time for school!

I don't think I have accepted that fact that the school schedule has started, that my first child has started kindergarten, Jackson is in his second year of preschool, and I will be home alone with Isaac four mornings a week.  (Although that last item sounds pretty good.) 

Lily got into a charter school over in Riverdale that we are in a carpool for (kind of hard to give up that bus option for the public school!).  We are very excited and really like the school.  Lily thankfully loves the uniform dress code - I was so worried since she can't wear pink. 

Adam got an alarm clock set for her to prepare for getting up early (Boualay comes at 7:30 a.m.).  I was nursing Isaac when it went off and she came out of her room and said "well that sure worked!"  We were pretty worried since last year we were constantly getting after her to get up for her 9 am preschool.  She is happy with her teacher, Mrs. Bever, and told me the night of her first day, "I was kind of nervous and scared to go into the school but then when I got in my class I wasn't nervous anymore and I had a lot of fun."

She is home by lunchtime each day and I have to admit that I am so happy she is not in full day kindergarten!  I can still feel like she is a little girl for a bit longer.  :)

Jackson started his preschool a few days after Lily.  He was so excited to get back there!

I've said it before and I'll say it again - we are so grateful for the opportunity Jackson has to go to this school.  He loves it and was quite upset he didn't start when Lily did.  When I went to pick him up (I didn't hear from the buses so I didn't know whether or not he had a ride home), he was NOT happy to get in our car instead of the bus.  It will be nice to get in a good routine throughout this week.

This is totally long winded but I did want to document Lily's first day of school.  We had a man in the ward pass away over the weekend, and the funeral was scheduled for that day.  So here is what happened:
6:30 - 7:45 a.m.  Isaac wakes up to get fed.  Get everyone up, ready, fed, and in the car.
8:00 a.m.  Drop Lily off for her first day of kindergarten!
8:15 a.m.  Get to church and enlist Jackson's help in setting up: cover tables with paper, count paper products, make final list for Costco.
9:00 a.m.  Go home to nurse Isaac for his nap, get Jackson ready for playdate (i.e. he was at this house for 7 hrs....),  drop Jackson off; neighbor drops by to get the 3rd ham to prepare for funeral, I run to Costco while she stays with sleeping Isaac.
10:30 a.m.  Clean kitchen and prepare funeral potatoes.  Leave (late) to pick up Lily and Sebastian.   
11:30 a.m.  Lunch and pack up car with stuff to take to church.
12:00 p.m.  Drop off Lily, Sebastian and Isaac at Boualay's house, then head to church to help set up more.
1:00 p.m.  Pick up the 3 hams at 3 different houses and take to church.  Go nurse Isaac and put him down for a nap.  Return to church before funeral, find out someone forgot to bring rolls, rush to Fresh Market to get more and some ice too.
2:15 p.m.  Realize that instead of 100 people coming like we thought, 40 did.  Begin worrying what to do with extra food!  Figure that out, clean up as much and as fast as I can before having to leave.
3:30 p.m.  Go to pick up Lily, Isaac and Jackson to go to Jackson's Back to School open house at his school, which ends at 4 pm.  On the way home, drop off clean dishes from people who contributed food.
4:45 p.m.  Get home and make dinner (this 'making dinner' is pretty unusual on busy days but I had a pork tenderloin in the fridge I had to prepare).
A few observations: 
I enjoy looking back at these days knowing that they only come around every 6 months or so.
I am grateful I had a small funeral before this one because I don't think I would have handled the stress very well (or at all). 
I live in a wonderful neighborhood that takes care of each other.  I had a LOT of help (with the funeral and my kids)!!!!

holy smokes, 4 years old!!!!

I can't believe my little boy is 4!  He has been giving us a run for our money lately, pushing our buttons right and left, causing Adam to say every other day or so "I do not understand that kid", but it had to happen sooner or later, right?  You can only spoil a boy so much.... He's a good kid, a big helper, and independent like nothing else.  He is constantly doing things he's seen adults doing and acting like it is his job.  Kind of exasperating but at least pretty easy to work with, except when a tantrum follows.... 

Here is Sebastian, Madeleine, Lily and Jack making the birthday cake!  I didn't put one ingredient in the bowl, or even crack an egg!  Super good helpers!

Here is the finished product.  He wanted a Cars 2 theme, so I borrowed some tiny cake pans from my neighbor and came out with these as an alternative to last year's flat roads.

 Britt made me that cute sign for my birthday - I LOVE IT!!!  I am going to use it for every birthday in our family.  She used fabric with a bird-print and it is just gorgeous.

 We had a water/pool party outside for the kids, with some obstacle course games as well.  This was the first year Adam has been able to help with a kid party and he was pretty shell shocked about half way through. 

He was so cute with his presents, and hugged each one after he got it.

On his actual birthday, he woke up to his presents under that cute banner, then Lily headed off to school and Adam took him out to breakfast.  Then we went shopping for new clothes and shoes for school, and that afternoon picked up Adam from Lagoon (work party) and went down to Salt Lake to eat at the Spaghetti Factory in the trolley!  The kids were so excited and Jackson seemed very happy to be 4!  His favorite thing right now is to go after you with "pokes" and to get tickles in return.  He is obsessed with knowing how things work, and loves to take stuff apart.  We love our buddy Jack!

specifications

I am 30 years old!
To celebrate the milestone, I planned quite a few activities.  I recruited my sister-in-law Sarah to take me shopping while her daughters babysat all day.  :)  It was so much fun!  Sarah was so nice to take an entire day to talk to me about fashion and help me pick out clothes and outfits and shoes.  I have been wanting to get a new wardrobe for a long time and Adam encouraged me to do it for this birthday.  About a week later we went to St. George, where we basically dropped off Lily and Jack at the Bird's to enjoy the enormous bounce house that Janet got to celebrate her 60th birthday.  It was so neat to have them spend time with their cousins - they are all such good kids - I am always amazed at how kind the older ones are to the younger ones.  Jackson would tell me how Dreyden helped him go down the slide, and Lily would be included with Olivia, Boston, Elle and Claire.  We are so lucky to be a part of such a wonderful family.  Mom treated me to a pedicure and lunch; so fun to spend some time with just her!  I also got some time with her and Dad while Adam was out golfing with Dreyden.  Adam and I were able to go out to eat at one of my favorite restaurants, and also catch a showing of the Bourne Legacy.  Yeah for free babysitting!!  The weekend went by too fast.  The following week I finished training for the 35 mile bike ride I signed up for to do the day of my birthday.  It was called the Wildflower Pedalfest, and I did the Sego Lilly ride.  It was all girls, and so very low pressure and the 'feed zones' had fresh fruit, granola bars, candy, and a ton of other stuff.  I was cheered on by Adam and the kids, who got out to yell "Happy Birthday" as I rode by.  It was so cool!  Put a huge smile on my face and made me so happy.  Adam motivated me by saying I shouldn't be worried about finishing, but I should remember to finish FAST, which did the trick!  I finished in 2 hours and 20 minutes (my goal was 2h 30m so I was very happy!)  Afterwards we headed to Salt Lake to have Matt and Jana babysit while we went out for dinner.  It was wonderful!  I also got spoiled by friends and family who sent packages and emails.  It was a very spread out celebration and I don't even miss being in my 20's!

a few things we've been busy with

We put the kids in a summer camp at Lily's preschool from last year.  They had a blast!  I was surprised that I wasn't as prepared as I thought I would be to have them gone every morning - summer went pretty quick.  I was worried about Jackson being with new teachers but he had so much fun.  They made some binoculars out of toilet paper rolls, which they used to scope out the cement truck pouring some cement across the street.  

Lily even demonstrated some climbing skills to get a better view.  Jackson was so darn excited that he set up his little camping chair and just peed on the grass instead of coming inside....I'm sure the truck driver loved that!  They actually went on their lunch break and then brought Jackson a Gatorade - he was pretty excited.

I have been busy with some home improvements, thanks to Mom who gave me the motivation to do them!  I got the shed cleaned out - took a few weeks as I filled up the garbage can within minutes of it being emptied Monday morning about 4 times in a row.  At the same time I was organizing our storage room, as we emptied it to get *shelves*!!  Very exciting!!  I no longer have all of our stuff precariously stacked and have to unstack to get to the bottom.  Also I was able to bring a ton of stuff from upstairs because our closets were packed.  And then came staining the deck.  I spent all morning working on this section, went inside, and then it started pouring rain!   I was so upset!  But luckily it had been so flipping hot while I was staining that it had dried and I didn't have a problem.  I am almost done with the deck portion and still need to do the fence and the kid's playset.  It's so satisfying to update the house though!  I love it, although I wish I could just have one full day to stain instead of little bits of time during Isaac's naps... 

We made it to the Rodeo again!  I was hesitant this year but when Adam said with his new position he gets good tickets, we decided to try it out.  We brought along Jackson, one of Jack's friends with us.  We got VIP parking, about 40 feet from the entrance (made it SOOOOO nice when I left to nurse Isaac); free dinner in the VIP Cabin; and box seats!  We were in the front row, looking straight down at the cowboys and bulls!  It was so much fun, and so much nicer than the stadium seating when you have a baby!

We also went to the Dabney Family Reunion (minus Nathan, Alicia and Eve) in Cannon Beach!  Here are the kids at the hatcheries outside of Portland.  They love to see those big fishes!

And here is Isaac!  Right before my camera died and I didn't have the recharger.  So to recap: started out with our gas light coming on right at the Dalles - that was a scary 20 minutes until we got to a gas station!  High cliffs on the left and the Columbia River on the right, not much else.  Then Dad was very sick; Mom ended up taking him to the emergency room twice.  Anyways, enough stuff happened that I had plenty to contemplate about while forming my presidency message for Relief Society.  I was also able to run lots on the beach (also a super fun time dribbling a soccer ball with Ethan), go on a bike ride alone (up in Ecola State Park - so green and beautiful and green and quiet and GREEN! and then back home, with a small 1 mile stretch on Highway 101, just to say that I rode my bike on Hwy 101) and with Adam.  It had the requisite trip to Tillamook; this year we made it to Haystack Rock to see the starfish (the 1 mile walk with the kids was a nightmare!  I need to get Lily more used to physical exercise); Dad's 69th Birthday celebration; and me apparently getting into such a bad mood once that Liz asked Mom if I was pregnant (no).  Isaac enjoyed himself with all of the kids running around; Jackson was in HEAVEN digging on the beach with his cousins; Lily was ECSTATIC to be with Brooklyn (Amanda helped them choreograph a little dance to do as a performance for everyone to watch - it was so awesome!  Invites and everything!); Adam and I had a wonderful vacation!  Thank you Mom and Dad for making such a great time possible!  

Our garden is doing well this year.  Lots of basil, roma/cherry/grame tomatoes, zucchini, cilantro, parsley.  The strawberries did awesome, and I am so happy to report the raspberry bush we planted last year has gone crazy!  We get about this much every week from one plant!  I thought it would take a few years.  Now if we could harness those grapes and plums in the back and get the apple tree producing, I would feel complete.  Just kidding.  There's always something else to improve.