Beginning of a new school year

It has become a tradition for the girls to go get pedis and manis the Saturday before school starts.  The girls always pick the craziest colors.  Like purple, bright red and turquoise.  But what can I do... it is their special day and that is what they want, so I just roll with it.

We started the first day of school!  Jake loved that he could finally wear with R2-D2 shirt.  He had to wait over a month to wear it.  And you can't see it, but he has a matching R2-D2 backpack to go with it.  One happy boy!  He is all about Star Wars these days.

I am not sure where all my pictures went.. but these are the best pictures I could find.  I don't even know where Ella's individual picture went.    Sometimes computers are so frustrating!

 But at least I got a picture of Ella with her siblings, so I do have documentation of her on the first day of school.    The kids are in 5th, 2nd grade and kindergarten this year!

I was able to grab this picture of these cute girls during the chaos of the first day of school.  such cute girls (Kylee, Ella and Blythe).

This week we were included in the national craze called the Ice Bucket Challenge.  We were out for a walk and ran into our friends the Smiths.  Robbie was doing the ice bucket Challenge and challenged Ella to do it.  Here is a picture of Robbie after his challenge (and my kids decided the water looked fun, so they literally dove right in).

For Memorial Day, we headed up to Bass Lake to enjoy the water and sun.  It is fun to be able to play in water with mountain and forests as your back drop.  Different scenery from the ocean :-)  The kids had a blast playing in the sand and sun all day.  But we decided to kick it up a notch and rent a waver runner and really have some fun.

Of course, Hannah loved it!  Ella was nervous but enjoyed the ride she went on.  But made sure I kept the runner below 20 MPH.  The boys loved it, but the surprise of the day, was that Jake was the one that loved it the most.  Graham had had enough, but Jake wanted to keep going.  He liked pretending their were riding an X-wing fighter and fighting Darth Vader :-)

Speaking of Star Wars, I made this blanket for Jake hoping it would help him be brave and stay in his bed at night.    I told him it would give him the FORCE and he could fight away all his fears.  Well, it was a good idea, but no luck.  He still comes into our bedroom every night.  I thought I had it with this idea!

We decided to go out to dinner (one of the nights Chris was gone) and since we were over by the temple, the kids all said they wanted to go.  So, we drove to the temple.  

I remember reading somewhere that "if you let your children touch them temple, the temple will touch their hearts."  So, that is what we do.  When we go to a temple, the kids touch it :-)  This just warms my heart :-)

And a picture, just because.  Graham decided to draw on himself with marker and then he wasn't happy about it.  Well, my son... don't draw on yourself if you don't like it!  If only, his little 2 year old brain would get that concept :-)