First day of school 2010-2011

Obligatory pictures. We are lucky her arm swelling went down and her cast was replaced. We couldn't fit any of her clothes over her elbow! The girl would have been wearing tank tops and undershirts to school. Not exactly in the bounds of the dress code.


Amelia was on a little camping trip with her grandma when we went backpack shopping. Tess picked out both of them. She did a great job. Last year Amelia wanted a messenger bag. After the first week of school, she came home and begged for a backpack. It was so heavy on her tiny body. When we asked her this year if she wanted a messenger bag she told us not til she grows a foot or two.




It was hard leaving Tess. Like, really hard. I cried. A lot. She just seemed so small and so tiny. I feel like I was feeding her to the wolves. I'm totally not. She has a darling teacher. We went and worked in her classroom on Friday and got to know her. She will be great. Tess has been so awesome this summer. She is sweet and fun and loves to hang with me and help. I will miss her terribly. Terribly!

Love Amelia too. She is great. She has to be the smallest kid in her class. It was hard to take her damaged to a class of kids who are all giant compared to her. We will miss her too, but we've done this already with her. She was so excited to go back and get into a routine. She misses that about school.

I am pretty grossed out by our school districts lunches. They cook it all at a central kitchen and ship it in. You can't exactly call that healthy. I miss the days when we had little old lady cooks who made everything from scratch. It was lovely. So this year we are doing Bento Boxes. As I get more into it, we will find cuter and easier ways to Bento it. We bought some "Fresh and Fit" boxes for our first run. These little boxes stack into a larger box and have an ice pack inside. I've ordered some more online and we will add as we go. When the hubster lived in Japan, he became a fan of the Bento. I'm glad we could incorporate it into our daily routine.

How I spent my summer

Otherwise known as potty training.

Somedays are better than others.

Never Wake a Sleeping Baby

Best advice ever given.

Unfortunately some of us never learn.

Once there was this weekend that wouldn't end

No seriously, it wouldn't. By the time Monday rolled around, we were spent.

Amelia was able to walk in one of our local parades and throw out taffy to the masses with her friends and her friends father. They rocked those D.A.R.E. shirts.

We waited for her to walk by and throw candy to our masses.

Hot husband. No really. He was hot.

Throwing candy.

The parade didn't start until 11:00. Crazy time to start a parade. We were dumb enough to think that we could get to our super awesome friends house for our annual 4th of July water party/picnic by 1:00. Um, no.

But we rushed there and were there by 2:00. I think they still like us.

Then we booked it home to get to another BBQ in our new hood by 6:00. No pictures. And we were going to go with our new hood to fireworks. But the parents in this house were exhausted. So we promised our kids massive amounts of sugar if they would watch a movie and crash on the couches with us. Mission accomplished.

We didn't feel to bad about that because the next day we were heading to the capital of where all fireworks are sold. They aren't illegal in this neighboring state. We headed to the ballpark...aka...the war zone with all of my sisters and parents.

The entire city looked like this.

On Monday we headed to a party hosted by some friends from our old neighborhood. No pictures from that either. Just imagine the worlds largest slip and slide and very wet children...and parents.

If you were wondering. That's where it ended.

Those fairies found us.

And we are so glad they did.

This one time we went to St. George

Without our husbands.

I had a sick baby.

I was tired.

But it was still crazy fun.

I think.

It was a cold and wet spring

But it didn't phase them.

Last Day of School

I told Tess to get dressed this morning. She did a great job. I rarely pick out clothes for her anymore. When she came in and asked me to do up her pants, I thought to myself "I didn't know she had capris like that."



Upon taking a closer look, the are in fact, not capris. They are Sophie's size 2T pants. How they ended up in Tess' folded laundry, I have no idea.


Do you know the type of money I could save on "Hand-me-ups"? And I am secretly jealous that her butt can fit in a size 2T. Some people have all the luck.

Guaranteed Ugly

My new favorite term. It means trading one ugly for another. I saw it on another blog today. Ironically I had a guaranteed ugly show up in my life just after reading.

Today my guaranteed ugly:


I traded house sparrows building a nest right above my front door. Saving future neighbors from being attacked. Sorry Kim.




For a creepy, scary, old lady lawn ornament owl that is supposed to keep rabid sparrows away.




I only open my front door if I have to. Then I come back inside and hyperventilate. Eventually I will move the owl around the corner. I just need the swallows to know who pays the mortgage around here. It's a creepy fake owl.

When you are outnumbered...

...you tend to overlook certain things.

Like your 2.5 year old joining a gang. A cute gang where they wear clothes that are too big and zebra striped and silky, but a gang none the less.

Tess Turns Six!