Soccer Season Begins

 Soccer season kicked off just a few days after school began this year.

It was hard for me to tell if Quinton was excited about it at all.  He was just so stoic... 

On the other hand - Bronson didn't have the best year.  He didn't know a single person on his team, which was kind of unfortunate. And he played later in the afternoon when it was pretty hot. He was still a good sport about it though.

Josh also had a pretty blah year.  He didn't know many of his teammates either. And they lost a lot.  I don't think he was really into it as much as he has been in the past.  

I Grew These!

This year, I had the BEST garden experience!  I not only had one, but I had TWO garden plots in the Kaysville garden!  This allowed me to use our own backyard as a little corn stand (the Kaysville garden does not allow things that grow too high - it would block out other people's produce).  

There was certainly a lot of work involved with a garden this size.  My surgery set me back a bit and I had to have David and the kids do the planting.  My intention was to take one or two kids with me each day to spend some time in the garden (or "farm" as we called it).  However, it soon became apparent that the kid did not want to be there.  They would complain and pout and I would end up getting less done than if I left them home.  Plus, it usually ruined my day. SO, we came up with a delightful arrangement!  The kids were entirely in charge of cleaning the house all summer long.  I did laundry for a few of us, but that was it.  They cleaned it every morning.  They worked out their own assignments and schedule.  I spent my mornings at Crossfit, then at the "farm." I came home around 11:00 each day feeling calm, recharged, and ready to face the day.  When we worked this way, we had our afternoons free to go swimming, etc.  It was wonderful!

Let me take you on a little photo tour of our glorious summer abundance!

 

Since we had so much space at the Kaysville garden, I planted on entire row of Zinnias and Dahlias.  I called it my cutting garden and I was able to keep a vase of flowers in our home pretty much all summer long.

Such beautiful bright colors!  The flowers were such a joy!

Here are some Dahlias and Zinnias in a bouquet.  

Don't they just make you happy? I have truly learned that I want to become a flower gardener.  

Looks like something blocked my camera lens, but I HAVE to show you these rainbow carrots!  

Here's one of the cantaloupe we ate this year!  We usually don't have much luck with melons, but we had a lot of room, so we gave it a try.

Here comes some spaghetti squash.  As I write this entry, it's almost a year later and we are down to our last three or four squash from this harvest.  

More spaghetti squash - farther along.

Glorious beets!  I love beets!!

Here are a few of the ways we enjoyed our harvest - garden-fresh tomatoes and basil in a caprice salad.

Peppers, zucchini, green and purple beans and carrots from the garden. The rest was probably from the store.  It looks blurry, but that's just steam!

Fresh honey dew. I think all three of these pictures came from one meal.  It's so satisfying to eat your own food!

Okay - here comes some more flower pictures.

Sometimes Nicki would take my camera and take beautiful, artistic pictures.  

Dahlias overlooking the garden.  

Somewhere in the late summer, it always get a little overwhelming.  This was one day's harvest of tomatoes and peppers.

Cabbage, cantaloupe, peppers, and green beans.

One of the dozens of arrangements we had.  I absolutely loved having fresh flowers all the time.  

First Day Of School - Round One

The boys always start school a week earlier than the girls.  In my opinion, it's too early!  August 13th is still the middle of summer!  Oh well - what can you do?

This pretty much sums it all up!  Josh is disgusted, Quin is dying to go (kindergarden started a week or so after the rest of the school) and Bronson is ready to be seen!

Wait a minute - maybe I got that backward. Josh is ready to be seen and Bronson is disgusted!

Joshua is starting 5th grade.  At NDPA, the 5th graders actually move into the junior high building.  They are separated from the older kids for the most part, but the junior high is just a bigger building so they have to go there.  It's around the corner from the elementary building.  Melanie and I drop the kids off at both schools, but in the afternoons, we park in between and let boths sets of kids come to us.

Josh is one of the most popular kids in his grade - both with the kids and the teachers.  He is smart, hilarious, and respectful.  A good combination.

Josh's teachers are Ms. Batista (English) and Sra. Jorges (Spanish). I am his class captain.  That means I coordinate all the emails, volunteer hours, etc. between the school, Josh's teachers, and the parents.  It gives me lots of volunteer hours, which is a good thing.

Bronson is starting 3rd grade.  That's hard for me to believe! He was just starting kindergarten at NDPA a few days ago, it seems!  His teachers are Ms. Kingdon (English) and Sra. Laura (Spanish). They are both new this year.  That's a little frightening. Here's hoping they're great!

Bronson is also super popular, both with his teachers and his classmates.  He's fearless, crazy, smart, and genuinely excited to be there.  

Okay - they're all ready to load up!  So, Josh and Walker (in the white shirt) are 9 months apart, but Walker is a year ahead of Josh in school because of grade cut off dates. That's right - Walker is a year OLDER than Josh. Bronson and Finleigh are the same grade, but in the 4 years they've gone to NDPA, they've NEVER had the same teachers! Easton is a year older than Quin.  He's starting 1st grade.  Quin's not starting school today remember - that's why he's not in uniform.

Bron is so excited to see his friends again!!! One thing about going to a charter school is that you don't see your friends hanging around the neighborhood all summer long.  He has only seen them once or twice since school got out.

Over the summer, the school had a complete overhaul - including astro turf in the playground.  Go NDPA Lions!  

Josh didn't really want me to get out and take pictures of him, so I snapped one as I drove away.  

He was super glad to see his friends too.  And they all screamed his name like he was a rockstar when they saw him.  Wow.  He's tall, isn't he?

That evening, we celebrated the first day of school by eating sack lunches and apple-for-the-teacher drinks. How cute is that?!?

I think they liked it.

I'll See You At The Drive-In!

On August 9th, I took the kids to a drive-in movie.  We brought Charly along too.  It was so much fun!  I LOVE drive-ins!

This was little five-year old Quinton's first time at a drive-in (I mean, he probably came as an baby and slept in my arms once). He was SOOOO excited! 

We stopped at McDonald's on the way there and bought drinks for everyone. Poor Bronson spilled his all over the place, so he had to take his shirt off and wrap up in a blanket.

Charly was the only girl who would look at me for this picture!  They hung out in the van with all the treats. Clever girls!  Nice photo bomb, Bron!

Josh. The boys and I all sat out on chairs.  We watched "Dora The Explorer" (much more entertaining than we had expected!) and "Spiderman: Far From Home."

Quinton was having the time of his life!  Staying up late, eating treats and watching movies?!?! Yes please! I must have taken him to the porta potty half a dozen times, though!  No more huge drinks for him!  And the poor kid fell asleep on my shoulder about 10 minutes into Spiderman, which was just fine by me!

Our Summer VIsit to Idaho

We went up to Idaho on the first week of August.  Most of our time was spent just relaxing and visiting with our family.  I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few that I did get:

We drove to Mesa Falls one day.  It is so beautiful!

Quin, David, Josh, and Nicole

The kids were trying to take a perfect picture of the falls.

Q-ball wanted his picture taken by the waterfall.

Umm..stay on the path, kids!!!

It's pretty rare to get a picture of all seven of us together.

Isn't that a lovely picture? 

Grandpa Gee let me ride his new tractor!!

Kristi and Terry have a neighbor with a giant raspberry patch.  He allows his neighbors to sign up for certain days to pick his raspberries.  We happened to be there on Kristi's day, so we went over and picked with them.  It was one of the most magical, enjoyable nights of my life!!  Seriously!

Quinton "helped" a LOT! More than the other two boys, any way. They just played with their cousins.  But Quin stayed by me.  He ate more than he kept.  And he literally had to show me EVERY. SINGLE. BERRY. that he picked.  I listened to a running commentary on each raspberry he encountered.  Funny boy!

Nicole and Alison picked like pros.  At some point, Nicky took my phone from me and did a raspberry patch photo shoot.  So here are some beautiful pictures from Nicole:

Nice!  She's very talented.

The boys had a blast playing with their cousins.  It was such a great visit to Idaho!  I sincerely LOVE it there and would move back in a heartbeat!  But, we'll stay where we are for as long as God wants us to.