Summer

This summer is flying by.  Camps, driver's ed, and just hanging out without having to get up early has been lovely.  For the Fourth of July I took Peter to a nearby town's parade along with several families from church.  He didn't want anything to do with the kids or the parade (what 5 year old cares about the Mayor?) until they started throwing candy.  Then he was super excited.  

He was completely unwilling to take a photo with all the kids but I told him he had to.  Didn't have to be happy about it, but had to stand there.  Guess I got what I asked for.

The fireworks in the evening were much more his style.  He had a great time with the glo-sticks, sparklers, and fireworks that our friends lit.

During this same week, Bella was at Trail To Eagle Scout camp finishing up her last merit badges towards her eagle rank.  She only has paperwork left and the final conference with her leaders.  This was her third year at TTE camp.  She was Senior Patrol Leader for Blue Troop and she plans to go next year as an adult leader.  I'm so glad she's made so many good friends there and loves it so much.  It's fun to see her excel and lead out in something she loves.

There were only four girls in her troop, three of which were from her home troop, so they were a close group.  Her Scout Master, Mr. D, is a great guy.  He really knows how to build team spirit and encourage youth to do their very best.

When the kids aren't busy doing school and scout stuff, it's wonderful that the church also provides them opportunities to do great things.  Temple trip on 7/11 so they could get free slushies in the same trip.  Genius.

While the older ones are off, Peter and I have been spending lots of time relaxing at home.  He's such a homebody that unless I drag him somewhere, he'd rather just spend all day in his PJs playing legos.  So every day I ask myself, "Is this activity worth the battle?"  Sometimes it's yes, most often it's no.   When I start to lose my mind with cabin fever and need to get out, I drag him along and he always has fun.

He fell in love with watermelon at the beginning of the summer.  He asked for giant bowlfuls of it at every meal and ate almost entirely just watermelon every day for about a week.  Then just as suddenly, he couldn't stand it anymore.  Now he won't touch it.  Haven't gotten him to eat a single bite in weeks.  Little kids are so funny like that.

He discovered that Benjamin's old exercise equipment makes a great jungle gym.  Every day he's inventing new ways to climb on it, swing from it, jump off it, or just goof around.  I love that he can get exercise even if he's unwilling to leave the house.

One event to which I dragged him kicking and screaming was "Drummasphere" at a local library.  The leader of the event brought dozens of different percussion items and placed them in a circle.  Then she sang, counted beats, played games, etc. with the kids and had the kids do different rhythm activities with the drums.  They rotated to different items every 10 minutes or so and they all got lots of different experiences throughout the hour.  Peter loved every minute of it.  He was making up all sorts of rhythms and trying lots of new things.  He even interacted with others and talked to the teacher - a sure sign that he was happy and comfortable.  It was wonderful.  I wish that they did it more often.  Definitely worth the battle to leave the house.

Convincing him to go toy shopping took no effort.  I told him he could browse for potential birthday presents and so of course, he headed straight for the legos.  The selection was a bit overwhelming but he was loving every minute of it.

Another battle that I fought was to take him to "Sensory Shenanigans."  It was an outdoor selection of activities such as giant bubbles, sand box with buried dinosaurs, bead table, kiddie pool filled with water and ice cubes containing toys, etc.  Lots of sensory experiences and lots of different things to try.  He had a great time at that too, with the bubbles being his favorite.  We would have stayed longer but there was no shade and the heat finally got to us a bit.

No real explanation other than, "Mom, take a picture of me as 'cutie Peter.'"

Greenfield Village requires no battle.  He'll go there every day of the week.  This time his favorite carousel animal - the frog - was available so he was extra happy.

Pandora is still loving our house and has made herself right at home.  We never play cards without her anymore (much to Kelly's dismay).  And I have to make my bed right away in the morning or I go to bed in a pile of fur that night.  She's a really sweet cat.  Her favorite place at night is in Christian's bed and our evening brushing time is one of my favorites.  Not sure if we're going to be able to give her up.

Benjamin is almost at the 1 year point!! How is that possible?  He seems to have adjusted great because he hasn't called in 6 weeks and this week he didn't even email.  We are very proud of our boy and we sure miss him a ton.

My favorite thing these last few weeks has been piano/saxophone concerts.  I set the piano to E flat and the kids play their saxophones and we play through the hymns.  It's been great practice for me and it keeps them practicing while they're not in band over the summer.  Sometimes we get woefully off and we sound horrible.  Then we laugh and try again.  Most of the time we sound pretty good and have a great time.  The kids tease me a little for how happy it makes me but honestly, family time AND seeing the results of the thousands of dollars I've spent on music lessons - what could be better?

May Is A Blur

 Anyone who has kids in school knows that May is just a crazy non-stop race.  I feel bad that this blog went completely updated the entire month but it has only felt like a few days to me.  Now that school is over and summer has begun, let's recap.

End of the school year brought the end of track season for Christian.  He did amazing this season and qualified for regionals in the 3200m and the 4x800m relay.  He raced well and got first in the relay.  Their school's team got third in the region overall. 

Peter finished Kindergarten.  They had a little graduation ceremony and in true Peter form, he looked miserable the entire time.  The graduation podium could have been the gallows as far as he was concerned.

A few days earlier they'd done an "exhibition" where parents could come in and participate in their various classes.  I'm not going to lie - I was not excited about this.  My personal time is sooo limited.  I need every minute that he's in school to get things done and being forced to use that time like this felt like robbery.  I only had one day of school left and then he'd be home for 4 months!  However, gym class was a lot of fun.  We played games with the kids and did races.  This one was cute - a relay where the kids had to push the mats from one side of the gym to the other.  Peter always liked this one and it was fun to see him do it.  He's a speedy, highly competitive guy.  He got pretty overstimulated during the course of class, though, and he started melting down every couple minutes at the end.  The day ended with a "field day" that involved a bunch of outdoor games.  We tried that but I ended up taking him home a little early and we got some tacos together and celebrated the start of summer in a little more calm way.

Peter also got to go to the farm with his class.  They got to ride horses, feed baby animals, go on a hay ride, and milk a cow (he wanted none of that!) .  I've been there with all my kids and he was by far the least excited, but still managed to have a good time.

With the start of Summer, also comes the reopening of Greenfield Village!  Who's more excited, me or Peter?  It's hard to say.

Summer also brings eating the back yard, playgrounds, library story time visits, drawing outside with chalk, baseball and soccer in the backyard (not pictured), end of the soccer season (not pictured), and the end of ice skating classes (he did great and got so fast!)

No matter the season, this is how every day ends: 

After 3 kids who hate reading, I finally managed to raise a reader!! Yipee!!

For Bella, May brought her 17th birthday, AP exams, concerts, piano recital, and her eagle scout project.

Bella and Christian both did beautifully in their recital.  It is always amazing how well they perform under such pressure.  Bella had been given some very challenging pieces to memorize and she wasn't' sure she could do it, but she put in a lot of hours at the end and made it so she only needed music on one of her pieces.  We were very proud of her.

Her eagle scout project was to build a backyard playscape in a neighborhood in Detroit so children would have a safe place to go play.  The lot is owned by a woman I met through volunteering I do with another church.  She lives across the street but owns both her property and the vacant one.  She was so excited that Bella would want to use her land for the project.  She and I and others from her church went prior to installation day and cleared the land.  It looked like this when we got there:

We cleared out tons of brush, trash, etc. and got it to this:

Bella fundraised and then bought a playscape from someone who was willing to reduce the price dramatically since it was for a good cause.  She and Kelly put in tons of hours planning the disassembly, transport, reassembly, repairs, etc.  Parents really deserve an award too when kids get their eagle.  Not too many people came on the big day but it was enough to get the job done in the time we'd estimated.

We had several neighbors come over while we were building and thank us for the project and express excitement at having a place for the kids to play.  I've since been texted by the owner with pictures of local kids playing and having fun.  She says there are kids on it every day.

We also acquired a cat for the summer.  That was NOT planned.  However, I made the mistake of saying to Peter, "I kind of miss having a little cat around."  The universe listened and not even 24 hours later, I got a text from a friend who was moving to California saying, "We have discovered we can't fit the cat in the car, could you take her for the summer and we'll be back in September to get her?  We have to leave right now because the new homeowners are coming in a couple hours."  WHAT??  So we drove over and got the cat.  I immediately had terrible buyer's remorse, but what could I have done?  Poor kitty had to where to go. So, let me introduce Pandora.

We all love her, but Peter, especially.  I'm not sure what September will bring.  It might be pretty hard to say goodbye.

 Pandora has settled right in and has been a remarkably good cat, except for the cat door she immediately made for herself in our screen on the first day.

Other happenings these last few weeks - I finished my first year of seminary teaching.  I was close to adrenal failure by the end so a break is very needed, but it was wonderful to watch all my amazing seniors graduate and move onto their bright futures. (many of them are not pictured)  I hope next year will be less exhausting since I'll have more time during the day to prepare while Peter is in school.  No more lesson planning after midnight.

Benjamin was transferred out of Kansas to Burlington, Colorado and received a new companion.  They are doing great together.  He drives hours and hours between visits and some of the people he teaches live nearly 2 hours from the church building, so attendance is difficult but he's always upbeat on the phone and we love seeing him grow and learn.

This week the kids (Bella and Christian) are at FSY down in Tiffin, Ohio.  I dropped them and all their friends off today - 6 hour roundtrip.  I hope they have a wonderful week.  What an amazing program that is.  What a blessing.