Back into the Swing of Things

It's officially the end of the second week of school and I'm starting to feel like the family is settled into our routine again.  As much as I like the fun days of summer, I'm exhausted by the end and it's nice to get onto a schedule again and have the household (somewhat) under control.  Speaking of handling household items, I've started the most amazing way to store clothes for kids #2 and #3.  These cubbies are genius for busy minds that don't want to think about how to put outfits together and/or tackle the task of putting clothes on hangers.  It's amazing how such a small change can make our mornings run more smoothly.

Here is Lauren with her YW candied apple which she insisted on me taking a pic for the blog.  I'd say the apple tasted as good as it looked but unfortunately only the cook got to sample the deliciousness. ;)

 And speaking of apples, our family conducted a taste test to find out which variety of apple we liked the best.  The kids tasted each apple and scored it, then I tallied the points.

 The official results of the Green family apple tasting:

1 - Pink Lady (with a perfect score!)

2 - Gala (with a near perfect score)

3 - Jazz

4 - Braeburn

5 - Golden Delicious

6 - Fuji

7 - Red Delicious

8 - Ginger Gold

9 - Granny Smith  (no surprise here - my least fave too)

 What is your favorite apple?

This year Lauren had the opportunity to join a homeschool co-op called Vanguard Academy.  I am going to have to write a huge detailed post about this co-op in the future because I am thrilled with this group.  All of the people we've met are so kind and we are both excited about the year ahead, in fact, Lauren's extra excited because she was just voted into the presidency as the game chief!  They started off the year with a "Vision Hike" on Friday morning in which they hiked as a group to a beautiful overlook and had a devotional about their theme for the year.

 

Friday night I had the super fun opportunity to go to dinner with my mom, Amy & Jackie.  We giggled nonstop and the giggles turned into huge laughs when they brought out my mom's ginormous ice cream sundae.  We missed having my sister Kim and our sisters-in-law there and we also got reprimanded by the brothers for being sexist and only inviting the girls.  Sorry!!  Next time it'll be a huge par-tay!

 On Saturday, we went to Tyson's baptism and then Jackie's house for food, fun, games, and more food.  I didn't take any pictures but we had SO MUCH fun with everyone that was there and stayed till it was time for dinner.  Thanks Jack!

Tuesday and Wednesday nights of this week I had the opportunity to go to the Utah Realtor's Convention in Deer Valley with Matt.  Nana and Papa stayed with the kids - I love the picture of the boys cuddling with Nana in the morning.  The pictures of Matt and me are before the awards dinner and I'm laughing at my outfit and hair - I look like a politicians wife.

 

 Well, that's it... see you next week!

First Day of School

The first day of school was August 26th.  Everyone was (mostly) excited to start the new year... it's gonna be a great one!  :)

Owen has actually had 3 "first days" this year.  His 1st first day was an orientation of the school, his 2nd first day was pre-kindergarten testing, and his 3rd (and real) first day was on Thursday.  I got to ride the bus with him (and the other 5 year olds in the neighborhood) to the school and after his fabulous day another mom rode the bus home with the kids.  He is SO excited to finally be in school with everyone else - wahoo!!

Happy "Back to School" everyone!!

Last Week of Summer!!

Last week of summer break - can you believe it?!  We celebrated by going to YogoTogo for "Weightless Wednesday" which is $5 for however much frozen yogurt and toppings you can fit in your cup.   Mmmm, gluttony at it's finest.  :)  We go there for treats every once in a while, but the kids loved going there without me hovering over their every (overpriced) addition and topping.  You'll notice we have one of Lauren's friends (Hannah), but not Lauren - she was diagnosed with strep throat that morning and stayed home to rest and recover. 

 We took the kids to Boondocks for one last hurrah this week.  Lauren was not contagious anymore, but still feeling under the weather and she opted to stay home.  The kids spent most of their time in the laser tag arena which worked out great for me because I spent that time listening to podcasts on my headphones.  If you don't listen to podcasts yet, you should!!  I've been told about them before but was never in the state of mind to really delve into listening regularly until this summer.  They've changed my life; vacuuming, running on the treadmill, and pulling weeds will never be the same.  The friend in the pictures is Cole from across the street.  He just moved to Texas and Will was/is having a hard time losing his great buddy. 

My 38th birthday was Saturday.  We spent the day boating and got home just as the huge hail storm hit.  Was it just Davis County or did any of you experience it too?  It was ca-razy!!  I made a cake for my b-day but it was Will's choice and I let him blow out the candles.  He's been super bummed out (and has told me so multiple times) ever since his 8th birthday because I misunderstood him and made the wrong kind of cake.  I made pineapple upside down cake and he wanted pineapple pina colada cake.  Problem solved today - happy unbirthday buddy!!  That evening we went out to eat at Cafe Molise in SLC with Biffy and Greg.  Good food, great night, fabulous friends.  :)

Summer - Week #10

The week started off in an exciting way with Will and Owen having their very first lemonade & cookie stand.  They've been wanting to do one forever and I finally gave in.  They stayed outside for almost 4 hours and made over $20 - what?!?  They must've gotten some big tips because I don't think they sold 80 items.  :)  It was a fun experience for them.

Matt turned 40 this Wednesday - shout out to the old man!  The kids spent Tuesday afternoon making these surprise posters.

  

 For his actual birthday Matt worked; such is the life of an old guy.  But, we had a great night opening presents and eating cake.  For his gifts, each of us gave Matt bags filled with his favorite treats and "dates" of his favorite activities.  Bradley is taking him hiking, Lauren is going on a bike ride with him to the movie theatre, Will is taking him golfing, and Owen is taking him to a Bees game.  After cake and presents, Matt and I snuck over to Oakridge to enjoy a nice dinner out and a few holes of golf.  Side note - Yes, there are 40 candles on the cake.  Yes, the 2nd picture below is blurry because there was so much smoke left behind from those 40 candles.  And, yes, the cake was nibbled on before Matt blew out his candles.  It was Matt that did the nibbling though, so when the kids got upset that someone had eaten the cake already, I had to explain that the birthday boy can do whatever he pleases. :)

 

 

On Thursday, Lauren left with the YW to go to girls' camp at Piuta.  She enjoyed the camp and said her favorite thing about it was going on a zip line.  I helped drive the girls up to camp and got the bottom picture of Lauren with the girls in her cabin.  They are practicing their "Cup Song" skit in this picture; the skit was so cute; almost as adorable as all the YW in her cabin... I love those girls and miss being an advisor to them but I am so glad Lauren gets to experience being with them now.

I drove home from camp just in time to see Will get a boat-load of awards at Pack Meeting.  He's been working hard this summer and got a bag full of belt loops and pins - 14 of them!!!  There were a lot of awards that night so the leader, instead of announcing every award, asked each boy about one of them.  When it was Will's turn, the Cub Master noticed that Will earned the video game belt loop and asked him about it.  Will had earned swimming, ice skating, soccer, chess, biking - a lot of really cool loops - and the one on top of the pile happened to be video games?!?  Will's response, spoken just like Napoleon Dynamite, was classic, "Well, this was an easy belt loop because I pretty much play video games all day long.  I don't have a favorite because I have like, a ton of games and I really liked playing them every day this summer."  Proud mommy moment there... ;-)

**This week was my 20 year reunion.  Am I really that old?  Don't get me wrong... getting older doesn't really bother me... but, when I look at pictures of some of my classmates that I haven't seen in a long time I realize how long ago 20 years really was.  In fact, when people from my class post high school memories on Facebook, I barely remember any of it - I guess I really am getting old!! ;)

Saturday night was my birthday gift/date for Matt... I took him to a concert in Deer Valley to see Lyle Lovett.  Lyle is one of Matt's very favorite artists and we actually have a long story/history of me giving him LL cd's for milestone birthdays so I was SOOO excited when I saw he'd be in concert so close to Matt's 40th.  We had a gift card at Wahso and went to a quick dinner before the show.  We assumed the card only had about $20-30 on it, we were in a hurry, and we weren't very hungry so we only ordered a couple of appetizers.  Imagine our surprise when the manager came to our table.  He explained that our card was almost 7 years old and he'd take it that night but couldn't carry over the balance for the future.  We were fine with that - we weren't expecting more - but then he told us the balance... $250!!!  Like I said, we weren't very hungry but ended up ordering 2 salads and 2 entrees in addition to our appetizers.  They were delicious!!  We still had over $100 on the card but there was no way we'd be able to eat any more so they suggested we take home a bottle of wine.  Of course we told them we didn't drink but the waiter suggested we buy a bottle for a friend or client so the $ didn't go to waste.  We used up the last of the gift card on a bottle of Pinot and surprised Matt's business partner with a super nice bottle.  Matt joked that he was going to post a picture of me on Facebook with the wine, I thought it was not such a good idea. ;)

Here we are at the concert... it was lovely.  As much as I loved the Bruno Mars concert we just went to, this is more my kind of scene.  It was super relaxed with everyone was sitting and enjoying the music.  I loved being outside cuddling in our blankets, and the best part was that my ears weren't ringing afterwards.  Happy 40th Matt... we all love you!!

One more week till we go back to school... we're gonna make it a good one!! :)