School Days

School Days
School Days
Here are the Golden Rule Days
With Reading and Writing and 'Rithmatic
To the tune of the Hickory Stick
You were my bashful barefoot beau,
I was your girl in Calico
When we were a couple of kids, kids, kids.

My Grandpa Sphar used to sing that song to me as he drove me to meet the bus.  I hated when he sang to me.  For some reason I was embarrassed.  And now it is such a cherished memory.  I miss him and his spontaneous singing and love for music.

Cyvanna started First Grade August 23rd.  Her first day went very smoothly.  Her teacher is Mrs. Tremea at Riverdale Elementary.  I have been told by numerous people that Mrs. Tremea is an amazing teacher! I feel very blessed to have her as Cyvanna's teacher.


Riley's first day was a little more hectic.  His teacher is Mrs. Jones.  She is very young and just had her first baby about two months ago.  She is super cute. Riley is in love with her.  Cyvanna was running a super high temperature his first day of school, August 30, 2011.  Richard was gone on the road and I wasn't sure I was going to get him to school on time.  He woke up about 5 o'clock in the morning.  I was up with Cyvanna  because of her fever and so he just stayed up.

 After he got dressed and ate he asked me "is is time to go to school?"  Between 6:30 a.m. and 8:10 a.m. I think I heard those words every two minutes.  The kid was super excited to go to school. 

 We got to his class room and we found where he hung his backpack. Then we found his name tag.  I leaned down to kiss him good bye and he said. "bye mom." I told him that I loved him and he gave me this utterly exasperated look and repeated, "BYE MOM."  I think was ready to rock and roll.  What a handome little man.

Chicken Pox?

Cyvanna was running a 103 degree fever.
No runny nose.
No other symptoms.

Her fever went away. 
She went to school today.

Right before dinner she took her shirt off.
I wasn't sure why.
She sat down at the table.
I looked over and noticed some red bumps.
On closer examination this is what I found.

At first I thought they were mosquito bites.

But on closer examination I realized that they are blistery.

Chicken Pox?

She was vaccinated. 

Guess she isn't going to school tomorrow.



A Budding Photographer

Cyvanna (age 6) is forever asking to use the camera to take pictures.  We handed it over on our recent camping trip.  We were pleasantly surprised by how well she did.  Maybe she will be getting a camera of her own for Christmas.

I love how she captures the startling blue of Riley's eyes against the red racket.

Her favorite subject: Riley.

Great, now we have someone to take pictures of the two of us!

She got it pretty centered!

Flowers: her second favorite subject.

At least we have cute feet!

Campin'

This weekend included a lot of "firsts" for our family.

-We went camping with JUST our family (not a reunion)

-We inner-tubed down the Ogden river



-We used our dutch oven (which was a success I might add!)

-Riley lost his first tooth (we didn't even know it was loose!)



But best of all ... we made lots and lots of memories (like Mommy falling into the river trying to get into the inner-tube!)

We camped at the Southfork campground in Ogden Canyon.  Beautiful!

We roasted marshmallows and made s'mores using the giant marshmallows.  (The trick to roasting these babies is to hold them higher away from the heat ... and to be patient.  Let them roast a while.  When you make your s'more - tuck the chocolate inside your gooey marshmallow before putting it onto your graham cracker!)

Our dutch oven experience was a great one too.  We got some really nice dutch ovens when we got married and had never used them.  The potatoes were AWESOME!  The kids even liked them. 

The kids expecially enjoyed throwing rocks into the river.  Mom and Dad enjoyed the simplicity that comes with camping.  It was so relaxing and rejuvinating to be away from the hustle and bustle of the city.







Cyvanna and Riley



Cale







Cale



Just chillin' in the cool mountain air



Hair- thingys

I took Cyvanna school shopping and she was literally drooling over the hair bows.  Being on a limited budget put us in a kind of tight spot.  There was absolutely no way I could afford $6 for two hair bows.  So I made a deal with her that if she got the fabric headbands for $2.50 I would go buy some ribbon and fun embellishments to make her some bows.  I spent $2.50 on five spools of very thin ribbon and another $3.00 on clips.  The result - 5 really fun, totally unique bows for her to wear. And a lot of ribbon and clips left!!! 



This was the first one I did - ho-hum about it.  Her school colors are purple and white but I just couldn't get the white in there the way I wanted.  Good thing I have lots of left overs! :)




This one is my favorite (but the I LOVE black!)




Red and White - can't go wrong there




She is always talking about having a "crown like a princess" so I made her this clip from beads and she was THRILLED. She told me "now I have my own crown".  Needless to say this one has been worn the most.



The Tower of Babel

I came across this grand idea for a Family Home Evening Lesson. 

It was a really simple idea

.

1. Bake a 9x13 cake of your choice.

2. Cut it into squares. 

3. Make frosting of your choice.

4. Tell the story of the Tower oF Babel.

5. Build your tower using the cake as "bricks" and the frosting as "mortar".

6. WATCH IT FALL
7. and then the best part - eat it up!!!

We had a lot of fun putting it together. 

I doubt our "tower" came close to the height of the real thing! 

And hopefully it made an impression on the kids. 

What is kind of funny is that they had the lesson about the Jaredites and the barges the same day in Primary so it was a great way to tie the whole Sunday together. 

Trikes and Bikes

Cale finally figured out how to ride his trike today.

It has taken him a while.

He rode this little red Radio Flyer up and down our street all afternoon.

I don't think I ever seen such a proud little 2 year old before.

Before you know it he will be onto a real bike - with training wheels.  And then without the training wheels. And then he will be driving.  Oh all too sad how time passes. 

Enjoy it while we have it.

Savor the small victories in life - like learning to ride that trike!

Sleep

What to write, what to write? 

About the egg whites that I put on my burn - leaving NO scar?
About the hair bows that I made for Cyvanna?
About the late nap that Cale took yesterday, making sure that he was up well into the eleven o'clock hour? And this is the topic that I am going to take off on! 

Sleep.  Something that everyone needs.  You may need more than I do, and I may need more than someone else.  The fact of the matter is we never feel as though we get enough of it.  Sleep.  I read an article on sleep in my Heathly Cooking magazine.  It made me laugh.  Alright, I have to admit - there were some good pointers in there, yet who writes these articles?  Do they not realize that MOM's don't sleep? 

Cyvanna sleeping after a busy day at SeaWorld

There is a saying that a Mother's work is never done.  And it never is.  The dishes may be done for the evening, the toys picked up for the moment, the kids are in bed for the night.  We finally have a few minutes to do something for ourselves: to shower, to blog, to Facebook, or to watch a TV show and then we are unwound enough from the day that we can fall asleep. We lay down, we close our eyes and we slowly, gently drift into dreamland.  As we dream of someone else doing the dishes and washing the laundry we are jerked from that wonderland into reality.  A bad dream.  A wet bed.  A drink of water.  A thud as a little one tumbles from their bed to the floor. There goes the solid eight hours the experts say we require to function properly!

One day our kids will sleep through the night and then we will too.  Yet, when they are old enough to do that I am sure we will be waiting up for them to come home from a dance, a date, or just being out. We will talk of their evening, laugh at the fun times, cry during the sad times.  Then comes the worrying as they leave home for college, for missions, for the "real" world. So much for sleeping through the night when our children finally do!

Would I trade those restless nights, those late night feedings, those times when I wake up to a child climbing in bed with me?  Would I trade being a mother for a good solid eight hours of sleep?  NO!  Those moments, no matter how frustrating, how tiring, how forgettable ... those are the moments that reassure our children that we will be there for them no matter the time, no matter the circumstances.  So, good ridance to the articles on sleep ... I will survive!  I am a mother. 

Here we go!

Well .. here we go!

Or as my Grandpa would have said "Off to the wild blue yonder"

Yes.  This is a new beginning for me.  Blogging.  If you had asked me what that was ten years ago I would have told you that it had something to do with a swamp and a bull dozer.  Now I know better.  I have to admit, I am not an avid follower of blogs.   Why blog then, you ask?  And to that I reply - just because!

So, what to blog about?  Since I am not a follower of blogs I am not too sure what to write about.  I guess anything that strikes my fancy.  If you have any suggestions for me please feel free to comment.

There are so many many things that I like to do but I have to admit that I am not an expert at any of them.