First Day of School!

The kids started school this week. Well, last week for Emma and Aiden but Izzy, this week. Izzy has been so anxious to start and said, "I can't stop smiling!" on the morning if her first day. She was so glad when she finally got her first homework today because she has been so excited to have homework. Emma has made her homework pages for a long time and today she had to draw or find a picture of an alligator. Boy, there's nothing like real homework!

Emma has her first boy teacher and is now in 4th grade. She is one of the older kids out in a portable classroom now! Aiden likes his new teacher and they have a pet fish named Oscar. It's interesting when their classes get all mixed up from year to year and after being in the same class with friends for two years they're in different classes this year. They don't seem to care too much but I'm probably more attached than they are! :)

We haven't figured out our routine all the way yet but I think we will not be allowing friends to come home after school during the week. There's just not enough time in the day! We also won't be having the tv on during the week. We'll see how that goes. We did just get a new tv from some friends that makes it that much more enticing to watch! It's 50in! Yeah for us!

Will post more things later!

RATS!

Presenting Baby, Lightning, and Lacy!

Summer Fun!

I wish I had lots of recent pictures and I think I should be taking more pictures than I am but if I have to cart Ellie around ( the baby I watch) I kind of have enough extra things to worry about. I'm going to start taking more. Plus, I need the practice! Here's some pictures from Fourth of July at our house.

This is a puppy that our friends were watching. The kids have a lot of fun trying to play with it. He's kind of lazy so sometimes their efforts are wasted!

We got a slip and slide. It took a while for all of my kids to get the hang of it. The first time we set it up Emma and Izzy didn't think it was much fun at all. Sounds familiar. :) Once we pulled it out again and we had the cousins over, they realized that it was more fun than they thought. Jayson was a pro from the beginning and Cody wanted to be a pro but he would just run and jump and slip at the beginning of the slide or run half way down the slip n' slide. You can see that Yannick started just pushing him.

Here's my nephew Dylan. He's getting so big and can get around now. He's such a happy little guy. I'm sure I'm going to be shocked after having been away from them for a month. They are visiting Switzerland and will be back in less than two weeks.

As a mother, sparklers terrify me! "Here's a stick of fire that will burn you and spits out flares at you. Enjoy!" I seriously let my kids do one sparkler. That's it!


We had a nice 4th. Even though it's "so last month" it's a new post. So there!

Forts

I love forts! I am what you would call a fort lover. A blanket and some accessories make the best play time ever.
I'm not sure if it was Ben's idea or the kids' idea but on a sunny morning the kids transformed our wonderful new trampoline into a secret little home. The cousins were over and it was fun times.
When the cousins needed to lay down for a nap we let our kids have quiet time in their fort. They read books together for an hour and a half or so in warm fort bliss.

I used to love taking naps in the forts we made. I remember many specific forts, too, from growing up. I remember the houses we lived in, the way the chairs were arranged, the secret entrances. Sometimes, I would make the greatest little fort and neither Ryan or Tara would want to sleep in it! What the crap? Why would you want to sleep on the floor when you could sleep in my fort? Sometimes older sisters on NOT appreciated! (I obviously had been a little too bossy to want to take a nap with...)

I remember making forts at the Sherk's house( our close friends/"not-really-cousins" cousins). Sometimes we made two because how can six kids sleep in one fort? Funny enough, when I think of forts I think of the Sherks. And we never lived really close when we were little but we always managed to make time for each other... Maybe next time we take our kids to their house we'll build them a great fort... Ahhhhh...forts.

I used to be funny!

I think I've been a lot funnier lately. Maybe because life has calmed down for me emotionally or maybe the people around me are in better moods. Who knows? I do make Ben laugh a lot more these days and that feels absolutely fantastic. :) I was searching through my blog and was noticing that I made myself laugh in almost every post. Then I thought, "Why am I not so funny on my blog?" So I make a commitment to you, you people who read less and less frequently because I write less and less frequently. This is blog is for me to have fun writing, to be witty and amusing and I commit to remember that! I love you, readers, but even more, I love myself and I will act like it.
Here's a funny picture just for fun...

Best Day Ever, sort of

So maybe all you folks out there know what you're talking about. Who knew there was a "compose" and "html"? A few, obviously! My life will be changed forever.

Since I have refound this freedom, I will share with you some pictures of Wilma and Arthur. We found these two birds in our front yard. Don't know where they came from but you'll be happy to hear that I did not take a picture of the one that got ran over by the bike... Eeeks! It was a sad, tragic afternoon. Poor Wilma, Arthur, and Gideon. May they rest in peace...

Witty moments

So my last post was a cheat of a post so here's another one. I was looking through some of my word documents (don't you do that?) and found a poem I wrote for my dad last year for his birthday. It made me laugh so I think it shall do the same for you.

If I could pick a person…

If I could pick a person who could write with their left hand and their right, I’d pick you.

If I could pick a person who could make a game out of a roll of masking tape and a wiffle ball, I’d pick you.

If I could pick a person to be my harmony during a game of pounce, I’d pick you.

If I could pick a person to entertain a crowd at one of my fabulous events, I’d pick you.

If I could pick a person who knew what the opposite color of purple would be, I’d pick you.

If I could pick a person to take me rafting in a shallow river, I’d pick you.

If I could pick a person to clean my garage and my husband was gone (and I had a garage), I’d pick you.

If I could pick a person to plant my church, I’d pick you.

If I could pick a person to be my dad, I’d pick you.


Thanks for having sex that one time and thanks for not dying yet.
Happy Birthday!

Izzy's friends

I think I'm going to divorce blogger. Or is it my computer? I don't like not being able to see pictures on my post.

I was going to tell you about Izzy's friends but I don't know which pictures are which. So here are some of her friends...

Back in the day...

It's happened. I have noticed lately that, yes, people seem younger and younger. And,I have to think good and hard before deciding if one is in college or junior high because they look so similar. And I have noticed for some time that when I think someone is "about my age" I can assume that I am about 5 - 10 years older. But... here it is, the clencher.

When I was a kid, we only had phones that plugged into walls and it wasn't a collector's item to have a rotary phone still.

When I was a kid we pretended to talk on the phone, not to text. We didn't even know what that word was.

When I was a kid, there was no world wide web. Just mail. Like with stamps. (They're not just stickers...)

And, when I was kid everyone knew what a t.v. antennae was! I bought a new t.v. antennae to go with our digital converter box and the kid who wrung me up said, "What is this thing?"
I said,"You really don't know what that is?"
"Not at all."
"You've never seen a t.v. antennae?"
"I've had, like, an antennae for my radio before.."
"Wow, well, this is what they look like. Now you know!"

He's always had satellite t.v.! Hm!

When will my children get their own cell phones? Will they eventually have their own computer, too? When will I get my first digital t.v.? Will my kids learn what an encyclopedia is? Or just which search engine they prefer? Life is progressing. It makes me want to sing the song from Disneyland from the carousel of progress ride thing. "There's a great big beautiful tomorrow shining at the end of every day. There's a great big beautiful tomorrow and it's only...."

Life is changing. We may be experiencing a crisis due to our bold decision-making but life is still moving forward. I shall try to keep up and not live "back in the day."

BFFs

Best Friends Forever... That's how Ben and Aaron will remain. Throughout life. No doubt.

And now a song:

When you're the best of friends
Having so much fun together
You're not even aware, you're such a funny pair
You're the best of friends

Life's a happy game
You could clown around forever
Neither one of you sees, your natural boundaries
Life's one happy game

If only the world wouldn't get in the way
If only people would just let you play
They say you're both being fools
You're breaking all the rules
They can't understand, the magic of your wonderland
Hu-hu-hu

When you're the best of friends
Sharing all that you discover
When that moment has past, will that friendship last?
Who can say? There's a way!
Oh I hope... I hope it never ends
'Cause you're the best of friends

Teeth

We have teeth issues. As you can see from the pictures above I have chosen to document our current teeth crisis. Poor Emma has been losing so many teeth she hardly has any left to eat with on the bottom. The mouth pictures were taken while she still had one lose tooth (a molar) and then the next week it came out. That's the top one. Aiden had some teeth taken out for crowding and his mouth is it's own piece of art. He will definitely be getting braces later in life. Izzy hasn't started yet but Aiden has his first top tooth loose. Here we go again...



Can I mention my frustration with Blogger? First I couldn't scoot my pictures down to write above them. Then, they don't display themselves on my draft. It's just the html. Then, they have changed the order in which they display themselves. For instance, the picture I download first is on bottom which may work out fine but is not how it used to work. I had a rhythm down and now I have to relearn how to do it correctly. And, by the way, again, I can't see which picture is where while I'm typing!!!

Jesus' Birth

This post was a little tricky because my pics never displayed themselves on my draft and I didn't even know if it was working right.

These are a few pictures from Christmas break. I'll post more later.:)