Swimming

During the End of Quarter break from school, I took the kids swimming at the Layton Surf and Swim with my sister.  It was so much fun.  It felt so good to do something that reminded me of summer and warm weather.  The kids had a ball and they were so good for me.  I was scared, because last time they were not.  Gerrit this time even got in the water and was trying to swim.  Thanks to his cousin Violet and the many times he got in our pool this past summer.  I think he will eventually love the water like the rest of us.

Reflections

During the summer all Kaymin did was make up dances and teach them to the neighbor girls.  My bare grass out front is proof of the HOURS they put in to their dances.  I have no idea if grass will ever grow there again.  However, it paid off.  For the school Reflection contest one of the categories was Dance Choreography.  Even though the theme was Diversity and none of her dances had anything to do with Diversity she wanted to enter anyway.  Our neighbor and her best friend, Lexi, was her dance partner and they each took one of the dances to enter.  I filmed them in our church one night because they were dancing outside and my house was not big enough to film them dancing in.  It turned out wonderful!  Since Kaymin was entering in Reflections, Deilen and Kameni wanted to as well.  Deilen entered in the Visual Arts (drew a picture of an orange person and a brown person holding hands) and Kameni did 3-D art and made clay art.  Kaymin thought this looked fun and entered in 3-D art too.  It turned out to be a good thing too, since all participants ended up getting a free pass to Kangaroo Zoo.  My kids love that place.   All of my kids won at school and received a trophy and a certificate and went on to the next level. 

At the next award ceremony we were unable to go and everyone told us how dumb and boring it was.  All my kids would get was a paper certificate and maybe a ribbon.  I guess that is what they did hand out to the kids that weren't going on to the next level, but those that won...like Kaymin got an even bigger trophy.  Her friend, Lexi, went and brought this home for her.  I have no idea how Deilen and Kameni did since theirs was at a different time.  Oh well, I hear they will be given to our school so we will eventually get them.  I haven't taken a picture with the other kids and their trophies, but I did with Kaymin.  I am SO proud of my kids! 

Deilen Turns 7

Deilen is so great!  I asked what he wanted to do for his birthday and all he wanted was to invite two friends over to play the Wii after school.  He is SO wonderful!  What an easy birthday. 

He invited his friends Kyle and Colby and they played and even helped him eat some of his cake.  He wanted a Beyblade cake and this is about all that I could think of what to do for his cake that wouldn't involve a big mess.  He loved it.  After Blake got home, we took him to McDonald's.  Kyle came with us and so did my mom.  I wasn't smart enough to remember my camera.  We stayed there for a long time and let the kids play while we visited.  It was a really, relaxing birthday. 

We gave him this Razor Riptide 360 and my parents gave him a HUGE Nerf gun and Blake's parents gave him a remote control truck.  He was definitely spoiled and had a great birthday.

WAY Behind

Okay, so I am terrible at blogging anymore.  Where did my time go and my excitement for blogging?  I have no idea.  All I see is me falling further and further behind.  It started when my computer crashed.  So I decided...I will never get caught up...I will save that for my blog book.  For now...I am going to begin with a clean slate and begin at the beginning of 2012 and hopefully keep this one up-to-date.

Pretty Flowers

One Sunday at the end of August the girls were begging me to cut some of our flowers and put them in a vase in our house.  I have no idea why I haven't thought about this before, but I LOVE the flowers.  The girls did a great job arranging them and the made the whole house smell great.  They loved doing it and I need to remember that for next year and let me cut more flowers.  There is nothing like beautiful, fresh flowers.

Putting Up the Pool

It is always a bitter sad when we put up the pool.  I am grateful to not have to clean and care for it anymore, but the kids love it and I would do anything for them.  When we empty out the pool, the neighbor kids all love to come and help.  I only can let so many because you need room to throw the water out.  If not, then we end up with a lot of kids getting hit with a cup in the head.   Kameni got lucky this year and Deilen and Kaymin were gone when I decided to take the pool down.  So all of Kameni's cute little neighbor friends got to come and help.   I really would love a bigger pool and someday we will have one.  For now, I am so glad that Gerrit was brave enough to swim.  Next year I hope he does even better. 

First Day of School

 I can't believe how fast the summer seemed to go by.  Now I will have 3 kids in school full days.  That is hard to imagine. 

Deilen seems WAY grown up for his age, but Kameni has no desire to grow up and wants to stay little FOREVER!  So to have them at school all day is so crazy.  The kids are so excited and they got wonderful teachers (the ones I wanted and I didn't even request.)  Deilen and Kameni got the same teacher again (now I did request for them to be in the same class). 

Kaymin got in a class with her friends, which I think will make this year a lot easier for her.  The kids were really excited to go, but Gerrit and I were not.  I could never home school my kids, but I sure hate doing homework and doing all of the hustle and bustle that school brings.  Also, I realized how bad Gerrit misses the kids.  He really has a hard time with just me all day.