ATTENTION

Hear ye! Hear ye!

I declare today to be a new day!

I have two new blogs to tell you about. You must read them and make them popular so the writers of said blogs will make (me) lots of money! LOL

cheetahusa.blogspot.com (the life of a 9 yr old)
&
aprilmemoir.blogspot.com (the oh so interesting life of an 11 yr old)

They are actually interesting and fun to read and you can tell the authors are passionate about their blogs.

Please follow them and share with all you know! :)

Deadline Approaching...

So I've been under the imminent deadline of my mini lesson I'll be teaching to our ladies at church at the Enrichment Night activity on Tuesday. It has been on my mind constantly and I have struggled as to what I should say and how I should say it. Thankfully, I feel like it is finally prepared and should go well.....
As long as I don't forget everything I'm supposed to say! (I will post said mini lesson after Tuesday)

I received a phone call on Thursday. I guess I'm also teaching Relief Society on Sunday. It's a really good thing I feel like Tuesday is wrapped up for the most part. I am a little stressed at the short notice. I am also a little flustered at the thought everyone will be completely sick of listening to me and not show up on Tuesday. hahahaha Hopefully that won't happen because I've actually been looking forward to that one. I just hope Sunday goes better than be going in there and reading it word for word out of the book! Prayers are appreciated...

I also forgot until my friend reminded me today that Kyla is giving a talk in Primary on Sunday.
Ok... start thinking.... start thinking...

I'm pretty sure at this point my brain might explode.

Double it up with friends coming over we haven't seen for a while tomorrow night and single handed, *with Michelle's help, having to make Father's Day dinner and host it for the family at my house on Sunday after church.... If you happen to witness my panic attack please just get me some water and speak to me softly to keep breathing....

Thank you....

So far... so good...

First day of SUMMER!!!
87 Degrees with a real feel of 94!
And it really does feel like 94! whew!

Well...so far....so good!
I ended up with an extra kid today. Upping my total to 6. I know there are people out there who have that many or more kids and I know there are some who watch more than that at a time in home daycare but it's still a lot.
Luckily I have my sister! She came with us because today was

MOVIE DAY!

Yay!

We went to the kid theatre program. This week was "How to Train Your Dragon"
My littlest one is 3 and for some reason has been only obsessed with cars and anything cars related including movies. My older kids haven't really watched this movie in a while either so it was a good one that kept their attention. Collin (the 3 year old) LOVED it! By the end he was sitting in my lap and very upset it was over. Sucked in! LOL It was fun and the kids were very well behaved! *happy dance*

Only down side:
Kyla is sick. She woke up with a headache. After the movie it's now a full blown fever with chills and headache and crying and eyes hurting. Sigh. Hopefully she's better by tomorrow.

Being the Adult

I will spare names.
Today my daughter got kicked in the head by a boy at school.
This is not ok with me.
Not even a little bit.
I am having a hard time not calling his mother and freaking out.
When do you call the mom and freak out?
Details as I know them:
Daughter sitting and eating lunch minding her own business with her friends. Boy walks up behind her, she doesn't see him, and kicks her in the head. On purpose.
How is this not grounds for major discipline? He was told to apologize. He "clipped" down in class but not far enough to call and talk to parents. What?! How is a BOY kicking a GIRL ever not grounds for calling your parents???
If one of my sons ever hit/kicked/spit-on/yelled-at/punched/tripped/ANYTHING OTHER THAN BEING NICE to a girl I would definitely want to know!!! So I could beat him. Ok - over exaggeration. So I could ground him for life, until I know he had learned how to be respectful. And nice. All the time. Not cool.

Almost Summer...

Let me start off by saying that I LOVE my kids' school!
Like a lot!
They go to an Expeditionary School that is amazing and they have thrived there this year!

Now that being said. I am so DONE with school!
I'm sick of waking up and telling kids to change their clothes 5 times so they aren't wearing the same thing they've been wearing for 3 days and to make sure it's clean and to make sure it's uniform appropriate...
I'm sick of making sure we have enough of the types of food the girls can pack in their lunches that will still be good by lunch but isn't just junk and the school ends up calling me because my children don't have a proper lunch. (Which reminds me I owe the school money for the girls taking chocolate milk or eating school lunch when they weren't supposed to... OI!)
I'm sick of helping all three of them do homework every night. And I'm sick of projects. And signing reading logs. And going to a million and a half assemblies! Oh yeah... I have another one today for Kindergarten. I had to sit through 2 dress rehearsals for the talent show and then 2 performances of the talent show. Talented kids don't get me wrong but holy longness when done 4 times! ;)
I'm especially sick of realizing I didn't help one of the three out enough with homework because I thought as the oldest they could practice their spelling list by themselves... well did she show me I was wrong! Guess who gets extra summer vocabulary words!?

And that leads nicely into my insanity.
SUMMER>>>>>
I love summer! Summer is fun! It's full of splash pads, and play dates, and lunches at the park, and field trips when I'm brave enough to take 5 kids with me...
Summer means non of the previous mentioned headaches that come with school work and schedules and deadlines and friend drama and bully drama and teacher drama and all those other school related awesome things....
Summer is when you can lay out while the kids play on the slip n slide and try to get a tan on those iridescent legs you've acquired over the winter.... who am I kidding? They're always like that! BUT we can lay out and TRY to get some color on those bad boys! Right?!

I am so excited for summer! But there's a but....
BUT I am also scared for summer....
I'm going to have all 4 kids home at the same time with plus 1 daycare kid every day and that means BOREDOM! UNLESS..... Unless I can coordinate a routine.
Remember how I said no more schedule? That dream is *POOF* gone
Every full time parent knows how important it is to have a set routine. So in order to not lose my mind before coming up with one this year I am going to be super mom and plan the summer before the little tornadoes are let out for 104 days....
This year we have passes to the movies. Once a week we get to go to the local theatre and watch a "recently" released kids movie. I love doing this because it teaches the kids how to behave in a public place without the pressure because everyone else's kids are there trying to learn the same thing.
We will go to the splash pad once a week (weather permitting). I LOVE going to splash pad. The kids get to run, run, run and splash and get as wet as they want without me worrying about them drowning in a pool. And that is good for everybody.
We are going to add in the library this year. We sorta kinda tried last year. It was hit and miss. I am challenging my kids to read 50 books this summer and then I'll pay them $50. It's an all or nothing deal. Not 45 books for $45... 50 for $50. End of discussion. I found these really cool reading mini report pages on Pinterest. If I was a better blogger I would now show you a picture with a link. But you aren't that lucky. Just trust me. There's more than one on there. :)
Then we are going to have spelling, math, vocabulary review days because I'm sick of the back slide my kids seem to take every year. I get frustrated when they go back to school and test lower than where I think they should be and so they are not challenged for the rest of the year. This year I am excited about trying to prevent all this, also all found on Pinterest, and also, because I think that letting the older kids sit down and practice these things together will rub off on the two 3 years old and they will perhaps learn a little as well. Then on the afternoon of these not leaving the house days we will play in our little kiddie pools and slip n slide in the back yard and I will "tan". Perhaps even with another adult to have a conversation with. Perhaps.
I'm still not sure what to fill the last day of the week with but maybe having a free day to not have a strict schedule would be a good idea. We'll see. I still have to fit teaching 5 piano lessons in there and also my piano lessons I'm taking on Friday mornings... Which reminds me I have no idea who is going to watch all of these little people while I'm gone.... Guess I didn't think of everything.

Good thing I've got a week and half to figure it out! :)
Good luck with your summer plans. Any of you found something tried and true you stick with every summer?

Hiking Love

We finally had beautiful weather to go hiking today! When I say beautiful I mean it was perfect! Slight breeze, cool shade, not to much heat in the sun but we still sweat plenty. P.E.R.F.E.C.T.

We woke up this morning and it took us longer to get ready than usual.
Chad and I woke up after the children had already eaten. (Well most of them - cereal is a marvelous thing!) So he got up and started cooking us some breakfast and I started getting children dressed in appropriate clothing and shoes. After some delicious eggs and sausage, I began getting myself ready and gathering snack items to bring with us. I soon realized we didn't have much that would survive being unrefrigerated for long so my pile consisted of Teddy Grahams and Goldfish. lol We could make a pit stop at the gas station. And Chad started filling the hydration backpacks. We have been so excited to break out the kids' new ones. Chad and I have had ours for a couple of years or so but we just bought the kids their own after a scary hike through the slot canyons last year and almost running out of water. ... Lesson learned! It takes a little longer to fill 5 packs instead of 2.
So I had the kids in the car. All the packs filled in the car. Everyone with proper shoes. Sunscreen. Snake bite kit. First aid kits. Wet wipes. And we're ready!
While I was getting ready I also realized I have gained a few pounds. All of my shorts are too small. Awesome boost to my self esteem later - we swing by Kohl's on the way out so I can hurry and grab some shorts. So glad I did though or it would have been really, really warm in jeans!
Also stop at the gas station to fill up our packs with some ice, grab some snacks and we can finally be on our way!
Until we are stopped. Literally. Road closed. Nice. Thanks a lot marathon runners who think they are so much better than the rest of us that they can close down a whole canyon until 1pm in the afternoon. Not cool!... Rant over.
So instead of going to our normal trail head we went to the back end of it which wasn't too far away and hiked the other half. With the kids we only make it halfway and then turn around anyway. And we've never hiked the back end. It was nice!... after we figured out which trail it actually was. Hahahaha I think we tried 3 different ones until we figured out which one it really was. There are a lot of bike trails on that side and we had to scoot over several times to let them pass. But it was fun.

You learn a lot about your kids when you get on a trail and have to do something hard like hike uphill in the afternoon heat. Luckily it was only 12noon heat and not 3pm heat but still. Chase (6) had a hard time at first. Whining drives me crazy. I tried threatening to not let him have snacks at the next rest stop we took but that didn't seem to work. Once we figured out the right trail for some reason he stopped. Maybe the "lost" feeling was just bugging him and he didn't know how to explain that.
Daija (10) doesn't drink nearly enough water. Ever. Even with the pack she wouldn't drink much and I kept reminding her to drink more and she said she did. But when I got home and emptied out the packs to dry them hers had hardly any water drank out of it. Collin (3) is still good at dawdling. Which means by the time we found which way we needed to go to get to the correct trail he was sitting on Daddy's shoulders with Daddy's hat on. Lucky duck. hahaha He had a lot of fun throwing rocks though and walked as much as he could. The fun part is that he loves it and I am excited to see him grow to enjoy being outside and help us plan hiking trips his whole life. Kyla (8) is our little trooper. She used to complain a lot, kinda like Chase now, but now she puts her head down and marches on! She sticks to Daddy like glue and never gets behind. She hikes harder, farther, and faster than the other kids and never complains. It's a wonder to watch because she's quite the drama queen at home and emotional. When we came to a "stopping" point near the time we had to quit for the other children she and Chad wanted to keep going for a little while. I stayed with the other three chillins and she and Chad kept hiking for probably another half mile (both ways). They made it up the hill to a pretty nice canopy that was shaded and beautiful. Chad absolutely loves that she is willing to keep going and be his little hiking buddy! They even have the selfie to prove it. :)

Although it's a bit of work to get prepared to go, frustrating when the trail you want is closed off, and another bit of work to clean it all up after you get home - including showering 4 filthy children - I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love summer. It is probably my favorite thing about summer. I love teaching my children about the plants along the way (no I'm not an expert but I'm learning while we're up there too). I love teaching them about how to be safe around snakes, even though it is something that worries me and scares them a little to talk about while we're hiking. I'd rather them know than keep them in the dark. I love hearing Daija ask if she can get a pocket knife so she feels safer and more in control while we're up in nature.

I think we're going to buy walkie talkies for our next hike next week. That will be a fun one! :)

WAR

I declare today is WAR on laundry day.
Yes you can come over if you'd like.
I will be dressed.
Inappropriately dressed for public - in mismatched shirt and capri sweats.
My lack of ability to find proper clothing is what instigated the war.
To say I hate laundry is an understatement. And not an unknown. Proof since I have mentioned it before. Probably recently. So I should probably get out of the blogging world and instead dive into reality of...laundry. ugh.

See you on the other side.
The other side of the clean laundry pile.
Prayers are appreciated.