First Day of School

Another school year begins.  This time with 4 kids at the same school.  An anomaly that won't be repeated in out family. 

Natali is loving 5th grade and the privilege of having lunch last so she gets seconds.  That is if she actually has hot lunch, which isn't that often.  At parent teacher conferences her teacher gave us permission to have as many kids as we wanted, as long as they are all as wonderful as Natali.

I can't believe Kate is in Kindergarten.  I was nervous about her going, but she absolutely loves it.  Her teacher is new to the school and we love her.  Kate goes full day, every other day, so Emmy and I really enjoy her days home with us.

Andrew is in 2nd grade.  He has Mrs. Kinney who he and Mack had for Kindergarten and Mack had last year.  So she has had an Easton boy in her class the last 4 years in a row.  Hopefully she isn't sick of them yet.  Do you love his shirt?  Free t-shirt from a bank, "College is not a dream.  It's a plan."  Starting out 2nd grade in style.

Mack is enjoying 3rd grade but his teacher isn't sure he has learned anything new yet; luckily, they are working on that.  He reads so many books at school it is hard to keep up with his needs. I think his favorite part of the day is playing football at recess and PE.  

The school year is going great so far and I love being able to go and help for an hour each week.  I only get to each kids classroom once a month, but I love being there.  Thanks Val for making that possible.

California Here We Come

Summer wouldn't be summer without an Easton style road trip.  So we packed up the van and headed out on our journey. 

First stop: Reno.  We spent a few days with Greg's sister Teresa and her family and did a session in the Reno Temple.  It was such a great visit.  But of course I forgot to take pictures of the the kids playing wii, running through their mist machine, and all the wonderful food that Teresa spoilt us with.

Second Stop:  Yosemite.  A road trip wouldn't be complete without a visit to a National Park.  We didn't have much time and there were so many people so we just drove around a lot.  It was so beautiful.  However, the winding roads were more than my pregnant stomach could handle.  We enjoyed a few short walks and lots of deer sightings though. 

See the deer behind them?

Third Stop: Fallbrook, CA, home of Greg's sister, Laurie. We were so excited to move into her cassita for a few days and not be on the road. Andrew enjoyed looking for coyotes on their property. And all the kids just loved playing with cousins. The best part was visiting the beach. Mack and Natali loved body surfing; it was tough to get them to leave. Only then did Natali realize she had a bunch of rashes from the board. We even got Greg to try.

Andrew loved catching crabs.

Fourth Stop:  Disneyland.  While at Laurie's, we took one day and went to Disneyland.  Emmy stayed with Laurie's family and Greg's sister, Beth, and her daughter, Piper, went with us.  We did a few rides together then Greg and the three oldest took off for the big stuff while Kate and I enjoyed the parade, princesses, and pregnant lady rides.  Kate didn't really like the rides much but she loved the whole experience.  The older kids went on all of the biggest rides and loved them all.  Greg was amazed that the crowds weren't that big of a deal.  We all loved it.

The kids were all sad to leave their cousins, but the time had come  to head to...

Fifth Stop:  Mesquite, NV, Grandma's House.  We got to enjoy several days with Nani, Randy, and all of Greg's family down there.

 After watching the Olympics every night Nani decided we should put on our own.  So inspite of the heat she set up an amazing variety of events.  The kids all loved it.  Here is Andrew on the hurtles.

 Go Kate go!  After each event the kids went and ran though the water fountains to cool off.

 Mack in the air.

 Yea, watch out! Kate's got a gun.

 Mack, helping measure the shot put.

Nani also took the kids to the community pool.  Here is Kate riding on Natali's lap.  Look at that smile.

 Mack and Natali coming down the big slide.  All the kids loved that slide.

 Andrew off the diving board.

 Greg and I had nearly given up on teaching Andrew to ride his bike.  We decided to try letting another adult have a wack at it.  Greg's brother, Brad, was so patient and kind and Andrew was riding in no time.  Yahoo!

 Prepping for the Tea Party.  Natali was the beautician.

Tea Party complete with root beer floats in crystal gobblets.

Last Stop:  Draper, UT.  We spend one quick night at Greg's sister Gayle's house to break up the trip home.  The kids enjoyed playing at the park and just hanging out with cousins some more.  In the course of the trip we saw 7 of Greg's 8 siblings and all the of cousins but 2.  Pretty amazing and tons of fun.  Thanks guys.

We are going to Grandma's house...

This summer  I was enduring my few months of morning sickness with baby number six, so the days when we didn't go to grandma's house were pretty lame for my kids.  One day Andrew asked if we could go swimming in the neighborhood pool - I pictured myself barfing in the garbage can while Kate drowned- so I said no.  In frustration he looked at me and said, "This is the worst summer ever!"

Thank goodness we went to Grandma's house a few times every week.  There the miserable days spent at home were forgotten as the kids played with cousins and swam all day long.  And I got to sit on the couch doing mostly nothing, unless I was napping.  My poor family picked up a lot of my slack - thanks girls.

I, of course, took no pictures, but luckily my sister-in-law shared some of her wonderful pictures that capture all the fun.

 Notice Kate's extremely red cheeks.  That girl spent hours and hours in the pool to the point that she fried.  After this incident I forced her to wear a sun shirt (she insisted on wearing it under her suit) to prevent further skin damage.

 For part of our Family Business Meetings the kids dug through wood shavings for coins.  This brought back good memories for my generation because we used to do that every summer at the company picnic.  The kids loved it.  Natali continued searching for a long time after the others had left; she made quite a haul.

The only bad part was leaving.  My kids just couldn't understand why Grandma didn't need 5 more kids to add to the 9-13 kids that were sleeping at her house every night.  Wouldn't that just be more fun? 

Camping with the Boy Scouts

Greg got asked to go with the boy scouts on a camp out this summer.  So lucky Mack and Andrew got to go along.  There was a young man there with a passion for snakes.  Lets just say he loves reptiles as much as Andrew loves mammals; but he is is 14 and has money to buy his own pets.  Andrew and Mack were in heaven.  This boy caught more than one snake for the boys to hold.  He even used some snake catching device to catch a rattle snake.  Luckily, the boys didn't hold that one.  Mack and Andrew came home with dreams of owning a snake.  We even convinced them to stop fighting for a few days to earn a visit to this young man's house to see all his pets. 

Jackson Pollock Anyone?

Early this summer I had the kids doing some homework type stuff everyday (it didn't last long).  One week they had to research Jackson Pollock and try to reproduce his work.  Not my favorite artist, but fun to copy!  The kids had a blast learning that splatter painting isn't as easy as it seams.

Cutie Emmy just enjoyed getting messy and keeping us all laughing.

Perdita wanted no part of it and climbed the closest tree.  Smart cat.

Mack's final masterpiece.  Nice huh?  It took a long time to spray all that extra paint off the driveway.

Time for Something Sweet

For Kate's spring dance recital her class danced to the Winnie the Pooh song, "Time for Something Sweet"  it was so cute.  She loved dance class, but it was just a little too expensive and time consuming for Mama.  This maybe the end of her dance career.

Here are some stoic poses in front of a garbage can - don't ask me I just blog the photos?