school papers and other random things

When my oldest child Hunter started Kindergarten last year, I often wondered what I was going to do with all those cute school writings and drawings. My parents had kept some of my best work in grade school and I am so thankful they did that. It's been fun to look back and read my quirky stories and see the little doodles I'd draw in my school journal. 

Well this past year Hunter was in 1st grade and Jaina started Kindergarten, so the papers were so much more. I couldn't believe all the work Hunter did during the year, but it definitely showed by the end of school. He is reading wonderfully and is a math whiz.

I've kept most of our kids school work in a designated dresser drawer in our kitchen and we finally got around to cleaning them out. It was so much fun reading Hunter's stories and seeing Jaina's progress in writing. They had such wonderful teachers this past year!

Grey's primary teacher taught them a lesson about bugs a few weeks ago and gave each of the children a bug catching kit.  That is Grey's thing, catching bugs and any kind of bug. He doesn't even mind holding spiders. One time he was holding one and came to show me. He said that the spider only bit him once:) Another time he had caught a slug and left it in a bowl on the kitchen table. When Hunter went to check on it, it was gone and he asked where it went. Grey said, "it slugged out":) so that is a term around our house now when something goes missing.

 Here's a snapshot of our home. This was something I remember my dad doing as we were growing up. It was fun to see how our home changed over time. This little house has become our home.

Monday, I packed a lunch and loaded the kids and we headed to Brigham City to finalize everything for Scarlett's headstone. Here it is, a lovely pink stone, just perfect for our little girl! It should be set by her birthday next month.

Afterwards we had a picnic at the cemetery. We then visited my parents and enjoyed sweet cherries right off the tree and then went to Cami's to see her cute kids and beautiful home. It was a wonderful day!

a weekend with the Pearsons

Our front room has gone through a bit of a transformation yet again. Jon teases me that it's been longer than 5 months so its due time to paint:) We sold our old white comfortable sofa in exchange for a sectional which was the best move for our family. We only have one family room/living room in the entire house so we had to make it comfortable for everyone, and somehow make it stylish, too. I'm trying to learn the art of a well balanced gallery wall and maybe one of these days I'll actually finish it. I bought this rug at Ikea. Last week I was looking at it and thought, "Hey those look like blocks in a town and roads too." so we pulled out all the play animals, guys, and cars and went to town on the rug:) We made a dinosaur museum, bug museum, zoo and a buzz lightyear home filled with Grey's collection of Buzz Lightyears. They played with it for a total of 4 minutes.

On Friday night, we decided the kids earned Happy Meals, or Sad Meals as Jon likes to put it. And then Jon and I got Pho at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Kim Long in Layton. I was so excited to eat it that it was pretty much gone when I thought to take a picture of it.

We then went over to the Farmington Pond and went for a walk. We love all the hidden places in Farmington. We discovered a new trail that we had so much fun on.

Then on Saturday, James and Janese and their cute kiddos came over. Jon made a delicious dutch oven dinner of lemon chicken and potatoes. Janese made a refreshing fruit dip with cinnamon chips that I am definitely going to try to make.