The 4th

By the dawn's early light

Smiling because at this point they are completely loopy.

The sunset, before the dark takes over...

About 2 hours into my tent/camping experience I remembered WHY I haven't been camping in ten years!  Ten years is long enough to forget that tents are scary, Sasquatch IS real, cougars ARE real, no matter where you are in NV it is still a million degrees in July, being in the middle of nowhere is a good place to run into lawless individuals, and the ground is HARD!  Also, I am irrational when sleep deprived.  All I can say is I survived and I slept maybe two hours and the kids woke up at 3:30 in the morning with Elise screaming my tree-house (tent) is going to blow away.  Personally I thought it would blow us away and catapult our entire family down the mountain ravine too.  Thankfully Jed is patient/used to my crazy thoughts and was able to convince me that if I didn't stay in the tent then it might blow away and I could not steal the truck and find a hotel.  By 5:30 am we had breakfast, and by 6:00 we got out of there, tires a smokin'.  We all went home, ate, and slept for 6 hours!  You know it's bad when the big kids will sleep that long during the day.  The good thing is, the day went by really fast (fireworks are hard to wait for) and no one was cranky for the fireworks.    Camping every year?  no.

My Big Kid Elise

Over a month ago Elise told me "Me the BABY!" climbed on my lap and glared at anyone that dare question her claim.  Then, the next week she potty-trained herself and it's all been downhill (uphill?) to big kid land ever after.  I could no longer deny it after she came to terms with her more mature self and announced one day "me a BIG KID, not baby."

Elise Quotes/Doings
"Want to play ponies."  A hundred million times every day.  I need to hire a pony player.  Jara plays ponies.  Jed plays ponies.  I play ponies.  We all play ponies.  I can  only think up so many pony dialogues.  The evil sorcerer is my favorite character by the way, especially when Elise uses her construction worker cackle to accompany his wrong-doings.

"I poo'ed!" Best words ever, especially because she is sitting on the toilet when she yells it.   After changing diapers for almost eight straight years it's nice to be done.  My happy dance was great!  My exuberance may have frightened the children.  I have never had such an easy go of it.  During Spring Break I bought panties with hope in my mind but reality in my heart and she loved them, wore them and had accidents in them.  I asked her if she wanted to put back on her diaper and she said yes, so we did.  But the thought of panties has been lurking in her brain.  The second week in June after a horrible day of changing 10 sick diapers and a rash, she brought me the panties and said no more diapers.  We had a talk about panty wearing (and how licking the bottom of your shoe makes you sick) and the rest was history.  She has been shopping, been to church, and been camping diaper free, accident free.    At night I still have her wear a diaper, much to her disappointment, but seeing as how she is still trapped in a crib it's for her own good.  My mom is pretty sure the treat  incentive the first couple of weeks is what sealed the deal.  Treats are strong motivation for Elise.  I would have bought her a twenty pound jawbreaker to get to where we are at but thankfully a couple of chocolate chips did the job.

"Knock, Knock, Knocking on Heaven's door"  One weekend on our way to the lake we were listening to the "road trippin'" channel on Pandora.  Elise learned a little Guns N' Roses.  She sings it to her ponies, that and "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam."  Nice combination.  

Jara asked her who her friends were.  She responded "I not have friends!" Scowled, thought about it a minute, and then said "Rodney my friend!"  Rodney hasn't messed with her ponies yet and they played a friendly game of catch in the pool one day that consisted mostly of Elise getting all of the balls. Rodney has three sisters, bless his heart.

"Let's get in my tree-house!"  Elise deemed the tent a tree-house when we went camping.  She was not happy when we took it down.

She is not a bit afraid of the water/swimming/skiing.  She used the ski trainer last time we went to the lake.  After watching Jara and Jack go, she wanted a turn.  We let her, she did it perfectly, got back to the beach and promptly asked to go AGAIN!  The second time she wouldn't let go of the rope when it was time to be done, fell down and then swore off skiing.  I was kind-of relieved.  It's a little disarming to see your two-year old being pulled behind a boat.  

A little swimming/slide fun.  She would go off and then keep her face down in the water for five or so more seconds just to prove how brave/tricky she was.  My heart.

Elise with her notorious pony gang.  The ponies have to get in the car to drive to pony lessons.  When they get to pony lessons everyone has to line up for roll call and to get their hair brushed.

Big kids dress themselves.  You want to wear two skirts?  Are you sure?  It's kind-a hot....

Beach Fun

It had been about a year since our last family TRIP, so the weekend after school got out we decided to brave it again.  I was thoroughly prepared.  Lots of toys/activities/and the laptop.  The car ride almost killed us last time.  I think this may have been the best trip to date.  Jed had a little work to do so as soon as we arrived I sent him away.  I figured it was best to be left alone with the children after a 5 hour ride, anything would be fun at that point.  The hotel swimming pool was a great diversion.  Jack was freezing and refused to get out of the hot tub where he was entertaining a couple of twenty-something's, but the girls and I played a little Marco Polo and perfected our backward somersaults.  

The perfect age range, old enough to behave in the car, 

young enough to think the baggage rack is an amusement ride.  

Elise gets a little crazy on vacation and eats ice cream straight off the plate while climbing over Jed to achieve her goals.

Going for a little ride.  Jed did some serious pedaling.  I loved watching the reaction of other people as they saw us coming.  Without fail, almost every single person would burst into a big smile and laugh and admire the hood ornaments.  We did our part to make the world a happy place, even if Jed's calves burned the next day.

We'll be building castles in the sun, 

playing and having fun

The best part about this trip was our beach day.  Jed took a little nap. Everyone played safely without attempting to drown (including Jed) and everyone was perfectly entertained by the elements.  I love to watch them dig, look for shells and jump over waves without attempting to get in past their ankles.  Jara dug a giant pit and adorned it with seaweed for a couple of hours.  Jack loved jumping over the waves and Elise shoveled water and sand back and forth between pails for a good long time.  Success!  Yay for Newport beach!

Long Live Fang

It's been two weeks.  I'm still in denial.  Our wack-a-doodle cat is gone.  

Jed insists that his sister murdered him by luring him across the road in search of fatty mice knowing full well that he would meet an untimely death.  I have had many cats over the years, but this one truly was a special kitty.  He was fully a part of our family.  He fetched.  He picked out tile.  He played dolls.  He insisted on riding along in Jara's booster seat when we would take Jack to pre-school. He meowed every afternoon by the door until someone would let him in so that he could curl up with one of us and nap.  He was very patient with Elise, enduring many forms of torture and he loved to massage anyone wrapped up in a blanket.  He was also completely nuts and would run around like his tail was on fire for no apparent reason.

In all of his glory. 

 His lion ancestors would be proud.

Playing dolls

Allowing Elise to drive a Lego truck on his head.

They have a long history together.

Technically he was Jack's cat.

Having a fight with one of my library books and then falling asleep between the dust cover and book.

   

 Jack made me this heart-shaped track for Mother's Day.  (Precious, I know)  Each of the kids sat in the middle and told me they loved me.  Including Fang. After Elise got out, he laid in the middle and rolled on his back with his paws in the air, I figured that was his way of telling me he loved me too, in his own strange kitty cat way.  

He was notorious for the bizarre, sleeping positions/places he would come up with.  

Note: Elise was not allowed back in the crib until it was fully sanitized. 

Almost roasted him one day.

The children carried him around in this basket for a whole morning of fun one day.  

I swear he must have been narcoleptic.  

You were one-of-kind Fang. Rest in peace.

Jed is your Father kiddies!

Most of Jara's life she has called Jed, well...Jed he rarely blinks an eye.  In fact calling him "daddy" is more surprising than Jed.  She has repeatedly told us Jed IS Jed and has refused to call him anything else.  Well, unfortunately, the other two will occasionally call him Jed too and let me tell you, it leads to a lot of long explanations in church. Anyway, whatever they call him, he is still their FATHER and a pretty awesome dad!

A little pre-dinner coloring.  Daddy is good at connect-the-dots.

Good at dress-up.  

In case you didn't know this is a lovely picture of Kristoff and Elsa and Sven the trusty(crusty in E's words) reindeer.

Good at teaching.

See kids "one dirt hill + one more dirt hill...means a bunch of ants and you should smash it!"

Good at taking one for the team.  

Any man who would spare his wife the humiliation of wearing a velcro suit while children throw balls at you is a hero!

A good coach 

Good at swimming.

The children would never learn to swim if I were the sole source of their inspiration.

Tricky!  

He's also a fun, hard-working, AND loving dad!  (In case the Kristov costume didn't convince you.) 

Happy father's day Jed.

Ballet Revue

 A year of ballet!  Jara's last recital of the year was May 31st.  She did ballet all school year, every week, for an hour each week.  Her spotlight dance move of the evening was precious.  Ballet is a very fitting, proper activity for this little girlie.  Performing has been hard for her, it is stressful for her to think of messing up but she has loved going/practicing each week.  The first time she went and came home and said "ahh it is so calming" I knew we had found a winner!  She has never taken or been exposed to ballet in her life (well unless you count the Nutcracker at age 3) but was invited to learn along with the Ballet II class.  It was a big step but she did it!  I loved watching you Jara!

By the way-Jed is banned from texting other ballet dads during recitals.  Well, technically it wasn't during the ballet portion I looked at his phone and saw an image of a very robust woman in an inappropriate reference to opera singing but still....

T-Ball

Everyone should have the opportunity to have a T-Baller.  There is probably nothing more entertaining in this world than watching 4-6 year old children in their first encounter with organized (I use the term loosely) sports.  Kids running from first to third base.  Kids running bases backwards.  Kids watching as a ball goes rolling by.  Someone's kid winding up like a softball pitcher before he would throw the ball.  Kids with batting routines. Kids running past first base with no intention of ever stopping.  Hilarious!

Once Jack turned five, I told him he could pick a sport to play.  He had been talking about T-ball for a year and we have been practicing for about that long, so T-ball it was!  He was very determined, worked hard to improve (mom did you see how fast I ran, i was a blur) and it was the highlight of his week.  Three months of waking up for Saturday games at 8:00AM almost did me in.  Nonetheless we, I, made it.  

I'm proud of you Jack!  I loved watching you play.  I treasured your excitement/seriousness/drive/crazy wind-up/love of the game!

Also-

Jed helped coach.  With a little accidental volunteering from me.  Jed can have the patience of a saint which is helpful when standing next to a little person armed with a BAT!