the silveys: first days of school...

Colin's first day of 2nd grade! Don't mind the handmade sign. It was a little last minute, and my printer wasn't being cooperative about printing a cute sign. So, this was the best I could do. Also, Colin is super handsome.

Colin wanted to wear a hand-me-down University of Utah shirt to school. I put my foot down. That was so not appropriate for the first day of school. I said, "Don't you love your mother at all?! What if someone saw you in that and thought we were Ute fans?!" And since Colin is a good son, he changed.

I won't apologize for all of these similar pictures. It's my blog and I like looking at my adorable children.

After Colin went to school, I pulled out this play set thing that my mom brought to our house. She bought it to have for the grandkids to play with at her house, but with all the random people living there, there was no room for it. Apparently it's going to go back to her house some day. We'll see. The kids love it. Also, I put it together all by myself with minimal swearing. It's a combination lemonade stand, grocery store, veterinary clinic, and sweet shop.

On the second day of school I took the kids to the splash pad. I was doing my best to distract Kate from the fact that she wasn't going to school yet. Worked like a charm.

While we were there I ran into two old friends from high school. That's Megan Baer Murff's daughter in the hat. Megan is the owner of Cahoots Fitness, which I adore. And miss.

A dinner everyone ate and enjoyed! Success! I made pasta sauce with carrots and tomatoes from the garden. It was outstanding.

On Friday we went to the library. I let the kids play in the tiny park next to the library before we went in.

Then they played on the bridge.

Read books with the statues.

And played with blocks. We might have even checked out some books, too.

Kate demanded all the pictures of her tower castle thing.

A picture drawn by my father when he was in school. I don't know how old he was. I just found it on the back of one of his school papers. It's obvious where I get my artistic talent from.

Also, here are my dad's parents when they were young. And my dad's dad's mother, Emma. I told Grant that his daughter Maggie looks like her great-great-grandma, and he said, "Why? Because of the eyebrows?" Yeah, mostly.

My dad, circa junior high?

Also on Friday we went to the Payson pool for a party. My neighbor is a patient at Warren Orthodontics, and they were having a client appreciation party. She had extra tickets and asked if we wanted to go have pizza and swim for free. Uh, let me think about that for a minute. We're in. I didn't take any pictures until they announced that if you took a picture and tagged it on Facebook then you would be entered to win a paddleboard. I'm a sucker for things like that. (We did not win.)

On the way home Jude tried to clean his ears out with his toes.

Sometimes, you just have to sit in your parents bed and watch cartoons on Saturday morning.

How I found Jude when I went to get him up after his nap. He's a little backward.

I was putting together some costumes for Sharing Time out of fabric scraps. I was trying to see if I could make a headwrap for someone poor during Jesus' day. Nate was my model. I asked him to make his best "leper face."

A picture from Ethan, because he loves me.

Colin finally lost another tooth! The night before it came out he was offered like $5 from his grandparents/aunt to just get it out. But he refused. Then the next night Nate brushed it a little too hard, "accidentally." It bled a little, and then Colin asked Nate to just pull it out. Then he yelled, "No! Not you! Mom!" One yank and it was gone.

The day before school started for kindergarteners, two of my neighbor friends and I took our little ones to Battle Creek Falls. Then we went to Discovery Park in PG and had a picnic. It was a great day. Jude was running a fever, so he wasn't at his best. And when we got home I picked a buttload of green beans. Seriously.

Gray and I stopped to look at this little cave. I asked him what kind of creature he thought lived there. "Probably a dragon."

And then my baby girl grew up and went to Kindergarten. I was a little sad, but there were no tears. It helps that I still have two more boys at home to play with me. But seriously, how cute is she?! And yeah, she likes pink.

Gray wanted his picture taken in front of the door with his backpack on. But he didn't want his hair done. So I guess you could say this was Gray's first unofficial day of preschool. And yeah, he put his shoes on the wrong feet.