August 2016 little things

(those were my brainstorming notes from our coast-of-California trip…all about that back HERE and HERE.)

We returned all the books we borrowed to get ready for Europe…

We spruced up our sun-scorched and neglected garden that looked like this when we got home:

but we’ll take it!  And now I’ve got to get going on Fall gardening…

I was a little nostalgic as my one and only remaining elementary school child and I headed to the meet-the-teacher night the evening before the first day.  How is it possible that all four of my little girls who all attended this school at the same time have grown up so quickly?!

We took the scooter for a little date:

And this girl was so excited to pull me through the school through the sea of wonderful people and friends we have come to love so much over all these years at this elementary school to meet her new teacher who she loves:

And then it was on to our special dinner to kick off the school year the night before it all began:

 More about that night and how we set it up back HERE.

 Prep for the first day of school.

Here’s Grace modeling her outfit choices 🙂

And the morning routine began!

Family scriptures and prayer and packing lunches and rainbow pancakes all mixed in together along with the butterfly-excitement (and also a little dread) as school whipped us into shape.

I wrote about all the first day of school hoopla back HERE.

I wrote about the huge rain storm Claire got caught in on the way home as well.  Ha!

That night we had YW at our house…games and sharing first-day-of-school experiences.

 Love these girls so much!

The one on the right got taken from us to be in charge of the women in the ward and we were so sad she was leaving us!  She’s the best! (And doing great work where she serves now…I have learned so much from that great woman!)

Lu riding her bike to the bus stop while I huff and puff running alongside her trying to keep up started once again:

 And she got to hang a little with these darling boys she’s grown up with:

They are so kind and sweet to her!

Nana and Papa were working their hearts out in Africa:

…on a foreign island so unfamiliar after all that crazy hoopla with everyone she knew in Provo.

I wrote all about her Hawaii drop-off back HERE.

It was a pretty great trip with some deep emotion mixed in.

It made me remember my first college days at Boston University…such a new and unknown place where I was going to live so far away from my family.

Luckily Hawaii is a place where you can’t stay nervous or worried for too long…

 So we left that girl here, armed with great new roommates who she was getting to know and a sense of adventure we knew would take her far.

And headed back to monsoon season in the desert:

(Grace sent me that picture from school one day while we were gone.)

And my friend sent me this one from the bus stop:

We got home just in time to go to the “meet-the-teacher” night at the junior high (they do that one after school starts).

Claire was at soccer that evening so Grace came with me instead, anxious to check out her old stomping grounds at the junior high.

Loved that little date with my girl.

Elle’s birthday was a couple days after we left her in Hawaii.

Since some traditions run strong, we still had to do a little cake float here at home in celebration:

(Elle’s birthday tradition is to float her cake on her birthday and we couldn’t let it go by without floating.  But this year we were off sugar in August, so we floated an assortment of other stuff instead of a cake. Ha!)

We sent her a video of us floating and singing happy birthday to her and I loved this little back-and-forth between her and Lu:

Grace quickly asserted her power in position as the oldest child at home and threw a huge party.

 Ha!

It was actually fun to have all these kids start to fill in the holes that Max and Elle’s friends had left our house echoing missing them.  It will be fun to watch this new group as they grow.

Claire got her golf swing on at a little birthday celebration:

And also taught me the joys of these funny snapchat things you can do as we were driving to and from the church swim party:

We were laughing so hard…future self, remember to look up the video we made about the giraffes…

Too bad these kids didn’t have any fun at the party…

Ha!

August was missionary farewell season for sure.

Elle’s friends and roommate/cousin all came down from BYU for a couple of them, and it was SO FUN to get to know the new girls Elle grew to love up in Provo this summer:

Figured it was finally time to “rip off the band-aid,” but boy we miss those great kids around here!

So crazy to think of them all over the world on missions or at different colleges.

 Brand newly-announced school soccer team members:

Lots more about the “soccer mania” going on in August back HERE.

We have incorporated “acai bowls” into our breakfast repertoire:

…and I finally settled into a pretty great scripture-reading routine:

My scripture study that goes along with my “one word” for the year is back HERE.

Our friends from China came to visit:

…And Grace and I laughed our heads off about funny filters at our Mia Maid retreat.

 All the details about both of those back HERE.

I love “Activity Days” that the 8-12 year-old girls do in our church.  There is a big activity once a year for all the girls in many congregations combined and Lucy was beside herself with excitement as she counted down the days.

 Claire got to go on a boat trip with a few of the kids her age at church.

Yes those are pliers.  Can you see how hard the two of them are laughing?  That girl cracks us up because she honestly doesn’t seem to feel any pain when it comes to those things.  Where Claire wouldn’t let us get within a five-foot radius of any loose tooth she had (we love pulling teeth out around here), Lucy wants us to bring it on!

Still even with pliers that thing wasn’t ready until a few nights later when it came out right after she brushed her teeth.

She was pretty happy about that!

In August we measured and finally had our shelves installed in our bedroom:

 (I’ll have to show the finished look all painted and done up soon…)

These little entrepreneurs decided to hold a lemonade stand:

 …with “fresh, FRESH lemonade,” undoubtedly much better than just the “fresh” variety.

Some people were really generous with their payments and these girls came away clutching some extra coins to put toward things they were trying to earn.

Our friends invited us to go to the Coldplay concert and we were SO excited!

 It was really an amazing concert, we were all on cloud nine.

 I went to “curriculum night” at the elementary school where Lucy left me this note on her desk:

 She kills me.

That girl is a hard worker.  She’s been working her guts out on her math facts and has come so far.

 Love spending time here…

Grace’s first friend got her driving license and these girls think they have pretty much died and gone to heaven now that they have a way to get around town.  They were SO excited to head to the football game without begging their parents for rides.

 What an amazing sense of freedom that is!

Our house with the sunset “angel slides:”

 More from Elle in Hawaii…

How cool would it be to open your mission call with this backdrop and the sound of crashing ocean waves filling the air?

She sends me random pics like this:

 ..and I love it.  They have figured out all kinds of modes of transportation to get around the island quite efficiently.

We went to see Elle’s friend’s concert:

She is AMAZING!  Much more about her back HERE.

Most nights Lucy and Leo the Lion want to FaceTime someone before prayers:

(“Easter Bunny” is my dad…long story…)

Grace has become an expert at whipping up bruschetta.

Seriously it makes me so happy when my kids love things as fiercely as I do!

Love this quote from Instagram:

Here’s Lu, getting her “exercise” portion of her job chart in 105 weather:

Young Women who all showed up with stripes one night:

…and the others without stripes…

We have Young Women every Wednesday, but I happened to take pictures this night, making pesto chicken pizzas…

And that’s a wrap.

Man, August was a crazy month of adjustments and growing!  Fun to look back and record all the crazy things you learn along the way.  Thanks for coming along for the ride if you made it this far!