Jenna's Big Job

Last Sunday, I got out the plates, cups, and utensils and set them on the counter while I finished cooking up the waffles. Jenna came over and grabbed a plate and took it to the table. She did that until they were all on the table. Then she set all the cups out. As she set them down, she'd say, "This one for Daddy. This one for Kendall. etc." It was so cute! This picture is what the table looked like when she finally got done. She sure was proud of herself! I love it when they're still young enough to want to do jobs. When she finished, she got a waffle, put it on her plate, and then got in her chair. I guess she must have been hungry or something. :)

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for Kendall and Kristen. We are on year-round and it's kind of weird to go "off-track" at the first part of July and then go back on 4 weeks later and be in a new grade! In fact, it just hit me yesterday that they're going to 3rd and 5th grades!!!

Both Kendall and Kristen really like their teachers so far and had a really good day. Kendall looks unhappy here, but it was more of being unhappy with me making him stop for a picture than it was of going back to school.

Jarren goes in to meet with his teacher on Wednesday and then starts class on August 5. He'll be in afternoon Kindergarten. For some reason, every year I have a Kindergartener, they do the class in the afternoon and every year I don't, they do it in the morning. Maybe I'll get lucky with Jenna....

Update

Kendall had his Webelos camp last weekend. Of course he moaned and groaned about it, but had a really fun time! They even got to go swimming this year. This is a picture of the boys in his group (one is missing).

Jenna is used to her toddler bed now. She stays in bed all night and even occasionally puts herself down for naps and to bed. That's great unless it's 5:30 pm and I don't want her to take a nap. She likes to spend time in her room, playing and reading. It's cute!

Potty training isn't going as well. She will tell me during or immediately afterward, but not before (yet). I'm not worried about it--she'll get it eventually. It might not be until she's 25, but she'll get it. I am hoping she'll get the hang of it sooner rather than later though. I have a jar of M&Ms for a reward (2 or 3 pieces each time she goes). If she's 25, I'll have to think of something better than M&Ms. Probably something a lot more expensive too.

Shed

We FINALLY almost have our shed done!! Last spring, we decided it was time for a shed. After looking around, we didn't find anything we really liked. Jon thought maybe he'd try and build one. We got a book from the library and found one that we liked. We cleared a space and got a foundation poured. Jon started to build it and got the walls up, but the roof was really complex and after numerous tries (and having it uneven), he gave up for awhile. This year, we decided that it needed to get done (we can only use half of our garage for cars), so we hired it out. The guy who came always wore tan clothes and a hat and since he also sported a scruffy beard, Jenna decided that he looked like someone she knows. She looked out the window and said, "Mom! Indiana Jones here!" He got a kick out of that when I told him. :) Anyway...he spent 2 morning and 2 days and got it done! All that's left is the painting/staining. And I guess shelves for the inside. We're leaning towards either painting it or spraying it with flaxseed (I believe that's what it is) oil--that will protect it, but leave it natural looking, like it is now. If we paint, we want it to kind of match or look good with the yard. Kristen wants yellow or orange or melon (her grandma's suggestion). I suggested purple, but I was half kidding. Any other suggestions?? Jon is also going to do a stone path from the grass to the doors. It'll look nice! I can't wait to have everything totally done!

Happy 10th Birthday Kendall!

Kendall turned 10 yesterday!!! I can't believe he's already that old. He seemed to really have a good day. He wanted to decorate his own cake. You can barely make out a "10" in that jumble of frosting.
He was happy with his gifts--he's kind of getting out of the toy phase, but he got (and loves) some Star Wars stuff, books, army stuff, and money. My favorite gift was his itunes gift card. I wanted to disguise it so I put it inside a girlie dvd case (Sky Dancers). He opened it up and gave me a look like, "You've got to be kidding?!" He opened the case and saw the gift card and was so excited! And the best part--he was really nice to Jarren, Kristen, and Jenna all day.
We made these yummy kabobs for dinner and had cake and ice cream. It was a good day!

Dinosaur Museum

Our summer is very short--we're on a year-round school year, so we get about 3-4 weeks off in July and then breaks every three months during the school year. Since our "big" vacations were this past spring, our summer is looking to be pretty boring. Basically, they have swimming lessons twice a week and that's about it. Most of their friends are out of town. So, I decided yesterday to take the kids to the Dinosaur Museum to kind of break things up. They had a blast!!! They had a walkway that you could go through that was dark and it looked like stars were all around you. Jenna wanted to go in "space" over and over again. Kristen loved the erosion table the best. Jarren loved the big dinosaur bones. Kendall loved it all I think--he kept darting here and there and back again. It was very crowded (of course), but we had a very good time.

Baby Robins

I was walking in the backyard last week and almost stepped on a snake! It was coiled up and looking at me, with its creepy tongue flickering at me. Of course, I immediately started screaming and made the kids come out and help me get rid of it. They chased it off into the flowerbed, where it crawled under a railroad tie. Needless to say, I'm now extremely paranoid when I'm out in the yard. Yesterday morning, I walked outside and almost stepped on a baby Robin. It scared me at first because I didn't know what it was.
We had a Robin build a nest in our tree a few weeks ago. She was ALWAYS around, making sure those babies were safe and well-fed. For some reason, the mother Robin abandoned her two babies yesterday. They hopped out of the nest, but couldn't fly or feed themselves. We dug up so many worms, trying to take care of them, but in the end, they both died. What a sad day! The kids had a burial for one of them. They put flowers on the grave and everything. But....before they died, Jenna got her wish and got to touch a real, living bird! The kids kept trying to put the babies in the bird bath or a nest they made, since we couldn't reach the real nest. We didn't want Toby to hurt them. Kristen wanted to go buy a bird cage and keep them in the house. And Kendall wanted to just go buy a bunch of worms for them to eat. The kids (and half the neighborhood) had a fun day of trying to play "Mother Robin" for those little babies. Too bad we couldn't save them.