Our latest

I don't have any new pictures to share. We've been busy, but no real photo opportunities.

So, last week the kids had their first experience at a camp. They did a camp through the Y called "Little Explorers". It was a day camp for 3 - 5 year olds everyday from 9 - 1:30. There were about 10 kids total, and let me tell you I think they had a great time! I know they played hard, because they were exhausted when I picked them up each day and came home to take long naps! On Monday, Wednesday and Friday they rode in the Y van (I had to leave their carseats) to a park around town to play, hike, play games, read books, sing songs and do art. Wednesday, they fished at Oak Lake and Friday they had a cookout. Tuesday and Thursday they walked to the park next to the Y and played then went swimming. It was a great experience for them. By the last day they started to really talk about their leaders (Scott was the head person). I think they really liked them all. And, since Grace needed a booster we could leave with the camp counselors, she was officially moved up to her "big" carseat. Even though she doesn't come close to the 40 lb minimum, we just did it. Now, all three kids can get in the car, strapped in, unstrapped and out the door all WITHOUT my help. I can't tell you how nice this is!

So this week seemed a little like a letdown, because there wasn't as much to do as last week. I think we've kept busy, though. Monday, Will had an asthma Dr appointment (more about that in a minute) then we went to McDonald's with Oma and Opa. We went swimming on Tuesday at the Y, storytime on Wednesday and back to the library today for a magic show and lunch at Aunt Lisa's house. We also babysat Sebastian this afternoon. The kids love playing with him and he enjoys all the attention he gets.

Will got some big news at the asthma doctor on Monday. Since he is nearing 5 years old, this is about the time they transition kids from nebulizers to regular inhalers. So, we came home from this appointment with a regular dry powder inhaler to replace his twice daily nebulized treatments of Pulmicort. This is very exciting to Brian and I (do you have any idea of how much time it will save us!?!?!?), but he seemed more excited by the free t-shirt the doctor gave him that he was trying to get rid of. We still haven't started using the new inhaler yet, we still have one box of the nebulizer medicine we need to use up, but we will start soon. Will did a couple practice runs in the office with a practice inhaler and did a great job. We have another appointment in October that he is going to get a regular fast acting inhaler to replace the albuterol nebulizer that he gets when he's sick. YES!!!!

If you can believe it, the kids have a visitation at preschool next week. In a few short weeks, August 18th to be exact, preschool will start again. Some of you may be wondering if I am going to be working next year and the answer is still no. I haven't gotten any word that there are any music openings for the fall. So, I have been preparing myself for another year staying at home (although there are worse things than getting to stay at home with my kids for their last year before kindergarten). I am looking into taking a graduate class and perhaps some voice lessons to do a little more work towards my masters. Stay tuned for info about that! That's about all our news for now. I'll try to get in another update soon! Thanks for looking in on us!

4th of July pics - finally!

Here are our pictures from the 4th of July - I finally got around to posting! We are at Kara and Wes' house, I took all these that evening. If you remember, our morning was rained out. We spent the morning at the movies, then napping. It finally stopped raining in the mid-afternoon, so we kept our plans to go to Kara's to grill out and shoot fireworks. The kids had fun doing little fireworks like poppers, sparklers and parachutes (see first 6 pictures). We also did some adult sized fireworks while the kids watched in lawn chairs. The mosquitos were out in full force that night, poor Grace came home with about a dozen bites on her forehead. It looked very itchy. I think they had fun though. I was glad for a holiday the next day. Brian didn't have to work, so we slept in and had a cook-out at the Niebuhrs that evening. Great weekend with good food, fun and family!

Conversations that I can't believe they're having already...

Overhead the other morning in Grace's room:

Grace: Xander, get out of my room!
Xander: No!
Grace: Xander, go away!
Xander: No!
Grace: Xander, go away right now!
Xander: I'm not going to go away, because you told me to go away!
Grace: Xander, this is my room and my private stuff. You need to go away RIGHT NOW!
Xander: I won't go away because you told me to.
Grace: MOMMY!

Of course, this is the point when I had to go in a get after both of them. Xander for bothering Grace and Grace for yelling at Xander instead of talking to him nicely. Seriously!

The other day on the swingset, I heard Will and Xander fighting. Then Will came walking, very dejectedly, into the house with big crocodile tears.
Me: What's wrong, Will?
Will: Nothing.
He walked into his room. A few minutes later I went back to see what he was doing. He was just laying on a pillow on the floor with tears in his eyes.
Me: Will, why are you crying?
Will: I just need to be alone right now.
Me: Why?
Will: I'm just really sad and I don't like Xander very much right now.
Me: What happened?
Will: He wouldn't let me...(do something that I don't remember)...and it made me sad.
Do I see a theme here? Xander is a little antagonist!!

And the funniest one...

Xander: Mommy, I have to tell you something.
Me: What, Xander?
Xander: Something is big.
Me: What is big?
He proceeds to pull down his pants to show me his little thingy that is sticking straight up in the air.
Me (trying not to laugh): Yes, I see. Sometimes that happens.
Xander: OK. (pulls up his pants and runs off).

I really thought we had at least 5 more years until we started having conversations like this. They're already fighting about their rooms and "private stuff". What are the tweens and teenage years going to be like in this house. I can't even bear to think about it........

Adventureland

Grandma and Grandpa Niebuhr got brave for the second year in a row and decided to trek with the kids and Carter this time to Adventureland in Des Moines for a two day trip. They spent the night at their house on Monday night, so they could get up and leave early on Tuesday. They enjoyed the car ride, they watched a movie of course! Apparently they spent the entire Tuesday at Adventureland in 80 degree weather with little to no crowds. A perfect day! They got in a hour and a half nap even! Dinner was in the park at a hamburger place and then they shut the park down, staying until 8:30. The kids had a great time. Wednesday they went to a splash park, ate lunch then drove home. We had three very tired little kids when they got back, but great memories were made! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for being brave and taking them. They really enjoyed it!

Where has June gone?!?!

I can't believe that I am posting this and it is already July 8th. This summer has been flying by. We have been busier than I anticipated, but it has all been fun. Here is a quick run-down of our June and a preview of things to come.

When we returned from our KC vacation on Sunday the 13th, we had one day to prepare the kitchen for the floor refinishers. That's right, we totally emptied our kitchen of EVERYTHING and moved out for the week to have the wood floors refinished. This is something we've wanted to have done, pretty much since we moved in this house 7 years ago. The floor were not done well when we built this house. We've always been really disappointed with them. So, we decided just to bit the bullet and have them done, as we were wanting to do other home improvement projects at the same time. It was pretty inconvenient and a big mess, but worth it. The floors are BEAUTIFUL! It was hard being displaced (thanks to both sets of grandparents for taking us in that week), especially since we were busy that week with Bible school. But, we were finally able to come back on Friday evening. We spent the better part of the next week cleaning (there was a layer of red dust over every surface) and putting back the decorations. We also did some other minor things like re-caulking around the sink and backsplash and washing curtains and blinds. I am now proud to say, our kitchen is the cleanest it's been since we moved in. I actually like our kitchen again!

Once that project was done and bible school was over, we prepared for the kids' birthday party, which you've seen a post about. During all of that, we still did fun things like Music & Mozzarella, which you also have seen a post about. We've been swimming a lot at the YMCA (which we joined this spring) and at Firethorn with my mom. The kids have really been enjoying swimming and have been doing a nice job. Grace still is scared some, but the boys are turning into little fish! We also spent some quality time with their new bikes. Brian has started taking them on bike rides where he rides his bike instead of walking along. He almost forgot his helmet the other day, until Will reprimanded him and made him get it. Safety first!

On Monday the 28th, the day after the kids' birthday party, we packed them up, and shipped them over to Grandma and Grandpa Niebuhr for what is turning in to an annual trip to Adventureland. They were so excited and spent a long time recalling the previous year's trip. I'll post more about this later, with pictures. While the kids were gone, Brian took those two days (Tues and Wed) off and we repainted the entire upstairs! Well, most of the upstairs. The living room, hall, and entry. The color of brown that was there we both hated, so we chose a nice Benjamin Moore color called "Sherwood Tan". Let me tell you, painting that much surface area is a huge job, plus it needed 2 coats. Just for reference, it took us 4 gallons! We spent 2 full days painting (9 - 6 the first day and 9 - 4 the second day). Almost everything is put back in its place, I have a few more pictures to hang back up. It looks so much better. My next task is to do some cleaning of things like baseboards and blinds.

The kids got back from Des Moines on Wednesday 30th and were very tired. We stuck close to home the rest of the week, but did some fun things like swimming and we went to the museum. We had a nice 4th of July, complete with an engagement party for Uncle Nick and his fiance Meagan, lots of fireworks and several BBQ's. Although, it did rain on the 4th of July so the annual Firethorn parade was canceled. We were a little bummed, because the kids were going to ride their bikes for the first time. So, instead we went to a matinee showing of Toy Story 3. The kids loved it!

Monday, July 5th the kids started swimming lessons. They have lessons every Mon-Thurs morning for 2 weeks. They are loving it and they're doing great. We're doing it at the YMCA and as luck would have it, they have the same teacher as they did 2 years ago when we did the mommy and me class. They are so much different from those crying, scared toddlers from 2 years ago. The teacher is pleasantly surprised, I think. She is really a sweet girl, not more than 20 years old, and the kids really like her. In addition to working on swimming skills, they have been playing lots of games. They really enjoy that part. We've been trying to go swimming whenever we can, I think they just haven't spent enough time in the water to be totally comfortable. I've really been pleased with joining the Y. They have a great outdoor pool and we've really enjoyed. We've also gotten discounts on a day camp for the kids (coming up in July) and fall soccer.

This post has gotten long, sorry for that! I'll probably hear about it from Chad. But, I felt like I needed to share some of our happenings, since I've mostly been posting pictures. I do have Adventureland and 4th of July pictures I will post soon. I also have some video of swimming lessons my mom shot today. I'll post that soon. Thanks for taking the time to read my super long post. Have a great weekend!

Reach for the Stars

In light of our naughty behavior, especially on vacation and in the first of June, I decided to implement a star chart in our house. It's really quite simple. If you are being good, and we catch it, we'll move the star up. If you are being naughty/not a good listener, and we catch it, we'll move the star down. The goal is to get to the "special star" at the top, then you get to choose a prize. Our prizes are along the lines of "choose one item at the dollar store" or "get an ice cream cone with daddy", those types of things. We are mostly targeting our trouble times, like nap and bedtime. That is when we have the most non-listening and we get the most angry. Sometimes they'll announce to us "I'm being a good listener, mommy. Will you move my star up?" So, we've been telling them they can't ask us to move their star up, we have to catch them being good and we'll just decide to move it up. One day Grace came up to me and said "I'm a good listener, mommy. Are you going to do something?" Sneaky!

Grace started off really well, she shot up that chart. Then we had a couple of bad days and moved down, so Will made it to the top first. He got to choose a prize at the Dollar Store. He was so excited and he chose a little stuffed unicorn on a stick (think old fashioned horse on a stick that you gallop with). Grace and Xander happened to be with us at the Dollar Store and sobbed the whole time that they didn't get to choose a prize. Well, luckily, they've been good since and I think they'll earn their star today or tomorrow. Grace keeps asking me if they'll still have cute unicorns at the dollar store when she gets a prize. I think this is definitely motivating for them. I wish we didn't have to use extrinsic motivators, but whatever works at this point, I guess.

4th half birthday party

The lollipop pinata for the lollipop theme birthday party. I had this made by someone from etsy.com. I thought it turned out very cute. Plus, since there were only 4 kids who could do it, they each got tons of turns.

Xander, so excited about his new, bigger bike.

Grace with her cute purple and green new bike.

Will and his new bike.

The gigantic pile of presents, right before they started going at it!

A photo op with the pinata before the pulling started.

Eating dinner outside on a beautiful night!

The Niebuhr, Scribner and Baxter cousins. A lot of boys!

All the kids with grandma Pam. Cute bunch of kids!

The cupcake tree I made for the kids.

We had the kids' half birthday party last Sunday the 27th. We think they they enjoyed themselves. They were excited about it all week, and talked about it a lot. I think they got everything they wanted. Will was adamant that he wanted some walkie-talkies and binoculars, both of which he got. Grace got lots of girlie things, like Barbies. Xander is enjoying his new batman related toys and they all got tons of water toys (a slip and slide and water hopscotch) and new bikes. We haven't had time to try all of them out yet, though. Thanks to everyone for your generous presents and we enjoyed celebrating with you. Lots more has been going on lately, I'll post about that soon. Happy 4th of July, everyone!