How to keep a boy busy

Give him markers and let him take them out and put them back in.

Then find markers all over the house and finally after child number FOUR is 16 months old, install really ugly child safety locks where the crafts are to keep number four from making a mess at all times.

What you don't know about this picture...

It's 10:30 in the morning.

Yup, but it's what you do at your grandparents house right?

My great idea

I thought it would be good idea to take the kids to the beach during when I thought low tide was. I had thought we'd go pick up shells and walk the beach. Ummm.... or Gibson just LOVED the water and sand and everything about the beach. We went home with some soggy children.

The Museum

We actually got out of the pool this past weekend and visited the museum in Corpus. Here are the kids outside the museum with Granna and Papa.

At least he turned around

Gibson is a regular climbing onto tables at the moment. At least he thought to turn around before trying to get down. When his feet didn't touch the ground he just hung out continuing to play in the sand.

Field Day

Now I'm not sure but this might have been Summit's first official field day and while it needed a little work, the kids had fun and I think it was a great day. Sarah and I left some of the children with a babysitter then two of her kids went with their Grammy so we got to just take the oldest boys and help out for the day. It was a lot of fun and I was so glad to be there and be a part of the celebration.

Tug of war

They won. Think they were excited?

Kicking off summer

How about kicking off summer with swimming and sno-cones! Oh yes we did! It was a really nice day even if my children didn't really feel like posing for pictures. What can I expect after swimming right up until nap time then going for a sno cone?

He did not!

How did this guy graduate from Kindergarten already? Where did the year go? I'm thankful for the days at home so I can spend more time with this guy who is turning into an amazing young man.

Thanks Sarah for getting the crazy idea to homeschool your children. :)

Here he is receiving his diploma!

Incredible Pizza

I took all four kids to Incredible Pizza on Monday. Everyone who participated in the Read-a-thon got a free pass and I knew Hadley would enjoy going. I was a little nervous about taking all of them because let's be honest, Gibson is hard right now but they all did great. Don't get me wrong, figuring out a way to carry four kids food and drinks to the table while pushing a stroller was not easy but we made it work. They ate their food and then played games until we ran out of money.

Sorry, I took a bunch with my point and shoot. It's all about the memories not the quality of pictures right?

New shirts

After their trip to NY, Grammy and Grumpy sent Yankees t-shirts for the kids. I have not gotten all four of them in their shirts yet for a picture but I've got a couple of the three oldest.

Not too old for bubbles

When will he not want to do bubbles anymore? Sweet childhood, it goes by too fast.

School program

I was thankful Pa could come to Channing's end of the year school program. Since Stefan stayed home with a sick Linden I was glad to have someone else there to support her. She was pretty excited to see us both in the audience.

Playing on my bed

Why is playing on my bed such a fun event? These two had a ball one morning while the older two were outside. Doesn't it look like she's telling him something important and he's actually listening to her? Big sisters are quite bossy. She's got the drill down already. Ha!

Random iphone

Well, I guess I'm a little behind taking pictures everyday so I'm pulling out some random iphone pictures. :)

Read a thon

Saturday Hadley participated in a Read A Thon at his school. One of the 3rd graders has a heart for Africa and wanted to raise $25,000 to build a school in Uganda. At last count the kids had raised over $17,000 and it was still rising.

I was really proud of Hadley and how much he read. He read ALL day Saturday (with a little help)!

What the rain brought

Mud! We were thankful for the little bit we got and the mud it made. Can you see it flying through the air toward Hadley?

Hadley's day

Stefan and I took Hadley out for his birthday lunch. When I asked him about his favorite tradition regarding his birthday he told me going out to lunch with me and Stefan. I thought that was sweet. I had expected getting presents or having a party to be his favorite thing.

Being silly

The boys were outside playing well and it was cloudy so I thought it was a good time for a few pictures. Why were they being silly? They were pulling up their shorts to show me their underwear. Sigh. Such boys. I was focusing on their faces so didn't get the underwear shots. For whatever reason they walked away from me with their arms around each other. I'll take the rare moment of brothers acting like brothers.

The culprit

Ah hah! Maybe we've found part of the reason why Gibson has been so unpleasant. He's getting 4 molars. Two have poked through. One on the bottom is partway out and the other is swollen and getting ready. I hadn't checked for teeth because I kept expecting him to get two more in front not his molars. Now I know the kid needs motrin when he's hard to be around. Wish I'd thought of it this weekend.

Field Trip

Monday was Hadley's field trip with his kinder class. We went to the Wildlife Ranch and while Hadley had a great time, Gibson was a GRUMP!

Swimming

It was some of their favorite activies this past weekend.

It's hard to choose just one

I know it's a repeat but it's hard to choose just one picture from family camp so here's our whole family.

Home Study is IN!!!

Channing was there too but refused to be in the picture. We got a few papers notarized on Friday and then mailed the whole packet to our social worker. It's in her hands and now we are waiting for our first meeting.

A quiet moment

The other day I was working on the computer, Channing and Gibson were asleep and Hadley was at school. Linden was sittting in the corner quietly playing with a car that he had gotten for his birthday. It doesn't take much to entertain him sometimes and when I grabbed my camera to take a few pictures of him I got an earful all about the car. I enjoyed the quiet moment with my middle guy.

Where's the girl?

I came from outside to a quiet house. (No, I wasn't gone long enough to have someone walk out the door this time.) I found a pink covered basket on the living room floor.

A trail of pink can only mean one thing....

Found her!

Still May

Still in long sleeves but at least it was warming up. I know the boy needs a haircut. Don't judge. I'm thinking about it.

What's wrong with this picture?

Don't know? How about check the bottom of the post and notice that it's MAY and my children are wearing long sleeves and pants and they were still cold. That is wrong! Really wrong! We hit a record low on Monday and I didn't like it one bit. Stefan was all excited about hot chocolate in May, I drank some because I was cold but wasn't happy about it.

Throwing a party

For my brother that is! Justin had his last big presentation for his masters on Sunday. After a lot of years in school, he is DONE. They came for Linden's party but stayed with Beth and Doug Saturday night since Justin was going to have to be back in San Antonio for his presentation Sunday night. We did not cook for them but took our whole crazy crew out twice while they were here.

Ugh! Why do I even bother with the dumb point and shoot.