School Carnival

Tucker's school had a carnival to raise money for the PTA. New this year you could purchase a wrist band to have unlimited access to all of the carnival games. I wasn't sure I wanted to go because it was on a Monday night which meant that I had to go without Bryant because we would be working. Apparently, the "fun run" aspect of it was very important to Tucker. He talked about it almost every day. Then one morning when getting ready for school he was super sad because he thought we had missed the carnival. Well this convinced me that we would need to attend the event. We invested in three wrist bands and I was grateful for it. There were lots of games to play and it was wonderful that they got to play them as much as they wanted. They were even able to get their faces painted.

Tucker won a real goldfish on his first of six attempts to get a ping pong ball to land in a fish bowl with a fish. I warned the children that we would only try once each because the line was really long. My secret hope was that no one would win a fish. Tucker was super excited about it. We brought it home alive. It was alive the next morning when Tucker left for school. It was alive when I came home from the dinosaur museum in the morning. It was alive when Bryant immediately left to get it some food. It was dead when Bryant came home with food for it. Hunter was devastated and couldn't believe we would be flushing it down the toilet. Tucker was equally distressed when he came home from school at lunch time and it was gone. Thankfully, someone brought an ice chest full of gold fish to Bryant's work a couple of days later and Bryant brought home three different gold fish. One for Tucker, Hunter, and Brylee. They love having their own fish. Bryant has since learned that he doesn't like having to change the water each day (because we don't have a real fish tank or oxygen filter thing). But now our kids have a "pet" so I don't constantly have them asking me for one :)

Trafalga

We enjoyed our Pass of all Passes so much last year that I bought renewals. They were 29.00 and came with $20.00 gift cards to Wal-Mart so theoretically they were only $10 each and I only had to buy 3 because Hunter's was only activated at the beginning of the Summer.

I took the children without Bryant and we had a blast. I was little nervous to go without him and keep track of everyone but everyone was such good listeners that it went beautifully! I gave them each a banana in the car on the way there, we played hard until a little after 5, I gave them a fruit cup on the way to costco, and then we made it home for dinner that wasn't ready until almost 7. Amazingly, not one child complained about being hungry or tired, even with the added stop at Costco on the way home.

We started with the indoor play area then made our way to the airplanes. Gunnar is too small to ride the rides but he was patient as his older sibling played.

Then we went miniature golfing. I have learned that I do not need to golf with the children. Instead I just watch and move along with them. Tucker and Hunter always take the lead. Brylee attempts a few holes before become distracted and Gunnar loved following after everyone with his own golf and club

After golfing we rode the pirate ship. The attendant let me take Gunnar with me on the ride. He refused to smile to show his enjoyment but he was fully concentrated on it and enjoyed riding it several times.

We rode the lighthouse outside and then the frogs inside, basically the same ride. 

Brylee was rather concerned but she wanted to do it just like her brothers :)

Everyone happily obeyed when it was time to come home :)

September

Can you believe that I am almost caught up in life. Here is some of September. Bryant has been enjoying putting on magic shows for the children. He succeeded in convincing them that he could get pennies to go through the table. They had him do it over and over and stared under the table watching. Hunter eventually asked him to move his hand further down away from the table so he could see the magic. It was cute. This is a video of pennies dissolving in water. I didn't a shot of the pennies in there before they dissolved but Tucker, Hunter, and Brylee can attest that they were there.

Here are some silly pictures of Gunnar. His hair is so long. I think he is the first boy to make it an entire year without a hair cut. Perhaps when I pull out the buzzer and scissors for his older brothers he will get his hair cut too. 

Gunnar's favorite place to play is this cupboard. He removes the two pans that are kept on the bottom so that he can play inside, of course when I try to take a picture he refuses to sit in it. I am still learning that I have to turn "off" the blender before plugging it in now because Gunnar often pushes the buttons while in the cupboard. Thankfully, I have not broken the blender yet. 

Tucker tried to show Gunnar how to sit in the cupboard for a picture :)

Tucker got this bear at our neighbor's yard sale once everything was free for all. He was so excited to have a bear of his own, not one that was previously owned by me or shared between siblings but one he picked, named, and can always claim as his own.

Gunnar's other favorite spot is still accessible when the portable dishwasher is not pushed against he cupboards when washing. And you read that right. We got a portable dishwasher to wash our dishes! It is a beautiful thing. Our neighbor gave it to us when she moved to a house that has a dishwasher. It is amazing the amount of time that it saves me. Dishes are so much less a chore. The children have already been trained in unloading the dish drainer so moving them to unload a dishwasher didn't take much encouragement.

Brylee didn't want to eat her dinner and kept getting down from the table so I strapped her into Gunnar's booster chair. She still didn't eat her dinner but went to bed early

Gunnar upgraded to a toddler bed!! I had him share a room with his older brothers in a crib for about a month so he could see how everyone stays in their beds when put to bed. Then I moved him and Brylee into a room together. Brylee upgraded from the toddler bed to a "real" bed and Gunnar got the toddler bed. Brylee had a little hard time adjusting because we only got the toddler bed a couple of months ago. She had previously been on a mattress on the floor. Brylee was upgraded about a week before Gunnar in hopes that it would not be hard to give the bed to her brother. After about a week or two of requesting to have her toddler bed she has fully adjusted 

First day of School!!

Here are pictures of Tucker at his first day of school. He didn't know who his teacher was before going to school because his school decided to do testing before placing the children with their teachers. His school has two all day kindergarten classes and two half days. We received a recorded message phone call the evening  before school started telling us that Tucker had tested into all day, which made no sense to me whatsoever. So while I was stressing about how to get him in half-day and not wanting to make his first day of school confusing or more stressful for him I received a second recorded message apologizing for the confusion of the first message and telling me his teacher was Mrs. Kilgore and that he would be in the morning, half day class. Whew! Crisis averted. It is crazy how many parents request that their children be in all day instead of half-day. I'm grateful that he is only their half the day! We watch one of his friends Monday through Thursday after school each week and enjoy having a friend over to play with each day. 

Tucker picked this back pack. It is Lego Chima. He earned the money to pay for half of it and earned it a week before school started! He was super excited about it.

Normally, Tucker takes the bus to school, but I drove him his first day of school. We followed the bus so he could see what would happen when he rode the bus. He was nervous for his first day of school but once he found out he got to play on the playground BEFORE school he was super excited. He even made a friend within a few minutes. Then his teacher came out to meet the students that had arrived "early." Once Tucker met his teacher he relaxed even more and was just excited to be going to school.

This is a picture of him lining up to go inside and start his first day! He is such a wonderful son. 

He happily rode the bus his second day of school with his friend Parker from church :)

August

August was the last month before school started. We enjoyed our last "summer" days going to splash pads and Seven Peaks. We enjoyed our Pass of all Passes that gave us free admission all summer to the water park and loads of other places the rest of the year. 

The primary had a carnival with lots of games for the kids to win prizes.

The beanbag toss was the favorite of my children

I made this dinosaur tail for a neighbor friend's birthday. It became the inspiration for our family Halloween costumes. Stay tuned to see the whole family :)

Gunnar loves his brother Hunter!

Our Sunday schedule gets us home from church a little after 12:00 each week. As Gunnar is adjusting to one nap a day he is often in turmoil over a desire to sleep and eat and occasionally we end of with the sleeping child in the high chair :)

Ward Campout

We discovered that our ward does not hold a father's and sons camp out. Instead they have a ward camp out. Well with Bryant working every Saturday morning he couldn't be with us. Thankfully, he joined us after he got off work on Friday night and helped me set up the tent. The children had lots of fun being outside and sleeping in the tent. I'm glad the tent was big enough to hold the three older one, Gunnar in a pack-n-play, and me on a twin air mattress.

The children even had fun playing with all the camping stuff as I unloaded the car in the morning.