Why do school libraries stay closed all summer?

Thanks to our principal, another parent volunteer, our media assistant and me, ours doesn't anymore!!
Because of a cool pilot program, we got a little funding (very little) to operate a library morning each Tuesday this summer.  Some nice teachers like above did storytimes.

Kids did crafts.  (I was in charge of that)

They read books with reading buddies (Molly is above, right)

And played board games, wrote reviews of books they read.

Most importantly, they checked out books!

It is probably the easiest volunteer chairing I've ever done.  It almost planned itself, the kids who came were self selected--wanted to be there, and we never had to ask anyone to ever leave.  The parents and teachers were helpful, and I learned how to check out books on the SK system.  So--dream come true.

Are we swinging through life?

So we've been up to lots of stuff.  Roland and Lillian are playing flag football again.  Wesley isn't coaching, which is kind of a big deal to him.  I hope he can handle the loss of control.

Anthony has grown a molar, and is working on the other three simultaneously.  He is constantly climbing on to chairs and tables, and making a merry mess.  He says 'uh-oh' constantly (it applies a lot), and is working on other words.  He says the phrase 'shut the door' (which we can interpret) to the kids if they don't shut the baby gate or the garage door.

Who was Dionysus?

 

Molly was invited to attend North's Dionysus Awards night.  Their reinvigorated drama club hosted a night akin to the Tony's 'with categories for best musical number, best lead actor, etc.  We also voted online.

  'Put on a Happy Face' was nominated as best musical number, and won!  (It was adorable!)

Molly, and the little girl who was in the show with her, Ella, were both nominated for 'Best Attitude'.  In an exciting development, there was a tie!

There were four nominees, and the little girls both won.  Little statuettes and everything.  I asked the drama teacher if she'd fudged the results, and she assured me they were genuine.

I'm glad I have these pictures of them.  They were so cute together.

After dinner, and the awards, they all danced to 'Time Warp', which they often did at practices.

Some high school theater things don't change.

Molly with the lovely Ms. Bond.  I can't say enough nice things about her director of this show.

What a nice evening to share with her.

Do you ever?

Want to post all the ridiculous things that happen to you as a mother over the week, but each day's insanity pushes out the previous day's?

Today I got home from taking Roland to the bookstore.  He HAD to have the Mark of Athena, and he bought it (all 42 copies in the library system were checked out.).  That was a nightmare, as expected for any after school outing.  I even followed through on the threat not to buy Lillian the Curious George book she'd picked.

We got home, the big kids helped get the littles inside while I finished up dinner, and they stayed outside to play.  Roland comes to tell me that Lillian is down the street.  (when supervised by her older siblings, she is expected to stay in the yard)  I come out to deal with it, and she is fighting with Molly, on her bike.  She is definitely not allowed to tool around on that without asking!  So I drag her inside, to discover Molly has found a new malfeasance.  Jack took the taco sauce from the table and poured a goodly amount onto Anthony's tray.

It just doesn't stop!

What's keeping you so busy?

Yesterday my dad came and installed locks on the door to the garage and the front door.  I'd spent tons of time dragging the little guys out of the garage, and Jack could leave through the front if he wished.  I was so grateful.

This morning, during family scripture time, once all the kids and Wesley were ready for the day, Anthony came lurching in from the garage (he'd been able to get in because the older kids had been going in for their shoes and backpacks).  In horrible slow motion, we realized he was covered in cat poop.  Wesley commented:  "Now I know why monsters in movies walk the way they do.  It's after babies."

Has it been a month?

We've been trucking along.  

More soon!

What is that saying?

Adventure:  Something you'd rather be telling the story of than experiencing.

I feel like that applies to parenting, especially in the Summer.

This Summer, most days haven't been truly terrible, but each one of them has had at least one hour that I would just love to run out on, and tell the story of later, without having to get through it.

Like yesterday.  It wasn't too bad a day, but by 3:30, I'd kicked the kids out to the back yard for 'outside play time'.  Things went downhill from there.  Jack turned on the hose.  I turned it off.  Lillian and Jack played in the mud created by the hose.  I bathed them, asking Roland to take Anthony to his room and play with him.  Roland soon yelled that the baby was poopy and leaking on the floor.  I called for Molly to watch him in the tub, making sure that Anthony didn't drown while I cleaned up Roland's room.

Anthony threw up a little after being cleaned up, which I attributed to him eating soap.  It was a precursor however, of things to come.

We managed to have dinner (Wesley had to work late), and get out the door.  I left Roland behind, and instructed Lillian to not let Jack fall asleep on the way to the library.  By the time I looked back 2 minutes later, Lillian herself was asleep.  We woke her up to go inside the library.

We met a friend, and Jack soon started playing in the sensory table in the Discovery room.  He has played in this rice filled box with 'dinosaur bones' underneath a lot, so at this point he has just started throwing the rice.
I realize, we have to leave, because I cannot make him stop doing this, and when I pick up Anthony, I realize he has a fever.  (Which really explained the vomiting).

Later that, I saw my friend at church, and her baby had a fever (they'd inadvertently shared a bottle).  Nothing like spreading the joy around!              

How old is Anthony?

Yesterday my littlest turned one.  We just did a little song for him...He was amazed by all those voices directed at him.  The camera got left at church last week (Please please be findable!) so I don't have a photo, though some sisters took pictures, so maybe they'll be forthcoming.

Anthony and his cousin Will have been so cute to watch together...we'll miss him so much now that he is returning to VA.

At one:

Anthony is taking several steps, falling, then standing back up and walking again.  So he is making that transition from toddler to walker.

He is in the 22nd percentile for height and 33rd for weight.  He is not one of my bigger babies!

He says some words...Hi, dad, uh-oh, Lillian, ba *(sometimes means 'bye').

He opens and closes his hands when we do 'Sunbeam' or 'Popcorn popping'.  He is very excited by his musical contribution.

He loves to clap and laugh.

He drinks only cows' milk, and lots of it!

He likes to eat our table food, and in the tradition of my kids, loves sweets and fruit.

He is completely essential to us.

What about a nature hike?

 Our cub scouts went on a guided hike through Minto Brown.  I saw parts of it I'd never seen.

 Roland wasn't there, he was at Track practice, and so was Molly.

Here we are walking over a pond on a fallen log.

What's the down side?

So we're pretty much having the summer I dreamed of for years...i.e., one with the money for gas, and some modest summer activities.  I've been driving to swim lessons, Molly's in a summer theater camp this week, and Roland and Lillian started football last night (track wraps up this week).

The downside is that I am exhausted!  Summer days are SOOOO long.  Last night, when we all got home from football (some of us went to the library since it was so wet at the park) we ate dinner.  Then the kids turned on the movie while I was bathing Anthony.  I made my feelings clear that I did not want everyone to stay up.  But Jack was cuddling his dad (whom he has been ignoring lately), and I was overruled.  So I said 'fine' and went to take a bath.  But Jack heard the bath running, ran upstairs and commandeered the bath.  He ran out almost all the hot water, I took a lukewarm bath after Wesley put him to bed, and then we stayed up late (to me now) to chat, since we still hadn't had much of a chance.

Jack dumped the contents of a bottle of soy sauce into the formula container yesterday.  It'd be a lot more fun to just burn the money.

Some people who live at my house are pretty cute!

What does Jack really mean?

Jack is sick today.  One of my chief complaints about most of my kids is how sick they get.  And by that I mean 'not enough'.  Now I don't want hospitalized children.  I don't have that mental illness...but my kids (except Molly) never ever slow down when they are sick (unless they have strep or the stomach flu)(both are rare fortunately).  Adults would love to take it easy when they have a bad cold, but here, the kids just get much crankier, much less able to deal with life when it doesn't go your way (and it usually doesn't), and much snottier (both meanings).

Today, an auto insurance agent called.  I wanted to talk to him, he had a great quote for me, and I needed to give him some information.  Jack is on a campaign against the fish.  I hauled him away twice from the tank, then went back to searching for the relevant documents.   Finally, I noticed he was at them again, this time with a ladle, trying to catch them.  I pulled him away again, and he hollered.

Here is the transcript of what we were thinking:

Me:  Jack, will your villany never stop?  I wish you would stop it with the pets.  First you hunt our poor elderly cat all morning, now you are at the fish again.  I can't believe you didn't kill them yesterday when you threw all the junk drawer contents including batteries into their tank.  If you loved me, you would stop the mischief for just 2 minutes!

Jack:  Mom, why do you hate me so much?  I feel terrible!

Me:  How is your cold relevant to the jeopardy you are placing the fish in?

Jack:  I feel so horrible, and the only thing that can POSSIBLY distract me is to try to ladle the fish out of the tank.  I hate you!  Life sucks!  I'm too tired to go to bed, don't put me to bed, oh no!  BED!!!!!!! HELP!!!!!

Jack:  Sleep thoughts.

The end.

What happened with the camera now?

Well, my little digital point and shoot has finally quit for good (I can hardly blame it, the working conditions were execrable!).  It's funny how something like that can really make me stop blogging.

But blog, I have missed you.  I keep composing blog posts in my head.  They don't do much good there.  The person I most communicate with in this format is future me.  Future me is sad present me isn't doing the memory keeping future me enjoys so much.

Here are some pictures of the Country Kids' Relays (or Jaycee relays as I remember them).  The kids try out at school, the 4 fastest boys in each grade (at the 100m) are on the boys team, the next 2 are on the coed team, and that was our Roland!  He'd never qualified before, but all the work in Cross Country and Track paid off.  They've been running it for 39 years here in Salem.  I have never once needed to go before, but now I have!  They invite all the elementary schools in the area, and each grade has 3 teams (boys girls coed),  so it is quite a long event.  Luckily you can show up around when you're supposed to, and they'll only be running an hour or so behind.  Wesley, Molly, Grandpa Wes and I went down to the stadium while Grandma Ev watched the little kids (who I will be forever grateful were at home).  We watched pretty much all of the 3rd grade races while we waited for Roland's turn.

Before each grade, there is a parade of schools.  The runners, and coaches march.

The kids get their own special jerseys as school representatives.  Roland got an awesome start (he led off), the girls and Carter, his other teammate did great, and they took 2nd.  (In their heat, they just award out of heats).  They took 5th out of all 40 or so schools.  We were so excited and proud.  I yelled so loudly that I got a headache and almost fainted.  I'll need to work at moderating my sports excitement.

Roland was really proud and wanted to relive it for days.

Did he get it?

My cousin Jenne kindly reminded me that people read this!

We've had a busy and exciting May, which I no doubt will catch up a bit on.  But....

Wesley got the job.  He is starting as the director of the Monmouth/Independence Branch of the YMCA on Wednesday!

Much rejoicing throughout the land!

Did you go to Great Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend?

We did, had a wonderful time, and I'll post more about it soon!

Would it hurt to try?

I enjoy many sewing and crafting blogs.  Naptime Crafter's has a giveaway for a cruise voucher!  I had to blog about it for an extra entry!

What's the worst that could happen?

A few weeks ago, I was hustling Anthony into bed, not wanting to miss his sleep window.  Taking jammies from the clean laundry pile in our living room (it's nearly a permanent feature), I realized once they were partway on that they were actually Jack's.

So I just kept putting them on.  I was committed.  What was the worst that could happen?

A night awakening alerted me to Anthony...both legs were in one pajama leg.  Oh, that's why you don't buy footie pajamas 3 sizes too big!

Did you make something for Linda?

So my friend Linda is moving away.  That's a bit of a wrench.  She's going to Manhattan.  I made her this Oregon throw pillow by tracing and quilting the front.  I'll miss her.

Do you want to hear more Lillian quips?

These are amusing if you attend our church:

Molly:  My primary teacher's husband gave a Book of Mormon to Elvis Presley (the kids are very interested in Elvis right now.  I think this is cute, I went through quite an elvis phase myself).

Lillian (with great surprise):  He didn't already have one?


Lillian:  What is your job, Dad?

Dad:  I'm a wise man.

Lillian:  You build houses?

Did you do anything while Ashley was here?

 Ashley's a little bit of a homebody.  But she's used to being dragged to the Saturday market by me.  She has years of experience at it!

 Isn't it awesome that Will will wear sunglasses and a hat?

Anthony just squinted in the unaccustomed sunlight.