A Tricky Four-year-old

My 4 year old is bound and determined to stay with her older brother and sister at school. She tries a new trick everyday. The first day she got out her backpack, packed her own lunch and threw in some school supplies. That didn't work. So the next day she wanted to "walk Garrison and Hailey to class". Tricky Lex, but that didn't work either. The next day, she got up and got herself ready and put on her backpack. This time she refused to ride in the stroller (I wish someone would push ME in the stroller. ha ha. ). Instead she grabbed Garrison and Hailey's hand and walked with them. When we got to school she kept a tight hold of their hands, walked right up to Hailey's friends and started a conversation with them. Then she just kept walking up toward the door as if it were no one's business. I guess she just thought if she acted natural, no one would notice her walking in the building with the kids. I couldn't believe she just started talking to Hailey's friends. She is normally SO shy!

She was pretty disappointed when she got busted. Luckily, she was happier when I reminded her that her preschool is at East High, like in High School Musical. I don't think that bit of happiness will last long though. I can't wait to see what tactic she tries tomorrow.

Let's hope she wants to go to school this bad NEXT year! =)

Summer is officially over..........and that stinks!

I hope the kids are having a fun first day of school. We miss them! The younger kids want to know where they are and when they are coming home. My little Alex wasn't too happy this morning when she didn't get to stay at school with the older two. She even got herself dressed, ate breakfast and put on her backpack for school.

Luckily, Alexia will be starting a little preschool in a couple of weeks. Garrison and Hailey gave her all of the advice that they could think of for pre-k. I wish I would've recorded it because it was so funny and I have forgotten most of it. Here is some of it:

1. Always raise your hand

2. If there are two Alexias in your class, you are Alexia W. so don't answer unless they say Alexia W.

3. If you need to use the restroom, you have to use the hall pass that says GIRL on it. Don't wait for too long if you need to go because some people take SO long in the bathroom.

4. If the teacher tells the class to be quiet, don't talk.

That's some pretty good brotherly/sisterly advice. ha ha.

Out with old, in with the new

Our kids thought we were the coolest parents ever. Why you ask? Simple because we let them go crazy on our old couch. The could jump on it, throw the cushions off, make a fort, make slide, whatever they wanted as long as it didn't cause anyone injury. They had so much fun.

The next morning they found the old couch gone. We had put it out on the curb for the garbage man and I came home from my run to find my oldest two kids in tears. They were SO sad to see that couch gone. Garrison said "It's just sad. That couch has been in the family since I was born." Correction Garrison, that couch has been in the family since Aunt Mandi was born.

They were only slightly relieved to find out that it wasn't gone yet but still in the front yard. They went out to say their goodbyes.

Then they begged us to put it in the basement. When we told them that it would take up too much room Hailey asked if we could take it apart and leave it down there in pieces. It would have been seriously funny if they both weren't just so darn sad! I told them a story about when I was Garrison's age. My parents bought a new car and we had to sell our old one. I was SO sad to see that old blue car go. I cried just as much as Garrison and Hailey did over the old sofa. Once we got the new car I forgot how sad I was and didn't think about the old blue car again.

The next day this bad boy showed up:

A couple of hours after it was delivered, Hailey came upstairs and said "You were right about the blue car Mom." *Phew*

Farewell old couch and loveseat. You've served us well in our apartment, in our first house, in El Paso and here in Chicago.

Time to Say Goodbye

It's time to say goodbye to summer that is. I'm not ready for summer to be over and I'm not ready for the kids to go back to school yet. I miss them when they are at school.

We decided that we wanted to do something fun for the last Saturday of the summer so we took the kids over to the Circus. They loved it. Jackson loved all of the animals but especially the elephants.

There was a scary moment at the Circus however. One of the performers was jump roping on top of the top wheel of this thing while it was spinning:

and his foot got caught in the jump rope and he very nearly fell off from the highest point. No net. No joke. People screamed. It was crazy. Conal and I have had a couple of discussions on whether or not it was part of the act. We seriously don't think it was part of the act.

Good thing it didn't really seem to phase the kids. We don't want them traumatized by the circus performers.................the clowns are traumatizing enough. ha ha.

I Wouldn't Mess With the Young Women Leaders!

I'm so glad I have some fun ladies to serve in YW with! We have so much fun together. Last Wednesday the YW were in charge of the YW/YM activity. We had water games at the park. Anyone who has worked with the youth before knows that anything that involves water will inevitably end up in a huge water fight.......so we came prepared.

When the young men and young women were playing the last game we inconspicuously wandered off to gather our weapons and lock into our cars anything that could be used as a weapon against us. Oh man, you should have seen their faces when we ran in and hosed them all down with super soakers. It got even better when one of the young men leaders said, "what happened to all of those buckets and containers that we were using for the games?" and Sister Wood said "We locked them in our cars.........How dumb do you think we are?"

We did get ours though. We left the drinking cups out and got a couple of surprises along the way.

Thanks for the fun girls!

Bonus

Garrison, Hailey, Alexia and I participated in the summer reading program at the library this summer. The libraries here are really great! We all got prizes for partcipating and the whole family was invited to the summer reading program party where there were games for the kids, lots of free food, jumping balloons and a real live alligator for the kids to pet and ride. I'm not kidding. It was trained...........yet I still think that is just WRONG. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so the only pictures I have of the kids petting the alligator are on my cell phone. Oh well, it made for a cool picture message to Mandi and Dad.

Lucky for me, my name got drawn for one of the grand prizes and I ended up with 2 gift certificates. One to "Sweet Pea" which is a childrens' boutique (they must have had me in mind for that one =)) and a gift certificate to Barnes & Noble.

Hey--free stuff for doing what I enjoy anyway. Cool.

Lake Michigan cruise/ SWAT operation........You got paid for that???

Conal got to go on a little cruise of Lake Michigan this past week as part of a SWAT team operation. SWAT needed some "hostages" for their practice scenario of terrorists taking over a cruise ship. I think Conal is glad that he was a hostage and not a terrorist as paint balls can be pretty painful. Just ask Armida about the blisters on her hands.

Anyhow, here's the ship:

Here is the view from Navy Pier:

Here are the friends/co-workers:

Here is the action:

Sorry, can't show you any more of the action. Well I could.........but then I'd have to kill you. Just kidding.

No fair Con. No fair.

Indiana Dunes--West Beach

On Saturday we went to the Indiana Dunes State Park which is at the southern most tip of Lake Michigan. It is about 1 1/2 hours out of Chicago.

I wasn't aware that there are actual beaches around Lake Michigan but we have the sand all over our house to prove it. The water was fairly clear, fresh water instead of salt water, and FREEZING cold.

Cold water aside, the kids had a blast and we had to drag them out of there.

We sprayed fair-haired Macy down with sunscreen from head to toe...........and then right after Jackson dumped a whole bunch of sand on her.

In fact, Jackson was dumping sand on everything........including his own lunch. EW!

5 months from now, I'm going to look at these pictures and remember our hot, muggy day at the beach!

Whetten cross country tour; Chicago stop.

This frightening bunch showed up on our door step last week. Ok, they really weren't that frightening. Just their cookie monster shirts were. Ok, those weren't very frightening either. At least they have good taste in Sesame Street characters.

After a few hours of sleep and a few minutes of playing with the kiddos the next morning, they headed out for Chicago. They'll have to fill you in on what they did while in Chicago.

The next morning they headed out to finish out their cross country journey. Hope you guys made it home safely!

1 broken nose, 2 studios, 3 hours, 4 colds and 5 grumpy kids later.

A broken nose didn't deter us. The fact that some of us had colds didn't change our mind. Even the fact that the photographer didn't bother to show up to the appointment didn't get in our way. 5 grumpy kids didn't help matters though! But hey, what can you expect after dragging the whole family to one studio and waiting for a half hour, just to have to drive another 40 minutes to another studio. I was grumpy myself but there was no way I was getting everyone ready for pictures again!

I think we are lucky to get these:

At least no one is out right screaming or anything. I guess this is the best you can expect out of 5 grumpy kids under the age of 8 and a grumpy mom.

Oh yeah, and it took a sippy cup, a bottle, and a lot of rushing to get this picture:

I'm glad we got it though. In recent years we have hardly any pictures of just the two of us. I can't figure out why that would be the case. =)