First Week of Summer

Last Saturday I had a last minute idea to go to the Lego Store and have the kids make their dad minifigures for Father's Day. Lucy was a bit whiny about the drive but once she got there she didn't want to leave. It's such a fun store! And it was fun to see them make a minifigure that they thought their dad would want. Steven made a very Indian Jonesish guy that felt very Tyler. Lucy made some sort of snow boarding Leprechaun. Ben made a midget, knight, robot- not sure what he was aiming at with that one. And after making 4 girls with dresses, Penny finally made Tyler a Hagrid looking figure.

Sunday morning Tyler was greeted with cinnamon rolls and all his gifts. He got the minifigures, reusable chopsticks, "you're killing me smalls" shirt, Lucy's footprint and a card from us all.

He seemed to have a good laid back Father's Day. I had bought a steak for him for dinner but ate a late lunch of Chili's leftovers and never ended up wanting it. Maybe Chili's is all he needs these days?

Monday morning we went to the Ann Arbor Hands on Museum. As part of Max's birthday present we had promised to take him there so that was the day we fulfilled our promise. Since I had a BOGO coupon for the museum we brought Ben's friend Andrea along too. I was alone with 6 children and somehow we all survived and I came back with all 6. I think maybe because it was the first time in forever that the museum wasn't ridiculously crowded.

Everyone had a good time except maybe Max. He got bored of each floor easily and kept wanting to leave when the rest of the kids were still having fun. Kind of made me a bit crazy because we had lots of time to stay there and there was no reason to rush. Max also asked me to buy a $25 thing from the gift shop. I sincerely hope none of my kids ever asks someone else's mom to buy stuff for them. He really seemed shocked when I said "no." I ended up caving and spending 51 cents for them all to get one of those silly stamped pennies, so silly.

Monday night it was nice and warm so we went to our neighborhood beach with the Brandleys. It was such a nice evening, the water was actually warm enough for me to get in and the kids had fun jumping off the platform with their dad.

Tuesday was a pretty low key day. I just watched a friends kids for a few hours around lunchtime and that helped to break up the day. The kids had a lot of fun hiding and chasing each other around the house. Then that night I went to the temple with my friend Corinne. I am proud of myself for sticking to my goal to go every month and I also appreciate the time that I get to spend there and the peace that I feel while I am there.

Wednesday we had planned for a beach day but of course the weather didn't cooperate. We ended up going with some friends to the library for story time instead. The boys were a little old for it but they were good sports. Afterwards the kids all played some board games and matching games that the library had. It was a good way to kill some time. I swear these summer days seem EXTRA long. Especially because the kids keep waking up when Tyler and I get up to exercise. I wish they would just sleep through it!

Thursday the weather warmed up so I decided to invite several people to do a last minute beach day with us, only to find out (after walking there)that the water at our beach was being treated so we couldn't swim in it. One of the people that we had invited has a community pool and she let us all come there instead. It was such a perfect way to pass the afternoon. All the kids got along super well and the girls are finally doing good with "swimming" by themselves in their puddle jumpers. This is good because the water is much too cold for my taste. Anyways, I need more days like this!

Friday I took the kids to see "The Incredibles 2". They all did really good during the show but that could be because I brought lots of candy for them to pig out on. I enjoyed the movie myself but some of it felt a little grown up for the kids (adults drinking wine to celebrate, a couple curse words, the villain's motive) and the villain's mask was a little too creepy for the kids. Really I think Jack-Jack made the movie for the kids (and me), he was the best part!

And that is really the highlights of our week. Today the girls had a birthday party and tonight Tyler and I have a birthday party that we are going to so we're keeping ourselves busy and out of trouble ;)

Last Week of School

On Sunday it was nice to be with my Primary class again (after 2 weeks of being out of town). When the Bishop welcomed a YM who had just returned from his mission, he started by saying "We would like to welcome back someone who has been away for awhile..." Lucy commented to me, "We've been away for awhile! Are they welcoming us?"  

I didn't think I would be subbing on the last week of school but Ben's teacher caught the flu so I got to sub for his teacher on Monday. They were able to bring their stuffies to school so for snack time we brought them outside and had a little picnic. Also, while I was there, we held a class spelling Bee and Ben made it into the top 3. I didn't realize he was such a good speller! 

I spent most of Tuesday rooting through piles of junk only to have the kids bring home the entire contents of their desk that afternoon- super great. That night, as my prize for all the organizing, Stefanie and I went kayaking at Kensington. The weather was absolutely perfect and we had such a good time. 

On Wednesday Lucy had a field trip the Flint Children's Museum and Benjamin had a field trip to the Howell Nature Center so Penny and I went on our own field trip of sorts to the farm at Kensington. We had a nice time seeing all the animals (the baby bunny and the horses were her favorite), we had the upstairs play area all to ourselves, we read some books and we threw some rocks into the lake. At one point she gathered all these rocks to throw in the lake, set them down in the tall grass and then couldn't find them again- I feel sorry for the lawnmower that will find them someday.

After our Kensignton field trip we played at Central Park for a bit and then met dad at Americus for lunch. It's always nice when we get to have lunch with him- I miss the days when he would come home for lunch.

Wednesday night Lucy's school had a STEM night. Ann Arbor Hands On had a bunch of stations that the kids could go to. They had a lot of fun playing with Oobleck, poking pencils through bags of water and other various activities. After the activities we went and got a slice of pizza and I got to hear the kids complain that they were still hungry- apparently one slice of pizza is not enough. We attempted to go do some more science activities but the kids started getting extra whiny so it wasn't long before we left.

Thursday Penny and I met little Lucie and her mom at our beach and then went out to Arby's. After Arby's little Lucie wanted to give Penny a hug and Penny was totally awkward about it- she clearly takes after me.

Thursday I had the kids bring their teachers their gifts. I had made some note cards and Lucy's teacher sent home a note telling me that another teacher loved my mustache thank you card ("moustache gracias") and would like 25 of them. Well me feeling flattered and ambitious decided to see how many I could chug out that night. I made 12, only to find out the next day that she liked the mustache idea but wanted it to say something different. Now I have 12 mustache thank you cards for myself, yay.

Friday was the kids last day of school and it was a half day. In my rush to chug out some mustache note cards, I forgot to make the kids a last day of school sign so I made this one about 5 minutes before we needed to leave and snapped some quick pictures. I can't believe how old my kids are getting

For Lucy's last day of school they had a picnic outside and Penny and I got to join in. She has made a lot of good friends this year and only one of them will be going to the same school as her. I think it was a bittersweet day for Lucy. I know she's excited to be out of school for the summer but she's also sad to say goodbye to her friends and to Mrs. Richter. She has has such a positive first year in school and she has learned so much. She came in only knowing the letters in her name and now she is starting to sound out words and read. She is so ready for Kindergarten!

Ben had his candy bar award ceremony while I was at Lucy's party but I came in afterwards and snap some pictures of him with his friends. He such good buddies with basically everyone in that class that when I asked him to take a picture with his friends, it quickly went from 1 to 2 kids to the entire class. He has had a good year with Mrs. Boyd, she really loves each kid in that class.

I also managed to grab a quick picture of Steven with Mrs. Petrak. I know she struggled with getting him to focus and I am very grateful for her patience with him. I can't believe this kid only has one last year at elementary school and then it's on to middle school for him. I also can't believe it was the kids last day at Kurtz Elementary. We've been there since we moved to Michigan and this was the place I stuck my foot back into that teaching door. It's the place where my kids have made so many friends and I have gotten to know the staff well. Ben's teacher asked me how I was doing when I was in her classroom and I started to get teary eyed- embarrassing. I quickly recovered but I think it just hit me hard at that moment how much I am going to miss that school. It's going to be hard to start over for not just the kids but me too!

'

After school we had our friends, the Mays, join us at our beach. We had a moment in the beginning when Steven melted down because he forgot the boogie board and another moment when he refused to help Penny but other than that it was a lot of fun. I'm pretty sure we're going to be spending a lot of time here this summer.

Elizabeth May kept eating sand and drinking the lake water which made me slightly nauseous but she was so adorable that that sort of made up for it.

After the beach we went out to eat to continue celebrating the end of school and then we went to a movie night at a friend's house and the kids got snow cones and popcorn. I ended up leaving early with Penny which was good since she's been emotional enough. The rest of the kids didn't get home until 11pm with Tyler. He had Woodbadge all day Saturday so he wasn't worried about dealing with the consequences of their lack of sleep- lucky guy.

Saturday we went to a piano recital done by a young woman in our ward who just graduated. She was super talented and it was good for the kids to get some culture. I think I would've enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn't been on my own with my 4 kids but they did surpisingly well. Lucy and Ben insisted on drawing during it but Steven and Penny actually just sat and listened which was nice.

After the recital we went to the library for their kick off party for summer reading. They had a bounce house and Batman and Wonder Woman paid a visit which was fun. Wonder Woman was super social and the kids had fun playing trains and building words on the magnet wall with her. Batman was kind of socially awkward and just followed Wonder Woman around. But funny enough, Penny was kind of socially awkward too and started just following Wonder Woman around too ;)

Back to Reality

This week had a rough start- I hit some major construction on the way to the kid's school Monday morning and the boys just barely made it to school on time and Lucy was late. Not great. I spent the rest of the day catching up on cleaning, laundry and all that fun stuff. 

Tuesday Steven had an orthodontist appointment around lunch time and afterwards I felt lazy and decided not to trek him back to school (the orthodontist is right by our house). In exchange for missing school I had him clean his room and finish painting his solar system for a school project. I think despite those chores, he was still glad to miss school. Near the end of the afternoon, I was making some super awesome 10 commandment cootie catchers for his Primary Class and he decided he wanted to make some of his own. This led to some frustration when he couldn't find the exact one he wanted but it was fun to reminisce on my elementary school days where these ran rampant :)

Wednesday morning I spent being very motherly- I made cookies for Steven's Writing Celebration that was the next day, I painted Penny's nails and we read books together. Then that afternoon I subbed for Ben's class. I did not give off the impression that I was a great sub that day which was made worse by the fact that his teacher was still at the school (she was off so she could see her daughter's kinder program). Her sub plans said read aloud begins at 1:25 so I mistakenly interpreted that as the time to pick up the kids from lunch recess. I was on my phone checking emails and thinking I would go get them in a couple minutes when Ben's teacher came in saying they were pounding at the outside doors, begging to come in. I thought that was strange since lunch recess wasn't over yet but it turns out it was and I was late picking up her class. Then later on when Ben's class was packing up to go home, I happened to check my phone and noticed that Caroline needed someone to pick up Peter from Jr Kinder. I never make phone calls while I'm subbing but I needed to let Tyler know to get Peter along with Lucy so I called him. Of course, Ben's teacher walks in while I am the phone. So not my most impressive day.

Thursday morning was spent socializing with a few friends and killing carpenter ants that have suddenly started appearing in our playroom (I think we need to get pest control here soon). Then that afternoon me and Penny went to Steven's Writing Celebration. He had done his report on the solar system. While he had painted the solar system and worked on the report at home, he did the pop up visual at school and that was a fun addition to see. It was also fun to talk to his classmates and hear about all the different things they had researched- from bananas to football. 

Friday I subbed for a Fourth Grade teacher and it happened to be Field Day. This meant we were outside for all but 2 hours of the school day. In the morning the kids did the field activities for 2 hours- basically there were various PE activitiy stations set up and they would just roam from station to station. After the first hour outside kids were getting tired (it was warm) and after an hour and half they started to get bored and make up their own rules for various stations. I was not impressed. Then we came back inside and they watched a movie and went to lunch. After that they had 2 hours at the bounce houses and playground. Once again, kids started to get bored. They did a kickball game with teachers near the end of the 2 hours which helped change things up a bit. The day was easy in a lot of ways because it seemed like all the teachers were lax about rules and I didn't have to do any teaching but I didn't love it. I had a lot of concerns about the safety of the kids because they could have easily walked off campus and on the same token any one could have walked onto the campus. Plus I like structure- it keeps kids from getting bored and into trouble. The perk of it though, was that I got to see my kids and take some pictures of them having fun and I was being paid to be there- I was not a volunteer.  

Friday night we had agreed to meet my friend Stefanie and her kids at Spring Mill Pond for picnic and fun. After being in the sun all day and feeling pooped I really was thinking I was going to miserable but it turned out to be a good time. The sun had went down some, the weather had cooled down some and the kids had a good time, they did not seem to mind the cold water.