Gee. . .I wonder what could be under the green blanket?
What do you know? It's a bicycle. Julia was very excited to receive her very own bicycle!
She dawned on her riding gear, her gift from Grandma and Grandpa (gee, how did they know that this helmet would match the bike?), and posed for the camera!
Here she is again posing for the camera. What can I say? The camera loves Julia and Julia loves the camera!
On Saturday Julia turned 6 years old. Grandma and Grandpa Oliver were here from Utah to help celebrate the momentous occassion!
She lucked out. . .if Grandma and Grandpa weren't here she wouldn't have gotten the extravagent $30 double decker disney princess cake extrodinaire!
Here are the closed coffins, expertly crafted out of egg cartons.
When you open them up. . .surprise, there are mummies inside!
This is the system Julia's Kindergarten teacher used in there class during the year and it seemed to be very effective. If you are behaving and being obedient your frog stays on the green lily pad. If you misbehave your frog jumps to the yellow lily pad. If you are in really great big crawl under a rock trouble you leap over to the red lily pad. I decided to put it into practice in our house this summer and so far even the threat of moving the frog to the yellow has kids hopping!
In a desperate attempt to keep my kids busy and happy so they have no time to bother each other and me, I went to the library and borrowed a gianormous book of crafts. These octupuses (or octupi as I prefer to call them) turned out pretty cute for our first attempt. It was kinds of frustrating. We used the cardboard for gift boxes first, and they started to bend. So we had to unwind all the yarn (which would inevitably get all tangled) and wind it back onto cereal boxes. But it was worth the effort, they are much beloved!
Ryan loves puzzles, so we got a box with three inside at Wal-Mart. They are of wizards and dragons and even glow in the dark. We totally scored. One has 100 pieces, one has 300 and one has 5oo. We figured we'd start with the least number of pieces and work our way up. We're saving the one for 500 pieces for when Grandpa Oliver is here and he can help us.
Once a month I attend a stamp camp. This is one of the things we did the first time I went. We made coasters. I enjoyed it a lot and have been wanting to try it again, so the kids and I went over to our friends' house and shared the crafting fun. I think they turned out cute. Try to guess which one is Ryan's, Julia's and Emily's.
After a frustrating bought of teenage vandalism, our pool re-opened, much to my children's relief. Here's Ryan swimming with his fishy ring and his noodle.
Here's Julia, she expertly crafted her own snorkel out of a straw.
Benjamin was done swimming after about half an hour. Testament to the temperature of the water. It was cold! Usually we have to drag him out with much wailing and nashing of teeth.
Here's Emily trying to swim for the camera like a beautiful mermaid.
Wednesday they were driving me crazy at about 4 o'clock. It's amazing what you can craft when you're in desperation mode. I got every pillow in the house and lined them up from the front door to the back door. Then I had them leap over every pillow. They liked it, and it was amazingly fun and successful until people started getting crazy and slipping on pillows and falling onto the tile floor. Oh, well, nothing lasts forever.
We were at the mall Monday (Memorial Day). The kids somehow got us to take them inside of the toy store. I figured we needed some summer supplies, so I got a big tub of sidewalk chalk. Emily immediately asked if we could play hopscotch. The spoiled kids are also sugaring themselves up with popsicles.
Here is Julia meticulously crafting her hopscotch grid.
Benjamin was either trying to eat the chalk, coloring on himself, or breaking the chalk into pieces and throwing them into the bushes.
Daddy came home from work in the middle of our hopscotch extravaganza!
Okay, first of all I must apologize for my pitiful scanning abilities. I haven't quite figured it all out yet. But look at how cute! #5 is getting bigger and bigger. Everything looks great and seems to be right on track.
Here's Julia with her Kindergarten teacher. She absolutely adored Mrs. Webb. It was funny to me because Mrs. Webb is how I picture Julia as an adult. Outgoing, outspoken, knows what she wants, her way or the highway! If Julia turns out to be like Mrs. Webb she'll be doing GREAT! Mrs. Webb was the perfect teacher for Julia. Unfortunately for us, she's taking a sabaatical to have a baby. I was really hoping she'd be Emily's teacher too. Good luck to Mrs. Webb!
Here's Julia marching onto the stage.
Here's Julia singing her heart out. They had a patriotic theme and she loved all the songs. In fact, she's teaching her daddy how to sing the 50 Nifty United States.
Here's Julia receiving her certificate from the principal.
Here's Julia with her best friend Amanda. It worked out very nicely--Amanda's mom and I became fast friends. She has a sister Emily's age and they love to play together, she also has a brother Benjamin's age and they love to play together! How much fun for us to all have friends in the same family! Poor Ryan, no one his age though!
She put on these silly glasses and asked me to take a picture.
She picked up Cheer Bear and asked me to take a picture. I have a premonition that this one will be a cheerleader or on the drill team, she certainly loves the limelight and attention!
For those of you who don't know already, we are expecting baby #5 December 3. It's all very exciting of course, but I haven't been feeling that great. This past weekend I had a migraine start that just doesn't want to go away. I also think I'm allergic to being pregnant. My allergies are SO bad. I wake up everynight barely able to breath and with a sore throat from post-nasal drip. Pleasant, isn't it? I'm now at the blessed stage where I constantly wonder what on earth I have done and how I was so stupid to let it happen in the first place!
I got them this marbleworks set from Discovery Toys for Easter! They absolutely loved it! I thought we may have arguments because it was everyone's toy. They didn't really know how to deal with that. They spent the first week fighting and not being able to share, I finally got sick of it and took it away. When I finally gave it back they did a lot better sharing and playing together.
Emily and Benjamin play with the tower I constructed.
Here they are posing for the camera. Emily thought it would make the picture better to hold up a marble for display. You can't even see it, but boy do they love those marbles. For awhile Julia was pretending that they were her students! She would haul them around the house setting up classrooms for them.
Here's the Matthew's kid train. Poor Daddy!
It soon turned into to dogpile on Daddy. Ben got hurt in the tussle and came my way.
Everybody wanted to take a ride on Daddy the horsey!
