Labor Day Weekend

Since it's Labor Day weekend, we didn't have our usual basketball schedule.  We decided to finally make it to Soak City all together!  

We love the slides that we can all go on together.

Later that afternoon, our neighborhood organized a potluck gathering in our cul-de-sac.  One guy brought bubbles for the kids to play with.  It was so fun to catch up with and get to know everyone better. We have a great neighborhood!

Catherine chose to make homemade strawberry ice cream for her banana split desert on Sunday.

Catherine had a Primary pool party earlier in the week too.  She loves anything flamingos.

 

Student Council

Catherine ran for Student Council Treasurer as well as for her Class Rep position this past week.  Treasurer is the position you campaign for, so she made posters and gave a speech to the 4-6th graders.  For Class Rep, you also give a speech in class and just your class votes for you.  She worked very hard and memorized both of her speeches.

One of her posters made the school instagram page too.

giving her speech to all the 4-6th graders for treasurer- I didn't get to see her class rep speech.

 

She was elected as her Class Rep!  She's excited to help make decisions. 

Happenings

It's been a busy week with Back to School Nights and activities. Lydia had a swim party at YW this week.

Brian took Tom to the Chargers vs Rams game.  They always have fun together.

Catherine and I finished this puzzle.  The picture looks faded from here because the color comes from colored font.  The whole puzzle together has the scripture story of Lehi's family crossing to the promised land written tiny on the pieces in the colors that make up the picture.  It was different from any puzzle I've ever put together before!

Thomas and Catherine's teams won their basketball games this week.  They both played very well.

After the games on Saturday, I got to go with the youth to the Yorba Linda Temple for baptisms.  I hadn't been in the baptistry since the open house so it was fun to see how it worked and I love being with the youth!

Brian took Cat out to ice cream while we were at the temple.

 

Birds

 We spotted some turkey vultures in our neighborhood earlier this week!  I've never seen them so close!

The bluebird nesting season has ended!  I've loved checking in on my 6 nest boxes weekly to see the bird's progress.  Most boxes had 2 clutches of eggs over the last 4-5 months.  Overall, I saw 57 eggs, 53 of those hatched, and 48 of those hatchlings eventually fledged (flew away) the nest!  We had one clutch of eggs/ new hatchlings get eaten by something-probably a snake, and a few other baby birds died in the nest before flying away.  Catherine has helped me this season.  We have come to appreciate the hymn "His Eye is on the Sparrow" even more as we see the incredible process of these birds in nature.  Here are some pictures of their development stages.

Day 0

Day 7 (one egg didn't hatch)

Day 14

D

By day 21-25 the birds fledge!

Our Week

 Thomas and Catherine are doing well in their basketball season.  Both teams won this week!  Tom’s team even beat the undefeated team.  

Catherine made creamy chicken casserole for dinner one evening all by herself!  She’s quite the cook in the kitchen.

Back To School

 

The kids went back to school this morning.  This year we have 3 different schools and just me to drive! ha ha!  It will be a great year.  Lydia is in 10th grade, Thomas started middle school in 7th grade, and Catherine is in 4th grade.

Thomas had an early out day without a lunch break, so it's been our tradition to have a one-on-one lunch.  He picked In-n-Out.