back to school.

The kids were ready for school by 7:30.  We don't leave until 8:30.  It was so funny to see them so excited! I didn't know they adored school so much.  We had plenty of time for picture taking.  

 My big fourth grader!  He got Mrs. Beckles this year.  The same teacher he had for 2nd grade.  We love her.  Here's hoping it's another great year!

 We'll see if he's this excited to go back tomorrow....

 My beautiful Gracie girl.  Ready for 2nd grade!

 She gets two teachers this year!  Mrs. Bondarenko and Mrs. Adair.  We knew Mrs. Adair when she was Miss Lambert and we've been dying to have her teach one of our children.  SO excited she's back.  (She got married and had a baby!)

 Gracie has switched from pink to blue.  I don't know how it happened but she loves blue now!  She wanted a "normal, blue backpack".  But they all looked like boy backpacks.  We tried to jazz it up a bit with fabric scraps.  She loves it.

 I took the three oldest kids to Target for a back-to-school date a few weeks ago.  We got all of their supplies and I let them each pick out what they wanted to wear on the first day.  Grace was so funny picking out her clothes.  Everything had to be perfect.  She was so excited about the new line Target has that is designed by Disney stars.  Her skirt was designed by Aly, from Austin and Aly, and her shirt was designed by Jessie, from Jessie.  I think they're really just inspired by those characters, but she thinks those stars made the clothes just for her.  She's turning into quite the little fashionista.

 We found a pre-school for Jayne!  She starts in a week.  It's going to be one LONG week.  She is so ready to go.  She insisted on packing a lunch like the big kids and taking pictures too.  She'll get her own back to school post next week.

 She was so excited to eat her lunch that she opened it the second we walked into the house after taking the big kids.  She's so funny.

 Graham!  I love his 'sup dawg' shirt.  He laughs all day when he wears it.

 He's in first grade this year!  He has a new teacher, Mrs. Pullutro.  I think we're going to like her.  They are starting a new program this year where the kids rotate to all the different 1st grade teachers.  I'm excited to see how that goes.  It think it will be perfect for Graham.

 Lincoln took a picture like this last year and Graham has been dying to take one like it on his first day.  He said it's going to be his new tradition.

 "I'm so excited, I'm gonna die!"

 I love these three so much.

 Peter was dying to be outside so we let him come for a picture.  This is the one shot we got before he bolted!

 We were going to walk, but we had all of the supplies and the kids didn't want to carry them the whole way there.  Instead we drove and listened to this song... (I stole the idea from a friend.  Her blog is amazing... check it out here)

 The parking lot was ridiculously full.  We had to park a block away and walk in.  It worked out though because we got to take a picture in front of the Oxford sign!  I neglected to take a picture... but in their backpacks they have a little bag of chocolate covered strawberries and raspberries with a note that says, "I'm berry excited to have you for my teacher this year!"

 Graham was excited to see some friends from last year in his class!

 Lincoln was too cool for pictures when he saw his friends...

 And Gracie barely made it to her in time!

 All of the kids go into the school at different entrances.  We dropped off Graham first and by the time we got back around he was still there.  Jayne ran up and gave him a big hug and said, "I'm going to miss you Grammy!"  Awww.

 And just like that... I'm down to two kids!  I'm looking forward to having a clean house between the hours of 9 and 3 each day!

courage.

Today is the first day of school!  Hooray!  (pictures of my new little students to come tomorrow... promise.) In honor of the new school year we decided to have a special dinner/family home evening.  It's something that I've been wanting to do for a long time, a tradition that I've seen all over the internet.  I'm grateful that I had my act together and was able to pull it off this year!  It almost didn't happen because our basement flooded three hours before dinner... but we made it.  

I asked the kids individually what they would like to have for our special dinner and they all said, "Noodles with white sauce (alfredo).  Good to know.  We had noodles and alfredo, broccoli, and a yummy fruit salad.  What's a special dinner without Mommy's favorite Muppet cups?  

After dinner was cleaned up we introduced them to our family scripture and theme for this year.  We talked about what a tradition is, and how we want to do this ever year at the beginning of school.  When they are seniors, we hope to have taught them many important principles of the Gospel through doing this.  Hopefully they will remember the themes and really use them in their lives.

We live in a rough neighborhood.  I'm not afraid when I go to bed at night or anything... but it is way different than growing up in Happy Valley, Provo Utah.  Our kids have already been exposed to things that I never had to deal with in my childhood.  We want to help and protect them as much as possible.  We prayed and found a scripture that would help each one of us in our daily lives.  It is found in Joshua 1:9.

"...be strong and of good courage.  Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersover thou goest."

I printed it out and made it fancy to hang in our home where they will see it multiple times a day.

The key word for us is COURAGE.  We talked to them about ways to have courage in school.  Ways to have courage at home.  Ways to have courage any place and in any thing you do.  There are lots of different ways to have courage.  It is so important to remember that the Lord is with us always and there is no reason to fear.  I find such comfort in this verse.

I made a little banner to hang in our dining room all year to remind us daily to have courage.  We plan to have monthly Family Home Evening lessons on different ways to have courage.  I already have several lessons planned out in my head.  I can't wait!

One of my favorite parts of going back to school is the routine that it brings!  My kids take after me in that they thrive on schedules.  Maybe I've just programmed them that way... probably.  We start our back to school routine this morning.  I am so excited!  The kids love having it printed up so they always know what to do.  We're not drill sargeant about it... but we stick to it for the most part.

We started our chore charts as well.  They are hung upstairs in the hallway with our family theme.  That way they walk past it multiple times a day and might actually stick to them.

This is what they look like (the boys have blue).  Each of them have the same six simple chores each day.

Get Dressed

Make Bed

Clean room (it needs to be clean before bed)

One Job Wheel chore

Set out their clothes for tomorrow

Get their lunch/backpack ready for the next day

(We do the job wheel after dinner each night.  They rotate between four jobs: clearing the table, helping with the dishes, emptying the garbages and straightening up the living room.)

So happy to be back in our routine!  And so excited to hear how the first day of school went!

crafty.

Gracie has been asking me to make her a new outfit for awhile.  I let her dig through the scrap bin and she picked out a bunch of fabric and we came up with this beauty...

 I kind of made up the pattern as I went... there are a lot of things I would do differently if I were to do it over again... but for the most part, we are both very happy with how it turned out.

 We added flowers to a plain white t-shirt.  She can wear it with jeans, or one of her other skirts.  She wants me to put flowers on all of her shirts now!

 My favorite is the back... inspired by an adorable 4th of July dress on pinterest.

 It was a little shorter in the back so we added a little purple "peek-a-boo" as Gracie called it.  The ruffles are my favorite.

 We can't take pictures without this little mug taking over!  She is in the habit of dressing herself lately.  It usually involves a skirt.

 Who says stripes and plaids can't go together?

 I don't know what Jayne is going to do with herself when Gracie goes back to school in a few days...

we got trouble.

Once upon a time I needed a break, so I decided to lock myself in my room and sew for a little while.  I checked on the kids and they were all happy and content and so I decided it was totally okay for me to have some alone time.  Little did I know that when I emerged a little while later I would come downstairs to find an oyster cracker oasis awaiting me.  Apparently Graham and Peter got into a cracker war and threw them back and forth to each other.  Hard to get mad at them when it's my own fault for leaving them alone without supervision.  They got to clean them up by hand.  

Same day... I was getting dinner ready and I turned around to see this little mug throwing diapers all over the place.  Awe.some.

Lucky for me my amazing sister sent me a surprise package that same day filled with all things Muppets.  Little did she know I needed a pick-me-up that day.  She knows me well.

ward party.

Each summer the primary throws a ward party at a local splash park.  It is my favorite because the kids are completely entertained so the adults can actually talk to each other!  We had a blast.  Peter didn't want anything to do with the actual splash park but he did have fun with this little water spout...

Graham... always a spazzy pants.

The girls were playing 'Birdie".  Whatever that is....

Jeremy got to hold this darling little baby girl.  He turned to me all happy faced and said, "Uh oh.... look what I've got!"  We're getting a little baby hungry.  (We need a bigger house before we can have another one... no announcements for awhile.)

Peter made some new friends... and found a new place to stick his finger.  Lovely.

They were playing "rockstar".  Graham was the lead guitarist.

Showing me their strong muscles!

The perfect activity.  Highly recommend it.