A penguin or a snake?

This is one of my favorite Neil stories.  For lunch I made him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and then cut it out with a penguin sandwich cutter.  He loved it.  So I set the penguins on his plate and set him up to the table.  I went back into the kitchen and grabbed the cut-off crust and put them on a plate for me and then joined him at the table.  He was happily playing and eating his penguins when he looked at my plate and asked, “What is yows?  Is yows a snake?” 

Huh, another picture?Mark LOVES to be goalie, although he’s quite good at most positions.  After one game where his team did a fabulous job at not being a ball hog, but didn’t really score many points, I had to remind him that someone has to be the star and kick the ball into the goal or they'll keep losing.  Mark’s loves to check pictures after the games to see shots of him blocking goals.  His coach worked with him helping to get his drop kicks just right.  He improved a ton.  We really liked his coach this year.I stayed and watched the end of Mark’s game and then we joined Ken and the others at Spencer’s game.  Then is started to rain!  We were getting soaked, but there was no lightning so the game continued.  This super sweet lady took pity on Isaac and me and shared her umbrella with us.  Unfortunately while she was sharing her umbrella with us her chair got soaked so she had to stand the rest of the game after the rain quit.  Jessie composed her silly poem, The Sky, at this game and you can check her blog for it.

Ken and I had put the kids in bed and gone back downstairs; we heard some clumping some time later and went to see what was making all the noise.  You’ll never guess who we found on the stairs and you’ll never guess what he was wearing……Neil in Ken’s boots.  Silly boy.  Will he ever learn to go to sleep at night?A sweet moment of family time.Mark will do almost anything to get Neil to play with him.  But they both had fun this time.Spencer really wanted Ken to come out and walk in the rain with him and the others.Neil found Abbie’s flip flops….they were the pair of shoes closest to the door.Isaac learning to sit up.  Needless to say some of the kids were quite distracted while we read scriptures watching Isaac.For FHE we watched Jonny Lingo on YouTube because the kids had never seen it.  Now, it’s quite popular with them.  Spencer was watching it in bed on the iPad and one by one everyone else joined him.Reading scriptures at night.Just a happy baby.C is for cookie.Take a picture of me toooooooo!Memorial Day weekend:  a game, some food… Neil still loves to fill water cups for people over and over again.  And Mark wasn’t missing out on any fun with his double decker burger.

Abbie helping Isaac to sit up.

I stopped nursing Isaac this weekend.  And we tried out a bunch of different bottles.  The kids were sure excited to get to help feed him.Coming back from a walk.Hummmm.  What do you think our secret agent is up to?Isaac saw one of the kids water bottles from soccer and just loved it.  We let him try a drink of water.  Definitely not his favorite.Spencer and Neil played so well together at Abbie’s soccer game.  It was so cute to watch them running back and forth; Spencer slowly chasing Neil.Lastly, for treats at Mark’s soccer game I made rainbow cupcakes.  Biting into these is just fun.  I dropped Mark off and then drove Spencer to his game.  It started raining again and then the lightning started.  Darn.  So both games were cancelled and I ran around picking everyone up again.  At least everyone on the team got a cupcake!

School and more

First day of school pictures.

All the kids were almost ready by the time Jessie left at 7:15 to walk to the bus.  Then there was just a lot of waiting around until they were supposed to leave an hour later.  Only there was a little mix up about where the bus picked the kids up.  I had called the school district to see where the stop was and they told me it was right in front of our house.  Sweet, right.  Well, there is a stop in front of our house but it’s at noon for the afternoon kindergarteners.  So there we all were waiting on the porch for the bus to come and a little kid from around the block runs by.  Huh, we think….where is he going? Should we tell him the bus stop is at our house?  We wait a few more minutes and another little guy comes running past, in a hurry.  “Where are you going?” we ask him.  To the bus top around the block he tells us!  Ahhh..so the kids all jump up and follow him and they catch the bus ok.  But we are all a little confused until we find out they only told us the kindergarten stop.  What a crazy way to begin the day.

Isaac finds his toes.  Yummy.

Ken’s parents came over after they returned from their Brazil trip.  It was so fun to see them again.  They filled us in on their fun travels and different customs etc.They brought each of the kids shirts and they love them!!  The boys especially love to show them off and wear them often.The kids had a pep-assembly at school and came home with these gold medals.  Spencer and Neil played with them for weeks.  And Neil kept Spencer’s medal safe for him while he was at school by wearing it.

Neil and I keeping busy during the day while the kids are at school.  This painting book was a big hit.  He did half of it in one day.Yummmmm…peach cobbler for breakfast.Here’s another Saturday in pictures: waiting for leftovers to heat up for lunch, playing Parcheesi, reading, mowing, playing with the cute baby, helping Neil wash his hands for dinner, Mark made a reading timeline for school of benchmarks and books he remembers reading from birth to today.  It took 2/3 of the day to get it done – and he did a fabulous job.  We decided to grill hamburgers for dinner – Yeah! and then put Neil in bed some uncountable number of times until we finally told him to just lay down on the couch while we did whatever we were doing.  He finally fell asleep at 11:52 pm – silly little goose.

Mark earned his second and first class ranking in scouts and he was so excited.Jessie made brownies to take down to Grandma Jennie when she and Mark and Ken went to visit.  We enjoyed them after dinner too.  And everyone got one for dessert in their lunch on Monday. Thanks Jessie.  Neil lining up his cars again.  This time they went up a big hill and he got most of them to balance, but when the line got a little longer he could hardy reach around them without them falling off the arm of the couch and that really bugged him.  He lined them up over and over again until finally he took my suggestion and just drove them on the cushions and then the world was lovely place again.Shoe boy strikes again.

Spencer took these pictures for us.Neil loves to hold Isaac.  Not for very long, but he does love to do it.Another sleeping baby pictures.  I just love this boy. And he goes down SO easily.  I’m getting spoiled.Soccer shoes are fun to wear too.Abbie’s soccer game.  Tag team soccer this year made for an exciting September.  I had to leave early with Mark to take him to his game and get Jessie back for mutual where Ken was.  Thank goodness for Grandma to bring the rest of the kids home.Addie, Quinn and Neil and I went to Fat Cats for the last day of summer bowling prices.  Quinn had never been before and he did a great job.  Neil was excited to wear bowling shoes for the second time.  He and Quinn shared a game each rolling one ball per turn, switching back and forth who went first. And I bowled my best game ever – that I can remember that is.  Now every time we get in the car to run errands after the kids are gone to school and before lunch when we turn onto the highway Neil asks me if we are going bowling, so I guess it made an impression on him.