First Day of School

6:00 came so early this morning.  I think we got WAY too used to staying up late over the summer.  (...zzz...)

Everyone was really excited to start a new school year...except me.  This is the first year that I think I've ever really been sad to see them all go back to school.  Usually I'm pretty excited to get back into a routine and have a quiet house for a few precious hours during the day.  But I've totally enjoyed these teenagers lately and I'm seriously going to miss having them around to talk to all day.  What on earth will I do?  Nevermind...I have a million things planned, and in just a blink, it will be 3:00 and they'll all be home again.

This year, we have four kids in four different schools.  EEK!

Emma (8th Grade) started our morning carpool route at 7:20am.  Show Choir rehearses BEFORE school!  

McKay (5th Grade) followed right behind at 7:30 to walk to the elementary school with his friends.  They were so sneaky and fast, I didn't even catch a picture of them outside.  

And thank goodness for an extra driver in the house this year.  Savannah (11th grade) and Megan (9th Grade) left at 7:45 for a stop at the Freshman Center and then onto the High School.  

By the end of the week, we'll be adding early morning seminary to our routine which starts at 6:00am, but for a few days we'll enjoy easing into the new schedule.  

I'm so grateful for a new school year to look forward to, for great teachers and friends, and for opportunities for the kids to meet new people and learn tons of interesting stuff.  I'm glad they're all excited to start this year, and I hope it will be a great one for all of them.  

Valentine's Day 2013

Last night I started baking cookies for Mack's class party at school.  And since I was already baking, I thought I'd try those cute fortune cookies again.

Here's the break down on those.  They're SO easy...really.  

Recipe:
1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon of almond extract
2 large egg whites
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp of cornstarch
1/4 tsp of salt
3 tsp of water

1) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2) Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.
3) Spoon a tablespoon of batter onto a cookie sheet and spread it out in a 4" circle.
4) Bake 5 minutes or until edges are golden brown around the edges.
5) Quickly remove from cookie sheet, place fortune inside and fold in half and then bend cookie over the edge of a cup or a mug to get it curvy.  Place in a muffin tin until cooled so that it retains its shape.

I dipped these in pink candy melt and added some little chocolate sprinkles just to make them festive, but they're pretty cute just plain, too.

 And then I put one in each of the kids lunches.  Cute, huh?

I made enough to spread some fortune cookie love around the neighborhood, and put them into cute little Chinese take out boxes.

I would totally make these again.  It took me an hour to make 17, and except for the part where I burned my fingers every time I tried to fold one, it was really easy.

Then Mack and I made heart shaped sugar cookies for his class and he finished up his Valentines.  We found these cute fishbowl printables on Etsy and just added a few Swedish fish.  

4th graders are so easy to please.  Mack's teacher and I decided a few weeks ago that simple would be the best plan for this party.  

So, I bought white bags for them to decorate...

 ...then they passed out all their Valentines...

and we played a few games...like stacking conversation hearts.  Pretty fun!  

I love Valentine's Day.  I love any excuse to pop in and deliver little gifts to my friends and neighbors.  And I love any excuse to make sugar cookies.  I think Mack had a great time at his class party and even though it wasn't huge and elaborate, I don't think one person noticed.  I'm so glad that this party came together so well, and that all those 4th graders are so wonderful and polite.  There won't be very many years to be the Class Party Mom, so I'm soaking in every minute of this experience while I can.  

Oh, and here's the best part...when I got home there were steaks marinating and THESE on my counter...

Hope your Valentine's Day has been great and that lots of love has been floating around your space!  <3

Flashback Tuesday

I hope you don't mind if I get a little lost in Cache Valley memories for the rest of this week.  Even though I'm so glad to be home, I'm having a hard time getting back into life here in Dallas after having such a great week in Utah.  

While the Scout Master and I were driving around on Thanksgiving morning, we stopped at Utah State University.  It's such a gorgeous campus that I found myself hoping that at least one of my kids would want to go to college there.  

When my kids were little and first starting school, we enrolled them at Edith Bowen Laboratory School at USU because we had heard such great things about it.  It was a bit of a sacrifice to drive them so far away each day, especially when June was only in half day Kindergarten, but it was so worth it.  We carpooled with a couple of other families and the Scout Master worked in North Logan, so that lightened the load a bit.  

This was the walkway from the carpool parking lot to the school.  Once, I made about 48 cupcakes with cute little skeletons on them for two of the girls' class Halloween parties.  At the time, Mack was little and still required a stroller, and because I didn't have any help, I tried to push his stroller while balancing two full sheet pans loaded with cupcakes on the top of it.  There's a slight incline down that sidewalk and a tiny little lift where two of the concrete sections don't quite meet.  The stroller hit that bump and both pans went flying.  I couldn't even hope to save any of the cupcakes because they landed face down on the sidewalk.  That happened early in our Edith Bowen experience, and I could never quite look at that sidewalk the same way again.  Nor did I attempt to be supermom after that. 

There was a tangible energy about that school that was unmistakable when you walked through the doors.  Every time I volunteered in those classrooms, I considered reactivating my teaching certificate and going back to work. The teachers were adventurous and passionate about teaching.  They all had Master's degrees or PhD's in education and they genuinely loved the kids and their jobs.   Those teachers laid the groundwork for my girls to love school and to seek after learning and I am so grateful that we all had the opportunity to experience that.

Flowering Buttercup - 5th grade graduation

Spell Girl - 4th grade

June's 1st and 2nd grade class

...and an occasional trip to Aggie Ice Cream made the distance from Mendon to USU much more bearable, too. 

I am so grateful for teachers who love what they do.  I'm grateful for memories that linger.  And I'm grateful for opportunities that are even better in hindsight than they were when we were right in the middle of them.  

Flashback Tuesday

Since we're in Back to School mode around here, I thought I'd post a few first day of school pictures from forever ago...

Flowering Buttercup 2nd grade - Mendon 2004

FB (3rd grade), Spell Girl (1st grade) and June (Kindergarten) - Mendon 2005

FB (4th grade), SG (2nd grade) and June (1st grade) - Mendon 2006

Mack (Kindergarten) - Mendon 2008

I remember every one of those days like they happened yesterday.   Eight years ago, I had one child in school and three little ones at home.  And in another 8 years, when Mack is a SENIOR, I'll have only one left in school.  I can't believe how fast the years fly by.

Don't forget to wander over to Jen's cute blog to see other great Flashback posts.
http://whyyyjen.blogspot.com/2012/08/flashback-tuesday.html