Other Happenings This Month

 Now that I have blogged about the biggest events that happened this month now I'm going to go back through the month and share some smaller events (although some of these smaller events were a big event). 

On Wednesday the 11th of August (just a couple days after our Oregon trip) was the big day for Jack to get his braces off and now he's sporting a retainer. He just has to take it out of his mouth when he eats food or drinks anything besides water to keep it clean.

Braces on...

Braces off!! But wearing a new retainer.

A shot without the retainer.

And the girls were having a little fun one day on the hoverboard. It was pretty darn cute with Charlotte giving Alice a piggy back ride...in style!

Friday the 13th was a very special day, not unlucky at all in fact, because it was the actual anniversary of my in laws and they got together with mostly family and a few close friends to celebrate. The crazy thing is that the day they got married 50 years ago was also on a Friday! The back yard was set up with tables and decorations in the same colors as when they got married. We ate lots of good food including grilled steak and chicken along with different salads, veggie tray, fruits and desserts. We brought chicken ramen salad and frog eye salad and brownies. I enjoyed holding my niece's 3 month old baby, Gwen and then just visiting here and there. Then watching others visit and have a good time. I was so much in the moment that I didn't get many pictures but here are a few from that evening.

The welcome sign in the front yard.

We watched a slideshow of pictures of them throughout the years with their children and grandchildren. Then they did the cutting of the cake and yes they did smash it into each other's faces! I got a video of that.

After cleaning themselves up they got up and spoke a little bit about each other and their family. It was a great evening.

Just as we were about to leave for home I got a quick selfie with my mother in law, Gaya. She looked especially beautiful that day since Shauna did her hair up nice.

Jack really wanted to earn some money so he could buy a special Lego set so he called my grandma (GG) to see if she had any work for him to do. She had him come over on Wednesday the 18th and pull weeds around her garden. I can't remember if he did anything else but he earned what he needed to and then had me take him to the store (after he took out enough for tithing). 

He bought himself a Super Mario Lego set.

This boy loves Mario! And this particular Mario is electronic so it lights up, his eyes move and it makes sounds and music.

The very next day was the first day of school for the 4 oldest kids (Thursday Aug 19th). We did a little bit of shopping that week to get some supplies and shoes for those who needed it plus a few other clothing items. I would say that Garrett and Charlotte were excited but Nikki and Jack not as much but they did all enjoy seeing friends again.

I saw an old friend of mine post something about school and I knew that she was going to be starting a new preschool this year at her church building which is the Christian Faith Center across the street from West Middle School. She has been a preschool teacher at the Rec Center for years. I was thinking about putting Alice in preschool but wasn't really sure and by now most preschools are filled. I went ahead and sent her a message asking if there were any spots available. She sent back some voice recordings saying that there were some spots available and filling me in with other information as well. I was a little hesitant because of the cost being $175 a month but after talking to Curtis about it I really wanted her to have something. So I signed her up and I'm not only hoping that it will help her with learning alphabet and numbers, etc but to also help her in her speech. We went to a parent meeting Friday the 20th to meet her teacher (there are a team of teachers so Alice did not actually get my friend as her teacher but that's ok). They also went over expectations and handed out a handbook. It's kind of neat because my friend is a big Jesus supporter and not afraid to say it so part of their learning will be from bible stories, etc. Alice's first day of school was on Monday the 23rd. She goes Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 8:45-11:45am. So far she loves preschool!

This was at the parent meeting. They were doing the alligator song I think.

On her first day of preschool.

Her teacher is the one by the door holding the cones. The other gal is an assistant for her class.

The same night that we had the parent meeting Curtis and I decided we wanted to do a puzzle so we did my Multnomah Waterfall puzzle. It was a lot more difficult than we thought it would be because of some very odd shaped pieces. It was a 500 piece puzzle but did not finish until the next morning.  We put it on the mat so I could roll it up and take it to my dad's to glue it and frame it so I can hang it up. We still haven't done it so it's just sitting my my closet. It was fun to change things up from watching a movie on Friday night to doing a puzzle together instead.

I think that's all I better put in this post. It's already pretty long but at least I'm getting caught up again!