Back to School 2023

The end of August marked the beginning of our school year. While it's always sad to leave behind carefree summer days, we were all ready to get back to a more structured day. 

Conrad - Kindergarten! 

Conrad is officially old enough for Kindergarten this year. He's most excited about math and his classes at IMA. In the one month of school so far, he's already made a ton of progress with his phonics and is ready to start learning to read. 

Orson - Second Grade

Orson is in a very observant stage of life. He has great, scientific questions like how to rockets work and what happens to water when it soaks in to the ground. He moved up to the Love of Learning age classes at IMA and is loving it! He's also discovered a series of short chapter books called Dragon Masters and is enjoying listening to audiobooks of them. I bet by the end of the year, he'll be reading them on his own. Also, doesn't he look so grown up and cool in his pictures?!?

Lenora - Fourth Grade

Lenora gets her very own book club this year and she's so excited! We split our book club in to a group for younger girls and a group for middle and high school aged girls. I think she's loving having something that is just hers. Lenora (and all the girls) are trying a new online math this year and loving it so far. She's set a goal to work hard on her writing this year (deciding what to write has always been a struggle for her). So far she's doing great and has written some fun paragraphs, a poem, and a summary of a book. Way to go Lenora! 

Eliza - Seventh Grade

Eliza felt ready to commit to a harder workload this year and begged me to be in Shakespeare (the first scholar class) at IMA. She was very set on the idea, and so far she's doing great! She drove right in reading, watching, and listening to 17 plays the first week in order to be crowned a Queen. I think she'll thrive this year! 

She's also SO excited about a folk music group we found because she's been wanting to learn to play the fiddle. Eliza has such great musical talent but prefers to learn by ear and improvise. This group will be perfect for her! 

We had to take the annual - back to school with a chicken picture

Hazel - Freshman Year! 

Hazel is now in High School. She's taking early morning seminary at Payson High School four days a week. She's also doing math online, two classes at IMA, The Good and the Beautiful High School LA, and a Biology class that I'm teaching her and two friends. I love Biology, so it's been fun for me to prepare and teach her. She's working so hard and staying on top of all of her homework (even if it's meant doing school work outside school hours which is a new experience for her). 

Walter - Too Cool for School

One afternoon the kids noticed Walter fit perfectly in this mango box. This turned in to a several day project of making cars from boxes. Walter is sporting a purple Tesla. Lenora went with a BMW, Orson a Ford truck, Conrad a sports car. They had a ton of fun with this!

Here's to a great school year! 

Wrapping Up Summer

Does Summer end when school starts? After Labor Day? After the fall equinox? Or just when the days start cooling down? I'm not sure, but it feels like summer is winding down. It felt fast in some ways and slow in others. It was disorganized and somewhat chaotic at times (readjusting to napping babies and sleep schedules has been a whole struggle around here).  But summer was delightful! I loved the many exciting adventures and busy days, and I also loved the lazy days at home. I wished we'd accomplished a few more projects, but time spent with kids took priority, and I'm okay with that. 

In no particular order, here are some of our final adventures of the summer... 

One hot, lazy afternoon we raced cars. It's not often all the kids play together any more, but this afternoon they each selected a car and staged races until the overall winner emerged. The best part was the name - "Ballard's Boredom Buster Bonanza!" It was Eliza's Corvette "Queen" that took first place. 

One Wednesday night the Activity Day boys did an egg drop challenge. They have the BEST leaders. They always invite Conrad to join activities. I don't think a single egg survived, but they sure had fun! 

Another week, Activity Days did bike races in the parking lot. Also a big hit. 

On Pioneer Day we attended our friend's annual BBQ where Walter enjoyed the ball pit. Michael and Orson snuck away to enjoy his Father's Day gift - tickets to the Rodeo! 

Michael and I presented at Deaf Symposium (a conference for Deaf members of the church held every two years). It was such a cool experience! Michael has been serving on the church's newly formed ASL Board with Elder Johnson of the Seventy. The first evening the Board presented some of the work they're doing. The church is working SO hard to make sure Deaf Saints have full access to the gospel in their language and culture. It's incredible to watch! Then the following day we gave our presentation on revelation and watched some other amazing presenters. I didn't attend the following two days because I was home with the kids, but Michael enjoyed them. 

Sunday evening we attended the closing Fireside as a family. Afterwards as people were visiting, Orson snuck up to the stage and I caught this cute picture. 

Sometimes I forget what a blessing it is that our family is both bilingual and bicultural. This weekend was an reminder of how incredible Deaf community is and how fortunate we are to be connected to it. 

One day the kids helped pick free apricots and we made apricot preserves and fruit leather. We LOVE apricots (and any excuse to climb trees). 

Can you spy Orson in this picture? 

We attended the open house for the new Saratoga Springs temple. It's the first open house most of my kids remember attending. Such a beautiful temple! 

Our wonderful friends, the Wilsons, were in town for Kentucky and we were lucky enough to spend the morning with them! 

We attended the County Fair Rodeo to support one of the Young Women in our Ward. It's a free rodeo we never knew existed, but I'm so glad we do now. It was a blast! A highlight for the kids was the shoe hunt. They call up the kids in age groups, have them take off their shoes, scatter all the shoes on the other end of the arena, then have the kids run and find their own shoes. Don't think too much about what they're running barefoot through - just enjoy the spectacle.

One glorious afternoon we hiked to our favorite pine grove, hung hammocks, and just relaxed. I think this is what heaven looks like... 

There were many other fun days - swimming with friends in their backyard, turning Walter in to a horse jockey, snuggling kittens, and creating awesome rafts at forest school. 

Of course, we couldn't wind down summer without the Heroic Youth Summit. It was incredible as always! This year Hazel was a youth leader again - this time as a flag bearer. She had such a sweet experience... One of the girl's Lenora's age from IMA was signed up to attend, but was super nervous. There had been tears at home and she was on the verge of not staying. But when she walked up to get dropped off, she saw Hazel standing there as flag bearer to welcome her. Realizing she knew someone in her kingdom was all she needed to stay, and of course she ended up having a blast. Tender mercies and the Lord's involvement in the tiny details of our lives never cease to amaze me! 

Flag Bearer Hazel - Silver Kingdom 

Eliza and Brenna attended as participants as did Lenora and Tabby (the Farrells are back from Jerusalem!!!) They all had a blast! And I got to spend one whole day chatting with Heather and catching up on the past 2 years. We told stories of the last two years, discussed our current joys and sorrows, reminisced over our time in Iowa where our kids felt so big but were really so little, and of course forgot to take any pictures. It's so great to have them back in the county! 

Goodbye Summer! Until next year....