A Million Diapers: Summer Break

Preschool graduation- I can't believe she's so big! I'm happy for her...she says she's excited but scared for Kindergarten.

For our graduation, we invited the parents/siblings to join us for some activities and then we had a small celebration and lunch.

I miss my preschool kids! (The kids have all been out of school since mid-May)

The day before the other kids got out of school Eliza and I went to Grants Farm. She always thinks she wants to feed the goats but it always scares her.

Andrew put some washout dye in his hair for his fifth-grade party and Eliza used a little.

Hannah and her girl scout troop planted a tree at the park. Hannah loved girl scouts but has other things she wants to try out also so she won't be doing it again next year. This was her final activity.

A blurry picture. Andrew is on the top left. This is the picture of the kids who got the presidential scholar award. I actually forget if that was the actual name of the award but it was something like that. I'm proud of him for his hard work at school. This was his graduation on the last day...he's off to middle school!

He didn't want a picture but I took one anyway

She loves to balance on any sort of edge

A quick trip to the park with Niki and Ian before summer break officially starts.

Sharing a hummus snack

Our first full day of summer break was on a Friday and we kicked it off with a bang by having 5 of the Terry kids over for the weekend while their parents and oldest brother were out of town. My kids had a blast! Eliza and Tommy are having a picnic...and showing off their feet.

Ethan loves playing with Ben and Sam.

Walking/Blading to the fish pond

Having 9 kids wasn't bad :)

Our summer list. This has kept our sanity this summer...especially mine. The kids asking for screen time all day makes me crazy so we decided to try just having a set screen time hour. If they've done everything on their list then from 3-4 they can have screen. It has worked better than I hoped. If we're out having fun we switch to a later hour because I don't want them to end something early just to have screen. We were going to set the screen hour for earlier in the day but decided to make it during the hottest hour instead.

This is another part of the summer plan to help me keep my sanity. It started out going really well. The incentive for them to keep to the schedule is that if they do I will let them each pick a (non-treat) snack that I'll buy that week for the snack cupboard. They're starting to be lax with kitchen rules so hopefully not getting the snacks this week will motivate us to get back to the schedule.

Our final piece of the summer plan. This is the accountability piece for their list and a way to keep track of their chores. I took this pic the week Andrew was gone at scout camp so he was crossed out. They have to have this signed off to get the screen hour.

Ethan is the quickest to get his list done every day. He uses these scripture story books for reading scriptures usually and he'll often read to Eliza so she can count it also.

There was a nest of baby birds under our back porch.

We're breaking our record for trips to Kansas City this year. We went with Daniel on one of his work trips there so we could play in the hotel pool.

There is a cool story on youtube about firefly forest which is near Kansas City so we wanted to go check it out. There are fairy houses hiding throughout the forest so we went to find some.

We also went to the farm we often go to there but it was too hot to really enjoy it.

There is a lot of head standing going on around our house lately.

The girls got haircuts.

I stole this picture Daniel showed me from my friends facebook page of Andrew and Luca...Thanks Niki!

I don't know what was funny but I love him laughing

For my birthday I wanted to go on a picnic at one of my favorite parks

We got our family pictures back and I love them! Thanks Julie! Daniel had her tell me they would take a while so I wouldn't be expecting them in time for my birthday. It was a great surprise!

Almost every night when the heat goes down a little we go to the porch swing while the kids play.

Summer storms are the best. The kids love playing in the rain. They are terrified of real storms but if its only rain then they're good.

Memorial Day party

A day at the water park. Hannah and her friend were taking a little break.

Lego fun

We take advantage of days that aren't too hot and so we enjoyed a day at the park with friends.

I can't help myself from taking pictures of my kids with cute babies

They got hiking backpacks for their birthdays this year and the girls went on a trial run

Here's the real deal

We didn't start the hike until about 8pm so it was a perfect time for catching fireflies

Happy Birthday Eliza! We love this 5 year old girl of ours.

The kids were helping me set up for Eliza's party. She wanted balloons on the trampoline.

Making crowns...because I got this art kit at a garage sale and we needed something to do while we were waiting

cupcakes

Hannah hiding the treasure hunt clues. The kids helped me a lot since Daniel was gone that day.

Following the clues

I feel like I have a similar picture to this of a group of kids on a treasure hunt from each kids party. It's such an easy activity that they love.

The treasure they found was the pinjata

The birthday girl.

After her party she wanted to go to the water park. She loves water slides! Daniel met us there.

Our front yard is looking so much better!

Eliza got this fun watermelon splash game from her friend for her birthday and the kids love it.

Although he's playing with the noodles here, Ethan has gotten really good at swimming this year!

Eliza is even starting to swim. She didn't want to try last year so its a big step. We had fun joining Aunt Martie at her neighbors pool.

Hannah wrote the caption for this one:
Hannah loves babies. We were babysitting our friend's daughter, she's just a few months old. Hannah is feeding her and she's super cute ... :)