Summer has arrived!

 

Along with hours of clearing weeds, dead trees, and thick ground cover (I can't wait to show you before and after photos!), Jim put in a cement pad for the basketball hoop and put in metal loops that chain the hoop base to the ground. It took 480 pounds of concrete!

 

Diana says 'Hi!' to everyone she sees. And she keeps saying it until the person says 'hi' back, she brightens the faces of everyone she sees. My little ray of sunshine!

 

Preschool ended this week. Michael had amazing teachers. He has really grown up this year and is ready for Kindergarten next year. When we got to his class for a little presentation, Diana wanted to go to where he was seated with his classmates. I crossed my fingers that she would stay seated and quiet, and it was so sweet to see Michael excitedly welcome her, help her be quiet and lovingly play quietly with her so she wouldn't be bored. When it was his turn he got up there, and then said, "come here dee-ana" (he pronounces her name the southern way it's funny) and held her hand while she stood there feeling on top of the world with her big brother.

 

 

The teacher gave each of the kids an award of a "fruit of the Spirit." Michael got Joy which was no surprise to me since it is the closest to Energy. :) One of the things she said was that everyone wanted to play with Michael because he always had something fun going on. So true!

 

While Mike's class went to a little carnival she had set up in another room, I told Mike I'd meet him there later and dashed over to Jake's end of year picnic. They sit in their cubbies and sing this little prayer song, it's so cute.

 

Eating at the picnic! Katy was so good the whole time, just looking around quietly. Diana was very happy to be at the preschool, she will love it when she goes in a few years.

 

Once Jake finished we hurried back to Mike's carnival. Here is one of the games where the kids match ducks that have the same letter written on the bottom. Diana loved bringing me different ducks.

 

Mike got his face painted like Spiderman I guess? Whatever it was, he was sure happy about it!

Yesterday I went to the pool for the first time with Jim and the kids. They built a splash pad next to the pool and the kids LOVE it! It's totally fenced in so parents can just sit and chill. It's so awesome, I think the kids could play forever if we let them.

 

Mike brought his "ducky" and even tried putting sunscreen on it.

 

Diana loved her first visit to the pool and as I watched Nicole swim I was amazed at how good she is this year swimming. It's so nice to have at least one kid swim!

 

Katy and I found some shade and I relaxed while watching the kids enjoy their afternoon and play with their daddy. I absolutely love moments of peace like this!

 

The kids helped Jim for a few hours deforesting and helped me clean bathrooms, so after baths we celebrated with ice cream!

 

 

The front doors have these great panels that make so anyone can look in your house and see everything and allows the kids to run to the door even when we can't answer it like when I'm feeding the baby. So...we found these panels we cut to size. They are kind of like window clings, except we had to use water and a squeegee to make it stick.

 

Not perfectly done, but does the job. We like the pretty magnolia pattern.

Family fun

 

Nicole had a book project where she used different materials (fabric, wrapping paper, ribbon) to make a scene from a favorite book. From "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" this is Ralph the mouse riding his motorcycle down the hallway of the inn he lives in. Nicole is wearing her blankets as it is past bedtime, but isn't that when all good projects get finished?

 

Jacob has a lot of energy when he is up, and then he is usually the fastest to fall asleep. He is a high octane kind of action kid. And Diana, as you can see in the background, is still climbing-crazy.

We went to the Go To Be NC festival yesterday, the 20 min away and the across-the-street parking and entrance was free. So awesome. It was Katy's first big outing and she slept through the whole thing little angel that she is! We let the kids choose 3 rides and it was so cute to see their excitement and absolute joy in the simplest rides. Nothing like riding a motorcycle I guess!

 

Rollercoaster ride! I told them the ride is funner if they scream :) Nicole was pretty nervous but still waved as they went by. Michael was happily screaming and laughing through it.

 

Diana bawled every time the kids went on a ride. She is at the age where she realizes all that she's missing because she's not big enough. So we let her go on this train ride, the only one she was tall enough for. It was mind-numbingly slow for poor Jim but D absolutely had the time of her life. Every time they train rode by we all waved at her shouting hi and she felt like a queen with her daddy.

 

 

We brought two strollers- a double for Katy and the boys if they were tired walking, and the umbrella stroller for D. It worked really well. I always get nervous doing big stuff with a bigger family until I get a good idea of what to expect so I'm glad our planning worked out.

For their last ride, the boys chose "the race car one! the race car one!" and of course got in the red car since it was most like Lightening McQueen. Feeling like race car drivers, the glee of 'living the dream' was all over their faces as they rode.

 

Nicole chose a helicopter ride for her last ride. She rode in the NC Highway Patrol copter and had a great time.

 

The kids got to have their first ever cotton candy! We all shared a small bag which was more than enough. The guy selling it had no teeth! and later in the car we were able to give the kids a great lesson on why we try not to eat lots of sugar and why we brush our teeth. It was a great case in point :)

 

Waiting for the Lumberjack show to begin! The kids were so cute a cameraman for the festival took film of them. Can't blame him, they were so fun to watch making a mess of themselves as they ate the cotton candy!

 

The "Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show" had world champion lumberjacks showcasing 2-man cross-cut sawing, hot saw racing, axe throwing, underhand chopping, chainsaw carving and log rolling. Jim wanted to try the log rolling but unfortunately they didn't ask for volunteers.

 

The kids sat through the whole show and we all enjoyed watching the cool demonstrations and seeing their skills. It was a little long in some parts for Mike who surprised us all by pulling out a toy dragon and two toy guys from his pocket to play with while he was waiting. We have no idea how he fit that dragon in his pocket, Jim and I had a good laugh over it. We also watched part of a BMX bike competition which was awesome! The kids got to see all kinds of farm animals, we had to drag them away from looking at the cute baby chicks. It was fun going in the morning because it was not crowded and the weather was perfectly warm but not hot. A great day of family fun!

Catch up

 

My sweet cupcake Katy! She has been a wonderful baby, a good sleeper, and good eater. She has settled right in to life and I love watching her try to figure out little things. It's so funny and sweet to watch a little baby look at their hand like it's some foreign object and then go slightly cross-eyed trying to study it as it waves around.

 

The boys love their baby sister and have been very good about giving her space. Diana, not so much, but as she's not even two yet that is understandable.

 

The backyard has been awesome for the boys! We are still working with the HOA to get a fence approved and had to cancel the install date with the fence people until the HOA can approve it. Somehow the committee lost one of the papers they needed when the HOA sent it to the architectural committee before they met last week. And they only meet once a month. AHHH! Hoping we can get it approved sooner but I have a feeling we won't. Patience!

 

So for now it's supervised playtime since they love to explore deeper in to the woods which brings them to an active construction site (temptation galore!) or a neighbor's house with a pond.

 

Lots of sleeping going on these days!

We have a starling nest in our dryer vent!

 

Jim was trying to figure out how to get a ladder that goes that high...but fortunately our pest control service was able to take care of it, cover the opening and spray for mites. It would have been pretty scary to have Jim do it.

 

In preparation for the fence that we hope and pray for... Jim and the kids did some major deforestation to make a two foot long path for the fence builders. Saved us $300 or something and took the entire Saturday from 7am to 8pm. Poor Jim also had a reaction to poison ivy that was who knows where in there. But at least it's done and we are ready! It was fun to watch the kids enjoy the clippers and find lots of bugs. This yard will be perfect for them!

 

 

On Mothers Day Michael wrote a really sweet note and when I told him how wonderful it was he told me he felt really special. It was a precious moment.

 

Jake drew me a picture about sharks in jail. Not sure where it all came from but he had a huge story about it to tell me. Fun little guy.

 

Diana is a little monkey. A curious, climbing, muscular, tough little girl. She gets into everything. She almost does the splits to reach her feet somewhere while climbing and uses her considerable upper body strength to do what we are sure she couldn't. She hoisted herself onto a shelf in the closet...and the next two up. I found her yesterday after naptime, happy as a clam, digging through Nicole's special things that we put up that high so D couldn't get them. And last night, Jim put together the girls bunk beds, leaving off the ladder so Nicole can sleep in peace (D loves waking her sister up wanting to play). Before he even finished tightening the last screw, he looked up to see Diana grinning from the top bunk. He could not figure it out until he got her down and she raced to the headboard, did a semi-splits to get her leg up, used her other foot on the side of a wood support and did a pullup until she could hoist herself up. We took out the top of two headboard slats on the lower bunk, but she could still get up! It was almost a game at this point, and the score was Diana 2 Jim 0. Finally, after Jim took off the second headboard slat, she was barely not strong enough. We're hoping she gives up trying before she gets taller. She and Mike are two peas in a pod!