A September to Remember

Scarlett started first grade at the charter school.  We met her teacher the week before school started, I sat in her desk to fill out papers.  Weird that she upgraded to a "grownup" sized desk!  heehee!

First grade has already been so good for Scarlett.  She loves art and recess, but she also excels at math and reading.  When we were driving in the car one day Scarlett randomly said "If I want to add hours in 3 days, I add 24 three times.  So I get 48 plus 24, but what do I do with the 12?" (From 8+4 in the ones column). So we talked about how the 10 from 12 jumps to the tens column and only leaves the 2 in the ones column.  "Oh!!!  So it's 72!"  I was so impressed with her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Family movie night at the school.  |  Dress/Talk like a pirate day.  Scarlett kept saying "arrrr mateys!"  That was my shirt from high school - already she's borrowing my clothes!

Over the summer Jake moved to the Ford Performance group.  So for the past few months he's been working all day on the Ford GT!!!  They sent him to a special high performance driving class at their test track.  For 3 hours it was just Jake driving a car with former Nascar driver Nipper Alsup in the passenger seat!  He taught Jake all about proper braking and acceleration on a road course, how to do a high speed slalom (don't look at the cones, look way ahead and trust in your peripheral vision), how to induce and recover from understeer and oversteer, and high speed oval runs at 100+ mph.  Jake was living the dream that day!  After taking that driving course, Jake is now certified to bring home their high end M-plates (stands for Manufacture license plates) to test over the weekend.  It's been so fun!  He has taken Berlyn and me for fun drives around town.  Even though we don't get to drive them, you can still have a lot of fun going for a ride in those cars!  So far Jake's brought home a Fiesta ST, Focus ST, Focus RS, Mustang GT 350, and a Corvette Z51.  |  One day for work he went to a Detroit Tigers baseball game against the Yankees.  They had to stop the game 3 times due to the players all rushing the field getting into huge fights!  Classy.

Our Stake does a big Labor Day Picnic every year.  This year we made giant bubbles. the girls got to sit in a fire truck, ride in a Porsche, Jake and Berlyn got to drive Segways, and I helped with the face painting station (our YW were in charge of it).

Scarlett made me breakfast one morning: salad, apple, note, and a diet Pepsi!  haha!  |  Jaide loaded her cup in the dishwasher.  The whole load ran with her milk cup sitting on top of dishes and lid still on haha!  |  The twirls have been playing so well together lately.  One day in the basement Jaide told me "I want to go in the tramp, but it says 'x Jaide', so I can't" (me: Where does it say that?) "It's up high and it's camouflage so you can't see it."  Ohhh, those camouflage signs are so hard to see!  |  Berlyn made this cool trampoline tent for the girls!  |  I love the picture of the girls playing puppy in their room, they put themselves in their puppy houses - but they look so sad!  haha!

Scarlett and the Twirls are in ballet/tap.  Laura takes Kaylie and Scarlett after school one day while I watch all the littles at my house.  So I don't have a lot of pictures of her.  But the twirls have class in the morning so I have to take them and I get to take pictures.  The first few weeks were rough.  They would cry and feel shy.  But they really have progressed and don't leave class crying anymore *knock on wood*.  I think it's good practice for kindergarten next fall.

The Glauser gang outside doing yard work.  Even with my super long gloves I still broke out in hives!  We had a lot of fun outside.  |  Berlyn and I found this huge bug in the garage.  I grabbed some cardboard and scooped it up to take it outside, acting all cool and tough.  I was out of the garage when Berlyn screamed she thought she saw it move.  I totally jumped and dropped it.  haha!  Guess I wasn't that cool after all!  |  Then, look at that rainbow!!!!  We could see the whole thing arc over our yard.  It was bright and beautiful.  The girls were amazed!

I took the 3 younger girls to play group at an apple orchard one morning.  We bought some donuts to eat then the lady gave us some old, stale donuts to feed to the ducks.  Pretty cool.  |  Another morning the twirls were getting dressed I heard this conversation...  Siena: "I want you to dress the same as me today."  Jaide: "Oh ya, I will cause we are twins."  They dress themselves most days and most of the time they match!  haha!  I can't wait to tell them when they are teenagers how they loved to match everyday when they were four.

Haircuts before school (I think their favorite part was sitting on the table!)  

Fun with friends!  |  Fun at church.  The YW were passing a handful of glitter around.  Then we talked about how the glitter is like words we share, how they spread and we can never get them all back.  I found that glitter around my house randomly for days, it was a good reminder to me how gossiping spreads in ways you can't control.