Austin has loved the number 7 for a while now. However, now that he's 7, he says his new favorite number is 17, which is his student number in school. I think 17 will come faster than I would hope for, but I will try to make the most of these precious years with my boy Austin.
He is really into Minecraft lately and it is hard to get him off, once he's on, but when he wants to get on I tell him his big list of things to do first and he does them all without complaint! He decided that the dishes weren't his favorite job to do, so he added vacuuming and organizing the shoe rack in place of the the dishes. Whenever I see something needing to be done in one of those areas, I remind him that he's doing those instead of the dishes, and he'll do it without much complaint.
He really looks up to his sisters and plays well with both of them. He also plays well with Erik. They are boys, obviously, and do more physical play (like wrestling) than I'm used to and of course have more violent disagreements, but I guess that's the way it is with boys. Poor Austin usually gets the raw end of the deal because Erik likes to have the final say or hit, scratch, punch, or kick. We're working on that.
Austin has a great sense of humor, is doing really well in school, loves to play with legos, ride his bike, and jump on the trampoline. He likes my undivided attention when I put him to bed so he can talk my ears off!
He still loves his breakfasts. Most of the time, he eats about three times as much as Victoria at breakfast, but she definitely out-eats him the rest of the day! He suddenly decided this past year that he doesn't like pizza. That's in addition to not liking hot dogs, mac and cheese, marshmallows, or cake- he's kind of a rare kid. I remind him when he goes to his friends' birthday parties that all the foods he doesn't like are what is usually served at birthday parties. He never eats at parties anymore, except the candy.
He played ice hockey most of this school year and is now playing soccer. In the fall he gets to start piano lessons! Here's a long-ish video of him playing ice hockey. It wasn't his best day, but it was the best video I got of him.
His soccer team this season. He's on the second row, second from the right.
Getting ready for warm-ups.
We had a Minecraft birthday party at the park for him. The weather was perfect! They went in the splash pad, played "creeper" tag, toss the bean bag, pinata, soccer, and ate chicken nuggets and strawberries (there's chicken in Minecraft, so it's a good thing he likes it!) we had a giant cookie for his cake. For his birthday dinner at home, we had breakfast!
Birthday morning with his new shirt.
The girls both got him some fun books for his birthday and really treated him well.
Blonde brownies at home for his "cake".
Focused on one of his gifts.
Creeper tag at birthday party.
Creeper pinata.
The cookie was easier to serve than cake.
This is at his field day yesterday. I got to volunteer at the frisbee station. He's in the green shirt running back.
At field day with some of his classmates. I recognize that stance... looks like something my brother did as a kid...;)
Erik just "graduated" from Mom Preschool. There were two groups from our ward and both met together each month for a field trip or party. This month the group activity was the "graduation" at the park. It's been a fun year teaching his friends and him. Here's some pics from the party and the field trip in April to the farm (which seems like 6 months ago as opposed to just over one month ago!)
Hey ride
We got to feed lots of carrots to the animals.
Alpaca ( we had just gotten an alpaca puppet at the library that week, not knowing they would be there!)
Erik is the one hiding in the back.
Steering the caboose.
Luckily, it was warmer the day of the graduation picnic.
Yes, they are the class of 2030. Erik wouldn't wear the hat...
He couldn't wait for the cupcake!
Diploma
A new turn of events has occurred. A job literally fell into my lap. My friend knows the owner of a well-known preschool around here. They were looking for a new 2/3 year-old teacher for the fall. After thinking it wouldn't work for me, I finally decided to just check it out. After one easy interview, they decided I was the one for them and I decided I liked the idea after all!
I was hesitant at first because my education degree is very expired and it's not even for early ed. I don't have to re-certify in anything right now, but all teachers there are required to take 24 hours online each year and take a test at the end. We start in January.
I was also hesitant because I have four young-ish kids, how can I work? Well, I can drop my kids off at school and get to Red Bell by 8:45. Red Bell is a day care also. The assistants manage the kids until I get there and learning starts at 9. Erik gets to go for free, every day. It will be a great way to prepare him for full-day kindergarten the next year. He will be in the pre-k class. At 11:30 they feed us all lunch (if I want to eat there, or I can pack my own. My friend is the cook and she is great!) After helping with choice time and seeing the kids off who leave earlier, I get to go home at 12:45. Every day the public schools are off, so is Red Bell school, though they always have day care there. If I want to go take my kids so I can prepare something, I can and they get to participate in the day care activities, or help, as will be the case for the girls. The same for the summer. They have camps there that my kids can attend, for free, while I get my things together. If my kids are sick, I get a sub!
2 and 3 year-olds are pretty young, but I've heard they're mostly 3-year-olds since they have to be potty trained. I subbed last week and today so Erik and I can get a feel for it. It went well. I can tell these kids have been in preschool most days of the week (some go MWF, or other combination of days), because even though they are young, they know the routine. Of course my little ones in September will need to learn it! It's a very affluent school. It's in a nice neighborhood and I know the parents pay good money for their kids to go there! The playground is awesome! My kids have been longing to play on it for years whenever we have passed it. I feel very blessed to have landed this job so easily. The owner is very family-oriented. He's hired about 4 other members of the church because he can see the value we place on families too. He knew Erik was going to need some adjustment and that he could possibly be a distraction, which is why I'm subbing these couple of times. Erik didn't want to go to his own class at first, but when he saw the room, he was hooked! He barley looked at me when we were at the playground at first and his teacher said he was "wonderful"! He still has yet to eat the snack or lunch, he just drank the milk. I guess he'll always leave really hungry, or, one of these days he might try the food they provide!
Miller Elementary hosted its very first play, the Wizard of Oz! Victoria and Austin got to participate in it. It would have been great for Karissa too, but that's part of the deal with being at a different school. This play was great for many reasons. First, they chose multiple Dorothys and some of the other main characters so that it would not only be an easier task for some of these busy kids to take on, but also so that more kids would have an opportunity. Also, they had a chorus to sing the songs rather then having solos, another plus for kids just getting started in the theater arts. Finally, practices weren't overwhelming. They were once a week in the morning before school at 8. At the end there were a couple of extra practices, but it wasn't bad. Since Victoria was one of the Dorothys and Austin was in the chorus, they did have to go to different days of practice, but Austin got a ride every day from some friends who were already in the car for middle school drop off and heading to the practice as well, so it was perfect!
Austin singing in the chorus in the green shirt. One of the songs he got really into and was smiling and bouncing to the music.
Victoria is the Dorothy on the far left.
The one thing that could have been better would have been a dress rehearsal, but it was still fun to watch and a great experience for all involved. Austin was so nervous, for some reason, that his stomach hurt the whole week of the performances. He kept telling me his stomach hurt and the school kept calling me, which was unusual on his part, and we couldn't figure out why. He finally said he was really nervous for the show! He did great, despite his nerves, and sure enough now that the show is over, I haven't heard any stomach ache complaints!
Her biggest fan!
It was great for my mom to be able to come out for a quick visit to see the show. She needed a little break from her busy schedule on her mission in Philadelphia and we were just close enough for a short flight and a good excuse to see a show!
Our celebration after the final show. Victoria got to go with her friends.
The weather was perfect, so Erik and I got to take her to some parks, garage selling, and put up the trampoline! Victoria had her Cecchetti ballet exam and she and Austin also had their soccer practice/game Saturday. Karissa went on a bike ride with Grandma and I and was a good support to her siblings for their busy weekend. Jason and I even got to go to the adult session of Stake Conference!
Check out my new curio cabinet in the background! Major deal at a garage sale!
We were privileged to have another birthday bash weekend celebrating my dad's birthday with him, and Jason's. Two years ago my dad and Mary Lou came out over his birthday when my dad turned 70. They were here again this year to help celebrate Jason's 40th the day after my dad's birthday.
It wasn't all birthday fun, though. We started with a Ladies' Night Out that my kids' orthodontist put on for the women of her office. I took Mary Lou along with me about an hour after I picked them up from the airport. It was at the Stayin' Alive Night Club for some Mexican food and Salsa dancing lessons, all provided for by Dr, Teifer (I love our orthodontist!)
At the Night Club
The kids did their usual activities: school, piano, dance, soccer, and Wizard of Oz practice for the upcoming play at Miller. Jason and my dad even got to take the boys to the father/son campout on Friday night and us girls made pizza and watched a movie for a girl's night in. Actually, the boys didn't sleep at the campout, just did the nightly activities and came home, but went back for breakfast the next day. Luckily, the campsite isn't very far. It was probably good they didn't sleep there because it was like in the 30's that night with rain, as usual. The father/son campout always gets rained on! They didn't sleep there because Jason had just had a 3 inch incision in his back to finish up a mole he had removed a couple of months ago. It was benign, but atypical. 14 stitches in the back makes things like sleeping on the ground difficult for a person! I am the lucky one who gets the wash and dress it every day! Let's just say that I don't have the nurse/doctor qualities that allow me to do the job without feeling like I'm going to get sick....
The hair stylist is in!
While the big kids were at school all day, Erik got to go garage saling, on walks, to the ice cream shop, and Belle Isle with Grandma and Grandpa and me. He did very well with all the adults around.
On Belle Isle
Belle Isle Botanical Gardens
Downtown Plymouth
Downtown Plymouth on our walk after our special birthday ice cream outing.
For the birthdays: on Saturday, my dad got to go to the father.son breakfast in the cold, watch Austin play soccer in the cold, and then we had some good meals and played games at home the rest of the day. Belle Isle was supposed to happen Saturday for his birthday, but we changed it to Friday so we could at least have nice weather while we walked around there. So, for the rest of his birthday we hung out at home. Since Jason's big day was on Sunday, I wanted to take him out to eat. So Grandma and Grandpa got to man the kids over dinner and watch a movie with them while Jason and I went to Black Rock, a new place where you cook your own meat on a black stone from Australia that's heated at 755 degrees. It was pretty cool. When we returned, we had cake and ice cream.
Dancing to the birthday song.
Apples to Apples
I didn't do 72 candles...
Jason's birthday morning consisted of his favorite breakfast, biscuits and gravy, and gifts. The rest of the day was church, family home evening, and more cake and ice cream!
Awesome gifts!
Check out his new sport coat and tie! He even looks good still in his pjs!
Looking dapper...
Doing the "dab" with Victoria.
I did a 4 and a 0 for Jason.
All in all, I think we all enjoyed both birthdays and the time we got to spend together. Happy Birthday Dad and Jason!
I love being a mom to my four children. They are so special and unique in their own ways. With Victoria's dance recital every Mother's Day weekend, she's usually pretty tired on Mother's Day. This weekend was no different, so there weren't many extra special things done for me, except Jason made a delicious shrimp dinner and Karissa and Austin made the brownies for dessert. The best thing, though,was that they all played well together and we had a great family home evening about our ancestor mothers (mine and Jason's grandmas, great grandmas, and of course the kid's grandmas). We did a relay race for our activity, which was run by Victoria.
What I got out of the day was the time I get to spend with each of my kids daily, doing some of their favorite things.
Erik: every day he loves to play with his puppets with me. They're actually not his. We check them out from the library, so there are different ones every week. This week we have a polar bear, an eagle, and a squirrel.
Austin: Austin loves to talk to me every night when I follow him around to make sure he's getting ready for bed. He will talk and talk about minecraft, about Star Wars, legos, his friends, or whatever else is on his mind. It reminds me of some very talkative people from my growing up days...
Karissa: even though she is a great reader and when she gets in her reading mode, you can't get her out of it, she loves for me to read to her every night. If it's a little too late and we haven't much time, she still insists I read for just a couple of minutes. It helps her fall asleep faster, she says. We read a lot of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books recently, and to my surprise, I actually enjoyed them!
Victoria: lately she has been keeping up with a hair blog. I think a family who are members of the church run it. She gets all these creative hair styles from it and then wants to do them on me. Usually it's at night when the others are asleep. She sprays my hair with water and hairspray, and then, of course, it doesn't look good the next day, but it's fun to see all the different hairstyles she can do! Let me just say that she's way better at doing hair than I am!
This is the last one she did. It was the best because I slept in it and then ran it the next day and it still looked good, so I wore it that whole day!
On Mother's Day, Erik wanted his picture by the tree, I guess we should have moved over there, but we were pressed for time.
I wanted the picture by the flowers, so this is what I got from Erik.
It's been a busy week! I got my groove back with posting videos on You Tube, so I have posted videos you can watch. Now that I have the know-how with posting from You Tube again (it seems so easy, I don't know what happened the last few times I tried to post videos!) I'll have to post something of Austin playing ice hockey. For now, enjoy these. Karissa at the wax museum, Karissa's 3rd grade music concert. Victoria's ballet and tap dances for the recital this year. Never a dull moment around here!
