First Day of School (and other exciting stuff)

The end of summer means our garden is producing yummy things,

 the kids are in full play mode,

 and school is beginning!

Afton started the 1st Grade at Pierce Park Elementary school this year!  She has Ms. Watson and it is a 1st/2nd split class.  She was so excited to go the first day because she wanted to just learn and learn and learn.  She wondered what they would do ALL day.  She wanted to know what it felt like to have lunch at school.  She was excited to have her own desk and have more than one recess.  All the cool things of being a 1st grader.

She was not disappointed!  She has gone for two weeks and every single day has been great.  She is seeing friends from Kindergarten, making lots of new friends, and she really loves having something to do all day long.  When Saturday comes along she is bummed because it means she doesn't get to go to school.  We are delighted (and not at all surprised) with her enthusiasm and we hope it continues for the many years of school she has ahead of her!

 

Ben started his second (and last) year of preschool. He's back with Miss Laura this year.  We have been very happy with his uncanny ability to soak up all sorts of knowledge when we could swear he wasn't paying attention. A few days before school started he wanted to make a book about our family so he started drawing pictures of everyone.  After he had drawn me with a pirate patch (because I was "being a silly mommy") he asked me to staple his book together.  Then he wanted to label each drawing and I was totally blown away as he wrote each letter that I told him correctly on the page.  He's never done that before, never even wanted to do anything like that, and yet he did it with no problem. Go figure!

Cade has been a little put out by all his playmates leaving him.  He gets very excited when they all come home so he can tag along with them. I guess I am not as fun as the kids. :)

For Labor Day we went to visit Jared's brother in Pocatello and hang out with a bunch of the Stubbs clan.  Mike and Julie were super heroes and ran the marathon that weekend.  Marathons are so amazing.  They are such a huge physical and mental accomplishment and I am very proud to have cheered on such awesome athletes.  Plus it was really fun to hang out with family.  I was not good at taking pictures of the action. :(  But I did get our kids with their faces painted (not very important compared to the marathon, but they loved it)

Oh and a little blackmail photo we'll be keeping forever!!!

On our drive home from Pocatello we were caught in the middle of a tornado!  Yes, a tornado in the middle of nowheresville in Idaho is not very awesome.  Our car got pelted with massive tumble weeds, the rain was coming sideways, the wind was, well, tornado-like, and I was white-knuckling it.  We made it through the craziness and were just recovering when a big truck kicked up a rock that struck our windshield and left a dime-sized chip in our windshield.  Thanks.
By the time we got home it was back to boring, dry, hot, smoky weather.  What a contrast!

We are happy to be getting yummy food from our garden.  The corn is fantastic

the tomatoes are going gangbusters and we are excited that we have actually had watermelons and cantaloupe this year!  Wohoo!   Afton and I made an apple pie for a ward dinner. She was very excited to learn how and was a great helper making sure the crust was centered and the apples were cut just right.

 Ben was just excited to eat it.

And finally I'll finish the post with a recap of our visit to Art in the Park where the kids got to do their own art projects.  It was cute.