Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Zoo Night!

We had a great night at the Zoo for family night! We road the train, ate some hotdogs, got their faces painted, and just had a good time!






Monday, June 27, 2011

We heart swimming!

We are a water loving family, and had a great afternoon at the pool, but were so sad that Austin couldn't swim with us because of his ears.
 Just a few days later though, he got the all clear to swim! Yay! This is his "I can swim now!" face. Love that boy!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Thrill Seekers



One of my children is a thrill seeker. You might think it was Austin, who is very adventurous, but no, I'm talking about Annie! She's my roller coaster riding, slide climbing, high swinging, crazy girl! I've gotten used to her being the one to volunteer to ride the big ride first, or jump from the highest step, but the other day she surprised me by wanting to ROPE SWING FROM A CLIFF! That girl is brave! She swam over with her uncle, siblings and cousins and was ready to try it! Uncle Chris helped her grab the swing, coached her on how to do it, and off she went!

WOW! Go Annie!

She's not the only adventurous one in the family either! Olivia had a blast rope swinging into the lake too!

The kids are having a blast on our new boat this year too. I can't get Annie to stop tubing! Hopefully next year we'll have some ski's and wake boards for these crazy thrill seeking kids!

This has been a fun Summer!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

I really did it...

I sent them to summer school.

Can you believe it? Am I a mean mom?

It's interesting to get people's reaction to the fact that I put all three of my kids in summer school this year. Yes, even Austin. I've had various comments ranging from "Good for you!" to "I would never do that." I have friends who always put their kids in summer school, and I have friends who never-in-a-million-years would choose to do it. Who knew this was such a dividing topic?

I have to say, I surprised myself by actually doing this. I mean, sure I've threatened it before...If you kids don't stop fighting I'm calling the school and taking you in!" But this year I did it. See, 2 days into summer, we got the news that Austin couldn't swim for at least 3 weeks. His ears were severely infected again. Nice.

I sat at home with 3 fighting kids for a few days. We couldn't go to the pool, we couldn't go to the lake, we couldn't play in the sprinklers, and it was 95 degrees outside. I'd had all the whining, fighting, complaining and fussing I could take, when a friend mentioned summer school. I brushed it off at first, them my mom mentioned it. Then I thought about it...and made the call. And you know what?

They have LOVED it!

Annie is sad that it is ending tomorrow, Austin has enjoyed eating lunch at school for the first time, and even Ellie has enjoyed it since she's getting to do all the "fun stuff" (reading, computers, recess) and none of the "bad stuff" (PE) , you gotta love that girl. :)

And me? I'm not gonna lie, having 4 quiet mornings a week for three weeks has been pure bliss.

Yesterday Austin had an ear check-up and we got the news that HE CAN SWIM! Yay! The timing is brilliant (Thank you God!) with summer school ending tomorrow. I am so happy for my sweet boy who has been begging to go to the pool. I pray that his ears stay healthy, and our summer can have lots of fun water time.

And as for summer school, they all say they want to go every year. Go figure!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

It's that time again!

We just had our 4th annual blueberry picking adventure!

It's an adventure with my 3 kids, for sure. This year wasn't without its ups and downs, but for now I'll focus on the ups. :)

We had quite a blueberry picking group this year! It was so fun to have our friends and family with us!

I mean, who couldn't have fun with these monkey's around?

Austin enjoyed picking berries for about 2 minutes, then after that he tried to raid our friends buckets. When that didn't work, he just played, and looked for Nana. :)


Ellie, as always, did a fantastic job filling her bucket. This year she buddied up with Langley and they did great!


Annie (with face paint still on from the zoo the night before :) had her best year to date. She ended up with at least twice as many berries as last year. I think it helped that she and William buddied up, he inspired her. :)



This is one of my favorite family traditions!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011