School Days, School Days

Well, school started a couple of weeks ago, on August 24th. It seems like the summer just flew right by! Here is what the kids had to bring this year:

2 backpacks

3 bottles of glue

20 glue sticks

6 boxes of 24-count crayons

1 wide-lined notebook

42 sharpened pencils

4 bottom pocket folders

2 boxes of markers

12 dry erase markers

1 box of watercolors

2 school supply boxes

6 pink pearl erasers

2 pairs of pointed scissors

1 box of kleenexes

1 ream of copy paper

2 containers of Clorox wipes

2 boxes of Ziplock bags

1 set of colored pencils

Here's Ethan, all ready to go and so excited!

Off he goes, on his bike, to pick up his friend Talon. Kind of a rainy first day of school.
This is actually Asia's second day of school since Mom forgot the camera on her first day. Oh well!

One of her first assignments was to trace the hands of all of the members in her family and decorate it. It was fun to compare everyone's hands.

After 2 weeks of school under our belt, I think we finally have a routine down! Now to get myself into a routine, that's another story!

9 Month Old Mia and Happy Birthday Jacob

I can't believe Mia is already 9 months old, almost 10! She is such a fun little girl. She just started to crawl right after we got home from California, and now she's already pulling herself up and standing! What a stinker! So now she likes to get into stuff and started tackling the dreaded stairs. She's almost 20 pounds and is growing like a weed. She crawls with her right leg dragging and her left foot pulling her. It's hard to describe, but her right knee is on the ground, while her left foot is on the ground. Funny little girl. My friend told me it's a sign of great intelligence! Yep, she's a genious! She's getting both of her second teeth on the top so she's been quite cranky lately. She had a fever one night and didn't sleep very well for a couple of nights, but I think they're about through now, thank goodness! I need my sleep! Here's our little blue-eyed princess:

And look what I can d0!! She was also kinda sad because I wouldn't pick her up.
What a sad face!!

Jacob turned 2 on August 14th. We took the kids to the equal access playground at Tautphaus Park and had a great time. This was our first time there so it was fun exploring all the new things. It's a very fun park. Jacob ran from one thing to the next and kept saying to me," Come on, mommy, come on!" I tried to keep up with him! We had a picnic and even Daddy was able to come from work.

He's really into cars lately, so I decided to throw him a cars party. My friend had made her little boy a racetrack cake so I decided to copy her idea. It turned out great. Thanks Stacy!

The only problem was, Jacob thought it was a real racetrack that he could play with! He wanted to race the cars around the racetrack, but I didn't want his grubby little hands all over the cake that we were all going to eat. Mean Mom, I know! He got to have his own little cake that I tried to make into a tire.

Then it was time to open presents.

What a fun little birthday for a fun little boy. He is such a sweetheart and likes to do everything his older brother and sister do. He just recently became very interested in sitting on the potty and he actually does something on it everytime! We may be potty trained soon, but I'm not getting my hopes up!

He knows most of the letters in the alphabet and what sound they make. He can count to twenty and only skips a few numbers. He loves trains, planes, helicopters, cars, and trucks and loves to sing and dance. His favorite book right now is called "Afraid of the Dark?" and he loves to sing "I Love to See the Temple." Everyday he talks more and more and it's nice to be able to know what he wants instead of him and I getting frustrated. We love our little Jacob and his big brown eyes and chubby cheeks!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Since school started, I feel like I have no time to post anything anymore. And I still want to sleep in, so getting up any earlier to get something done is not an option right now! So, here I am playing catch up again.

After our trip, we knew we had to get some huckleberry picking in since the berries were almost ready when we left. The spot that we usually go to had been picked over already, so we had to hunt for a new spot. It wasn't as good as our regular spot, but we still were able to pick about a gallon or so in about 2 and a half hours.

The kids had a great time. Ethan brought his friend, Baey, who had never been picking before. Jacob had fun eating all he could see and Asia did the same. They had fun exploring and playing tag in the mountains. Mia rode in the "Mini Me" backpack and Mike accidentally scratched her face all up when he went to bend down to pick. Ooops. TWICE!! Needless to say, we took her out of the backpack and she was content to eat leaves and dirt the rest of the time.

Here's Mia with her face all scratched up but still a smile on her face! What a sweet girl.

Anyway, now we can have huckleberry pancakes, milkshakes, ice cream, jam, etc. etc. etc. Yummy!