Three kids in school...Say what?!?!

I know people always tell me time flies. And I know it, but seriously three kids in school?! This is just craziness. But that is where we are at now. Last Thursday Ashlyn started 5th grade, Leah started 2nd and Brandon started KINDERGARTEN. I was super nervous about him starting school at the beginning of this year. But he has grown so much over the last several months and by the time we got to August, I knew he would do great. Not to say he wouldn't be nervous, but at least I felt he was ready. 

The kids all scored this year and got awesome teachers with their friends in class with them. This was MOST exciting for Ashlyn who has had a rough couple of years with either a "less desirable" teacher or no good friends in her class. So she definitely deserved to have a good year this year. 

Brandon was totally cool about starting school.....until he stepped foot on campus. Then he grabbed hold of Daddy's hand and held on for dear life. I will say it made my heart drop. It was gonna be hard to leave him even knowing how great of a teacher he got. 

Ashlyn found some friends right away. And it was even cuter that they were just as excited to see her as she was to see them. 

Leah found some good buddies right away too and was totally fine with me dropping her off in her line to go stay with Brandon.

Leah and Ashlynn

Grace and Leah

I could tell he was nervous walking off in his line, but he was so brave and did a really good job. No tears or anything....not from him anyway. Me...that was another story. Was glad for sunglasses that morning. 

After school the tennis shoes came off immediately. Like before he even buckled up in the car. But that didn't surprise me one bit. This boy hates closed toed shoes.

Ashlyn hugged me when she got in the car and said she had the best day ever (as if I made it happen. Hey...I'll take the credit). 

They were all bubbling with excitement for the new year. 

And Brandon had a great day too. Wouldn't say too much about what he did all day, but he certainly had fun telling me all about his "magic playdough" that turned green when he smooshed it. Of course that meant he was going to have a great year.

So glad for good teachers this year. Here's hoping it's all on the up and up!

We celebrated a happy first day with Becky and her kids at Foster Freeze with some yummy ice cream.

Ashlyn turned 10!

PART TWO

The mommy/daughter date

After the pool party, we all got showered and cleaned up. Since Paul was home, me and Ashlyn got to go out on a nice long mommy/daughter date. At the beginning of the summer I made punch cards for the kids to encourage them to keep reading and work on school pages and such. Each one got to choose their reward for getting all of their punches. Ashlyn of course finished hers and chose for her reward to go on a mommy/daughter date. So that combined with her birthday was more than enough reason to celebrate BIG!

It was a mighty hot day, so we had to make our first stop at "Shave it" for a snow cone. YUM!

Ashlyn got a lot of money for her birthday, so we headed straight to Justice to pick out some accessories she has been eyeing online for quite a while. She got some cute lip glosses, a scarf, and a new watch (see below). Then we headed to Claire's for new earrings, which included her first pair of hoops. Small of course, but she was quite excited.

Throwing coins in the fountain. She made lots of good wishes!

I named a bunch of restaurants at the mall we could go to for dinner, but once I said "Souplantation" the decision was over. So we headed there and quite literally stuffed ourselves silly. 

After the mall we headed to Target to spend her gift cards and then had to go home so Paul could get off to the church for his Tuesday night meetings. 

But our fun didn't end there because once the other kids were asleep, Ashlyn snuggled into my bed so we could watch the first Harry Potter movie together. I'd say she had one pretty awesome 10th birthday!

Ashlyn turned 10!

PART ONE

The Pool Party

Ashlyn wanted to have a party this year and invite some of her girlfriends over to swim. We didn't have contact info for a lot of her school friends, but she still had a good group of her friends there and I think she had a really good time.

Leah, Ashlyn and Grace waiting for everyone to arrive.

The girls all swam a lot. Paul was chief game player. He kept them really entertained with cannon ball contests, a wave pool, throwing kids in the air, marco polo, and a multitude of other fun pool games.

Opening gifts.

Ashlyn and Grace

Ashlyn and Chloe

Ashlyn and Linsey

Linsey made her this cute bracelet and got her a few headbands because "Ashlyn always wears headbands to school". I thought that was sweet.

Ashlyn and Lourdes

Ashlyn and Darby.

Darby got Ashlyn her first lego friends (girl legos) set and can I just say, Ashlyn is in LOVE with them. She took her two gift cards to Target that she got from two other friends and bought two more sets. And she's already planning what set she can buy next. Super cute! Girl legos. Why didn't they think of this YEARS ago!?

I was trying to stick with the pool theme and made cupcakes with little bears lounging in the sun, but I couldn't find those cute drink umbrellas, so my idea kind of fell flat. Oh well. I think Ashlyn still liked them.

The girls all took turns jumping on Shamu. He's taken a beating this summer but has sure provided lots of fun.

Blowing out the candles.

My sweet girl!

Can't believe she is 10! She's beautiful inside and out. So glad she is mine!

Oh and I got this awesome shot of Paul throwing Brandon in the air, which is doubly awesome knowing how timid Brandon has been in the water his WHOLE life. He has really blossomed this summer. Teaching himself to swim and everything. I am so proud of him. He can't go too far, but still. It's been a huge accomplishment. I understand that sometimes we have to push our kids to achieve things and sometimes we have to let them go at their own pace. I'm glad, at least this time, I feel like I made the right decision and let him do it on his own.

The last full week before school

This week was kind of chill. I think I'm finally getting burnt out from tons of outings and excursions. We still had a fun week though and the weather has been amazing for mid August, so we've been able to be outside more without dying of heat. We even made it to the park one day and actually enjoyed sitting there while the kids ran around and played. 

Monday night we swam with some friends for FHE. Had a little lesson afterward and then dessert together. 

Little girls really attract to Leah. She's really sweet and good with them. Here she is with her friend Ellie who got the same swimsuit as Leah after she saw it in the store. Super cute!

The boys look forward to "lego batman" time with Daddy every night. I don't have the game on my phone or IPad so they have to wait for Paul to be home to be able to play together. They all cozy up together and play for a little while right before bed. I don't think Paul minds one bit. 

The kids had their summer dental check ups. We have been working with Brandon ever since he was three and started going to the dentist, to get him to let them actually clean his teeth. A couple of times ago we tried laughing gas with no success. He kicked and flailed and threw a royal fit. Every other time has been much tears and screaming and, well just a lot of craziness to even get him to walk past the lobby. So we haven't gotten very far. But this time he brought his own toothbrush and toothpaste. They used the laughing gas and he was calm enough to breath it in and actually let it work. So we got a decent teeth cleaning. Not great, but still...it was a HUGE success for Brandon and I was SO incredibly proud of him. He does have a very sensitive gag reflex and he hates things to be foamy or gritty in his mouth, so this was a very big deal for him. They were even able to get some X-rays, which unfortunately showed a small cavity in a back tooth. So we have to go back in a month to try and get it filled. Here's hoping he is able to stay calm for it. It won't be easy for him.

The girls did really great too. Just didn't get any photos of them. Ashlyn's tooth actually fell out during the cleaning and Leah needs to come back for sealants now that her molars have grown in, but other than that it was all normal and good reports.

The laughing gas was pretty funny. He didn't get too silly or anything, but at one point he had both arms flopped out to the side. You could say it definitely helped relax him. I even got a few smiles out of him.

Tuesday night I had Activity Days with the 8-11 year old girls. We tied fleece to make baby blankets. It was a lot of prep work for me cuz I was nervous about letting the girls use a rotary cutter, but I think they turned out really well and I'm proud of the girls for working hard on them and taking the project seriously. 

Well....mostly seriously. LOL 

Friday I decided we needed one more trip to the beach before school started again. I found a few friends who were still interested in going and we headed out together. 

And I'm so glad we did. It turned out to be one of my most favorite days there. The weather was a tad cold at first but warmed up soon after we got there. There weren't crazy undercurrents like there often are at Zuma Beach. The water was actually clear and stayed shallow for quite a ways out. I even got in and swam for a bit. It was so fun. The kids discovered the fun of boogie boarding and Ashlyn was begging me to get our own boards for next time. 

We stayed until about 6pm and then stopped at The Habit for dinner with my friend Kristina and her two kids. It's become tradition to stop for dinner there after the beach. Can't say I mind. 

I'm sure I'll go back again before Fall sets in. I sure hope there are a few more days like this one.

For as much as Brandon hates certain textures in his mouth, he sure doesn't mind getting completely dirty and salty at the beach. This kid will go from the water to completely covered in sand and then back again. He by far, comes home the dirtiest of my kids. And he loves every minute of it.

And this little guy loves to collect sand crabs and carry them around. I'm not sure how soft his is with them. We are definitely working on that.

Grace, Sage (friend of Grace's) and Ashlyn playing with seawead.

AND....my yummy dinner on the way home. I look at it as my reward for entertaining my children all day. LOL! It works....right? And yes, I opted for the chocolate milkshake for dessert. 

OH and I did get to go on a fun Girls night Thursday night to see "The Way Way Back". Super cute movie about a 14 year old boys summer vacation. Had some pretty hilarious lines. I think I laughed more than I have in a long time at the movies. 

Here's to the last few days before school starts. I'm sure swimming will be on the agenda.

The rest of the week

On Friday we pretty much chilled around the house since I was pretty tired from my late night the night before. After Carter napped, we headed to the pool where the kids swam for a good 3 hours. No one else was there the entire time. It was great. 

Then this morning Paul took the kids to see a screening of Smurfs 2 at the Sony Movie Studio Lot in Culver City. Since he is only allowed to take four people, I didn't get to go. BUT I figured since the family was gone anyway, it was a great time to FINALLY go get my hair done. I have been desperate to get it done since my last haircut, so I was pretty excited to get it fixed. 

The end result. Still a bit shorter than I would like it, but I like the color and at least it's more even now.

Couple more months (or more) and hopefully it will be at a better length.

The Sony Movie Lot happens to be pretty much across the street from the first little (hole in the wall) apartment we lived in TEN years ago when first moving to CA from Utah. There is not a single thing I miss about that place....EXCEPT....for Gaby's Mediterranean Cafe which was just half a block from our house. We were pretty poor in those days. Paul was just starting out in his industry and we had a brand new baby. So we didn't go out very often. Every once in a while Paul's parents would send us $20.00 to go out. We pretty much ALWAYS took it straight down to this little place and brought it in for a mini date at home. Ok...so I guess I have a few good memories of that place. 

Anyway, my wonderful hubby stopped on the way home and picked up our favorite lemon chicken with rice pilaf. It was SO good and I was SO hungry after my haircut. So I gobbled it up right away. Yum. I was in heaven.

Girls Camp

Girls Camp was this past week. I didn't get to go up for the whole week, but I did get to go up for the Bishop's Fireside night and testimony meeting. It was so fun to see the girls and see what they have been doing all week. They are just adorable girls and they looked like they had been having such a good time. 

After testimony meeting, we got kicked out because the gates lock at 9pm. So me and some other YW leader friends headed to The Cheesecake Factory for a late dinner. We sat and ate and laughed until almost 1 in the morning. It was great. But boy was I tired the next day. Oh well...it was worth it. 

LOVE Katelyn's face as Bridget tries to kiss her. Classic!

Bishop Livingston and his cute wife Jenna with all of the Young Women.

Me with my Laurels (minus two. One was at EFY and anther opted out since she's about to head off to college.)

Christiane, Megan, Me, Christie and Desiree