Back to School

 The kids were pretty excited to go back to school! Bentley is in grade 5 and has Mrs. Dixon this year, with Maddie, Presley, Penny and Jersey in her class. Deacon is in grade 3 and got a new teacher, Mrs. Anderson, with Spencer and Anders in his class. Leo got to go to Red Deer Lake school this year for Grade 1 with Mrs. Felske. He has Hayes and Cruz in his class and is so excited to be going to the same school as his siblings. He fit in right away! The kids all got pretty lucky in their classes, minus Bentley complaining about how her teacher turns the temp way down in her class (which eventually was solved!). 

Boston started preschool this year at the Leap 'n 'Learn in Walden. He goes every Tuesday and Thursday for 3 hours in the morning. His teachers are Mrs. Shannon and Miss Boots. He was pretty happy to go there, but there are days where he doesn't want to go. He is getting used to it though and it's nice to have a few hours to myself (which I mostly fill with going to F45). 

It's always so crazy to see how fast these kids just keep growing up! I added their school photos to this post and can we all agree that preschool photos are the cutest things ever?!!

The rest of Summer

When we weren't at the cabin this summer, we were busy finding different activities, going to a wedding, play dates, and camps.

We took a trip to the Vulcan pool, which we had never been to before. It's only an hour drive, which is well worth it when you don't have much else to do! The pool had 2 big slides, different depths of pools, a kid area, splash pad, and hot tub. We went with the Bennett's and had lots of fun! We also went to Calaway Park with the Bennett's and Gallups one day and pretty much stayed from opening to closing. The kids did plenty of rides and snacked on dip n dots and beavertails. Boston wasn't feeling so brave and would only go on rides where he could sit on my lap. Leo needed me to come on the log ride with him, so the only way was to also take Boston. I knew he wouldn't love it, but was hoping for forgiveness! It was a really good day. 

I took the boys to Monster mini golf one day, where we golfed and played at the arcade and it was a lot of fun. I also took all the kids to the Saskatoon farm so we could pick saskatoon berries and make scones, but we also ate breakfast there this time and it was delicious!

Bentley got really into baking this summer. She is so good at it! She can make cookies all by herself now, and I am loving every second of it. I had to bring a dessert to a family gathering and asked her if she could make it. I gave her the recipe for a "blueberry coffee cake" (with no coffee by the way) and she did it all on her own! I was amazed. She tried doing homemade Oreo cookies and did a great job. I decided to put her in a baking camp at Lambert Academy. She went all day for a full week and made an adorable bee cake, cinnamon buns, pizza, and pie. They were all so well done and she had a great time, until the last day when she was tired, but she made it through! She had a bunch of friends come for 2 of the days. Deacon went to a basketball camp that Griffin put on in his backyard. He was trying to make some money and decided to get a few boys Deacon's age and do some drills and games with them. I got Spencer and Anders to come one day, and he had a lot of fun.  

We also hit up Snowy Village a few times and rode our bikes a lot (especially Leo). Boston loves riding in his stroller to the park. We've been to lots of different parks this summer! We also went to Cross Iron Mills one day to do our final school shopping, mostly for shoes. We took the chance to also go to Deacon's favorite place - the Bass Pro Shop. Boston found lots of boats to sit in. 

Mason got home from his mission on August 13th so we went to the airport to welcome him home. We brought signs and had a good time seeing him walk out. It was great to have the Loewen family all together and hang out with them for a while this summer. 

Skyler got married to Savannah on August 24th and we were all just shocked he was engaged so soon! He came home from his mission early for health reasons and didn't waste any time after that. We all drove to the Cardston temple in the morning for the wedding at 10am. Then we went to a family dinner in Raymond. We didn't know Savannah's family so we mostly stuck to our side of the family, but it was great for the kids to be with cousins again. Joce and Jeff flew here just for the wedding and stayed in Calgary for 4 nights. We had a busy few days with them and had all the little kids at our house for a couple sleepovers. They stayed up until 1am both nights and had the time of their lives! Bentley's had her share of sleepovers this summer too, mostly at Scarlett's house. She had a blast with Brooke, Alise, Ryley and Scarlett when they were here. We went to Fish Creek one day for a walk, followed by hanging out at Tamara's house and watching our cabin family video my Dad put together. 

My dad also checked all of our eyes before the start of school. We were shocked to find out that Boston has eyes just like me and needed glasses! It was nice to have Dakota as the pre-tester there, since Boston is obsessed with her. She did a great job putting drops in his eyes to dilate them and figure out his prescription. We picked out some blue glasses and he is doing amazing at keeping them on! I was a little worried it would be an issue, but he loves them and looks very cute.

On Aug.31, we had our annual BBQ where Jeff smokes a brisket. It was the only free Saturday we could find. We have an outdoor water ban in Calgary right now, so we decided to rent a bouncy castle instead of putting up our waterslide like we normally do. I didn't really look at measurements when I ordered it so it was a lot bigger than I expected, but it fit tightly into our yard. The kids had a blast with it, though, and the rest of us mostly mingled and ate food upstairs and on the upper deck. It worked out really well!

Well, there were a few moments this summer where we were all bored and I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with the kids, but by the last 2 weeks I was wishing it could be longer! I'm really enjoying the kids, especially when I get to hang out with them individually. They are all so great! Summer is such a special time to just be together and it sure did fly by.