August Part 2: Back to School

School started in August, and this was a big back-to-school year. Michael, as you may recall, was accepted into the Advanced Learning Lab, which meant that he switched to a different school, and his teacher gave him summer homework, which included making a nearly life-size paper version of himself. It's a fine balance starting an art project like this because if we did it too soon, it would have been wrecked by the time school started. We waited until the week of the open house to get it ready, which, thanks to an Idaho trip that I took mid-August (see next post), meant that Brian and Michael were left to finish it. It was a little rough for me to leave this project to them, but they did a great job finishing it off and getting it ready for his open house the Friday before school started. 

Brian and Michael went to Michael's open house without me, but thankfully, I'd already met his teacher and seen his classroom back in April, so I didn't feel too frazzled about missing it. 

School started on August 20, and so started a new chapter around here. 

The new school literally rolled out the red carpet for the students to start the new school year, but they didn't open up the school until 10 minutes before school was supposed to start (8 a.m.). We were all waiting in a line to get in, and I was nervous about the time because I'd signed Rachel up for a kindergarten assessment at 8 at her school back in our neighborhood. Just before they opened the school, the sprinklers came on right where Michael and I were waiting in line! He got all wet, but managed to stay positive. He was pretty nervous and unsure about this new school, and so was I.

But he walked right through the doors like a champ, even if he was more hesitant than I'd ever seen him.

This new program meant more work than Michael's ever had to do, and it was really rough for the first couple of months. Both of us wanted to quit, but we kept reminding ourselves that the things that are the most worth doing are usually the things that are the most difficult. 

Rachel was over-the-moon excited to start kindergarten. Here she is at her Kindergarten Open House at her desk/chair at the table. 

Her first assignment was to color and decorate a paper doll to represent her. She came home and wanted to get started right away. We found some fun fabric in my scrap box, some ribbon, doll hair, and googley eyes. Rachel drew the face and colored the body a fleshy color. She also cut out the pattern for the dress and decided where to place everything. She insisted on shiny high heels, so we made sure to put some on. I spray painted the blonde hair to make it a little more Rachel-red-shaded. She drew some awesome eyelashes around the googley-eyes that she placed on the face. Ta-dah!

A week after Michael started school, Rachel had her first official day of Kindergarten.

Brian took Michael to school while I finished helping her get ready, and he made it back in time to walk her up to school with me.

We barely made it in time, and we totally missed the cheers as they all went inside, but she did catch the tail end of the line before they headed into classs.

She wouldn't have looked back, except that I asked to snap this quick picture.

Rachel is loving everything about Kindergarten, as we knew she would. She loves learning, she loves being around so many fun people, and she loves her teacher.

Hooray for school! And please send your best good vibes and prayers to me as I try to keep track of two schools (when I could barely keep track of what was going on at one last year!).

August Part 1: The Chill and Fun Days

Oh August, where did you go? Seriously, you started, and then you ended right after, at least that's what it felt like. 

We began the month thinking, "Hey, let's try potty training Gabe!"

He loves sitting on the potty, and he doesn't like to get off. We had too much going on to deal with that, so we decided to defer Gabe's enrollment in the Potty Academy until later.

I can't for the life of me figure out what is happening in this picture, but I'm including it anyway. 

Brian took the kids to an air show in Midway/Heber City on the first Saturday in August. I stayed behind with the dog to get some work done. I don't remember what work it was, but the kids had a blast at the Air Show. Brian's co-worker helps run it, so they got some VIP treatment.

They were sad to have to wash off their face paint before bed, so I made sure to take a picture so that it would last forever. 

This is how we do family prayer at our house.

Sunday morning brought us more baking! 

We did some reading. Rachel is just taking off as a reader. She loves having all these books to escape into without needing me to read them to her.

This scene is unusual. I'm not very good at working on my laptop if kids are on my lap. It's probably because I'm usually working on things that need very precise mouse movements, which kids render impossible if they are sitting on my lap. Maybe we're doing a video chat or watching a video? I'm really not sure. Now, Brian on the other hand often has Gabe on his lap while he works, and before Gabe, he had Rachel on his lap, and before Rachel, Michael. 

Gabe is obsessed with the laundry. He loves to watch the machines at work and to turn them on for me, which I think is cute. Then, sometimes, he loves to go in a move clothes around, which I don't like at all because he'll often put dirty rags in with the clean clothes and cause more work for me as I try to sort it all out.

In August, there was lots and lots of soccer. There were usually about 2 games a week, and we had so much going on that we missed several games and practices. It was pretty rough! But, Michael continues to improve and love soccer. 

 There was a bike derby pack meeting in August, which I didn't go to so I can't tell you much about it.

In August, I took on this project! Our master bath is limited in counter space and drawers, and we've been thinking of ways to improve it since we moved in. Most of our ideas involved adding storage elements to the bathroom. As I've contemplated this problem over the last seven year, I finally came up with a solution. What if I utilized the space behind our door and put in an old-fashioned vanity and moved my make-up and hair stuff OUT of the bathroom completely? We decided to make our bathroom door a barn door so that we could utilize the wasted space behind the door and then The KSL hunt and online searching began. There wasn't a lot of space to work with, so it was tricky finding something that would fit and serve the functions I was looking for. I finally found this awesome gem on KSL. The dimensions were perfect, the style was even better than I had hoped for, and the price was amazing! New fabric and some chalk paint later, I had this amazing piece for our bedroom. 

Brian and I bought a barn door kit from Home Depot, and we stained it with a white stain and finished it with some wipe-on poly. I love how it turned out SO MUCH! And I love having a place to sit while I do my hair each morning. Why did we ever get away from sit-down style vanities?! 

In Mid-August, I decided to get bangs. Now, Rachel and I have matching hairstyles. 

There's been this silly craze about the song "Baby Shark" thanks to a viral video from Korea. I didn't know about the video, but thought it was funny that a song I learned at a summer camp back in high school was surfacing on t-shirts and stuff, and I took the opportunity to sing it to my kids. Then I found out the Baby Shark fever was stemmed by the viral video. So strange! But, here's our favorite Gabe-y Shark!

And princess.

One night, it was raining, but it was also sunny, so I KNEW there would be a rainbow. I went to the back door to look, and sure enough, there was a double rainbow. Rachel was excited to see it, but Gabe wasn't sure what we were so excited about...and then he saw it. "COLOR! COLOR!" He had never seen anything quite like it.

He's been a little obsessed about looking out his window for them ever since.

Our HOA threw another amazing summer party, and the only picture I took from it is this one of Gabe playing on the new playground equipment that is always up there, instead of all the fun blow-up bouncey things that they brought in for the big event. Lea, Danny and Skyler came and joined us towards the end.

There was some silliness in August:

And another trip to see the Ashton Gardens at Thanksgiving Point.

This time, we rented a golf cart. and it was awesome!

It was such a beautiful night. 

We recruited Michael to be our photographer

There was a bride getting pictures taken while we were there, and Rachel was obsessed. She wanted me to take a picture of her, and we even went over to her so Rachel could meet her and tell her how beautiful she was.

We also saw deer.

It really was an amazingly lovely night.

That's it for all the chill stuff. Now onto the crazier/monumental things of August!