I really will be sad when my kids stop saying things like this . . .

Olivia :  Mom, will you help me get the Crystal Light mustache off my face before we leave?

As she asked me this, it just hit me like a load of bricks that one day (too soon) she won't need help with things like this and that then one day she won't even be here to ask me things like this. 

Still Dealing

We're still dealing with THIS problem . . .

I'm referring to the hair accessories, not the smile.

And now we have this . . . 

And lots of problems (not pictured) involving a baseball bat.

Drew, his Dad and his favorite book (right now)

Change Up

As much as we LOVED summer, I guess it was time for a change up (not that we had a choice) and we are back in SCHOOL!!

Back to School night was exciting.  We first went to Liv's kindergarten orientation and to meet her teacher, Mrs. Tipton.  And then we headed to Addison's class to meet Mrs. Willhite.

We are later gaters this year and I couldn't be more thrilled . . . except the afternoons are WAY too short, but then again with early birds the mornings (and bedtimes) used to come WAY too early. 

We got some good facial shadows here . . . I swear a photography class is next on my personal goals list.

Addison has a pretty big age group at church so she's always guaranteed a couple of good ward friends and then a few school friends.  And Olivia's class is just the same this year.

I love how exciting the first day of school is.  That smile was plastered on.

Olivia, Drew and I made cupcake cones for after school snack and Addison told us all about her day in the "City of Willville" with her teacher Mrs. Willhite.  Addison was a Mayor for this week and she earned 3 "willies" in the first day.  Thatagirl.

And then we headed into school again to meet Olivia's teacher and do Olivia's kindergarten assessment.  I cried through some of Addison's assessment, but I held it in for Olivia. 

Come Tuesday, there will be tears.

5 more days and then it's just me and Drew . . . and thank goodness I still have my little (guaranteed bored from missing his sisters) DrewB.

Summer Part III

Night Games . . . We have a young neighborhood for the most part and so this summer it has been our undertaking to teach the kids on our street how to play night games.  They're actually "evening games" that go into the later night.  It's taken a little bit more work to teach them all the rules and goings on, but they really seem to be liking it regardless.

The Aquarium . . . Drew could have spent 45 minutes standing in front of each fish tank window yelling "fishy" and screaming with joy periodically.  He could have spent an extra 45 minutes in front of the "Nemo tank."  I'll have to consider this activity after the girls are gone to school and it's just me and him.  I could bring a book and he could look at the fish all morning long.

Olivia finally got brave enough to stick her arm in the water to touch the sting rays and we all came home with fish water smelling arms . . . yum. But it was fun.

Backyard Camp Out . . . Never mind that Ansen and I started a very rigorous work out program that week and neither one of us could walk let alone crawl in a tent, get situated on air mattresses and then withstand the demands of all the kids, but we'd planned it with the kids and there was no backing out.  This year we watched Night at the Museum 2, no popcorn OR drink spills and Drew got to stay up.  It was perfect, perfect weather though. 

Swimming Lessons Round 2 . . . This time Drew had a towel boy friend  and a partner in ant patrol from our neighborhood   This time the early lessons were a bit harder (ahhh, school mornings again will be terrible) and this time they did it together in the morning.

Popsicles . . . we made our own Popsicles . . . thank you Pinterest and thank you Thrive.  It's the little things that make them so happy isn't it?  Making your own Popsicle, freezing it and then getting to eat it . . . we are crrraaaazzzzzy, right?

Night Games and dinner at Discover Park . . . So we tried neighborhood night games at Discovery Park.  There were so many cool places to hide and play . . .which turned out to be the problem with night games.  They were too distracted with all the fun stuff that some of them only lasted a few rounds of Sardines.  Oh, well . . . they all had fun. 

Bowling . . . What's not to love about FREE bowling, right?  I only learned about this "FREE" information at the end of the summer.  I think we'll have "league day" next year if the deal continues. 

Lunch with Ansen . . . he LOVES it when I pull the camera out and just can't start smiling soon enough . . . I caught him mid sentence here and he was a good sport.  We've been wanting meet Dad for lunch ALL summer, but only finally made it happen 4 days before summer break was over. 

Balloon Jump . . . We filled a million (or close to) water balloons, put them on the tramp and let them have at it.  They had to keep jumping until they got them all popped. 

When you're filling up the balloons you're really wondering how much fun you'll actually get out of all the work . . . I was satisfied that it was worth it. They loved it and it lasted longer than I ever would have anticipated.



But my favorite part was probably at the end when we tried to line them up for a picture.  The girls quickly got posed and waited . . . we never got the boys figured out, but the girls held on, in posed position.  They got a little lax and we just waited to see how long they would keep standing there . . . (it's making me laugh again looking at the pictures)

Addie, Addie Bo Baddie

I do not want my kids to grow up, but when they leave notes like this on the door when I run to the neighbors I can't help but gladly move into this new stage of life with older kids.

Obviously, older kids come with their own set of problems, but when Addison makes our picnic lunch without being asked and puts Drew down for naps I begin to think that the challenges might come with some benefits. 

Of course Addison is no ordinary child (no seriously, I'm not just saying that because I'm her mom).  Our neighbor asked what it was like having 3 adults running the household over here.  She's a little too mature for her age sometimes that I worry that she's not being a kid enough. But I'll take this "problem" over the trillions of others that come with raising kids.

Missing!

   In 2001 Ansen and I lived at a hotel for a couple of weeks while we were looking for an apartment for our internship in CA.

Previous to leaving to CA, I looked for the perfect navy blue dress shoes to wear with my super professional and super cute suit that came with a dress and pants - trust me, it was cute, I was cute.   I ended up finding the perfect shoes in New Hampshire while we were on vacation with Ansen's family.

When we finally packed up the hotel my shoes were no where to be found.  I had to jump to obvious conclusions . . . the maid stole them and was devastated about my lost.  Not only has the devastation followed me for all these years, but so has the mystery . . .

Where are Ashleigh's navy blue shoes?  Where did they go?  Who took them and why?

I have embarked on another mystery that will haunt me for many, many years to come . . .

WHERE ARE THESE SHORTS?!!!

This was my favorite summer outfit for Drew and the shorts are MIA.  I have gone through the pictures and the last that I had them was at the Sharp Family Reunion and the day of Lisa's wedding.

I hope someone from my Sharp family will read this and I PRAY that someone has some or any information regarding the whereabouts of these shorts!  PLEASE!!

(I will probably be sending a personalized e-mail soon too because I'm that "not over it.")

I still think about my shoes and I know that my Mom still wonders what happened to Jeffrey's winter coat from 1992, so I'm really hoping I find these and ease my mind!

 

I'm happy to report . . . mystery solved.  They were lost at the reunion.  I feel so much mental relief!  (Thanks Lauren!)

Mostly sad

I'm mostly sad that we only have 5 more days until school starts, but I'm a little ready because we all need some regular sleep. 

When everyone (including myself) shed tears over really insignificant things yesterday on several occasions I realized that we are all in need of some good sleep, we are all in need of regular bedtimes and regular routines and we have all hit our max on crazy, summer, non-stop activities. 

I have loved these wide-open schedules that have quickly filled up with all kinds of hoopla.  I know though that while it feels like we're headed for relief, we're only headed for a new kind of hoopla that will keep us just as busy.

Olivia got her Kindergarten letter in the mail and she's thrilled.  At least I'll have her for one more week since the kindergartners start a week later than the rest of the lot.

(you can still see the remnants of her glide into the pool wall here.)

 

An "Olivia"

My poor Olivia is an absolute klutz. 

I can relate. 

I was a complete klutz growing up too and I'll admit I still don't "clear" the doorways and run my shoulder right into the door frame all too often, I shut my own arm in the car door (yes, it's happened on several occasions) or run into my bed frame ALL-THE-TIME.

It's painful to see it happen to her though and it's even more painful to hear the poor thing crying ALL-THE-TIME.  

We've tried to make it humorous so it's easier on all of us.  I told her that aside from her blue eyes, her fair skin and red highlights I KNOW she's MY daughter every time she runs into something.  

We started calling these clumsy acts an "Olivia" or a "Mom."  An example you say . . . at swimming lessons last week, Olivia practiced her "glides" right into the wall of the pool and had a huge, black, goose egg on her forehead . . . she did an "Olivia" at swimming lessons.

I'll also tell you that NO ONE steps on Ansen's toes more than me and Olivia . . . NO ONE. 

But it gets worse, combine me and Olivia's clumsiness together and we're just about lethal. 

Today she was doing something weird as she got of the car and somehow got her head out in front of my door (while the rest of her was still in the car) and I rammed my door right into her head.

I got her ice, tried to apologize and we eventually moved on.  It was only about 3 hours later, that I realized it was actually the inside of her lip that had really taken the blow.

I love her dearly, and I honestly feel really bad for her.  I survived and so will she.

 I hope.

Dutiful little brother

This cute, little, dutiful brother comes to swiming lessons every morning.  He eats his snack and then takes his post at the side of the pool watching for "Ivvy." 

He reports periodically as to the location of "Ivvy" and then runs back to his post.  After awhile he takes her towel and walks around the edge of the pool trying to guess where she'll get out. 

He hasn't once tried to get in the pool, which thoroughly surprises me.  We'll see how he does during the next round, when Liv and Ad are both in the pool and he realizes he's the only who is not . . .

Summer Part II

Kennecott Copper Mine . . . We went last year with Ansen's family (except Drew and I) but they talk about it all the time, so we gave it another go.  Really, it's pretty amazing.  17% of the world's copper comes right out of Utah. 

Classic Skating . . . I haven't been to Classic in years.  They've spruced it up a little and it's actually quite fun.  We brought (no joke) Olivia's bike, Addison's scooter, Drew's scooter, the helmets (that no one would wear), the riding worm and the trike.  At the last minute we had decided to leave the coaster cars at home.  So yes, basically we set up camp and stayed awhile. 

Harry Potter 2 . . . duh.  I'm sad it's over.  I love Harry Potter.  For 11 years now I have had a book or a movie to look forward to every summer and it's over.  In place of that, Jeff and I decided to celebrate Harry's birthday from now onw.  He'll be gone for the next 2 birthdays so it will be up to me alone to keep the momentum going.

The real Harry Potter fans went at 3:15 am (not Addison, but we let her be part of the "real Harry Potter fans picture" since she is).  Jeff re-read book 7 until 1:45 am and I re-watched 6 and 7 until 12:15 . . . yes, we are devoted  . . . and a little crazy about it.  I mean it has been part of our summer for 11 years.

Addison commented about how nice it was of Ansen to let us watch movies all night.  I told her this was kind of like the World Series for us and so he understands. 

Splash Parks . . . It's so amazing to live so close to so many cool parks.  It's kid mania at every park, but what fun and someone in the neighborhood is always game for the splash park.

Days of '47 Parade Floats . . . We went to the parade preview and my goodness, it was fun.  The floats were incredible and I now appreciate the 85 pounds of glitter that someone hand placed with 6 gallons of glue on those floats.  Plus there was face painting and balloons - what's not to love?!  This will be a definite for next year.

Swimming Lessons . . . I don't love the rush of running out of the house "early" every morning, but I LOVE sitting at the pool in the perfect weather every morning with the kids.  Olivia took group lessons in the morning.

And I got to sit with these two sweet kids.

And Addison took private in the evenings, when again the weather was cooler and quite perfect.

Boating . . . on Branda's boat.  It didn't look good when we had to chase Drew around the house to make sure his life jacket fit, but as soon as Addison had hers on and he saw the boat, it was smooth sailing from there.

Parks . . . Plenty of parks and picnic lunches.  Can't get enough.  It's the magical summer again for me since Drew is old enough to play and I have no baby in arms. 

Ice-Cream Cones . . . Usually a long day, a hot day or busy day necessitates an ice-cream cone.  We just have to hope Drew doesn't drop his.