Photo dump from the past week

Another packed week. Here are a few highlights...


Elise's drama performace:



We'd been listening to a CD of music since January of 30-40 second snippets from music from the 70's, 80's and 90's. We had no idea how that soundtrack was going to evolve into a drama performance, but it did and the kids did a great job. Elise's big part was being the "sign holder" for the 90's.

Carson surprised her with flowers after the performance and she was THRILLED.


Visit with Cousin Tyler:
Even though Tyler just turned 13 this week, he's still willing to spend lots of time playing with Elise.

Carson's Cub Scout graduation was held at a park in town on a bee-you-ti-ful day and the kids had a blast playing.

And every time I turned around, another little boy from school would be yelling for Elise's attention. She was in her glory (and I'm already worried about the amount of attention she got from the boys!!)

Visit with dear friends:

One of my bestest friends from college spent the night with her family. This is her son, who is about to go into high school! Oh my goodness, I remember when he was born and there is no way possible enough years have gone by for him to now be going into high school!!! Age aside, he's a great kid!

Elise discovered two new friends in her daughter's. Her girls are 7 and 8 and they quickly became good friends!


Field Days at Elise's School:

Elise's school has a yearly field days for the kids. It's a fun day that the kids look forward to all year long. This year it was on one of the first really hot days in our area and the kids were melting by the time I dropped by in the afternoon. I caught her class in a game of tug-o-war.

The PTO surprised the kids with these cool bags full of lots of goodies! (Hmmm...I'm wondering how I might "borrow" this for myself!)

And try as I might, my daughter would NOT let me get a picture of her eating her ice cream.

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I was too pooped to care about taking pictures at the pool party we hosted for Carson's soccer team and the family birthday to celebrate Elise and Tyler's birthday. Sigh...

.....
And the countdown is in serious summer mode around here. Hubs has 3 days of school left and the kids have 6 days. The days are getting longer, the weather nicer, the calendar full of fun outdoor activities...I'd say we're ready for summer!

Trying to get out of our lazy slump...

We look forward to this time of year all year long. We're all fortunate to get really long breaks from work and school. It really is such a highlight of the year. It's such a good chance to relax and spend some time as a family without all the normal daily pressures. This year, we've been downright lazy. All of us.



I finally decided that a 2 week head cold probably isn't normal and got some more powerful drugs from the doctor. Turns out it was a sinus infection. That might explain my lack of energy and desire for a daily nap! :) It's amazing how quickly you can start to feel better when you take the correct drugs!



So, on New Year's Day, I decided we needed to break this lazy streak and start gearing up for the routine of normal life. So, here are a few things we've managed to work on the last 2 days.



I worked on the paperwork for Carson to attend Deerfoot Lodge this summer. Deerfoot is a Christian camp in the Adirondeck mountains of upstate New York. My brother spent every summer there as a kid and it was a life altering experince. My sister is sending her 3 boys (9, 12 and 16) this summer for the first time as well. I'm thrilled we've finally decided to send all 4 boys at the same time. I think they'll just love it. The selling point for my son was the fact that they bath right in the lake...no daily showers!

Perry continued working on the bathroom. He laid the tile.

Replaced the exhaust fan (he is standing on a step stool here...he's not THAT gigantic...he did ask why I was taking so many pictures of his butt, though!)

He also put up beadboard (I painted). We put the beadboard on the ceiling as well (which is a pain in the arse project!). Carson and I are admiring Dad's work. It's amazing how many little details go into a "small" project like this. I hope to have it completely done before we go back to school.

Elise entered the Young Authors contest in the school district and she has spent a good deal of time the last few days working on her book. It's a story about a Chinese tiger performing a cheerleading routine at a Chinese New Year celebration! She's quite the perfectionist and is driving herself (and us!) nuts over every little detail! I'll be so thankful once the deadline is here and we can turn it in!

Elise and I worked on creating a bed for her American Girl doll. Since our dining room is no longer a "catch-all crap room" I've had to set up a crafting area in the basement. It's coming but as you can see in this picture, it's still a mess. My husband did install some better lighting for me over the break.

And Carson and Tyler?!? Well, they were still lazy bums while the rest of us were working hard! It's mid-day and they are still in pj's watching tv.

And I had to include this picture. Elise has worn skirts every day this break. This skirt is one of her favorites...given to her by her Aunt Kristin for Christmas. Elise picked this outfit out by herself and asked me to take a picture of her.

Hope you are all enjoying the first days of the New Year!

Conflict

Carson had a great birthday yesterday and will stretch out the celebration by having a laser tag party with his friends next weekend.

But, this weekend, his cousin is staying with us so his birthday weekend is turning out extra special. My kids LOVE their cousins and it's a constant battle for attention. Poor Tyler must get tired of hearing, "will you play with ME now?"


Added to the normal tension of an extra playmate in the house and vying for his attention, there is a bit more tension this weekend.

You see, Carson got two new PSP games at our family's birthday party 2 weeks ago. Games he really.really.really wanted.


Unfortunately, his PSP decided to choose that day to break. Would not load a game to save it's life. So, Carson's PSP is off for repairs and who knows how long that will take. In the meantime, these two new ultra-fabulous games have been collecting dust....completely UNplayed.

That is, until his cousin showed up with his shiny...and most importantly...fully functioning...PSP. Not only did he bring his PSP, he brought a strong desire to play Carson's new games as they are games he does not have.

Normally, the kids have enough different games between them that they have no problem sharing. Carson welcomes Tyler's ability to get past certain levels of most games.

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Except when you have only ONE machine. Not only do you have to share the games (which they typically don't mind), you also have to share PLAYING TIME.

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Add to that one little girl who could care less about the PSP games and only wants her cousin to play with her...and you have a recipe for one big ol' momma headache! :)

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And this is off topic, but as I walked over to dump my pictures, I found YET ANOTHER dead fly. They are all over our house right now. Between the dead flies and the fake Halloween cockroaches, our house is a lovely place to visit right now.

RIP, Mr. Fly. (P.S...could you send out a message to your comrades that our house really isn't a desirable as it might seem to a fly? Really, I'm sure there are better places to congregate. And those dogs you torment in my house may one day actually CATCH and EAT you!)

Last week of summer vacation

Summer has just flown by this year. It seems to go quicker each year. Perry is back at school and we are doing our annual August child care juggle. The kids hate going to the Y day camp. They were lucky enough to have my parents come over last week. This week, my nephew Cliff is watching them again. They just love having Cliff over and he does a FANTASTIC job of watching them.

He can keep Carson in line and isn't afraid to show his authority.

And Elise has him wrapped around her little finger. (If you know anyone at his high school, don't spread this around, but...he even lets Elise do makeovers on him...but quickly washes it off!) He's part-fish like Elise so I suspect they'll spend much of their time in the pool.

We were going to have another nephew, Tyler, over as well. But...after he jumped into the pool, he started having an intense ear pain (this from the kid who has a sky high pain tolerance.) He assured me the ice cream cone would really help his ear on the ride back to his mom! :) Hope you are feeling better, buddy!

While we are only 9 days away from school, we STILL don't know who the kids' teachers are for the coming year. That is my only frustration with our school district. They literally wait until the last minute to announce teachers. They kids are so anxious to learn who their teacher will be and which friends will be in the same class. My hope is the letters will arrive tomorrow (Monday).

Tyler

We were hoping our nephew Tyler would be coming to our house this weekend, but he's sick. Tyler NEVER gets sick and this has knocked him on his arse. Tyler is a pretty energetic kid (that's probably putting it mildly) so it's a shocker that he's so lethargic.

While all of our nieces and nephews are special to us, here are some extra special things about Tyler:

• Tyler was the first nephew/niece (ok, no nieces yet...Merry, could you work on that?) on my side of the family.
• My sister was pregnant with him when we moved down this way. I didn't work the first few months and spent lots of time with her during the last part of her pregnancy and first few months of Tyler's life.
• I had never held a baby so young in my life when I first held Tyler at 10 minutes old!
• We were in the infertility stage of our life. I didn't know if we'd ever have kids and I made the decision to enjoy the heck out of Tyler.
• When I was pregnant with Carson, Tyler exposed me to every childhood illness that a pregnant woman shouldn't be exposed to :) My doctor got used to calls that started "I was with my nephew this weekend and he's since been diagnosed with..." Thanks for those extra shots and tests, kiddo!
• Tyler was one of my first visitors in the hospital after I had Carson. I remember him climbing up on the bed with me to get a good look at his cousin.
• He was so excited to meet Elise and I remember how excited he was at the airport. He couldn't wait to get to know her, while his younger brother wasn't too sure about this little girl who had knocked him off his pedestal of being the family baby!
• Tyler has done every type of nasty in each of my vehicles.

We love you, buddy, and hope you are feeling better soon. We missed having you visit us this weekend.