Similarities and Differences

Similarities: This was Erik at the apple orchard last week.

 Here was Victoria when she was about a year younger. (I seem to not have as many pictures on my computer after we lost a bunch of files. I know I had a better one of her!)

 Like we all thought, they resemble each other in appearance and personality.

Differences: Austin told me Sunday morning that he had a loose tooth. That was the first I knew of him having a loose tooth. That evening, during Family Home Evening, he ripped it out during the prayer as he was saying the prayer! (It's a good thing for Victoria something exciting happened, for she was about to get a tongue lashing for how irreverent she was during the prayer, which was probably due to the fact that she was watching Austin pull out his tooth while praying.)

Karissa, however, has a loose tooth for months before it either falls out on it's own with very minimal pulling, or comes out in a cinnamon roll, like one of her first teeth did!

I love to see the similarities and differences between our children!

And Then There was One

For the past four weeks I've had only Erik at home, at least of my kids. I have watched Logan many times, often I pick him up from preschool, and I have watched other kids here and there. Erik has adjusted better to the new schedule than I thought he would. He has played really well with Logan and the other friends who have come over (all mostly older than him), and he has played well with just me around. Sometimes he helps me when I'm gardening, baking, doing laundry, or cleaning, sometimes he likes to play by himself. He loves to give Austin a big hug, though, as soon as Austin comes out of his class. It's pretty darn cute!

It's still different for me to watch three of my kids get out of the car and walk up to the school. Austin has just been good about it from the beginning, like he's been doing it for years. He used to always be somewhat crabby in the evening and kindergarten hasn't made that any different! He's not any more tired than he used to be. Often, when I pick up the kids and have Logan with me, Austin enjoys the few minutes he has to play with him on the playground before we take Logan home and doesn't complain about not having had much time with his friend.

Ready for picture day! 

 Karissa has loads of homework for a second grader (more than Victoria has by far!), but she's doing well adjusting to the load. Victoria has only one week night of dance, and the other dance day is Saturday, so that makes her week days a little less busy, which is nice.

So what have I been doing with only one kid at home? Besides watching other kids, spending time with Erik, and working on my calling for church (I'm now the Relief Society activity coordinator), I've been canning salsa, apple butter, raspberry jam, and freezing pesto and other apples to use up our harvest. I've been helping a few friends with some things and I've been cleaning and organizing. It's nice to see the house a little cleaner with less kids at home the whole day to mess it up! While I enjoy my time without the three older kids, I do enjoy it when the return home and I feel more relaxed and ready to chat with them and take them to their after school activities on the nights we have things going on.

After preschool, waiting for the older kids to get out of school.

Logan's first day of preschool.

Didn't know this came out so blurry! Erik and I went to a music class yesterday. We'll start doing some more "Mommy and Me" classes as the year continues.

I really look forward to the "swim and gym" playgroup Erik and I will start soon and to our cooking class in January. I'm hoping it will help his interest in food!

Air Show

We didn't have consistent Internet service for over a week, so my blog got a week off. There must have really been something wrong with the outside box because it took many hours for them to fix it!

For one of the Saturdays we didn't have service, we got to take our kids to an air show about an hour from our house. Jason, having served in the Air Force years ago and being an Air Force "brat" himself, was super excited to let the kids have the experience. He went to them all the time growing up and he and I went a a few while he served in the military.

 Jason was like a kid in a candy store showing the kids all the planes!

Inside a C-17

C-17s are big, but nothing compared to C-5s, which they didn't have that day. It was hard to get a pic without so many people around it!

Inside a fighter jet which was pretty cool!

I lost track of all the names, but the ones they got to sit at the controls were the best!

Erik's "thumbs-up"

The Blue Angels' show at the end was the best and always the highlight of the air show. Pictures just don't do it any justice. The kids were completely amazed!

 BTW, I still got it! Just like in Jr. High, I was able to beat the record for the most pull-ups for women while there. (Actually, in Jr, High I just tied my sister's record from three years earlier, I think they just wanted a more recent name up.) At the Air Show, the record was 10 and I beat it by 2! My name is shown below for 12 on the left-hand side.

An Amazing Summer

This was one of the best summers I have had as a mom. One of the main contributing factors to that was because Victoria was enjoying the summer vacation. It's not that she hasn't enjoyed summer break in the past, but for the past 5 years (since she started school) it was hard for her to have so much down-time at home and she would often be liked a cooped up tiger ready to pounce on anyone who rubbed her wrong. She also had trouble sleeping in previous summers because of how light it is here at night and the warm/humid temps. I never knew how to help her because it's not as if we'd just sit and do nothing all summer, in fact, if you know me, you know that I like to get the kids out of the house at least once a day.

What was different this summer? I think many things made a small difference and contributed to the whole. First of all, I was prepared. I had purchased lavender oil to help the girls settle down and fall asleep easier. We keep the house cooler during the time the kids get ready for bed. Victoria having her own room with a fan has helped as well. The other factors were probably the timing of our vacation to Colorado at the beginning of the summer and then the way I had spaced our other activities for the rest of the summer. Also, Victoria's being older and more responsible really had a lot to do with it. I was able to get her to do her job every day, including her piano practice and some school work. Mostly she accomplished those tasks in the morning, with some exceptions. Being helpful makes people happier and it worked for her too! The ironic part is, she didn't end up using the lavender oil or even melatonin (like last summer) like I thought she would. Karissa did though!

Here are some of the things we did after returning from our Colorado vacation.

Karissa made huge strides in swimming lessons!

Austin did too!

Victoria, in the deep end

Hiking

Pioneer Day activity

Painting boats

Soccer sign-up picnic

The bird was the highlight of the picnic.

Ward camp-out.

It's nice to have kids help set up now.

Roller skating

Erik wanted to try and did great!

Bike rides

Play dates (this was a special one since Karissa couldn't go to her BFF's b-day, so we celebrated here with her).

beach at the lake

 splash pad

Play groups

Raspberry picking

Detroit's Eastern Market

Labor Day activity at the Park

 Of course I didn't include pictures of the older three at Canton Activity Crew that went on through July and the first two weeks of August. They went to a playground for a few hours and were supervised and engaged in activities there. We also went to the community pool a lot with our "Healthy U" pass. Our trampoline is still damaged from last fall's storms and the parts for it are on back-order, so we survived without it. Hopefully, we'll have it next summer!

Austin's first day of Kindergarten was today! He has Mrs. Mifsud and was so excited to go. He was disappointed that yesterday wasn't the first day! (that's a K in sign language)

Victoria is in 4th and has Mrs. Jewett.

Karissa is in 2nd and has Mr. Anderson. 

 We're ready for the school year!