Cautiously Optimistic

     The girls totally rocked it at the dentist office. No cavities for either of them! That's something we can smile about!

   Lydia was so intensely excited for her first day of first grade. Her first day picture looks a little different this year but we are cautiously optimistic that she'll be able to stay in school all year. About two weeks into the year there's only been two reported cases of COVID so far, we'll take that. She picked out five cute tie dye masks and wears a different one every day. She doesn't complain about them thankfully but is always glad to rip them off when I pick her up. This morning she told me, "Mom, none of my friends have ever seen my face! Except when I take a drink. Then I try and smile at everyone real quick." She takes a water bottle to school because drinking fountains are closed. She has a small class because there's many students taking the online class option or doing their own homeschool. It's been a different start but I'm just grateful she's able to go. 

  The Husky mascot was there to greet everyone on the first day.

  It's been different with just Allie and Hudson home during the day. For the first few days Allie kept asking where Lydia was. We've been having fun either riding our bikes to the park or going on a fun adventure to the River Trail or up the canyon. It's been really fun to have more one on one time with Allie.

We love Thursday night tennis! Allie has been getting more into it the past couple weeks and it's been fun to see. 

  We try and keep Hudson is his stroller as long as possible because when he's out, he's non stop. 

Allie wanted me to take a picture of her being a unicorn.

  We went and watched Dad and Lindsay perform at Food Truck Friday for Trout and Berry Days weekend. They did so well, it's always so fun to hear their harmonies. We got some yummy chicken and fries from the food truck. 

Of course most of the time was spent chasing this guy all over. He never sits and subsequently, neither do we. 

  This is what he looked like afterwards. Dirt mixed in with blood after he got whacked by the tire swing.

  Although there were no booths or trout scramble this year, they still had the parade! The kids got more candy than Halloween. It was so fun! This year Dad and Linds drove tractors in the parade. There's Grandpa!

And Linds!

The cute crew! Logan, Aaron, Atticus, Lydia, Livy and Allie. Hudson was strapped in his stroller on the side.

  Allie has been loving her stuffed animals of late. She loves to cuddle all of them at once.

  The other day Mom and I took Allie and Hudson to the park up Blacksmith Fork canyon. I hadn't been there in years, it was really fun. It was so shady and had a fun stream the kids splashed in.

  My mom snapped this pics while Allie and I were at her preschool open house. Good thing he's cute!

  Sunday we took the kids and biked the River Trial. It was such a nice afternoon and the kids had fun climbing these trees at the end.

 Hudson's favorite part of the week is watching the garbage truck come.

Firefly Park is our favorite to bike to.

  Wednesday was Allie's first day of Preschool with Ms. Liz! She was so excited and had a great time. I stayed and watched Max, Liz's boy and Hudson. It's a bit of a rodeo trying to keep them both out of trouble and out of Liz's hair but it's also nice for Hudson to have a friend to play with. Or mostly to practice sharing with. I'll stay at Liz's to watch them until she can hire a helper. Turns out she has 14 kids instead of 8 like she planned so it was a little crazy but I think with time everyone will get into a good routine. Allie loved it and said her favorite part was having marshmallows for snack. 

  Lately I've been worried I haven't been teaching the kids enough about working hard and helping out. So I made what we have dubbed, The Family Economy. I made the girls a chart of ten tasks they have to accomplish during the day, each worth one point. I've split the house into four zones and assigned a chore for each zone. Once they accomplish a task they can have me check it off. If they receive 45 or more points during the week, they get paid their age minus tithing. It's been working beautifully the past few weeks and my hope is to also teach money management.

Allie completing her zone chore of vacuuming the kitchen floor.

Instead of giving Lydia cash, we found this cool App called BusyKid. It comes with her own Debit card that can be loaded with money by us through the app. We figured since Debit cards are used the majority of the time it would be good to teach her how to use one. She's really excited about it and we love the convenience. Allie earns as many quarters as her age and we decided to keep it that way until she's five or six. 

Welcome to the family, Smurfy! Our almost nine year old vacuum bit the dust last Saturday so we had to get a new one. I'm so in love with everything about it. I guess you know you're old when you get crazy excited about a new vacuum. Here's to hoping it will last at least another nine years.