Vacation Bible Camp

The kids and I participated in our church's Vacation Bible Camp the 2nd week of June.  It was a first for all of us and we all enjoyed it very much.  At our church you have to finish kindergarten before you are allowed to go.  If you volunteer then your younger kids can attend.  I was amazed with the number of kids who were there, they told there were 1700 signed up for the week, wow!

I signed up to teach in Drew's room.  There were 3 teacher, 2 kid helpers and 20 kindergartners (soon to be first graders).  Drew was lucky that he had 3 buddies in our class from school and his different sports team.  Anna was in a preschool class who happened to be taught by a friend of mine from my book club.  So she was in good hands and had a lot of fun.  She's already requested that I teach her class next year.

I really enjoyed getting back into the "classroom" and also spending some time with my little man and his friends.  I was quite impressed with how organized and laid out everything was for the week.  The kids got to do some very fun activities and our theme this summer was Christmas.  It seemed rather strange to me at first, but it made sense to me as the week went on.  We got to learn/teach about Christmas without all the getting gift stuff that goes along with it in November.  The kids learned more about the Christmas story and they weren't concerned about what they wanted for Christmas.

The last day was quite fun.  The big kids got to participate in a shaving cream war.  That was quite the experience.  Drew loved it and even volunteered for our class to be the "snowman" for the snowman contest.  He allowed all the boys to lather him up with shaving cream.  That is definitely not quite like Drew, but I love watching him come out of his shell!

4 years 3 months

Dear Anna,

You are officially done with your first year of preschool and you are now settled into summer.  You seem to be loving the late nights playing outside and sleeping in.  I've been impressed most days you sleep until at least 8:30.  

You have been going to swimming lessons last week and this week.  You love going and can't wait to get there each time, but you aren't quite into swimming under water.  You prefer to keep your head dry, so we'll be working on that this summer!  You love the pool, but you insist on wearing your puddle jumper (aka "floaty).  

I think you are really starting to get excited about your baby brother.  You've asked a lot of questions about him lately and maybe just maybe it is sinking in.  You were getting out of the shower the other day and out of the blue you said, "I get to have my very own baby brother."  I thought it was pretty sweet.  Drew overheard you and was sure to let you know that the baby will be his brother too.  I'm so excited to see you with your baby.  I wonder if the newness will wear off or if you'll be pretty helpful.  You really like to "take care" of your cousins Ben and Shane.  

This summer we are doing a good job keeping up with some school work.  You really like working with me on your letters and numbers, but usually you only last a few minutes.  You ask for "school work" all the time.  You love to cut and you are really very good at it.  We are working hard on letter sounds this summer.  You had most of them at one point, but have lost some over the last couple months.  Hopefully by the end of the summer you'll have them all down.  We are also working on numbers 1-20.  You are such a big girl!

Daddy and I just love watching you grow.  You are a sweet girl and are really quite funny.  It is really fun watching you play with your toys.  You get in your own little world and your toys have quite the conversations.  

We love you so much Anna!

Just a few more months of being our baby, soon you'll be a big sister!

Love,

Mommy & Daddy

6 years 8 months

Happy Monthly Birthday Drew!

Well you finished your kindergarten year (lots of tears from your mom and dad here) and you are settled into your summer routine and you are loving this summertime schedule!  Lots of play time and lots of fun with friends.  You are enjoying your baseball season and are doing a great job hitting the ball.  You are also starting to really catch the ball when you and dad play catch.  It is so fun seeing you improve.

You've been taking swimming lessons this week and last and you are doing great.  You are working on your strokes and I've been impressed with your back float.  You love swimming lessons and just swimming in general.  You want to go to the pool every day.

We've been working hard on getting a little school work done each day.  You are doing great with your reading, we are reading through some first grade leveled readers one of my friends gave us.  You are also working on memorizing your addition facts.  My goal this summer was for me to teach you how to count money and tell time, well we've already achieved that goal!  I'm always so amazed by your math skills.  It took a short lesson on each money and time and you got it down and you love being able to use your new skills.

We are so proud of you buddy!

We love you,
Mom & Dad

Summer is off to a great start!

We had a good start to our summer last week.  

 Just another day watching a movie with lots of extra buddies!

 someone got his new baseball uniform, he's very proud of the cool pants!

 building legos

 Drew is so excited that he can pick up quite a few books we've owned for a long time and he can read them!  Anna asked him to read a book to her.  Love this!

 donuts on a Saturday

yummy

Baby Update

I'm currently 26 weeks along and things are going well.  I feel absolutely huge and I'm pretty sure I wasn't this big with the last two, but what can I do?  I'm still working out 5-6 days a week and of course I'm making major modifications when it comes to my workouts at Title.  Sleep is great, other than sore hips and having to have my pregnancy wedge pillow under my stomach.  I've definitely noticed an increase in heartburn lately, I had it pretty bad with Anna and they say if you have it bad your baby will have more hair.  It was true with Anna.  We'll have to wait and see!  I have my next appointment scheduled for next week and it will include the dreaded Gestational Diabetes test.  Let's hope I pass that like I did the last two times (not sure I'd do very well on a restricted diet).

It seems at times that this pregnancy is flying by and then I think back to when we found out and it that seems like forever ago.  Since we kept this pregnancy to ourselves for so long, I thought I better go back and add some details so when little baby boy asks me questions I will have something to reference.

We found out we were pregnant on January 2nd.  I think Mike and I were both pretty surprised.  Getting pregnant didn't quite go as planned this time round with the miscarriage and the numbers of months we tried.  So when I decided to go ahead and test on January 2nd, I really wasn't expecting good news.  Mike was at work so I had to call him and send him pictures of the test to let him scrutinize it.  I even took a digital pregnancy test and videoed it as it slowly became positive and then sent that to Mike.  We were excited but extremely cautious this time around.

We waited several more weeks to spill the beans to our parents and held of telling the kids.  We had told them a little too early last time around and thought the longer the waited the better.  Our secret from the kids ended up not lasting long.  I had gone in several times for sonograms and we didn't want to drop the kids off at any of the grandparents because we didn't want them suspicious.  So I think it was the second sonogram that Drew perked up (from his iPad - we brought the iPad hoping it would distract him) and Mike said, "What do you think is going on Drew?" He said right away, "Mom is having a baby???"

The kids were excited, but had a lot of questions.  They also just continued to live their normal lives.  Ever since I've started showing, it seems a lot more real to the kids.  We are starting to talk about the changes around the house and that is getting the kids more excited.  Anna and Drew will be switching rooms soon and then we need to paint all 3 kids' rooms.  So that should be an adventure!!!