First Day of School! Part 1 (2010)

Today is the first day of school for Heidi, Emma and Eric. Meagan has decided to go to a different high school and doesn't start until Monday. It was weird having only part of the kids go to school today. I was ready to have my alone time back so I can get working on some projects that I haven't been able to do between swimming lessons, swimming at the neighbors, taking the kids to the movies, remodelling the basement, and vacations to Utah, Colorado and Wyoming. I am not sure the kids were all that ready to get back to school either. There wasn't any of that "I'm so excited for school start tomorrow, I can hardly fall asleep!!!" last night. David informed me that was normal and all the previous years of school that we have had the kids totally excited was not normal and just plain weird. I missed that excitement!!! I do hope they have a great day at school today and come home completely excited to share their day with me over an apple shaped sugar cookie!!!! Here are the first day of school pictures without Meagan. I will have to post hers on Monday.

Heidi is so grown up and loves to have her down in new ways and her nails done all the time. (and I thought she was going to be a tomboy when she was little)

Emma was the one that had her outfit picked out a week in advance and sitting on her chair. She also had everything ready except her new bag that she wanted from Heidi instead of a boring old back pack.

Eric was not happy about summer being over and didn't care too much how he looked or what was going on. It was all Meagan and I could do to get him presentable today. He did turn out cute and finally got excited when he saw his friends going to the bus stop.

Here they are at the bus stop.

Have a great year at school!!!!!

Nina Visits from China

Heidi's best friend from China came to visit us. Heidi was so excited to see her after a year and so were the rest of us. She lived in the same apartment complex that we did and Heidi and Nina really hit it off. They come to America every summer and so thought they could visit us. Nina and Heidi wanted to sleep every day because they would stay up late visiting and talking but mean old mom made the girls get up by 8am every day. The first day they went to the water park, just the 2 of them. They had to check in every 2 hours but had a great time. They got to play and talk the whole day without any sibling to bother them. The next day they went on a bike ride to downtown Eagle and went to lunch, then they went to YW together and to a late movie. Unfortunately Nina had to leave the next day and start her long drive to Kansas. We were all sad to see her leave but made plans for Heidi to go and visit her next year when she comes back to America.

Ward Campout

Our Ward really wanted to have a Ward Campout this year so since I am the activities chairman I got to plan it. I looked all over the internet for some ideas of what to do and all I found was posts with people saying, "Ward Campouts are GREAT!!! You should plan one." Not really helpful. I thought back to when I was a kid and tried to remember what we did and just remembered having a lot of fun. So I did what any chairman would do and I came up with a plan and assignments and I let everyone choose what they wanted to be in charge of. The YM said they would do the sloppy joes for Fridays dinner. (the rest was potluck style with salads/sides or desserts from the ward members) The YW were in charge of the program/games for Friday night. The Elders and High Priests were in charge of the breakfast Saturday morning. The primary for the kids activities Saturday morning. The Sunday School in charge of assigning cabins to those that wanted them. And the Relief Society was supposed to take pictures and make a DVD or slideshow to be presented to the ward at the end of the summer.

Overall, I think everyone had a blast and I heard lots of people tell me they wanted to do this every year so I hope it becomes a tradition.