Hop on the Bradley Reading Train

At the beginning of the summer we set a goal to read  100 books by the end of the summer. It was a lofty goal and one that was going to be a challenge to read. To help us I put a reading train up around the room. Each car had the book name that we finished, the name of the person who read it, and the day that the book was finished.

 It took us a while to get the hang of it, but soon we were reading books left and right.

 We didn't quite make our goal by we did get 88 books by August 31st and 100 books by September 10th.

 James was our number one reader, reading about half of the books on his own. Eve read the most pages though finishing the last three Harry Potter books.

After we hit 100 books the kids decided that they wanted to continue our reading train. So our new goal is to go around the whole room. We are up to 108 books.

It has been a fun adventure and the kids love watching their train grow longer and longer.

Fall Festival and Fair

There are so many things to do in the first weeks of September here in Salt Lake. The Downtown Farmer's Market is full of Fall harvest and because of it my pantry is now full of fresh peach and raspberry jam. The circus is coming to town again and the Utah/BYU game is Saturday. 

There are two things that I associate with fall kick off though and both happened this week- The Annual Greek Festival and the Utah State Fair.

The first time I attended the Greek Festival I was 23 and I went with my family and grandparents. We waited about two hours to get food....but it was well worth the wait. Now we go right when the festival opens Saturday morning. 

The girls were really excited for the festival this year. They loved the pilafi (lemon rice) last year and wanted to try a gyro this year. Laine also had a bowl of calamari to herself.  James is my timid eater, there are days I have a hard time getting him to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich let alone something that is new. He didn't want to try anything until I got him some tyropita (cheese in a phyllo pastry) then he was a happy camper. 

Matty, unlike his brother, is quite an adventurous eater. He loves Indian food, Mexican food, and anything with spices.  We had gotten him his own plate, but he decided he wanted to share Poppa's stifatho (beef stew) in fact Matty just ate it all. Poppa also gave him his first drink of coke, thus explaining why there was no afternoon nap that day. This might also explain why one of Matty's few words is Poppa.

We had a ton of fun and the kids loved the dancing, food, and touring the church after we ate. Laine even had a few questions she asked the Father.  Then of course we left with a box of desserts!

A few days later it was time to go to the fair.  The kids loved the animals and the rides, but most of all they loved the interactive physics center. I think it was the giant bubble maker that did it for them.

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  This exhibit also had drums, a pitching machine, chess, blocks, and so much more. not sure what it had to do with physics though.

The girls then got footlong corn dogs...oh the joys of fair food.

 And of course we found the butter statue, this year it was a tribute to The Hunger Games!

Matthew spent most the time in his stroller looking at animals and asking dad for more dippin dots.

Then there were the rides. The kids loved them, Christian and I realized that we were getting old. After one ride each we were done and very lucky that the fair food we had just ingested stayed down. 

Eve decided to practice for Disneyland and be brave. I love the look of terror on her face there. She was brave though and tried several different rides.

 James was just a tad too short for most the "grown up rides" so he got to ride the trucks...

  Helicopters...

And this version of the adult drop down ride.

This was one of those moments I was very glad Christian and my brother Adam talked me into a smart phone. I had left my nice camera with Christian and the girls but was able to whip out the phone and use it's camera. If only James could have mustered up a smile for us. 

I was also proud of James for conquering the slide fun house. Two years ago when we went he decided to try this and eventually a worker had to go up and retrieve him because he wouldn't come down on his own. You remember that scene from a Christmas Story where the kids are screaming no as they go down the Santa Slide, yeah this is what happened then. He did really well this time. Got a little nervous crossing a rolling tunnel, but other than that he was a champion...and no tears. 

So welcome fall, I have missed you and the fun things that you bring to the city. Now do you think you could drop the temperature another -5-10 degrees?

First days of school

Though cooler temperatures still seem to be a week away it summer has "ended" and the kids have gone off to school. 

Laine has become a little lady in the past year. She is growing up so fast and started 4th grade this year. She is still in the gifted and talented program at Morningside and has an awesome teacher. She has already started a research project on South Korea and is aiming to get the Gold prize this first trimester. That will include her reading 1000 pages, 4 different genres of books, one book report, one book test, and six hours of service.  Wow!

Eve is our sunshine girl, she is generally happy and easy going and is quick with a smile. She is also in the gifted and talented class in 2nd grade. She is working on her drill and kill math projects and has almost accomplished completing 72 addition problems in 2 minutes, when we hit that goal we will move to subtraction, her goal is to get through division by the end of the year. 

The girls ride the bus to school and back. They are rather independent as they leave to the bus stop in the mornings and make sure that their brother gets on the right bus on the way home.

A week after the girls started school James started Kindergarten. He is our super reader and after his Kindergarten testing, where he totally blew away his teacher, his teacher pulled us aside and asked if we wanted to have him tested for the gifted program. She is great with him. She makes sure that he practices math and not counting, he has counting down. She does the same thing with reading instead of letters. He is currently reading 1-2 Magic Tree House books a day and keeps mom hopping back and forth to the library.

We have some great kids and know that they are going to have an awesome school year.

Having fun in the kitchen

We have been working a lot in the kitchen lately. The kids have been having  a riot helping make some fun dinners and delicious treats. 

We've made home made noodles and tortellinis for Sunday dinner...they were delicious. 

I have also been making the kids homemade bread. I have loved trying out new recipes and the kids have loved having "good" bread around the house. 

We have nine tomato plants that have been producing like mad. To make good use of them we decided to make marinara sauce. So far we have canned six quarts and that was after using the sauce on pizza and our homemade noodles last weekend.

Then I have been trying out a few new cookie recipes.  We have made Rocky Road Cookies....

 And golden oreo truffles.

We have kept busy but find we really do like cooking and baking together.