Back To School

Over the Summer my boys have been very helpful to me with house cleaning. They can clean, without my help, their bedroom, the living room, the tv room and empty the dishwasher.

We've done some summer learning to get our brains ready for the school year.

We've visited family and had a blast! We really took advantage of the summer.

Tiberias turned 5 just before the school year began and he was so excited to enter Kindergarten. So was Mommy.

At Meet the Teacher Night we saw classrooms and met teachers. Luke has Mrs. Rauert and Ty has Mrs. Machziewsky...I cannot pronounce either name. They seem like wonderful teachers.

August 24th was the first day of school. All day Kindergarten. They boys had a blast! And Ty was so brave. He said it wasn't scary at all. When I asked the boys what their favorite part of the day was Ty said "the playground" (of course) and Luke said "There are too many ...I can't decide." Luke also stated that "2nd grade is so much funner than 1st"...after one day. lol

That day Dad and Mom got a taste of what the school year will be like. With Sterling's work schedule he is home mornings every other week. This week he is home mornings. So we took Athena to her friends' house while we played a little Tennis. Then we picked her up and went to the Millstone Family Restaurant to celebrate not having the boys.
When we got home Athena went down for a nap. Two hours of no children! What paradise.

Tiberias did not have school the rest of the week because he really starts next Monday. But Luke has been back to school every day.

For back to school pictures I found online that someone had made a beautiful frame using Crayola chalk. So I bought what I needed and made the frame. Only, chalk does not hold...it crumbles and falls off anything it is glued to.
But I made attempts to get it outside for pictures. Unfortunately it would not even stay together if I had taken pictures in the kitchen where I made the frame at because when you grasp it the chalks fall off.
It completely died when the frame somehow fell apart in my arms...not the chalk...the frame. It was too heavy I guess. I had made the frame myself from wood using some special metal attacher things. It didn't work. When it fell to the ground the chalks all broke off.

So this year we did our pictures without a frame.


On the first day of school I left Athena home with Sterling and I walked to pick up the boys. It's about a 15 min walk from our house. It was so nice to get the walk without kids slowing me down. On the walk home the boys were tired after their first day and we walked a little slow for them. Here are pics on the walk home...

P.S. I love having kids. I love being Mom. But I also love that occasions when I get a break.

Athena at the park during the first week of school...

Our Bunnies

Two rabbits...two different breeds...two different personalities. Nutella (bunny on the left) is wild and wants to run away from humans and slip into the neighbor's yard. When it's time to go into the house she runs and makes you do your best to catch her. A pain. And because of her we bought fencing and made a movable enclosure. Now the kids can hold the bunnies outside and play with them. And Nutella cannot escape.

Buttercup on the other hand will allow us to pet her and hold her even during her outdoor time. She is easy to bring back into the house when outdoor time is up. She is bigger and more energetic. She has a need to run all over the yard. We do let her free every day and she loves it.

  

We got a bunch of new chalk recently. Saturday during our outdoor play time we drew lots of colorful pictures...

 Tiff's version of Buttercup and Nutella

 Some older photos of the two bunnies when they were getting to know each other...

Our apple tree unfortunately caught fungus and we did not realize it until it was too late. The tree was overrun and dying. Sterling has to take it out. It's useless now.

Funny Kiddos

Athena

Athena has learned to say "hello" and wave. And she loves it.
She loves waving at everyone! When we go on a walk she will wave to everyone we see.
When she says hello it's "helooooh." It's adorable because she's adorable.

Tiberias

The Magical Healing Blanket

Tiberias loves his big monkey blanket his grandparents Roundy gave him a couple years ago. And for some reason he claims it makes his owies feel better. If the blanket is touching his injury he claims in feels better. And if the blanket comes off the injury he claims it hurts again. He's been doing this most of this year already.
Today he said he doesn't know why it works but it does. And he told me that if he is on the comfy couch while wrapped in his blanky it works twice as well. :)

Lachoneus

Luke is my smartest child because he loves using his brain. He loves building things and figuring out solution, math or otherwise. And he is now creative as well. He loves drawing pictures and he is good at it. He loves crafts and coloring too.

Tiberias Turns 5

Tiberias was confused this Summer about birthdays. Luke celebrated his bday on his birthday at my parents house. Then again with cake, sharing a party with his cousins Jacob and Ezra at the swimming pool. Then we had a birthday for Luke and Ty together when we got back to Rapid City. So Tiberias thought since Luke had two birthday parties we turned 7 in July and turned 8 in August.

We had Ty's birthday party weeks before he turned 5. That confused him as well.
He got so tired of waiting to actually turn 5 years old I had to make him a paper chain to track the days. He took a link off the chain every day until he turned 5.

On Tiberias' actual birthday we did not plan anything with friends. We were going to give him his choice of dinner and his choice of a movie during dinner and that's it.
But as the day approached friends happened to ask if we could get together on Wednesday which happened to be Ty's bday.

So this is how his 5th Birthday played out:
Breakfast then a scavenger hunt. I decided that morning to cut out some paper balloons and write clues on them so he could have some fun to start the day. The treasure at the end was new silly straws to share with his siblings.

At 10am we met friends at the park; Ty's friends Eli Hickman, CJ and Teddy Aston,  my friends Natasha and Martha, Athena's friends Abi and Alexia. We played an hour and a half and had a blast. I think that God planned it. That Heavenly Father put the thought into Martha's head and then into Natasha's head to ask us to get together on that day specifically so Ty would be able to play with his friends on his birthday.

We went home for lunch and I let him watch Power Rangers even though I usually only let him watch it on Saturdays.
For dinner we watched a movie as a family. The kids at Ty's choice...chicken nuggets. But Ster and I were in the mood for pizza so we had Pizza Ranch and the kids joined our meal after they ate their chicken nuggets.

Wednesday was also special because of Meet the Teacher Night at Valley View Elementary. The boys were so excited to find out who their teachers would be and see their classrooms.
I was so relieved to meet their teachers. Luke's teacher this year seems nice Mrs Rauerk. I can't pronounce her name. Ty's teacher I do know a bit about. She is the fun kindergarten teacher that I was hoping he would be assigned to! Mrs. Macziewski...even harder to pronounce.

So Tiberias had a wonderful birthday. And he is ready to start school. He finally knows almost every letter in the alphabet and loves reading me every letter he sees. We are still working on what sounds they all make.

Here are photos from his birthday party some weeks ago. He invited Julia Elliott and Luke invited Logan Stone. We went to Chuck E Cheese and had a blast.

 Since I made Luke's cake in July in Vegas I made Ty's choice of cake for their joint birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. Luke had a Kirby cake and Ty chose Power Rangers.