Sponge bombs!

I finally got around to making these sponge bombs I saw on pinterest.  You cute up sponges, tie the strips together, and they make some awesome little sponge balls that are like reusable water balloons.  The kids had a BLAST!

Matt came home and agreed to be a human target.  At first all the throws went totally wide, but by the end Isabel was getting some totally solid hits from that distance.

Aaaaand, dunking their heads in the bucket to be like their cousins at the cabin.

 

It was a totally fun and enjoyable afternoon!

Oliver's eating!

With food comes great straining.  This poor guy grunted and squirmed for about 20 minutes straight through his dinner of sweet potatoes before getting the offending material out.  He's not crying in this picture, just grunting and straining.

And the aftermath of the experience.  Sweet potatoes all around.  He's actually been eating solids for over a week, but I just now got around to taking a picture of him.  3rd child syndrome, I suppose.  He's done really well and can eat about 1/4 C or more at each meal. Once he downed 1.5 bananas, so he can get going when he enjoys it.

 

He loves bananas, carrots, and sweet potatoes.  Not a fan of applesauce (none of my kids have been as babies), peas, and pears gave him a rash.  Go figure.  But I'm crossing my fingers that the solids are helping him sleep longer at night.  Although its probably more due to my strict enforcing of a regular nap schedule for the last 2 weeks.  He has had 2 nights where I haven't fed him for 10-11 hours!  He still woke up in that time, but cried only 5-10 minutes and never got to the all-out mad screaming that was normal every night up until now.  I would keep telling myself that if he really screamed, then I would go get him.  But then I'd fall back asleep because he was never that loud, so I guess he never got to that point.  I REALLY hope it's not a fluke!!!!!!!

Swimming videos

Notice Elliot just holds his breath and lets the current push him to where I'm waiting. Floaties weren't allowed, but he REALLY wanted to do the slide. So he just did that over and over and over. It was awesome. For Isabel, I was just the relay station. She would swim to me from the bottom of the slide, then I would help her change direction and head toward the wall.

Phone photo dump

 Off to Red Robin for my annual birthday burger.  I was realizing as we sat there that it had been exactly 1 year since we ate there last.  However, seeing how cheap their kids' meals were ($3.99! That's the same price as a Happy Meal these days) we might venture out there with the kids more often.  They have also tried to class up the joint, with new plates and fry baskets.  The menu was completely overhauled as well.  Not sure what I thought about it...I'm of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school of thought.

 Last day of summer before Isabel started school.  We went to a pretty fun outdoor pool and Matt studied while Oliver napped and I got to play with the big kiddos.  Isabel has really improved in her swimming this summer and can go about 10 yards without help.  Technically, she can go farther because she has now learned how to actually take breaths while swimming, but she tires out really quickly because she's not efficient yet.  I hope she can continue to improve!  I was really impressed with Elliot.  He kept wanting to work on floating on his back without my help.  It was really brave of him and I was proud.  I'll post some videos of them swimming in another post.

Getting ready to blow out my 3-0 candles.  We had some friends over to celebrate on Saturday night and had a good time.  Oh, Friday  night after Red Robin we also got some Coldstone and then came home and watched 13 Going on 30 in honor of it being my 30th birthday.  That's a cute movie, and after watching the entire series of Alias, I just love Jennifer Garner.

We had a big Saturday purge in the garage.  Here is all the stuff off the shelves and beginning to be sorted.  The worst was a bag of fertilizer/grass seed stuff that a mouse must have dug into while looking for food because it had exploded all over a bottom shelf and was seriously a huge mess.

And here is the finished product!!!!  So clean and organized!

Here is my birthday gift!  Matt got himself a road bike and after hearing his tales of how fast he could go and how fun it was, I decided I needed one as well.  Ignore the Livestrong pants...they were some hand-me-downs from Tom & Tracey and we have since ordered some new padded biking shorts so that we don't earn the evil eye of everyone on the road.  I'm really excited about the bike because it is actually my correct size!  My mountain bike I've ridden for the last 14 years has a really big frame for some reason (maybe I thought I was still going to keep growing at 16 when I bought it...you know, like you used to buy shoes 1 size bigger than you needed so you could grow into them? I continued to do that through high school until I finally realized I wasn't growing anymore and my shoes were all too big...) Anyway, this is the correct sized frame for my height and it's so much easier to ride!

I couldn't decide between a tres leches cake and a vanilla peach bundt cake with peach soaking syrup.  So I made both.  It was yummy to eat and then the next day was a ward potluck linger longer, so I just took all the leftovers to church and got rid of them that way!

My watch is so nice...birthday cake on my birthday. :)

 

Lastly, we went shopping while Elliot was at a birthday party.  I told Isabel to bring some of her own money so that she could pick out something to help her not be so jealous of missing the birthday party.  My own shopping was a bust.  I found a dress that I really liked there in the dressing room, but when I came home to try it on for Matt, it just didn't fit the same.  It's a case of the Elaine's, I guess (Seinfeld reference...).  BUT Isabel picked out this cutie.  When she showed it to me, I was not impressed, but told her to try it on for me while I was trying on my own.  Turns out it was adorable and frankly, I want one myself. :)  

First Day of School--1st Grade

 Isabel started 1st Grade on August 6th.  She was actually accepted to a different charter school during the summer, but we decided to keep her at GVA.  Although this other school was ranked VERY highly on greatschools.org, there were a few concerns about it (farther away, more expensive, no language instruction, etc.) When it came down to it, after much prayer and consideration, we just felt that she needed to stay at GVA and that was fine with her because, as she told me later, she didn't want to go to a different school!  She liked GVA! :)

 I was sooooooooooooooooooooo lucky to meet a woman on the 4th of July community party that I recognized from GVA.  We exchanged contact info to discuss a potential carpool when school started.  When I called her again, it turned out that she got a full-time testing job at GVA and so for the first 2 months of school she would be going anyway...so if I dropped Isabel off at her house in the morning (only 5 minutes away) then she would take Isabel to school and drop her off at our house after school!  No more 1.5 hours of commuting every morning!  When she takes a break from testing (7 weeks before she re-starts with the winter testing) then we'll just trade off driving.  I'm hoping to take the kids in the mornings since we are already getting out the door to take Isabel to her house, and then hopefully she'll pick them up in the afternoon since it's right when Oliver is napping.  But it's been so great!!!!

 Elliot couldn't resist being in a picture as well.  He sure was missing her that entire first day.

O cries from yelling

Poor kiddo!  He does NOT like Matt rising his voice, even just a little bit!  Here he is getting desolate from Matt saying "We're where you go potty!"  We had been playing hide and seek and Matt was trying to give Elliot a clue to where he was hiding with Oliver.  But Oliver was NOT a fan.  So adorably sad!

Oliver Jumping

Proof of how much Oliver LOVES to jump

Oliver at 5 months

I really need to get out the good camera and get a decent picture of Oliver right now.  Maybe tomorrow...

Anyway, Oliver is the cutest little kiddo right now.  Here are some things about him at 5 months:

*LOVES his bouncer.  Like REALLY LOVES his bouncer.  He will do it for over an hour without fussing.  He spent our entire Idaho trip trying to bounce on our laps.

*Still struggling with night time sleep.  He's apparently getting enough because he's so sweet, happy, and cute during the day.  He just turns into a little demon at night.  Still waking up every 2-3 hours, even though I make him go 5-6 hours before I go nurse him back to sleep.  The frustrating thing is that after he nurses between 3-4 am, he'll sleep until 8 am or later without waking up, showing me he CAN sleep longer than 3 hours without eating, but it doesn't do me any good since the other kids get me up earlier no matter what.  I'm hoping with Isabel starting school tomorrow that we'll get on a much stricter napping schedule and that will regulate everything.  All our traveling and fun activities this summer has made it impossible to have a consistent nap schedule.  Oh well, we've just been having too much fun!

*Just follows me with his eyes, all around the room.  The second I glance in his direction, he just dissolves into ginormous smiles and tries to get me to come flirt back to him.  Melts my heart, every. single. time.

*Very interested in our eating, following our food with his eyes, trying to grab it when on our lap, and loves trying to drink sips of water from my cups.  I'm torn between starting him on solids now or waiting til after 6 months when some studies have shown the risk of food allergies is reduced when solids are introduced after 6 months.  On the flip side, we are participating in the Oyster in 3 weeks and I want him to be comfortable with solids so that the poor baby sitter has some chance of filling his tummy since he won't take a bottle. 

*Very proficient at front/back rolling.  Will roll across the room when the mood takes him.

*Enjoys playing with toys.  Loves to chew and gum everything.

*Chews and gums EVERYTHING.  Loves to have his gums rubbed with strong pressure.  No teeth yet, but really loves having something in his mouth, regardless.

*Still not a huge bath fan.  But that works for me.

*Cutest kiddo in the world...

Elliotisms

-sometimes when I sleep I have movies in my eyes. 

-my laughs are all run out. I have to wait until tomorrow to get more.