Before School Funness

I miss 8:00 school start time for after school. But it does has it's perks as well. It's great once all the jobs are done and we get to play for a bit. This morning was so cute, Lexie always has her nose in a book. And Lucy was loving watching her.

And then they pretended to be Superman.

Oh these girls, they are so delightful!

I think they will be good friends when they get bigger!

Eliza joined in to have a picnic with Lucy. She did a great job preparing the food for Lucy.

Lucy liked eating the blanket more.

Joseph spent some time studying for the District Spelling Bee.

He's such a handsome boy!

We like our pretty orange tulips! They make our home feel so much brighter.

Andrew continued with his crawling down the stairs. Goofy, cute boy!

Then he moved to playing peek-a-boo with Lucy.

And Eliza begged for me to take a picture of her--oh she cracks me up!

I'm grateful for these fun kids and our sometimes crazy mornings but also our quiet ones where we have lots of free time to play around.

"I Hold Her!"

Eliza LOVES to hold Lucy! Lucy kind of likes it. (When she's in the mood.) And sometimes she doesn't like it. But Eliza loves it every time! She's stopped pushing her off of her lap when she was done holding her when she was really little. Now she tells me really well.
Also, Eliza is a great talker! It's shocking how much she can say and how well she puts her thoughts together and how well she speaks. It's very fun to hear but so strange also just the difference with Andrew was at that age. It's weird. But it's also amazing how far Andrew has come with his speech. He's doing so well!! Random thoughts, but thought I'd document them.

Lucy's New Blanket

Sweet Vivi sewed a blanket for Lucy. And it didn't take long at all for Lucy to LOVE it!
When given a choice over toys, necklaces, or blankets, she picks Vivi's.

 

Thank you sweet Vivi! Lucy loves you and her blanket so much! She's going to miss you!

Beautiful Girl

I caught this picture of sweet Lucy today. She is such a sweetheart! I love how blue her eyes look and how perfect she is. It's so fun to be her  Mom, I'm pretty blessed. And I also just love watching how all of the other kids interact with her and how much love she has for them. I love being a mom!

Daddy's Girl

This girl loves it when Daddy is home to hold her. Even if he's playing a game on his phone. She is perfectly content just to have him near.

Dad's are pretty awesome.

Shadow Dancing

The kids love to play this game where they can only walk around the house stepping on shadows. It's hilarious. They will ask anyone around to come and walk near them so they can do it.
In the morning, there is so much light all around the house that shadows are plentiful. Often the kids shadow dance then. We used to watch this show, "High 5" and there was this song called "Shadow Dancing." We sing that song a lot around here. And it makes me smile every time.
This morning, Lexie had a great time shadow dancing and we took many pictures to prove it!

Baby Toys

It never ceases to amaze me how much the older kids still love to play with Lucy and Eliza's toys. I know it more has to do with playing with the little one's themselves rather than playing with the toys, but it still makes chuckle at how much entertainment they can get out of a toy designed for a one year old.

Secretly,I really hope that never ends.

Five Months Old

Look who's so happy to be 5 months old!

Yep, this girl!

She's a pretty awesome baby, that is for sure.

And she's growing so tall!

It seems like she grows in a blink of an eye...it's crazy!

We're so glad she's in our home and she continues to bring us lots of smiles.

Mmmmhmmmm.

We all continue to be smitten with her. Its mind-boggling that she's going to be 6 months soon.

School Spelling Bee

Rick was good enough to take today off. We went and did some shopping this morning and then dropped the girls off with my friend who generally watches them while I go to the school to volunteer. We took Andrew to school and then got to help for a bit before heading into the library to watch Joseph in the school Spelling Bee. He'd spent the last few weeks studying the big packet of 1150 words all from different languages. Rick and I were a bit nervous (but not too much) and wanted him to do his best and hopefully not be the first one out. But listening to Mrs. MacDonald talk to the kids before the Bee, that made us super nervous for all of the kids. I just wanted to run over and tell them to just relax and have fun! (I think they did though.)
Joseph's 2nd grade teacher, Mr. K, got to be one of the judges for the Bee, so his whole class got to come watch him preform and cheer him on. It was really cute to see!
They started out with the practice round to make sure the kids could talk into the microphone well and move it properly. As you can see, Joseph needed to adjust it throughout the whole Bee going after this 5th grader.

He got it down pretty well, though. The size difference was great.

He spelled very well and confidently. When he needed a second he would ask for the definition and once she finished giving it, he was ready to spell.

There were 21 kids in the Bee. After round 2 I got pretty nervous, all of the words being asked were from the sheet with the 450 words that Joseph studied for 3 hours before taking the written test to qualify for this Bee. He hasn't looked at that list for 6 weeks. I had him only studying from the big packet. But he remembered really well and could spell just fine. But I was still nervous for him. By round 6 there were 6 left. They took a little break then to let the kids stretch and relax. Joseph came right over with this shocked look on his face and said, "Mom, I can't believe I'm still in it!" We were all surprised. Then all of his little 2nd grade classmates came up to encourage him. It was very sweet. Not only that, it was really impressive how the 3-5th graders in the Bee also all congratulated each other throughout the Bee and were super nice and kind to Joseph as well. It was good for Joseph also to feel part of their team and cheer them on as well. It  really felt like everyone in there just wanted everyone to do their best and everyone was happy for each other. It was really great to see that! Everyone was just so supportive of each other! There are some amazing kids at this school!

And then they got to round 8 and Joseph misspelled "innovator" (just said 1 n) and it was over! Here's our sweet 2nd place winner!

Here are the top 4 spellers who are headed to district. 5th grader, Vy, got 1st (in the blue), Joseph 2nd,  Miles (5th) 3rd place & Beth (4th grade) got 4th.

We were all super amazed and so pleased with him. His class and teacher were really excited for him as well. Mr. K was so kind and decided to throw an ice cream party for the class and for him doing so well in the Bee. That was pretty cool of him!

Once we got home we got homework done quickly and then let Joseph pick where he wanted to go for his celebratory dinner-of course he picked, "Ow, My Eye!"

We had good times. We're so pleased with Joseph and how well he performed and that he could see the fruits of his labors in studying and then doing so well. He's an awesome kid and we are so blessed to be his (and all of our amazing kids) parents!

The Stock Show

Lexie's class went on a field trip today to the Stock Show. She was lucky enough to be in a group with 2 of her best friends from class, Sydney and Muriel. (How great is that? They had enough parents so that out of a class of 30 kids she was in a group of 3. So nice and it made me feel better about not being able to go.)
Lexie and Muriel in the stage coach. Sydney was "driving" them around.

Pretty hair clips to try on.

 The girls being cute and tall (comparing themselves to how many hands tall they are to a horse).

 Lexie riding on a saddle.

 Lexie scared of this guy.

 Cute windmill Lexie.

Jockey Lexie takes the lead.

The girls in front of the cotton candy. Of which they ate plenty.

Lexie really enjoyed this field trip!