Aug Misc. Pictures

Bentley's New Season with AYSO United

We went back and forth this year about keeping Bentley playing up a division on the same team with AYSO United, or moving down to the AYSO team that was his age group.  At the end of the day, he decided to stick with the boys he knew and to take on the challenge of continuing to play up a division, moving onto full size fields, with 11 v 11 players.  He is tough and brave and better at this game than he knows!  I'm proud of him for facing his insecurities about being young and small, and I hope he discovers more this year all that he is capable of!

I love watching this boy play.  He is fast, and he is smart and intuitive with the game, and strategic in playing the field.  He is very coachable, and a fast learner, and he really is an asset to his team.  I hope this year he will continue to gain confidence in himself as a player and not get too much in his head.  He is, for sure, his biggest competitor.  Soccer has helped him learn so many good lessons, and I'm grateful for his commitment to it.  Let's go Bentley, and let's go United!!

Triple Trouble

Triple the fun and triple the sass!  These three besties, Olive, Magnolia, and Harper Sego are like three peas in a pod.  These three are finally in the same class and they are over the moon to be together at school all day every day.  Thank you in advance, Mrs. Fox, for your patience and love for this blob of energy!

 

Visiting the Telephone Museum

We've only been back in school for a couple weeks, but it's never too early to get started on those darn projects!  This year, Olive's social studies project is first and she will be teaching about Alexander Graham Bell and his telephone invention.   So we thought it would be perfect to make a Monday field trip visit to the local Telephone Museum.   We were the only patrons there that day, so we had a one on one tour guide take us through the history of the phone.  It was also very fun to have grandma join us!

It was very informative, and took us through the journey of the beginning phone, to switchboards, to rotary phones, all the way to cell phones, and everything in between.  It was fun watching the kids learn to dial the rotary phone especially.  It was actually quite fascinating to learn about all the amazing ways they made that communication style work!

They all got to practice being telephone operators and connecting phone calls by moving the wires from one port to another.  They couldn't believe that used to be many peoples real jobs long ago.

It was a very fun and informative field trip, and it definitely got Olive and I a little more excited to put together her project and teach her peers.   I am very grateful for homeschool Mondays, and our fun outings!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Happy, happy birthday, grandpa dear!  We are so happy to live near and be able to see grandparents daily.  What a fun life we live!   It was a good day to celebrate grandpa and to give him lots of thanks for all that he does for us.

Erin made him a very delicious and beautiful birthday cake.

And grandpa was happy to have lots of little grandkids around to help him share that yummy cake.  We hope he had a great day, and we are grateful for another wonderful year to celebrate him in our family!

Ward Campout

This year the ward held an over night campout at a cool campground just about an hour from our house.  It was the perfect opportunity for our family to be outdoors, and enjoy the company of ward friends, but at bedtime, Eden and I could drive home and sleep in our own beds.  The kids loved sleeping in a tent and then waking up to friends to run around with in the morning.  Thanks for taking that one for the team Brad!

The girls and their friends collected so many sticks and built some really cool "fairy houses".  They even decorated them with flowers and make them pretty.  I was pretty blown away by how much they accomplished in just about 24 hours!

There was a big bonfire Friday night with lots of smores and funny jokes and stories.  I'm grateful for all these good people.

There was also a big open field next to the tent sites where Bentley was able to play a lot of football with the boys and young men.  He too had a blast, though we were never able to capture him in a photos - he was there!  
 

Crunch Labs

Every month Bentley gets a new project from Crunch Labs which has been a really fun subscription box.  He watches a video that teaches him the science and physics behind how and why things work, and then he builds some kind of fun toy.  It's been really cool to see the engineer come out in him, and then all the funny games he can teach his sisters.

Crunch Labs for the win!

 

Hello Big Boy

 Bentley was getting his backpack prepped for school one morning and noticed this new note taped to the side of his backpack.  It says, "Hello Big Boy."  Eden had played this funny prank on him, and despite his face, he thought her super random note was actually quite hilarious.  He was just glad he discovered it and didn't go to school where someone might have seen it!! 

ha ha - that was funny Eden!

Making Freezer Jam with the Bogopane Family

The Bogopane's had some of our freezer jam at dinner and Bo requested to be part of our next jam making session so they could learn along side us. We were happy to have all the extra helpers and it was fun to expand the assembly line!  Sadly, Kristin ended up going out of town the weekend we had all the fruit purchased, but we were happy to have the rest of their family join us for a fun afternoon jam session.

As we were getting all the supplies ready, we thought it was cute that Bentley was leading a different kind of "jam" session around the piano.  They were singing as he played.  It was so cute!

Then we got the jam factory rolling!  This year we expanded our variety and made strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, and mixed berry.  

Bo and Brielle, along with Karly and Olive, were excellent helpers and we had quite the team busting through those jars!

Meanwhile, the boys were hard at work on their video game.  They had zero interest in the jam making fun going on in the kitchen behind them.  I'm glad they had each other too.

It was a successful and fun day!  The Bogopane's went home with lots of jam and all the experience necessary to start their own tradition!   And our freezer is full again too, and we have surprisingly really loved the blackberry!  I think that one will become a regular!