June 2018

The summer has been busy (but the good kind - where I'm in charge of the schedule - mostly).

We visited one of my cousins that was in town (along with the ones that already live in town) and my kids got to meet and play with some of their second cousins. Gideon had a fun time with them all. He especially got a kick out of touching the baby. I'll have to include a link to that video.

Gideon and 2nd Cousin

Our dentist/orthodontist has a play room; Gideon is finally old enough to play with the other kids.

The kids went to Memere's for trips right after school got out, and when Seth got back from his, Gideon was SO happy to see him. He just wanted to climb all over Seth and play with him.

The turtle now has a new owner. (One of the teachers at the middle school called us about our offer for a turtle.) Bye Bye Leafer.
We've had him since December 2013, so 4 1/2 years of pet ownership was enough for us. Glad we're done with that adventure.

He climbed up onto the crib mattress, then onto the chaise lounge, then onto the laundry basket, then onto the bed. He's learning to climb. Agh!

I would have never picked up a frog as a child, but my kids do that sort of thing all the time.

The first time Gideon has slept in his space all night (from the time I put him to sleep until morning, and I woke up first!)  He hasn't done it since. He gets close sometimes, but most nights he joins us in our bed. (It's that or let him wake up the whole house screaming.)

For Father's day weekend, we went to Shoney's breakfast buffet on Saturday morning. Gideon was stuffing in the grape quarters! (And two days later he refused to eat grapes. Such a weird little eater.)

The Marionette library activity is a fun one to go see.

Alee liked the selfie station at the library. (I made her check the hat for stray hairs before she put it on her head. Lice-phobia!)
What a handful of something!!

We have a few memberships (because for a family our size, it's not much more to get the membership than to pay admission once!), and one of ours is to the museum. The old school room is a favorite of the girls.

The telescope is fun now that they're older.

The sun looked like a red lighted circle. This picture through the lens isn't quite what I saw (since the light wasn't a fuzzy red mist around the sun).

Group Shot! (The more children you have, the more of a challenge it is to get them all to behave for a picture!)

Alee begs for the children room (that she's really too old for), but I'm happy to have Gideon now for an excuse to go in there. The others enjoyed it when they were little and we went once or twice for a visit, but we didn't really go when Alee was young enough to enjoy it. So now she enjoys it with Gideon. He especially loved the light table.

Sometimes he's such a pain to get to sleep, but he's cute when he's finally asleep.

Haircut day! Seth needed one, so I offered to the girls (who all needed a trim, but who mostly all wanted a few inches off for the summer).

Gideon didn't get a haircut.

In preparation for painting Carolyn's and Natalie's room, I found these horses in the most unusual place!?

Carolyn helped paint. The other kids took care of Gideon. All helped to disassemble and reassemble the room.
We estimate that it took 5-6 hours all together (for prepping and painting and cleanup). Not bad!

Carolyn is happy to have the "headache pink" (BFF pink) gone. I like that the color is sometimes dark and sometimes light, but always gray.

So the first week of summer was Trip to Memere's (x2 Seth then girls), helping Grandma move in, ending in Father's day.
The second week of summer was our first "real week" (since we were all together all week), so I went a little overboard cramming in have-to's and want-to's: (M) library service and piano lessons, shopping, (T) marionettes (library), museum, feeding missionaries, (W) more piano lessons, haircuts, swimming, church, (Th) painting the bedroom, swimming at the lake, (F) catching up on tasks, (S) driving course, primary water activity, chores, stake conference. Whew!
Need to slow down, but with summer break starting late this year, I felt like we were half way through June and we hadn't done anything together yet.

This past week was a big deal for Seth and Carolyn.

Seth had Trek, and Carolyn had a girls trip.

Seth pretty much hated it, but it was a good learning experience for perseverance.
We found some happy pieces in it, and he's glad to be done with that.
In case you don't know what trek is, it's basically hiking and camping for 4 days (Wed-Sat), but by carrying their things around in a handcart (which they pull along the trail). Oh, and they're dressed like pioneers headed out west in the 1800's. Most youth love it; Seth's just not interested in things like this.

You'll have to ask him about his snake story. :)

Carolyn, of course, had a blast. One of her friends is moving away, so I'm glad she got this. One of the other girls' moms planned and executed this (probably loud and giddy-filled) 4-day trip.

Kaitlyn had an exciting week too since she went to meet the band teacher and did mouth piece testing. She ultimately decided on the clarinet. (The saxophone was too popular, so she decided not to go with her first ....well, most recent first choice. The trumpet and the flute were next runners up. But after watching some YouTube videos of all the instruments she tried, she ultimately went with the clarinet. (She's excited, and so is the band teacher, who was short on clarinets in her beginner band class.)

Here's a video link to her within the first 24 hours:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/yDLPh8p5grzeYfEb9
(They offer "jumpstart" classes over the summer, so she missed the first few weeks because they messed up her schedule and didn't have her in band, but she went to the Tuesday night session and Wednesday morning session to catch up. This is her after that.)

Gideon is learning to express himself. He fussed at the girls until I came in. He pointed at the backdoor and babbled. He wanted outside; they just weren't "listening."

Once I got Seth and Carolyn off on their adventures Wednesday, I let the other girls have sleepovers, then went to the zoo Thursday, and they had to go shopping Friday.

The gorilla baby was exciting to see.

The zoo has a splash area that the kids love.
Natalie introduced Gideon to the big sprays.

 What he really liked was the flowing water on the sloped part.

Sometimes they drive me crazy, and my house is even less clean than it was before (not that that's saying much...it hasn't maintained "clean" in about 2 years), but in the end, I'm glad they're all home.

It's only 3 weeks into the break, but with June ending, it feels like the break is half over. Gideon will be a year old in a week.

Some funny quotes from May:

"I want to get a lake and a canoe. I would do chores and homework so much faster!" Natalie

"Is it raining outside or is that Gideon?" Alee

"Am I allowed to do extra credit?"  Carolyn