Sunday

Say No to Rugs!

As my little man and I drove home from church, we discussed the Bible lesson. I taught the second and third graders today, so I knew the details of the lesson and got to worship with Ann and Chris during Kids' Worship. So...

On the way home, I began talking about the lesson. We discussed the example of Elvis working with President Nixon on an anti-drug campaign. Of course, my little man had no idea what drugs were. In fact, this was the first he'd heard of them. Since the lesson also talked about Elvis dying of a drug overdose, I had some explaining to do! (And no, I have no idea who does the lessons! Our church combines kindergarten through fifth grade for large group, so...)

Anyways, I thought we'd had quite a good discussion about God wanting us to do the right thing and drugs being bad, etc. I was quite impressed with my son's listening abilities. Then...

"Mom, we use rugs in our house for decorating and stuff, but that's okay, right?" he asked.

I almost lost it. Did he seriously think we'd just had a conversation about rugs? (I'm laughing even now as I type this.)

It's a good thing I'm fairly certain he won't be introduced to drugs next year as a kindergartner. Hopefully, he won't become scared of rugs either! Kids are too funny!

Tuesday

Focus on Me!

This summer, we've been going to the pool A LOT! This is the first summer that I've felt comfortable taking my three children to the pool by myself so I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

Right now, our favorite thing to do is to play in the "deep end." I can still touch, but none of my children can touch. The younger two like to shed their life jackets and jump in to me, while my oldest likes to show off her ever-improving swimming skills. The time flies by as we're all having such a good time.

Typically, my three children are lined up on the side of the pool waiting for their turn to jump in to me. The other day, Chris was trying to get my attention while I was still helping Jane in the pool. After a few attempts at calling mom. He said, "Lizz, Elizabeth, Focus on me!" He so perfectly imitated me that I couldn't help but laugh. He was also so sincere and not meaning to be disrespectful that I couldn't help but honor his request.

I focused on him. As if I would do anything else when my children are playing near water. They are too funny!

Saturday

Three Weeks Into Summer Break

My last post talked about slowing down to take it easy this summer. Well....

Nearly three weeks into summer and we've had out of town guests twice and friends for dinner once. Ann had her dance recital and Chris went to Vacation Bible School. Chris played a few t-ball games and went to a couple of practices. All three kids had turns spending the night at their great-aunts house and a turn at visiting a local toy museum.

In addition to that, we squeezed in a trip to the local amusement park and many trips to the pool. On top of that, Tony has done a bit of travel for work.

So, um, yeah... We haven't exactly slowed down, but we have had a LOT of fun. I'm loving having all of my children near me all day. I'm especially enjoying my time with Ann who was at full-day kindergarten for the school year. I missed her!

Right now Ann is all about reading Green Eggs and Ham to anyone willing to listen. I started to encourage her to read something more challenging and then I realized, she's super excited to read the book and doesn't exactly have it memorized, so why on earth would I fix what isn't broken?!

Not to be out done, little Jane likes to read aloud Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See. Just tonight, she read it aloud to her grandma. She wanted to read it one more time to me. She must have gotten tired of her trick because she soon was saying, "hot dog, hot dog, what do you see?" Three year olds are so silly!

As for little man, he doesn't really read to us yet, either for real or in the manner of his younger sister. However, that kiddo never stops thinking. I can't begin to describe what a joy he is when he chooses to have a good attitude. The flip side is, when he doesn't have a good attitude, life can be a trying to say the least! That kid is going to move mountains one day, just watch!

I do believe I've started to ramble, so why not continue... (Isn't that what "..." is for?)

The small moments today that I want to remember are my sweet six-year-old's face when she caught sight of me at the amusement park. Her face lit up and that just felt awesome! Also, she was excited to notice she is getting more moles. I happen to have more than my fair share. While I don't know that it's necessarily good she is inheriting them, I do find it flattering that she likes them because I have them. Seriously, how precious is that!

My five-year-old also lit up when he found me after getting off a ride. It melts my heart to know they feel so happy at the sight of me. It isn't always the case, of course. Sometimes seeing me means they have to leave a playdate or that I've caught them doing something naughty. At those times, they'd rather see anyone but me!

It looks like Chris is going to be the one who likes the scarier rides, at least for now. I think if Jane hadn't been there, he would have rode some roller coasters. However, he didn't want to ride the bigger rides unless she did, so he skipped the roller coasters.



As for little Jane...She fell asleep in my arms while watching a dog show at the amusement park. I have no idea how she slept through the clapping and yelling and I don't care. As I told her grandma, I know holding her in my arms while she sleeps won't last forever, so I will take what I can get. My favorite thing about Jane lately has been watching her with her big sister. I love seeing that relationship develop. I recently took them to the dollar store and bought them each a toy mermaid. (They reminded me I couldn't buy real ones which was very funny.) Since then, those mermaids have been the center of their play together. Oh how I hope and pray they are not just sisters but also friends!



And so I end another day feeling tired and honestly a bit grumpy. And yet, I feel so very, very blessed. Through reading some other blogs, I was reminded of just how fragile life is and it simply brought tears to my eyes to think of the precious little ones sleeping upstairs. Yes, our summer has been busy, but we've been thoroughly enjoying it and I know I'm trying not to take too many moments for granted! So, be it busy, or be it calm, we are going to make the most of this summer!

Thursday

Enjoying Summer Break

It's summertime! My kids got out of school at the beginning of last week and we've certainly had a good time since then!

We began summer by meeting friends for breakfast at McDonalds. Their pancakes weren't half bad. Who knew? My kids enjoyed playing while I visited with my friend. Then, we waited and waited for the rain to stop so we could dash out to our cars.

Later in the day, Chris got to go spend the night at his great-aunt's house so that left me with the girls. Tony was out of town, so we fully embraced girl time, even inviting a neighbor friend to join the girls. We painted our nails, watched a movie and dined on chicken nuggets and waffle fries.

Our babysitter came early on Wednesday morning and I went out to run errands without the kiddos. My time was cut short by the tornado sirens. My children are a little on edge after all the terrible storms that have been moving through the Midwest so we spent a bit of time in our basement.

Meanwhile, my son was enjoying time with his aunt by visiting a toy museum

On Thursday, we headed out to a bounce house play place to meet a friend and her children. My children bounced nonstop for an hour and a half. Amazingly, they still had energy!

We spent Friday getting ready for Memorial Day Weekend. We were lucky to have Tony's mom, stepdad, sister, brother-in-law, and our niece and nephew come for the weekend. Ann's dress rehearsal for dance was on the same evening that everyone arrived, but when we all finally met up, we had a great time.

Saturday was another busy day. We went to a family concert event. Chris got to try out a banjo and Jane strummed on a guitar. Our little man is mesmerized by live music so we all enjoyed watching him delight in the morning.

After the concert, we went out to lunch and then to a fun free display for children. Then, it was home for rest time.

After an early dinner, we took Ann to her dance recital. I can certainly see how parents get hooked on doing those kind of things. Those kids were so cute! The little ones were precious and the older girls were talented. We had a great time and we only stayed until intermission. Ann was so excited to perform. However, she did tell me she was mostly excited to go backstage. Kids!

We enjoyed brunch and playtime at the park before seeing Tony's family back home. We spent Sunday afternoon working around the house and trying to relax.

Monday was a holiday and were were all happy to have Tony home with us. We surprised the kids by taking them to see Kung Fu Panda 2. We spent most of the rest of the day at home.

Tuesday morning was the summer reading kick-off program at our local library. We all enjoyed ourselves and the girls even had their pictures taken by a newspaper photographer. They didn't make it into the print copy, but Jane's picture was online. Fun! the highlight was certainly the drumming group. The kids were especially excited when they got to try out the drums.

After running home for lunch, we headed out to buy our summer pool pass. Then, it was the girls' turn to spend the night with their great-aunt. Chris and I decided it was a good time to try out our pool pass and we did just that.

It hasn't been terribly hot or sunny the past few days. Surprisingly, the water temperature was tolerable. The air just needs to warm up a bit and swimming will be perfect. Of course, the less than idea temperatures didn't keep us from enjoying the pool again yesterday.

Before we went to the pool, we enjoyed lunch out with Tony. It was fun to spend time with just our son even if all he could think about was getting to the pool!

Once we got home from the pool, the girls were home. They all played with their marbles from the toy museum. I guess the old toys are still the good ones. I worked on an article while they played and went our for a rare girls' night out when Tony got home.

And that brings me to this morning. I'm sitting in a coffee shop while my children are home with our babysitter. Supposedly, the sun will be out later. I've promised the kids a trip to the pool this afternoon. Well, I've promised them we'll go if they do a good job of having quiet time in their rooms. We'll see!

I'd say our summer has been quite a fun one so far. I have no intention of keeping up that pace for the rest of the summer, but it's been fun. I'm hoping we can spend our mornings at home and our afternoons at the pool. Sounds like a perfect summer to me.

I'd ask what you've been up to, but with how sporadic I post and how dull this post was, I'm guessing only my mom is reading right now. :)

Happy Summer!