First day of Preschool {Isaac}

We were so lucky to have found this awesome preschool for our kids.  I noticed it on our first visit to Arkansas.  I loved that it was so close to our house.  Upon moving here, I immediately went to check it out.  I am so glad I did because they had one spot left in Stella’s age group.  Stella did her first year of preschool there.  During that year, we made some great friends, and fell in love with the faculty and their teaching style.  When we decided not to send Stella to Kindergarten because she was barely five;(she made the deadline by 9 days) we decided Geyer Springs would be great for her for  another year. She went to preschool 2 years in a row. It proved to be just what she needed.  I believe it really helped to prepare her for her first year in Elementary school.

Then the state changed the deadline.  Kids have to be five by August 1st to begin Kindergarten.  That works great for us because we have followed that guideline with our first two children even though it wasn’t state law.  This means that Isaac will not be attending Kindergarten next year.  Even though he will be five, he will begin when he is six just like Stella and Jex have.  We would have waited regardless of the state law, but it is so nice to not have to explain our decision.  We have found that this decision has affected our children in such a positive way and I wouldn’t change our decision ever.

We decided to start Isaac in the same preschool this year.  I think it will be a good fit for him.  He has been so excited to go to the school that Stella attended.  Isaac will have Ms. Hannah this year.  We have never had Ms. Hannah before, and already love her.  He is attending two days a week for three hours at a time.  It is just enough time for him to have a school experience, and not to long that I miss him like crazy.

Our first day of school was a huge success.  He did very well.

He is lucky to have his friend Grayson in his class.

What we love about Isaac’s Preschool.

1.  Center based learning(which means he learns through playing)

2.  The school is in a Baptist church.  Even though we are not Baptist, it is nice to know that he is among Christian teachings.(I love that they pray over their food.)

3.  Every year, we meet such wonderful people at the school.  Parents with the same goals and values for their children in mind. (we always make friends that end up spending time with outside of school) I love belonging to a school where every child that attends has parents who are so tuned in.  I guess that is what happens when you pay a hefty price for an education; you value it more. 

We are so excited for Isaac to have this experience.  I am so glad that he looks forward to going to school.

Even though I miss him when he is away, I am enjoying some nice quiet time with Tess.

First Day of School {Jex and Stella}

First day of school Top 5

1. Seeing old friends and favorite teachers from the past

2. Making new friends

3.  Having awesome new teachers: Jex is in the third grade gifted and talented program, teacher; Miss Hartsfield.

      Stella is in the first grade and has the same AWESOME first grade teacher that Jex had; Mrs. Blakley.

4.  Getting back in to a routine

5.  Watching how confident and secure both of the kids feel when they walk through the halls of the school.

I think this year will be a success.

First Day of School Bottom 3

1.  Getting out of bed(I really enjoyed sleeping in this summer; a little too much)

2.  Our amazing summer is over

3.  We miss the older kids when they are gone so many hours each day (is it bad to count the minutes until school is over?)

I hope the kids have a great school year, but I am already counting the days until next summer. Oh, how I love summer days.

Too much to say… not enough time.

I keep a small notebook with me.  In the notebook, I have a page of scribbles where I jot down my thoughts and ideas.  Ideas and thoughts about blogging.  Many times what I feel inspired to blog about is something that I have been taught through my own experience.  I have found if I blog about it; I won’t forget.  I also like to blog about our family adventures and every day life.  It is a way for me to keep a history, and share our life with family far away. boo hoo.  I also think it is fun to add a project in there every now again. I love having a project to do. Sharing projects is way to really represent who I am on my blog.  So between personal thoughts, family, and projects to share, my list is growing quite large.  I feel like I don’t have enough time to ever catch up. 

I read a quote yesterday that said,

“If it isn’t in the scrapbook, it didn’t happen.” 

I think I am beginning to feel that way about my blog.  If I didn’t blog about it, it didn’t happen.  Which is good and bad.  I like that I keep a list.  It holds me accountable to continue on with the history of the Swenson family, without forgetting any of the important details.  

I am ready to start crossing things of my list.  I think I have a plan.  My plan includes blogging a little more; with less pressure to include every good picture. (which is going to be very hard for me.)   I am excited.  I am ready.  You may just see an update from me every day this week.(although I am not making any promises)

This week I hope to blog about Back to School.  My kids started 2 weeks ago.  I know I am a little bit behind.  Today, I wanted to share a little Back to School breakfast that I put together for the teachers at the kids school.  My friend Mandy and I had a lot of fun putting this together.  We found this idea on One Charming Party, and decided to use it at our school.

We served Krispy Kreme donuts and Juice. SIMPLE. SIMPLE. It doesn’t have to be extravagant to be appreciated. It was a nice way for the teachers to come back to school.  They always get so excited when we decorate the teacher’s lounge.  It is always nice to be surprised by change.

The pencil cake was simple.  We used a #10 can and put the pencils all around the outside with a rubber band to hold them around the can.  I drilled some holes in the top to put the pencils we used as candles, and some rubber bands for the icing.

 

My friend Mandy had this great cake plate.

Mandy found the apple table clothes which made the whole table scape come together.  She also made the black buckets with the school supplies.

I thought she was so clever when she just rolled up this sheet of paper, and stuffed it in this glass vase to hold the rulers.

I had these glass jars at my house.  I use them for treats and snacks. (see these glass jars are post that have been meaning to share about since the beginning of the summer; I can’t wait to tell you what we use them for)

   

The jars have chalkboard vinyl labels on them.  I thought that was very fitting with the school theme.  We filled them with some back to school supplies.

This chalkboard hangs in my boys room.  I just took it down and used it for the banner.  I used a couple of easels and some school books to prop it up.

 

…and a little note for them. 

I grabbed a few books off my shelves to finish it all off.

This was such a fun event to put on for our teachers.  For the most part we were able to just grab things we had at home, and put it together when we got there.  I love when an event can come together so easily.

The school is one of those places that I love to volunteer my time.  I have found it is an important place to be. Eating lunch with the kids, being a member of the PTO, and volunteering in the classroom is time well spent.  Our school is so good about welcoming parents in.  I appreciate that my two youngest can roam the halls with me, or spend time in the classroom.  It is a good experience for all of us. 

Spending time at the school is one way to still be included in my kids time away from home. It is also a way for the teachers to know that I am involved and value their education. I also think the teachers need to know that they are loved and appreciated.

We love you teachers.  Thanks for all you do for our children.

I am crossing one post off my list now..  I just realized that this is a list that will just continue to grow.  It grows as life happens and…..

that is a good thing.

Nine

We are wrapping up the celebrations around here.  We just finished with all the festivities for our little Isaac today.  Phew!! Four birthdays in 18 days; WOW!!  I am always exhausted when August 24th rolls around.  To see how we celebrated Stella’s birthday go here.

My birthday is the day after Stella’s.  It was a great day spent with my family.  I don’t have any pictures to share, but it was a day I won’t forget.

I do have lots of pictures to share with you about Jex’s birthday.  Only a few, well now you know I am fibbing.  If you are a faithful J & A reader you will know that I always share way too many pictures. But it’s my blog and that’s the way I like it.  I hope you do too. 

Jex’s birthday is next in line. Just six days after mine, and Isaac’s 10 days later.  Watch for details about what we did to celebrate Isaac’s fourth birthday today; coming in a few days.

JEX’S BIG DAY

This handsome boy reminded me that he will never be able to say that he is eight ever again.  I wanted to run and hide in my bathroom and cry.  How could he possibly be nine? Wasn’t I just figuring out how to take care of a newborn?  Now I have a tween that I am trying to figure out.  Actually he is a pretty easy TWEEN.

I had to beg him to wear this hat, btw.

We love Jex so much.  We are so thankful that Heavenly Father sent him to our home to live.  We were excited to celebrate his ninth birthday.

It was a Saturday so we decided to spend the day just hanging out together, and doing whatever Jex wanted. 

We started the day with our traditional breakfast in bed.  We even did a re-do for Stella because we were not home to do it on her birthday.

I had the table all decorated when he woke up.  I had all the gifts wrapped and ready to go.

He was looking forward to a particular toy so I knew he would want to open presents ASAP.  That was possible this year because Jonathan wasn’t at work. 

IT WAS  SATURDAY!

We let him open 1 gift.  It was a bay blade.  Are your boys crazy about these?  Our boys are just getting started with them.  They have really kept them entertained.  I can appreciate toys like that.  I get so frustrated when we buys toys that our kids never play with.

After a great breakfast of skinny pancakes(crepes) and playing bay blades, we went to a movie.  Jex picked Kung Fu Panda 2.  We love the $$$ theater.  It makes taking our kids to a movie affordable, and we don’t feel bad when they want popcorn.

We typically have Cold Stone Ice cream for lunch, but our plans changed when we went to a movie.  We decided to improvise.  Jex had wanted an ice cream sandwich cake for his birthday.  I had made one for Jonathan for Father’s Day, and Jex loved it.  I never posted it, but this is what it looked like.  It was delicious. I will have to post this recipe.

 

It was late afternoon when we finally made it to Cold Stone, so we told Jex that if he would rather pick out a Cold Stone cake he could.  We settled on a Cold Stone ice cream cake instead of the one I would make.  It also took the place of our Cold Stone lunch. 

Man it was good.  I have always made my kids birthday cakes.  It was kind of hard for me to buy one. This cake looks so much prettier then mine ever do. I like to think the love that I put into my homemade cakes makes up for my lack of cake making skills.  You can pretend I made this pretty thing if you like.

We enjoyed eating on this delicious cold treat for several days.  What a fun idea.

Our kids always pick a special dinner on their birthday.  Jex kept it really simple this year.  He wanted Hot Dogs.  Well, that was easy.  He loved it, so what more could you ask for.

I love singing Happy Birthday.  Everyone always has a smile on their face.

I love watching the anticipation as they get ready to…

BLOW!!

(Notice he has his Bay Blade in his hand)

Jex couldn’t wait to finish opening his gifts, which mostly consisted of clothes this year. 

He is nine so toys are becoming a thing of the past.  Which is kind of nice in a way.  He is beginning to appreciate fashionable clothing. (And let’s face it; I enjoy spending my money on that.)

We decided to just make a day of it, and go to a Traveler’s Baseball game.

Jex had been talking about it all week.  We got great seats, and stayed and watched every second of every inning.  Jex loves watching baseball. 

Our kids did great considering how hot it was.  At one point I looked over at Tess, and her hair was drenched.  She never complained.

It was such a great day.  Jonathan and I looked at each other at during the game and said, “this is so much fun hanging out with our kids.” 

As some of you may notice, we don’t have big friend birthday parties.  I am not saying that won’t ever have friend parties, or that we haven’t in the past.  In the last few years, as a family, we have discovered that we enjoy birthdays so much more when we can really focus on the person whose birthday it is.  Instead of twelve other kids, party favors, paying for a location and food for everyone.  Our kids have also realized that they get really special treatment from everyone in our family.  Birthdays have become almost sacred in our home.  It is almost as though I don’t want to have to share such a special day with 12 other people.  There will be birthdays when we do have a few friends, and I stress few.  For now, I am going to relish these birthdays that our kids love being together as a family.

Here is a list of birthday traditions that we do.  These traditions make the kids day so special.  These traditions allow us to do family birthdays, because they look forward to all of these traditions:

Breakfast in bed

A couple birthday pictures

Lots of decorations around the house when you wake up

Lunch at Cold Stone

A homemade birthday cake picked out by the birthday person

A family activity together

A special birthday dinner of your choice 

The table is decorated and candles lit 

We use our best dishes

Presents to open and play with 

Sharing new birthday toys with siblings

Singing happy birthday, and blowing out the candles

Sharing yummy cake with our family

I love birthdays, and I love our birthday traditions.

Jex had a great day, and so did Mom, Dad, Stella, Isaac and Tessa. You could tell by the smile Jex wore all day.  I love celebrating the birth of my children.  It really is such a special day as a parent if you really stop and thing about why you are celebrating.  It is worth making it special.

Stay tuned to hear about Isaac’s special day.

Seven

A few weeks ago this little cutie turned …

She is a big part of our family.  She is my little side kick and helper.

I can’t believe she is Seven.

We celebrated her birthday while we were in Utah.

Better yet, we celebrated while she was with all fifteen of her Swenson cousins at a reunion.

It was a little tricky to plan a birthday party away from my home, for 19 kids of all different ages, and in a house that I had never been to before.  It made decoration planning a little difficult because I didn’t know what to expect.

Stella was certain that she wanted blue and pinkish red for her colors.  I think that was a great choice.

We even dyed her cake blue and used  a strawberry cake mix for the other layer. I left the sides unfrosted so that the fun colors would show.   When I saw the strawberry paper, I knew that I had to incorporate it.

There are 31 flags on this cake.  Each family member wrote a word to describe Stella on the flag.  I love that this cake is all about her.  Some of the words are:

Graceful(several times) Grace is her middle name btw

Loving

Good Conversationalist

Helpful

Kind

Nurturing

Obedient

My Best Friend

Stella enjoyed having 31 people who love her to spend the day with.  After I made these for a baby shower, she requested them for her birthday.

I made one for each grandchild.  Luckily my mother in law had lots of mason jars.  Stella was worried how we would get those on the plane with us to Utah.  I wish I had a picture of the grandkids eating them.  They were a hit; even with the older grandkids.

I tried to make do with what they had at the home we stayed in.  I cleared off this not so sturdy bakers rack, and used it for her party fair.  Certainly not my favorite, but it worked.

 

Stella’s favorite treat is white chocolate covered strawberries.  I just had to include them as a little treat.

 

Stella made these suckers with the help of her Grandma.  Grandma Lorene made this cute little stand to display them in.

We worked hard and made it all before we went to the reunion.

It was one beautiful chorus that sang “Happy Birthday to this sweet girl.”

It was a lot of fun watching all the grandkids pile around Stella while she opened her gifts. 

 

 

Her biggest birthday wish was a pair of TOMS.  She thought it was so neat that she was buying a pair of shoes for someone else when she bought her own.

Grandma Lorene made her outfits for her American girl doll. She also made a pair of matching pajamas; one for Stella and one for the doll.  Note to self: take a picture of that.

Thanks to all who made Stella’s day a special one.

I love you my special seven year old.

What I love about Utah {Part Two}

We recently got back from an entire month long stay in Utah. 

You can read about the first part of our vacation here.  The first part of the month we spent at my parents home, and then we moved over to Jonathan’s parents house for the second half of the month.  I think it is important that the kids get an opportunity to stay with both sets of grandparents.  While we were staying with Jonathan’s parents, Jonathan was able to do a little research about his future practice.  He was very busy with interviews, golfing with friends, and taking me to our favorite Utah restaurants.(Utah food is the best)

At the end of our stay, we got together with Jonathan’s entire family.  Jonathan has four sisters.  That makes for a total of 19 grandkids. 

They are not all pictured here.  We went to one of my favorite places in the whole state.  It is a little town up Provo canyon, not far from Park City.  Heber, is one of those towns that automatically makes you feel at home.

We rented a home there for two nights, and enjoyed being together; all 32 of us.  Let’s just say it was a really big house.

The grandkids didn’t waste any time getting reacquainted.  I loved seeing the smile on our kids faces as they ran around together. 

They also had fun making anything they could think of out of tinfoil and pipe cleaners. This was a very creative idea.  I am definitely going to do this with my kids again.  Their works of art were even judged and awarded.  Local art judges; grandma and grandpa.

The following day was spent out on Deer Creek Reservoir.  Our brother in law was able to bring his boat out.  The kids took turns going out, and riding on the gigantic tube.  I was so proud of our older two for trying it out.

 

I was even more proud when Jex decided to knee board.  He did awesome.  It was one of those moments that I wish I had my camera.  It didn’t take me long to be grateful that I didn’t.  Really expensive camera and open water, equals panic attack for me.  Even thinking about it made me sick to my stomach.  So you will just have to picture my awesome nine year old knee boarding behind the boat; grinning from ear to ear.

The day spent out on the water just happened to be Stella’s birthday.  We had a big family celebration that evening.  I have lots of great pictures.  I will share more about it in my next post. 

It was so nice to just hang out as a family.  I enjoy it so much because I feel like I get to know all those awesome kids a little bit more.  We are the only family that lives away so we have missed parts of them growing up.  This little get together was a really special one.  It has been several years since we have all been together. 

This year the oldest grandson will go on a mission for our church.  Nic will serve for two years.  The next grandson will be gone on his mission before Nic gets home.  It may be a long time before we are all together again.  Times are changing for the Swenson family.  I am sure this was a very special weekend for Jonathan’s parents.  How wonderful it is to have your whole family under one roof. 

My mother in law has this scripture hanging on her wall in her home: 

“I have no greater joy then to hear that my children walk in truth.” 3 John 1:4. 

All five of their children are wonderful people.  They married good people, and have great kids.  What a blessing, and a testament to the kind of parents they are.

The last day of our stay in Utah, Jex was able to go on a four wheeler excursion with his Grandpa Jerald.  Jex enjoyed every minute of his time with his grandpa.

I love the smile on Jerald’s face.  You can tell he is so excited to spend the day with his grandson.

Thanks Swenson family for planning the reunion around our stay.  We are really grateful we could be there.  It was wonderful to spend time with all of you.

Stay tuned for Stella’s birthday post.