Back to School!

My eager students were up and ready to go in record time!  All five kids in school (in one way or another!) this year.   Rather bittersweet. 

Preschool with Miss Courtney:

First Grade with Mrs. Heinen:

Third Grade with Mrs. Aune-Ruland:

Fifth Grade with Mr. Gady:

Seventh Grade:

I didn't make Bryson take a picture in front of his school- he said he would, but then was just kinda gone... I didn't push it *sigh*

Jace was very excited to get to play on the playground for a bit with Hailee:

Time to line up!

It was pretty tough for Jace to really understand that he DOES get to go to school, but has to wait until after lunch... of course the morning took f.o.r.e.v.e.r! for him.  But finally, the time came. He walked right in and got to work!

All of my other kids were in morning preschool, so the whole 'waiting {all day} to go to school' is a new challenge, but we'll find ways to pass the time *grin*.  One of the reasons I put him in the afternoon class was that he can ride the bus home!  He was ecstatic!

best.day.ever. 

The cherry on top for Bryson was that football practice started today also.  On the way home from picking him up after practice,I looked in the rear view mirror and found this:

 He's always loved dress up *snort*

 

His football gear caused quite the excitement when we got home-

 

He was like was a hero returning from war- the other kids just kind of stood in awe and watched him...

 

And then they all took turns trying on his gear...

 

And what did I do in my hours of being all alone in the house?  I C.L.E.A.N.E.D!  It was honestly three solid hours of cleaning and organizing bliss.  Sounds lame, I know, but it was so refreshing getting to all some of the things I'd been putting off in lieu of enjoying the time before school started up.

Summer Waning

How is it that summer is over??  I, for one, could really use another two weeks of carefree summertime *sigh*

But, alas, the days are getting cooler {too soon!} and school is right around the corner {literally, it starts tomorrow}.

We packed in a few extra trips to the pool with friends...

I love that Jace (all of my kids really) has no problem going under water.  He loves to "dive" and is actually learning how to swim in his own way!

 My little fish!

I hardly even saw Dallin and Bryson- they can pass the swim test and are tall enough to be in the big pool and go off the diving board-  but Eli isn't tall enough or a strong enough swimmer yet.  Fortunately, he doesn't mind!  He is as happy playing with his younger siblings as his older ones *grin*  I love how playful he is...

Hailee's hair of course quickly escaped her pony tails... she didn't mind of course!

And now it is the day before school!  We had some "as seen on tv" 120 water balloon set that obviously had to be used before school started *wink*wink*  The only problem was they were colored water balloons- and while the packaging claimed it wouldn't stain, I didn't trust it... not with school the next day!  I didn't exactly want my kids to be green and blue and red in their first day of school pics *grin*  Fortunately, I was able to pull a little trickery and get the dye out before we filled the balloons *phew*  We went over to Sarah's and had an {almost} epic battle...

kind of anti-climatic, but they had fun!

One last carefree lounge on the back deck eating popsicles and ice cream bars!

And yes, it was a somewhat chilly day... this summer definitely left me wanting for more hot days!  It was much too late in starting (as in mid-July), and too soon to end!

So tonight we had father's blessings and picked out our outfits and packed lunches for tomorrow!  I am so happy to have ALL of my kids nothing but excited to start school back up, even if I wish it weren't so soon...

Ready or not, here comes school!

One More Time

We managed to squeeze in one more camping trip before school started...

Jace 'caught' a fish!

Actually, a fisherman who shall remain nameless *ahem* left his line in the water... all night... and in the morning, one of the kids noticed that there was a fish on it!  It was a nasty catfish, but Jace 'reeled it in' and caught it without even touching it *grin* 

Bryson got some wakeboarding time in and Dallin was able to kneeboard...

 Dallin has mastered the back flip... I love this series:

Campfires and s'mores!

THIS is what I love most about camping:

unplugging and being buddies

Knight is confident he's a lap dog *grin* 

We came home filthy but happy *grin*  We'd planned on going up for Labor Day weekend, but the weather looks crummy so we're going to get stuff done at home instead!  *bleh*

Camping FIRE!!

Sadly, it's the middle of August and we're only going camping for the 2nd time *gasp*

 We went up {just our family} and had a great time- the kids got some hand-me-down rafts which they pretty much think are the greatest thing ever... so great in fact, that even though we didn't have an operational pump, they enthusiastically used their lung power to get them blown up *whew* it sure took a lot more time that they figured it would!

But it was worth it! 

And that's the extent of pics I have for the weekend!  We were too busy just enjoying the perfect weather!  It's not often that we go camping just our little family, and it was a nice low key weekend- until it wasn't...

We were planning on staying until Monday afternoon...

Sunday, I was literally lounging in the hammock when I got a text from my sister asking if the fires were near us...

I had no idea what she was talking about- fires where we were camping?  No, I couldn't see evidence of any?!?

I quickly figured out she meant near our house!  The wind had picked up that afternoon, and about 7-8 miles from our house a tree fell on a power line, which sparked a fire.  It tore through the farm land, pushed by the wind, exactly toward our house.  I called a neighbor who said it was pretty serious...
We quickly packed up our stuff and headed home early from camping- though we knew we couldn't stay at our house, we felt it best to not be camping... my parents made a quick trip out to our house and got important stuff for us... as we neared Spokane, the smoke got thicker and thicker- it was unbelievably bad at Mimi's!  But it was a safer distance from the fires, so we stayed there Sunday night.

The next morning, there was very little information on the fire, except that it wasn't contained and it had burned a very large area.  As best as we could tell, the fires were still about 3 miles from our house.  We went home, just to check on things, but the smoke was so thick that after just a few minutes our eyes were burning.

Since Nathan and I both had to work Tuesday, and we had so little information on the fires progression, we decided to stay at Mimi's Monday night again and just have our babysitter come to her house to watch the kids.

It wasn't really until Wednesday that we got any concrete information on the fires.  The lack of information in the meantime was very unsettling!  By Friday it was considered mostly contained.  Over 6,500 acres were burned and 10 homes lost- so devastating for the community.  We learned that the quick action of a network of farmers were really to thank for the fires not spreading more than they did- they hopped on their tractors and plowed fields under to create a fire line.

The following week, there was a community potluck held at the high school football field to thank the farmers and firefighters- it was such a neat experience to feel the sense of community- something I'd often heard of, but *at least as an adult* never really seen on this scale.  The school superintendent began the potluck with a prayer, addressing "Our Dear Heavenly Father..." I love this Freeman community, it is such a privilege to be a part of!

Dress Up

Aunt Kristi sent a box up full of hand me downs months ago, and frankly, it sat in my garage the whole time cuz I was kinda preoccupied with reunion prep.  This week, I happened upon the box and the kids (mostly Hailee and Jace) were delighted with the dress up costumes we found!  Hooray for not having to buy Halloween costumes!!

(she was being a one-eye'd pirate *grin*) 

When I pulled out this fireman costume, to my surprise, Jace darted out of the room without putting it on... he reappeared a few seconds later with his fireman boots and happily played the role completely.

Thanks Aunt Kristi (& co.) for the fun filled morning!