Elise Speaks

Elise is behind a bit on speaking...  Which is fine, she still communicates in her own way.  She does say "da" and "ma" (more like "muh") and today she said "bear" (more like "buh").  She is parroting and yesterday she was parroting "bear", but today she actually picked up her bear and said it on her own!  She is parroting other words: hello, shoe, etc.  Her most used word is "muh", she uses it for Mom, Milk, and More.  So when she says "muh, muh, muh" she is saying "More Milk Mom!"

Peter Pan

Aidan was asking why I was up so early and I explained what I do early in the morning.  His reply: "I'd much rather be a kid than a parent."

Door stops

For years we have had a few doors that slowly swing closed, or just won't stay open.  So we have been creative keeping them open.  I had a old rice baby that we used for one door, a footstool for the other and the last door, we used our "Tickle Me Elmo"...  Finally we broke down and bought a magnetic door stop--it is great!  What a wonderful invention!

July

Because summer is short, we really try to cram things in! For the Fourth of July weekend we decided to enjoy the sun in the mountains and went hiking to Lake Mary with Scott's parents and brother-in-law. Then we had a wonderful BBQ with Matt and Barbara Brown family--with Adam and Janet, too. I am so glad we have family nearby to do things with!

I tried to get in lots of crafts, and one that I thought would be fun this year is fingerpainting with pudding.  There is a new pink strawberry pudding, so we used that and a chocolate (and they taste good together...) and invited a friend over and they had fun (and got full)!  The boys have endlessly played with stuff from the recycling bin, and we have a nice drawer in the pantry with lots of craft supplies (thanks Ali for organizing it for me!).  I have realized that I really need to just let the boys do what they want when they "craft" rather than trying to get them to do things "my way".  Then they get so creative!  They are also really into paper airplanes and we have thousands of them littering the house.

Something else we did but didn't get photos of is a neighborhood "Backyard Battle".  We invited over all the neighbor kids with any "battle" toys--Beyblades, Kung Zhu, Pokemon, etc, and everybody battled!  It was great til it started raining...  I would have made them just tough it out... but it was a downpour.  So instead I had 21 kids run through my house and down to the basement!  We didn't fit well, so it didn't last long, but fortunately, neither did the storm and they quickly went back out.  But it was fun!

Elise is so fun to dress in the summer with cute flowery and bright clothes.  I got some fun photos of her with some daisies--she is so happy.  She is so much fun.  She loves her brothers and especially looks to Weston for love and comfort.  He is very caring of her. 

We had the "Summer of Sisters" this month--Ali and Heidi came to visit.  Heidi and I took some of the kids to a swim park and it was a blast.  Then we did some shopping at one point (too much).  We went to the aquarium and a splash park and did some crafts (fun hats!).  Another day we picked up Hilary (we all got to meet her cute cats), but unfortunately life got crazy with the kids and we didn't get to do much, but we still had a good time talking.  Then, all my kids got sick with the flu and life REALLY got crazy...  So we stayed at home for awhile.... and threw up.  :(  It was still nice to be together, and I apologize to all you girls for the sick house.  I am sure the sisters will do a much better job telling the details of it all.

Weston went to cub scout camp for the first time--so much fun!  He went swimming and fishing and made some fun things.  I was a scout leader for awhile, and although it was hard, I wish I could do it now with my boy! 
He just couldn't get enough of the outdoors, so we went camping!  Our annual trip to Wasatch Mountain State Park over the 24th weekend.  We went hiking, roasted marshmallows, rode bikes, fished (Weston caught two!) and got reallly dirty!  It is a lot of work to prepare to go camping, but it is so much fun!  We get so many scrapes and cuts, but we have such great family time.  Elise loved it--she felt so free and loved getting dirty.  Brennan loved the treats and bugs.  Aidan practiced riding his bike over and over and loved the marshmallows.  And Weston was so big and responsible and raced around on his bike!  Plus it was so fun for him to catch fish! 

We ended July with Scott doing a triathlon--what an amazing althete!  He has just been training for a few months, but he is a natural.  He got 15th in his age group (out of 60+) and blew past everyone we knew that raced, too.  Way to go honey!

I have just been keeping the kids busy with activities:  lemonade stands, walks, crafts (wait til I post photos next month of our current project!), library trips (Weston just finished the 2nd Harry Potter!!!! He is an amazing reader!), riding bikes, playing at parks, making banana bread, swimming with friends...  it goes on and on.  We only have 2 weeks left so I am going to do as much as I can to get more in there before they are back to school!

End of school!

Finally, school is over! Because we are on track system (year round school) we didn't get out of school til July 1st! The kids are so ready to be done!

I don't have room to keep all of their art projects, so we gathered everything together and took a photo... That way they will always remember them, but I can throw them away! (We did keep a few special ones...)
Aidan had a Kindergarten program where he dressed up in what he wants to be when he grows up (a soccer player), and they sang songs. He did a marvelous job, just very quietly.
He also did an animal report. He chose the Grey Wolf. He told interesting facts about the wolf and made a prop--it could have been a poster, etc, but I wanted to try something different so we made a die/block with pictures on each side. It turned out really cute. He would then roll the die and tell the class about the picture (baby wolves are called pups, wolves howl to communicate, etc). I told him about the book "Call of the Wild" and now it is his favorite book... even though we haven't read it (we started, but it is pretty heavy reading for a six year old and we didn't get very far--about four pages in, he asked, "Who is Buck?"--that is the dog, the main character...)

The kids loved their teachers this past year--each teacher was perfect for the boys. I could not have picked a more perfect teacher for Aidan--always giving treats and making school a FUN place. And Weston's teacher is perfect in every way! We tried to convince her to move on and teach third grade... I just hope they get good teachers this next year.

Now we'll begin on our big list of fun Summer Activities. I have a lot of things planned to keep the kids occupied and happy. We'll see if I am successful!

June's Random Things

Elise is getting cuter and cuter (if that can happen). Her hair is getting longer and I am able to put it up and try to maker her all cute-sy. (I love photos of the back of kids... I know it doesn't show her face, but what a cute little body!)

She loves playing outside with the boys, and now that it is FINALLY summer, they are playing in the water quite a bit. (oh my darling child!!!)
Other fun summer activities are playing with chalk, playing socccer and catching bugs. We found this damaged butterfly in our yard and cared for it for an afternoon (This happened two years ago, too!).We have also gone on a few bike rides, now that Weston got a new bike for his birthday, and Aidan got his first bike!!!
We took a trip to the dentist (not necessarily a fun summer activity...) and Weston and Aidan are cavity free, but Brennan has two or three! He had to get them filled, but he did a marvelous job and was very brave (he just did the gas, we didn't have to give him any meds or anything!). He's got some lovely teeth! Weston keeps losing his (I think he has lost 8 now!) and Aidan keeps wiggling his hoping they will be loose.I had my birthday this month--I got a wonderful present: I went shopping with my girlfriends! It was so nice and so needed (thanks girls!). And thanks husband for letting me! For Father's day, Scott got Paragliding Lessons!!!! What do you think of that present? I am excited for him. I got them for his dad, too, so they can go together. The kids are going throught his phase of making thousands of paper airplanes, and they love to do it at Grandma and Grandpa's and fly them off the second floor into the living room. So I bought a paper airplane kit and gave it to all the boys for Father's Day. When Scott and his dad opened the present, I don't think they understood--I had attached a piece of paper with the paragliding info on it... It was a fun idea that didn't "take off" very well. Oh well.

Aidan's Birthday!

What a boy! This crazy wonderful child turned SIX! What a kid! He chose Sonic X as his theme, so I made a chaos emerald pinata (not perfectly made, but still pretty cool!).Aidan planned his entire birthday party: looking for hidden chaos emeralds (ring pops) around the yard, throwing balls through Sonic Rings, walking with an egg on a spoon and dropping it into Dr. Eggman's mouth (why didn't I get a photo?), and racing around the house. I was proud of him for his little games he made up. He loves to plan his parties and write lists of birthday wishes. He even made himself a poster (months before his birthday--it is a good thing I found it and remembered to put it up!).
Grandma and Grandpa came over on his birthday and he got some wonderful presents--mostly Cars toys. He also got a tie that matches his daddy (like Weston) and a Kit Kat from Weston. I think he was pretty happy with what he got! Happy Birthday very funny boy!