last post

I have come to terms with the fact I can't keep this up.  Obviously.  So this will be the last post on this blog.  I'm sure someone will be annoyed that it is another blog address that will go to waste, but whatever.  The name isn't that cool.  They will think of something else.  Email or text me if you want to keep in touch!  It is the same old email I've had for forever. 

I have just been really enjoying being with the kids.  While Papa was on his work trips, he asks me what thing I did that day.  I respond back with really boring routine things and he tells me about his adventures.  But honestly I just love boring routine things because right now I just get to enjoy the kids.  And I have really been enjoying them.

At the beginning of the summer, a friend told me about her summer schedule and how things were by theme each day.  I tried adapting hers to our family but that worked for about 2 weeks.  This month, however, I was motivated to adapt to our family.  visits to family reminded me that I have been wanting to teach my kids music and Spanish, plus plan time to supplement what the school is doing.  So far this has also lasted two weeks.  We shall see what really happens, but I rather enjoy it because it feels like I am nurturing them better, having better mommy time and teaching them something.  I'm sure they disagree, but oh well. 

Wednesday and Friday mornings are Spanish mornings.  I just speak Spanish instead of English.  This is how it has gone.  T really liked it for the first two days and told me he liked Spanish days.  But then today he said he didn't like it.  He couldn't understand what I was saying so he "just ignored me".  True.  E doesn't like it either and is constantly saying "No!" in a growly voice or "what are you saying?" over and over.  W has just ignored it altogether.  I think she knows it will go away soon.

T said he hates piano lessons, but then he is the only one that voluntarily practiced the song on his own.  E tries to get piano lessons but is told he is too little still.  He bangs on the piano and growls "no!".  W pays attention but gets frustrated and ignores the piano all the rest of the time.  I think she knows it will go away soon. 

We have started doing reading writing and math every morning.  I was surprised that they caught on to reading already.  Definitely not fluent, but the idea of it is present.  Practicing helps most of the time but is more frustrating to T. 

He likes writing a bit better.  His favorite word to practice writing is "meow".  W's favorite phrase is I love you.   E wants to scribble and does it with gusto, on paper and the counter.  I love granite, washable countertops.

T is really good at getting math.  I think he gets the concept much better.  It helped a bit too, when I told him it is a skill a papa needs so he can add measurements to build. 

Some really cute stuff they have done is do gobs of I love you art, and  continue playing".   They call playing together their "games" or their "plays".  I often hear T ask W in the morning "W, can we play king and princess?"  or "Let's play kitties in the dark, W".  Or "let's go outside and play on the boat" (the trailer with the kayaks).  Today they added "ruby land" and "wheelchairs" to the repertoire.

Here are some pics of some times that I just really enjoyed with them playing.

Discovering how fun cattails are.  We sat under a tree while they climbed it and later found cattails at the park.  It was a fabulous day

T was pretending it was smoke on a train.  He ran up and down the trail until the whole area was covered in seeds

E wanted his own.  But just to have his own.  Not to open up

I took W on a mommy/daughter date.  We needed just girl time.  She found these parrot wings at the kid museum

I love the stillness of the lake in early fall.  It sounds like the echoes of summer are fading.  Some sort of still calmness to the water.  It was way too cold to be in the water, but E disagreed.  He wanted his own island.  Just like T

A reminder to me that W loves to find me beautiful rocks

E laughing on the see saw

getting off while in mid air and mid cute pic.  Agh!

T has been so good to E.  He loves to help him with his diaper changes, puts his flip flops on if E allows it and gives him all sorts of rides.  He is so good at that!

family reunion

We drove down to see family as our road trip this summer.  I tried to visit as many family members as possible!!  We almost got them all!  I wanted J to be with us, so we were not there for long.  Definitely a road trip.  But definitely good to see family.

These are the only pics I remembered to take.  I was busy either chatting it up or helping my kids when they demanded my attention after me ignoring them while chatting it up. I let the family photographer take the rest of the pics.

We visited my papa, Aunt B, and Auntie Anne on the way to and from Uncle Frank's place.  While we were at Frank's place, we hung out playing games, talking, eating smores while having a campfire, visiting the largest tree on earth, cooling our feet in the river, and having a pool party.  We enjoyed the stars while we were there and my kids experienced real hot, something I was trying to describe to them previously.  I think they had a tiny taste of it.

I came back more motivated to teaching my kids Spanish and piano.  We will see how long that lasts.

Here are the pics

 

Asleep in Aunt B's bed.  We took over her room and fridge.  It was fun.  They loved looking at all of her shoes

T and E looking at the photo of S and B playing in the mud puddle as kids

E played with Aunt B for about 20 minutes straight doing exactly this.  Running his truck up and down her arm.  He was pretending it was a huge speed bump.  At the end of the line, Green, his truck, got a kiss from Aunt B.

because T loves dumping the sand down this hole over and over

The sand flower W made on the spinning seat

A purple flower W enjoyed.  She had never seen this kind of flower before.  I happen

Look E!  The biggest tree on earth!

Smile please J!  Papa/W pics are hard to come by

This was an awesome stop.  We played near these trees for about a half hour.  So relaxing and enjoyable.  Saw some deer

This tree was like a miniature caving experience for them.  Only they could really fit in this tree's cavities, but they could climb up and down.  They didn't want to leave

This is a great memory for me.  We stopped at a really scary park while J scouted out some amazing food for us.  We ate in the park.  It got dark.  We forgot it gets dark so much earlier!  I've discovered I really like food from Mexican grocery stores.  Yum!

Yummy food.  We love chips!  This was also the "naked potty" park.  We went to use the restroom and all the stall doors had been removed.  Very uncomfortable. We stood guard for each other. 

the down time

Here is the stuff that I really enjoyed about summer between all the happenings. 

J wanted to make sure we wrote down that T calls instructions for building Legos constructions.  Anything that is an instruction, he calls constructions.

We went to the Lego store for FHE one day.  It was Papa's turn to be in charge of the activity.  They have a cup that you can put whatever pieces and amounts you want from a particular wall for a flat rate.  Us adults get the whole idea.  W and T didn't.  They both looked at the wall and W found some fences.  She told papa she only wanted four.  And four purple colored pieces.  T wanted two extra wheels and the axles.  Haha!  Just goes to show that us adults are glutenous and want more than we need.  But not kids!  J dumped in a ton of wheels, axles, hitches and eyeball pieces.  They went home and W made some bug cars.  Only two of them.  Because that is all they needed.

T is starting to get really good at drawing.  He has put a lot of time into coloring his trolley pictures, making detailed train pictures, or drawing detailed pictures about a story, game, or "play" that they pretend play about.  He has one particular picture of a cat in soft, soft grass with a princess that has angry clouds above her blowing wind and lightning.  He also made a "Utah " license plate for the "boat".  They have been pretending that the trailer is their boat and play on it for hours and hours.  He also draws buildings and includes all the necessary vents on the house.  The dryer vent, the heater vent, the chimney itself and the food exhaust vent. He is very vent aware.

I made job charts.  I have been very very surprised. T is the one that gives me the least amount of grief about doing his part.  He seems to be very glad to do his part to help the family. He is also very good at doing his jobs. 

Here are some funny things they say. 

While playing on the boat, W said "Listen to your speaker!"  She was telling T to follow the directions given by the speaker, just like on the ferry. Instructions come over the loud speaker.  They also called each other captain and put towels around them to make them look like they have life jackets on like when we went sailing.  One of their favorite places to eat snack right now is on the boat.

I have been trying to teach them to use the word mistaken instead of lying. Often when E is confused and learning new terms about how the world works around him, T says E is lying.  Like when E calls a semi truck with a label a Costco truck, even though it is some other store.  T says he is lying.  So I keep saying that E is mistaken, not lying.  It is catching on.  One morning at breakfast T was saying that E was mistaken about something.  E yelled back "I not mistaken!  You are mistaken!"

T likes to taunt his siblings by quietly saying a nickname for them over and over. E yelled at T and said "don't call me weath!"  It sounds so funny to me to have him verbalize concepts like that.

Every time we drive by the mailbox, E says "look at the beautiful mailbox we made!"

T helped me do the finishing touches for the mailbox.  He helped me put on all the address stickers.   He also used the power drill a bit to take down the old stand.  That was fun for him, even though all he did was push the button.  We had fun doing it together.

E sorted all the color buttons to the right color at the playground.  He also can easily count to 15.

W is doing well with reading.  They can both read simple consonant, vowel, consonant words out of bob books. It has been fun watching it turn on.  It still amazes me that skills just turn on.  W and T approach reading differently.  Whitney sounds it out and then starts memorizing the words she has sounded out over and over. T takes in the whole picture and pages at once.  He looks at all of it instead of focusing on a detail, like which letter comes next to sound out.  He notices the picture, he notices matching words on the opposite side of the page, etc.  Focusing on a single part is not fun for him at all, but he is disciplined enough to sit there while I ask him to complete a task.  Crazy!

W has started practicing writing, too.  She sounds out words and copies sentences from books, even though she doesn't know what they mean. 

She also copied drawing a 3D object the other day.

When we are outside, she likes to make arrangements.  She uses leaves, flowers, pinecones, etc to make them.  She is pretty good at balancing stuff and getting a pop of color.

She also is often a nurturer.  She helps E get in his seat, or teaches him stuff she knows by patiently explaining it to him.

T amazes me on his ability to care for others.  Today he changed E's wet diaper, pulled him in the wagon and helped him get on his flip flops.   He is really good at being a host to his friends and making sure they are happy.  He reminds us to wash our hands and not eat sugar.  He is good at taking care of our bodies and others, too. 

E told me today.  Mom.  Thank you for fixing my flip flop.  He surprises me with how well he can completely say an awesome thank you

Ethanette.  He said to me, mom!  look at my necklace and made a face that said he knew how cute he looked.  I tried over and over to get a good picture of him wearing W's pink plastic princess high heels while playing with his trucks. 

The sweet moments of these past couple of weeks is seeing that the boys are finally starting to play with each other.  It involves T playing with E, but it is so cute.  This is a train.  The train has signs on it that say no smoking and no grown ups.  The grown ups portrayed have very sad faces.  There is also a license plate.  Because all trains need license plates. 

E admiring the sky

W made a ton of stuff after our road trip.   I think she missed her art supplies the most.  She made herself her own paper dolls.  They look like her.  They even have flowing brown hair like her.  It amazes me what she thinks up.  An T has drawn and colored many good trains since we got back.

T loves pulling the shopping cart.  Even if it means he misses out on a ride in a cool cart.  He always asks to pull it. 

Kitty in the tree

T with his buddy.  The love playing construction worker together.  W leaves because she doesn't like his friend's rules.  T loves them

E isn't quite tall enough to get into trouble.  He often finds some toy to stand on to play with the forbidden trains and legos.  This time he is standing on his megablocks

"Is this W's wheelchair?:  E was wondering before he played with it.  E and T invented the wheelchair game. 

an arrangement made for me by W.  She knows hoto put these together.  She also calls them arrangements.  She made it for me on a day that we were climbing trees at a park. 

T made a license plate for his boat.  It was a Utah one because it had a sun on it and everything

The shaw creation W made with packing materials.  She made T a cape after that.

Snack time on the ship

T as a turtle

W loves to be with me.  I love this pic because it shows each insect with their mommy and a heart to show they are excited

W drew this about a month ago.  It amazes me that she can copy something so well.  She has reached my capabilities at drawing already

T and Papa bought this for me.  T was very excited about it.He can use it well himself, too!

Miss I

I talked a good friend of mine into coming out to visit me this summer.  She has five kids between 10 and 2 years old.  Her hubby couldn't take off more time.  Mine was gone.  She lives 12 hours away straight driving.  It really takes about 15 hours minimum if you push yourself.  About 2 hours into her drive she almost turned around.

BUT!!!  She made it.  It was a once in a life time event.  Something I am certain I'll never be able to talk her into doing again.  Or me.  We realized that a third adult is key with this group.  We were whooped. But we had so much fun!!  Here is what I (and the kids) remember about their family's visit. 

Basic outline of activities:  blueberry picking, night at the beach/park, ferry ride and beach, air show, camping experience day, church (afternoon of course.  Ha!), flight museum, trolley ride, ice cream snack.

Here is what I remember.  Bedtime showering and routines were exhausting.  We couldn't help each other and had to figure out how to get 8 filthy kids clean on a rotation.  I was ready to collapse each night. Cooking for 10 people is a new logistics problem for me. I never got it down and understand better why moms of lots of kids get tired. I felt like lots of energy was in food prep and cooking.  That would quickly go out the window if I did it the way I did it long term.

But then, once the kids were in bed and we could hear ourselves talk, we stayed up late anyway.  That was the best part of the whole visit for me.

My kids called her kids their cousins.  They aren't biologically, but hey!  It was that fun

W loved getting her nails painted with the girl cousins.  She also loved playing all day with the girl cousins.  They played ponies, in the tree and made/decorated their own outside fort.

T loved playing with her second oldest.  A bit of a surprise to me.  I thought he would like playing with the boy his same age.  Not so.  I guess he likes the other boy because of his love of fun and all his ideas.  They played outside on their bikes and scooters a bunch and a ton with the Legos.

T also caught Miss I by surprise and tickled her feet once.  She laughed pretty hard and he was happy he made her laugh. 

T was an amazing host.  I didn't realize what skill he has in that area.  He shared all of his toys all the time.  I think he did miss playing with his sister a bit since she wouldn't let him play with her too much, but it worked out.

E seemed happy to just be with so many people. My cutest memory of him was greeting everyone one by one coming up the stairs for breakfast by name.  He eventually got to playing with the youngest, the one his age.  They took turns picking the toy to play with.  She played ponies with him first.  Then he suggested trucks. 

I don't have pics but the hike back to the car with the 6 kids that were 7 and under was super cute.  T and W made gates for the kids to run through.  The toddlers loved that game and hiked back without complaints.  Thank heavens for T and W.  Very enjoyable memory.

I also don't have pics of the trolley ride and frozen yogurt after trip.  Miss I was a totally auntie and treated them.  T spent lots of time coloring in his picture so very carefully of the exact colors of the trolley on the paper they gave him.  He loved it. 

I called and asked everyone what they remembered about the trip.

 The youngest didn't want to talk to me on the phone. No comment I guess. Probably upset about losing her sandels.  She hid them somewhere.  I still haven't found them. 

The next youngest is five.  He remembers playing. He told me on the phone he didn't want to go home, but that he had to.   He played legos the entire time he was here.  Mostly driving the Lego train too fast and wrecking it, but other legos too.

The middle one remembers riding the ferry.

The second oldest remembers sleeping downstairs.  He had never done that, he said.  While he was here, he woke up scared.  It was pitch black in the area he was sleeping in, so that probably had something to do with it.

The oldest remembers the air show, riding scooters down our hill with his new friends and playing in the driftwood fort on the beach.

Miss I enjoyed the hike.

Very interesting.  We were all together for those days, yet everyone remembers something different. They all happened, but it sounds like a completely different time based on who you talk to.

There are only a few pics from my phone and camera.  The rest they have.

our playroom by 9 am the first day after they got here. 

playing at the beach

Joseph helping E along

This pic makes it easy to see the future.  Next time it will be motorcycles I'm sure

The girls playing

joining in some of T and W's favorite games.  Playing on the trailer.  It is their ship

Perfect lunch spot.  In the cool ivy for the kitty, a game they play

What E did during the air show

The boys found some dirt

Joseph reading the bedtime story

What the girls did during the airshow

toddler snack time.  They got gold fish instead of ice cream

Want to play ponies?

getting the fire ready

W and S's creation after we did the smores

Their fort and house.  The white things on the tree are the clam shell decorations they hung up in their house

Want to play trucks?

we found this note after they left

enjoying girl time