Aiden's First Day of Kindergarten

The Aidenator started his journey through the public education system yesterday! Seriously, how is it possible that he is a Kindergartner already? He was so excited to finally be going to "the big kid school"...and to wear his Spongebob backpack. Here he is outside his classroom door waiting to go inside...

When we got inside, the teacher instructed the kids to find the seat that had their name on it & start reading a book. Aiden did what he was told, but when I tried to get a candid picture of him reading, he started cheesing at the camera again. I told him that I just wanted to get a picture of him reading, not smiling, & that he should just pretend like I wasn't taking a picture and try to look natural. This was the result...


Funny kiddo! I love this little man & I know he is going to have a great year! His teacher is Mrs. Parsons. One of my neighbors was Mrs. Parsons' teachers aid for part of last school year & she told me that she is a fabulous teacher. She gets down on the floor with the kids & just really shows them how much she loves them. That made me happy. Aiden has several good friends in his class too, which he's really excited about.

Aiden said he had a great first day! He told me that he learned about the class rules and "a bunch of other stuff." He also told me how awesome it was to finally have recess! The preschool my kids attend doesn't do recess, so it was a first for him! But, he did say that he can't wait to be in 1st Grade so that he can play on the big playset, instead of just the Kindergarten one. He's already wishing his life away. Haha! I think he'll have a great year.

Now that Aiden has started school, it means that all the boys are at school at the same time two mornings a week. That means I only have one child for two mornings a week! Vivvie & I had a splendid time at the grocery store all by ourselves! She enjoyed looking at all the brightly colored boxes & cans. I enjoyed being able to shop in peace without hearing, "Mom! We NEED this" every 2 seconds. It was heavenly! Life is so easy with just one child! I wish I could go back in time about 8 years, when I thought my life was SO HARD, & tell myself that.

This school year is going to be a tricky one. I have three kids at two different schools with three different schedules. First Connor goes to school, then Cohen goes to school one hour after that, then Aiden goes to school 15 minutes later, then Cohen needs to be picked up 2 hours after that, then Aiden needs to be picked up 45 minutes later, & then Connor comes home 2 hours and 15 minutes after that. It makes my head spin just thinking about it! If you need to find me anytime in the next 9 months, I would check my car first!--Lindsay

Connor & Cohen's First Day of School

These two kiddos started school this past Tuesday...


Connor is a big 3rd Grader now & Cohen started Preschool...


Aiden's going into Kindergarten & they always start a week later than everyone else, so he got an extra week of summer vacation this year.

First, we took Connor to school...


Here he is in front of his new classroom...

His teacher this year is Miss Funk. She seems like a great teacher & I've heard good things about her. The principal told me that she is so good that he put his own son in her class last year. What does that tell you? So far, Connor absolutely loves her! And, he thinks she looks kind of like Carly from iCarly which he thinks is awesome! He has a bunch of friends in his class & has already made some new ones too. I think he's going to have a great year!

After Connor was at school, it was time to take little Cohen to school...

It seems so weird that it is already time for him to go to school! Connor & Aiden both have fall birthdays, so they are some of the oldest in their class. Cohen's birthday is in July, so that makes him one of the youngest. It seems weird to be sending a child that is barely three-years-old to school because Connor & Aiden were both almost four when they started going. He looks so little compared to the other kids! I've thought about holding him back a year so that he would be one of the oldest. I talked to the director at the Preschool & she suggested that I enroll him for both this year & next year. Then, halfway though next year (when it's time to make the decision about whether to register him for Kindergarten or not), I sit down with his teacher & talk about how he's doing compared to the other kids in all areas (academic, social, physical, etc.) and then make the decision based on that. If I decide not to send him to Kindergarten when he's supposed to go, then he can just do a third year of preschool. With the way his preschool is set up, he wouldn't have to repeat all the same things in that 3rd year, he'd be able to continue to progress in his reading and other areas from where he left off the year before. That way he wouldn't get bored. That's why I love, love, LOVE this preschool! All my boys have gone to it now.

It's going to be tough to decide whether to hold him back or not! I hate making decisions like that. You know what I'm talking about...the decisions that will affect every aspect of your child's life. It will affect who he is friends with, who he dates, whether he gets a year of college in before his mission or not, etc. Sigh... Wish me luck!

Wow! That was a huge tangent. Okay, back to the first day of school. So, I was kind of worried about Cohen's first day. Not only is he one of the youngest, but he's also my shy child. I thought he might flip out about me leaving him with a bunch of strange kids & a strange teacher. But, he did great! He gave us hugs, walked right in & never looked back...

Woody was his show-and-tell for the day, FYI. When I went to pick him up, they weren't quite done yet, so I peaked in the little window in the door. He was sitting quietly on the floor listening to a story & being so good! I talked to his teacher, Mrs. Covington, afterward and she said that he did great! He did everything he was supposed to do & wasn't all that shy around the other kids! Yay Cohen!!! I think he's going to have a great year! Mrs. Covington is an absolute doll! When I told the director of the preschool about my concerns with Cohen being so young & shy, she told me that she would put him in Mrs. Covington's class because she is such a great teacher & does such a great job pulling kids out of their shells. Yay for great teachers!!

So, that was Connor & Cohen's first day of school for the 2011-2012 school year. I'd consider it a huge success!! Now, Aiden will start school this Tuesday. After that, it will be just me and Vivvie two mornings a week. I may actually get something done for a change! Imagine that! --Lindsay

LAGOON!!!

Earlier this summer, my station took all their employees and their families to Lagoon on a Saturday. So, for those of us who work on Saturdays, they gave us tickets to take our families another day. We finally got a chance to use the tickets on the Friday before school started. I thought it would be super crowded since it was the last weekday they were going to be open, plus Friday just tends to be a busy day. But, I was pleasantly surprised! In the morning, we walked on almost every ride. By afternoon, it got a little busier, but our longest wait was only about 20 minutes. Everyone decided to show up that evening, so our waits were a little longer, but the longest line we waited in all day was 45 minutes...for the stupid log ride. Sigh...we shouldn't have wasted our time.

My mom offered to watch Vivvie for the day. She obviously wouldn't have been able to go on any of the rides & she would have just been hot & sweaty in her stroller all day, so my mom said she would just watch her at home, so that we could have a good day with the boys. Thanks Nana!

Connor wanted to start with his favorite roller coaster in the whole world, Wicked...


When we got there, we realized that Aiden was about 1/4" an inch too short to ride it. But, we figured we would try to sneak him on. And, we were successful! That was about the only ride we were successful at sneaking him on though. The employees working the other 46" rides were a little more strict & wouldn't let him on. We thought it was funny that he could ride Wicked (a totally crazy roller coaster), but not some less-scary rides like Wild Mouse & Centennial Screamer. Here's a picture of me, Connor & Aiden on Wicked...


Aiden's face was absolutely priceless! I glanced over at him several times during the ride to see how he was doing & he had this look of absolute horror on his face! I thought he was HATING it, but when the ride was over, he was jumping up & down and talking about how much fun it was! Haha! Funny boy.

Another funny thing happened while we were on Wicked. About halfway through the ride, I got this sharp stinging pain right in my rear end. It felt like a huge electric shock. I had no clue what had happened. All I knew was my butt hurt really bad & was getting worse by the minute. I told Mike that it felt like I had been shocked really bad while on the ride & he suggested that I go to the bathroom to check out what had happened since I was in so much pain. I was wondering if I had been shocked so badly that I was burned or something. That's how bad it hurt. I got to the bathroom & surveyed the damage. It wasn't a burn at all...it was a bee sting! A bee must have landed just as I sat down on the seat & got trapped in between me and the seat, and stung me in his attempt to get out. Stupid bee! Luckily, I'm not allergic to bee stings & it started feeling better about 5 minutes later. I felt really stupid afterwards that I had been so wussy about a bee sting, but it hurt like H-E-Double Hockey Sticks! OUCH!!!

After that, Mike took Connor on some of the crazier roller coasters while I took Aiden & Cohen on some of the kiddie rides. First up, the airplanes...


I'm not sure if you can see Cohen's face very well in the above picture, but he is crying. As in sobbing his eyes out...

He was scared to death of those little airplanes! My theory is that Legoland destroyed him. He got so used to having a parent right beside him on every single ride while we were there, that it freaked him out to be going on a ride all by himself. Eventually, when the ride began, and he realized he wasn't going to die, he calmed down & actually even smiled a few times.

After that, he was good to go for the rest of the day. He loved all the rides...

He really liked driving his own car...

And, we even took him on some bigger rides like Tidal Wave...

He even went on the new roller coaster, Bombora, and he LOVED it! In fact, all of us really liked it. It's a little on the mellow side, but they play Beach Boys songs through the speakers in the roller coaster & it has a surf theme which makes it cute & fun.

For the rest of the day, Mike & I took turns doing stuff with each of the boys. I would take Connor & Aiden on some of the bigger rides while Mike stayed with Cohen in Kiddieland for awhile, and then we would switch. It ended up working pretty well because everyone got to do what they wanted. Connor & Aiden got to do their crazy rides & Cohen got to pretend to shoot other toddlers with a gun that apparently has a scope. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the child that is totally into pretending to shoot your childen belongs to me. Sigh...

When it was my turn to go on rides with Connor & Aiden, we obviously had an odd number which means one person has to be the dreaded "single rider." Well, apparently, it's not so dreaded for these kiddos. They were fighting over which one of them got the PRIVILEGE of being the single rider. I remember when I was younger HATING having to be a single rider. There was nothing more humiliating than the ride attendant trying to find another single rider to sit by you. I still cringe just thinking about it. Anyway, at the beginning of the day, I made some comment about how either Connor or I needed to be the single rider because Aiden was too small to go on rides by himself. BIG MISTAKE!!! You don't ever tell Aiden he is too small to do anything because he will prove to you that he ISN'T too small to do it. So, we were in line for a ride & at the last second, Aiden somehow secretly switched places in line with Connor. Before Connor & I ever realized what had happened, the ride attendant put Connor with me, and Aiden was the in the row behind us. He was grinning from ear-to-ear. Mission accomplished! Well, Connor saw this as Aiden stepping on his "older brother territory" and the war was on from that point forward. "I get to be the single rider!" "No, I get to be the single rider." ALL.DAY.LONG! Sigh... At least the fighting stopped when the actually got on the rides...

The bumper cars were a huge hit, literally...

And, Cohen apparently picked up some random chick on the spaceship ride. Hey, at least he has good taste in girls. What a cutie...

After that, we headed into Pioneer Village to do some of the water rides to cool off. Here are the boys on Rattlesnake Rapids. I love how Cohen is bored out of his brains & laying down on Mike's lap...

Little does he know that he's about to get dumped on by a massive waterfall & look like this afterwards...

Hence why I didn't go on the ride. After that, we decided to cool down some more with some of the delicious old fashioned ice cream they sell in Pioneer Village. So tasty...

We ended up staying at the park until about 9:00 & then headed home to see our Vivvie girl and get a good night sleep. It was a great way to end our summer vacation! Goodbye summer! We will miss you & your long, laid back days! Now it's on to school, homework & routines. --Lindsay

More Summertime Fun

School started today for Connor & Cohen. Aiden doesn't start until next week because Kindergarten always starts a week later than everyone else, so they have time to do an assessment with each of the kids. It makes me sad that school has started already! It seems like this summer flew by at lightning speed. I was going to do my 1st day of school post today, but I still have some summer stuff that hasn't been blogged about. And, since summertime stuff makes me happier than thinking about school, routines & homework, I decided I'm going to finish up our summer activities in the next few posts & then move on to the first day of school. So, it's still summertime as far as I'm concerned...at least on my blog.

One of our neighbors has the most incredible backyard. They have a pool (with a waterfall cascading into it), a hot tub, a sports court, a firepit, etc. Here's a picture I took, but it doesn't do it justice. It is amazing...


Luckily for us, they are nice enough to open their backyard up to the neighborhood quite often. They do an open swim for the moms & kids every Monday & Wednesday afternoons in the summer, and they are always showing outdoor movies in their sports court. Since three of my four children aren't confident swimmers yet, I've been a tad hesitant to take them to the open swim during the afternoon. I'm scared to death that I'll lose sight of one of them & then find them at the bottom of the pool. Seriously...my worst nightmare. So, I haven't ventured out to open swim yet. But, about a week ago, they decided to move open swim from Monday afternoon to Monday evening, so that the Dads could have a chance to swim too. I jumped all over that because watching three non-swimmers seemed a lot more achievable with two parents instead of one. So, we headed over there for a little fun with the neighbors...


The kids hung out in the hot tub a lot...

And they loved going down the little waterslide & jumping off the diving board...

It was so much fun! There were so many fun neighbors there & we had a blast swimming, chatting & playing together! I'm really hoping to get to open swim more next summer. Hopefully, after another session of swimming lessons, Aiden will be swimming unassisted, which would leave me with only 2 non-swimming kids. That seems a little more doable to me. It's weird to talk about next summer already...it seems so far away. But, if life keeps flying by like it has been lately, next summer will here before I know it! Thanks Paul & Cindy for sharing all your toys with all of us! You are so sweet! --Lindsay

Tour of Utah

My dad likes cycling...a lot. He's been into biking for as long as I can remember. I went to his races as a little girl, and I'm still going to his races today (Lotoja is coming up next month!). He not only likes to ride himself, but he loves to watch professional cycling too. The Tour de France is probably the highlight of his year. He actually DVRs it & watches every single second of the race each year. He was even watching it while we were on vacation in Carlsbad. Haha!

There is a professional race that happens here in Utah each year called...the Tour of Utah (so original, right?) My dad likes to go see the race when it gets to northern Utah, so this year most the family headed up Little Cottonwood Canyon to watch the cyclists compete. It was on a weekend afternoon, so I couldn't be there. Stupid work. Oh well, the boys had a blast...


The boys got to hand out water bottles to the cyclists as they passed by...

After the race had passed, everyone sat down & enjoyed a picnic lunch up the canyon...

And, apparently, climbed trees...

I think this race got everyone really excited for Lotoja next month! Can't wait! --Lindsay

Kids Art Day Camp

A few weeks ago, my totally awesome & creative neighbor, Lisa, did an Art Day Camp in her basement for the kids in the neighborhood. It was 2 hours a day for 5 days and it was split up into age groups. Aiden went from 12 to 2 in the afternoon, and Connor went from 2 to 4. It was great! They had a blast...I actually got to get a few things done on my post-vacation "to do" list. Lisa sent me some pictures from the camp on facebook so that I could blog about all the fun little projects the boys did. They painted picture frames & then painted a little canvas print to go inside it...


Aiden's was multi-colored and Connor painted his to look like Spongebob. The center of the frame was Spongebob's mouth. They both turned out pretty cute. You'll see Connor's in a later picture. This picture is another of Aiden doing his frame...


Aiden's class getting ready to do a "textured print"...

Aiden's class with the beginning phase of their Chinese lanterns. They put several layers of paper mache on balloons to shape the lantern. Then they popped the balloons when the paper mache was hard a few days later...

They even did body painting. Here's Connor with some of his buddies...

Connor's class. I think they were learning to sketch here...

They even made candles. And the candles smelled heavenly...

Here's Connor's class with their Chinese lanterns...

Aiden's class displaying their watercolors...

Lisa taught them about all these different artists and the things that made them unique. My kids came home the first day and were telling me all about Monet and that he was an impressionist artist and he always used very descriptive titles for his paintings. Wow!!! They did their own impressionist paintings (with their fingers) and then named them a descriptive name. Aiden said that he made this first picture for me & named it "Big Flower". Ahhhh, how sweet...

Then he told me that he made another picture for himself. This one he named "Shark Death". Okay, not so sweet anymore...

They also learned how to sketch some of their favorite cartoon characters. Here's Connor drawing Pikachu (I think that's how you spell it) from Pokemon...

And in this picture, you can see his Spongebob frame lying on the table...

It was such a fun little camp. My kids loved every second of it & I think it kind of got them excited to go back to school, which is right around the corner! Sigh...where did this summer go? A huge thank you to Lisa for doing the camp. The boys had a great time and are already looking forward to next year! --Lindsay

Storrs Family Reunion

The day that we got back from our Carlsbad vacation, we dropped all our luggage off at home and headed straight for Mike's family reunion with the Storrs' side of his family. It was held at a condo complex in Salt Lake. I could only go for a few minutes because I had to go to work that afternoon & evening, but while I was there, we decided to get some family pictures because we realized this was the first time the whole family had been together in several years. Mike's parents live about an hour north of us, but all of his siblings live in Nashville, TN. David (Mike's younger brother) was the first to move down there a few years ago & then he convinced Brian & Kimber to move down there as well. Ever since they all moved down there, we haven't all been together at the same time. So, we had to get some pictures of the occasion...

The guy on the right is Mike's great uncle. He decided to jump in the picture with the rest of us. Haha! And, do you like what Connor & Aiden are doing in the picture? Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. Someday, we'll get a nice-looking family picture again.

After I left, everyone went swimming, ate dinner, played ultimate frisbee & listened to a cowboy band that came to play for everyone. After driving all morning & playing outside all afternoon & evening, you can bet the kiddos were exhausted that night. They all fell asleep on the car ride home. But, that's what summer is all about, right? Playing your guts out morning to night! --Lindsay