"It Feels Like Summertime"

This is Karissa's song that she made up this summer. Every time she, Victoria, and Bethany would do a "concert" Karissa would sing this the exact same way, while the other two would just sing random parts of songs. She's perfected the art and even stomps her foot to the beat at the beginning, if you didn't notice. It's become a real hit around here and even Victoria and Austin will sing it, but it's just not the same as when Karissa sings it! (If you listen closely, you'll hear Austin say "Austin turn!" at the very end.)

Belated Visit

After having to cancel their visit to see us in June, due to my dad's spill down the stairs, my dad and step-mom were able to come see us this last week. Though my dad is still recovering from his shoulder replacement surgery and had to be constantly doing his therapeutic exercises, we were glad they were finally able to come out.

It turned out to be a crazier visit than it should have been. They came on Tuesday evening, which ended up being only the second day of school for Victoria after her week of no school, so we were still getting used to the new schedule. The kids definitely showed how kids have a hard time changing routines by the way the were acting up. It didn't help that the kids and I suddenly got a 12-hour stomach bug later in the week, resulting in Karissa missing her second day of preschool and getting Grandma MaryLou sick. That alone took two days out of our visit!

We still made some good memories out of the visit. One of them being that we were able to take Victoria and Karissa to see their Primary chorister from church and her husband and kids in the local theater production of The Music Man. It was a great performance.

Here's some other fun moments:

Grandpa doing his exercises, though it looks like he's cleaning my counter. More exercises...

Here he is cleaning my cabinet; no, sorry, more exercises!
The day I was sick with Victoria and Karissa, Austin got to wear his Thomas pjs all day and went to a garage sale with Grandma and Grandpa and scored this train that he loves!
One of the kids' favorite pastimes, hanging on a sleeping grandpa.

Watching football...
Baking cookies with Grandma MaryLou...

Thanks for coming Grandma and Grandpa!

Back With a Bang

Victoria finally got to go to first grade this year. I walked her up to her class since she would be gone all day for the first time and since she was a little like "the new kid" in class, having missed the first 3 1/2 days. Here's just outside her classroom at Miller Elementary. As you can see, she walked right in and put her stuff in her box with a big smile on her face and didn't even look back. I was in the doorway next to Mrs. Johnson, her teacher.

When I picked her up, the first thing she said was, "School is great!" Then she said, "My teacher is easier than preschool!"

After her first full day of school, we had just enough time to get home, get a snack, and change into leotards for the first day of dance. It was a busy day for her!

Today, Karissa started her first day of preschool at PCN (Plymouth Children's Nursery). It's the co-op that Victoria went to 3 years ago, except Karissa is attending the new bilingual class. Her teacher is Senora Ruth. We are already working some of our Spanish words for the week into our conversations, which is going very well!

Here she is outside her school.

She was also very excited to attend and didn't give me a backwards glance either! Austin said he wanted to go to preschool too, and then I realized that he can start at-home preschool next year!

My Cute Boy

Austin has been growing so much in so many ways. Being the third child and the younger brother of two sisters has an impact on his development, especially in the things he says. Here are some examples:

-When I yawn he perceives that I'm tired, so he always asks, "You tired, Mommy?"
-When he sees any sort of crawling creature he says, "Pider, I cared!" (spider, I'm scared)
-If he sees his sisters have something he wants he says, "Mommy, I want some."
-or when he's eating something yummy he says, "Mmm, good Mommy!"
-he always wants to talk on the phone when I'm talking, particularly to Jason and he will actually just babble into the phone and you can hear him say, "and so, um..." interspersed with more babble and then some other mutterings of things he's doing, then he gives the phone back to me and says, "Mommy talk!"
-he does say, "I tuted!" when he passes gas (something he also learned from his sisters...)
-he'll say, "Guess what?", but he hasn't caught on to what to say after that
-he tries to tell knock-knock jokes, but only gets as far as, "Knock, knock- Who's there?", then he laughs

Along with repeating everything else he hears, we have another little talker.

He really enjoys lining up all his trains and cars, but he also loves to rock one of Victoria's baby dolls. He loves to use Daddy's toothbrush to brush with while I'm getting ready, but he also wants to put bronzer and lip gloss on (I won't even let him think about any other make-up choices!) Most of all, he just wants to be independent. What else do two-year-olds want?

Triathlon Weekend

After graduating, Jason decided to train for a sprint triathlon. The big race was this last weekend in Muncie, IN. He trained very well and had a good race for his first triathlon. It was a 400 yd. swim, about a 12 mile bike, and a 5K run. He finished in 1:29, which is pretty good, even though he said he didn't so well on the swim. The swim was in a lake, so it was quite different than swimming in the pool! The nice part about the race was that it was small, only 95 racers, which made it easy to find him before and after the race and at each of his events.

Here's the kids checking out the lake the night before. Here's Jason to the left of the guy in the wetsuit coming in from his swim.

While he started on his ride, the kids played at the playground and enjoyed the ropes,
and Victoria got to try "rock" climbing.
Here's Jason at the end of the ride. It was a beautiful ride, I'm sure.

This is the start of the run. Lookin' good! The kids really wanted to give him high-fives.

This is close to the finish line. I think the run was his best during the race, at 26:35 min.
All done- way to go Jason!
While in Indiana, we went to the zoo.

The highlight for Austin was the train ride, of course. He was giddy with excitement!

They also enjoyed playing on this little train outside the train ride.



The sea lions were also a big hit, since they were being fed and put on a show during that time, but it was raining at the moment and I was standing under my umbrella, watching from a distance. The kids and Jason had a good spot, in front of the big crowd.

After some late nights and long days, Austin fell asleep in the car right away on the way home. Also, Victoria had a fever Monday night, resulting in her missing her first day of school today- bummer! She hasn't had a fever all day, so hopefully she can go for her first day tomorrow.