Preschool September

Preschool is going great! Brooklyn wants to go every day and if it isn't a preschool day she will ask if I will do preschool for her. Since all of the kids in her class live in the neighborhood we end up walk together and it is the cutest thing as they chat, hold hands, and follow each other. Each week we focus on a bible story and this particular week was Noah's ark so they did animal poses.  It's fun to see on our group Facebook page what they do on the weeks that I'm not teaching.

Loveland Living Aquarium

There is a big ol' billboard advertising the baby penguins that were born at the Loveland Living Aquarium that is about a mile from the exact near our house.  Every time we go past it (which is at least once a day) Brooklyn says "I wanna go see the baby penguins!".
So she has been working to earn stickers on a chart to be able to see the penguins.  She filled up her chart and so we went.
It was awesome! We loved watching the penguins swim, the turtles, petting a sting ray and starfish, watching the sharks, etc.

Payson Onions Day Parade

There are lots of little parades around here that the little towns have to celebrate their towns.  My friend from high school, Kendy Young Button, and I recently reconnected and got our families together for the Payson Onions Day parade.  We ran into a classmate of Thomas' and his family and we all had a really good time. One of our fave parts of the parade was when they threw out popsicles!
Afterwards the Buttons and ourselves went up Payson Canyon to hike Grotto falls and have a picnic lunch.
I'm so glad that so many old friends live in this area!

6th Wedding Anniversary

Thomas and I just celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary! I woke up that morning to a beautiful bouquet of flowers waiting for me on the dining room table.
That afternoon we went as a family to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point where it was the last day of a summer long event called the Seven Wonders of the World balloon sculptures.  Balloon artists would come in and make big sculptures our of balloons of the different seven wonders of the world.  They were having a contest and if you tagged a picture of yourself on instagram with one of the sculptures using a certain hashtag  then you were entered to win a free year long family membership.  It was our lucky day because we won! We have a membership thanks to my padres but will hopefully be able to tack the new one onto our current membership.
That evening we had a babysitter for Brooklyn and Thomas and I went to the Provo Temple and then out to dinner at The Art City Trolley, one of our fave restaurants nearby.  We then had time before we had told the babysitter we would be back so we went and browsed around the mall without a child! Simple and fun day.

Brittani's Wedding!

One of my very best friends Brittani got married this month!! I got to be one of her bridesmaids and loved it! Her bachelorette party we did at a pottery painting studio called Color Me Mine.  It was the perfect place to do a fun activity and chat.  I didn't get a single picture from the studio!
Afterwards we headed to sushi at a nearby restaurant.
The night before the wedding Carrie Truman and I stayed at Brittani and Chris' and helped a bit and the next morning was go time.  Britt and I's roomie at BYU-I Tess came into town from Boise and it was so great seeing her.
Congrats Britt and Chris!! (The wedding pics are mostly screenshots from the photographers website).

Park City Flying All Stars

One weekend this month we went up to Park City to the Olympic Training Park.  They put on a show called the flying all stars where some past Olympic skiers and Olympic hopefuls put on a show going off jumps into the water.  Amazing what these athletes can do! They also have a climbing wall over the water and a professional rock climber showed off how to climb that. After the show we went to the outlets there and did a little back to school shopping for Brooklyn.

First Week of Preschool

Brooklyn started her first week of preschool this past week! She has been asking about preschool for months so we were both happy when it was finally time.  We are doing a preschool co-op with four other families in our neighborhood this year.  We rotate hosting and planning the lessons from the online curriculum we are following and this first week was my turn.  I loved being able to plan lessons again and get into teacher mode.
Coincidently we have all girls in our group and they are a fun group.
This week we focused on the number zero, the colors black, blue and white, the story of the creation, and the book "The Five Little Ducks".
Some of our activities included:
Making homemade ice cream. Acting out The Five Little Ducks
A game of "putting out the fire" using sidewalk chalk and sponges with water. Blowing puff balls with a straw to the corresponding color of paper.