Miss L.E.D.

Our little Ellie D. is growing up so fast. She just finished pre-school, and is very excited to start kindergarten. She asks me all the time why can't she go to the big school since she is already 5.
She still loves her dollies and when she grows up she wants to be a mom. A few weeks ago she stopped drinking milk at dinner and I told her she needs to drink it to make her body healthy for when she has babies. She has been very good about drinking milk since then, and even explained to Nate how important drinking milk is.

She is an amazing reader. I went through the Hooked on Phonics program with her, just like I did with the boys and she has really taken off with it. She loves to read and is always trying to read things she has around her. Last night as I prepared dinner, she read me a book and then decided she was going to read it backwards, she went ahead and read it word by word from back to front.

She loves to play with friends. Every day she asks if she can have a friend over and as soon as she is done with a friend she asks for another one over. Good thing there are lots of girls her age around.

She likes to be in the middle of everything. In fact, of the fights between children in our house, at least 75% include Ellie. It probably doesn't help that she is outnumbered by the boys, 3:1.

She likes to be with me, and loves to follow me around and help me do things- especially anything in the kitchen.

She loves everything girl- getting her hair done, doing her nails, bows, babies, dresses, pink, it is a nice change for our family.

She loves to be daddy's girl. When he sits down on the couch she will cuddle up to him and rub his arm or back. He, of course, eats it up. She has a shirt that says Daddy's little angel and every time she wears it, she shows him and he tells her it is his favorite shirt, and she tells him its her favorite. It is pretty darn cute.

She loves gymnastics and dance. She spends hours a day doing cartwheels and round offs and practicing bridges in our living room. Its amazing how much better she has gotten this past year.

We sure are lucky to have such a cute princess in our family.

Cub Scout Day Camp

Adam went to day camp last week. It was 4 days from 8 am to 1:30 pm. Considering we are having record heat days, he did great! Here are some of the other woves and bears from his pack:
They walked around to different stations and learned several things from their scout books. Here they are making a teepee like the indians used to use.

It was HOT, HOT, HOT. I went with him one day and all I can say is that I'm really impressed with him sticking with it and going all 4 days!

Zipline platform,a little remodeling, the circus and the drought

A few weeks ago, Joe put a platform up so the kids had something they could move off of to go on the zipline. Joe's cousin was there so he helped with the installation, which was a good thing because he is really tall.

The kids wasted no time trying it out.

Joe also got started on the bathroom shower remodel at the lake house. I am so excited since it was so horrendous to start.
The kids were very interested in the demolition process- all crowding around to watch it.

They even begged to help until finally Joe let them help. They really enjoyed that.

I am very excited, but that means that I can't shower or bathe for a while when we go up, so that really limits the overnight trips. Its okay, the house does not have central air and it has been REALLY hot lately.
Last week Joe got the cement backerboard in. It is now ready for tile.
Another night, we saw that the circus was going to be in town. I went once before to a small circus at the same place so I thought it was going to be great. It was fine, but not as impressive as the last one I went to. The elephants were very well trained, and they were fun to see.

Lastly, we are in a pretty serious drought out here. The little lake that our property is on is lower than we have ever seen it before. The kids can easily walk to the island through the water. They still really enjoy being in the water. You can see in this picture, the water line is usually right next to the trees but as you can see it is quite a bit out. Usually the water gets low in August and September, so it will be interesting to see how low it gets this year.

Nate is Three!

Guess who just turned 3? When we asked him what he wanted for his birthday, for months he said he wanted candles- meaning he wanted a cake with candles and people singing to him.

We had a party for him at the pool, and invited the two friends that he plays with the most- William and Samuel and their families. It was fun.

Nate is a fun little boy- he is finally officially potty trained, but some days when he doesn't feel like it he doesn't do it, but then the next day he will do it again. He still takes a nice afternoon nap, and the days when we miss are really long for him.

He gets along really well with his brothers and sister, but he takes the role of baby very seriously and likes to be treated with special attention. There are many things that he is capable of doing but decides he would rather have us help him with it. He loves to be cuddled and to sit on your lap.

He is always happy, he loves to laugh and he loves to be LOUD. If it is quiet in the house and he is awake, I start to think something is wrong. He is independent in his own way, if he wants something and no one is around to get it for him he will figure out a way to do it, even if it is too high or too heavy for him.

His favorite things to do are to ride his bike and to play in the sand. He also loves to play Legos- the other night I found him out of his bed two hours past bedtime building a boat!

He loves fish and boats and the color orange. Unfortunately, he has picked up on the tattletale voice and tries regularly to use it on his siblings. It usually doesn't work out for him.

He is 38 1/2 inches tall (73%) and 36 pounds (86%)!

We sure are lucky to have this fun little boy!

End of Year Parties

This year we had lots of year end parties and festivities to go to. Luckily they split them up so they weren't all at the same day and time so we could go to all of them. But that also meant we had 7 different events to go to over the course of 2 weeks. This is why I elect to stay home, so I can do all this and not get fired.
First was Michael's year end party. They had a pancake breakfast. Michael enjoyed it so much that he stuffed his mouth completely full...a few minutes after he finished eating he said his tummy hurt, I wonder why.... Then there was Nate's year end party. When it came time to do their songs, he suddenly became shy, but he really enjoyed school. Thank-you Miss Cheryl.
Ellie's class: Dylan, Sophie, Conner, Madison, Ellie, Cole, Kiersten and Ashton Ellie got to do the cutest song...a too-ma-tat, a-too-ma-tat where they end up with their shoulders back, elbows in, knees together, tongue out eyes closed....it was pretty cute. She also had Miss Cheryl and really enjoyed it.

The boys both got to go to the straight A breakfast:

(Adam with Keaton and Jack)

Then there were the awards ceremonies. Last year all the kids got medals, but they didn't this year (stupid budget cuts).

He got good citizenship, and all A's and B's (he got one B at the beginning of the year).

And Michael's- he got all A's and good citizenship.

And finally...Adam's year end party! His party was actually fun- they had a limbo contest and bowling and pin the tail on the donkey. There were sweets, but not too many.

So now we get to rest for the summer, but the problem is we still have swim lessons, piano, gymnastics, cub scout day camp, and cub scouts this summer ;)

Blueberries, Mmmm!

We went blueberry picking yesterday! It was pretty hot, but we got there at 8:15 am and so we beat the worst of the heat. Everyone seemed to have a good time.
Nate ended up with 0 bluberries, and a pretty full stomach.

Adam had 3 pounds, Michael 2 and Ellie about 1- but her's spilled so it was a little dirty...

Now we get to make fun blueberry things...pie, cobbler, smoothies, pancakes.....

Gymnastic Olympic Day

Ugh, I can't get my pictures to move while I edit in Blogger, so they are in a crazy order.

The kids had their final olympic day at gymnastics. By the end of his class, there were only three boys in his class: Adam, Peyton and Jack (don't know what was the problem with the camera).

All the kids had routines that they had worked out. Ellies was really cute and the boys were neat. Its amazing what the kids learned this year, and they really have grown markedly stronger and more coordinated.

Here's Michael with Adam's coach, Coach Matt.

I think Ellie is the one that amazes me the most. Apparently girls develop coordination sooner than boys and so she is constantly doing things that are quite amazing. Fortunately/unfortunately she is getting really tall really fast and so I think he career in gymnastics will be short lived.

Ellie with her friend Teia, they took gymnastics together.