September part 1

A friend of mine found some monarch butterfly eggs and was generous enough to share some with us. We hatched them and they were itty-bitty, but within 2 weeks, the caterpillars were huge and turning into their chrysalis's! The kids weren't as enthralled this time around, but still, it's such a cool transformation. So magical! These monarchs were a lot prettier than the painted lady butterflies we hatched a few months ago, but they didn't let us hold them. Once they hatched, they were out of there!


First Days of School! Here's Richie on his first day back teaching. I'm trying so hard to get up with him in the mornings now because he's not teaching early morning, and 6 am is actually feasible. It's still really hard. :) On his first day, I actually got up just so I could take a picture of him before he left for work. As you can see, it's all out of focus. I was so tired. Ha!

And then here's the kids on their first day of school. This was actually their 2nd day, when we had our homeschool group over, but they had been saving these outfits to wear for our first group day and I wanted to snap the picture then. The kids weren't getting excited for school to begin, so I took them to Wal-Mart and told them they could pick out a new outfit for school. That seemed to peak their interest. :) It was then I realized that I don't think I've ever let them pick out their own outfits. They have different tastes from me! haha! I had to really bite my tongue a lot. And in the end, they were so proud.



This girl. :) 2 separate days coming out of quiet time, she came out as pictured. She cracks me up.


Homeschool
I'll probably keep most school type pictures on the school blog, but just to have the basics documented here:

We hosted our homeschool group here a few weeks ago. We talked about the Nomads and defined what history and archaeology are etc. Later on in the week dad brought home a projector from work and we watched "The Croods" big screen style. It was a cool ending to our nomad week.


The next week it was at Makenna's house and we learned about the ancient Egyptians and hieroglyphics and the Sumerians and their cuneiform. Miles practiced all the different forms of "writing", and Gwen was most excited about her crown that represented the coming together of the white crown king and the red crown king to unite all of Egypt.



It's my turn to host Gwen's joy school group this month. I'll be totally honest, I'm having doubts and doing it this year. There is such a wide age gap with the kids participating this year. Some are barely three and have never done anything formal like this, and some are 5 and veterans to the whole pre-school idea, Gwen included. I signed up, and then fought the idea (internally), and have decided to keep going with it. It will be a fun social outlet for her and on the times I'm not teaching, it will give me one-on-one time to work with Miles. Anyway, this month we're learning about community helpers, and last week we focused on firefighters. Here's a few pictures.


Canning season is upon us. :) And to celebrate I got myself a new toy. My very own Vitorio strainer. Yay!! Hello Spaghetti sauce and applesauce!! Oh, and did you see those gorgeous tomatoes??? Unfortunately these ones were from someone else's garden, but man, they were so pretty.


Richie's home ward had a ward reunion this past week. We tagged along and had such a good time. We weren't aware there were going to be water activities, so we weren't dressed for it, but that didn't stop the kids. Miles and Gwen were begging to go home at get in a hot shower by the time it was time to go home. There's also a picture of Richie with Blaine Perry, his man crush. Richie pretty much wants to be him when he grows up. He's the guy that built our fireplace mantle. At the reunion, he was taking all the kids for rides on his own home-made, tractor pulled, train. So fun!



Every year, all the stakes that go to Murray high school throw a welcome back to school social. All the seminary teachers and their families are invited to come and socialize with the kids. This year the theme was Hawaiian. The kids had so much fun, but were complaining of tummy aches after not too long. They had lots of goodies there!