Me and My Girl at Smashburger

 

First Day

James started middle school today, 6th grade specifically. He was appropriately nervous for the event.

 

 

I just drove him and his two neighborhood pals to school and dropped them off. No lectures, no tears, no weirdness. I was pretty proud of myself. I kindof felt like a mother bird kicking my baby out of the nest. I'm sure this is not the last time I will have that feeling with him.

 

It made David and Abby's start seem really easy. They seem like old pros. Especially David, who is almost too cool for school.

 

 

A few favorite moments: Abby reaching for my hand as we were walking in, settling her into her seat and asking her if it was alright if I left now and her answer: "no.", the cute nod and wink she gave me about 90 seconds later signaling it was ok for me to go now, David congregating with a group of boys and navigating the social scene with total ease, and ultimately, not too cool to give me a high five me as we left.

 

Sooo David.

 

 

 

Pick-up time! Life is good!

 

 

Keeping the Boys busy

Last week was all about keeping the boys busy with scouts. David was gone to Cub Scout camp every day. He really enjoyed it. It was a totally different experience for him than it was for the 3 years James went. Every morning David was up before me, dressed and ready to go. Laura W. was his leader and his buddy Dallin was in his group too. He especially loved archery and fishing.

 

Here he is "sitting on an invisible bench" for the closing program. Anyone who has a son that's a scout will see this particular skit more times than one really might care to. I still got a kick out of it, with David's cute style of delivering his lines...

 

On Friday, James had his first Boy Scout camp out without a parent along. He was very excited and spent most of the day packing and getting every detail right. Mark has always been adamant about the boys wearing the full uniform, I didn't really ever see what the big deal was. But, I've gotta tell you, James looked so sharp in his full uniform ready to go! (He actually looked a little too grown up for my liking.) He offered to say the prayer before they left for camping and he made sure to pray for all the Moms, that we might not worry too much about our boys while they were away. Seriously?! I love this kid!

 

He has the very best leaders ever! Brother Swain and Brother Ewell are so great with the boys. James told me that they sat around the campfire that night and the men talked to the boys about the Priesthood and it's duties, importance, etc. They got to ask them all kinds of questions. I'm so grateful for these men and the support they give us parents in raising these strong, awesome boys(ahem, almost young men.-Yikes!)

 

My New BFF

David has a new shadow. There's a cute little guy named Fox who thinks David is pretty darn cool.

 

David had Fox over to "play", which consisted of listening to music, playing Legos, setting up a huge car race track, drawing with markers and oh yeah, trying to get Fox to say things like "shut up" and "stupid". Super Fun.

 

Maybe Fox can be a good influence on David, seeing as Fox does not insist on pulling the cheese of his pizza like David does.

Midway and Cinderella

We visited the Midway today. There was a special deal to get in free for Flag Day if you were wearing red, white and blue. Such a deal!!
James loved getting in the airplanes to check out the controls.

 

Abby just loved doing what her big brother was doing.

 

David is out of the mix for the majority of the week because he is at cub scout camp. Somehow this change in the sibling dynamic has made James act extremely nice towards his sister. He even volunteered to join her stuffed animal tea party. He picked out the tie. And allowed me to photograph him.

 

I put "Cinderella" to work this evening. It started with me innocently asking Abby to clear the placements off the table. She then wanted to wipe the table. I started talking to her in my wicked stepmother voice and she fell right into character. She asked for a bucket and rag. She needed an apron. She began scrubbing the floors. Every so often she'd sigh and look up at me, "am I done yet?", she'd ask with a sheepish smile. I must say, she did a pretty darn good job. I did let her of the hook pretty early. We'll see what jobs I can get her to do tomorrow. I could play this game all summer long..