First Day of 1st Grade

Clara got to start her first day of school this week. 

She was super nervous, but has come home thriving each day.  The thing she was looking forward to the most is getting to eat lunch at school.  So I had to take a picture of her first school lunch and lunchbox.

She has a male teacher whom she thinks is hilarious.  She has made friends quickly, including her new next door neighbor who is also in her school class.  They love playing outside together.

And Joe loves to follow Clara around and do what she does.  Here he is wearing my garden gloves so he could dig with Clara.

Birthday Parties and End of Summer Fun

We got to attend two birthday parties this week.  The first was for Clara's friend Adilyn.  We got to go to a park, eat pizza, and play a lot of fun games.

The next birthday party was for Joe's friend Ruby.  Dad came with us on that one, so we have a lot more pictures.  :)  They had a bounce house, water slide, kiddie pool, party hats, and more!

Mom and Joe got to hang out in our PJ's together Sat morning.  We had fun taking some selfies.

I also let the kids have a little snack while they relaxed in my bed and watched TV.  Got to let them veg for the last time this summer eh?

Joe has been cracking us up lately.  He's talking in sentences now, and I love how silly he can be.  He decided his baby needed some cheese.

I heard, "Mom, Mom!" over and over again.  When I came into the hall to see what was going on, I found this:

How he walked safely from the toy room to me is unbelievable!

Another Week

We didn't have a whole lot going on this week, but it seems like our extended family has been pretty busy. 

I was able to watch my niece and nephews so that my sister-in-law could attend a sealing in Manti. Then their family moved to Missouri the next day, so I'm glad we had the chance to spend so much time with cousins since we won't get to see them very often anymore.

My Mom's van broke down when she came to visit us 3 weeks ago.  We've been helping her figure out how to get it fixed for the last few weeks.  She finally got it back and working this week!

And here's some pics I took of the kids this week:

McCleve Family Reunion

We were able to attend the McCleve family reunion this week.  Jeremy's mom comes from a family of 10 children, so this is by far the biggest reunion that we get to attend. Luckily, it was close enough to home that we could sleep in our own beds and just go every day.
As soon as we arrived, the kids noticed the horses.  They spent the better part of that first day just watching them.

Clara watched a few of her cousins roller blade around the pavilion as we were waiting for more relatives to come.  She really wanted to try her roller skates out.  Her skates used to be mine, and are a little big for her.  But she was able to balance pretty well by the end of the reunion.  Joe also found his cousin's helmet and had to wear it.

We also had a talent show that first night.  Clara read the book "Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons."  She did such a good job!  I was so proud of her.

The next morning the kids got to start the day with fishing in a fishing pond.  Clara got some braclets and Joe got some bubbles.  He loved his bubbles so much that he learned how to say that word, and now uses it often!

After the fish pond came crafts, which was Clara's favorite part.  She kept making craft after craft until all the supplies were either gone or cleaned up.  Here are just a few of the ones she made:

That second day got pretty hot, soo I poured some water on Joe's head to cool him off.  He thought that was a great idea and ended up dumping the rest of the water from the water bottle on his head.

Joe also got to play with some one else's dinosaur.  He played with it for the majority of the day.  I thought it was so cute that he would give the dinosaur food and water.

Clara also loved playing near all the trees. She would draw in the dirt with a stick, watch bugs, look at the leaves, etc.  She had so much fun at the reunion.

The last day there, Clara insisted on getting a picture of her and her new friend.  Her and Olivia Chapple played a lot together.  It was pretty funny when they discovered they were related.  I guess little kids don't understand that they are related to everyone at a family reunion.