Happy Memorial Day!

Isn’t this an adorable picture? Talia loves to carry Falyn around and Falyn seems to enjoy being carried around by her Talia picked that flower from our front yard and put it in Falyn’s hair. We are having a very kick-back type of day today. Dan took the kids (except for Falyn) and about a half-dozen neighbor kids on a walk to 7-11 for slurpees, so it is really quite around here right now. Falyn is sleeping in my lap as I type.

This morning the twins got up and dressed themselves. They picked out their favorite tank-top shirts and “shiny” pants – which don’t exactly match. Riley got his shirt on backwards and Jared got his pants on backwards, but I’m not complaining! I’m so glad they are now doing more and more for themselves. It makes life so much easier on me now that they use the potty and are starting to get themselves dressed and put on their own shoes. They still need some help figuring out which way clothes go, but it’s a big improvement over me having to do everything for them.

Tonight we are going over to Dan’s parents house for a BBQ. I’m sure Samantha will be there, but I’m not sure whether or not Pam and Lawrence will be. I know the kids all want to see their cousin Lawrence, so I hope they are there.

They won again!

Talia had her second softball game today. hey played a team without a pitcher that wasn’t too great. A lot of girls on Talia’s team ended up being walked. Talia got a hit and also got to make a run! Dan said that the rules state if one team gets 6 runs in one inning they end that teams part of the inning – which happened in this game. They won something like 12 to 5. The other team got runs because Talia’s team put in a 5th grader to pitch that wasn’t that good.

Talia’s First Softball Game

Talia had her first softball game today. They won 3 to 0. She said she had a lot of fun at the game. She is on the “B” team for her school, which is made up of 5th and 6th graders. There are only 4 5th graders on the team. I’m very proud of her for making the team, seeing as how she had never played a softball game before today!

You can see the pictures here.

End of the Year Update

Talia – She’s have a great time in 5th grade. They have gotten to go on a number of fun field trips this year with several more planned throughout the year. She continues to be a honor roll student, excelling in everything she tries. She has taught herself to play the harmonica and has gotten pretty good at it. She does choir and girl scouts and challenge (which is a Catholic girls group). She is a beautiful girl, both inside and out. She has a great group of friends, most of whom she has been friends with since kindergarten. She spends most of her free time outside playing with the other kids in the neighborhood. She also enjoys her gameboy and playing online on Neopets and Disney’s Virtual Magic Kingdom.

Kayli – She is now 8 years old an in 2nd grade. She enjoys school and also excels in everything she tries. She was recently voted class president for the month of December. She is very outgoing and has tons of friends. She has taught herself to play the recorder and knows a large number of songs on it. She does choir and girl scouts and did soccer for the first time this year. She is very good at soccer and I’ll likely continue to have her play next year. She also spends most of her free time outside playing with the other kids in the neighborhood and enjoys her gameboy and playing online on Neopets and Disney’s Virtual Magic Kingdom.

Aidan – He is now 5 year old and in a preppy-K class. Over the last month of so, reading has really started to click with him. He knows all the phonetic sounds for a while know and has recently caught on how to blend the words. I expect him to be reading quite well by the time he starts kindergarten next year. He played soccer for the first time this year and really enjoyed it. He says he wants to try baseball next year, so I will likely put him in that instead. He is all boy and his favorite thing to do is run around outside playing. He also enjoys playing on his leapster.

Jared and Riley – They are now 3 years old. I play to start them in preschool next year. They continue to be in speech therapy this year and are getting much easier to understand. I’ve also had them in swim classes and they are both making great progress. They continue to refuse to be potty trained, but we are hopeful that they will decide to start using the potty before preschool next year. They are also all boy and like nothing better than to run around outside playing.

Talia’s First Day of 5th Grade

I just dropped of Talia for her first day of 5th grade. This is the first year that she gets to wear a skirt instead of a jumper. She is very excited about that. She has a great teacher this year and all but one of her good friends is in her class.

Talia Lost Her First Molar!

It’s been a big week for tooth losses around here. After the loss of two of Kayli’s teeth earlier this week, last night Talia pulled out her molar. She said it was loose and had been bothering her, so she pulled it out. It bleed for quite a while! She was very excited to about loosing it and couldn’t wait to tell her friends about it.

Now Talia Knocked Out Kayli’s Tooth!

Kayli was playing her recorder again and showing Talia how to cover the hole on the bottom and make different notes. Talia was cover the bottom hole and somehow managed to knock out the other bottom tooth on the opposite side that was loose.

Kayli made me take pictures yesterday and today so she can do a page about it in her scrapbook.

Carving Pumpkins

Today we carved pumpkins while the twins were taking a nap. The kids really had fun. After being confronted with the opened pumpkin, Aidan decided he would rather paint one. Talia did her pumpkin almost entirely on her own this year. I only had to help her scoop it out a bit, she did all the carving herself. After they finished with the pumpkins, the girls wanted to roast pumpkin seeds. The turned out really good and everyone enjoyed eating them.

My Little Political Activists


Last week a bunch of recall signs started popping up in my neighborhod. The kids wanted to know what recall meant and why the signs where there. We expained how some people didn’t like the job some of the school board members were doing and wanted to have an election to vote them out of that job. We also told them that we thought what the school board had done was the correct thing to do because they were standing up for their morals and protecting the kids. Some other no recall signs popped up saying “protect the kids no recall”. The girls saw those and liked them and decided all on their own to make their own sign and put it in our front window. They did this last night while I was at a meeting and DH was putting the boys to bed.