{I'm that Mom}

the one who makes their kids do homework in the summer.

the one that bans you from anything fun unless your homework is done. no swimming, no wii, no reading, no movies until the work is done.

well, i have let up and they are doing homework after lunch now, but it isn't a fight and they do not happily but without whining so I let it go and just hope they are still able to do what they could do when school let out!

{Not the FRUIT of our labor}

don't these look great!

we are so lucky to have 2 fruit tress in the backyard. we don't do anything to them really, Chad prunes them when he thinks they look like they need it but besides that no work.

And we still get some yummy fruit from them!

{Where we spent our Saturday}

Aren't we lucky? Doesn't it just look relaxing?!

Since Grandma and Grandpa stayed in a hotel this trip because of all the moving and unsureness of where people would be living....but the hotel had a wonderful pool. So grandma rented us a cabana for the day and one of those big beds.

We spent the WHOLE day at the pool.

Relaxing.

Swimming.

It was very relaxing and fun.

{Apo Tradition}

It seems that when we have Apo family in town we can always end up at the bowling alley. All the kids love it and it is cool inside which is key when you live in HOT las vegas.

It is also very family tradition-y. You see as kids we always went bowling in Graham, NC when we would visit my Grandma and Grandpa Mann. It was a part of the trip tradition we had there...we would bowl, putt putt, and eat out for lunch. If it was a longer trip I would go with my Grandma to watch her get her hair done and maybe out for breakfast to "biscuitville" to get biscuits and gravy, and grits. And she'd always let me get a Sprite with my breakfast.

So bowling in Vegas brings the circle to a close....we'll have to start bowling in Utah when we visit Kris and Elisa, and Virginia with Blake and his family to keep the tradition alive!

(Uncle Kris with all the kids)

{Pack Meeting for June}

One of the two pictures I got before my camera died...stinky batteries!

They were having a recycling race and here's our K in action.

{To the Mountain}

After the boys asking all week we found a few spare hours to go hiking today in our local mountains. The only problem was the weather. Since it has been so "cool" in Vegas (cool being under 85) the mountain weather was "freezing" (for us that means 52 degrees). And I forgot to bring sweatshirts or have everyone dress in jeans so our time up there was only 2 hours.

But the boys have a lot of fun and any boulder, stump or tree they could climb on their wanted their picture taken. This is the first time in at least 2 years they have happily taken pictures and K even put his arm around his brother without any prompting! AMAZING!

{boredom}

Well this is what the boys will do when their cousins are here and after about 15 days of summer break and they are already "bored"



My little ponies! who knew....


They have also been talked into playing "barber-e" shop. But they put their boyish twist on it. L. is the "barber" and E is the customer who happens to be a policeman. K comes in with his sidekick A to rob the "store" and a chase begins.


Girl games provide some new entertainment around here.


And when you don't want to play with them you can always sit in a bucket and play DS!

{3 is better than 1}

E can now hula hoop 3 hoops at a time....he got two hula hoops for his birthday and with L's hoop he can do three.

it is very entertaining.

(this week)

I am going list style this week....becuase...i'm not sure why but it seems easy to post tonight!

--my brain is overfull from learning new things to help with my new job in the fall (very good but a bit stressful thinking of all i can do, need to do and want to do with my 1st graders!)

--E's birthday!! he is 7!

--3 soccer games this week! (we won them all....but we aren't counting :)

--the nicest weather we have EVER had in June in our 9 years in Vegas...it has been in the 70s the last 3 days and breezy...no A/C and just fresh air...we have loved it!

--two kids already claiming "they are bored" and it's only the 2nd week of summer break

--a trip to the movie store...3 wii games and some old but good movies for me and Chad.

This week brings more fun before we get some summer visitors! We can't wait to have our family in town!!

{Today is your birthday}

Well it's E's birthday!

He is 7!

Seven fun filled years....from baby to toddler to now 2nd grader....where does the time go?

(E in 2006)

He has grown from a non talking (b/c he didn't want to ) to a story teller and a wonderful reader.

(E back in 2007)

He has discovered he loves to play sports and still likes to tag around with K.

K. is his bestest friend and I love that.

E is quiet and tenderhearted but is still all boy all the time.

We love having him as part of our family and know that with him our family is complete!

Happy Day E!!

{What the Wii can teach you}

So today E comes in and says...."I can do this".....and starts to hula hoop.

Notice the arms...I think this is important to his ability to hula hoop...it goes from two hands straight up in the air to more of a muscle man stance to a bull rider look (one arm up one down).

Having two little girls in the house allows us to have toys we have never had before...like hula hoops. And so he continued for over 5 minutes standing there hula hooping. I wondered where he could have learned it from and realized....Wii. We have the Wii Fit and one of the "games" is hula hooping.

We think the Wii hasn't helped with bowling, baseball, and tennis as our children think in bowling you should bounce the ball off the edges even when you bowl in real life, when they are up to bat in baseball there is a lot of jumping as they hit the ball, and tennis well there is more jumping and spinning than actual hitting of the tennis ball. So I was amazed that he actually learned how to hula hoop from the game.

After he showed us his new talent all the kids had to have a chance.

L first and she can't really do it yet.

A just stood in the middle of the hoop while it was on the ground

And K couldn't be out done so he attempted to spin it on his neck (not to meantion that he can't hula hoop anyways...even on the Wii)

But then L held up the hoop and said "Jump doggie" to E and thus the circus act began. Luckily even Auntie was willing to get in on the fun holding the hoop higher and higher!

A good 30 minutes of running, jumping and laughing!

{the food runneth over}

With 8 of us here a lot of food is being consumed. It is fun having us all here but it feels like one of us is always picking up something at the store b/c we keep eating everything!

The pantry is really full!

and so is the fridge!

and it certainly isn't helping that Vannessa and I like to feed the kids fresh fruits and veggies...so Sams is becoming a great place to buy those items in bulk as all the kiddos love all those things too!

{Last day of 3rd Grade}

K's last day was fun and something he was really looking forward too!

For their awards ceremony the class stood and recited the whole Gettysburg Address. K got to stand in the front with two other classmates b/c he had learned the whole thing. Apparently not all the students passed it off. We were surprised thought b.c at home he couldn't do the whole thing. But he was always performed better at school than at home so we should have figured that out.

K has had a great year. He was happy to have his best friends return to school after starting school without him. He has become an avid reader, is still a math wiz, and we have learned that he can really memorize anything if we let him do it his own way.

{Last day of 1st Grade}

Here is E and his teacher on the last day right before awards....

He has had a great year. It was his first year in school all day 4 days a week. The beginning was a little rough but once he got used to it and got in the groove the year went a lot better.

This year he has learned to read, spell, and is great at math. He made some great friends that will be in 2nd grade with him next year and is really happy to have summer break!

He is definitely my homebody and loves to just be the 4 of us at home. So summer is just what he needs.

{pinewood derby 2009}

This was K's 1st Pinewood Derby....and it seemed like he had fun.....he came in 4th place after he decided to race his car backwards down the track.....

The Car.....

(last soccer practice of the season}

So for the last practice of the season, Chad had a water fight for the last 30 minutes of practice. One of E's old coaches did this and the team loved it so much we thought it would be fun again.

So a cooler full of water , 11 water guns, and a few extra gallons of water makes for a lot of fun!

{Guess what today is??}

Any guesses?

Thursday....the last full day of school for 2008-2009!!

All week we have been announcing the lasts....and this habit of mine really drives Chad crazy....

Tuesday was the last Tuesday of 1st grade for E and 3rd Grade for K.

Wednesday was the last working day of 1st grade for E and 3rd Grade for K. And the last time they had to take lunch to school for this year. And the last time to wear their polo uniforms to school.

Thursday is the last Thursday of 1st grade for E and 3rd for K. And the last field trip! (Both "read around America" so they earned a fun day out with those from their classes that did the same thing).

Tomorrow a half day!! with a class party and awards and we are done!! And the last time to wear their dress uniform for this year!

Bring on Summer!!

{Special helper}

So we still have our special girls here with us and A is always asking for Chad...I mean always...she wants NOTHING to do with me.

I gave her a lollipop and she ran off. I went looking for her a little bit later and this is where she was.

Happily watching Chad design. She sat there until she ate the whole lollipop.

{2 Birthdays in 1}

This year we celebrated both boys birthdays on one day. We decided on a May party since K's real day is in April and E's real day is in June. And this way all thier school friends can attend too.

We had a great afternoon at Bounce U (a building full of bounce houses, slides etc)