. I seriously am at a loss as to how to teach this child to sleep. But, he loves books and I find him a couple of times a day with his basket of books, just looking at pictures. He loves books with animals in them and gets so excited when someone reads to him.

We ended our crazy week by watching an awesome Lunar Eclipse on Sunday night. We were all amazed to watch it and see the moon turn red. Our earth is amazing!

The kids are anxious for General Conference weekend (mainly for the candy, I am sure) and for Halloween time! They have been saving milk cartons for weeks to make some special decorations for Halloween this year. Life is always exciting at our house!

Adam's Piano Recital

Last Monday, Adam had his second piano recital. He played 2 pieces and did an excellent job on both of them. He said he wasn't nervous at all. Mommy was nervous enough for him. He loves playing the piano and is excited to start learning new instruments in a couple of years. We are so proud of Adam and all the amazing things he is able to do!

Weekend Fun

Saturday morning, Mommy and Daddy left bright and early and headed up to Big Cottonwood Canyon where we met with Daddy's EMBA class for a reunion. We met for breakfast, went on a beautiful hike to Lake Mary, had lunch, and had a lot of fun visiting with the other classmates and their spouses. It really is like a new family we belong to. It was fun to see everyone after being out of the program for a year. Sometimes I feel like we should still be in school mode, but it's nice to have that chapter of our life over and have such great connections because of it. 

 After we got home, we loaded the kids up and went to Chalk the Block. We loved this event last year and other than being hot and hungry, we had a lot of fun this year too! We saw some amazing art. Tessa is so inspired to have an entry at this event when she is older and I so hope she is able to someday!

 Everyone had their favorite square, but Calvin and Hobbs was Mommy and Tessa's favorite!

After we got home from Chalk the Block, Adam and Daddy headed off to BYU to watch the football game on campus since we don't have cable. It as a late game and we weren't able to pull off a win, but they still had lot of fun cheering and being at  BYU. 

Gwen Starts Mommy School

 It was a big week for our Gwennie. It was finally time to start Mommy School. She has been so anxious to start and has asked everyday since Adam and Tessa went back to school, when it was her turn. She was so excited when Tuesday rolled around and she knew it was her big day. Then she realized she wasn't leaving home. Suddenly Mommy School didn't sound so exciting anymore. She has told me everyday this week that Mommy School means we go somewhere else for school. It might be a long 2 years for this little girl. 

But she sure looked cute and so grown up all of the sudden. 

 For our first week of Mommy School, we learned All About Gwen. She loved that. She has learned the letter A, the number 1, what Utah looks like and where it is on a map, a new nursery rhyme, and we are working on writing her name and saying the Pledge of Allegiance. She's a smart girl! She is picking things up really fast and despite not leaving home, she likes working with Mommy. 

Tuesday we worked on writing her name and learned how to write A's. For her project that day, she drew herself. We loved how it turned out!

 On Wednesday, she made a life size drawing of herself. Adam and Tessa about died laughing when they got home from school and saw this hanging up. They think her face and head look just like a puppy dog. 

 Writing her A's.

 This week we read, "The Lady with the Alligator Purse" and made an alligator out of an A.

Week 1 of Mommy School went pretty well and we had a lot of fun together. She is excited to see what fun things we have to do next week!

Weekend Fun

Fall is just around the corner and we can't wait to do some fun fall activities as a family. But, the weather has been gorgeous, so we are soaking our last bit of summer too. 

On Friday, Daddy brought this giant box home from work. Since Friday nights are Family Movie Night, the kids decided to turn it into a giant car and have a drive-in movie. Eventually, it turned into a drive-in bed. They loved working on their car though and it added some excitement to our normal movie night. 

 Tessa has one summer merit badge left...learning to ride her bike. We have been trying to get her to do this for 2 summers now, and she is just plain terrified. She and Daddy have been working on it and she gets better each time. She just needs to have a little bit more confidence and be a little less worried about getting hurt and she will have this down. 

 Saturday afternoon, we took the kids to Thanksgiving Points Farm Land. They loved seeing all the animals! Caleb loves animals and growls at all of them. 

 The older kids got to try some lassoing. Tessa was a natural!

 All 4 kids got to ride a pony. Caleb loved it and screamed when we took him off. We'll have to go do this again soon. 

 We had Stick Horse Races. Adam beat the record by 1 second. 

 They learned all about horse shoes. 

 We went on a fun wagon ride. We got comments all afternoon about he whole family being in our BYU garb. Hey, it's game day people! We represent  and are proud of our Cougars!!

 We spent some of our evening at Ma and Pa's house for our annual Oktoberfest. Pa made delicious German food for dinner and the kids had fun playing some German games that Ma prepared. 

 Adam and Daddy got to go to the football game that night and sit in the Loge with Daddy's cousins. Adam loved every minute of it and was over the moon happy about our crazy win at the end of the game. Peter told me the next day that Adam knew more about football than he did. 

 Half-time nachos. 

Adam wishes it was football season all year long!!