Back to School

Here they are on their way to their first day of second and first grade!

I can't believe I have a second grader!!

She has grown up to fast!

My three kiddos and their friend in front of Castle Heights.

Benson in his classroom.

Benson with his new teacher, Ms. Scovill.

Here Julia is unloading her backpack.

Julia was very embarrassed that I kept wanting to take her picture, but I did catch this smile!

I guess I lied....

My last post was titled "One Last Trip". I thought it was our last trip before school started, but for the third weekend in a row we went out of town! Ben's Dad was clearing out his house and had giant garage sale. He wanted to know if we wanted to look through Ben's Mom's things before they were sold. I am so glad we went up. It felt like it brought on a new stage of the grieving process. We really miss Ben's Mom and it has been a challenge to adjust to life without her! It was hard to realize that all of her earthly possessions and the home that reminded us of her were going to be gone. Ben was very excited to be given her large nativity set. He keeps mentioning to me over and over again how happy he is that we have it. After spending the day helping at the garage sale we thought the kids deserved a break and we stopped by Chuck E Cheese on the way home.

She won over a hundred tickets with one token!

Ben's sister Emily went with us! We were so glad to have her there!

Cecilia and Emily were having a Chuck E Cheese card made with their pictures on it.

Good job Benson!

One Last Trip!

School is starting next week, and we decided it would be fun to try to go on one more trip to visit family before school started. I did not take many pictures, but here are a few that I took:
My Dad took Friday off of work and we went up the Emgiration Canyon in Idaho. We had a picnic with my Dad, Grandma, Sister Liz and her little boy Cooper.

After our picnic we went on a hike.

We were lucky enough to be there during huckleberry season!!

Little Cooper loved the huckleberries! The first one that he ate was a confusing thing to him. He did not know what it was. After the first few he was coaxing for more!

The kids enjoyed being scavengers and picking things from the wild forest!!

The next morning Grandpa and Julia made huckleberry syrup and pancakes! They were sure delicious!
When we were done picnicking, hiking and picking we went to the the Liberty, Idaho cemetery where some of my Grandmother's Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles are buried.
We were lucky enough to be able to spend time with a great friend of mine and her two kiddos! This is her sweet boy Hudson jumping on the trampoline with Cecilia.

We had a water party with her kids!

We had a girls lunch earlier in the day, but I did not get any pictures of it! We will have to get together again soon!

Belated....but still Happy!!

This last week I was up at my Mom's and I was able to upload some of her pictures that she has taken. During Benson and Julia's birthday parties this year I was not able to take many pictures since I was in charge of the party. Here are some pictures that she took:
This was a neat little toy. It is an electronic bug....very cool! Whenever we go to the library Benson chooses to check out books about Bugs!

At Benson's birthday party we had a super hero Olympics!

Batman himself even showed up for the festivities!

The Joker stole the pinata and we needed to follow the clues he left to find it!

There was plenty of candy for all!

My seven year old!!

Julia smiling at Benson's birthday party!

Julia's turned 6 on July 13th, and here are some pictures from Julia's birthday party:

This is a cute coloring from Grandma!

My parents surprised Ben and I for our birthdays, which are the same week as Julia's! They gave us an outdoor swing and an umbrella.

During Julia's birthday party the girls loved jumping in the my parents jump house.

What a great smile CC!

We played a princess matching game.

The girls loved the freeze dance game!

Benson sitting by all of Julia's presents.

Happy birthday Julia!

The girls colored life size princess coloring cut outs while we painted their nails.

We went on a treasure hunt to find Cinderella.

We able to fill the pinata quite full....

Happy Birthday Julia!! I can hardly believe she is 6!

International Days Fun

Every year our city celebrates what they dub International Days. They celebrate it the weekend after Pioneer Day. It is a pretty big affair. There is a kids day, parade, movies in the park, a carnival and a whole lot of fun. Here are some pictures I have taken from some of these events:

Julia seems to have a serious look on her face while she gets her face painted.

Cecilia is waiting patiently for her face to be painted.

Benson had a dinosaur painted on his face.

Julia and Cecilia just finished having their nails painted and faces painted. I think the girls both had butterflies.

Cecilia was so brave during her turn on the crash test machine.

Julia waiting at the parade.

Benson loves parades!

There were a lot of floats and entrants in the parade. I think that there were 75!

The kids enjoyed some of the carnival rides that were at the park during the International Days celebration.

Benson and Cecilia both wanted to try out the giant inflatable fighting pit! You stand in the middle and try to knock your opponent down. Cecilia did a pretty good job of holding her own!

They both fell over!

Julia sure loves her Dad!

Cecilia rode the train while her two older siblings rode the ride down below!

So we pretty much bribed them to go on this ride! They had been so brave at Lagoon, but not at this carnival!