First Day of School

Monday August 15, 2016 was the first day of school.  I could hardly believe that both my kids are now in elementary school!! Where has the time gone? They were both very excited about the first day, it was bitter sweet for me.  I was excited for them but sad that they are growing up to darn fast! 

The Thursday before school started we were at the school doing some PTC stuff and were able to go into both kids classrooms and help the teachers a little bit.  I love how I have made myself so comfortable at Peterson that I just walk in on any day I want and hang out with the teachers. It truly makes it so I feel like I go there too and I'm not worried about them one bit.  

Aubrey was nervous to get Mrs. Livesay this year for 3rd grade.  I have heard wonderful things about her but I also heard that she was tough and gave a lot of homework.  I was originally pushing for Mrs. Carter since I heard she was easy but the principle and Aubrey's teacher talked me into a more challenging teacher and since Aubrey loves school and does well I went with there pick.  Mrs. Livesay has been a wonderful teacher! Aubrey absolutely LOVES her.  She has got to be one of the nicest person I have ever meet and I have been pleasantly surprised with the fact that Aubrey has hardly any homework. She has one page of math, spelling words to study and reading it only takes her about 10-15 minutes sometimes she finshes it in the car on the drive home.  On Wednesdays she gets to bring home her journal and answer a journal writing prompt, Aubrey loves it and I think it will be a wonderful keepsake.  I'm also loving Mrs. Livesay because she is the only 3rd grade teacher that likes parent helpers.  She had me start working every Thursday afternoon the first week of school.  The first time I was in the class I could not believe how sweet and loving she was to each kid.  When the bell rang at the end of the day she told each one of them how much she loved them .  I was pretty surprised and even asked Aubrey after school, "is she always like this or was it just because I was there?" Aubrey said, "no mom she is always like that she is the nicest teacher I have ever had." She plays the guitar in class and has a song for everything.  She is sweet and very smart.  She loves math and does great explaining it to all the students.  I also love it because she has a classroom web page with lots of great information on it and what the kids are doing every day.  She is great at communicating and likes to text! We feel so blessed to have her as Aubrey's teacher and we can't wait to get to know her better.  

Carter was excited to get to follow in his sisters footsteps and have Ms. Buttrey for first grade.  I was so excited too.  Ms. Buttrey and I have become very close and we text almost daily.  I love her and she could not be a more perfect teacher for Carter.  She is loving and caring but also doesn't let kids get away with things and I know she will help me with Carter and his lessening skills.  I had helped Ms. Buttrey with some things before school started and she asked me to come and be in the classroom on the first day to help.  I glady accepted and had fun planning a few activities for the kids.  Carter also is blessed with a light homework load and thank goodness he is adjusting to all day school very well.  He loves having his friends Ander, Cord, and Ian from Sonshine that he gets to play with at recess and lunch.  I volunteer in Carter's class ever Thursday morning.  I thought once I would have both kids at school I would have so much free time but the is not true at all.  My days fill up quick.  I work at the airport one day, volunteer one day, clean one day, errands one day and I seem to always book a whole day with some kind of church stuff like visiting teaching or preparing lessons.  I also was busy studing to become a subsitute teacher.  I just passed the CBEST and I'm so excited!   I also need to fit my work out at home and my work out with Spencer at the gym so my days get busy! I have it in my mind that I need to get all my duties done before I pick up the kids so that we can just have fun so the time they are at school just flies by.   

Back to the first day of school.....

 I surprised the kids with some fun back to school decorations and a yummy pancake breakfast.

 Teacher back to school gifts

Drop off at school wasn't really a drop since I stayed there all day.  I was super worried how the first day would go for Aubrey since Kendall went to another school this year and they have been together since preschool.  But she was super excited to see all her other friends and was really looking forward to a new friend named Mia that we actually ran into the Saturday before school started at the Merced mall.  The two of them started talking and realized they had the same teacher and so they decided that Saturday that they would sit together at lunch on the first day. 

After we gave Aubrey a big hug we headed to Carter's class.  I felt so lucky that I got to just hang out with him.  It was cute because the principle came in after the bell rang and asked if there were any new students to Peterson.  Ms. Buttrey said 2 of kids and they stood up.  Then Carter raised his hand and said he was new and the principle said, "I know you Carter I have watched you grow up." Carter felt really special.  It was really fun being there seeing all the firsts but there where a few times that I felt maybe I should back off and let Carter have some space.

I really wanted to make some fun projects for the kids and I found this cute idea on pinterest so I took all the kids pictures and then ran to Costco and developed them at lunch time so the kids could take them home the first day of school.

They were special magents to hang there progects from school at home.  They came out so cute and I loved hearing the parents the next few days saying how much they loved their magnets.

 Ms. Buttrey told me she was going for a transportation theme.  I found this idea for the kids to make to put on the class room door.

I also thought since I was taking pictures might as well make a drivers licence.

and I helped Ms. Buttrey with these little goldfish gifts too.

 There are just so many cute ideas and I go way over board! I love first grade!! I've been trying to get ideas for 3rd grade projects too.  We just made some dream catchers a couple weeks ago which I will post later.  The first day was a big success.  I got to see Aubrey at recess and lunch and she was having a fun day too.  That afternoon we came home and relaxed and then we went to Five Guys for dinner.  Even Papa and Gaga got to meet us for dinner because they were in town working that day.  It was a fun day and I just know it will be a great year!

August 1st-14th 2016 (The end of summer)

August started off with a bang.  On Monday the 1st the kids and I went to the Fresno Zoo.  Daddy actually had a meeting down in Fresno so we bummed a ride with him and he dropped us off for the day at the zoo.  It was so much fun just taking our time looking at everything.  We were able to make every show and zoo keeper talk.  We were a few minutes late to the flamingo talk and missed the whole thing.  The zoo keeper ended up giving us a private lesson which was wonderful.  It was so much fun and made me even more grateful that we got the annual pass.  It was a very hot day but with all the shade, ice cream and Slurpee's we did great.

 We stumbled upon the fossil area and the kids had a blast.  They would have stayed their all day if I let them. 

 Daddy picked us up and then we did a little shopping and dinner at Red Robins.  We had to hurry home for our annual Monday night Bachlorette party with our friends.  Every Monday night Susan, Amy, Deanna, Eric, Spencer and I watch Bachlorette.  It has been a lot of fun laughing, talking and munching on the best desserts ever! 8/1 was the season finale so we got a little more fancy. 

Tuesday 8/2 we were woken up by a crazy naked man (he did have tiny boxer shorts on) trying to get in our house.  It was like 6am when he started pounding on the door.  Both Spencer and I ran downstairs.  The man was convinced that he was coming to our house to visit a girl he knew.  When we finally got him to believe us that it was the wrong house he was off to our neighbors.  We called the cops and they took care of it.  He was very intoxicated and actually had a warrant out for his arrest.  It made for an interesting morning for sure. 

 I have been promising the kids a walk with glow sticks all summer.  We walk a lot but never late at night.  It was fun but after the crazy man they were not feeling a late night walk.

Wednesday 8/3 we got a little craft bug going so we worked on some fun stuff.

I'm in love with this banner the kids made for the Olympics.

Thursday 8/4 we had a dual play date with Ander and Kendall.  The kids made homemade pizzas for dinner that night.

 Friday 8/5 we spent most of the day at the pool.  They have a kid program in the summer for kids who's parents work.  Carrie was there so it was fun for the kids to meet up and play.

 Friday night Aubrey made really cute Olympic torches for the Supinger Olympic party the next day.

 Saturday 8/6 was the Supinger Olympic party at the Stockton Supinger's house.  It was such a fun party and a great idea.  Aunt Angie did a great job.  The e-mail invitation said to bring white shirts to make our own or wear matching shirts.  We also all had a country assigned to each family.  Every family was to bring some kind of dish from their country to share and which family was asked to make a skit/dance to introduce the members of our family.  Spencer really want our country to be Venezuela (where he served his mission).  For our dish we made Arepas which is something he ate a lot of down there.  We made up a family dance to a song called Alone by Marshmallow that turned out amazing if I do say so myself!  As for the shirt I'm always down with making matching shirts.  The funny thing was we arrived to the party with other clothes on and then revealed our shirts durning our dance it was really awesome!  It was so funny because everyone knows that I love making matching shirts so to arrive with not matching clothes and then present it the way we did was really cool.  After our meal of Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Venezuelan and American we did our dances and then the games began.

We wore sweat shirts over our shirts for the dance.  

After the dances (ours was the best btw!) the games started.  First up was a cup game that Aubrey did for our team and she got I bronze metal in that.  Then it was water balloon toss.

Carter really took one for the team and did both the messy challenges.  Water balloons and then a pie eating contest.

 He was up against some big cousins and Uncle David.  He did really good and had a blast doing it!

 After pie eating I did the cornhole game (which I'm pretty good at thanks to Lynn Spain for getting us to play while we were on our cruise) we also did another ball throwing game 

Then we did the ping pong in tissue box game.  You have to wiggle until all your balls are out.  Aubrey took home Gold in that one.

Then we did lip singing and all the men put on a great show.

After all the games we had a metal ceremony.  It was the cutest event ever!!

Uncle Adam and Aunt Susan brought a pineta for all the kids to do since they were representing Mexico.  The kids loved it and it was just icing on the cake.

 I was proud of our shirts!

 The party didn't stop there! It was time to celebrate Carter, Ben and Charlotte's birthdays.  Such a cute story......I had texted Angie, "What is Charlotte want for her birthday?" her response "Anything Frozen" I really that info to Aubrey and Carter and Carter says in a serious voice, "Like an ice cube?" I was cracking up!  

Carter loves getting spoiled.  He also would not stop telling everyone it was his birthday even though his birthday was months ago. 

 Grandma and Grandpa and some of their grandchildren.

 Mom and Dad and some of their sons. We were missing Craig and Kimball.

 All the kids except for Terry and Craig

 How cute is this!  Aubrey loves Charlotte and she idolizes Aubrey.

It was a great day.

Tuesday 8/9 both Aubrey and I woke up sick.  It was so weird being sick in the summer. We both had over 100 degree temperatures and just felt sick.  We took the next few days to relax and get better.

Carter used the days to build all his new Lego sets.  and of course shirtless.

 He gets mad that in all his pictures he looks naked but that's what you get when the first thing he does when he walks in the house is takes his shirt off. 

 Thursday 8/11 we worked more on our fairy garden.  Nana got them started at the begging of summer.

 That day we meet dad for a pizza buffet lunch.  Aubrey is so good at those grab games she wins every time.

 Our garden is a work in progress but is looking really cute.

 Friday 8/12 Daddy took the day off to play with us.  First up lunch at the Hillmar Cheese Factory.

Then to Funland in Modesto for go cart racing 

 Really fun bupper cars

 A round of mini golf.

more go cart racing.

Bumper boats

and a really fun indoor play place.

We had a blast as a family.  I got a groupon and it was so perfect for a day trip.  We will have to do that again.  It's fun with the kids getting older we can try new things.  Th ego carts were the best! After all that we went to the mall for some back to school shopping and then ended our night with a yummy dinner at Mimi's Cafe.  It was a great day!

Saturday we did the gym and swimming all day.

and then can you believe it Sunday 8/14 the day before school was here! Wow where did the summer go? On Sunday the kids did their annual back to school fashion show for us.

 They are too cute for words and I was super sad that our lazy summer days were coming to an end.  It was time to pack our lunch boxes and get our backpacks ready.  Ready or not the first day of school was tomorrow.