A Pocketful of Happenings

It has been quite some time since I have been able to sit down and document the happenings here at Gray Manor. Since we last left you school has started for Paige and Megan and Haley. At the last minute I was able to find another wonderful preschool teacher - who actually lives in the ward- and Megan and Haley have started their second year of preschool. They love it already although their pictures say otherwise. Megan and Haley started on Monday August 4th and every day since wake up asking if it is a school day today. Paige started school two days later - yeah! we made it to Second Grade! She has a wonderful teacher, Ms. Orona, whom Paige declares is much nicer than Miss Hogue. So school has started and we are off to a good start. Routines begin again after a long summer break and it is getting somewhat quiet around here again. -- But wait, what was I thinking ... Paige and Nathan both had birthdays this week. Nathan has turned 3 and Paige is 7. It is very hard to believe that just 3 short years ago we were having birthday celebrations in a hospital room. So much has happened and my little ones are growing up. Nathan declared that he wanted a Scooby doo cake and party - so after 2 1/2 hours decorating his cake that's just what we had. Everyone wore Scooby doo masks and we ate ribs (no bones for these dogs). Nathan up until now keeps telling us he is 6 years old, well today we finally got "No mom, it's my birthday, now I am 3 today." One day we will learn how to count, maybe. After a round of pin the collar on Scooby and some yummy cake and ice cream we opened presents then quickly cleaned up and got ready for Paige's birthday. Paige decided this year we would not swim but have a pretend sleep over party instead. I completely over planned but I think the girls had fun anyway. I love having all the girls over, it reassures me that my children are normal. 5 of Paige's friends came over to help us celebrate dressed in pajama's with sleeping bags and pillows in tow. We made some over the top flip flop slippers complete with beads and fake fur! Huge hit once they were finally finished. Then after pizza, cake (decorated like Paige's PJ's), and rootbeer floats, the girls showered Paige with some fantastic gifts and all settled down to play "Disney Scene It". My goodness it's amazing how loud 7 girls can get playing a simple little game. It was fun to listen to them guess the answers and cheer when they got the correct answer. They were having so much fun they forgot about the movie until 15 minutes before parents came to pick up the girls. So they watched a little bit of the show while doing make up and hair on each other - did I mention these were all 7 year olds?! I swear listening to them I could almost close my eyes and think I was listening to teenagers! Yikes! But all in all I think they had a fun time. Paige already has plans for next year's party - heaven help us.

Now that this is all over maybe things will slow down a little bit, but wait, wrong again. Next week it is Jeff's and my 9th anniversary and then soon after we will be off to California for a 1/2 marathon and then to Las Vegas for a baptism, and then Wendy's baby is due and, and, and ... just think of all the funs posts to come if I can keep up! These last few pictures are from Megan and Haley's preschool Build A Bear party they had on Friday. Although the pictures don't show it, they did have a lot of fun and talked about it all day afterwards. (You know my children - not born to be photographed happy ever!)