Family Pictures...but only a sneak peek :)

Yay! Picture day went so well this year!

Going to try to wait to post any more till after I make up my Christmas card...it better be fabulous this year considering I have about 3 1/2 months to come up with something :)
So glad to check pictures off of my list!

Nemo Cake!

Last Saturday I, for the first time, made a cake for someone other than my own family. A girl from church that I didn't really know called and asked me if I would make a Finding Nemo themed cake for her son's 1st birthday party. She works in the church office with another lady that I am friends with on facebook and that lady showed her pictures of cakes I've made for the boys.

Anyway I gladly said yes! It's fun for me to try to be creative with cakes.

So I came up with a couple of ideas and emailed her asking which one she wanted me to do and luckily she chose the easier option :)

Easier, but very time consuming! It took about 6  hours on Saturday! It was a big party, so I also baked and frosted 50 cupcakes to go with it as well.

I loved how it turned out even though during the process I really wondered if it was going to look good at all. I really kind of hate the in between process before I can see the end result!

I had ordered the little figurines off of Amazon...

It was fun to try out the new spray food coloring too...I frosted all four layers of the cake white, then just sprayed on the blue. I love the effect and will totally be using it in the future.

I was just crossing my fingers that Lorena and her cute little guy Santiago would like it, and they did...I was so relieved!
Sounds like it was a hit at the fun party too :) 

 

Kickball!

I am so happy to say that Gunnar is absolutely loving kickball this year! Remember last year he was pretty shy and scared and I played all but the very last game with him?

Last Thursday he had his first game and when we got there, he went straight over to his coach and got his new red kickball shirt, then got right into practicing and was so excited to kick the ball, run the bases and go after the balls the other team kicked!

 Cutie :)

 We were so proud of him. He's had one other game since then (yesterday), and all day he asked me if it was almost time for his game and when was he ever going to get to go play kickball??

So glad that he is loving it!

Oh and cute little Amalia is on his team again :)

Half of the excitement is about the treats after the game of course...

Good job Gunnar!

Ashton's 1st day of 2nd Grade!

 

 I can't believe you're in 2nd grade already Ashton! You got up and got ready so nicely for your first day. You always make your bed first thing, straighten up your room and do your chores, then eat breakfast, brush teeth and get dressed.

I wasn't surprised that you chose this shirt for your first day...

 So excited to use your cool new messenger bag :) 

We will miss you while you're at school all day...

We drove to school the first day and Gunnar and I walked you into your class. You gave me a quick high 5, then sat down at your desk. Bye Mom!

I was glad to hear when we picked you up that you'd had a great day!

I know you will have a great year too.

Back to school is so fun...I rememeber the excitement from when I was a little girl!

It's fun now as a Mom too...to see you getting so excited and well let's be honest, to have a little more time during the day to get stuff done and a LOT less fighting between you and Gunnar! I think the break for you two will be good after a summer of being together all day every day :)

Back to school night...

Last Wednesday after we left the AWHC, we came home and had a quick dinner then headed over to Providence Elementary for Ashton's back to school night.

 A friend of mine is the PTA president this year and had asked me to help out and be in charge of Boxtops, so I had to stand up and introduce myself with the rest of the PTA after all of the teachers were introduced and the principal talked etc...

Anyway, after we left the gym we went and found Ashton's classroom and met his 2nd grade teacher Mrs. Olson.

Bummed his eyes were closed in this picture! I'll have to get another one later :)

She seems really nice and her classroom is so cute!

 

 Checking out his new desk... 

 After we left the classroom and the really HOT school, we let the boys play on the playground for awhile, then we went home and hung out outside till it was time to get to bed before the big first day!

Cheers to the "last" day of summer!!

American West Heritage Center...

After our fun weekend at Bear Lake there were only a couple days of summer left for Ashton, so on Wednesday...the day before school started, we decided to meet up with Brianne and the boys out at the AMHC. We hadn't been out there for a long time, and the times we have been we've never done as much as we did that day. We had such a fun day! Here's what we did...

Checked out how pioneers used to live (and counted our blessings)...

The boys played a couple of old games from back in those days. Catching

balls this guy was hitting with that old style bat...

Then we wandered over and the boys all learned how to make yarn out of wool...they thought that was pretty cool!

 

 Then we checked out this cool teepee...

And got to throw tomahawks at the logs, something we have done before...

 

I even got one in!

 Then we got to do what Gunnar and Ashton had been looking forward to the whole day...

Pan for gold!

They would have stayed there and done that the rest of the day if we'd let them.

But finally we made them move on and we went over and they rode the ponies.

I was kind of surprised Ashton and Gunnar did this, but they did and they loved it! Ashton even went twice :)

Finally at the end of our day we rode the cute little train...

All 6 boys packed into the caboose...haha :)

I think we were the ONLY ones out there that day besides all the workers, it was fun having the whole place to ourselves and getting to do all that fun stuff!

Then it was home for a quick dinner and back to school night...