Jared’s Field Of Dreams

Jared’s turn rolled around for the Field of Dreams program they have out here.  It was his turn to run out onto the field with his baseball team, the Blue Jays, with the Orem Owlz Baseball team.  He had a great time and looked awesome in the outfield saluting the flag during the singing of the National Anthem.  We were proud of our boy!

First Day Of Kindergarten

**Sigh*****another one leaves me!  Scott was so excited for his first day of school!  I tend to be worried ( I know….can you imagine?)  and for the first week of school I like to get the boys on the bus and then follow the bus to school to make sure they get off and stand in line where they are supposed to wait for their teacher.  Then, when school gets out, I like to be there at the front to make sure they get on the bus and then follow it to the stop to make sure that all flows well too.  Well, it was a good thing I did that this year!! 

 

Scott’s Kindergarten experience has started out a little rough.  So on the first day of school, as they are letting the kids out for the bus, I watch all of them slowly pour out and run for the bus.  No Scott.  Out comes Mrs. N with a group of kids and there he is!  I noticed that all the kids on the bus had special address cards around their necks (Scott didn’t get one) and I knew from the past that the kids are supposed to have one for the first week or so of school until they get down their routine.  So, the bus is getting ready to take off and I asked his teacher if she would let me run in and get him a card so I could get him off on the bus so he is used to his routine.  She was curt with me and said basically I needed to be patient and that this wasn’t going to happen.  I emphasized to her that I really wanted to get him on that bus so he could know what to do, so I wouldn’t have to be there every day making sure he understands what the routine is.  Then she snapped at me and said she would fill it out herself and ushered me away.  This Kindergarten teacher was hired at the school a couple weeks ago and was obviously having a really rough day.  I felt a little annoyed, a little worried and a little sorry for her. 

Well, when Scott arrived home, I quizzed him about his day and he told me it was good, but he was put in time out and he didn’t like that.  I thought, “really?  On the first day!?”  So, I called this teacher, curious to know what Scott’s offense was so it could be remedied and also to offer to come in and fill out a bus card for Scott.  She then told me  again that she would take care of and it wasn’t a bother.  She also started crying and apologized for being rude to me, admitting she shouldn’t have spoken to me the way she did.  Honestly, yah, I thought she was rude, but I was dealing with it.  I could tell she was just really overwhelmed.  Come to find out, she explained that Scott wasn’t in time out, he was moved constantly because everywhere she moved him, she couldn’t get him to stop chatting!  Hmmmm…..my kid have a problem talking too much in class!?  I’m shocked! ( I have to laugh because my mother loves to remind me all the time that I talked so much as a kid, that once, at swim lessons another mother said, not knowing I belonged to my mother, “I bet that kid can talk under water!”)  So, I apologized to her and spoke with Scott, thinking all was going to be fine.  We moved on.

Well, the second day of Kindergarten rolls around and this time he made it to the bus.  When I asked Scott how this day went, he said, “Yah, it was good.  I didn’t have time out and I got to go to recess.”  I hadn’t realized she even held him in for recess as “punishment” for talking on the FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!  Get real lady!  Like kids aren’t going to be all over the place on the first day of formal school!?  I was disappointed, but tried to say nice things about Mrs. N to make her look fun. 

And that, sums up Scott’s first days of Kindergarten!

Oh, I almost forgot.  Of course, when Scott came home I had a treasure hunt waiting.  He liked it and we bought him a Lite Brite (good for those fine motor skills!)  I think he thinks it’s pretty cool!

A Date with Scott

Michael and I try to do a date with each of the boys once every 3 months.  The operative word here is “try.”  Some months we are better than others but we try to get some special time with one of the kids each month.  I knew my days with Scott at home 24/7 by my side were numbered, so we went to his place of choice; Trafalga!  He particularly enjoyed riding around on these bumper boats that have super soakers built in and was better at target practice (i.e.shooting Mom) than I gave him credit for!  Such a stinker!  I think he had a great time and honestly…..I did too!  I love my boys!

Scoots: Soccer Superstar

Scott started his very first season of soccer……ever!  He’s been waiting for this for a long time!  No more sitting on the sidelines!  Scott’s team is called “Blue Sharks.”  They’re a pretty fun group of kids from our neighborhood. 

At first Scott was a little confused as to why they were kicking the ball and which direction they were going, but by the end of the game, I think he figured it out!  We will see how this goes; 3 soccer practices a week and 3 games each Saturday!!!! AAHH!!  Wish me luck!

The Little Guys

With school beginning, I’ve been left with Scott & Mason……that is, until Kindergarten starts next week!  I was chatting with Kelly and she thought it would be fun to take her kids over to a local place called Wheeler Farm and she invited us to join her.  We did and the boys all had a fun time!  When we first got there, we were swarmed by ducks and geese.   I was so bummed I’d forgotten bread!  We got there a little before Kelly did and Scott thought all the birds were pretty neat.  He asked if he could pet them and I laughed and told him he could try, but that they might bite, so he should be careful.  He was SO funny!  He tried to be all stealthy and sneaky. 

You would have to know Scott to know his certain looks he pulls.  There’s this one where he stands still and moves only his eyes and watching him pull this on the birds was hilarious!  He attempted chasing a chicken; one of those really fluffy funny looking ones and it ran and hid from him in a bush.  Once the chicken was off limits, he headed toward a rooster.  Kelly got there by then with her boys and we both warned him not to mess with the rooster.  Sure enough it was staring him down, so Scott backed off!  Then, the boys tried to sneak up as a group on the geese and they ran around honking and got angry.  One even walked right up to me and stared at me like it was telling me to watch my kid.  I’m sure no one will be as amused by these pictures as I am and that’s ok.  It was so funny!  Eventually the boys gave up on their stealthy technique and went for a full on charge, sending the geese running around honking and ducks quacking!  They were making a scene, so we made them stop and we made our way over to a tree house they kept wanting to go back to. 

 

They got to see cows, horses, turkeys, chickens, pigs and goats, but they kept on going back to their tree house.  I think it was the highlight for them!  They had a fun time.

First Day Of School…..

for the big boys!  Jared & Gavin started school Tuesday.  It’s been an adjustment having them gone.  Scott said to me, “Mom.  I miss my brothers.  When are brothers coming home from school?”  It’s sweet.  Although, I have to say it’s been a madhouse around here lately and I have been looking forward to a little less stress, with half the kids to entertain.  They both say their first day went well and then of course when they came home there’s my tradition which has been carried over from my mom, where they go on a sort of treasure hunt for a first day surprise!  They look forward to that.  Michael said that morning that one of them had said something to him about how they couldn’t wait to get home to see what it was this year!  And, sitting there on their chairs waiting for them of course…was their first clue.  Its fun.

Open House

We had our open house on Monday and school began for Jared & Gavin on Tuesday.  I had them pose with their new teachers and for whatever reason, totally spaced Scott posing with his Kindergarten teacher at his assessment!  That’s probably the one I should’ve gotten!  Oh well…..

I’m hoping this is a better school year for Jared than last year.  He really loved the teacher he had for 4th grade, but toward the end of the year she played “catch up” with the class and he was being bombarded by new concept after new concept and next thing you know…..they were testing on it!  This is his new teacher’s first year teaching, so I’m really hoping for the best!  I have to admit that at first sight I thought, “How old is she?”  Hoping that has no merit on her performance.  Fingers crossed!

Last Summer Project

I’ve had some of the supplies for making stepping stones sitting around in my garage for months now.  We finally mixed them up and made some garden stepping stones with the kids!  I love how they turned out and had fun making them with the boys!

Weekend With Jonathan

Last year was the first year we had our cousin Jonathan stay with us (Michael’s brother’s youngest boy).  Well, we were lucky and got to have him for a visit this year too!  This was sort of our last hurrah…..and it was a busy weekend!  It started with meeting Marie in Layton to pick him up on Friday morning.  A couple hours later we were off to swim at the outdoor community pool.  We haven’t been to that outdoor pool in years.  The kids liked it and had fun trying something new!  We had to be back shortly later to join more of our family for one last summer outdoor movie!  Hank brought over Lauren, Maya and Elise.  Kenna sent over  Derek and Steven.  Throw in a couple neighbor kids too and it was a recipe for fun! 

Saturday morning we had a couple different soccer practices going on.  Michael is coaching (hee hee) and had Gavin’s practice lined up for 11.  Scott had his first practice with soccer too at 10.  Michael had gotten up early to join in an Elder’s Quorum golf morning, and after we all rolled out of bed I noticed that our nextdoor neighbor was tackling the mass of weeds in her backyard.  She has recently undergone a divorce and has a few kids, but her yard’s weed issue got out of hand while she was traveling for work.  So…..since I was stuck inside, I had a chat with the boys and they all felt good about helping as much as they could.  I was proud.  They were out there weeding for about an hour and a half of their own free will!  WOW!

 

We finished up soccer practice with ice cream sandwiches and after we brought everyone home  and had lunch, while Mason went down for a nap, Michael took the other kids over to the Fun Center nearby for a round of lazer tag.  That night, we had a big night.  Gavin’s baseball team, the DiamondBacks  was invited to participate in the local “Field of Dreams” program where they have the kids run onto the baseball field with a Minor League baseball team.  So, Gavin was invited to run out onto the field with the Orem Owlz ( I guess they are the team that the  Angels recruit from).  So, that was fun!  Gavin’s name was called out and he ran out onto the field with the catcher.  They gave him a game ball and he was pretty excited!  We stuck around to watch (what I would say was) a relatively slow baseball game and after it was over, they did a fireworks show!   The highlights were Gavin’s moment and Scott going down the aisle a few rows to bust some moves with little Gretchen from our ward.  The two of them were having a dance off down front and in between songs, Scott and Gavin would slide down the banisters in the aisles ( I know, I’m a great mom…..yes I let them)

We wrapped it up on Sunday and took Jonathan back to his mom after church.  I think he had a fun time.  I know my boys did!  Hopefully we can do it again next Summer!

Oh…..I almost forgot.  The boys, on Sunday morning, decided to make their own play and had us record it.  Something about a revised version of Harry Potter involving nerf guns.….they were being pretty goofy!  I know…..not too churchy, but very creative….. Michael was their videographer.  I will see if I can get it to upload on to this blog.

A Day At Deer Creek

It’s tradition!  Every year we rent a waverunner and take the boys out on the Reservoir.  We usually invite some of our family to join us, but granted my Dad recently chopped part of his finger off, he wasn’t really game for joining us this time around…..

Since we only rent one waverunner, the kids that aren’t riding would love to have someone to play with on the beach, so we invited Natalie and her kids to join us.  I think everyone had fun!  We spent the whole day out on the water and this is the first year Scott was OK with going out far and faster than 10mph.  In fact, he’s become a speed demon!  This little guy makes me laugh!  For the past few months he has watched YouTube videos of roller coasters on the iphone.  He holds it and  screeches at the drops.  I think he believes he is actually riding it!  Last week the boys recorded “Extreme Waterparks” on TV and Scott has been watching that over and over too!  Well, that carried over into his waverunning experience and we actually hit the max; 35 mph!  It was a great way to spend one of our last days of Summer!

Curiosity

I had to put this one in!  The other day the boys got the hose and were messing around and of course, Mr. Mase couldn’t help but wonder what it did and how you turned it on.  So, I grabbed my camera to watch it unravel…….the pictures tell it all.

 

 

		Water Fun Aug. 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

“Extraneous”

Michael knows why the name of this entry……we’ll leave it at that.  So, this week “Rosebud/Rosie,” Flat Otis/Michael, Shelly, and Glowey joined our family.  Michael has been traveling this week and it’s been so LONG for me!!  I thought it might be fun to do something really out of the ordinary, and the kids have wanted fish for the longest time (actually since we took our one day wonder dog back).  So…..I decided to be “extraneous” and get them some!  We went to the pet store to choose them.  Who knew it could take 45 minutes to pick out 3 fish and a slug?  Jared & Scott had both liked the hot pink fish, and after several attempts, Jared managed to successfully talk Scott out of choosing the same kind of fish.  So, Jared ended up with the hot pink tetra.  Scott chose the big greenish flat one.  Many years ago Michael and I had inherited an aquarium from Julie & Hank, and were bequeathed a lovely flat silver fish named Fat Otis (affectionately named by Hank).  This one looks similar in shape, so I thought it might be fitting and Scott adopted that name for half the day and then, all of a sudden, decided he wanted to change it to his Dad’s name.  SO funny! I told Michael he should be flattered.  That’s like the most exciting thing in that boy’s life right now and they share a name!  Gavin picked a yellow tetra that he was hoping would glow in the dark, but…….doesn’t.  Oops.  I think he is still loving it.  The lady at the pet store said she felt our tank probably wouldn’t hold more than 3 fish at a time, so I thought maybe a slug would be great, so that one is Mason’s (affectionately known as Shelly).  So there you have it…..the latest members of the Brown Family!