First week of school, ice age birthday, and 14 jars of salsa!!

August 23, 2009
First week of school, ice age birthday, and 14 jars of salsa!!

Well, we started school this week and are getting back into our school routine and schedule. Seminary started on Thursday too. I like my classes so far this year. I hope I am not saying that prematurely.

Alayna loves 2nd grade and has a great teacher, Mrs. Farber. I attended a parent night for Alayna’s class and got to learn all about what she will learn this year. Then we saw Mrs Farber after at Walmart and we talked to her for 30 minutes. She is so sweet and down to earth. I just KNOW Alayna will have a great year.

When I asked Tyler how his first day went, he yelled “Awesome” and then jumped into his famous starfish pose. I really need to take a picture of that someday! His second day of school he ended up in the wrong class. Hopefully he will write about that funny story in his blog. He starts rehearsals for OPUS tomorrow.

Kayla seems to be enjoying 8th grade. She has a much harder math class though and now much more homework. She is excited to start on the volleyball team tomorrow. Plus, she gets her braces off in the next two weeks! Whoo-hoo!

Marisa has been driving us all over town. I have to admit she is getting very good. I still get nervous when she drives the van though- that car isn’t even a year old! She started seminary and is already working on music for all-state. It’s gonna be a very busy year for us all.

We celebrated Alayna’s 7th birthday with a sweet “Ice Age” party. She had some friends over and she opened presents, they watched a movie, they played outside, and we had cake and ice cream. When we were buying the decorations, I told her she could pick anything she wanted (meaning she could pick something that matched) So, she started hucking items into the cart: green tablecloth, grey square plates, grey napkins, spongebob cups, and blue and white streamers. I stunningly looked at her and said “Um, these don’t exactly go together” and she said “Hey, mom! You told me I could get anything I want cause its my birthday”. Touché! So, we got we she wanted and even I have to admit it turned out pretty adorable with her ice age cake. She said it was her best birthday ever and she loved it all. Whew!

Then, when all the party guests left, we started canning salsa. It took almost 4 hours and we made 14 big jars of homemade salsa (the onions, tomatoes, corn, and jalapeno peppers all grown in our garden) It was a massive family project, but I am pretty sure there was some bonding going on. We still have TONS of tomatoes so we will be canning diced tomatoes next weekend.