School Prep

Cat was asking me ALL SUMMER LONG when we would be buying school supplies.
I finally gave in the week before school started.  She was one happy girl, and started
organizing her things as soon as she got in the car.

Eliza needed Her Own Thing, so the weekend before school started she had an End of Summer party
with some friends.  They played outside in the kiddie pool and sprinkler (not pictured), played musical chairs,
had treats of cupcakes, frozen strawberry lemonade, and fruit, and had a gift exchange.  We asked each kid
to bring a small gift ($3 or less) and thought we'd let everyone open one, then they could all have something
fun to take home.  Note to self: ages 5-9 are not yet mature enough to enjoy this activity.  There were some
disgruntled children, who would have preferred to get a gift somebody else received.
But it was still a successful party, I think.

In anticipation of the busyness of the school year (and the need to get dressed in non-pajamas
every day for the foreseeable future) I mandated that the penultimate day of summer be a
Stay At Home Day.  What did we do that day?  Well, mostly we made, ate, and gave away 6 dozen cinnamon/raspberry/chocolate/apricot rolls.  We also just had fun hanging out with Suz's family
and watched a movie.  I finally did have to leave the house after dinner when I took Eliza
to her last tumbling class.  It was really nice to just take a day to do what we wanted and not feel
rushed to get anywhere.

On the last day of summer break, we practiced getting to school on time.  I woke the kids up early, and they got dressed and ate breakfast and even packed lunches.  We were out the door at the right time (albeit with Luke holding his shoes instead of wearing them) and even took a Back To School picture with everyone in their school clothes.  Then I let them go back in and change their shirts if they wanted to before we did actually drive to the school for some paper work.  Then we went to the Lehi bakery and picked up some square-shaped doughnuts, bringing them to Oma who was in rehab after a recent surgery.  After a visit with Oma between her PT appointments, we picked up our favorite local cousin and made use of our packed lunches by having a picnic at a local park.  After some down time at home in the afternoon, the girls got haircuts, then we had fun at a ward picnic and Cat, who wouldn't start school for two more days, continued to party with the ward by swimming until 9pm, while the younger kids went home so that they could go to bed on time and get up bright and early for school the next day.

 And with that, we were officially ready for school to start.

Bring it on, 2017-2018!