End of Summer

This was our last full week before school starts.  This week was all about making sure we had enough clothes and supplies and food and backpacks and water bottles and everything else.  We definitely had enough things to keep us busy, so I'll just go through the pictures!

A couple years ago I got rid of most of our baby stuff because I feel pretty confident that we are done having kids (knock on wood...)  But I did hold on to this rocker because of how much I loved it!  David's sister gave it to us and I used it so much.  Now my brother and his wife are having a baby so I got it out to pass on to them!  When I got it out, Ava immediately latched on to it and this is how she walked around for about a week.  My heels, skirt around her neck, and about 10 stuffed animals in the seat.  And that went with her to the living room, kitchen, even the bathroom.  I was glad to get rid of it because of how much I kept tripping on it!

At the end of last year all my kids were given a ton of dice and different ideas of games they could play with the dice.  I told Asher about a game I used to play with my grandparents all the time called "Zilch".  I think it's actually pretty similar to the game Farkle.  But we called it Zilch.  You have 6 dice and try to score points in various ways.  Actually, playing Zilch with my Grandpa was one of my last memories of him before he died.  So Asher wanted me to teach him how to play!  So we started playing.  We played two games and had the best rolls I have ever seen in my life!  Twice Asher got a run of six (on your first roll you get one of each number) and he also got 6 of a kind, where on your first roll all the dice are the same number!  I didn't get as good of rolls as him, but mine were still pretty good!  I told my mom that I think it was my grandpa blessing our game because he was glad the tradition was being passed on. 😊

Run of 6

6 of a kind!

Also a couple week ago our dishwasher broke...because why not.  But I do feel like out of all the appliances, I can handle the dishwasher going out the best.  We've lived in a few places that didn't have a dishwasher and I do not want to spend the money fixing that right now, so once a day I do a gigantic dish wash and we can't use the stove until they are dry and put away.  It's a good thing everyone is home all day long so we use just about every dish and utensil in the house every day... But that should slow down a lot starting next week! 

We had a Mitchell Family birthday party for the August birthdays, so Asher wanted me to make him another cake.  I actually kind of like making these.  For this cake Asher requested a Shiny Umbreon (Pokemon).  I think this one also turned out pretty well!  It went faster because I had a better idea of how to do it.  The party was in Rexburg at my parents house and I knew we had to stop at Costco to pick up pizza's, so I took pictures before we left the house.  And I kept telling the kids not to touch the cake at all in the car and when we stopped to get the pizzas I gave them another lecture about not touching the cake...and then 10 minutes away from my parents house Asher accidently put his elbow right in the middle of the cake.  I was able to salvage most of it and you could still tell what it was, but I'm glad I took pictures beforehand!   

He was very happy with the result!  I'm lucky he has pretty low standards...

Swimming at Grandma's!

My mom found some cheap flippers that Asher loved using.

He had to get a picture in front of the pool.  He was very sad it was the last swim of the summer, but I've learned that if we take a picture so he can remember it helps a lot.

It was very rainy all week and we found this cute little frog in the grass!  The nearest pond is about half a mile away and my nephew ran this little guy all the way there so he wouldn't die!

(Not pictured) I got a new calling this week.  I am now one of the nursery leaders!  I actually love nursery and feel good about this calling.  What I am a little bit apprehensive about is that I am also still the choir director.  I'm going to see how this goes for a month or two and if it's too hard to do both I'll ask to be released from choir.  I feel like 5 years is a good enough time to be in that calling...

David went back to work this week.  He has had a lot of meetings and trying to get his classroom ready.  I think it's helped us all get back into a little bit of a routine.  We did go get snow cones the day before he started work to kind of say goodbye to summer! 

The first day David went back Millie stole the bed as soon as he left.  She wants summer to be over.

We also had back to school night this week!  They had a cute little display where you could take a picture, so I tried to get my kids to go over so I could take a picture.  I feel like these pictures really capture what our summer has been like.

I told all the kids to go over so I could take a picture.  Mia wanted her own picture so she declined to be in this one.  It was still pretty cute!

Mia couldn't decide where to stand so she kept walking around trying to pick a spot.

Asher kept trying to photo-bomb her picture and Mia and I kept telling him to get out...

Mia finally picked a spot (not the spot I would've picked...but whatever...)
and Asher finally quit photo-bombing.  Ava just stood there and smiled the whole time.

 I have to say, while I am glad school is starting and I do think it will be a good thing for all of us, I am starting to have some real bad mom guilt.  Last year when school was starting I was so sad because my babies were going to be gone all day and I was going to miss them, and this year I feel bad because I feel like I have been so grumpy with them all summer and like I'm a bad parent for wanting them to be out of the house for a while.  I really have tried to make the summer fun and not be a big grump, but it has just been the most difficult summer.  So that's fun.  The Mom guilt is real and I'm just going to try and make the best out of this weekend!  And after I drop them off at school I'm going to buy myself a bunch of chocolate and then take the nap I've been looking forward to for 3 months!