GR helped our good friends Tiffany and Brandon load up their truck today. Monday they will be pulling out leaving Kansas to move out west and be near family. We had their family in our home their first weekend in Kansas - three years ago, they were house hunting the first weekend in October and GR invited their family to join ours for dinner. It was an instant friendship, a kinship. We will miss their sweet family and wish them the very best.
In quiet moments when the reality that Carson is moving very far away starts to sink in, his little eyes well up with tears. But Saturday night it was all giggles and laughing and jumping and leaping, so much so that as soon as they'd had a few bites of food, we sent them outside as the house was clearly not large enough to contain four free spirits.
We took this picture of the four boys just as they were heading back to their house ... the boys to sleep, mom and dad to finish retouching paint. You can just see their cheeks glowing pink and hair dripping with sweat - evidence that they had had a blast together and played on so very hard!
Yesterday was the kids last day of school. The weather was extremely mild, leaning toward chilly with a very good chance of rain. Not so great if you had your heart set on celebrating school getting out for the summer by swimming with friends at Grandma's pool. Since they couldn't go swimming, we had everyone over here for a play date. They played computer games, Wii, were inside and outside, and inside and outside numerous times, having an over all nice, laid back comfortable afternoon enjoying their friendship. I made my favorite monster cookie recipe which the kids enjoyed.
Alex fell asleep on the couch just before dinner, and given how wet and chilly it was, we opted to not even try to go to the opening summer band concert. Hopefully next week!
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We've been very pleased with the children's performance this school year. They each got excellent marks and are showing measurable improvement from the beginning of the year. It's so exciting to see Sam loving math and starting to read real books! The girls continue to be avid readers, reading well above grade level. But it looks like we need to spend more time this summer refocusing on math facts. There are a few things I'm hoping to discuss with the school principle this summer before we go into a new school year. While I don't have children who have been labeled as "gifted" I do have children who need to be accademically challenged. Thankfully, with only one exception, they have all had teachers who have recognized early on in the year that our kids will need a little extra challanges here and there to help them stay on task and not get bored - since in our family boredom (with the exception of Emily) mannifests itself in talking.
My three big kids love spending time with Dad, but most of their life, they've lived with Dad being in school, working, working/traveling, serving in different church callings, etc. Thankfully, over the years, the time they spend with GR has always been "enough" to fill their little cups until the next opportunity. I've decided Alexander has a crack in his cup, because over the last month or so, he's been seriously missing his dad. And it not like GR's gone all that much. No more so than before. But GR will leave for work and, Alex will break down, late in the afternoon before the kids are home from school, a weepy boy will find me in the kitchen needing extra hugs because he misses his dad. So I've been looking for opportunities for Alex and GR to spend a little more time together, and I told GR that he needed to do the same.
Tuesday morning got off to a really hectic start. It was one of those extremely full days where we hit the ground running and never stopped until you head hit the pillow 16 hours later. GR needed a ride to work and since he works in the general direction of "the Farm," I decided we had enough time to spend a couple hours there after dropping GR off. Over the last couple of days, Alex has been asking to visit the farm and the goats. We'd gone on the 14th for a playgroup activity, and had a great time playing! GR offered to go with us and just go in late, and ultimately decided to take the entire day off given all we had planned for the day. It was so nice! The weather was cool and wet, so the farm was not crowded at all ... I kept telling GR that when we'd come with playgroup, there were 80% more people there!
Alex LOVES to feed the goats, and has no fear when it comes to feeding them. Because there were no crowds, and there was someone to stay with Anna in the stroller, I decided to take Alex IN the petting pen to feed the goats, rather than feed them through the fence.
Never.again.Never.
Within seconds, hungry goats with poor table manners had covered my white pants in mud and other mud like substances :), nibbled my shirt and used my waist as a stepping stool, bringing me eyeball to eyeball with more than one goat! I guess it was good and bad that they quickly deduced who held the food. Good, because they totally left Alex alone. Bad, because this city girl really doesn't enjoy being mauled by livestock (are goats even considered livestock? ahh they are).
My only recourse was to throw my handful of feed across the pen, raise my hands to surrender, grab Alex and quickly back out of the pen! From now on we will be feeding the goats through the fence.
I love how Alex feeds double handed!
Aren't the ducklings adorable! There were ten of them, and you could tell they and mama were totally use to having hundreds of kids surrounding them. Alex could get as close as he wanted and they didn't mind a bit.
We tried to ride a pony, but Alex didn't want anything to do with it ... maybe next time when he's technically old enough to ride the pony (gotta be 3, not 2 and 22 months). We also visiting with two Elders logging community service hours. They spend Tuesday and Friday mornings at the Farm (ETA: we later found out that these too Elders serve in Bishop Topher's ward - one of GR's former roommates!). Alex got to be nose to nose with a mama jersey cow, and her calf, we got to listen to some wonderful stories told by a Native American Folklorist in the teepee, and of course we sat on a tractor and surveyed the land.
The Farm has made lots of wonderful new additions, with many more scheduled in the near future. I'm looking forward to taking the big kids back this summer with a big roll of quarters, so we can keep feeding the goats through the fence.
This week marks the official start of summer for my kids and they look forward to it every year! Memorial day brings the opening of the pool, a place the kids and I plan to spend a lot of time this summer. We spent the morning lazily getting ready for our afternoon at the pool and barbecuing with a few friends. The weather was just warm enough for an early afternoon dip in the pool. Thankfully, no one forgot how to swim over the winter, Alex is navigating the water beautifully in his arm floats, and we discovered Anna is a total water baby! What a nice change from terrified Alex!
Our friends arrived just as our kids were getting out of the pool and the temperatures were starting to cool. The kids played and played and played in Grandma and Grandpa's field. They took a short break to eat and then went back to playing ... the boys went one direction, the girls in another. The mom's talked and visited and bounced babies while the dad's visited and supervised the driving of cars, the throwing of balls and the flight of frizbees.
Sadly, I don't have a single picture of our blissful day. I'm learning that when I'm totally comfortable, relaxed and enjoying the company of good friends and family, the camera tends to get forgotten and pictures aren't taken. Hopefully, I won't regret that in the years to come. I'm hoping that, the experience, the people and being in the moment, not distracted by other "things" will be just as important too.
We made Rice Krispy Treats and ate blackberries. 
Mama did some sewing and preparations for our upcoming Primary Activity in June. And Alex said, "Let me takea picture?!" and did ... lots of them.
We went to the park and played with friends. Went looking for velcro and continued my frantic search for ribbon - Michael's has stopped carrying the brown saddle stitched ribbon I use in my most popular burp cloth bundle - sigh!!
Meet Edward, Just Plain Edward that is, not to be confused with Edward II, Edward III, or Edward IV, because they all live here too. And in case you're wondering, Edward is wearing his duck costume, obviously.
Saturday Daddy and Alex discovered a toad while mowing the lawn. Alex came into the house, "Quick Mommy, come outside and bring your camera!" I kid you not. Word for word, from daddy's mouth to his ears, from his mouth to my ears. And I obediently snatched the camera and came.
