Back to School and Micah’s Birthday Surprise

Summer break always ends too fast! Come on – we are going back to school way too early in August. We were all excited for the meet the teacher night. Jackson is in second grade and has Mrs. Long. Lacey is in Kindergarten and has Mrs. Carpenter. That was a fun night, but reality sets in about a week after school starts and although school creates a simple regimen to life, I’m still not convinced that I like it. I know, I’ve been fighting this battle since I was 5 🙂 Jackson seems happy and is doing very well in his class this year. Lacey is doing fine, but doesn’t want to go most days. She has become pretty attached to me, which is sweet, but hard for school every day. I love that she is in half day this year. I’m grateful this is still an option here. Usually sports would have started about this same time but because we were trying to cut back a little with Micah starting his own business and we needed a little break from the busy-ness of life, we decided to only do “Let’s Play Music” classes for this semester for Jackson, Lacey, and Rachelle. It has been heaven! I love watching Jackson play sports and to give all my kids opportunities to learn new things, but really when you get home from school at 4:00, do homework, maybe have a few minutes to play, dinner, baths, bedtime comes quickly! So this has been a positive thing for us to take a break from extras this semester, with very few complaints.

For Micah’s birthday, I was feeling like we needed a quick get away. Neither of us had been sleeping very well and I thought a night away would be good. It was! Thanks to Steve, Krista, and Lincoln for taking everyone for the night! I felt especially bad about it after I found out that Krista was having morning sickness! Poor thing. Thank you so much for letting us get away for a night! So I booked us a hotel in Scottsdale, worked out babysitters, and I was sure Micah was on to me. I’ve NEVER been able to surprise him with anything. He would rather have the thrill of figuring out what I’m getting for him than be ‘surprised.’ Anyway, I was trying to decide how to let the kids in on the secret, so they understood with out them telling Micah. The night before I think I let Jackson in on the secret and I think I let Lacey know the day of. Of course she was blabbing about it the second I told her, but she said all the wrong things and Micah didn’t understand what she was talking about. I slyly packed our bag, and finally about 30 minutes before Krista and Steve came over I let Lacey tell the secret! Micah was totally confused! It was funny to see his reaction. We had a relaxing night and came back refreshed! We made a fun b-day cake for Micah’s birthday and celebrated with the kids later that night. Happy Birthday – we’re getting old!

The big movie

Micah and Jackson decided to have some fun one Sunday and create a video. We love the kid history movies – if you haven’t seen them yet, they are pretty entertaining stories that grown men/brothers/friends told to their kids about their childhood. Then they had the kids retell the stories and they acted the stories their kids told.  Anyway, this is sort of a long the same lines except just a story Jackson made up! They sure had a great time making it! Without further ado…

Happy Birthday Micah!

For Micah’s  b-day he got a castle cake… we were actually just trying it out on him, because My sister and I are  making one for my nieces b-day, so we wanted to make sure we could do it. Micah had one request though – he didn’t want it to be a “princess” castle. So we made it with chocolate frosting instead of pretty white and pink! We will be using some nicer things for the windows and accessories for the real princess cake, but this was definitely a good run through. Thanks for the two artists who came to help me build this cake (Tim and Robyn).  Needless to say, we have plenty of cake leftover. “There’s some in the refrigerator, there’s more in the garage… the rest is at the Johnsons.” I think Micah had a good birthday… I think you know you’re getting older when you start getting things that you need as your gifts (i.e – money for new shoes, a fan for work, etc) instead of all those fun toys you can think of! Jackson, Lacey and I had a great day celebrating Micah’s b-day. They loved the streamers and sign, and then we got pizza for lunch. We also had lots of visitors come over to play – so it really was a party for us! Happy Birthday Micah!

The last picture is of Jackson and some of the things that he’s done in school. He loves school!