Big day!

I started this post last Thursday. Do you know how hard it is to finish a blog post when:
a- It's the first day of school
b- It's also your husband's birthday
c- You're spending the day in St. George
d- Followed by birthday stuff
e- Followed by giving the boys last minute haircuts
f- Followed by packing for weekend trip
g- Followed by a sewing project at 11:00pm, then
h- Staying up till 2:30am, then
i- Spending the next three days out of town doing some crazy partying, etc. etc. etc.

Well anyway, I've got a lot of catching up to do. Last Thursday it was Madelyn's first day of first grade:

 

Annnd, she's off!

 

  

  

At this point, I got all choked up. She was just so happy and excited and grown up. ♥♥♥

 

  

She had a great first day in Mrs. Comstock's class. She missed the second day because we had to leave town, but she was excited to go back this morning. I was worried about getting her back on an early morning schedule for school because she had a VERY lazy summer, but so far she has practically bounded out of bed and gotten dressed even before I'm up. (Thank you, Lord....)

Then, Mark, Luke and I headed to St. George. Mostly because our car dealership was giving us a free oil change, which we needed to get done before our trip. Mark was nice and let me hang out at Target while he waited for the car.

As much as I adore and worship Target, being there alone with an almost 2-year-old for an hour and a half was enough to make me want to poke out my eyeballs. See the ginormous cart I had--the kind where the kid sits on a little perch in the front? It has shoulder and hip straps, for crying out loud, and Luke still managed to escape from them every time I buckled him in. He's like a little Houdini. The seat up top didn't even have straps at all. He's impervious to them anyway. Sometimes I don't even bother--he stands up and climbs out regardless. I spend most of my shopping trips with him struggling under my one arm while I schlep the cart behind me.

 

And then there were the stools.....

 

Then he employed another favorite tactic of his: slurping water from his sippy cup and then opening his mouth and letting it dribble all over himself. He was thoroughly drenched and tired, and fell asleep as soon as we got back in the car. Little stinkbug.

Madelyn finally came skipping off the bus around 4:00

 

I think Luke really missed her

Then it was birthday time! Happy birthday Mark!!

 

Luke took one look at Mark's new window washer/squeegee and was in love.

 

Eating ice in daddy's new camp chair

 

Both kids helped eat his Reese's peanut butter cups. Mark got a snazzy new stargazing book to go with the snazzy new telescope he just got from his brother the week before. I also pre-ordered a copy of the computer game Battlefield 3 for him, which was necessary for his health and well-being. So he says.

 

More chocolate...

 

Luke getting violent with the balloons...

 I was going to make him a cheesecake, but the clinic already sent Mark home with a huge sheet cake. We'd eaten part of it the night before already, and then Madelyn wanted me to try to write "Happy Birthday Daddy" on it with colored gel icing, but all it did was ooze everywhere, so we had a half-eaten, graffiti'd ghetto cake. Haha. It was quite the day!