First fake day of school

On the second day of school we took it seriously and pretended like it was the first day.  Good dinner, good night sleep, good breakfast, and pictures.

Brock - 4th grade.

Madiosn - Kindergarten AM

Megan - 1st grade.
She got this idea that she looks better with out her glasses.  I am glad that she is over that now.

I made her take one with her glasses - can't you tell I MADE her?

Noah - 4th grade

Our school has a 3/4 split class.  We decided to put Brock and Noah in it together.  So they are in the same class.  It felt inspired - and so far is going great.

This is my favorite view.  Not becasue they are leaving me (that is sad) - but becasue they love each other.  One of my goals as a parent was to make sure they loved each other and needed each other.  I think sibling relationships can help and sustain you even more than parent/child relationships.  I feel good about sending them into the world knowing they have each other.

I have to admit.  I didn't really cry.  My eyes welled up a little - but never really fell.  It was strange.  I had thought about this day for years.  Mostly because this month of August was probably the most crazy stressful month of my life (I will write more about why later) and I was just to busy to really soak up the reality of what was happening.  I had too much to do to really care.  But they are all doing great and thriving in school.  I am also thriving at home alone. 

Swimming

While the big kids were at school we still had some cousins and some visitors - so we went swimming.  It rocked!

First real day of school

As mentioned earlier my kids first day of school changed 10 days before school started - and we still had a house full of family.  I would have kept them home and missed the first day if it weren't Megan's first day of first grade.  I feel like that's important - you know, the lunch line and all.  

So this was technically the first day of school - but we didn't' treat it like it.  They stayed up until about 10:00 the night before, slept in sleeping bags on the living room floor with their cousins, slept in, didn't take showers, wore normal clothes (who am I kidding - I have never bought back to school clothes), ate cereal for breakfast, and I didn't take pictures.  Poor kiddos.

While at the school I thought, I should at least take pictures of them in line - since they only line up the first day - and after that just go right into the school.

Madison's first day was the next day.  And OUR first real day of school.

Around the House

Here are some random pictures from the reunion of everyone just hanging around the house.

You may notice Aaron (on the floor in the middle) has a cast on his arm - that is right - my nephew broke his arm on my tree swing!  He was such a trooper - AND his parents.  they calmly went to insta-care got a cast and came right back.

You wouldn't know it from the picture but Gwen loved Madison and would follow her around saying, "Madison" in that really cute baby voice.

As you can see Madison was in heaven with all the younger kids - she desperately wants a younger sibling - don't all youngest children?

Our sister in law, Marisa, is from American Samoa and I have a sister missionary in our ward from Samoa that is having a really hard time on her mission.  She misses her family and Samoa.  She has tried to go home several times.  So I got them together one night and my SIL made her some Samoan food.  Through the conversation we found out that they are related!!  The Lord is good.

This brings pure joy to my heart.