Christmas in July

Ok, I guess it's really Christmas in June!  We got our school supplies for next year!  It's always so exciting to get those big boxes on our doorstep and see what is inside!  Jenessa was ready to start right away...Kessiah....not so much!  It will be nice to have some time to look at the materials before school starts.

Lazy Days of Summer

We have nothing on the calendar today (except for Ryan's softball game tonight)

I haven't seen Kessiah or Jenessa in hours...they are in the fort reading.  They both get so excited about the summer reading program at the library...I love having kids who love to read!  Jenessa is currently reading the Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew books and Kessiah is reading the Encyclopedia Brown series.

Sienna and Logan are outside in the kiddie pool...although they have been in the house with me a lot this morning as well.

Potty training Logan isn't going so well...it is going to have to be on his terms!  No surprise there!

We went to swimming lessons yesterday afternoon.  I played in the kiddie pool with Logan and Mason during lessons.  Mason loved splashing in the water and Logan had a good time too.  Sienna was proud of herself for blowing bubbles and putting her head under the water.  Hopefully, we can spend some more time in a pool this summer so the big girls can improve their swimming skills.

Memorial Day Weekend

Ryan had a couple of furlough days that he had to use before mid-June, so we decided to head north for a long weekend.  It was nice to get away.  I'm grateful to have such a patient husband...because, let's face it...2 year old boys are not meant to be strapped into a car seat for 8 hours a day!  On Saturday, we went to Orangeville and the cemetary and I was able to see several people I hadn't seen in awhile.  On Sunday, we went to the Richfield cemetary.  The girls had fun in Richfield with Emily, Marissa and Charlotte.  Ryan even dug a fire pit in my parent's backyard so we could have a cook-out.  Jenessa was especially excited about the cook-out and was very upset when we had to postpone it for a day because of the wind!

Phoenix Weekend

Jenessa's softball team memebers were each given 4 Diamondback tickets to a game last Friday evening.  We decided to go down and stay overnight.  Ryan took Kessiah and Jenessa to the game...they even took the metro system for extra fun.  I stayed at the hotel with the 3 youngest kiddos. 

The next morning after we enjoyed our breakfast we took a dip in the pool.  Only a few mishaps with Sienna and Logan...I see why they say always watch your children around the water!  Sienna was "walking" around the pool when her hands slipped and she went under...I was right there and watching her so she was only under for a couple of seconds and after getting a mommy hug she went right back in.  Later, Logan fell in the hot tub...he just wasn't paying attention and I knew it was going to happen.  Ryan was right there and pulled him right out.  He didn't want to go near the water after that (he didn't want to go in before that!) but Ryan made him get in the hot tub and sit with him.  I thought that was good...kind of the "get back on the horse" theory.

After checking out of the hotel we spent a couple of hours at Cabela's...we had never been there before.  Ryan and I would have liked to spend more time looking at some things...but that is not always possible with 5 kiddos!  I did get a couple of new cast iron items...I'm excited to try them out!

We happened to arrive in Phoenix on their first 100 degree day of the year.  It was a little late this year...we have had a really cool Spring.  When we got back home, we could tell an immediate difference in the temperature...it is much cooler here.

Father & Sons Campout

This is the first year that Ryan has gone on the annual campout with one of his sons!  They both seemed to survive and even enjoy the outing.

The girls were terribly put out that Ryan would take Logan camping and not them!  We definately need to go camping as a family...it has been too long!

The girls (and Mason) stayed home and enjoyed family movie night and a slumber party in the family room (ok, the only ones who actually slumbered in the family room were Kessiah and Sienna!)

While they were gone Jenessa kept complaining about how quiet it was...I really didn't believe her until Logan was back in the mix today and it really was noisier! 

End of the School Year...What worked and What didn't?

We are pretty much done with school for the year.  It has been really hard for us to get everything done the past two weeks.  We've done ok in the morning...but in the afternoon after quiet reading time and mommy reading time things fall apart!  They don't attempt to do their school work and I don't push them...I guess I'm ready for summer as much as they are!  It's not really a big deal...as far as percentages go we are where we need to be (or ahead) in every subject.

I wanted to write down a few things that worked for us this year...so I could remember!  When we started the school year, I had just had a baby and ended a hard pregnancy so we pretty much drifted through the first semester.  Thankfully, our curriculum is all planned out for us so that is possible to do...unfortunately, I'm a planner so I like to do more than drift!  Since we have pretty much shut down for this year I have already started planning a little more detail for next year.

In January we started reciting a scripture every morning before we did our morning jobs.  I've been using the Primary monthly theme and the scripture that is on the back cover of the Friend magazine.  We alternate each day which one we recite.  It was a good addition to our routine. Sienna and Logan always do it as well (Logan pretty much just looks at the pictures and says one our two words...but it works!)

Sometime in the spring I set a time for us to do our scripture and jobs.  9:00 ended up being the magic number.  So often we didn't get to it until 10:00 or later and it just wasn't working for me.  It is the only thing that is currently "scheduled" in our day...everything else is more of a routine.  This change has helped keep us more on track in the mornings.

Just this week we added a couple new things to our scripture time.  We started reading one story from the scripture readers (the ones from Church Distribution)...actually Kessiah and Jenessa take turns reading outloud while Sienna, Logan and I (and Mason) sit on the floor and "listen"  (as well as a 4 year old and 2 year old can listen!).  Then we sing a couple of active Primary songs.  I made this change for the benefit of Sienna and Logan...as a way to include them more.

Sienna and Logan have been a challenge this year.  I've tried a couple of different things but nothing has really stuck.  I plan to do more preschool stuff with Sienna next year...maybe that will help, maybe it won't.  I need to do something different there...I'll have to search for inspiration over the summer.

Something else we started around the beginning of our second semester (not school related) is Saturday jobs.  I set up a schedule of what each child needed to do and it has worked quite well.  About a month ago I set up a rotating "reward" for each Saturday after their Saturday jobs are done.  We were having a problem with everyone thinking they could pick out a movie every Saturday after their jobs were done.  Let's do the math...4 kids X 2 hour movie = way too much screen time for one day!  So now they rotate between a movie, Wii time, computer time and picking what we eat for dinner.  It has been a great improvement!

Mason

Mason is just starting to sit up on his own.  I have been practicing a lot with him this week.  I'm hoping with school slowing down for the summer I can focus more on him and help him work on some of those muscles he needs to develop!

One bonus...he still pretty much stays where I put him since he can't crawl yet.  Unfortunately, he can roll over and always seems to find whatever paper/pencils/crayons are laying around.