First Day of School

Today Caleb officially started the second grade and Gabe started the fourth grade. At Burton, fourth grade is the oldest grade, so Gabe "rules to school." But it also makes me so sad to think that he will be DONE at Burton at the end of this year! :( I can not even handle thinking of him starting middle school. Yikes! Here they do 5th and 6th grade is "middle school" then 7-9 is "junior high" and then 10-12 is at the "high school." So it's really broken up I feel like. I am not looking forward to having three kids at three different schools for a majority of my future…

Anyways, looking at the bright side of THIS year, the boys were both excited to start today and both came home happy, saying their teachers were nice and they were making new friends. So that's rally all you can hope for right?! (And that they stay out of trouble…) Gabe has Mrs. West (a teacher who he requested and said is "the nicest one") and Caleb has Miss Baird, the same teacher Gabe had for second grade, so at least we are somewhat familiar with that. Caleb always seemed to do well in school with Mrs. McCoy last year (lucky us, he saves his bad behavior for home…) so hopefully he will stay under control for Miss Baird too. He does well academically, I just worry about his attitude and his attention span. Gabe is usually pretty responsible and gets his homework done without a fuss, I just need to make sure he figures out this new math curriculum, which is difficult since even I don't get it. Seriously. It is not the same way were were taught math 15-20 years ago. It's crazy town.

So that's the summary on school! Me and Avery were all alone today and I haven't decided yet if it's easier without the boys around or harder. It just means I have to keep her occupied all day. But she will be starting preschool on September 30th and will go M,W, F mornings at BYU-Idaho (yes, my three year old is off to college…;) No, it's just a program run by all the early childhood education majors (mostly college girls) and the get credit for it as an internship or something. I wanted her to go to the one at Burton so bad, but even though I put her on the list a year in advance, apparently everyone had the same idea because it was not soon enough. She was still on the waiting list as of last month so we made some other plans.

I think I am going to also start Avery in dance class and possibly gymnastics class if it works with our schedule this fall.  She went to a three day "dance camp" (one hour each day) and I just have this feeling she is going to love dance as much as I did growing up! (At least I hope!) ;)

The other news is that the boys had their first flag football games on Monday! The team they got assigned is… the Bears. I can't even talk about it. I'm so ticked. Seriously, probably the worst team they could possibly get put on. We are going to burn their jerseys at the end of the season. Anyways, they did well, but there is definitely room for improvement. ;) I think they may have won one game and lost one, but I honestly wasn't even keeping score, that's just the feeling I got overall. lol

Oh yeah, and I recently colored my hair - it's super dark now. Not sure it will last… ;)

That's all for now!

(This is how Avery insisted on dressing to go to the store today…)

Girl's Weekend in Utah, End of Soccer Season, Welcome Piper! Getting Ready for School!

So the most exciting thing that happened this past few weeks was I got to go on a little girls' weekend with some of my neighbor lady friends, Sam, Barb, and Brittaini! We had been talking about going to Vegas, but then decided to just forget that and go to Utah and see the Julianne and Derek Hough "Move" Concert/Dance show. So we left on Friday the 30th at about noon and then just came back on Sunday. It was upper fun! We ate at Culver's, Chipotle, Zuppas, and Cheesecake Factory, and did some Ikea shopping! It went way to fast!

The boys had their last soccer games also as July ended. Gabe, I think, only ended up losing one game in the whole season. Caleb I honestly didn't really keep track of the score most of the time, but even when his team lost, he seemed to always think they won, so I guess it doesn't really matter. ;)

Next, they will be starting flag football in a couple of weeks. I am happy because they are on the same team - which is kind of weird but it's for kids in 2-4th grade and it just ended up they are on the same team! But the bad news is… guess what NFL team they have been assigned? The Bears. Guess we can't be routing for them. Oh well. lol

Oh, I was also going to mention, while I was gone on my fabulous girls' weekend, the Rhodes family coincidentally had planned their outdoor/camping family reunion for the same weekend! (Yes, it was an unfortunate coincidence and that is the story I am sticking too…;) So while I was staying at a super nice hotel, going out to eat, and shopping, Josh took our three kids camping. haha It was great. So I will post some pictures of that as well!

I am sure I am forgetting some highlights, but that's all I can think of for now! oh one more thing! The parade in Saint Anthony! They do the cutest parade for Pioneer Day on July 23rd! It's actually better than the Rexburg fourth of July parade. They make actual cool floats and throw tons of candy!
Oh yeah! And Josh got a new K-9 dog named Piper! She looks just like Truck but acts way more hyper. I call her hyper Piper.

Happy Birthday to the Girls in the Rhodes family!

July is always a busy month for our family. We've got the 4th, my birthday, and Avery's birthday all exactly one week apart and so the past three weekends have been pretty busy!

On my birthday, Josh was supposed to have to work all weekend. I was pretty bummed, but I had asked him over and over, "So there's no way you can take my birthday off, right?" and he kept saying, "I wish I could but it's just too busy at work right now." So I was sad. But Stacey came on Friday and I was just expecting to hang out with the rand the kids all weekend. Then on Saturday (he had worked Friday night and didn't get home till 6am Saturday) I went down to the kitchen to find flowers in a vase with a card that said "Wake me up at 11am because *surprise* i got your birthday off today!" So I was happy, but yet mad at him for lying to me all week! Once he did wake up, he had it all planned that we would go up to West Yellowstone and see the show "Damn Yankees" at the Playmill Theater. It was pretty fun. We were talking recently about how neither of us had ever been there, so he must have filled that in his brain and then secretly gotten tickets for the show on my birthday. ;) I would say the performers were very talented, but the venue they had was very small and could definitely use some sprucing up! Bit the whole evening was fun and it worked out well with Stacey there to watch our kids! They had fun going to the spray park and to McDonald's and then seeing the "Minions" movie. They probably love it when we leave. haha So that was my birthday!

Then we just celebrated Avery's birthday yesterday! We did her party at Porter Park again and I set up the table with some food and her nice fancy cake that Ashley Wheeler made. Everything was "pink and gold" themed. We had a piñata but that was the only real planned game I did, mostly the kids just played at the park and the moms sat on blankets and chatted. ;) People who came included: Harper (Hemsley, parents Barbara and Ryan and her baby sitter, Briar), all of the Call girls (Lindsey is their mom), Mallory Cooper (Jessie), Kendalin (she came with her grandma and her aunt since Brittani and Jay were in Ireland!), Michele Heaps and her three little boys (Owen, Crew, and Jameson), Megan Grigg (her kids are Aidan and Londyn), and then all of my family! I think that was it! So it was a pretty big crowd! We had fun. All the kids got balloons and a little treat bag (and candy from the piñata once it finally broke) and then I made these little "magic wands". I requested no presents because I honestly think she has plenty of toys as it is and didn't want anyone to feel weird about what to bring. So when we got home, we had her open presents which included a Princess Sofia music player with microphone (so cute watching her sing along), a Peppa Pig doll house, play doh to make "ice cream", some puzzles, a skirt, and a princess bedtime stories book.

The other thing that has kept us bust the past couple weeks is the boys' soccer. Gabe is on a really strong team this Summer again. His coach is Coach Fullmer again (a parent volunteer) and they have some really good players. Gabe and Caleb are both on the younger side of their divisions (because they are divided up into two grades per division) but they are both doing well and seem to be holding their own. ;) Caleb's team has won some and lost some but he always seems to be having fun. Gabe's team I don't think has lost one game yet.  They will both also do flag football starting at the end of August (soccer ends on July 31st) Avery also just finished her Summer toddler preschool at BYUI so now she is just in this little weekly Imagine If class at Rexburg Gymnastics Center and that is it. We have been to Rexburg Rapids swimming just once recently. So we probably should go there at least one more time and get our punch pass used up! Today after church we went and picked huckleberries! We were a little bummed because we drove out there only to find two cars parked in "our secret spot"! I think Gabe was the most upset about it. He even refused to pick huckleberries in a different spot we had found because it wasn't "our good spot!" lol But we did still leave with some huckleberries so it was alright. I just think lots of people were up there today and lots have been going lately.

That's all for now! Here are some pics! Haha there is only one that includes the boys… lol