Macie's First Day of Pre School

Macie got to go to pre school this past week. She has been VERY excited for a VERY long time and it finally came! She got to choose what we had for breakfast that morning (sausage and strawberries - two favorites !) She requested to sleep in her new pre school shirt but I talked her out of it, so she just held it in her sleep. It was pretty funny! Once she was all ready to go see "Mrs. Cole" (who is actually Ms. Nicole) we hopped in the car to drop her off.

I was completely nervous, and not for normal reasons. Most moms feel sentimental and sad to send their kids off. Not me, this time anyway! I was preparing for the worst because it takes time to warm up to new things at our house and after our swimming lessons experience I really wondered if I wasn't jumping the gun a bit and sending her to pre school prematurely. Well, I was very pleasantly surprised. I pulled up to "Mrs. Cole's" house where pre school is and she strapped her back pack on, jumped out of the car and RAN up the driveway to the front door. She barely remembered to turn around to wave at us! I shed a few tears, tears of relief!!

Labor Day Fun

We went to St. George for the Labor Day weekend. We went for the first time to a water park (not like Seven Peaks, a different kind of water park) at the St. George library and had a BLAST! The Cole, Macie and their cousin Ellie ran, jumped, crawled and splashed. You'll see that even two pretty big kids got caught up in the fun!

Justin and I also went to Tuacahn (with Rachel, lucky her!) where we saw Les Miserables. It was so amazing. I LOVE the music and the story is so gripping. I was trying not to embarrass Rachel and Justin by bursting out in song along with the cast members but it was really hard. I'm just extremely disciplined, ha ha ;)

Ahhh....The End of Summer!

Most people are kind of sad when summer ends and it's time to go back to the grind. Not me, I love the grind! Summer for me means no routine and fighting off the requests to "play with friends" ALL the time. The only real routine we have in the summer is arguing every day about who they can play with first and if they have to wait until 10am to play and can they ride bikes while they wait and can someone come to our house and can my 16 friends eat lunch at our house???? So that is why I welcome the end of summer and the beginning of ORDER!

We did have a VERY fun summer however. You wouldn't know since I didn't post a single blog during the summer! I took a little hiatus and now I'm back!

School started yesterday for Cole so we have some darling pictures of our big 1st Grader. He had a fun day of school and thought it was totally cool to eat lunch there. He is getting so big! He did ask me though if he got to keep his school desk at the end of the year. I wish he could be this way forever. They do have great desks, I have to admit!

Here are a few first day pictures and I have also added highlights of our ENTIRE summer.....

Our 2008 Rich Family Reunion was very fun. We have it every year at Grandpa Rich's. There are fun games (usually involving some kind of water where the adults get wetter than the kids), YUMMY food and catching up with people you get to see only once or twice a year. It's so nice to have family close by and to have such a good time at get togethers!

Cole has discovered a passion for water balloons!
A little friendly competition?!? (my arms are totally bigger, its just not muscle!)

Here are some random summer shots.....

Cole and Macie dressed up Cole's desktop fan, the fan is sporting Cole's beloved Iron Man shirt, shorts and Optimus Prime briefs. Isn't it stunning?!?!
So cute in a shower cap!

Swimming lessons were fun this year, well fun for Cole anyway :) Cole is a little fish and loves swimming lessons. His friend Jared was in his class and they both are super swimmers. Macie is a fish as well and LOVES to swim. However, swimming lessons were a different story. Her friend Eli was in her class so I thought that would really help her just jump right in and love swimming lessons like Cole. That was not the story. Macie wouldn't get in the water with her class. She wanted to get in the pool but was not willing to participate in what the class was doing. I tried threats and bribes and having her feet get hot on the cement and nothing worked. After asking probing questions to see why she didn't like swimming lessons I discovered she didn't like her teacher, Brandon. She asked me twice during an inquiry if "that boy would be there," meaning her teacher! Next year I think I may request a girl teacher!!

I think this is how Macie feels about her teacher and swimming lessons in general!
This is how Macie spent swimming lessons, just playing in the corner while her class played games and practiced a few swimming skillsThis was our most successful swimming lesson, she almost looks like she is part of the class!
Super swimmers Cole and Jared (I love the goggles!)

Cole earned a pass to Seven Peaks water park for reading in Kindergarten and he was VERY anxious to use it (even though I don't think he knew exactly what Seven Peaks is). So on July 29th we went. It was crowded and loud but Cole and Macie had a blast. The funny thing is that neither of them went on a single water slide, other than the "baby" ones that is. No amount of convincing or bribery (we prefer calling it incentive, but it really is bribery) could change Cole's mind. So we just stuck to the kiddy areas, the lazy river and the wave pool. The kids had fun and that is what matters, right?!?!