First Day of 1st Grade

Jacob's first day of 1st grade!

We missed the open house at school last week so Jake was pretty nervous this morning having not seen his teacher or classroom. Dan gave him a blessing and then we all walked him to school. Dan stayed outside with the girls while I walked him to his class. (It made me feel pretty good that he chose me to walk him in, sorry Dan:)  The school doesn't let parents in the front door on the first week of school to promote independence for the kids but since we missed the open house last week I wasn't about to let him find his own way. He is on the second floor and as we walked down the hall he squeezed my hand tighter and tighter. I helped him find his seat and met his teacher quickly. As I was leaving another child came crying into the room wanting her mommy. I looked back and winked at Jake.  It made my heart hurt to leave him! 

We will miss you today "Cub"!

Tess was pretty sad this morning! Luckily we have a busy day of sugar cookie making and a play date with her cousin C.C.  I will start homeschooling her in about a week and a half and then hopefully she won't be so sad without Jake.

All in one week

Earthquake
Tuesday August 23
Abby had been sleeping for about 40 minutes, Tess was coloring at the kitchen table and Jake and I were on the couch when the earthquake hit. At first I thought the bouncing was because the washing machine was spinning unevenly but then I realized I wasn't doing any laundry! The kids looked at me wide eyed and Tess started to cry when the house started to sway back and forth. Then I heard Abby crying out for me "Mama, SHAKING, Mama, SHAKING!" I ran up to get her and we all headed outside to talk to our neighbors. Everyone was outside asking " Did you feel that!!!" At that point I finally put two and two together, it was an earthquake! I tried to call Dan for about 40 minutes and couldn't get him. Finally he responded to my text that he was fine and on his way home. He was at work, on the 7th floor, when the shaking started. He peaked out his cubicle and then took off for the stairs! His building was evacuated for about 40 minutes and then he was able to get to his car and come home. We went camping that night.

Hurricane Irene
Saturday August 27th-28th
Saturday it rained throughout the afternoon and evening. At about 130a.m. I woke up to some obnoxious teenagers hollering outside. Abby woke up at about 2a.m. because of the wind. And that was about it! Since Dan is pretty much the 1st and 2nd counselor in the bishopric right now we were really hoping church would be cancelled. No such luck! :) Truthfully I am grateful hurricane Irene was uneventful for us.

I do have to include the fun games we played with the kids on Saturday night thanks to Dan:
Games Hurricane Style:
    1. High Jump...over the water (landing on a mattress and pillows)
    2. Long Jump....over the water
    3. Red Cross Toss....toss a pillow to save (hit) the baby doll.
    4. Watch the animals flee...race from the living room to the kitchen as a spider.
    5. Blowing Debree Contest....put a tissue in front of the fan and see how far it goes.
    6. Boats in the Ocean...make paper boats and blow them across the kitchen floor.
The kids LOVED it!

Camping with the birthday girl...

 Abby is TWO today.

Her morning started out in a tent. We have wanted to go camping all Summer but our weekends have been very very busy or sickness it just wasn't happening. This week we decided to seize the opportunity and go. So Tuesday Dan was planning to be home from work by 2pm so we could have plenty of time to get to our camping site and cook dinner but then an earthquake had to go and mess with our plans (another blog post of its own). So we finally left home at 5pm and made it up to Coctoctain National Park, in Thurmont MD. The kids were in heaven, Dan included!  Our tents is absolutely ginormous (to us anyways) so the kids had a blast playing in it. Abby slept pretty well, as long as she was touching me!:) In the morning we sang happy birthday and gave her a birthday muffin. We spent the morning hiking around the area and enjoying the gorgeous weather. It was perfect.

A cinnamon muffin and lots of hugs and kisses! Oh how she loves her Benny-C.C.!

Our tent has 2 rooms, 2 bay windows, a shelf and sleeps 10 people! We have smaller tents too. Anyone who knows Dan will understand the need for multiple, AWESOME, tents!

Since our tent is so honk'in huge Dan and I have to tackle it several times to get it into its case. As soon as I took this picture of the tent finally compacted into its case I noticed Jake didn't have his glasses on...they were still inside the tent! So we did it all over again. Luckily all our tackling didn't break his glasses.

When we got home I hurried to make dinner and her birthday cake while everyone napped. We ate and then sadly I hurried off to a Cub Scout meeting.  I think I may have taken on a bit too much that day and was about in tears when I realized I had yellow frosting instead of white and no RED food coloring for ELMO. But alas, I made due with red sprinkles and figured as long as Abby knew who it was I would be happy.  She LOVES Elmo!

A 2 year old is so easy to please! She was delighted with an Elmo doll and a card from Aunt Rhonda.

Just a little more about Abby...

She is a girlie girl.  She and Tess love it when I put some of my make-up on them. However, I have to be sure to lock my make-up in the cabinet or else I end up cleaning mascara off Abby's face. She loves to put on shoes (and then run on the treadmill like her momma).

She wants to be so independent. Taking her shopping can be a miserable experience these days. I just have to be ready to let her walk and touch everything!:) She is all about doing everything she can by herself at which point she excitedly says "I did it"! It's really cute.

She learned the word "ACCIDENT!" from Jake and Tess and it is now my absolute least favorite word! Here is why... when Tess, or Jake, comes to me crying about something the other person has done, the culprit quickly exclaims, "Mom it was an ACCIDENT!" Now Abby grumpily shouts at me "ACCIDENT" several times a day wether she has hit someone, again, or is simply wanting my attention.

Recently Abby will join me at the piano. Standing on the bench beside me she will sing and sing and sing. I LOVE it! We sing lots of songs together. She knows I Am A Child of God and loves to sing it on her own while I play, it is the cutest thing ever! I am going to video tape it and put it on the blog soon for Grandma's and Grandpa to enjoy! The first time she did it I quickly called Dan and had her sing to him...I don't think his eyes were dry by the end!

She is a doll! I can not imagine a day without this spunky toe-headed girl!

FINALLY FINISHED!

Almost two years ago we bought a dining room table and chairs from a women in our ward who was moving to Utah. This set had been in her family through generations and was the best quality! Dan and I decided to refinish the wood and reupholster the chairs. Easy enough, right! HA!

We didn't not realize we were dealing with maple, which can not be stained, until too late. Last Winter Dan spent every free moment out in the garage striping and sanding down a huge table and 6 intricate chairs. I helped when I could but really all credit goes to Dan.  He researched and asked friends lots of questions about staining wood. In the early Spring he decided to apply a "pre-stain" oil based gel on the wood to help it soak in the stain. Then he applied the water based stain on the table. Big mistake. Oil and water don't mix!  Dan and I had to re-strip and re-sand the table at which point we decided to hire someone else to finish off the chairs. We also had the 2 backed arm chairs reupholstered professionally. Wise choice on our part!

So after striping and re-striping the color, sanding, re-sanding, pulling out hundreds of pins and staples, reinforcing the wooden seat frame, cutting foam, stapling straps and batting down, stapling the fabric and folding obnoxious plastic and stapling it we are finally finished!

After this very long and detailed process Dan has told me multiple times that he knows what "hell" would be like for him!:)

Our first night using our new dining table and chairs the kids went straight to their little picnic table and folded their arms for prayer even though I had already set the table for all of us! It has been a long time come'n but we finally have a large(it came with 3 leaves not pictured), very nice dining room table and chairs.

Act of kindness

This morning Jacob was busy upstairs doing something very sweet. He secretly made everyones bed (folded blankets as well) and put a hand written note on top the pillows. 

On Abby's bed: "Dear Abby, You are so ct.  Love Jacob

On Tess's bed: Daer Tess, i'm glad you are my sstr. Love Jacob

On our bed: Dear Mom and Dad, i'm so gld you are my mom and dad. Love Jacob

He is a sweet big brother and son!

Waiting...

for Daddy to come home!

CTR 6 Pizza Party

After working hard (at being reverent and paying attention to the lesson) for 6 months my primary class has earned a party. They decided they wanted to have pizza and play games. I worked around everyone's Summer vacation schedules so we just barely had our party.
All my kiddos were able to come and we had a grand'ol time playing some silly games! (The games are from Minute to Win it. I found the idea on a friends blog, thanks Samantha!)

First up the SKITTLES/M&M game. I don't have any pictures of the kids with this game but this was definitely a favorite, eating candy always is! (The following pictures are not the best because I was trying to do too many things at once:)

THE ELEPHANT MARCH

Chandler

 Nour

JUNK IN YOUR TRUNK

Six ping pong balls in the tissue box they had to shake out in 1 minute.

 Lacey and Cailin

Tess and Ethan

 Jake was the fastest at 8 second!

Averie and Logan

 Abby got in on some of the action.

COTTON NOSE JOE

Ewie-gooie petroleum jelly on your nose to pick up as many cotton balls in just 1 minute

Jake and Evan
Chandler (Evan cheering the on) and Logan

Cailin and Averie

I love teaching these kids every Sunday. I love that Jake loves having me as his teacher!  I loved listening to their laughter! 

Calvert Cliffs

With only a few weeks left before school starts again Dan and I sat down and booked our weekends with fun family activities. The first was Calvert Cliffs. Dan has been there for work and was excited to show us the sharks teeth you could find on the beach and fossils you could dig out of the cliffs. Bonnie and kids came with us and we exhausted ourselves!

We thought you could park at the beach. NOPE. The Ranger was quite mistaken when he said the trail was "stroller friendly" but Bonnie and Dan made it work! The kids did a great job hiking 2 miles there and 2 miles back.

Benny and Tess held hands for most of the hike there! Jake and Tess were in awe of Ben's cool vest. Every couple of steps Tess and Benny would stop and look at the compass to decide what direction we were going. CUTE!!!

Aunt Bonnie kept us entertained along the way by catching bugs! She caught several dragon flies, a large monarch butterfly, and lizard.  So glad Bonnie is here to teach my kids not to be scared of bugs:)!!

Note all that Bonnie is juggling in her hands, she's is a super-woman!

Oh the fun kids have in the SAND!

Abby LOVED playing in the sand...and inspecting where it went!

Benjamin found a dead cricket on our trip down to the beach. He lovingly cared for it in his pocket while we played at the beach and then at the end of our hike back to the car the kids buried the dead cricket. Too cute that kid!!

It was a fun, hot and exhausting day!