Stanton's Last Week of Summer and First Day of School!

The week before Stanton started Kindergarten, I felt like I needed to pack in as many fun things as we could. I had a list of places to take him one last time, but then Robert gave me his "He's going to half day kindergarten, not Hogwarts" pep talk and reassured me that he be out of school before McDonald's even stops serving breakfast, which kind of put things into perspective for me, for a few days at least.

We started out our week by going to the train park.

Grandma Mary and Grandpa Dan came with us and brought Landon and Cameron too.

Then we went to Peter Piper Pizza for lunch and games and air conditioning afterwards.

That night we had to go to the mall to get Daddy's suit, and Radio Disney happened to be there. Noelle entered the hula hoop contest and made it to the finals.

Then I raised my hand to volunteer for the next contest, and was I glad I did after they told us what it was. They said, "Triple A wants to send one family on the Disneyland Resort Vacation of your choice if you can correctly match all of the Disneyland Resorts to their pictures." Turns out I won! I got them all correct, and I was freaking out excited, like jumping up and down and woo-hooing! Then they handed me my first place prize, a bookmark made of seeds that grow flowers when you plant it????? "I thought I won a Disneyland Resort vacation," I say. Their reply, "Oh, no. We're sorry. You were just showing everyone in the audience how they can go online and play, and if they match them all correctly their name will be entered into a drawing to win a Disneyland Resort vacation." Way to crush my dreams lady!

We still had more Radio Disney fun after that though. Stanton took pictures of Winston doing funny things while we played Disney bingo.

And Stanton took more pictures of Winston rolling on the ground while we played Disney hot potato. Stanton loves taking pictures.

The next day we went back to the mall with our friends for story time. Hannah and Stanton walked around holding hands.

And no mall trip is complete without a little play place fun. These cute girls all look alike!

The next day we went to a pool party with some of our ward friends. It was a great time!

That night Robert had to go to work early, so I let the kids have a slumber party in my room. I actually ended up sleeping on the floor because I couldn't fall asleep with all of their wiggly kicking. I fall out of the bed a lot anyway, so it wasn't a big deal.

We even pulled Winston's pack and play in so that he and his stuffed animals could join us this time. He snores.

The next day we went to another pool party with some of our old ward friends. Most everyone has moved to different places, so it was fun to play all together again, like old times.

And we had to get a picture of the old Sunbeam class. They'd been playing together since they were born.

That night was "Meet the Teacher" night at Stanton's school...cue the tears. He was really excited about his Dr. Seuss themed classroom!

I was really excited about his really nice teacher! She is great!

Then we took Stanton out to Mimi's for a big boy dinner of mini cheese burgers and broccoli and cheese soup, which he had to take home because he filled up on the free bread and muffins. He talked our ear off about what he thought about his classroom and how excited he was for P.E. and about all of the kids we met.

The next day we had a little back to school bowling party with our friends and all of our free bowling coupons.

The boys had fun!

The girls had fun!

The babies had fun! The biggest news of all, Winston was poopy, and I had a diaper AND wipes. My friends actually clapped and cheered for me. It was a proud moment. I think I know how the Olympians feel now, with all that thunderous applause.

Winston even tried to steal a kiss from Claire. He was denied.

Then we had snacks and made back to school crafts. It was a fun bowling day!

Saturday was our ward pool party. Winston actually really did have a lot of fun!

Kathy and I did a synchronized dive routine. It was pretty impressive if I do say so myself. She's in the pink polka dots, and I'm in the flowers. Notice how our hand shoots out, as our other hand plugs our nose, while our legs are perfectly bent at a 45 degree angle. That dive was pure gold from a judge's standpoint. (It's my first year watching the Olympics. I am way too into them!)

And Stanton had the best time going down the slides and running around with his friends. Noelle found a girl from another ward who was wearing the exact same swimsuit as her. They declared one another their best friend and swam in the shallow end together the whole time. They didn't even tell each other their names. We just heard them saying, "Hey best friend look at this," or "Hey best friend , watch what I can do." We all had an excellent time!

Then the dreaded day came. (Dreaded for me at least. Stanton was excited!) I spent most of Sunday night crying, and planning a way to start my own Charter school so that my kids will never have to leave me again. Oh, and also being angry at Frederich Froebel for inventing Kindergarten, but by Monday, I had calmed down. Stanton and I woke up early and played a couple games of Don't Break the Ice and a a few rounds of Big Eyed Statues (basically a starring contest while doing a funny pose) and then we were off to school. I walked him to the playground and watched him turn into a big boy. When he came home (3 hours later) he told us every single detail and happily answered all of our zillion questions. I could tell he loved it! He said his favorite part of Kindergarten so far was P.E. and that his coach "let all the kids play with his balls." He had no idea why we were laughing. He's still innocent. He's still my little boy (:

Pioneer Day, Bowling, Grand Canyon & More!

We had another AZ Science Center day! It's so fun that lots of our friends have passes cause we can go all the time now and play in the giant heart with blood cell balls whenever we want to.

On this particular day they happened to have a real sheep's lung for you to pick up and play with and take pictures of yourself pretending to eat it.

The kids had a blast,and Winston played with this thing forever.

The next day we had Pioneer Day. We celebrated by making our own homemade butter, edible covered wagons and learning about the story with where the seagulls saved the crops from the crickets, oh and yarn dolls. I gave the kids a bunch of pioneer costumes to dress up in, but they came downstairs wearing their own version.

We also attempted making and pulling our own taffy. It started out nice and soft and gooey and so boiling hot that it burned all of your fingerprints off.

However, the end result was so sharp, it could cut glass.

Winston was disappointed in our failed attempt. He really likes taffy when it's edible.

The kids enjoyed the stick pull, and the butter. those two things turned out well.

I think the hardtack turned out okay too, as long as it's supposed to taste like dirt in cracker form. Too bad we made such a giant piece cause nobody went back for seconds.
Afterwards I told Robert that my pioneer day festivities were a little disappointing because nothing I'd planned turned out the way it was supposed to because everything was way harder than I thought it'd be. He told me that sounded like the same experience the pioneers had, which made my celebration very authentic.
On a more serious note, I did gain a way greater appreciation for all of the time I have because I don't have to make my own butter and everything else. I've been more grateful for all of the conveniences in my life that give me so much extra time for other things and a new goal to use that time more wisely from now on because I feel like now more than ever that it is such a gift.
I've also gained a greater appreciation of their sacrifice because being a pioneer seems super hard, and I would've been pretty lousy at it.

The next day we went bowling with friends. It's one of Winston's favorite things to do.

Noelle and I found balls that matched our outfits.

Winston rolled the ball so slowly down the lane, that it looked like it was going to come to a complete stop. The kids watched it inch its way down every time.

Then we stopped for an Ikea lunch. What a day!

And the day after that we went to Tempe Beach Park. Parker donated his entire lunch to Dallen and Noelle and Stanton to feed the birds. It seems like wherever we go my kids make friends with the pigeons. They had fun with all of their friends in the water too!

Winston spent half the time playing in his water bottle and the other half giggling at baby Malcolm and baby Sydney. He's seriously just as baby hungry as I am! I think he will love it whenever he gets a sibling!

And on Saturday we took a little day trip up to the Grand Canyon, but first we stopped at Montezuma's Castle and looked around, an little ancient "castle" built into a mountain.  It was really, so cool!

We had fun having a little picnic and exploring around outside.

We explored inside the visitor's center too. (I LOVE visitor's centers!)

By the time we got to the Grand Canyon it was pretty stormy.

The rain got worse before it got better.

We were glad we weathered the storm though because it was so beautiful afterwards.

We had the best time walking around outside, checking out the visitor's center, discovering the canyon's geology museum (which was really like a hidden gem itself) and buying souveniers in the gift shop, while eating ice cream, like true Americans.
 Stanton was so thrilled to get his first pocket knife. He's been gathering up sticks and widdling like crazy ever since we got home. He even used his pocket knife to cut his food at dinner.

Stanton and Robert even hiked a little ways into it. Noelle seriously fell 3 times from the parking lot to the visitor's center, so she and Winston and I stayed safely at the top and waited for them . Stanton took this picture to trick me into thinking he almost fell off the edge...not a funny trick.

It was so amazing to be surrounded by this giant, beautiful canyon everywhere you looked. Even Winston could tell it was grand because right when we got there, he kept pointing at it and saying, "Whoa." All of the tourists were laughing at him.
We also kept running into this funny raven bird (above my head) all over the place. He walked behind Noelle and I a few times and kept flying really close to everybodys heads. I think he wanted to be my pet, or maybe he thought Robert was Edgar Allan Poe, who knows?

On the way home, we stopped in Flagstaff to see one of our best friends, Jeff and Shelly and their cutest kiddos! I love when our kids get to play together cause Shelly and I were roomies (she rescued me from living in the barn that belonged to the man with elephantitis) and after we got married we were nannies, and we forced our nanny kids to play together, and then we had our own kids they played together so perfectly, until they moved, so it's cute to see them play together again. Winston loved Brady, and apparently Noelle did too because on the way home she said she had a little crush on him that was as big as from her knees to her shoulders.
 It was a really great trip! The kids said it was one of their favorite ever (mine too), and they've been begging already to do it again.