Finally!

Summer has begun! I meant to have come up with a great plan for our summer by now, but I haven't. We are all glad to let go of the schedules though, and relax and spend some time together. There has been some extra bickering, sadly, (in our one day of summer vacation) but we will settle into a system here soon. I'm just sure of it =)
Our bus stop is the "fun" bus stop. Usually on the last day of school, there are water balloons or squirt guns for the kids are they are getting off the bus. But the year before last, the bus driver got hit with a water balloon, so that went down the drain...This year Mr Mike brought ice cream for everyone. Trying to catch the joy..

More joy...this is all he will express when asked to though...he now claims he didn't want to jump up and down because he LIKES school.

I can't get enough

I got so many ooh's and aaah's walking around in Walmart the other day, figured Taryn must be darn cute. At first everyone would just fuss over her and then you would see their eyes trail behind me and widen as the kids just kept coming. Really, 5 kids is not that many, people! I always think it's funny all of the comments I get when I just have 2 kids at the store--all the "you have you hands full!"...and what can you say to that? Anyway, the point is, look how cute this little girl is...

I tried to get a picture of Micah giving her a kiss. I guess she was trying to give something back?

Fru Fru girl--3 months old!

It is really unbelievable how time flies. I can't believe this little girl is 3 months old. Trav's Squadron commander's wife gave us this outfit. I laughed so hard when I opened it. Sooo cute. Travis wasn't so crazy about it, and Noah informed me that he isn't either. Obviously we had to take lots of pictures with it anyway.See, she thinks it's pretty cute, too...
This little girl has a major drooling issue!

The same day our friend Grace was over playing and decided she wanted to make Taryn even prettier...

Grace and Taryn

This one is all of the boys' favorite, except maybe Noah's (he seems to tell me a lot what he likes her dressed in and what he does not...)

I don't even have any 3 month stats! She smiles all of the time and laughs and is so much fun. This summer is going to be a little trickier than last, figuring out how to stay busy and fit in all we want to do when we have this little girls who needs her sleep and mostly only will sleep at home in her bed...Plus it gets so hot outside--I guess we will do some very early morning beach trips when we do go.

Noah's business

This last semester in EXTEND, Noah's class has been studying how to make a business. They had their own little town and had to choose a career and worked on them for weeks. They have their own "brain bucks" that they have been earning throughout the year, and Noah was baffled at how much of his money went into things like supplies and business licenses, etc. But he has really had fun with the whole thing. The last class the parents were all invited to come and shop as all the kids set up their stands. They gave us 20 brain bucks to spend as we walked in the door. It was so hilarious and fun to see all of the different ideas they had come up with. Here are some bookmarks and....paper thingies...This girl must have kept busy! She had a tone of stuff...

There were many many pet rocks...

These two boys made these snakes from pipe cleaners that were very popular. They even had rattles in the tales. They were very pricey though...

Rainbows...more bookmarks, chick thingies...

More pet rocks. Other people did things like tissue paper flowers, games, and there was a boy who made "goo". It didn't look like he was selling much of it and I told him it was really cool and I wish we weren't already out of money, and he said "You want some?" and gave me $5 to buy some. Then he gave me a raffle ticket, and a few minutes called me over for the raffle. I was the only one there and he made it really supenseful as he called out my numbers and I jumped up and down with the joy of winning the raffle. So funny.

This girl went had nail polish, manicures and massages for sale. And she had all kinds of complicated deal and things included with different packages. It was really too bad we didn't get more money to spend because I felt bad every time I couldn't buy something.

And last but not least here is my boy. He is so funny. What more can I say. In the beginning he had this big plan to make rings out of blocks of wood and put stones in them. He was just going to carve them really quick and easy, right? And he was so adamant and so sure of himself, and so excited about the whole thing, I didn't want to squelch his enthusiasm. But I also didn't want him to have all these expectations and then fall apart when it didn't work or was much harder than he thought. Anyway, after talking a bit with his teacher, I felt like she would try to ease him and encourage him and help it be okay. He came home each week talking about different things he had been making and doing. And his end product was this....4 leaf clovers, pressed and mounted with a little tape. That totally suits him, really, and I can imagine him searching and searching for them during lunch and recess. Actually I don't know that I have ever actually found one of these myself, and he had like 10 of them.

Some of these kids were very energetic and practiced salespeople, but I heard one lady ask him what he was selling, and he didn't even look at her, and muttered "4 leaf clovers". She bargained with him and bought one...and then I went over and mentioned how it was always nice to look at people and smile when they talk to you. His excuse was "Anyway, Mom, I don't really WANT to sell them all....I want to at least keep a few of them". In this family for some reason we are always having to work extra hard on eye contact, and answering people's questions, and smiling, and saying please and thankyou. I need to be a more outgoing example for them.