Back to School

Nathan and Benjamin started a new school year on Monday!

Nathan is in 4th grade this year and is excited to have Mrs. R.

Benjamin is in 2nd grade, with Miss W as his teacher.

Joshua starts kindergarten next week. I made homemade cinnamon rolls to celebrate the first day of school.



I love the excitement that comes with the start of a new school year. Although our kids are not morning people, they were happy to get up early. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised that the schedule we had created together went smoothly this week. We started piano lessons with a "real" piano teacher, and they have made it clear that they are not happy about this! But they have cooperated for the most part, and it was a great week.

Hopefully, the excitement and good attitudes continue as the homework kicks in :)

Dinner, Drama, and Dance

Ryan and I switched things up a little for date night this week. We went to "Dinner and Drama" at the downtown arts center.

They had everything set up on the stage, where there was a buffet dinner and round tables to sit at. While we were eating, the actors came out in character and talked to us. It had been advertised as an interactive murder-mystery, but I was still unsure what to expect. The premise for the evening was that we, the guests, were famous producers who came to watch the taping of the season finale of a struggling soap opera. It ended up being very funny and entertaining!

One of the characters talking to our table looked at Ryan and the guy sitting next to him and called them "Calvin Klein". She invited them to help her by coming up to the front later as part of the formal show during one of the songs.

When that song started a little while later, it was a parody of "I'm Too Sexy"! Ryan ended up being one of three men up on the stage who took turns doing silly poses and such -- it was a lot of fun to watch! Unfortunately, I had a hard time getting pictures of the fast-moving poses. Ryan surprised everyone with a somersault! I think he was a little uncomfortable, but he did a great job!



At the end of the play, one of the characters died, and we had to guess who committed the murder and how. I am not usually good at predicting plot lines, but I got it right!

This was a fun break from the usual dinner at a restaurant! We may have to go back at Halloween for their parody on Harry Potter :)

Splashin' Celebration

Yesterday was Izzy's birthday. Izzy is our neighbor and Elizabeth's good friend and is exactly 3 weeks younger than Elizabeth. To celebrate, our family was invited to join the Denneys at Seven Peaks for the morning.


Our family has only ever gone to Seven Peaks on our own, and so it was fun to be at the water park with friends! Thanks, Betsy for being the photographer! And thanks for inviting us . . . we had a great time!


(Benjamin and Nathan were there, too. They were just off on the big slides most of the time and weren't around for pictures.)

Shopping

We went to Target this week for some back-to-school shopping. We also took Elizabeth's birthday money from Grandma and Grandpa Anders to see if we could find her something.

We went down the pink aisles, and the boys and I would point out things to her we thought she might like. She held Tinkerbell for a minute and then put her down when she saw other things. She was excited to see Rapunzel (or as she says, "Punzel"), but didn't even have enough interest in holding her.

I kept looking around to see what else I thought she might like, when suddenly I saw her pushing a little pink shopping cart. It was 1 of only 2, and had been down at her eye level, but way too low for me to see. The price was the exact amount she'd gotten for her birthday. When she refused to put the cart back and then pushed it around the store during the rest of our shopping, we knew that this was the present for her!



It has room for 2 dolls -- one on top and one in the "car" on the bottom -- just like the shopping carts we use at the grocery store. And of course it came with a lot of "food" that makes for quick messes! It goes hand-in-hand with her kitchen set and she has had a lot of fun with it!