august activities: the rest!

The boys wrapped up swimming lessons the first week of August, and again, I can't say enough good things about Jack's teacher! She was the sweetest and I love the pictures of the two of them running around the splash pad area. And a few more shots of the older boys jumping off the diving board, crazies.

One afternoon (while Chuck was gone) found us up at the school playground for a picnic and fun with Grandpa Braden and Cody. Such a great time! I love my dad and brother!!

Oh, also while Chuck was gone I got inspired by my amazing friend Jamie (instagram and etsy shop) who is an incredibly talented artist and incredibly energetic DIY-er and I fiiiinally did something with the dresser in Jack and Carma's room. I bought it off craigslist last year am so thrilled that it's done. It happened in parts - first I did it all white with just coral handles but that looked... bleh so I did the outside coral too. I still need to do something with the flower outlines (probably just trace it with coral too?) but don't hold your breath ;). Things I learned: get the expensive spray paint. Totally worth it. Also, put something UNDER the dresser if you spray paint on the driveway, not just in the garage (you know, where no one would see paint marks, duh).

I'm not entirely sure why I have these pictures of the kids eating but it miiight be as proof to Chuck that I fed them while he was gone?

 As always, we hit up the library a lot in August - and sometimes took friends along!

 Carma and Grandma Pam! Cute girls.

Chuck took all four kiddos to one of the bike parks one day while I... I don't know? napped hopefully?

 Jason arranged an awesome surprise for Grace's birthday - playing Clue dressed as all the characters! (then he, as Mr. Green, suspiciously won...) L to R in the group shot: Professor Plum, Mrs. White, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. Peacock, Mr. Green, and Miss Scarlet. We had a great time!

 Will was very intrigued by all the Clue talk so we ended up playing a lot in the next few days - in addition to other random games around the table during the month.

Sometimes Jack nurses his monkey and Carma's hair gets crazy. 

 Girls' night! Emily very sweetly hosted all of us (minus Nycole) in her hospital room where I'm pretty sure we freaked out every nurse that stopped by, first with our boisterous presence and second with our intense campaigning for better bathroom rights for Em (which it turns out we needed to take up with the doctor, whoops!). Also, I can't get over how cute Kara and I are just perched at the foot of the bed.

August = back to school! Will and I headed over to my mom's new classroom to help out a bit and we were highly productive minus the half hour we spent locked out of the school hahaha. Let the record show that prayers are answered and Heavenly Father cares about two grown women who watch a door close and then say to each other, "Do you have the keys???"

These next pictures were the day before school started and I guess Clyde and Will were trying to make me less sad about missing them? because they were AWFUL all day. Fighting, whining, blech. Yay for school!

And here they are, as cute as can be! Clyde started fourth grade with Miss Hill and Will began second grade with Mr. Eilers.  

 We sneaked in a bonus girls night to go back to the hospital and meet sweet Justus. I teared up immediately when we saw him in his little NICU bed (it was worth scalding my hands/arms for 120 seconds because I didn't know you could change the temperature of the hand-washing station water, whoops...).

  It was such a privilege to spend a few minutes close to Justus- Kara and I weren't even jealous that Paulina and Melinda got to be there longer and for his care routine! (that's a lie, I was jealous ;) ).

Once school started, it was back to just me and Carma and Jack during the day - luckily Clark made it over a few times to break up the monotony :). I love how Carma's looking/reaching through the slide ladder to get him.

Carma is my little night owl!

 Carma and Jack were very intent on helping me with the kitchen floor. I can't vouch for the whole room, but those two squares got REAL clean.

Oh man, one day I made a casual remark in Sunday School about having good intentions to someday firm up my arm muscles (aka acquire some arm muscles...) and the amazing Heather made me her personal service project haha. Her school didn't start until September, so she dutifully came over almost every day in August and made me work out and it was AWFUL, I mean awesome haha. I whined and cried and horrified her with my old CD's and frequent breaks and all in all we had a great time and it was gratifying to see how far I got in that time - like a little bit of definiton! I retired from working out at the end of the month buuuut it did provide some good groundwork for when I eventually dig deep and find the motivation to get a sweet bod. 

 The boys love biking home from school so we did that a couple times as a family. Let the record show that Chuck and I normally wear helmets but this time we awesomely forgot Clyde's and Will's and so they wore ours, whoops! Don't worry, we were super safe and didn't do anything dangerous like take pictures mid-ride. Oh wait... 

Oh, the last Sunday in August we marked the collegiate football season kickoff by wearing our best blue and orange! I'm not going to lie, the boys pretty much wear those exact outfits every week, Jack is possibly obsessed with that orange polo haha. 

And that was August!