☆ Happy 8th birthday, to our Emma! ☆

Is it true Emma is really 8 years old?  When did that happen?  Life really goes by in a flash!   We had a great time celebrating, Emma style!  On Friday, mom, Lucy and Cov suprised Emma at school by bringing happy meals and eating with her at lunch in the cafeteria.  Aafter lunch we took some donuts to her class that she picked out the night before.  The class was really excited and very nice to Em and her teacher Mrs. Erickson joked with her that she was turning 88 instead of 8.  She giggled about that.  They sang "Happy Birthday" to her.  It seems Emma is enjoying her new teacher and class this year and making some good friends.  Everyone gushed over how cute Lucy and Cov were.  And then her teacher told me to check her out early because they finished most of their work already.  A teacher encouraging sluffing school?!  Em that was pretty cool!  So we went to the playground and played to wait for Callahan to get out.

Saturday we went to Casper to celebrate a day early since Emma's birthday fell on Sunday and there wasn't much we could do.  I surprised her with a shirt with a girl and kitty on it and a matching hat.  She loved it!  We went shopping at the mall per Emma's request.  we went to Target, Ross and Claire's, played at the indoor playground,  the kids got to pick out some gum balls and mostly just window shopped.  Emma loved the purse she got in the dollar clearance section Claire's and looks so grown up carrying it around the clutch.  Then we went to eat at a tasty steak house.  It was delicious and really beautiful inside and out, just like our girl.  Emma loves meat and mashed potatoes and this was what she wanted.  We had peach cobbler with ice cream for dessert and everyone devoured that.  We also went to run some errands at Sam's Club and Walmart to get some stuff on our list and the things we needed for family visiting us from Utah for Emma's baptism the following week.  On the way home we spotted a rainbow which Em thought was very cool and took a picture of.  We've been singing "When I am baptized" which talks about rainbows and we've been singing it alot lately.  It was so fun to see that and Emma is very excited to get baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, less than a week after her birthday.

Sunday, the 31st, she woke up and had her favorite Reese's puffs for breakfast then we were off to church.  They sang to Emma in primary and I got to be there that day.  It was so fun, she gets a little rosy in the cheeks and kind of embarrassed when she is the center of attention but she really loves it.  That afternoon, we looked at her baby book, played some games, the family ate some dinner daddy grilled and she got to decorate her own cake, which she thought was great!  Budding cake decorator here.  She made it blue (her favorite color) and purple, a two-tiered cake.  It was fun to watch her do it.  We sang to her and ate cake and ice cream.  We Skyped with family and she talked to some on the phone.   Then she opened presents.  She got some Legos, a kandama, and a new triple quad setof Scriptures and case.  I was surprised of all of her presents, she was most excited about those, and has been reading them a lot!  They are nice, and I have to admit I'm a little jealous.  It's been so neat seeing her get so fired up about reading the word of God.  It was a great few days celebrating this special girl.  We love you, Em!

Emma at 8

Such a sweet helper at home and school.  Who doesn't love Emma!?

Loves riding her bike, playing games on my phone, rough housing and reading late into the night.

Doesn't enjoy pracricing the piano but is very good at it.

Is getting so tall!  She is often mistaken for a 10 or 11 year old.  I give her a few years and think she will be taller than me.

Likes experimenting with makeup and taking long showers.

She is getting more freckles, and that and her little grin are so cute.

She can be very defiant sometimes and likes debating with us sometimes when we ask her to do or not do something.

Picks up on things and understands very quickly and well.

Favorites:

Color - turquoise, mint

TV Show - Jessie

Food - Milkshakes and steak

School subject - Science, reading

Song - "The Family is of God", "Christophori's Dream"

Best Friends - Erika, Zoey, Christine, her cousins

Books - Junie B. Jones series by Barbara Park and the Rainbow Fairies books

Animal - cats (shes our mini crazy cat lady and has so many stuffed litties on her bed I cantfind her most mornings.  She has names for them all and knows when even one is missing.)

Movies - Frozen, the Hobbit,  Epic

Sending two back to school

We just sent three back to school.  Emma’s in third grade, Cal’s in kindergarten, and Lucy now in preschool.  And Cov’s in to everything – kitchen cupboards, cabinents, closets, he he! 

Emma started first on a Wednesday.  It was so much fun helping her pick out what she wanted to wear for her first day, and setting everything out the night before.  That was always fun growing up.  Going back in style with all the new gear.  We also read some books together like “The Night Before Kindergarten” and “I Love School” to get them pumped, and had “the last meal”, a fancy family dinner we have the night before school starts.  She woke up nice and easy on the first day.  We made mini pancake stacks for breakfast with homemade strawberry syrup, and had our little picture story, did her hair, took some pictures, and sent her off.  That day, we watched one of our friend’s sons, and Cal had fun with Jett all day.  And the other kids, too.  We stayed busy that day, but it’s always a little sad to send them back to school, but nice to get back into a routine.  We met Em at the bus stop, and it was so cute to see the other kids run excitedly towards her to give her a hug.  And I got a good hug too, don’t worry!  J  Emma was a little unsure about her teacher, Mrs. Erickson.  She’s getting close to retirement and has been teaching for a long time.  She’s in a wheelchair a lot.  But as we talked about her first day, Em’s first reaction was “I love old ladies!”  She liked her so much, and especially enjoyed how compassionate and caring she is for her students.  She’s always giving hugs, and that’s good for Emma’s sensitive personality.  We made some "smart cookies" chocolate chip cookies for after school snacks (the one time of the year I really do something exciting for a snack, lol!) and had a special dinner to celebrate the first day of school in the books.  

 

Cal’s first day was Friday, as they had staggered start for kindergarteners because of placement testing.  He was so excited to get ready.  We made chocolate waffles for his first day breakfast, gelled his faux hawk in place, took a few pics, and sent him on his way.  He started with all-day kindergarten, as they do here.  His teacher is Mrs. Arment, and she is great.  She is a seasoned teacher as well, who is always keeping up on new techniques and ways to teach and continuing her education.  Callahan loves her and loves school!  He enjoys recess, and we’ve been able to see him out there a couple of times playing as we take Lucy to preschool.  He was so ready for school though, as he’s almost 6 and I had to stop teaching him because he was going to get bored in kindergarten if we did much more, as he was already beginning reading.  Everyday after school, he immediately does his homework.  It’s nice, and I hope it stays that way.  It's a full day of kindergarten here, so some days when he gets home, Cal is ready to put on his jammies and crash for the night.  When Emma started going to school, Cal asked about every 10 mintues “When is Emma coming home?”  Lucy never asked that once.  I think she might enjoy the one-on-one time!  

Lucy began preschool.  We have been doing preschool at home with her for a long time, but we got into a co-op preschool again.  It's been great and she's loved it!  It took some convincing to get her to go.  She has been telling me "I don't want to go to preschool!  I just want to stay home wis you!"  She really clings on me when it's time to go and refuses sometimes.  But once she goes and stays she loves it.  She especially liked the week we had over at our house when I was the teacher.  We did the letter C - cars, cats, cupcakes, rectangle, the number 3, the color yellow that week.  It was a riot, and the kids were all so much fun and smart little ones.  I enjoy bringing learning to life for them!

Coverton is just getting into things!  Kitchen drawers, finding things and dump, the washing machine and dryer, the fireplace, you name it.  He likes to get up on and into anything.  He's such a little explorer now, it's fun!  He's also starting to pick up on things, so he likes to "help".  And then he crashes from all of his activity during the day.  He does enjoy the one-on-one time we get when Lucy goes to school, but likes to make loud noises every once in a while to make him feel at home because he's not used to all of the quiet.  :)

It feels so good to be back in school and back into a routine!  Welcome, new school year!

End of summer. Bummer.

Part of our end of summer celebrations included the county fair.  We were able to go a few times.  We checked out the booths (including visiting Daddy at the hospital booth one day), went to an amateur rodeo, saw the cat show, and the demolition derby, of course.  We had our own pie eating contest at home, which was on our summer bucket list.  Emma entered some art (actually her teacher from this past year saved a few art projects and entered them in the fair), and she got a red ribbon.  We also participated in the fair parade, the kids got loads of candy.  I played my flute with Jubilante Ensembles of Carbon County, the local band I began with a few months ago.  It's been really fun so far!

We've been playing outside and hitting up all of the parks all we can to live up summer and the nice weather while it's here.

We've been reading a lot and participating in the summer reading program.  The kids got some great prizes for the Fizz, Boom, Read program.  And they had some fun activities going on with that.  We read some classics this summer like Charlotte's Web and Misty of Chincoteague, but their favorite was the BFG by Roald Dahl.  Our chidlers love quoting it, and now call cucumbers snozzcumbers.

The kids finished up more swim lessons, and we've been back to the pool lots more to practice their sweet skills.

Emma's sucker selfie

We went to a Jazz camp with new Jazz man Ian Clark at our Rec Center.  The kids loved it.  Emma and Cal weren't sure about playing, so they just sat and watched.  He was a great guy, as was the Jazz assistant who was there.  Total class act, and they really enjoyed it.

And, we've been doing lots of jammie time, sleeping in while we can and staying up late while we can.  :)  The kids just wear themselves from our adventures, bike riding, playing outside and want to go to bed right after dinner.   

We did pretty well getting most of the things on our summer bucket list completed (sorry, no Denver and no kitty!).  And our clothesline where we put little trinkets and pictures from our summer happenings got so heavy, the command hooks fell off.  So it was a jam-packed summer, so many great memories!  Until next year, summer!