The Randalls

Calista started Preschool on Monday of this week. She absolutely loves it. It also is very handy that it's right across the street. We all walk to the bus stop at 8:45 and drop Téa off then walk to Preschool at 9:00 and drop Calista off then Piper and I head out on the trail for a great morning run. I love it! Here's my darling brown-eyed girl all gussied up for school.

This is what happens when I don't put the gate up into the pantry...

If you click on the picture and expand it you can see all the fruity Cheerios she spilled all over the pantry floor. She also got into the shoes and threw those everywhere. Her grin shows that she knew exactly what she was doing.

Yesterday while Téa was eating her apples for her after-school snack she jumped up and down and yelled that her tooth came out. She was working on it for the last few days and it looked so funny. It hung lower than her other top front tooth. I should have taken a picture of that. Oh well. Now she's got a huge gap and looks so cute.

I should just slap a straw hat on and some overalls and dangle a piece of hay out of my mouth. Our harvest so far this year has been pretty good. I've had tons of zucchini. My yellow squash finally started producing up the wazoo and just last week I found huge red potatoes and some carrots. Unfortunately I've had a whopping three tomatoes so far. Lame. And no peppers yet but there are a few Anaheim peppers finally growing. The corn is coming along nicely and should be ready soon (I think). We already ate the baby spinach and radishes and the girls and I found three cantaloupes and two watermelons this week that are a little bigger than softballs. I'm really looking forward to eating those.

I decided to squeeze in a trip to Thanksgiving Point before school started. So last week the girls and I went and had a great time. Piper was able to enjoy it this time as well. She even got into the goats. She did call them 'dogs' but I was just glad she said a word at all. She's not much into talking yet. Well, let me rephrase that. She loves to talk, it's just that she talks nonsense mostly. She jabbers away all day long but when it comes to saying real words forget it.

Chubby baby! (And still very little hair)



Those of you who know Calista and the story of what happened at Target a few years ago will appreciate this quick story. While Téa, Piper and I were petting the new baby horse Calista decided to go exploring on her own. I looked up and couldn't find her. I looked everywhere and even went back to the front desk to ask the worker there if she saw a little girl leave. Of course they take missing kids pretty seriously so she gets on her walkie-talkie and everyone is now looking for a four-year old girl with blond hair, brown eyes and a pink shirt. I found her a few minutes later hiding behind the cows and llamas. I thought I was over that phase. Grrr... I need to write down all these stories of her, especially the one where Meghan had to call Poison Control. I still laugh at that one. Hopefully you can laugh at that one now too, Meg!

Work with what you have. That's my motto lately. And the kids have grasped it as well. So, what did Téa and Calista do when their pool blew down the block, through the empty lots, through the prickly tumble weeds into a neighbor's backyard?

Yup, they found a new pool...our cooler. It's a tad smaller, but it works. And for some dumb reason Walmart doesn't carry pools after July is over. Lame! At least the girls were ok with throwing away the old one with all the holes from the tumble weeds. I really thought I'd have major meltdowns.

Calista was able to do three weeks of soccer through the Lehi Legacy Center this summer. They met twice a week and the program was great for Calista. They had different stations they rotated to and I thought it was so much better than just playing a long game. Téa started when she was three in Pleasant Grove and it was the same as any other soccer league. This program was a whole lot better because it taught the kids different skills and made it lots of fun. They did play a few short games against other groups and it was perfect. Next year she will start playing real soccer and she is looking forward to that.

The last day of soccer all the kids got balloons and got to meet Lenny the Lion (the mascot). Téa had to wear her matching jersey as well.
One of Calista's soccer games.
She also scored during one of her games. Woo hoo!
She was definitely one of the best dressed players there. I guess Mark's frequent China trips paid off with the soccer jerseys.