Lee's 35th Birthday!

Before we head to Lee's big day, a little catch-up is needed.  It seems like we are always busy, and with the start of school things did not slow down!  Well, maybe the first few days were more low-key.  The first part of September I started working on the elementary school's fall fundraiser.  I volunteered to be in charge of it.  Not sure how wise that was....ha ha. 

Our fall fundraiser consists of sending home address labels, asking the parents to write down addresses of family and friends they think will donate to our school.  The parents send the labels back to school, and I send out a form letter that their child has partially filled out, asking those specific people to donate to our school.  The name of the fundraiser is Race for Education. 

It's a great fundraiser for parents...just fill out address labels, and that's it!  It's great for the kids too because if they send in 5 labels, they get a little treat, 10 a treat plus a little prize, 15 all of the others plus ice cream at lunch, 25 all the others plus a chance to throw a "pie" in a teacher's face--or the principal, and 35, all those plus a free t-shirt.  I may have messed up on the amounts or the coordinating prizes, but it's something like that. The student from each grade that brings in the most money (and a good amount of labels) gets to go on a limo ride to lunch with the principal.  Then the class with the most total donations enjoys a few hours at a nearby indoor water park. It took me several hours to organize folders, deliver the letters to the teachers, pick them back up, copy the letter multiple times for each kid, organize the labels by kid, work with the post office to get the bulk mailing figured out.....etc......


And just because....I copy once a week for some teachers at the school.  Not sure why, but I really enjoy coming in and doing this.  I might even keep coming in even when Elden goes to middle school!


Lee took this picture one morning on his bike ride.  So pretty here.


On to birthday boy!  Lee had a three day birthday celebration since his birthday landed on a Wednesday. (Wednesday we couldn't really plan anything as Lee often will work 7am to 7:30pm, and with scouts and young women's it was just easier to celebrate a different day.)  That Tuesday evening Lee grilled steaks and asparagus for his birthday dinner.  Wednesday he enjoyed cupcakes and birthday wishes from people at work, and of course his family!

The same day as Lee's birthday is Risa's birthday... my good friend pictured on the right of me, below.  What is really fun is that Risa was my next door neighbor at Ricks College.  Who knew we would someday end up in the same church congregation AND have twins!  She and Lee both love cold cereal like no other people I've met.  If you think you love cold cereal, they love it even more.  So much more.  My other good friend, Brittany, has her birthday just a few days after Risa and Lee.  I planned a little pot-luck lunch at a park to celebrate both of their birthdays.  My friend Katherine (yes, another good friend!) was so kind and picked me up that morning from my house.  I was van-less that day because our transmission to our Honda was being fixed.  (Yes, we bit the bullet and paid to have it rebuilt.)

We had a fun time eating and visiting at the park.  It's always fun to celebrate birthdays!


Look at the cake my talented friend Megan made.  It's soo cute!  It tasted amazing.  Homemade chocolate cake with homemade chocolate ganache between layers? I can't remember exactly, but it was delicious.  I brought a piece to Lee. 


Now on to Lee's party!  We had his party on Thursday, the 3rd day of the celebrations.  First Clark opened a fun birthday present he received from the Frankes.


He really likes his game!


Haley was so sweet and used her own money to buy the noisy whistle things.  I think I bought the party hats to help contribute to the party.  No, I didn't love the noisy whistle things, but she often thinks of others when buying stuff and wanted something fun to share with everyone at Dad's birthday. 


Checking out the new game.


I made a chocolate cheesecake for Lee's birthday "cake".  It turned out great.  Shredder was the honorary candle. 


I love how Haley jazzed up Lee's party hat.


Lee's team members gave him this card and some cupcakes.  This is the cutest card for an eye doctor!




Hope you had a terrific birthday celebration Lee!  We all love you so much!  Lee is such a great help when it comes to chores, helping the kids, fixing things around the house, etc.  It's great being married to my best friend!  You are finally the same age as me.  For a couple months....

First Day of School

Well, the first day of school came!  Thankfully we had an extra week of summer vacation this summer, which was AWESOME!  We spent that time in Mississippi visiting my sister and her family, my parents, and meeting my sister Lena's 8th baby-Steven!

Clark is now a 7th grader!  For some reason him getting older, doesn't phase me too much.  Sometimes I think he's older than he really is.  Not sure how I feel about high school in two years though.....


Clark is the first one to leave in the morning.  What a gorgeous summer morning for a bike ride!



For the second year, the other four kids are in the same school.  I really like that.
Haley is in third!


Elden is in first!


Cal is our big fifth grader!


And Shanna is in fourth!  Just kidding.  Obviously she is in third, like, um...hmmm...Haley!


I love that we can ride bikes to school.




I didn't realize this till my sister Deborah mentioned it, but this school year wasn't as dramatic, or a huge change.  We weren't anxious about Clark starting middle school, and Elden wasn't starting his first year at school.  It was nice that it was a new school year without any big surprises.  For the second year running, I met some friends that morning for breakfast, which was really fun.  I think we'll keep up that tradition!

Just some other summer happenings after school started....a gorgeous summer sky.


My mom found my wedding dress and veil.  Shanna was so excited to put them on!


We finally bought an edger (something that I wonder why we did buy two years ago?!).  Lee and the boys cleaned up the walkways.




Looking much better!




Our apple tree did pretty well this year!  We harvested about nine apples.  Better than the two or three from last year....


One weekend we did some bathroom/house stuff.  I bought a cute bathroom rug but it was too long for the space.  I cut off the ends and "hemmed" them.


Lee put in a new outlet behind our computer desk.  We've had extension cords running along the wall for over two years now.  This was another, why-didn't-we-do-this-two-years-ago, project.  But it's done and now we can plug all of the computer stuff into the outlet BEHIND the computer desk...novel, I know.


We also bought and hung (well, Lee hung) a new mirror by our dining table!   We LOVE it!


It's like another window.


For a date one night we headed to Trader Joe's and Home Goods.  It was my very first time in a Home Goods store. LOVED IT!


Had to grab a treat for the way home!


We found Shanna like this when we arrived home...


If you had kids starting school, hope that went smoothly!  Hope you enjoyed those last glorious days of summer too!!!

King's Dominion

Sometimes I look back on my posts or activities, and can't believe how crazy Lee and I were to do the things we did!  Well, this is one of them.  Remember how I arrived home Saturday night from Mississippi?  Read on....

Sundays are always great.  After church that day, later in the afternoon, Lee and the kids had a lesson about who, what, where and when from the Book of Mormon, using Legos.  Once Abinadi, Noah, Alma, and others enter the picture, and people go off from the land of Shilom to find Zarahemla but find a land of a fallen people, and etc., etc., it gets a little confusing! 




Though our kids don't spill things every night now, messes still happen.....


Lee surprised me with these beautiful roses when I arrived home from Mississippi (on Saturday that is, not Sunday, ha ha.)


So, now we're on to Monday.  It was the last day before school started.  We had the crazy idea to surprise the kids and take them to King's Dominion.  They knew we were going to go, but not when.  Lee and I looked at the calendar and it wasn't going to work to go in September.  So August it was.  We had some coupons for IHOP from our summer reading program, so headed there for breakfast.










Then on to King's Dominion! This was our fist time there.  We picked a great day to go.  The lines weren't bad at all (not sure how they are normally....)  The most we waited for a ride was 15 minutes? 








Clark went on tons of rides, mainly with Lee. I went with him at the very end of the day on some really fun rides.  I have a hard time on rides and get nauseous quickly, so I need to take frequent breaks.  But I love the rides, so I still go on the them.  Clark and I were going to go on two more rides.  But the supposed second-to-last ride was too much for me.  It was really, really fun, but I thought I was going to throw up in the hallway leading to the outside.  Thankfully I didn't, but I couldn't go on the last planned ride. 




Our friends the Bensons went to King's Dominion early this past summer and won one of these HUGE gorillas.  Well, they gave it to us.  The gorilla was poorly made and didn't last long at our house.  It was shedding like a hairy pet (Lee and I don't do pets....) and the stuffing leaked out like crazy.  Its life was short at our house.  We saw them at the park and had to get a picture.  Like the girl photo-bombing us?  Ha!










The ride was so funny to me.  I was the backseat passenger a few times around.  What was funny was watching Shanna drive, all prim and proper, then watching Haley drive, all relaxed yet crazy.  Definitely saw their personalities shine through!  Someday Shanna will be driving on the highway in her Mercedes and Haley will be out in the sand dunes in her Jeep. 






Around 2 pm we went outside to eat some food we had brought.  We arrived about 10 minutes before the park opened and got a great parking spot.  That night we enjoyed the only thing we bought all day at the park--one funnel cake.  We all shared it, and one was plenty! We thought about buying food their, but their prices were so outrageous.  I mean, $12 for a Chick-fil-A meal?  No way! 


Though the next morning---the first day of school---wasn't as smooth as it could have been, we had a great last day of summer vacation.  Oh summer, I am missing you already!  I LOVE summer.  LOVE LOVE LOVE it.