Mom, you have a blog?!

  My kids were today years old when they found out that I have a blog. Mostly, they wanted to see pictures of themselves. Emily was sad because blogging fizzled right when she was coming on the scene. So, naturally, they wanted to blog to add more pictures and stories of themselves.

Not my best summer

Camille is loving 6th grade.

Emily still enjoys ballet.

And Owen still loves sports,

especially soccer.

We have seven years of pictures of the kids at the school fun run.

Camille loves all the pets and is continually making (unsuccessful) plans to get animals

Summer 2020

Remember how I sometimes post summer goals? My goals for this summer are 1. Keep the kids alive. Bonus if I keep Owen from regressing on his reading and writing gains.

Here are some things we've been up to:

He is up to at least 20 snakes caught (and rehomed to a park). HE BROUGHT THIS ONE INSIDE THE HOUSE.

I'm not too sad that the dance recital was cancelled, but I am sad that we paid $120 for two costumes that weren't worn. This fairy one is cute and will get played it. The hip hop costume is terrible and won't ever be used again.

We got a pinata for the kids since there were no birthdays parties this year. Again, I'm not too sad about that. 

Our sweet neighbor does balloon twisting, and she offered to make something for Camille's birthday.

Beekeeping is an adventure. One hive is thriving. The other is doing weird things and giving us lots of learning experience. I doubt it will last the winter.

I like to look for rainbows. If you look closely, you can see the double rainbow.

Maple and I are running buddies again. She loves to run through any water that she can get too, including gutter water from sump pumps, big puddles, and the river when we are close enough. 

Grandma and Grandpa gave Owen a drone helicopter. He was in heaven flying that thing. After several days of flying, charging, flying, charging, it got thrown off balance somehow and won't fly.

Maple has finally settled down enough that the kids can play in the backyard without her tackling them. She and Owen play together really well, which is one of the main reasons we got a dog.

Camille's baptism

Best Kid Toys

My mind is always going over our toy inventory: what we have, how much space it takes up, what my kids actually play with, and what sits in the toy box never getting used. I hate toys that take up a lot of space, like big plastic things, so we have relatively few of those (and just got rid of some!). We do have some great toys that the kids go back to again and again.

1. Magna-tiles

We have a non-name brand set of 100 with one car and one big base plate, and it is possibly the most played-with inside toy. Before these tiles were gifted to us, we had regular wooden blocks that got played with quite a bit. Camille went through a phase where she played with the wooden blocks everyday but once the Magna-tiles came along, the wooden blocks were forgotten.

2. Little People Princesses

Camille got a similar set as a present when she was just a baby, and she played with them so much. Now Emily plays with them. We had a Little People farm that came and went, but the actual people stayed and are played with way more often than the buildings or vehicles.

3. Design and Drill Activity Center

I got this for Owen one year for Christmas. It's one that I keep in my closet and only bring down on occasion (lots of pieces to scatter and get lost). Every child, boy and girl, that sees it wants to play with it. Great for fine motor control and early STEM activity. The kids love that the drill really works. Putting the screws in is obviously way more fun than taking them out. It is a pain to take all the screws out every time my kids fill it, but I've refined a faster method then using the tools. 

4. Melissa and Doug Horse Stable

This was a gift to Camille from Grandma Wood a couple years ago. She named the horses, gave them personalities, and played a lot with them. This is another toy that kids who come over to our house love to play with.

5. Doctor Kit

Ours is pink (less than ideal) but still very well-loved. We have one with a thermometer than beeps lightly, and that part is a favorite. The most loved piece might be the shot. Also, ours has doll-size casts that the kids loved squeezing on their tiny arms.

6. Bicycles

Bikes are the no-contest outside toy winners, and maybe even rival the Magna-tiles in popularity. Owen especially loves his bike. He has ridden his little 12 inch bike so much he wore holes in both tires. Our driveway is ideal for bikes. The kids also ride a lot on sidewalks, to church (usually for non church activities), and even to school (about 1 mile). The most loved bike is the big pink Schwinn tricycle a neighbor in Provo gave us.

Honorable Mentions

7. Melissa and Doug Airplane

Kids love it and play with it, but it's so easy to lose those people and their suitcases, then it doesn't get played with until I hunt down all the people and their bags.

8. Nerf guns

We have a variety, but my favorite is these non-Nerf brand shooters. Instead of a trigger, it is a pump action gun. Owen couldn't do it when he first got the gun, but grew into it at sometime. My thing with the guns is the same as the airplane: the ball/darts go everywhere and get lost and then the guns are not played with and the house is a mess.

Summer Review

As usual, I didn't get as much done as I wanted. I always look forward to having the kids home and having an open schedule, but then I regret having the kids home with an open schedule after a week or two.

I did more lap swimming this summer than the previous one. I really liked it, except that there is a little group of summer swim team kids that takes up three or four of the six lanes in the lap pool. I think swimming will be my exercise of choice when my body can no longer handle running.

I didn't do so great at making hats during the first part of the summer, but I kicked into high gear once school started. I did some other great sews, including the kids' tank tops, my flannel snap shirt, pjs for kids.

I didn't even attempt to visit the state parks.

I did pretty well caring for the garden until about September. By then I was busy trying to keep up with the large tomato harvest. Brian thinks he always ends up taking care of the garden, so he apparently thinks I don't do enough.

I again gave up on the reading portion of the library summer reading program for the kids. I just didn't like how it was set up. We did participate in some of the programming though. I participatred in the adult summer reading activity, and I won a prize!

I did not lose 10 pounds by the time we went on our summer trip.

As for the kids, Owen improved his reading marginally and his writing not at all. And he still is bad at doing buttons and can't tie his ties. Emily is better at colors, shapes, letters, etc, but more of that has happened since school started. Camille did not learn the multiplication tables, but she understands the idea of multiplication. She did pretty well at piano lessons. We really like the new piano books I switched her to. The workbooks got even less use than the summer before. I am not going to buy new workbooks next summer. We have plenty started but not even half finished.

Camille and Owen did swimming lessons. I was hoping to get Camille to learn to swim, but she is not quite there. Camille loved her theater workshop and her art workshop.

Colorado National Monument

Boat tour of the Channel Islands

At the beach

Camping

Just some random pictures

My phone is showing signs of impending death, so Brian suggested that I back up anything I don't want to lose. My phone takes pretty awful pictures, so I don't use it a ton, but here are some.

Camille's class Earth Day project was to make lid mosaics from the lids all the families had been collecting all year. They were displayed at the library.

Owen finished preschool. 

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We went to the Sioux Falls Zoo, which is not huge but is the perfect size for an afternoon outing.

Camille's birthday

A Lego activity at the library This was a spaceship Owen built (with some guidance...)

A quick summer sew

And a color blocked one for Camille. She has a squinty eye thing going on.

I love when the kids come home from the library and are so excited to read their books that they just drop them and start reading

Just goofing off

Emily recently has insisted on holding hands while she goes to sleep. One day when I was trying to get her to nap, she got down on the floor and then remembered that George needed someone to hold his hand, so she did.

Two posts within a month?!

This is for your benefit Janet, since you might be the only one left that checks blogs.

I am trying to plan out my summer. Here are my goals:

1. Do lap swimming at the pool more. I need exercise, and my joints need a break.
2. Make a lot of hats. I think my goal needs to be about 3 a week to make up for not sewing any hats in February, March, or probably April.
3. Repaint the wood dresser I bought like two years ago that has been sitting in the garage
4. Visit all SD state parks within 90 minutes, excluding recreation areas. I will list them so I can cross them off as I go: Adams Homestead and Nature Preserve, Good Earth State Park, Lewis and Clark/Gavin's Point area parks, Newton Hills State Park, Palisades State Park, Union Grove State Park, Spirit Mound. Also Possibly Ponca State Park in NE, but Brian won't want to pay for it.
5. Keep up with the garden
6. Participate in the library summer reading program
7. Lose 10 pounds by the time we go on our trip
8. Sew awesome things: new shorts for me, new shirt for Owen, new suit pants for Owen, jeggings for Camille

Goals for the kids:
1. Get Owen better at reading and especially writing. Also work on self-help skills like buttons and snaps. Make him use his workbook every weekday.
2. Teach Emily colors, shapes, and the rest of the alphabet. Also sing with her more.
3. Teach Camille multiplication. Keep up on her piano lessons, maybe even 2/week. Make her use her workbook every weekday.


I have to fit those things around the kids' activities, which will probably be swimming for the bigs (2 week session), tumbling for possibly all of them, theater week for Camille, and art week for Camille. And free lunch, which I love, but it takes a lot longer than feeding the kids a hot dog at home.

How much of these do you think I'll get done?

Look! I updated the blog.

Brian asked me if Instagram replaced blogging. Well, no. I have posted on Instagram about 8 times. But I don't blog anymore either. Life is just busy. If there's a chance that anyone still looks at this, here are some pictures of our life.

First some birds to get everyone excited. Here's the beautiful juvenile bald eagle in Yankton. There are lots of eagles there because they like to pick off the dazed fish that shoot through the dam. We saw at least five on this trip.

Here was a sample of the customer base one morning at my bird feeder. There are a few goldfinches, a house sparrow, and a couple juncos. This day they emptied my feeder.

Brian took a picture of Grandma's grandkid board. Someday we should make a great grandchild version. If anyone wants to head that up with me, let me know.

Emily needed a new head shot.

One of the days of the flood here. More flooding is yet to come, but now it will be in the river basins instead of everyone's backyard.

Emily's birthday. The M&M rainbow cake was a big hit, except with Emily, who just wanted the M&Ms, marshmallows, and ice cream. Her futile attempts to blow out the candles were hilarious. 

This picture kind of summarizes my relationship with Owen. He does some messy/dangerous/bad thing, and I hover nearby, nervously waiting to stop the mischief.