First day of school 2015

Big day for these kids. Ashlyn started 7th grade and Carter started TK. Leah started 4th and Brandon went into 2nd grade. You know what that means, I'M home alone all day. First time in 12 years. So what did I do? I cried most of the day and sat around and felt sorry for myself. Mostly because Carter had such a hard time being dropped off and it was sad. Very sad! Here's hoping it gets better soon.

I must say they all look rather adorable though!

And here was the big drop off for Ashlyn. Totally weird to just pull through valet and let her get out. No walking her in. No meeting her teachers. Nothing. I'm not sure I like this. Can't wait for Back to School night.

Parking the first day can be crazy, so after getting Ashlyn off, we walked the three other kids to school. It was fun. 

Leah found her best friend, Brandon went into class on the hunt for his favorite buddy with barely a goodbye to me or Paul, and Carter clung to Paul like a leach and had to be peeled away kicking and screaming. *sigh* Totally broke my heart. 

BUT, he came home happy and had a cute little bag from his teacher so it wasn't all bad.

Carter's first school project. 

And here's the difference between TK and 4th. From TK a cute little gift welcoming my child to the classroom. From 4th grade a very blunt letter explaining all the rules, things they can't do or bring and a paragraph basically telling me and my child to get to work (insert eye roll).

Can my kids just stay little forever?

The first day of school wasn't just any normal day around here. It was also Ashlyn's 12th BIRTHDAY! Yes, the poor girl had to start school on her birthday. She was a good sport about it and has a party planned for this Saturday so it wasn't all bad. We had tacos for dinner (her choice) and she opened some gifts and blew out her candles on her specially requested Cookie Dough Ice cream cake (That I had to go to three stores to find. Guess I should have planned better on that one and ordered it beforehand). 

Besides her phone, she got lots of money, clothes, jewelry, soaps and lotions and some other fun girly stuff. 

Love this sweet, wonderful girl! I couldn't have asked for a better oldest sister to pave the way for her younger siblings. She's the cream of the crop.

(Sorry, but Carter is on a underwear around the house wearing stage.)

My Aunt Brenda always sends the kids money in a cute oragami shape. This year Ashlyn got a heart. What a great Aunt!

School's almost here

So of course my car thought it was a good time to call it quits. Made for a very busy day before school started since I couldn't get anything done the day before that. It was a good thing we had already done our school shopping, and prep like that. Mostly just a few odds and ends Wednesday. 

The biggest news of that week was that Ashlyn got a PHONE for her birthday! Just a "dumb" phone. LOL.  But she can talk and text on it and that's good enough for now. She was excited.

Her Beehive Leader and class (ok just Meaghen since there is a 12 year old girl shortage in our ward) kidnapped Ashlyn the day before her birthday and took her to breakfast at Dunkin Donuts. So cute! I'm  so excited to get to be in YW with her. Lucky me!

And here you have it. The first official "Class schedule" in the Schoeni household. You know what that means, time is FLYING. How I have a junior high kid, I DO NOT KNOW!? But she's ready for it and so am I.

We got a couple more "swim's" in before school started, FINALLY got Brandon's hair cut and finished last minute preps. I think we are ready for school to start tomorrow. Woohoo!

Science Center

The problem with "Stay-cations" is that you're not REALLY gone. So when a move or a funeral or something else like that pops up, you feel bad not helping out, so that cuts into your "family time". Maybe we'll learn to just pretend we really are gone in the future, but it's hard. 

So the point of all of that is that our day long outing to the Science Center got greatly shortened by church events and a few last minute school errands. But we were determined to make it down there so even though we only got to spend 2 hours down there, we made it and we made the most of it. The kids had a blast and were sad when it closed and we got kicked out. My favorite part is the touch tanks. I just love all those little sea critters. So cute! The kids always love the flash flood in the desert and of course all the very many many hands on activities. We spent a good amount of time in the discovery center too so that was fun. Even if my kids are getting older and bigger, they still had a great time. 

Afterward we stopped at CPK for a little dinner with our GC from our AMEX points. Totally love getting free dinner. The kids did really well and everyone had a good time. I think it was a successful day after all.

(crazy the difference good lighting makes in your pictures)

Wow Summer is Flying by

Started the week off great with a little birthday celebrating with our favorite Baylee Osmond. 

Chuck E Cheese Style. The kids all had a blast and wanted to stay well after the party was over.

But as I was sitting there chatting with Becky after everyone else had gone home, I get a call from my security system telling me that a censor had gone off and should they send the authorities? I was like WHAT!!! So I said yes and quickly raced home with the kids. Turns out the gargae door just hadn't been closed all the way (eh hem…kids) and after so many hours the wind had blown enough to knock the door open just enough to set the alarm off. Crazy thing was that when the guy called me I thought he had told me someone had pushed buttons on my keypad, which in my mind meant SOMEONE WAS IN MY HOUSE! I guess the noise of Chuck E Cheese had me hearing things wrong and he had only said the door closest to the keypad had gone off. The cops still walked through my house gun in hand, just to make sure though. Whew…I decided that was enough excitement for one day. 

Brandon's helicopter broke, so he took it all apart and refashioned it into an airplane. That boy is pretty inventive that's for sure. So cool to see his little brain just working away trying to figure out how things work.

We never get tired of night swimming. No sunscreen to worry about and hardly anyone is ever there. I was trying to catch Brandon's awesome twist jump into the water, but I just got the splash instead.

Ahhhh…the dollar movie the kids had been waiting for ALL summer. The Spongebob Movie. I don't normally let them watch Spongebob but I caved this time. Carter worked pretty hard to keep his room clean these past two months to get to go, so I couldn't turn him down. 

And wow….let me just say….I'm glad I only paid a dollar each for it. It was BAD! How they made money on that I do not know? 

That night I had a last minute GNO dinner at Kisho's with my Encino gals. Renee was in town and we couldn't pass up the chance to get to see her. It was super fun and way too short.

Wednesday morning Ashlyn had her band auditions for Jr. High. She has literally practiced her scales all summer long in preparation for this day. She was SUPER nervous. Then she gets in there and the band teacher has her play only one short line and tells her she made it into intermediate band. She'll be playing all the same songs as advanced band and will perform with them in December, but needs the more one on one attention of intermediate band this semester. She can audition for Advanced band in December and her teacher seemed to think she will make it no problem. 

That night was the also much anticipated "Darling Derby". It was super cute. All the Activity Day girls made a derby car and got to race them. This was Ashlyn's last Activity with this group of girls before moving on to Young Women's and it was a great one to end with. Neither of my girls won, but they had a fun time and I think their cars were super cute!

Thursday and Friday Paul had off. It was our mini family vacation and if it weren't for our A/C breaking this summer, we would have gone some where fun. But oh well…staycations can be fun as well. It ended up being for the best because Ashlyn had summer check in for school and was scheduled to come at 10:30am. They told us it would take an hour, but 2 hours and 40 minutes later, we were just wrapping it up. So it ended up being a great thing that Paul could stay home with the kids and take them to the pool and stuff. There's NO way they could have handled that whole process. So it saved me from having to get them a sitter.

Ashlyn and Grace. These two sweeties are all ready for Jr. High. I was really nervous and anxious about this transition all of last year, but you know what….I'm just really excited for her now. She will do great and I'm so proud of how hard she works. She has some good friends and will hopefully have some good classes too. Plus I really like the Principal at her new school and the school itself just seems to run really well. So I think it will all be okay!

Friday we headed to Hurricane Harbor which is always a fun place to be. But even more fun when Daddy gets to come with us. We got there right when it opened and stayed until just before closing time. We got a great spot in the shade to set up our stuff and the kids came back and forth with me and Paul going from ride to ride. We all had a great time. Ashlyn even read an entire book while we were there. That girl is a reading fool!

Carter and his funny faces!

And I seriously can't wait to get Brandon's hair trimmed. Just a few more days!

How does it not bother him with it in his eyes like that?