First Days of School

Gavin and Avery both started school on August 14th this year! Gavin is now in First Grade and Avery is doing online preschool through Waterford. Gavin enjoyed his first week of school. He now has three different teachers that he switches to each day and he has his own locker!

We got to enjoy a visit from a praying mantis and the kids really enjoyed watching it move around. It was hanging out at our back door for a while.

One day when Gavin was in his gymnastics class, I took Avery over to jiu-jitsu to do a class. They were paired up with another kid and they were supposed to pull their partner's flag and prevent their own from being taken. Avery was not as quick as her opponent!

On another day at jiu-jitsu, they were paired up again and started by sitting with their backs against their partner. Then they were supposed to turn around quick and pin their partner. This time Avery was with someone her age and similar in size.

And here is Gavin and his partner doing the same exercise.

We pulled a magnetic game from the basement yesterday and Avery was very proud of her sculpture, so here she is posing with it.

This morning we went for a family bike ride to the playground and found that the new playground they have been working on for months is finally open!

That is all we have for now!

End of Summer Fun

Our last week of Summer was filled with fun activities! We went to the splash pad one day - but I only have a picture of Gavin. The water was pretty cold, so Avery wasn't too excited about getting wet.

Mr. G got a haircut so he would be ready for school.

The kids entertained themselves by doing different dances to the theme music from Gavin's Mario Lego figure.

We also had the kids try out a couple new classes - Brazilian Jiujitsu and a kickboxing class.

Here is Gavin with his partner learning one of the moves to get someone from the floor.

Here's a video showing both kids practicing the same move with their partners. Avery is in the background with her partner. The kids were matched according to height.

For the kickboxing class, they had several exercises they did to warm-up. Here is a quick video of them doing pushups.

And here they are trying out some of the punches.

This next move was supposed to be a couple punches and then a spinning back kick. Definitely a difficult move to coordinate!

We also spent a day at the Children's Museum. The kids got to climb through the beehive.

Gavin created a floral arrangement.

Gavin cooked up some dinner and they both got busy in the construction zone.

Avery also got to work on some car repairs.

Gavin created a dam to redirect the water and then both kids took over the rescue helicopter.

Next up was the dinosaur dig! Avery got busy uncovering bones while Gavin transported them to the lab.

We moved on to another area where they got to try out balance boards.

They had a great Summer and now they a ready for school to start! Gavin starts on 8.14 and Avery will be doing online preschool this year!

More Summer Fun

Avery started getting a Koala Crate for her birthday and her first crate was all about bugs! So she got to make her own bug wings and antenna.

She has also received a Koala Crate with a Pirate theme! So she made and decorated her own pirate hat, eye patch, and parrot!

Then we enjoyed storytime with a Princess at the library.

We went to the Clark Planetarium one day with some friends and enjoyed the different exhibits.

We also took the kids bowling for the first time!! They earned a free bowling game from the summer reading program, so we had them try it out.

Gavin enjoyed four full days of Summer Camp at the Natural History Museum in SLC. He was there from 9am to 4pm each day and got to do construction projects, like building with straws, toothpicks, gumdrops, etc. He also did Space projects like making a sun from playdough, making an earth from playdough, with all the layers, he did the phases of the moon using an Oreo cookie and a solar system with chain links and paper. Here is a pic of his earth cut in half to see the middle layers.

Here he is on the last day of camp wearing the shirt he got from his Summer Camp!

A park near us received new playground equipment recently, so we checked that out one day too!

That's all we have for now!! Gavin will be starting back to school next week, so we have filled this week with different activities to keep both kids occupied! Hope you are enjoying your summer!