39...or almost 40

I decided a year or so ago that I was going to be better at 40 than 30.

Healthier...more organized...more goals reached...in general more at peace with myself.

Not a super hard goal to reach when you take into consideration I was pregnant at 30...but still...this is my year to finish off that goal.

My birthday began the day before when Ris and Henry took Soren and I out to Zupa's for a birthday lunch! She was very thoughtful giving me running supplements to help out with my half marathon training (see beginning paragraph). We always forget to take a picture dang it!

On my birthday Stacie took me out to Kneaders.  Did you know they give you a FREE pastry on your birthday? They do, it is great. It was a dual celebration of my birthday AND the life transition we have arrived in...all kids in school.  I never could picture the time I would be eating out for lunch without a kid in tow...we have arrived!

Darin came home with beautiful flowers...then I ran Byron to his first soccer practice.

I had the kids walk the last block and a half home so I could get to my yoga class (missed it last week because of Back to School night).  Ended up staying afterwards to chat with a friend and didn't get home till after 9.  I had told the kids we were celebrating the next day but they were a bit disappointed to find out I really meant it. Honestly...it really is the way I wanted to spend my birthday. I would rather do yoga than try to fit in a celebration between homework and soccer practice.

So Friday we got some friends to meet us at the Foxboro splash pad while we waited for Darin to get off work, and then I called in dinner at Cafe Rio to eat at home.  We were famished after the splash pad but we tried hard to leave room for a birthday treat. After digesting for a bit we walked down to Galaxy for a Black Hole!!

Before consumption:

After consumption:

it's really only 1 1/2 scoops each...but you add those toppings and the cookie crust and it becomes quite a gastric feat! Although the kids don't seem as affected.

We walked home under a full moon talking and laughing.

Darin and the kids were very sweet and thoughtful with their gifts...always are. Things I need/want, things that will make my life a little sweeter, and a little easier.

Saturday Darin and I took a bike ride with some friends old and new to Kaysville.  22.9 miles round trip.  It was so fun! We tracked down Dave and Ris when we realized the park we were biking to was so near their house.

This was the birthday that never ends because today (Monday) my friend Fi made pedicure appointments and we got our nails did!  Barbie pink for me Super Man blue for Fi.

Bring on the wrinkles, and grey hair...if it means I get more weekends like this I will take it!

The First Week

We started into school with Byron being the STAR STUDENT!

I think this was B's teachers way of introducing him to the class, very sweet of her, worth the scramble to get it ready.

My lunch making mornings (or evenings...) have returned.  Now I am up to 4! I could turn this duty over to the kiddos but I don't have faith in their will-power to cut up fruit and veggies for their lunches or even just pull cut veggies from the fridge.  So I will keep this duty for now.
I only put in notes on special occasions but I tell them those carrot sticks and cut up peaches are daily love notes to their little bodies.

Miriam and I got back to school hair cuts. I only get my hair cut about once a year so I decided to make it worth it and chopped 10 inches off.  I was going to donate to Locks of Love but just read a FB post about how they charge cancer patients for their wigs! If it's more that the cost to have the wig made then that is not right. Need to do some research further but there were a few other hair charities listed in the post.

(photo curtesy of Bub)

Miriam got bangs! 

Just a few because she has my hairline which is not conducive to the Zoey Deschanel look.

It's a new sassy look she is rockin'.

She is very excited about her student council duties.

These two are the cutest things ever! 

Now that school is back in session we have a no friends till Friday policy. It's nice to see them playing together so much again.  They made a muscle man arm in kentic sand, lots of magnet fun with the "paper clips of knowledge" and burning things with magnifying glasses.  

They were super duper excited to finally meet up during one overlapping recess today.  They have been trying to make a plan since last Thursday.

So glad they will be doing this Chinese adventure together.

The Weekend Before...

It's the eve of the first day of school!!

The kiddos are all nerves and excitement.  Mostly nerves it seems.

I am very excited to get my routine back, but after Back To School night, I have to admit I am a bit nerved out as well.  Their teachers all seem wonderful, lots of fun activities and field trips planned, but Miriam's teacher kind of put the fear into us both with her "this is an honors MIDDLE SCHOOL class housed in an elementary school...you are not in elementary school any more" and "set reasonable goals...getting 100% in this class is not a reasonable goal".  She seems to know her stuff but we have heard she runs a tight ship! 

The boys have a whole new learning challenge on their horizon! Soren was admitted into a Chinese Immersion program in a neighboring school.  I am ecstatic about it except for one fatal flaw, I wanted to keep the boys together.  One of my great joys in life is giving my kiddos a kiss and waving goodbye as they walk off to school together....and then around 3:40 in the afternoon hearing them talk as they walk up the drive way.  I love it for so many reasons but mostly because they are all together, taking care of each other.  Also, it seemed unfair to move Byron away from his friends, his beloved principal, and all he knows and loves at his current elementary for Soren's sake.  A friend suggested I ask...just in case it could happen...if Byron could be admitted late into the Chinese program as well. Holy Buckets they said yes! 2nd grade is the last year they will admit new students!

Hooray!!! but also....uh oh

Because Bub is now not only going to a new school but entering a new program 2 years behind where they ONLY SPEAK CHINESE 1/2 of the day. 

(we did ask him if he wanted to and he was pretty enthusiastic about it)

This is going to be an intense year for all of us I think....

Thats why I thought we needed something peaceful but challenging, and fun but not stressful to end the summer with. I came up with a hike to Cecret Lake up Little Cottonwood Canyon.  It was gorgeous, and wonderfully out of the smokey air laying in the valley.  Luckily we went early enough for it to be peaceful but it was getting busy as we headed back down.  It wasn't long, but a challenge, especially for Soren who has a bad cold and several severe mosquito bites that have welted to alarming sizes.

Cecret Lake is so clear we could see salamandars (or newts?) swimming around.
There is no swimming or wadding so we just sat and watched the wildlife and then hiked around the lake.

We stopped by Blue Lemon for lunch, always a great choice, any occasion will do.

That evening was a neighborhood outdoor movie.

Night at the Museum III, solid end of summer choice.

Today the kids sang "Give Said the Little Stream" in church with another cute family. It was darling, they sang their little hearts out! 

We had our End of Summer dinner where we talked about all the brave new things they had done during summer break.  Our theme was a quote by A.A. Milne

"You are braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think"

but it said "Have Courage and Be Kind" in a mixture of sugar letters on our eclair cake because I was using whatever was left in our cake decoration drawer, and thats all I could come up with using the letters on hand (had to use a 3 for an E as it was). We did family yoga to release some tension, and read a chapter from Shackelton's Stowaway. They were out within minuets.

New shoes are lining the entry way....backpacks are full of release forms, glue sticks, and pencils....6 containers of sanitizing wipes are ready to go.....outfit choices are laying on the floor.

Goodbye summer...

Slow It Down Days....

Most of our summer was a blur of me sticking to my guns with the summer chore chart and then driving to and from lessons and camps. But we did get a few of those lazy hazy dayz of summer...not near enough....and I usually didn't take pictures when they occurred but here are a few documented events.

Sunday evenings when we played in the yard....sometimes with critters.

We took 2 Sunday hikes with the kids....one trespassing hike to a waterfall (I swear we didn't know at the time-like 5 people told me I MUST take my family on this hike), and a "trail of tears" hike from our house to Freedom Hills park.  5 miles was perhaps too much for Soren, but he did it!
Not near enough family bike riding this summer...

Miriam sitting in the sun for hours to earn $ for a girls St. George trip she was invited to.

One trip to Cherry Hill with friends.

Tour of Utah with the boys. We almost didn't make it home from Lego Camp the day the tour came through.  They had already blocked the exit but I promised I would drive straight home if they let me out.  The boys and I made popcorn and walked down to main street; we memorized the Boy Scout Bobcat stuff while we waited.
Mark was visiting this week. We always love to have him around.

Hill Air Force Base with Friends.
(Soren and Greta "looking tough")

One more week till school starts, the calendar looks clear, hoping we can get as many of those lazy summer dayz in as possible!

Summer 2015

The first week after our California vacation was rough.  The summer loomed ahead of me in what seemed would be endless days of energy draining chore/workbook/piano/reading monitoring. Add to that the never ending job as activities director aka screen time-limiting nazi.  To be honest, there WERE endless days of that; but the monitoring time got shorter, the complaining lessened, my whole days allotment of energy didn't all go towards monitoring by the end of July.  

That was good.

The kids got to participate in lots of fun, enriching summer camps which was fun.  The flip side of that is that I spent a lot of time in the car hauling kids from here to there. As much as I love their camps and lessons, maybe there was too much of that.  I miss the days of going on walks to the park, weekly trips to the library and the zoo, doing errands by bike, and taking afternoon naps together. 

That part was good but sad. Mostly good for the kids, I think, sad for me (maybe sad for both?)

But anyway here is what we ran around to:

Miriam went to a week of science camp where among other nerdy things she dissected a frog and LIKE IT! I couldn't be more pleased, hoping there is more anatomy in her future so we can bond over muscles, organs and arteries.

Byron and Soren had 2 weeks of art classes where they "painted around the world".
We love this neighborhood camp!

Byron went to one week of soccer camp (during the hottest week of the summer, he came home with heat rash all over his neck and torso AND HE STILL LIKED IT...that boy was a trooper).

All three of them had a week of swimming lessons

(Miriam not pictured swimming, she was at another pool)

Miriam had summer ballet, with a fairy theme parent recital.

Miriam also had her Mary Poppins rehearsals 3 times a week, and then the week of performances. 

Byron had boy scout day camp at camp Kiesel.

Soren had a 6 week karate class.

Byron and Soren had 2 weeks of Lego Camps with me as a teacher:
Remote Control Mania and Mine Craft I & II

Miriam had piano in June, but got a break in July (she got to play whatever she wanted the whole month). I started teaching Byron in July, and they both started up lessons with Ms. Molly in August.

The kids had "Dad Camp"while I was at girls camp in St. George for 3 days,  Miriam was invited to her own St.George girls weekend.

In addition to doing workbooks (most) weekdays this summer, the boys and I had a goal to read as many (new to us) Caldacott winning books as possible.

We read 26 of them; our favorites being Locomotive, Ox-Cart Man, Man Who Walked Between the Towers, Many Moons and The adventures of Beekle: the Unimaginary Friend

Miriam's summer reads:
The 5 books in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series
The Doll People (again...probably 5th time?)
Rules (I can't remember the author)
Ruby on the Outside by Nora Raleigh Baskin
and is finishing up the summer with Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski


And just like that, the summer is over! So all those projects I was going to do during the summer when "I had more time" have been moved to the fall "when the kids go back to school".  There seems to be a pattern here.....

MARY POPPINS

The play that took over the last 2 weeks of July!!

Such a fun experience for Miriam and I since I "got to" to help with props and make-up. I say "got to" because I would lose $100 deposit if I didn't help. It is fun though, to be apart of something and feel needed so it's required, hard, and fun all at the same time.  Fun, and exhausting, and hard on everyone but mostly the boys and dad at home.
Darin was amazing to hold down the fort. He even taught Soren how to ride his bike one evening. We realized that Miriam had seen her dad about 10 min per day for an entire week! We would leave for a performance before he got home from work and she had to go straight to bed when we got back.  That is probably normal for some families, but that is super strange for ours. It made me realize how lucky we are that the kids do get to see Darin so much.

The 2 weeks started with the Farmington City Parade

and performance in the park.

Then Miriam came down with Viral Meningitis (what the heck?!) and had to miss some DO NOT MISS practices but got right back in there when she was better.

Then we both had some long run throughs and dress rehearsals.
Which led up to 6 nightly performances of the show.

My favorite part of the play was Step in Time. Cutest chimney sweeps ever.

Some friends and family that came to the show:

I somehow got my camera in that funny setting I sometimes end up in. Darin has since explained how to get out of it but for now...we will call these artistic.

Miriam got a Saturday with Grandma all to herself while Darin and I took the boys to Price to attend our 20th high school reunion. So that was a super bonus...especially when you get Chocolate croissants for breakfast, some new school clothes from H&M and a trip to Miss Cavanaugh's.  Two of her neighborhood friends came to that show which made her day!

Most of the nights were sold out, which was not too surprising since the venue is small....but it's Farmington City's highest attended play ever at this point!

This was a huge growing experience for M. Her first play with adults and children and although this is community theatre most of the lead rolls went to extremely talented people. Some moments of intimidation, sadness, and frustration but also such a good learning experience and so so much fun!