The Kindergarten Kid

(her teacher's name is actually Mrs. Mejia...I wrote this late at night and didn't notice in the rush of getting ready.  Whoops!)

Brielle has been excited.  I have been nervous and anxious.  Brielle has really wanted to go to Royal Oaks.  I really wanted to just keep her home forever.  I decided sending her to school is the best decision and feel very comfortable with that choice, but it is still hard to let my little girl grow up.

The week before school started we went to the school for new student orientation.  Brielle got to meet her teacher and tour the classroom.  Elise is having a hard time not being able to go to Kindergarten with the big kids.  These 2 girls love to play together.

I got the this interview sheet from from Positively Splendid

The cousins get to be in the same class.  I went to Kindergarten with my cousin and have great memories of it.  I think it will be so much fun for them.  (although we're hoping they can control their silliness and not get in trouble together!)

This is the same classroom that James went to for Kindergarten.  Room 2, with the kids all lined up for school.  Brielle was a little bit nervous the first morning and asked for me to cut a piece of her blanky to take with her.  She had it in her pocket.  We could tell she was feeling it as she walked in to class for the first time.

  

We read lots of book the week before to get us ME ready for the first day of school.  Brielle also went on a date with James, Gavin and Aunt Megan to shop for school supplies.

Nikki's Wedding

Some of these pictures were taken by either Zack, or Nathan, my bro-in-laws with nice cameras and photography skills to take amazing pictures.  I'm sure you'll be able to pick out which ones were not taken by our camera.  So, thanks for sharing the pictures guys.

Nikki and Landon got married in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple in South Jordan.  While James and I were inside, Brielle and Ethan got to stay with Jared and Katie who were also watching Annalie, Mariah and Waycen.  I have brave siblings.

Brielle sported a hair-net to help with food prep.  It took a few reminders to not lick fingers and re-wash hands, but she ended up being a perfect helper to sprinkle the pink sugar on the cookies.

The happily married couple.  I love the picture of them.

The reception started off a with a bit of a scare as the rain clouds and wind came in.

Everyone raced for cover.  Luckily, the rain didn't last too long and the wind died down.  The Crapos back-yard was beautiful.

During the reception the kids got to watch a movie to help stay out of the way.

As the rest of us had a great time in the kitchen prepping and stocking the serving area.

My sister, Ashlie made the amazing cake.  I'm sure Brielle was hoping for a big slice to herself.

It was so fun to have all 11 siblings together.  There are now currently 15 grandkids on our side.  Landon has 1 niece and 1 nephew.  Together they are quite a cute bunch of kids.

We were all spiffed up and matching... 

But by the end of the reception the kids were ready to change and play at the playground and in the sand.

Utah Trip

We went to Utah for my Sister's wedding, but we actually did quite a few things in addition to the wedding itself, they deserve a different post.

We started the trip with a delayed flight.  James had dropped us off at the airport already, but when I found out he was close by and came to pick us up.  We enjoyed a family outing to Costco for icecream.    I'm sure the airport was happy to not have these silly kids running around for 2 hours. 

Ethan is now tall enough for a booster seat.  I still have him in 5-point-harness car seat at home, but for the ease of travel, moved him to a booster for the trip.  It made getting through the airport so much easier!  Brielle and Ethan each were in charge of their own car seat and back pack while I managed the other luggage.

We flew out of Long Beach, which is a smaller airport that you walk out on the tarmac to climb the stairs onto the airplane.  Ethan loved it!

This is a picture at Gardner Village.  We went there with the girls to a bead shop to make matching necklaces for the wedding.  I of course forgot to take a picture while we were doing that.  Brielle was so excited about it though!

We also went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point.  Ethan loved the chance to touch the animals.

And the kids were excited enough about the pony ride that we waited for almost 2 hours in the hot sun for the chance to go!  (It was $2 Tuesday and was crowded!).

There were enough of us there, that we switched off waiting in line to have a chance to go see some of the other animals as well.  Even with it being hot and crowded, my kids still loved it.

We had a chance to go to the planetarium.  I remember this electricity ball from an elementary school field trip.  It is still fun to play with.

Ethan said he didn't like the planetarium, because we didn't stay long enough.  He was sad we couldn't stay a lot longer.  He mostly enjoyed watching the large-scale 'marble run' they have set up in there.

We got to meet baby Mariah, who is adorable and catch up with the other cousins. My kids obviously haven't had much baby experience.   While trying to 'help', both Brielle and Ethan almost got Ezra hurt.

We got to go out on my Birthday with all the girls.  It was such a fun way to celebrate.  About 1/2 hour before we turned the kids over to the men in charge there was much chaos and screaming.  Luckily we got kids settled for a movie night so that no one was too scared to take charge.  The recent memory of kid and wedding chaos did make the outing even more enjoyable.

We got to go cheer for my brother-in-law as he completed a triathlon.

And stopped to watch a bit of a local rodeo practice.  

Wizard of Oz

We had a chance to go to 2 different performances based on The Wizard of Oz.  My kids had never seen the movie, but we talked about the storyline before we went.

2 of the Young Women in our ward were in a local play called 'The Wizard of Azusa'.  This is Madisen as Glinda the Good.  Sabrina played the part of the Scarecrow.  It was very fun to see them perform.

The next week we met up with extended family to see James' cousin play the part of the Lion.

It was at an outdoor venue at the park.  The kids especially loved the tornado scene, which looked like the spinners from a car wash moving across the stage.  Ethan asked if we could watch the show again to see the tornado.

Nicholas did a great job playing the Lion.  I was very impressed by the talent of all the performers.

Beach Trip

The Young Men and Young Women in our ward have a tradition to go to the beach for a combined activity before school starts.  The kids got to come with me to enjoy a gorgeous day at the beach.

Brielle is learning Ethan's tricks of making silly faces for the camera.

At this point it was about 6pm and getting cold and windy.  I thought the kids would just play in the sand, but they insisted they needed the swimming suits on (after Ethan's pants wouldn't stay up).  

So swimsuits on, they went back into the water.  We had a great bonfire to warm up around and makes s'mores after they got too cold.

Rocks

Gavin has been very excited about polishing rocks lately, and requested to learn more about rocks as a theme week. 

I picked up some geodes at the planetarium for the kids to smash open.  They also collected 'normal' rocks to smash and compare.  I remember loving breaking rocks open as a kid.  I realized it is still fun, even as an adult.

Papa Finlay has a great collection of fossils, rocks and minerals.  Gavin and Elise's mom brought it all over to show the kids.

And they got to check out the collection of polished rocks from their Aunt Megan as well.

We used our collected rocks on tile for a rock-scratch test.  They found rocks that wrote in brown, black and white.

We made sugar crystal 'rock candy'.  The kids were very excited about checking it every day.  Gavin wanted green, but he also enjoys mixing colors, so instead of just using green food coloring, he was very happy to get to mix the blue and yellow.

Art Week

We spend a week focused on Art.  It was a very basic introduction to the fact that there are different famous artists, different kinds of art, and many ways to express your ideas and feelings.

We started with Vincent Van Gogh.  We talked about how colors can show how we feel and how he liked to use bright colors in a lot of his paintings.

I gave them all a print out of The Starry Night and let them paint.  They each definitely showed their own personality in their painting.

With Monet, we talked about doing art outside. We took our sand art outside.

We tried some sculpting with modeling clay

Megan Warnick prepared this activity to use tissue paper.

And we had a dragon fly that the kids observed to try to sketch.

The kids like when I make their lunches look like different things.  For this week I showed them how colorful food is, and how they can be artists.  Yes, I encouraged playing with food....but purely for learning purposes.