Oh what a day!!!

After much anticipation, excitement, worry, and yes even a few tears, I would say the first day of school was a success. I was somewhat surprised at myself. I was very excited for the boys and to be honest for myself to be down to one child for a majority of the day, but I did miss them a lot. The thing that hit me the hardest was the fact that I was handing my children's days over to people whom I did not know very well. This is where trust in a good God comes in. Andy and I have been bathing the boys in prayer over the past week or so, and I expect that we will continue that as we know that they will be tempted with many things being in the public school system. I truly believe that we as Christians need to have a presence there and pray that God will help us to help them be lights in their classrooms and to their friends. The day started at 6:40am for the boys. After a chocolate chip pancake breakfast we headed out the door for pictures on the front step and a short walk to the bus stop. The bus picks them up at 7:40 am!!! They rode to the elementary school they will go to next year and had to change buses there in order to go to the kindergarten center. West Fargo has 618 kindergarten students (the most they've ever had) this year and they are in a separate building. No day in the Kvernen household would be complete without a little drama though. I decided that I wanted them to ride the bus and get used to the schedule right away. I met them at school just to make sure they made it okay and also to bring the rest of the school supplies that didn't fit into their backpacks. School starts at 8:15 and I expected to see them sitting in their seats when I got there. However, they weren't there. The buses stopped coming and they still weren't there. There were a bunch of school staff standing in the lobby of the school and several of them said they thought the Eastwood bus (the school they were supposed to swith buses at)had already come. My heart started to beat a little faster. The principal got on the phone to Eastwood and they said they had three kindergarten students there. She was going to pick them up. About 2 minutes after she left, the Eastwood bus showed up and Connor and Carson were one of the first of the bus. WHEW!!! These pictures are outside of their classroom. This one isn't great, but they were already almost 15 minutes late and I didn't have time for retakes.

I was relieved to see smiling faces stepping off the bus and the stories I heard on the way home were great. They loved all of it!!! I asked them what their favorite thing was about the day. Connor said everything and Carson said storytime. They both love their teachers and are very excited about going back tomorrow. YEAH!!!! The best lesson learned today comes from the picture below :) Carson stepped off the bus and said, "Mom, my juice box made my lunch bag all wet." I probed a little to see if it had gotten stepped on or squished in some way before he got to eat it. NOPE!!! Let me preface this by saying that Carson is the slowest eater in our family. Anyway I opened up the bag to find the Capri Sun juice box with the straw in it and half drunk sitting in the bottom of the bag- along with his uneaten cookies and chips. He only had time to eat his sandwhich and yogurt stick. Lesson learned- you must eat faster!!! When we got home we all enjoyed fresh chocolate chip cookies and milk and great stories about how fun the day was. You might be wondering how Kaelynn did with her brothers gone all day. I'm pretty sure she was in heaven. We enjoyed a delightful day together. We went for a long bike ride this morning and ate our snack by a little pond. She helped me make the chocolate chip cookies for the boys and we danced and sang to our favorite Kidstuf songs. I'm excited to have this time with her. All in all, it was a great day and we are looking forward to a great year!!!

Where have we been???

August has proved itself to be quite busy. As we finish up the summer and get ready for the first day of school (8 days away!) we are finding that the time is going by very quickly. Last week we were able to go to Grand Forks for grandpa's company picnic. This picnic is open to children and grandchildren of the employees and grandma and grandpa were so excited to have us finally able to attend. We had a wonderful meal and then enjoyed horseback riding and bucket truck rides. The kids had never ridden a horse before so they got quite the first-time experience. They all did very well. Connor went first and had no fear!!! Carson wasn't so sure about it and started out going with Andy. That quickly changed when he realized there wasn't a whole lot of room in that saddle especially when two people are trying to fit on it. They walked about 10 feet and he decided to go by himself. He did very well!!

Kaelynn and I rode together on Jigs. She also showed no fear and was giggling the whole way.

The bucket truck was a hit. We had to wear harnesses and were very high in the air (quite a ways above the trees in fact). Not my idea of a good time as I'm not a big fan of heights, but Connor really wanted me to go with him.

Kaelynn once again showed absolutely no fear. The girl amazes me. She loved every minute of it!

One of the prizes for the kiddie games was a tiara. Our little princess!

We had a great time and were so glad we could go!

I have pretty much finished the family room. I love it. I painted the walls grey on top and white on the bottom. I spray painted the coffee table, end table, and the TV stand black (they used to be a very light wood color). I got the red slip cover for our couch for my birthday (it used to be white). And I love the green accent. A big thank you to Jan for sewing the pillows for me. I love the whole look. We have a lot of mismatched furniture down there, but over time hopefully I can replace some of it. I have some more work to do and would like to get a few more things to put on the walls, but that will come with time as well.

I'm sure the next post will be about the first day of school, so stay tuned! The excitement is building!

Hmmm, Yum.......

It's peach season. It's a favorite in our house and one of the benefits of being back in Fargo is enjoying the peaches sold by the Red River Youth For Christ organization. They order truck loads of peaches every year from an orchard in Colorado. The peaches are so huge and so juicy, they make your mouth water just looking at them. I seriously missed this about Fargo. Anyway I have recently discovered an amazing recipe to use my peaches. It is from www.allrecipes.com (I heart this site by the way). It is Southern Peach Cobbler. Any recipe that starts out with "southern" has got to be good so I gave it a try. Oh my goodness- so good! I am giving you this recipe hoping you will enjoy peach season at your house as much as we do at ours. Southern Peach Cobbler by: aeposey from allrecipes.com 8 fresh peaches- peeled, pitted, and sliced into thin wedges 1/4 cup white sugar 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg 1 tsp. fresh lemon juice 2 tsp. cornstarch 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 cup white sugar 1/4 cup brown sugar 1 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 6 tbsp. unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces 1/4 cup boiling water mix together: 3 tbsp white sugar 1 tsp. ground cinnamon Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. 2. In a large bowl, combine peaches, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice, and cornstarch. Toss to coat evenly and pour into a 9x13 baking dish. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. 3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine flour, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Blend in butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in water until just combined. 4. Remove peaches from oven and drop spoonfuls of topping over them. Sprinkle entire cobbler with the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Bake until topping is golden brown, about 30 minutes. 5. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream. * a side note- I double the topping. As is above it hardly covered the peaches.

I love this game!

I love the game of hopscotch and I love watching my children play it. I blogged a year or so ago about Connor and Carson learning it and now it's Kaelynn's turn. She is starting to learn her numbers and it is a great game to teach that skill. Hopping on one foot while moving has not yet been mastered. With time :) Have a great Wednesday!