Last School year....

I've had this post saved as a draft for, oh....three months.
It was to be a wrap up of the school year.  All the things I never blogged about, like the school play, the science fair, all that jazz.
Maybe now that it's a new school year I should get to that?

Maybe.

But if nothing else, before I post the pictures from the other kids' first day this morning I did want to share these ones.

Last year on the first day of school

and back in June on the last day of school.

There was waaaaay too much growing up going on on those nine months.

Middle School

At least I got an extra year, right?
If we lived anywhere else odds are she would have shipped off to middle school last year.  Yay for living where Middle School doesn't start till 7th grade!  It actually kind of freaks me out to say "middle school", most of them are Jr Highs here.

My oldest child went off to Middle School this morning.
My oldest child rode a bus to school for the first time.
My oldest child should be stepping on to that bus to head home any minute now.
I can't wait to hear how the first day was!
 

 I'm not sure if she was tired or nervous or what, but she wasn't smiling for pictures this morning.

Never fear-she was very excited.
Charlotte not so much.
She rolled out of bed right as Malia was getting ready to head out the door.  Determined not to be left behind, she threw on the first thing she could find as quickly as possible (thus the reason it's on backward), grabbed the first shoes she could find and came barreling out the front door crying.

"Me go with you Meela!  Go with you!"
It was cute.
It was sweet.
It was a little sad too.

Charlotte cried as Malia picked up her things to head off to the bus stop.

She cried harder as Malia walked off down the sidewalk.

Then she started screaming and chasing after her.
(loudly enough that our next door neighbor who had a window open came out to see who was dying.  Sorry Alicia!)

Off on her next big adventure in life.

I hope she loves it.

It's over

It just started.
And now, it's over.

Today Malia went back to school.  Tomorrow the rest of the clan follows.

How on earth did Summer fly by so quickly?

So many fun adventures.  Thus the reason so little blogging.  But hey, that means there is so much to share now, right?  Brace yourself for the onslaught.

I am excited for the opportunities this school year will bring, but sad to say goodbye to our long (kind of) carefree days as we lurch back in to real life.

This morning I drowned my back to school sorrows in scones.  Or maybe that was making up for the 35 minutes I spent with Jillian Michaels.  It's a toss up.  Either way, I highly recommend a healthy dose of fried bread smothered in honey butter on a Monday morning.

Hey guess what?

Today is August 4th.  One year later.
Miracles happen.

Don't be so surprised.

Happy first birthday to my sweet little Sam.

Stepping out of my comfort zone

Way out.

SUAR recommends doing something every day that scares you.  Some days that is fulfilled just by getting up and dealing with the chaos here.  Just kidding.  Mostly.

Last week I did something that scared me.
A local swimsuit company opened a contest for someone to join their next photo shoot.  I love their suits.  Really.  I have a couple, I bought Malia one this year too.  They are cute, fit well and are functional.  Any mom who has ever chased after kids in a swimsuit knows that good fit and functional are musts!
So when I saw their email about looking for a model, I checked out their Facebook page.  And there I found a fabulously encouraging thing.  They asked their fans what they would like to see in a model.  Overwhelmingly the answer was "a normal person".  Clarified with comments including no plastic surgery, someone bigger than a size zero and not six feet tall, and more than any other comment-someone who is a mom!  Awesome, right?  Right.  Then they posted their first round of submissions.  Most of them were just normal women-and I loved it!
And then in the back of my mind I thought, "hey-I could submit a photo....."
Riiiiight.
But you know what?  You only live once.  One of my new year's resolutions was to step out of my comfort zone and take chances.  Heck, the worst that can happen is nothing, right?

So I had Aaron snap a few pictures for me.  Since we rarely go anywhere and certainly don't go anywhere exotic, we had a little fun in the backyard.  The kiddie pool is where it's at!

And the best part was that it really was fun.  Or maybe the best part was being brave enough to take pictures in a swimsuit and ending up with cute ones that I wasn't afraid to share.

Well, I sent a picture in and now it's up on their Facebook page.  Not ^that^ one, but this one:

If you are feeling so inclined, feel free to hop on over to their Facebook page, like Hapari, and like my photo in their Model Contest album.  It's on the fourth row down...pretty hard to miss the red umbrella!  Feel free to leave a comment too if you'd like.

While Hapari will ultimately pick their winner, they are posting the submissions to get feedback from their customers and fans.  There are some killer bodies in some of those photos-much, much more impressive than my post 8 kids state for sure.  But I have to say that it just thrills me that the majority of the likes and comments are on those pictures of regular women and moms, not the air brushed super model types.  Hopefully they will listen to their customers and pick one of those cute women!  And while it would sure be fun if it were me, I will be beyond thrilled  to see any one of those other cute moms walk away as the addition to Hapari's next photo shoot.

Also, if you happen to be looking for a cute suit, check them out.  And no, they don't know I'm blogging this, nor do I get anything out of it.  Well, ok, except hopefully a few more comments and likes on my photo.   But really, they just have great swimsuits!

Charlotte is THREE!

Where the heck did July go?!
Summer is drawing to a close way too quickly.
So glad there are still so many good things ahead!

The end of July brings Charlotte's birthday.
One feisty little three year old girl that Charlotte.
And a girl who has been obsessed with Rodeo for the past two weeks.
Yep, she's still swinging that rope!

Over the past month or so she went from wanting a Tinkerbell cake, to wanting a Tangled cake, to all things rodeo.  Her final request (every day for the week before her birthday) was a pink cake with horses.  I googled pictures of horse cakes and she didn't like any of them, she wanted horses.  on a pink cake.  And that was all.
God bless simplicity.
And cheap bags of little plastic farm animals at Walmart.

Her party was small and simple.  Or at least as small and simple as one can be with so many siblings.  It was just our family and my parents, at my parents house.  All you other family members who bailed missed out!
Charlotte's birthday falls on the 25th, just one day after our state holiday-Pioneer Day.  My parents always put together a fun pioneer themed dinner for that, so the rodeo obsession worked out perfectly.

Dinner was served up at the Chuckwagon, on pie tins and eaten with large spoons.  It was awesome.

Charlotte went appropriately bonkers over the horse balloon.

Everyone got their own hat to wear-

Even Sam.

Who was also blown away by his Sheriff badge.

Charli got a special birthday "rodeo hat", complete with sequin trim.  That she sleeps with.  And wears for at least two hours every day now.

This cake:

was exactly what she wanted.  How do I know?  Because she helped make it.  And insisted on putting those horses their herself.  Not bad for a 3 year old cake decorator.  She totally cracked herself up that the light brown horse looks like it is eating the frosting.

And the candles make it even better.

Definitely not a show off kind of cake, but definitely one of the best we've ever had.  She was more thrilled at this cake than just about any other of our kids at any other birthday no matter how many hours I spent on a fancy cake.  I may just let my kids make their own cakes from here on out.

After blowing out the candles she immediately removed the horses and sucked off the frosting.
Smart girl.
Also there is a bad joke in there about hoof and mouth.

She was thrilled with the Dora glasses she's been coveting at Walmart.

Had more than enough help opening gifts, which is the norm in this group.

She was appropriately thrilled with every gift she received, and had an extra soft spot for her Tangled Barbie (which she calls "Tangled" instead of "Rapunzel"), and her Pony.

Then she was still so excited that she ran.

And just like last year, she ended up at her little spot on the garden wall, just chillin'.

And since one party wasn't enough for Malia, she put together a surprise party for Charlotte on Monday-her actual birthday.  When I say surprise, I really mean surprise.  Apparently she printed invitations for my parents and my brothers and included the phrase "this is a surprise, so please don't even tell my mom!".  Sweet.
My parents, being good sports (good is an understatement!), brought lunch and another cake out and joined us for Charlotte's second party.
The candles in pizza is always a hit.

And the additional decor of 783 feet of paper chains was fabulous.  (also courtesy of Malia)

Apparently my normal birthday decor in the kitchen just isn't good enough anymore.

But the real winner here is that Malia wanted to do a piñata.  Not having had time to make a real one, she used a box.
Filled with balloons and what treats she could come up with from around the house.  Which is not as many as you might think.  My stash is nearly completely gone except for gum.  Dangit.

The kids loved it, and since it was a box, it was sturdy enough that everyone got plenty of chances to break that thing open.

Even the party master herself.

It ended when someone knocked it off the rope and Charlotte tried to beat it open on the ground.
My sweet docile little girl....
who finally just ripped it open.

Her afternoon was so eventful that it took it's toll.  I asked her what she wanted to do for the rest of her birthday and she said "take a nap in your room".  I thought she was joking and just wanted to play in my bed.  Since it was her birthday I told her to go ahead, and found her like this just moments later.

Heck, I probably could have gotten away with snuggling her.  She's growing out of that phase way too quickly....

A new addition

Two actually.

Stop that, I'm training for a marathon, that's not happening for a bit.  One day people will quit assuming that everything I say somehow indicates I'm pregnant.  Not sure when being nauseous will lead to someone asking "did you eat something bad?" instead of "is it morning sickness?!?", but one day it will happen.
I think.

Our new additions came in this form:

Hear the angels sing.

It is a little bittersweet after my awesome washer repair recently, but the good news is that that drain pump motor that I replaced was still rockin'!  Unfortunately the bearings were not totally rockin' and seized, which then caused the motor to seize.  And while the motor is still under warranty, the bearings are not.  And they run about $300.  And it's not a repair we can do ourselves.  Which runs another $200+.  Which puts us at the cost of a new machine.
Thank heavens for hookups that got us a killer deal on these Bosch babies.  If they work even half as well as my Bosch mixer, life will be heavenly.

We also learned something interesting.  You know washer/dryer ratings?  Lifetime, efficiency, cost of use...all those good things?  They are based on 8 loads per week.
8.
I like the number 8 as much as the next person, but we do three times that!!  New washers/dryers are built to have a lifetime of 7 years.  8 loads per week x 52 weeks per year x 7 years = 2,912 loads of laundry.  So machines are now built to handle roughly 3000 loads of laundry in their lifetime.  Our laundry tally?  Approximately 24 loads per week x 52 weeks per year =1,248.  Holy smokes!  And sadly I know there are times when that number is considerably higher.  If you've ever had multiple kids with the stomach flu or bedwetters, you understand.  If you take the rate at which we do laundry, that means laundry machines are rated for 2.3 years in our situation.  Since we got nearly 6 our of our LGs (may they rest in peace-yes, they, the dryer has been limping along for a while), I'd say it worked out ok.  Of course we are hoping for longer from our newbies, fingers crossed that we'll be pleasantly surprised!

In the mean time, there is something about new laundry machines that make this (hugely overwhelming) chore a little more enjoyable.  And I'm off to start another load.

Now if I could just learn to enjoy folding.....