Back to School

Colton starts middle school

Caleb 5th grade

Jared 2nd grade

Lindsay preschool

Summer break is over and back to school this week.  It seams strange having the kids go back to school Aug. 10th, however, we will get a fall break in October and they finish school in May. The kids all love their teachers and so do I.  Colton is adjusting great to middle school.  It was fun to decorate his locker and help him learn his way around the school.  He has four of his classes with the same 30 kids.  He is the only new student in this group so I hoping the kids are nice to him.  (The other kids all went to the same elementary school and have known each other for a while.) So far Colton is really enjoying middle school.  Caleb and Jared are quickly making friends which is wonderful.  Lindsay starts preschool in September and can't wait. Everyday she ask several times when we can go pick up the boys.  This week I set up some play dates for Lindsay and she was ecstatic.  For Fun Friday Kyle played tennis with the boys and I took Lindsay and Jared swimming.  The boys came and jumped in the pool to cool off after tennis.  

Last Hurrah of the Summer

We needed another trip to Slide Rock before the kids started school. So we packed lunches, sun screen, sandles and had a wonderful day playing on the natural water slides at Slide Rock.

The boys all enjoyed the cliff jumping. At first I couldn't even watch, but they keep jumping and jumping. At this spot the water is 18 feet deep. Jared did the entire slide from the top to the bottom this time with the big boys. Way to go Jared. The water had change so much in two weeks that Lindsay sat on my lap and did lots of the slides.

The boys swimming on the slow part of the slide.

On our way home we stopped for ice cream with all the friends that spent the day with us at the park. What a fun way to end a fun summer. Next week means back to school. We stopped off at the outlets in Sedona and did some school shopping. Mom is sad to see the end of summer break. With our move and getting settled we just didn't get enough playing in. We will just have to plan some fun activities for our fall break in October.

Frog Camp

This summer has been filled with catching lizards and frogs.  We created a habitat for the lizards and frogs out of an old refrigerator drawer.  The lizards wouldn't eat any of the bugs we put in the habitat, so after a week the boys would let the lizards go and catch some new ones.  Then about two weeks ago Colton caught a frog.  Then another, and another, and another, until he had seven frogs.  They took the frogs to frog camp and taught them how to swim, jump, and dive.  The frogs became very smart according to the boys.  Only 1 of the frogs would eat the ants they caught or flies tied to a piece of hair and dangled in front of the frogs.    

When Lexi was here we talked her parents into letting her take a frog home.  Bummer that her frog escaped on the drive back home.  Next time Lexi comes we will help catch another frog.  Sorry Laurie that he escaped in your car and you couldn't find him, YIKES!

On Tuesday we went swimming and Colton decided to take all his frogs to the pool.   He put them into two water bottles so they could try to feed them ants at the pool.  While we were swimming the frogs got hot in the water bottles and 5 of them died.  The remaining 2 wouldn't eat any ants, so Colton released them into the lake.  Frog camp is over for now.   Bummer, because we hadn't heard anyone ask for a dog for the last two weeks, but I'm sure the request will start coming again.