Today Is A Good Day!

A day to celebrate!

We are the happy new owners of our new house in Puyallup!

It is the last day of Summer and Fall, my favorite season, has begun.

My favorite Holiday (Halloween) is just around the corner. And I will have an awesome new house to have parties in.

And I no longer have to spend 4 1/2 hours of my day driving around Puyallup to have the kids in school.

Water?

This was Katie a year ago. She wanted nothing to do with water. If you don't remember check out this ancient blog post about my little aquaphobe. Even baths were a huge struggle. And swimming in the big pool at McChord, you can forget about it. There was nothing fun about water for Kate. Then came this summer and the most miraculous transformation I have ever seen in a child.


It started with her being able to conquer the bath tub. To my surprise one evening she called me in to bear witness to her laying her head all the way back in the water. Then, progress continued as we met friends for play dates at the McChord pool. Not only did she not freak out in the baby pool when a splash came her way, but she wanted me to put a life jacket on her so she could go swim in the big pool. Other leaps and bounds towards embracing the water came with less screaming and crying when we were on a boat or canoe. Then this summer she even took out a kayak into the middle of lake Takhlakh and capsized with out breaking down.

All of these little stepping stones have made it very clear that Kate is beginning to over come her irrational fear of water activities. But nothing made it more apparent than her choice to go to Great Wolf Lodge as Queen of the day. This was my little girl that swore (I mean the taking a solemn oath kind or serious swear) to never, ever return to the water park. Not only was her choice of activity so surprising but she was a whole new girl once we got there.

This is her last week. Encircled by splashing water. Holy Moly what a difference a year can make! She went on every single water slide too (except the tornado which she wasn't tall enough for). And then shocker of all shockers at the end of our stay on her way out she stood under the bucket. The bucket that dumps 1,000 gallons of water. My eyes would have done that cartoon thing where they eyes pop out of your head bouncing on strings...if I was a cartoon character.

Creativity and Imagination

This is what you get when you marry imagination and creativity. This is Emily and her friend Kait doing what they do best. Emily calls it "arts and crafts" but it is more than that. Emily brings to the table a wild imagination and Kait takes that and puts her creativity to work on it and this is what you get.

The girls spent hours at Kait's house. I am sure that many rolls of aluminum foil were used to create these space helmets.



These two girls are just the perfect compliment. It goes further than arts and crafts too. Their personalities are also a perfect blend. Emily is adventures and spunky and Kaitlyn is smart and responsible. They are good for each other. So glad for good friends.

One of a kind moon boots...

Breath....

After 23 posts in one week I am finally caught up!

Chase Is In Sixth Grade!

In Chase's words:

Well, when Mom woke me up I really didn't want to wake up. When I got up we had breakfast. We had to get ready quickly and leave because now we have to drive all the way to Puyallup. Dad took the morning off of work so that he could come with us to see us off to school.

My teacher's name is Mrs. Olson. She is really nice. She gives out a whole lot of homework. One of the really cool things about my school is that the lunch is in our classroom with our teacher. After lunch we don't have really much time because on some days we have to leave right to PE. Another things that I like about the new school is that the recess monitors are really nice. There are two big playgrounds, a soccer field, two basketball courts and a kickball field.

She assigns a whole lot of work. On our first day we had to do two one page essays. When I got in the car I told my Mom that my arm hurt. I said, "Mom, I worked so hard that it hurt! I am totally going to be ready for BYU!"

Mom took us to the Sweet Stop at our new mall after school. We got to pick out a whole bunch of candy. I got candy Lego's and gummy snakes (which are still in my candy storage).

I really like my new school. I still need to get used to getting up early though.


Chase's King of the day list:

1.Magelby's french toast and syrup for breakfast
2.Check out Percy Jackson book 3 from the library
3.Charlie's Safari
4.Go to a movie (G force)
5.Have a sleep over with Hunter
6.KFC and angel hair pasta for dinner
7.A cookie cake for dessert

Emily Is In Fourth Grade!

In Emily's words:

Getting ready for school was very hard because I had to work up early. Picking out my clothes was fun because I got to pick them. I was really excited to wear my new clothes because Mom didn't let me wear them all summer. I picked this outfit because I like jean jackets.

School is really, really cool. My teacher's name is Mrs. Gruver and she is super nice. She is so nice she even brings in her dog to visit and lets us bring our pets in. My class is really small. There are only 23 kids. Mrs. Gruver does a lot of fun things. She lets us do art sometimes. She doesn't just do math the whole day, she tells us funny stories about her dog Daisey.

My first day was really, really awesome. It was awesome because Mrs. Gruver told us we could still have snack in 4rth grade. We also get to eat lunch in the classroom.

We get to do this thing where we all get a turn to be star student. We can bring in our pets, have lunch with a friend at school and we get to bring in stuff from home that we made and tell everyone about it.

This year is going to be really fun because Mrs. Gruver is not just into math.

PS As you can see I do not like math...

Emily's Queen of the day list:

1.Blueberry muffins and Orange Julius for breakfast
2.Go to Cute Nails to have my nails painted
3.Go to the Zoo and have a picnic lunch
4.Take a walk in the forest
5.Do an art and craft (shrinky Dinks)
6.Chicken Curry for dinner
7.Rent a movie (The Shaggy Dog)
8.Have Mom put curlers in my hair




*Emily had to change her plan a little bit because we had such a rainy day. Instead of the Zoo we went to Chucky Cheese and she got 75 tokens to spend in the arcade. We didn't get to take that walk in the forest either.

Katie Is In Kindergarten!

In Katie's words:

I got to go school clothes shopping with Mom. It made me really excited to go to school because I really loved my dress. I even want to wear it again and again. I even have really soft and slippery boots. I really love them because I can slip and slide on them. Ms. Judy did my hair in pretty braids. I got to watch TV it was a really silly show.

I was really excited about my first day of school because I was going to be in kindergarten and I've always just been in preschool. I got to do one of my favorite things in there. We did some math. We did 2 +2 stuff. Then we got to draw and that is my favorite thing.

I made one new friend. She is always really, really nice. Especially when I go to the snack table. When I want to talk to her she lets me talk to her. My friends name is Lizbeth.

Ms. Amsden is really nice. She even called me up to pick up a prize because I got five green cards. I got to go up first. I was really happy because I got to go up first.

I loved getting in line to go home and see my Mom!

Katie's Queen of the day list:

1. 1.IHOP for breakfast
2. 2.Jack and Jill's for a hair cut
3. 3.Great Wolf Lodge
4. 4.Magi-quest
5. 5.Pizza for dinner
6. 6.A special dessert
7. 7.A bubble bath

*Kate has been planning her special Queen of the ever since Chase and Emily did theirs last year and she realized that she would start school the next year and finally have a turn!