Back to School Dinner

Our annual back to school family dinner was all-American.  We had chili dogs, french fries and IBC root beer in bottles.  We even ate our food out of cute red plastic baskets.  It was fun.

After dinner, Dave gave both the girls father's blessings.  He did a wonderful job, comforting both his daughters.  I know this was important to the girls as they both had a few things to be anxious about.  Ashley is starting high school, it's the real deal now.  She is also going to start early morning Seminary.  It starts at 5:55 am every day, that is a serious commitment, but she's ready for it.  Paige is starting 4th grade, so it's pretty routine and familiar.  Her biggest worry is being able to handle science lessons about human anatomy.  She is so queasy and easily affected by just the thought of anything gross that it will be a challenge.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to do some exposure therapy, like looking at picture books a little at a time, to help her overcome her aversion.

Anyway, it was great family time spent together as we prepare for a new school year.

Getting Ready to Go Back to School

It's the week before school starts and so it is registration and preview night at the girls' schools.

Ashley started it off with Freshmen registration and schedule pick up.  I went with her, but I didn't take any pictures.  I was actually a little surprised that parents went with their kids to pick up schedules and get their lockers.  I know when I went to high school NOT ONE parent went with their child to do this.    But this is suburbia, with attached, super-involved parents so of course you go with your high school freshman and help her find her locker.

Another reason that parents have to be there is because they need someone to write all the checks for the copious amounts of money you have to shell out.  A friend who lives in Ogden was saying how she really doesn't HAVE to buy a bunch of specific school supplies for her kids.  Kind of made me laugh when I think of the huge list of items that my kids must have every year.  It is very specific all the way down to the brand of pencil, count, size and color.  In fact, I'm pretty sure they have these "preview" nights before school starts so that parents can help their kids haul in the bags of school supplies they have to bring.  

Okay, back to Ashley.  We went through the whole registration process, got her ID card and schedule and then went to find her locker and look for her classrooms.  Her school by our standards is huge something like 3,000+ students.  Her Freshmen class is around 700.  Likewise the building has to be pretty big to accommodate all these kids.  It's 3 floors and sprawling.  In fact they just finished building a new addition.  The lockers are in double rows, one on top of the other and of course, Ashley got a bottom locker.  Kind of ironic as we saw a girl next to her who was less than 5 feet tall stand on her tiptoes to reach her top locker!  Oh well.

We walked around to each of her classes so Ashley could orient herself a bit.  This whole process took about 2 hours.  At the end, Ashley was like, "Mom, can we walk through my schedule one more time? Just to help me remember it more?"

OKAY STOP HERE.  What would your response to this be?  I'm sure most of you would think about your little girl all grown up and needing a little more reassurance as she prepares to start high school and would therefore, probably say, "sure."

HERE IS WHAT I SAID, "No, let's go home."  Go ahead and judge me, but seriously, IT HAS BEEN 2 HOURS.  We have walked all over this place, up and down stairs, around the swimming pool, down this hall, etc, etc.  I'm not the one in high school!  I'm officially done.  We have done enough for Ashley to get her bearings, she'll figure it out just like everyone else does.  

I might mention two things about this:   1)The very next day after registration, a parent friend of mine, told me how they took their child back to the school later that night to walk the through the schedule again and actually time out how long it takes to walk from class to class.  2)Ashley was fine on the first day of school and had no problem finding her way around. 

As for Paige, her school "preview" was pretty much about just meeting her teacher.  Easy.  Of course, it's never that easy.  Because I am in the PTA, I had to make some posters and handouts and so it was a little bit of a hectic rush as we also had back-to-back activities that day.  In the end, everything worked out.  Paige even got the teacher we were hoping to get.  Even better was that her best friend Riley is also in her class.  We were definitely not expecting that as it always seems they like to break kids up.  Needless to say, the girls were thrilled!

Dave got a picture for us.  Paige's mascot is a "wolverine"
Ashley mascot = "wolves"

Can't Summer Last Forever?

This is our final week of Summer vacation.  I think we all wish it could last longer.  We've been doing the usual school supply and clothes shopping.  We didn't go too crazy with clothes as my girls seem pretty well stocked, plus they did a lot of shopping this summer.  They both needed shoes but other than that, we just filled in the gaps here and there.

We have also had Paige's friend Riley with us a lot so she's got to join in a few of our last minute bucket items:

1)See the new Percy Jackson movie.  We enjoyed it.  It definitely followed the book better than the first movie.  We also saw it at the themed movie theater.

2)Shopping, including a visit to our friends new clothing exchange store.  Ashley really wanted to do this.  She found some very cute jeans and the little girls bought matching sunglasses to go with the matching shirts they bought earlier!

3)Try the new frozen yogurt shop in town.  These girls love froyo!

17 Years

Dave and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary today.  17 is one of those numbers in between major numbers that you always have to think twice about and count to figure out exactly how long it has been.  I mean, 15 and 20 are easy but those middle numbers like 17 take a little extra mental effort!

17 years.  Dave and I have known each other for more than 1/2 our lives and we have had a lot of good times.  This year has been full of challenges for us, but we are still happy we just know what "through thick and thin" "for better or worse" and "in sickness and health" means now.

Anyway, we had a low key day but it was nice.  We went out for dinner, movie and ice cream in the evening.  We ate at Katy's, our favorite Chinese noodle house and then saw the movie, Elysium.  After the movie we got some ice cream at Oberweis, a sweet way to end the day.

Dave, me  and the flowers he gave me

Piano Recital

The girls had a summer piano recital this year.  It was sort of a final farewell performance because their teacher is moving.  We are all pretty sad about that because we love Leslie and she has done such an amazing job teaching our girls piano.  She has taught them from the beginning and Ashley has done so well, which we can thank Leslie for.  Anyway, Leslie, has spent the past two years getting her associates degree and now is going to the University of Illinois to study music education.  She is going to be great and we are so happy for her, even if that means we have to give her up as a piano teacher.

I have found a new teacher for Paige but I'm not sure what to do with Ashley yet.  Still working on it, I'll have to get back to you on that one.

So back to the recital.  Leslie who usually teaches out of her home, scheduled the recital at a music academy which has a beautiful grand piano.  It was so cool and a great experience for the girls to get to play on a grand piano.

The theme of the recital was "A Night at the Movies"  All the students chose a theme song from a movie.  They worked on their songs throughout the spring and summer to prepare for the recital.  Both the girls played so well.  Dave and I were so proud of them.

Ashley, Leslie, and Paige

Leslie's Piano Students

Ashley

Paige

Funny thing, were the songs they chose.  Their father's influence is definitely reflected in their choices.  Paige played "The Imperial March" from Star Wars and Ashley played "the James Bond Theme Song" from Dr. No.  All the other girls picked more feminine songs from movies like Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh, Annie and the Wizard of Oz.  The boys picked from movies like Superman and Raiders of the Lost Ark.  Then you have my daughters - they aren't doing any girly movies or musicals!

Waterpark Day - Again

We hit the waterpark, one last time.  Both girls brought a friend a long and had lots of fun.

Besides the wave pool and water slides this time we saw the sea lion show and rode the go cart thingys.

I didn't get many pictures as it's a little inconvenient to carry a camera around while you are swimming.

Photo of the Day - "a monkey on your back"

Is that a monkey on Dave' shoulder?

Where is he?

What is going on?

Where did that monkey come from?

I would be freaking out if that were me.

Dave texted this picture to me.  He was at work.  I guess there was a street festival going on right outside his office building.  He and a friend went outside for lunch.  There was a guy with a monkey that you could have your picture taken with.  Dave and his friend saw this and actually said, "I don't want to do that."

BUT the monkey had other plans, as Dave was walking by minding his own business and eating his pizza, the monkey ran over and jumped onto his shoulder.  I'm pretty sure if this were me there would have been some screaming and throwing the monkey off, but Dave's a cool cucumber and the monkey wasn't going anywhere, so his friend took a quick picture.

You never know what a day will have in store in for you!