Summer Fun

A few days ago someone was asking me what the kids and I did all day, so I thought I would journal about these crazy fun summer days. When we wake up everyone has morning work to do, if they finish and there are family jobs (weeding the garden and beds, house chores, or whatever I think of) we work on those. We usually go to lunch at the park, the kids like to ride bikes there if it is not too hot. In the afternoon we go to Bass Lake, or summer movies, or play with friends, or go to the library, or do a project at home, or just have free time at home. I try to wear them out in the afternoon, so they will be tired for bed even though it is still light out at bedtime. The girls generally go to bed around 8:00pm and Jack and 8:30 or 9:00pm (in the summer). They can't stay up too late, as they all usually are awake around 6:30 to 7:00 (Jack & Audrey) or 7:30 to 8:00 (Ellie & Lucy). I love having the kids home during the summer. I can't believe it is July already, summer is flying by!
Jack did a week long basketball camp at CSI, did a 3-on-3 basketball tournament, and a golf clinic at BLCC. He also is still taking piano lessons and busy with Cub Scouts. Ellie took tennis lessons, and is taking piano and dance. Lucy took tennis lessons and is still in dance. And Audrey is always just along for the ride.
We took the kids camping and had a great time. We had fun with Grandpa John, Grandma Nanner, and Jordan & Mark's family in Boise when we drove up for Grandpa's birthday. The kids had a backyard campout sleepover with Grandpa Cleve while Clint and I went to the Alison Kraus concert in Sun Valley. We got to see cute Scarlett (and Jonny and Tracie) again over Independence Day weekend. We went to the Bass Lake BBQ and had some friends over that night.

Audrey

Audrey is so fun right now. She will be 2 next month and you can just see her learning and figuring things out everyday. She tries to keep up with the other kids, and definitely thinks she is a big girl.
Audrey is very smart and very independent. She potty trained herself (with a little help from her cousin Evelyn) in February and has had only a few "accidents" since she started. It was awesome! Around the same time she didn't want to sit in the booster chair for meals, just a regular chair with a regular cup like everyone else. She was not liking the crib, so we took off the front rails and she sleeps great.
Audrey wakes up every morning between 6:30 and 7:00 and walks down to my room asking for, "Breakfast mommy." Her favorite things are cereal, oatmeal, pancakes, or a bagel. Then when the next kid has breakfast, she has 2nd breakfast of whatever they are having. If someone sleeps later and eats later she has 3rd breakfast with them. She is a great eater and isn't picky at all. She isn't so good at naps however, most days she is not napping and we just try and keep her awake for an early bedtime. At bedtime, since everyone else is getting ready for bed too she does great.
Audrey likes to do everything for herself. As often as not, her clothes are backwards/inside out and her shoes are on the wrong feet because, "Audrey do it" If I step in and try to help her do something without her asking, we have to start completely over so she can do it herself.
Audrey loves to play with her brother and sisters. She likes to be outside riding bikes and scooters. She likes to read books and play with baby dolls and Barbies. She likes to sing. Her favorite songs are Popcorn Popping, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam, Old MacDonald, and Pop Goes the Weasel. She is funny and is getting a funny little sense of humor. When I was in the bathroom with her the other day, she was going #2, and she looked up at me and said, "I poop goes weasel." She also blames her toots on other people (Bathroom humor is tops around here).
We all love Audrey so much and are having fun with our sweet almost 2 year old!

Lucy

Lucy goes to kindergarten this year, I can hardly believe it. She is very excited to go and to walk home with Jack and Ellie. She went to preschool last year and did great. Everybody loves Lucy, her teacher said all the kids, boys and girls, wanted her to be her best friend. She is very sweet and kind and is tender hearted. She gets her feeling hurt more easily than Jack or Ellie.
Lucy likes to play outside, and is excited to start sports this year. She will play soccer this fall. She took dance last spring and was so cute at her recital. (Videos are on youtube, if anyone is interested).
Lucy loves to talk and tell stories. She talks kind of fast and will take kind of a gasping breath in the middle of a sentence when she runs out of air and then just keep going. She is funny and likes to tell jokes. She is picky about what she wears, but not how it looks, how it feels. Certain clothes feel itchy to her, and she likes everything tucked in and her pants pulled up really high. She is definitely unique and we love her!

Ellie

With Ellie there is never a dull moment, there is always something going on in her little brain. She loves to read and on the end of her 1st grade STAR test she tested at a 6.3 grade reading level. She has a big vocabulary because of all of her reading so she says a lot of interesting things. She has a lot of friends and is a good playmate to her sisters, but definitely likes to be in charge of whatever situation she is in.
Ellie started piano lessons and is doing really well. She did gymnastics during the school year, but decided to switch to dance this summer. She loves to sing and perform for people, and was the star of her 1st grade play acting as the queen bee. She likes to film herself making movies and takes tons of pictures of herself on the computer.
Ellie is always helping out with Audrey, and tries to get Audrey to call her "mom". She is excited for the new baby, and wants him to sleep in her room, so that she can take care of him.

Jack

Jack is a sports nut. Every morning when he wakes up he has to check espn for the latest scores. He loves to watch sports on TV, his favorites being basketball and football, but he will watch anything sports related. During the school year, he stayed home from school sick one day. I let him watch Rudy, Remember the Titans, and Pistol Pete, he was duly inspired. He has played soccer, basketball, baseball, football, and taken golf and swimming lessons.
It is crazy how fast sports get competitive these days. This next year Jack wants to play tackle football, AAU basketball, and Cal Ripkin baseball. They are all more intense and expensive then the Park & Rec versions, and he is already narrowing down the sports he wants to stick with.
Jack's favorite sport by far is basketball. He spends hours a day playing and just finished up a 4 day camp at CSI.
I have mixed feelings about it all. I like that he is active and having fun and he is quite a natural athlete, but I'm not sure I want my baby playing tackle football. It also gets really time consuming and as I already mentioned expensive.
Jack is so excited to be getting a brother. He is a great big brother to his sisters and I'm grateful that our new baby will have such a great example to look up to.

A Boy!

Today we found out that baby #5 is a boy. We are all very excited, probably Jack most of all. Everything looked good, it is always a relief to get that scan done. He is due 11/11/11 and the due date stayed the same so we'll see when he makes his debut!

Another Try

We'll give this blogging thing another go. Since it has been over a year, I am not updating anything just starting fresh. One more try!