Double Digits for Sean

Sean turned 10!!!

Sting:  "Not much more than a letter-opener, really"

It's always great when it's Sean's birthday because the birthday love gets shared a little faster.  :)  What I mean by that is when we all go around and say what we love about the birthday boy or girl, there isn't a person who takes an awkwardly long time to think of something nice to say.  Normally, that person is Sean. Even if we tell him in the morning that it's so-n-so's birthday and by the time we finish dinner, he needs to have his comment ready, he still can't think of anything nice to say about the birthday person!

All teasing aside, we love our Sean.  And some of the things we love about Sean are that he is slow to anger, he plays well with his younger siblings, he is a problem solver and he is gentle.  Super grateful to have this young man in our family.  Happy Birthday Sean!

August Quotes

Hayden:  (legos) I don't know how I built it.  I guess I'm just a master builder.

Sydney:  Bennett!  How could you?!?

Me: Sydney, calm down, I'm sure we can fix it.

Sydney:  You don't know how to fix rocket boosters!

Hayden:  I don't like lick gel.  Dad did it to me once.  At family pictures.

Sydney:  What is daring?

Me:  It's when you try new things even if they are a little scary.

Sydney:  Oh.

Me:  Do you think you are daring?

Sydney:  I fink sometimes.

Me:  I think I am daring sometimes too.

Sydney:  No, I don't fink you are daring.

Sydney:  Hayden, I told you a millions times:  Mater DOESN'T have kids!!

Dallin:  Well, that was less cool than I envisioned.  (mentos in soda)

Sydney: (trying to say something but can't spit it out) I fink I'm just a little bit drunk.

Dallin was doing Sydney's hair one day and asked for a fancy braid.  Dallin offered her pigtails instead.  Arthur said, "You don't know how to braid? Come on!"  Dallin responded, "Hey, my braiding skills are WAY more advanced than most boys my age."

Sean:  When I grow up, I am getting a convertible and I'll drive all around town with my top down.

Sean:  Someone messed up my world!! (Mario Bros.)

Sydney:  Um, this smells like zebra.  (? random)

Hayden:  We were being a little too silly, but now we are stopping.

Sydney:  Grand Old Flag is more fun than this song.

Dallin:  Are you my friend, Daphne?

Daphne:  Yeah!  Wait, why?  What do you want?

Hayden:  Come on legos, we can DO this!

Sean:  Hayden, I'd say you're a medium in charisma.

Bennett:  I want to ride the lellow bus!

Sydney:  Whatchya doin' Bennett?  Oh!  Makin' a pancake tower?

Daphne:  Aunt Emma is getting married?!

Me:  Yes she is!

Daphne:   Whoa! when did she meet him?

Me: This summer up at Aunt Jewel's house.

Daphne:  Whoa! That kinda reminds me of Anna and Hans.  Except hopefully Sam is nicer than Hans.

Bennett dumped a plate of blueberries on the floor and I told him to pick up the berries and throw them in the trash.  "Otay, otay," he said.  I went back to what I was doing and hear him saying, "Oops, squished!" and "Uh-oh, I missed," as he was hurling blueberries in the direction of the trash can from a distance.  Guess I should have told him to PUT the blueberries in the trashcan instead of throw them in.

Sydney to Lucy:  Looks like a great day to swim in your pool!

Hayden:  Mom, can you get me that yellow thing that spins around really fast?

Me:  The drill??

Hayden:  Yeah!

Me:  Uh, no.

August Abridged

Music Man

We took the four oldest to see our friends the Shepherds in Music Man.  Ryan was Professor Harold Hill and his two girls Lucy was Amaryllis and Sophie was an upstanding citizen of Rivercity, Iowa.   It was such a fun show and they were all STARS!  Go Shepherds!  Afterwards, we enjoyed delicious cinnamon rolls at Frontier Pies across the street.

Sydney is an Artist

 Sydney wanted to paint something on this piece of wood and since it was just sitting in our backyard, I figured why not.  She and Daphne worked on this collaboratively--One side is a daytime scene and the other side is a nighttime scene.  They turn it around to correspond with the appropriate time of day.  

School Supplies!

When I was at the store filling my cart with my 5 lists of school supplies, I was asked if I was opening a school!  I oughtta be with this much stuff!

The First Completely Free Day of Summer

Arthur took the oldest four on a four-day backpacking trip the last few days before school started.  I love this tradition, and this time, it was only Bennett, Sydney and I at home.  We didn't have anything scheduled and it honestly felt like the first relaxing day I had all summer!   With things so delightfully quiet at home, Sydney and I got to tackle her agenda, which doesn't always get the first priority.  When we woke up the first day, she asked what we were doing that day.  I asked her what she wanted to do.  She said, "Let's make my princess pillow case!  Wait, let's have breakfast and go to chic-filet for lunch.  Wait, let's make the pillow case first and THEN have breakfast."  

I just let her call the shots.  And it was a good few days.

Daphne Graduated from Primary

This is a picture of Daphne giving her last talk in primary on her 2nd to last Sunday in Primary.  She turned 12 this month and moved to Young Women's.  She was ready and is excited to be a part of the young women's program for the next 6 years.  Can't believe I have two kids in youth now!  (Feeling old.)

Daphne moving up to Middle School

Again.  I am old.  Here are Dallin and Daphne doing their registration paperwork and picking up their schedules at the middle school.

Star Wars Nights at the Steel's

Our friends, the Steels have been showing the Star Wars movies in their backyard for the last several months.  The first Monday of each month since May.  Unless it rains and then it gets moved to the next Monday.  I think that's happened almost every time, actually!  The kids love it! We bring our chairs and blankets and treats and lay in their backyard to watch Star Wars.  Bennett just wanders around the yard annoying everyone and getting endless amounts of snacks.  (Lots of popcorn from the awesome R2D2 Popcorn holder.)  And when Darth Vader appears, he yells, "Dart Bader!!!"  over and over.  In case anyone missed the villain's entrance. 

Dallin for LIFE!

Dallin earned his Life Scout award this month.  Next stop EAGLE!  I'm proud of this kid for staying on top of it and working hard to achieve the requirements needed for Life Scout.  He's a good kid.

16th Anniversary

Arthur and I celebrated 16 of marriage this month.  I surprised Arthur with a picnic dinner up in the Sandias with a view of the city lights as the sun went down.  I feel so blessed to have the beautiful family we started 16 years ago on August 12, 1999.

Daphne's Peacock Painting Party

Daphne turned 12 this year, and 12 is a "party year" at our house.  12 is a hard age to figure out what kind of party you want.  You're sort of done with character theme parties.  Princesses are past, so is stuff like Harry Potter.  Daphne went round and round on this.  All the ideas she came up with were already done by her other 12 year old friends, or we couldn't do them anyway because we lack the proper equipment (i.e. a pool).  I finally sent out the invitations, still without knowing exactly what we were going to do.  

But then I thought, Daphne loves art--how could we do an art themed party?  Well it just so happens that I know an artist so I called her up and asked if she would be interested in doing my 12-year-old's birthday party.  And she was game!  It turned out great.  She came and brought all the supplies and taught them how to do a painting of a peacock (Daphne's choice).  

Daphne and her friends had a fun time.  And Sydney loved it quite a lot.  At first she was worried about making mistakes and wanted me to draw it for her.  But after awhile, she scooted me out of the way and just took over.  I think we have another artist in the family.  :)

We are so blessed to have Daphne in our family.  She is a baker, an artist, a singer, so fun to be with, a good and thoughtful friend, and a kind and patient older sister.  Those 12 years went pretty fast.

Happy Birthday, Darling Daphne!

Back to School 2015/16

August 13th and 17th

First Days of School

Dallin & Daphne

6th & 8th Grades

I was nervous for Daphne's first day of middle school, but she did have a couple things going for her that made it easier.  She has an older brother at the same school, AND she'd already been attending show choir rehearsals so she had a place where she "belonged" and had made some friends there as well.

Sean and Hayden

2nd and 4th Grades

These guys are old pros

So the first day of school for the oldest four was August 13th.  Sydney had to wait until August 17th for her first day of school.  It was a little bit heart wrenching watching Sydney and Bennett play together those couple of days, knowing that their time together was quickly coming to an end.  They are such good little buddies and played together so well.  Once school starts its never quite the same.  Just not enough time to play.  :(

That morning they made pancake sculptures with the leftover pancakes. 

During those couple of days we went to Chick Fil A for lunch at Sydney's request.  I was thinking that without Sydney to invite me to take her to lunch at Chick Fil A, they won't be getting nearly as much business from me.   (I love ChickFilA but I can resist my own cravings easier than when my kids are asking for it too.) 

And finally the big day arrived!  

August 17th, Sydney's first day of Kindergarten!  

She's probably the most adorable Kindergartener there is.

Lucky for her, she has two big brothers to look out for her at school and sit by her on the bus. 

Ready to go with her Elsa back pack.  The zipper on that stupid thing didn't even last through the 2nd week.  Since then we've been holding it together with a safety pin.  

Off she goes with her class.  Right after this picture was taken I had to run after Bennett who had bolted for and was already on the playground.  

Meanwhile, on the homefront, Bennett's first act as the only child was this:

Ripping almost every page out of the Shutterfly book I made of our last trip to Hawaii.  

Horrific.  I was sick.

But he made up for it by taking a nap with me later, 

and you just can't be mad at that sweet sleeping face.

They all came home from their respective first days of school with glowing reports.  When I asked Sydney how her day was, she said, "AWESOME!"

It made me so glad to hear that they were happy at school.

Last day of Summer Vacation

August 12th

Last Day of Summer Vacation

Written by: Daphne

My two friends and I went to jumpstart day for Eisenhower

Middle School, and I didn't like it very much

because they treated us like we were in kindergarten saying things like,

"Okay, now you all know how to play games, right?" and, 

"You are doing so good! Now we're doing the same thing okay?"

I got a little bit... no, let me rephrase that, it was SUPER annoying!

It was really cute coming home from jumpstart and seeing all the crazy 

misters lined up watching, "My Little Pony".

Walking to Hubert Humphrey to drop off school supplies and meeting

new teachers!

Sydney and Mrs. Sanchez! She is so exited to have Miss. Sanchez for

kindergarten!

Hayden and Ms. Armijo!

Sean and Mrs. Pierre!

It is a tradition that the last day of summer vacation 

we go to Pop Pop's Italian Ice.

This summer vacation was a blast! I am so happy our family can go on

fun trips, be with united with extended family, and play in the sun!