August is always a different month. As soon as it hits, there is a panic to fit everything summer related into our days, a panic to get school supplies, clothes, etc. to be ready and then school starts and we're back on a schedule and afternoons are always crazy busy.
So we started off August with the Highland Parade. Only Aria, Jaron and I went. Siena hurt her leg, pulled a groin muscle the day before and refused to walk on it. It kept spasming and it looked really painful. Luckily it only lasted a little over a day and then a couple days of being careful on it so we knew she couldn't get to the parade. Aria and Jaron got enough candy though for all of us and it's always a fun morning at our local city parade.
The Girls took the first step of getting braces by getting expanders put in. When they first got them they thought they were going to drown in their spit as it took a little while to figure out how to swallow, etc. But after that it hasn't been too bad. We had to adjust it every night for 4 weeks and luckily it didn't bother them too much. They have to keep it in for 6 months and then they'll look to see if any teeth need to get pulled and then either get braces or invisalign.
Jaron had his 2nd Soccer tournament of the summer, the Utah Cup. It was in Orem again and they played good but unfortunately lost in the semi-finals.
Siena and Aria had 2 dog watching gigs this summer. The Arnetts across the street and The Daniels dogs. They love to do it and it's easy money. Aria in particular loves to watch the dogs and would sometimes bring the dogs over to our house so they could just hang out in the yard.
We had to get an updated picture of the JLO's for their birthdays. Can't believe these boys are 9!
First day of school for Siena and Aria at Ridgeline. They are both in Mrs. Leimer's class this year and she seems super nice and fun so I think it's going to be a great year.
Jaron started at a new school this year. Kind of a long story but last February, Jaron's teach Ms. Hutchinson emailed me on a Sunday night saying they were testing for the gifted program and she was shocked I hadn't signed Jaron up to get tested. So not knowing much about it, I signed him up and told him just to do his best and we'll see what happens. Well April rolled around and we got his results back and he did really really well. Well enough that he was accepted into the A.L.L.(Advanced Learning Lab) program. In order to be in the program he would need to switch schools where the class is being offered. It was such a hard decision but Jaron has been so bored at school He likes school but is always complaining about how easy it is and how bored he is. So ultimately although he was going to miss his friends he really wanted to do the program. So now he goes to Westfield Elementary. The first day he came got in the car and said 'Mom, the best part of the day was that we actually did work instead of just learning rules all day,' Then that Friday he got in the car and said 'We don't have homework this weekend but we might start having it because we voted if we wanted homework on the weekend and most everyone including me voted to have weekend homework.' Right then I knew we had made the right decision. He knew one boy, Logan and one girl, Isabelle that also came over from Ridgeline. He had his friend Sam from his soccer team last year in his class and has already made some other friends. So we are very happy with the change.
We tried to go to the zoo before school started but Jaron was sick and the girls were dog sitting so we ended up going the Saturday after school started. We had free passes and I didn't want to forget to use them before it got too cold to go. It was a fun morning but I think the highlight was the dog show for us this time around.
We grew our own pumpkins again this year. Instead of just doing orange ones we tried white pumpkins this year as well. They grew so much and we ran out of room so we kept piling the vines on top of each other and then we got a whole bunch of rain in August. Like every night for weeks it rained. Soon we found that the pumpkin vines got some fungus on them and were making the pumpkins rot. So we had to harvest them early and some of the pumpkins that would've grown bigger we had to throw away but we were able to save these ones. We are keeping them in our cold storage until October.
And just like that we're in school and going to piano, violin, soccer, basketball, horse lessons and activity days. Every day there is something going on and I love to watch my kids do what they love and are good at.
