August goodness!

Summer is over, fall is beginning, here's what we did in August!

Lagoon

My kids have been wanting to go to Lagoon for a while now. We told them they had to help earn the money, so we took them weeding at Grandpa's house a few times, before I found a really great deal at a local dentist. They were offering one Lagoon season pass voucher with a new patient exam. I took the girls for exams, got our one-per-household season pass voucher, and then promptly sold it for enough to pay for two day passes. Then we decided to go on a Saturday evening when tickets were BOGO, and then we went back a few days later to use our $12 bounce back tickets! So yeah, our first family Lagoon trip(s) = success.

Gilgal Sculpture Gardens and International Peace Gardens

The International Peace Gardens are an old favorite for us, but the Gilgal Sculpture Gardens were a new place for us to visit this summer!

Psychedelic playroom

Yes, I replaced our playroom lightbulb with a blacklight and it. is. awesome. What do we do in there? Color with highlighters, put neon stickers on the wall, play with a glow in the dark/neon rice bin, play with the LiteBrite, play dominoes (they are white so they glow under the light!), and look at objects we've collected from around the house to see what glows best! Also listen to the Thursday Night Psych-Out on KRCL.

Ellison Park

If your kids constantly ask to go to Cherry Hill, or Seven Peaks, or the cool pirate ship splash pad at the Rec Center, but you are too cheap to take them, I have a great alternative for you! Ellison Park in Layton is the coolest FREE splash pad around. The secret is to get there early (water turns on at 9) because it starts getting really crowded after lunch. We went twice in August and stayed for three hours both times!

Summer of reading

Every season is the season of reading at our house. This summer we did three reading programs: Barns and Noble, our local library, and a reading bingo chart I printed up. We also read most of Fablehaven together (didn't quite finish it!!)

Pony rides at the county fair

We usually go to the county fair as a family, but this year we spent a fun afternoon there with the cousins. Tempe had fun talking to this very friendly boy working at the pony rides ;)

Cabin getaway

We love having a family cabin that we can go to when we need a little getaway!! 

Science projects

We didn't do as many science projects this summer, but this was a favorite (especially of Helena and Juno!) Vinegar, baking powder, glitter, food coloring, medicine droppers, and a funnel.

Lemonade stand

Something else on our summer bucket list: a lemonade stand! I "advertised" on Facebook and texted all my friends and our wonderful neighborhood really stepped up. We made $25 and sold out in an hour!!

End of summer family Disney dinner extravaganza!

This year our end of summer/back to school family dinner was DISNEY themed! I made Monte Cristo sandwiches, bacon wrapped asparagus, mint juleps, and PB graham cracker chocolate sandwiches. Jason and I gave each of the girls a "ticket" book with one-on-one dates with Mom and Dad and cute little buttons that we got at the SLC library store (Tempe's says "To read or not to read, that is never a question!" and Helena's says "I read banned books")

This year's theme is "The Happiest Place on Earth", meaning our home!

First day of school!

My cute girls on their first day of second and first grade!

We always have a giant cookie that says "Happy first day of school" to celebrate the new school year. This year, I had three extra kids with me for the first week! It was a fun, busy, kid-filled week at our house!

Big girl Pearl!

 Cute kid Helena!

Fix it Juno (and Braxton)

Juno had fun playing with her friend Braxton last week--here they are "fixing" their scooters with Juno's tool set.

Delicious-ness

Last weekend my awesome brother got married, yay! I spent down to Provo the night before the wedding to get my nails done with my sister and my new sister-in-law and then we went out to the trendiest place in Provo!

Mint lemonade....

... and chicken and waffles. Soooooo good. Really, so delicious.

And here we are at my brother's wedding!