Back to school

It has been a week and I keep putting this off but it is time to finally tackle the great BACK TO SCHOOL POST!!! 

I love having my kids at home but I also love the structure that school provides to all our lives. I think that is why I loved school so much as a kid and why I became a teacher. I am also a huge fan of school supplies so I chalk my love of back to school to that as well. Anyway the big day came and the kids were ready for it, mom was kind of ready for it, and Matty wasn't ready for it at all. But we dressed in new clothes, I made bread for lunches, and we were on our way. 

I know that there are people out there that do these awesome back to school pictures with props, chalk drawings, and a host of other cute ideas-I don't. I wish I thought of those things but we just take the picture by the front door.  So without further ado I present:

Miss Eve the super cute third grader

James- the over excited first grader

 And Laine- the collected cool fifth grader

These guys take good care of each other and love being together- most of the time that is.

There they go off to the car to catch the bus

Oh wait, here is one more monkey deciding it is his turn for school. He informs us he attends Disney Junior school- not quite sure what that means but we just roll with it here.

Happy back to school everyone!

Utah fans Sir, Utah fans are we

Growing up one of the greatest mysteries of my family was how I became a BYU fan. It didn't make sense and it was one of those great mysteries that didn't correct itself until the late nineties when I realized that I wasn't switched at birth, which was the leading theory in that mystery, nor did the fall on my head as an infant permanently damage me.  See it was about that time I became a Utah fan. The day I told my family still stands as one of the top ten moments in my brother's life. 

Fast forward ten plus years and I now have my own little family of Utes. They sport the Utah gear and they cheer for the U and it is good. They are still not quite sure while their mom yells at the tv when the people playing football can't hear her, but that will come.

To expand on our love for the Utes we attended the fan appreciation day with our neighbors. The whole family sported their U gear and we had Matty cheering "Go Utah" before we left the house. 

Fan day was fun. The kids got to sample some red snow cones, courtesy of the ski team...

Stand in many lines to meet players and try different activities.

Had super tall young men stand on tiptoes to help us make a basket

or get some encouragement from the players themselves.

Of course we weren't happy all the time. Matty has been getting his two year old molars and I guess he didn't sleep much the night before. Not even a bounce house could make him happy.

One things my kids could not wrap their heads around was why people pay so much to watch a football game. They also didn't understand why the suite tickets, which "are further away from the field, Mom." cost more than other tickets.

The one sport James has been asking us to play is golf. It was fun to give him a little preview and I loved that the team golfers took time to work with them.

So that's it. We are raising little Utes and so far their is no discord in our home, they seem happy to be Utah fans, even if they aren't sure what that means. 

Go Utes!

Chasing Summer

Last year we started a tradition in our family, the two weeks leading up the start of school we write down the activities that we've wanted to do all summer long and just haven't gotten to yet. Then they hang in our Back to School  banner and we  pick one a day. I don't think I explained that well. Just thing banner, activities, one a day.  And since I didn't take picture this year I will recycle last year's picture for the visual that might make more sense then my earlier ramblings. 

So here we go- the final countdown (and this does not include weekends just school days)....

Nine days left.... Make Jolly Rancher suckers. Much easier than making them from scratch and I think the kids enjoyed them a bit more

 Eight days left...no activity as we were heading down to Cedar City.  A make up day was scheduled.

Seven days left...Glow Golf. I hadn't been golfing in about a decade but this time I turned in a pretty good score, I beat my kids...not sure if I should be as proud of that as I am.

Six days left....Build a blanket fort and have a read-a-thon. This turned out pretty well until it fell on them...It still lasted for a few hours.

Five days left...go and get some delicious shaved ice. 

Four days left...Go to the Museum of Ancient Life- DINOSAURS. Dad even decided to come with us on this one. That made it even better. 

Three days left.... Go see Epic. There is no picture of this one. And in all honesty I am wishing I could block that film out of my mind, man I should have taken the opportunity for a free nap.


Make up activity on a Saturday (heaven forbid)....Go see Despicable Me 2. Oh this was the hit of the summer in our house. The kids are still walking around pretending to be minions.

Two days left...Go to Jungle Jim's. Not sure we will ever go back. It was okay but not what I had hoped. It The kids thought it was great though.

One day left....Make Stone Plaques. It seemed anti-climatic to end with this one. It was a simple art project Eve had been asking to do since last summer.  Though I have to admit we also made some (six) loaves of zucchini bread.

So goodbye summer, we had fun and we will miss you, but it is time to go back to school. We will see you in about nine months.

James the baseball star

Every summer we let the kids pick one activity that they want to do for the summer. This year Laine picked archery, Eve picked art lesson, and James surprised us all and picked baseball. He has played for the last two years but never really showed much interest in it. I always figured he played because his cousin was playing and that was fun. But this year his cousin wasn't playing and I was pretty sure we would be doing swim lessons, but to my surprise when we vetoed golf (a long story) he decided he wanted to play baseball. 

So we signed him up for coach pitch (where there are no outs and the coaches pitch the ball to the kids- think of it as glorified t-ball) and were so grateful that he ended up with an awesome coach. This coach took time to hold practices and really help the kids learn the game. I noticed a marked improvement in James this year. He hit the ball every time, and some times within the first three pitches. He was just so cute running around those bases with a helmet two sizes too big for  his head.  It was fun to watch him play with other kids and yell at them to run. 

It was fun to see him improve each day. I loved watching him field the balls and even throw it in the right directions-at times it would even make it to the person it was supposed to. I am glad that he went against tradition and that he actually had fun at a sport- it is progress people.

Tales of Shakespeare the Bard

For anyone that knows me knows I have a deep and abiding love for Shakespeare. What can I say he just makes me giddy. I have loved him since sixth grade when I was first introduced to his stories and this love has just grown. I loved teaching Shakespeare, it was my favorite time of the school year. I loved making his stories accessible to others.  About five years ago I decided that I wanted to see every one of his stories preformed before I die, lucky for me the Utah Shakespearean Festival decided last year that they are going to preform all 38 plays in his canon in the next twelve years. This served me well, seeing as I really only had the more obscure stories left to see. 

So this year I was a lucky girl and got to take two trips down to USF. The first was with my good friends, we had a delightful overnight trip to the festival to see King John (my first viewing) and Love's Labour Lost (my second viewing). 

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a week and a half later we took the whole family down so I could take Laine to her first Shakespeare show - The Tempest (my first time seeing it too) and the others could enjoy the Greenshow. We stopped at Popeye's on the way down. Yummy fried chicken!

And of course we grabbed dinner at The Pastry Pub, a favorite of all festival goers. 

We had some time to kill in between dinner and the greenshow so we took picture. My favorite picture at the festival is with Falstaff, what I can I say, I like that fat drunk man. I have had my picture with him for the last ten or so years, now the picture is much more than me, it has four little monkeys that like to climb all over it.

Christian, being upset that I had a Shakespearean 'boyfriend' decided he needed his own Shakespeare crush, not sure he picked the best one in Juliet.

My kids like the Lear statue though. I guess that is okay. 

The girls have started to take over my love for Shakespeare. They love the kids versions of the plays that I get them. They are being taught right and were okay showing their love by hoping on his lap.

Matty though wasn't quite sure about this man and why he was forced to sit by him. I think this one might need a bit more work before he thinks Shakespeare is awesome. 

Then it was time for the Greenshow and Tarts!!! The kids loved it.

I was sad to see they have changed the tarts. In fact I did not have one on this second trip down- a first for me. Those are usually my favorite treat so I have at least two every performance. None this time though for me. The kids still liked them though. I guess only having them one year is a lot different than eating them for thirteen years.

So right now I am sitting at 24/38 of the plays seen. Many of those being seen multiple times (I think As You Like it is the most seen with four viewing, Othello a close second with three). This fall I hope to knock off one more, taking me one step closer to my goal. I am just grateful that I have people to share this love with me and the oppertunity I have to share my love with them. 

Laine's long locks for Locks of Love

Two years ago Laine noticed her friend Natalie had cut off most of her long red hair. Laine was excited about the change and excited to talk to Natalie about the new 'doo'. Natalie had donated her hair to Locks of Love and when Laine found out what great things this charity does she was quick to decided that she too wanted to donate her hair.

I don't think either one of us knew what would be involved. I learned how to French braid and Laine learned to be patient with me while I learned how to French braid. Laine also became a master ponytail wearer and she even got used to the sponge curlers I made her wear the night before special occasions. 

After two years sans haircuts (other than a trim every nine months or so to get rid of nasty dead ends) Laine's hair was finally long enough. So we scheduled the appointment and Laine was so excited; she is done with long hair and all the maintenance it takes, I must admit I was excited for those same reasons.

One last look at that pretty hair.

Right before the cut

The after look

I am so proud of Laine and this decision. I don't know many kids that would stick with a goal for two years to help out other kids who are sick. She is such a spectacular young woman and I am so lucky to be her mom. 

Well done Miss Laine.

Billions of Bradleys

For those of you who don't know Christian comes from a big family. I mean a big family. His dad is the oldest of 14, Christian has, 79ish cousins, and we are nearing the 200th great grand child. It is a bigger family then I had ever encountered and after four years I am still learning names and who belongs to who. One of the best things about belonging to a family this big is that when we get together it is always a party!  The Bradley Clan does one big family reunion each year and this year was a true adventure, we went to the Heber Valley Girls Camp and spent a weekend playing as a family and having way to much fun.

We started our weekend with some paddle boating on the lake. The girls were champions at the paddle boating, Christian and I not so much. Still we had a great time and there were quite a few laughs. 

There was also a lot of good food, something to be expected at a Bradley reunion.

While we were eating dinner the first night I noticed that James' tooth was hanging by a thread. He let Christian pull it out and then showed off that happy toothless smile. Still not sure how this boy is eating with so many lost teeth.

After spending the night in some cabins we got up the next morning to do some challenge course. We all picked to do the giant swing and everyone was super excited. 

Here is how it works, you hoped in a harness and

this handsome group of men would pull you up 75 feet in the air

Now if you were under eight you can go to 3/4 height

Then you let go of the red tie and you ....

SWING!!!!!!!!!!!!

Matty was very upset that he was too little to do the swing but the sandbox soon calmed that tantrum. 

That afternoon the kids had some more lake time and worked on one of the many arts and crafts project that were available.

Then we went down to Heber Park. Heber decided to have a parade at the same time so it was a double bonus. The kids also liked the awesome new playground. 

We had a fun picnic in the park and then it was off to the Heber Rodeo- red bandannas and all. 

I think the kids liked pretending they were outlaws.

They enjoyed their first rodeo and we all enjoyed the adventure. What a great reunion.

Thanks Bradley Family, we are already looking forward to next year!