Back to life, back to reality

We celebrated the end of summer with our annual family camping trip.  We went with our friends, the Kings, to Mt. Doom Lemmon where we camped last year.  There is a well known quote attributed to Einstein that goes "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."  I kind of feel like we need to quit camping during monsoon season because we keep getting the same result- rain!

We got to the campground and snagged some perfect spots from a group who was leaving.  They were right by the bathrooms (key when camping with 7 small children) and next to a tiny stream.  We set up camp and as we got out lunch, ominous thunder began.  Here we are, in the middle of the forest in this huge thunder/lightening storm.  Yeah I felt safe.  Not.  Thankfully the rain held off until we finished lunch, but then it began to pour.  WE all got good naps in the tent, but it rained and rained all afternoon.  We ventured out to the pond to fish, but you can see the rain on the lake in the picture.  Eventually the rain petered out,though, and we were able to have a somewhat dry dinner and smores.  The kids had a great time!  They loved puddling around in the little stream by our camp and hiking the hill on the other side.  Ellie and her buddies from the King family made a "house" in and by the stream.  I was a little disturbed when I discovered that they had a "toilet," a little pit dug in the stream because according to Ellie "The bathroom smells".  I told her next time not to put her toilet upstream of the rest of her "house".  :) 

My mom and brother Joseph came down for a quick visit.  I love it when family comes to visit- I feel like I miss out on a lot of family fun being away from everyone down here.  We had a great time together and spent a lot of time in the pool enjoying our last week before school started for the kids.

Back to school!  Ellie started 3rd grade with Ms. Tatum.  She was nervous to go to a new school since here K-2 goes to primary school, and 3-5 goes to intermediate school.  At Meet the Teacher she discovered that a bunch of her friends from our street are in her same class, so that helped her feel better.

Leah and Joseph had their first week of preschool last week- this is them on the first day.  They were so excited to go and had a great time!

Amari started dance last week- she is doing pre-ballet.  She is living my childhood dream for me- I always wanted ballet lessons as a kid but I'm guessing that wasn't an option in the little town I grew up in.  She was so excited to dress up in her leotard and skirt and be a ballerina!

While I was stuck in the dentist office for a cavity (boo!) I was looking through a Martha Stewart Living magazine and I saw a cute ides for a clipboard wall to easily display art.  Now that we have three preschoolers, we have art projects everywhere so I thought it looked like a good idea.  Our dollar store had clipboards, so with a little blue paint left over from another project I had a quick and easy project that works great!  Now I can rotate out their work and our fridge is a little more under control.