A Familiar Classroom

This morning we took a tour . . .

. . . of Todd's new classroom at our town's older elementary school (grades 3-5).

Todd got to find his desk and meet one of his soon-to-be classmates.

He also discovered a jar full of transparent dice

with little dice inside them.

Numbers galore!

Todd wanted to roll ALL the dice!

Todd has the same teacher Anna had when she was in third grade.

She enjoyed seeing her old classroom and teacher again,

and smelling the familiar air freshener her teacher likes to use.

As for me, I thought the message on this mirror was funny:

"You are kind"

"You are smart"

"You are important"

"(By the way, your hair looks great today)"

This sign is still my favorite part of the classroom though

(aside from the teacher, who is awesome).

Hats and Beans

As promised on the birthday milk jug . . .

. . . Joy treated Anna to an outing today.

They decided to be all matchy-matchy and wear fun hats,

but before I had even left the parking lot

Joy called my cell phone to say that Anna was already tired of wearing her enormous hat

and they wanted to stash it in the car.

The girls (and Luna) enjoyed some white chocolate cocoa . . .

. . . and picked up a box of Bertie Botts Every Flavor jelly beans.

As Albus Dumbledore had the misfortune to discover in his youth . . .

. . . vomit-flavored jelly beans truly are revolting.

Later in the day, Anna used her birthday cookie scoop

and the birthday apron a friend made for her

to whip up some cookies.

They tasted much better than the jelly beans. :)

A Milk Jug Gift

It's Anna's birthday today!

She requested a birthday dinner of sliders 

out in our screened porch . . .

. . . and cream puffs for dessert.

Anna was excited to get a cookie scoop as a gift

since she loves baking . . .

. . . but the most interesting present she received by far

was an empty milk jug covered with a masking tape message from her sister

promising to take her on a fun outing tomorrow.

Happy birthday, Anna!

I love your cheerful enthusiasm

and your compassionate heart.

Anna's Birthday Swim Party

It's Anna's birthday this week, and summer vacation is almost over . . .

. . . so we decided to host a birthday swim party at our swim teacher's family's pool.

Highlights including trying to swim in the inflatable palm tree decoration . . .

. . . (which lasted about two seconds) . . .

. . . and whipping our own cream to go with the key lime bars

that Anna and Joy made for the occasion.

It was a delightful way to celebrate Anna and friendship . . .

. . . and good old summertime fun.

Remembering Doc

Hiking was another item on our family's summer bucket list this month.

We especially wanted to go to Whitetail Woods . . .

. . . to have lunch on good old Picnic Rock . . .

. . . and visit the final resting place of the cutest hamster ever.

We even stacked a little cairn on the stone he's buried next to.

Life moves on, and the parakeets we acquired this year are cute and fun,

but learning to love someone new doesn't make you completely stop missing

someone else that you loved and lost.

That said, the happiness Doc brought to me far outweighs

the sadness I sometimes feel when I think of him.

Thanks for the fun memories, Captain Fuzzypants.

A School Tour and Amateur Fashion Design

The first day of school is just a couple of weeks away.

We bought all of our school supplies last week, 

but there are a few more things we want to do before the big day.

 Joy is using her digital art skills to explore school outfit color combos

that fit the vibe she's going for.

It's kind of fun to look over her shoulder

and try to guess which of her shirts and accessories

she's playing around with.

Anna's been a little nervous about navigating middle school for the first time,

so she gratefully attended today's tour for the incoming sixth graders.

Daniel already knows his way around the school,

but he came along for fun and to give his sister some helpful pointers.

Middle school has a reputation for being a rough stage of life,

but I find most of the teachers in our school to be

enthusiastic, experienced, and encouraging.

They're just the sort of guide I'd want on a challenging journey.

Learning to Have More Fun

Today we had our last swim lesson of the summer . . .

 . . . before our teacher heads back to college in another state.  

All of the Hendrickson students have made some good progress this year. 

Todd is working on his back stroke . . .

. . . Daniel polished his form so he could swim faster . . .

. . . and Anna overcame her fear of the slide and the deep end.

I'm proud of them for persevering,

and I'm happy that they're all having more fun swimming these days.

A Family Temple Trip

Our whole family headed to the temple this evening.

I went inside with Joy and Daniel to do baptisms for the dead with other youth from our ward . . .

. . . while Daddy stayed outside with Anna and Todd for a Primary activity.

The temple's head gardener (who also happens to be our stake patriarch) gave them a tour of the grounds 

and taught about some of the symbolism in the temple's design.

He particularly focused on lots of tree of life symbolism in the temple's windows and stonework.

I guess it makes sense that the tree of life would resonate with a gardener.

Anna the Road Builder

For this week's family home evening activity . . .

. . . Daniel borrowed an expanded version of "Settlers of Catan" from some friends

so all six members of our family could play the game together.

Anna won, partly because she built the longest road

(which spanned the entire continent).

I earned honorable mention for drawing a little cactus 

to go on the second desert.

The Bucket of Impending Doom

We met some friends at the park today . . .

. . . to play on the playground . . .

. . . then head over to the splash pad.

One of the most popular features there was a hinged container on a pole

that slowly fills up, then suddenly dumps a ton of water on you.

I don't understand the appeal of waiting nervously under a bucket

and then screaming when it drenches you, but hey,

whatever floats your boat--er, bucket.

PYOB: Pick Your Own Berries

One of the perks of living in a semi-rural community . . .

. . . is that you don't have to drive far to find a farm

where you can pick your own produce.

Berry picking was on the kids' summer bucket list this year,

so we paid a little visit to Doe Orchards this morning.

The price per quart is a little steep, but that's partly because 

they expect you to eat about as many berries as you put in your basket.

How else are you going to figure out which variety you like best? :)

Licking the berries is typically frowned upon, though.

After we got home from the farm, 

we ate a delectable lunch of wheat waffles, whipped cream, 

and freshly-picked blueberries.

Nom nom nom!

Mailbox Mums

At the grocery store this afternoon . . .

. . . I noticed dozens of brightly-colored mums for sale.

They're popular autumn annuals here in Massachusetts

because they keep right on blooming through the first few frosts.

I thought of our sad little mailbox back home

surrounded by scraggly grass and spent daylilies . . .

. . . and I decided we needed to brighten things up a bit.

Anna helped me dig a bunch of holes in our rocky New England soil . . .

. . . and now our mailbox looks much happier,

don't you think?

There's More Than One Kind of Fun

 We met up with some friends at the Discovery Museum today.

 

The kids posed for a photo with a friendly dinosaur . . .

. . then took turns lifting each other with this giant lever

before we headed inside.

The first exhibit we saw when we walked in the door was this crazy wind tunnel

with twisty, transparent pipes.

It was fun to put scarves in one end of a pipe

and then watch them zoom this way and that

before finally shooting out in a random spot near the top.

The three younger kids also liked playing with the water exhibits . . .

. . . and making sand art.

It's rather relaxing--you should try it sometime.

Joy wasn't very interested in most of the displays

until she found the circuit table.  

She enjoyed experimenting with the components to produce a variety of results,

and troubleshooting when something didn't work the way she expected.

It's funny how fun can look so different to different people.