It burns carbs. It just… burns up all your carbs.

 

 I had been looking forward to August for a number of reasons:  Jason wanted to throw a pool party with some high school friends, the girls would be having a birthday party and I would be participating in my first ever race of any kind.  Seriously, I paid someone to let me run around outside. 

 

So, Jason's friends seemed to be a bit less reliable than we originally thought.  Many of them cancelled last minute or said they just couldn't come, which was totally lame since we planned far in advance. After reviewing our guest list and deciding we didn't really want to hang out with these people anyway, we then proceeded to invite a bunch of our real friends who were all able to attend the party even with such short notice.  I think we have pretty awesome friends, or at least friends who are awesome but at the same time lame enough to have no plans for the upcoming weekend.  Whatever the case, we all had an excellent time and are grateful, once again, to have relatives who own a pool and let us use it.

 

The kids helped socialize a little hop toad we found in the garden.

 

 

The next week I had to register Luke for kindergarten.  It was just some paperwork but soon after came the "sneak a peek."  We all went to the kindergarten center to see Luke's new room and take a ride on the bus.  Every parent who comes in gets a little pack of tissues with a poem tied to the front about how we will be so sad when our kid goes to school.  You know, I was totally fine UNTIL I got handed that stupid pack of tissues and then I very nearly lost it.  Luke is just so little!  He had a great time though.  He ran into some buddies and enjoyed his first bus ride.  Mostly I am excited for him to meet some boys his age because being stuck in this house full of girls can sometimes drive a guy crazy.

 

Now to the part that burned up all my carbs.  I was peer pressured into signing up for a Mudderella race with some buddies from church.  I wasn't sure how this would compare to a Tough Mudder so I spent the summer working out and doing quite a bit of running.  Turns out, it wasn't as tough as I thought it would be but it was lots of fun.  My gal pals and I had a great time running the obstacles and getting dirty.  I am now much more likely to run in a race with friends but I have decided I will never be interested in a Tough Mudder or a marathon.  That's just me, folks. 

 

These were the best pictures I could find from the official photographs of the race.

 

Helping my friend, Amber, over some mud

 

If I had any arm muscles you would totally be able to see them in this picture.

Emilee, Amber, Melissa, Hillary, Kelly and Annie
We finished!  And that guy behind me kind of looks like he's staring at my butt.

 

 The kids and I played a lot of baseball in the front yard this summer along with tag and some bike riding games.  We also spent many a day harvesting all the vegetables from our small garden.  We got so many tomatoes this year that I took to making a batch of pico de gallo every week.  We had tons of green beans as well but I haven't been happy with any of the carrots I've grown.  They just taste so gross.  The cucumbers weren't all that great either.  I think I'll try for more peppers next year and maybe give pumpkins another shot.  I'm not great at gardening but, man alive, I think it's fun!

Green beans can also be used as 'Best Friend' accessories.

One time I made Jason a breakfast that was happy to see him.  He was super excited about it.

 

 

  

 

 

Other summer activities included gymnastics for all the kids and a weekly violin lesson for Adri.  Adri's teacher was Australian and we loved her accent.  She told me that Adri was probably bored in her school violin class because it moved too slowly and because Adri is "very cliva."  It is now my favorite thing to tell Adri how cliva' she is. 

 

Once I pretended to be a super fun mom and had the kids collect leaves from the yard so we could make some art.  We painted one side of the leaf, placed it paint side down on a paper, then used a rolling pin to roll out our leaf prints.  Mostly I just go crazy when we use paints at my house but this project was pretty dang fun. 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Sometimes you can just leave your kids alone with a package of Jenga blocks and they will play nicely together for an hour.  Warning:  this does not always work.

 

The next thing on my list of stuff to do this month was to throw a birthday party for Adri and Juliet.  They didn't want a combined party and I didn't want to have two days of party throwing, so we decided to have both parties the same day but separate the party goers into Team A and Team J.  We were originally going to have a pool party but the chances of rain made me change my plans at the last minute and have everyone come to our house.  Gramma Nancy helped Team J make their jump ropes in the basement while I helped team A make their clothes pin mermaids in the kitchen.  We all had a lovely time and enjoyed some cupcakes and ice cream once our crafts were done. 

 

Happy party goers

 

Next up was the day I had been dreading since 2009.  Luke was all signed up, ready and excited to start school.  Adri started 4th grade (what?!?) and Juliet started 2nd grade.  Everyone seemed to have a great day and Luke even thanked me in the morning for waking him up for school - we'll see how long that lasts.  Charlotte was the only one who was not happy about everyone going to school.  We still managed to have a good day together and I'm sure we'll make it through the year just fine.

 

First day of kindergarten!

  

I thought the first day of school picture turned out great but I didn't realize how much I had led Charlotte on by letting her be in the picture with her back pack and lunch box no less.

 

 I sent the kids off to their first day of school.  Little did I know I had made Charlotte believe she would also be attending school today.

 

Once I had finished my video tape and the bus pulled away,

 this is what I saw waiting for me on my front lawn:

 

In case you can understand her, she wanted to go on the octopus bus. 

Each of the buses in our district have an animal on them.  Our happens to be an octopus.

 

 

Also, Juliet lost her first tooth.

 

 

Quotes:

 

 

Luke:  Mom, will you make sure to wake mu up for school again tomorrow?

 

Jason:  Will you let Mom cut your hair when you get older?

Luke:  No, I will do that.  Maybe she can shave my back.

 

Annie:  What was your favorite thing about school today?

Luke:  When we came home so I could come see you!

 

Charlotte:  Luke, you're the best.

Annie:  You're lucky, my brother used to sit on me.

Luke:  You should tell him he's a meany pants.

Annie:  Nah, he's a really good guy.

Charlotte:  We should call him a good guy pants.

 

Annie:  Charlotte hasn't wet her pants since she's been three!  (It had been three days)