Last year's first day (scrapped!)

Now that I have two kids in school in the afternoons and one kid who takes afternoon naps, I *think* I have enough time to start scrapping regularly again.  Yay!  It's really therapeutic and fun for me, plus I really think it helps me keep things in perspective.

I love designing at The Digichick for a lot of reasons, and one of my favorite perks is that I get to try out others' designs.  I'm especially loving templates lately-- they make it so quick and easy to put together a really classy page.  Today I used a template from the "Scraps to Go" collection by the amazing Jennifer Fox.  Love it!

Here's my page from Gordon's first day of pre-school last year:

All paper and elements from School Days by Jennifer Fox. Template from Scraps to Go 6 also by Jennifer Fox. All at The Digichick! Font is Pea Christen from Kevin and Amanda.com

While browsing for pictures for this page, I came across this little gem from September of last year...

Where has my long-haired emo baby gone?  Don't you just want to run your fingers through that luscious hair???  Ugh, me too!

Oh summer, leaving so soon?

I just returned from back-to-school night, where I met the two fabulous women who will be spending a lot of time with my two fabulous boys for the next nine months.  We've been lucky thus far with our great schools and great teachers, and I'm feeling very grateful that my children are being taught and cared for so well.  I'm excited for their new adventures in learning!

I'm pretty sure that I say this every time I post, but life is just so busy!  I find myself worrying frequently about overdoing it with the lessons, sports, scouts, activities and whatever else it is that finds its way onto my packed-to-the-gills calendar.  Then, of course, I worry that I'm not giving my kids enough opportunity to discover talents, meet friends, and have fun.  I'm sure it's a classic double-edged sword of worry that most parents deal with.  For now, I'm letting them do the things they want to do, pushing them a little bit, and trying hard to relax as much as possible.

Life is good.  Busy, of course, but good.

Summer 2010 (part 1)

I got that "memory card full" warning when I was trying to take some pictures the other day, and it made me realize how terrible I've been at updating this blog with our summer adventures!  I don't feel too badly-- hopefully you're so involved in your own summer fun that you haven't noticed my little hiatus.

We're always busy, of course, but we've been having such a great time this summer.  I have been doing my very best to battle the B-word ("bored") and with the help of our fun neighbors, friends and a visit from cousins, we're not doing too bad.  And rather than give you a big long travel log (even though I know some of you like that kind of thing...), I'm just going to post some postcard shots of our Summer 2010 over the next few days and catch up.

Today:  Part 1-- from top left corner:  Sprinklers! (and slip & slides, and little pools); (top middle) relaxing in the hammock at Chris's parents' house; (bottom middle) Thomas LOVED watching all of Gordon's tee ball games;  Gordon and his cousin David are two little peas in a pod-- it's so fun to watch them together (and only a little bit rowdy)
Bottom left:  Thomas and his cute cousin Audrey; Gordon and Mom spelunking at Craters of the Moon; two little buzz-heads and their buddy Nicolas at the sand dunes

Happy Summer!

Last day of school recap!

Blogging is a lot like laundry-- the longer you let it go without doing it, the harder it is to do!  So, here I am, catching up again!  Grr!

Summer has been in full swing here and we've been having such a great time.  Before the great time, however, we were getting rained out of pretty much everything.  Let's start with Tom's last day of school, when I had volunteered to help with their field day:  rain, rain, rain.

First off, I should say how much Thomas has loved Westside.  We were a little bit (okay, a lot!) nervous about switching schools-- our school in Logan was so wonderful and I had a hard time imagining that we could like another school even half as well.  While there are still a lot of things that I miss about EBLS, Westside has exceeded my expectations.  Tom had a darling, energetic teacher, made lots of new friends, and most importantly, really loved going to school every day.  And, I must brag for a minute, he did end the year with straight A's!  ;)

On the last day of school, the field day was rained out and moved inside.  We still managed to have a great time, though.  My favorite parts of the day included playing a game with the kids that involved holding hands and getting a hula-hoop around the circle of kids, the absolute hilarity of "Extreme Simon Says", and hearing the whole elementary school sing along to "Fireflies" during the end-of-year slideshow.  

Thomas was a little bit emotional, but I promised that we'll meet up with some of his friends this summer and we'll see them all next school year.  He'll definitely miss his cute teacher, Mrs. Cassidy, but I'm sure they'll say "hi" in the halls.  He had a great 3rd grade year!

For the last day of school, Chris had promised the boys that they could sleep out in the tent in the back yard.  The rain was too heavy, but the boys were sad not to sleep in a tent, so Chris compromised and set the tent up in my parents' large shop.  We had an indoor BBQ with hot dogs and hamburgers cooked on the George Foreman grill, and s'mores made with marshmallows roasted on the stove top.  

The kids and Chris were really comfortable in their indoor tent-- they actually slept in pretty late!  What a great way to kick off the summer!

{Almost} Summer!

It's the final countdown-- the last day of school is tomorrow, then summer will be officially underway! I've been pouring over our calendar, confirming dates, looking up destination information, and getting excited for a fun three months! And did I mention the added summer benefits of not having to drag Tom out of bed at 7:30 every morning? That's something to look forward to, too!

Before summer kicks off, though, a lovely Memorial Day weekend, a couple of graduations, and a visit from Nonny and Bob. I didn't take any pictures over the Memorial Day holiday-- we went to Salt Lake City to visit Gramm & Gramp, and Marilyn has a fabulous new camera that was much more fun to play with than my own. I'm sure she'll post some pictures of our adventures soon. We had a great time!

Gordon is all ready for kindergarten in the fall. He had his immunizations (a fun-filled experience that included two screaming kids, and embarrassed mother and a very calm, very strong nurse), he is registered at the school, and he passed all of his numbers, letters, and other pre-requisites with flying colors. Now all he had to do was graduate from pre-school! The graduation/singing performance was last week and, in true pre-school form, it was adorable. The kids sang several songs and I loved watching Gordon on the top row, singing his little heart out and following along with the actions in his bold, energetic style.

Gordon has had a great year at Smart Start. His teacher, Mrs. Taft, has been wonderful and he really looked forward to every day at school. We'll miss his cute teacher and all of her creative energy!

My mom gave Gordon $1.00 as a graduation present. I love that when you're in pre-school, getting a dollar is not only satisfactory, it's thrilling!

My youngest sister, Allison, also graduated this last week-- but her graduation was from high school. I'll admit it: the best part of her graduation was the fact that my grandparents, Nonny and Bob, came to visit for the occasion! They've been out of the country since the end of last summer, so it was very sweet to see them and catch up. Gordon, Neil and I had the pleasure of spending Tuesday afternoon with Nonny and Bob, eating lunch at the Olive Garden (have you tried the roasted chicken flatbread? Yum!), then visiting the Museum of Idaho. The museum has a fun dog-themed exhibit-- "Wolf to Woof"-- and our animal-lover Gordon was in heaven. (Neil stayed contentedly in his stroller.)

Nonny and Bob are such good sports and crawled around with the kids in the children's area. Gordon is still carrying the tickets, illustrated with different dog pictures, in his special tote!

Graduations are always a cause to celebrate and I think Allison was especially thrilled to be finished with high school. We enjoyed a family dinner at Allison's choice, Red Robin, then I went with my parents and grandparents to the graduation ceremony. It was long-ish, the benches were uncomfortable, and the seniors were a little on the unruly side, but finally, diplomas were awarded and the class of 2010 was on their way into the real world-- after a stop at an all-night party, of course.

My sister, Ann-Michelle, me, and Allison (yes, she has blue streaks in her hair) at Red Robin

The graduation attendees-- me, Nonny, Mom, Allison, Dad, Bob

Allison, the happy grad! She'll be going off to college at the end of August and my parents are going to have a very empty house.