Hit a Home Run Contest

The kids elementary school has a reading contest every summer. For ever 400 minutes of reading a student does they earn an entry in the contest for a ticket to a Mariner's game with the school. Zane has been trying and entering since 1st grade and finally this year he won! Over the summer he documented 2800 minutes of reading. And I know he did more than that because he did not keep track of all his reading. He was so excited to win and go to the game and they had a great time! The Mariner's even won. He will enter again next year I am sure!

Camera? What's That?

I pulled out my camera this morning to blog about Awana and as soon as I grabbed it these are the faces I got from Ollie.

He stood in front of me and 'cheesed' as hard as he could. Could I resist taking his photo? I could not. I sincerely doubt anyone would have done anything different.

Awana Excitement

Lucy, Gwen and Reid have now officially earned there vests for Awana. They were so excited to get them tonight at club. After a rocky night one with the girls they have settled in nicely and seem to be having a great time. Zane is going too but his class is 'too mature' for vests. They have shirts instead. He is still working his way through the starting packet to earn his shirt. He will get there soon. Hopefully next week! I love that the kids are learning verses and having a lot of fun.

Chop Chop Mom

Reid wanted me to cut him up an apple. I was busy doing some stuff and I kept putting him off. The next thing I know he is asking me for a band-aid for his owie. I look up and see this giant cut on his thumb. I thought he had a paper cut. Then Reid informs me that he had cut it with a knife. OOPS. Apparently this kid takes his apple consumption quite seriously and I better step up my game.

Smart Cookie

We just got Andrew's results of his standardized testing from last May. To my amazement the results showed that Andrew got 100% on his Math section. He more than passed the Science and the Reading sections as well but the Math part blew me away. Also this week we were contacted by his challenge Language Arts teacher about the possibility of moving him into the advanced challenge Language Arts class. She feels it will be a great fit for him. I am shocked and thrilled for my boy all at the same time. What a smart cookie we have!

Ollie-Boy

 Mr. Ollie is 16 months old now. He is trying to communicate so much. It is not always successful but he definitely is trying to make himself understood. He shrieks most of the time, especially when he is trying to get something and no one is responding. But this face... So seriously adorable.

Awana

We are trying something new this year with the kids on Wednesday night, Awana! I love to have my kids memorize scripture verses and frankly I do a terrible job working on it without incentive. Enter Awana and it's fabulous program full of bible memorization and stories. I am so excited to see how the kids do. We had our first week and Zane and Reid did great, Lucy and Gwen struggled with it being at a new church and a new program. But now that they have been once it seems like they are going to enjoy it as well. Can't wait until they get their cute vests and shirts!

Not Lonely At All

 I wondered how the little boys would deal with the kids heading to school. It is a different feel this year with Gwen in PM kindergarten when I am used to having kids in AM. The result of this is that I have an entire afternoon with the little boys.

Reid is having a marvelous time with me mostly all to himself. He gets to pick a show to watch all by himself, no sharing and then I play games and puzzles with him while Ollie naps. Ollie is happy to have Reid all to himself too. The boys are starting to play together which is so nice too. They are going to be buddies. Wrestling buddies I am sure but it is still going to be such fun.

First Day of School

 The first day of school arrived and I had a house full of excited/nervous kiddos. Andrew is in 6th this year and that meant he started walking to school. Zane and Lucy are 3rd and 1st grade and they go on the normal bus. Surprisingly Gwen was put in a PM class and she will be going on a mid-day bus as soon as transportation gets it all figured out. I had been worried about Gwen but she gave me a look like 'you can go away now mom' and followed the teacher into school like she had been doing it all her life. I can't wait to hear how it all went!

Ready!

Tomorrow is back to school/meet the teacher night at the kids school. Our teachers highly recommend that students bring their supplies this night so we sat down and organized all the school stuff tonight so we could be ready. I am totally a nerd about the whole process. I have a spreadsheet for the supplies for shopping. It conveniently also shows me what stuff goes to which kid as well. So each kid got a turn to pack their bag and we are now all ready to go to school tomorrow. I have a few excited kiddos and at least one extremely nervous kid. Tomorrow night should be very interesting!

Labor Day is a Break?

 I realize today was supposed to be a break of our labors but for us it was some nice time to get some yard work completed.

 The kids played and helped. In fact they came marching down the stairs chanting 'yard work! yard work!' when Eric told them we were going out to do stuff.

 The enthusiasm quickly waned but they were troopers and did help most of the day. Brush was burnt, the apple tree was pruned and my birdhouse finally got hung.

 It was a nice productive day. All spent together as a family.