Hiking with David & Denise

David and Denise came to visit us during August and we went for a three mile hike with our three crazy kiddos. We survived with minimal crying, complaining, and no accidents. We even managed to have some fun!

First Day of Kindergarten

Our Princess is so excited to be in school! I still have a hard time believing she is big enough to be in Kindergarten. Every day she tells me what she learned in class and how much she likes her teacher.

 

First Day of 2nd Grade

School started about a month ago, and now I finally have pictures from the first day to share. The kiddos had separate first days of school this year, something about having the Kindergarteners start a week after the rest of the kids. Here is Benjamin excited for his first day of school!

 

Clowning Around

So I have a hidden talent. One that involves dressing up and drawing shapes on my face. Good thing I love my kids!

Our ward was having a carnival complete with games, prizes, a dunking booth, and a clown making balloon animals . . . . or so the Primary leaders thought. On Wednesday afternoon, the clown canceled and they asked if anyone in the neighborhood would be willing to step in. Balloon animals are one of my children's favorite things to get whenever we go to events with games and prizes and I hated the idea of them not getting that at the carnival, especially since they had already heard there was suppose to be a clown there. The idea of doing it myself was planted in my head and I really didn't want my kids to be disappointed.

I think I took a crazy pill that day because I went ahead and offered to do it if they would be okay with flowers, swords, and dogs. Granted, I have only made balloon animals once in my life and that was in grade school, but I figured I had spent enough hours in line waiting for and watching balloon animals being made that I could do it. Thanks, to YouTube and About.com, and a couple of hours of practice, I was able to do it. And, thanks to the awesome lady at the party store who suggested I blow up most of the balloons the night before, I saved a ton of time.

I was suppose to walk around and see if anyone wanted balloons, but the kids were so delighted with what I could do the line never stopped long enough for me to move from where I first stopped in the parking lot. There were even a couple of kids who came back for a second balloon or came back with one of their siblings to get a balloon. It sure made me feel good about what I was doing. I have to admit that after tying and sculpting nearly 200 balloons I was a little worn out. But, I had fun and my kiddos did too! Thank you, Michael, for taking care of the kids so I could clown around.

The pictures are copyrighted by SuzyO Photography and are posted with her permission. To see more of her awesome pictures visit her website here. Thanks, Suzy, for letting me repost your pictures here!