Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Summer's Here!

This summer just took off! Things have been so busy I haven't had a chance to blog until now.We enjoyed a fun and busy week of VBS (Vacation Bible School) last week. This was Brother Bear's first year to be in an actual group rather than just in child care. It was quite the transition for him. Every day he insisted he'd rather go to child care. It was just more fun he claimed. Fortunately, he did have fun with his group, but it makes me wonder what preschool will be like.

Sister Bear loves VBS. She enjoys playing with her friends, singing songs, and learning all the movements. She made several fun crafts and some new friends. We already had a play date with one of them yesterday.

At the end of the week they have the kids perform one of their songs at mass. Daddy even came with us to watch the kiddos perform. How wonderful it was to have him with us at church.

Baby Bear is almost ready to take off walking. He can pull up on everything, walks along walls, and even took a step without holding on yesterday. Of course, he was stepping towards me.

All three kids have begun swim lessons. After how difficult the two big kids were for swim lessons last year, I made sure I set my expectations for this year's lessons very low. I was able to get all three kids' lessons at the same time. The bad thing about that is I can't watch the big kids too much since I'm in the pool with Baby Bear. The good thing is we aren't sitting around bored waiting for anyone. I also think the two big kids do better when I'm not hovering over them. This way they don't have an "audience" to play to like when my dh and I watched their lessons.

Baby Bear likes his swim lessons. They are a bit advanced for his age, but we have fun playing in the water. He likes kicking his legs and scooping up the rubber ducky with his hands. I never had the big kids take swim lessons when they were little and I regret that now. Even though they aren't learning how to "swim" exactly, they are definitely learning to love the water, basic swim movements, and it makes the pool fun.
Sorry for the short update. We had a sweet Father's Day with Papa and Daddy. We are looking forward to a fun Fourth of July with some friends, a parade, and fireworks. At the end of July we head down to a beautiful Oregon beach for some camping with Memere and Papa in the RV. Then, at the beginning of August, the big kids head up to Grandma and Grandpa's on the Island for a couple nights. I'll try to keep you all updated. It's harder to find time to get online with Sister Bear home. The kids either need attention or are fighting it seems. Wish me luck!

Friday, June 5, 2009

Preparing for Summer

Our new digital camcorder arrived today. We ordered it through Costco online since our local Costcos didn't carry it. I can't get over how small it is!!! Our old one was purchased 9 1/2 years ago (for our first Thanksgiving together). This one is smaller than my digital camera. Plus, it takes digital videos. I can't wait to do some videotaping!

At moms' group today we planned our summer activities. My calendar looks so full already! I hope things work out okay. I have to figure out how and when we're going to fit swim lessons.

Currently, we have two park days and one walking day each week. I wish we could start them earlier since my kids are up anyway, but they all start at 10 AM. Swim lesson times are either 10:35 AM or 5:05 PM if I want to get all three kids in the water at one time (which I do). I'd originally wanted the morning one, but now, with all these other activities, I'm wondering if we should do evening ones. Decisions...decisions...decisions.

Brother was disappointed to see the gray skies today because we bought a slip and slide and haven't had a chance to try it out yet. Every so often he brings it to me (in the box) and talks about the different ways he is going to run and slide on it.

Brother is also addicted to playing with the Loving Family set. We had some friends over earlier in the week and I pulled Sister's Loving Family dollhouse out for the little girl to play with. Brother was all excited and immediately began setting everything up Sister's way and created many crashing and falling senerios. Sister has been playing with it again too and they keep asking to leave it out. I guess we wont be selling it in the garage sale this summer after all.
I am enjoying the cool weather today. After a couple weeks of high temps, I needed some cool weather to cool my house down and get a decent night's sleep. Although I enjoy sunny weather, I don't like it at night time or too many days in a row. I guess that is my Northwest nature.


Sister is almost done with school. While she talks about how excited she is to be done, I'm pretty sure that will last about a week. After that she'll miss all her friends and start begging for play dates daily. I hope some of her friends attend the park days. I don't know that I'm up to having play dates all the time for her.

Yesterday Sister had a field day at school. Her entire K-8 school was broken up into five teams. It was fun to see all the grade levels working together. The eighth graders were the game coordinators. They came up with some creative and exciting activities for the kids. What a wonderful end-of-the-year event! It was so hot though!!! Those kids were sweaty balls of exhaustion by the end of the day.

Last Tuesday was the talent show at Sister's school. While Sister likes the idea of being on stage, she gets terrible stage fright. Therefore, I wondered if she'd actually be able to complete her talent act. We chose a poem for her to read, "Six Brussels Sprouts" and listened to her practice it for two weeks. It wasn't her best performance of the poem, but I was proud and relieved that she was able to finish the entire poem. The more she practices, the more comfortable she'll get. She was so proud of herself. Baby Bear is getting so big. It's difficult to keep anything away from him because he has figured out how to get around along the walls and furniture. He finally figured out how to get down without just letting go; he leans over and holds onto the ground while he lowers himself to his stomach. Why not just sit? I have no idea. Probably for the same reason why he wont crawl on his knees still even though he'll get up on them to pull up on furniture. His favorite activity is pulling the books off our shelves. I've tried to block them off, but he somehow still gets to them. So, I spend a lot of my day putting books back onto the shelves.
I finally heard him say, "Mama"! He says Mama, Papa, Bye Bye, and Hi. Unfortunately, he doesn't say them on command and they are often said randomly. He will say Mama more often when he wants to be picked up, but I don't know if he has completely made the connection yet.

We're looking forward to a relaxing weekend and preparing for Sister's last week of first grade. How exciting!!!