Week Thirteen

On Monday, Zaya had her last gymnastics class of the session. Rob came to watch her and I was so glad that he did. Zaya has done so well in gymnastics this year. I am so glad that I went with my gut and decided to sign her up at such a young age. First, she has made enormous progress as a listener. Her coach, Michelle is amazing and has been patient with her. She is so attentive and has learned to listen really well through the experience. Zaya and her friend Nev are the only ones in the class and they are both similarly athletic and coordinated. They are learning things that Hurley hasn't even started learning yet. Zaya really loves this class and I really love when I get to go back and watch everything she has learned.

On Tuesday, we had preschool at our house. The kids in the preschool group are really low key. They mostly just like to play together, so I try to do one simple activity and then I let them play the rest of the time. This week we talked about the letter Y. On Thursday, I cut out some card stock letter y's and had them thread yard through holes. On Wednesday, Zaya had a dentist appointment in Saginaw to work on her grey tooth. I was feeling pretty sad on the drive there. The grey tooth has become a part of Zaya and that little smile is actually something I find unique about her. But, she still said she wanted it to be made white. I always go back with Zaya for her checkups, but when we got there, they told me she needed to go back by herself. I texted Rob and sat there quite upset and worried. Halfway through, I asked the front desk lady to check on her and give me an update. She came back and reported that she was doing great. A few minutes later, the dentist came out with Zaya. Her tooth looks so great. She was happy and didn't seem to be bothered by the procedure or the fact that she had to go back by herself. I am so proud of her! She has made such great strides this year.

Brooklen started baseball practice this week. Between baseball, hockey, gymnastics, softball, piano lessons, and photography, our lives are going to be REALLY busy the next couple of months. On Friday, our neighbor, Charlotte, came by with her two kids after school. The kids all played together until dinner. At dinnertime, Tiffany Quast brought her two boys over. We have joined a date night trade group. The kids played really well together. I was grateful that Rob played with the kids downstairs while I cleaned up our dinner of homemade pizza.

On Saturday morning, we left early to attend the temple. We met the McFarlanes down there. They went to the 9:00 session and we did sealings afterwards. After the temple, we went down to Canton to check on the house, which goes up for sale this week, and then we ate at 5 Guys. Our kids are becoming such big eaters. We bought 3 double cheeseburgers and Brooklen and Hurley each ate one by themselves. We also stopped at Trader Joes and at Gamestop (to get a Wii game for Brooklen). Closer to home, we stopped at Birch Run. We got Brooklen some shirts and new shoes at Under Armour, bought Zaya a shirt at J. Crew, and then we stopped at Sonic on our drive home. It was a busy day (we didn't get home until 8pm), but we had a lot of fun!

Week Twelve

This week was pretty warm again.  It is so nice to be able to send the kids outside to play with friends.  Brooklen is having a blast working on his hockey, baseball, kickball, and basketball skills with Jake and the girls are enjoying the swingset and coloring with sidewalk chalk.

Brooklen just started a hockey basic skills class.  On Wednesday, Rob took him to get his equipment. He is able to borrow equipment throughout the basic skills course.  We are grateful for that, since we aren't sure that he is going to want to play on a team in the fall.  On Saturday morning, he had his first session on the ice.  I think he enjoyed it, but his helmet was kind of bothering him, so he probably didn't enjoy it as much as he could have.  After the session, Rob took him to get a new helmet. Hopefully when he gets on the ice tomorrow, he will feel better.

Rob is such a good Dad.  He's noticed that Brooklen has been really in to sports lately, so for FHE, he had us all fill out March Madness brackets.  Brooklen has been SOOOO in to it.  He has been following every game and we have heard him say "Your bracket is going to be busted" and "I'm going for the upset" quite a bit this last week.  I love watching him get so in to the game; it makes him so happy!  Currently, Hurley is winning with her bracket.  Brooklen is in 2nd place, followed by Rob, Me, and then Zaya.

Hurley had her first gymnastics meet yesterday.  She did really well; I love watching her play sports because she is so talented and skilled.  Her cartwheels have gotten so good these past few months and she loves showing off for us and for our neighbors.   I was a little sad that she wasn't in the best of moods for the meet.  I think she would have had more fun if she was in better spirits.  But, she really loved the medal that she won.  She kept asking me how "much percent of gold" it was.  Man, I love that little girl!

If you ask Zaya what she wants to be when she grows up, she will tell you that she wants to be an artist.  She loves doing the things that her siblings do and she has learned to love art from them.  Yesterday, we were playing outside and Rob told her to draw a picture of them fishing.  She went right to work and came up with this:

Afterwards, he asked her to draw a picture of the time that she hit Brooklen in the eye with a baseball.  She didn't miss a beat and came up with an awesome drawing!

Kaiton has been a little sick this week, so he has had a couple of rough days.  I have noticed, however, that he is walking a lot more!  He also loves to kick balls and like to "flip," which is essentially the beginnings of a somesault.

 I also took a few shots of him in the bath this week.  He is so funny.  He LOVES taking baths, but he HATES taking showers!

Week Eleven

On Monday, we went to Cabarfae for our last ski day. It was sunny and like 45 degrees; such an amazing day to be skiing.  The added bonus for me was that the temperature made the snow pretty slushy, so the runs were slower than the last time we had gone.  This was a big confidence builder for me.  I have to say, I think skiing is soooo fun.  I am slow and very, very cautious, but I really enjoy it.  It doesn't really bother me that I'm not that good at it.  I really hope that I can get a bit better and more confident every year.  The Nymans actually ended up coming up to ski the same day and they brought us a harness to use with Zaya.  Rob used it for a couple of runs and then I let someone else borrow it.  While they were borrowing it, Zaya wanted to go out again, so Rob took her up the chairlift and told her she had to learn to ski on her own.  She was AMAZING.  I'm not even sure that she fell at all.  She was so confident and even learned to turn and slow down on her own.  She didn't want to stop skiing.  Brooklen had fun skiing with friends and I was confident enough to spend some time skiing by myself and with my kids.  Hurley was having a pretty emotionally rough day, so she didn't have as much fun as last time, but that's okay.At the end of the day, I was actually sad thinking about the fact that winter is pretty much over.

For the entire week, Midland temperatures made it feel like spring.  The kids played outside a little, the snow on our grass melted, and I took a couple walks during the days with the little kids.  We also shopped for seeds and Rob and Brooklen started our tomato plants in the basement.  I am excited to spend more time outside, but a little sad that I can't be such a "hermit" anymore!

Zaya had a couple of playdates this week.  Jack came over on Tuesday after school and then Zaya went over to the Larsens to play with Kate and Amelia after school on Thursday.  The kids also got to pick out books at the book fair on Thursday.  On Tuesday, I was able to volunteer in Hurley's classroom.  I haven't gotten in there very much this year and it is really quite a bummer.  I love watching her interact and it makes me very happy to be in there and see that she is definitely one of the brightest and most well-behaved kids in the class.

On Friday after school, Charlotte Nicholas came over with her kids, Kyra and Evan.  Kyra is in Brooklen's class and Evan is in Hurley's class.  The kids played for a while and Charlotte and I had a great time having some adult conversation.

On Saturday, Rob had to go down to Detroit to put up some more lights in our house.  We plan to officially put it on the market on April 1st.  The kids and I headed out at about 10am.  First, we went to the Library to check out more books.  Of course, we always spend way more time that we intend to when we go there.  Next, we headed to Dow Gardens to see the Butterfly House.  It was a cloudy day, so unfortunately, most of the butterflies were hanging out near the ceiling.  The girls did catch two butterflies and we had fun, but we will probably go again on a sunny day so we can have a better chance at holding more of them.

After we left Dow Gardens, we ran home to pick up the stroller and I quickly made some peanut butter sandwiches.  Then, we went downtown for a Pi Day celebration.  15 of the merchants were giving out pie samples and then the public could vote on their favorites.  The kids loved it, although I didn't think about how much sugar they were going to be consuming!  I didn't try most of them, but I did sample a pasty pie.  I've been wanting to try one of these UP treasures, and I'm glad I finally did.  The kids loved it, and when I came home, I googled some recipes and put it on my menu for the week.

Afterwards, we headed to the mall.  Younkers is apparently trying to inquire new customers and they had sent me $100 in coupon cash.  $100 of $100 in purchases!  So fun!  I bought Brooklen a Nike shirt and a Puma shirt.  He is getting into wearing athletic apparel and it is so cute to have him want to be involved in choosing his clothes.  Afterwards, we walked through the mall and Brooklen saw a baseball card booth.  He has really been in to reading biographies lately and he recently read the biography of Jackie Robinson.  He found a Jackie Robinson card and bought it for a quarter.  He was so proud of his purchase.  When we got home, he asked to google it.  He was super stoked to find out that people were selling the exact same card on ebay for $1.99!  I just love how much joy he has.  I hope he never changes; he is such a happy kid.  His teacher emailed me this week the following message:

Good Afternoon,
I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy having Brooklen in my class.  He is having a fantastic year.  He is doing a great job in all areas.  If you have any questions or concerns please don't hesitate to let me know .

Thanks,

Mr. Staley

My heart just bursts with pride for my little family!

Week Ten

We spent quite a bit of time at home again this week.  Zaya is such an easy child.  The older two kids never liked staying at home during the day and they both really like to be entertained.  Zaya, on the other hand, never says that she is bored.  She is really good at playing by herself and if she can't think of something to do, she creates something or wants to help me with my tasks.  I took a few pictures of her making a "picnic" with all of her stuffed animals this week.  She told me it was a "Doc McStuffins" picnic and each of the stuffed animals was a character from the show.

Kaiton is still not walking.  He is so funny.  Yesterday I caught him playing with a mini football (he loves balls) and he was kicking it and then crawling to it, standing up, and kicking it again.  What a funny guy; he is kicking balls before he is walking.  I told Brooklen that he might grow up to be a "sports guy," a term Brooklen coined.  Brooklen's response was, "yeah, like me!"  Brooklen has been enjoying having a little brother.   He likes to play basketball with him using his little window hoop.  I snuck in some photos the other day when they were playing.

Hurley is now reading up a storm.  She is so smart and we really haven't found anything she ISN'T good at yet.  The art teacher at school always tells me how awesome she is at art, she is super athletic, and school seems to be pretty easy for her.  She is also excelling at piano.  She still hasn't totally gotten the hang of note-reading (probably my fault), but she has excellent rhythm, technic, and an incredible memory.

Brooklen and I have been reading the first Harry Potter book.  I really love reading classics to him.  It is so fun to share these books with him and I love the quality time we get to spend together.  Hurley is reading Harry Potter in kindergarten (isn't that awesome!?), so I figured B and I should read it too.  Brooklen is such an awesome kid.  He worked so hard and finally earned the money for his new Wii game.  He is anxiously awaiting it!  I am grateful that he is so mature and obedient.

On Friday night, we watched the Jaimie girls so that Tiffany and Eric could take Elijah to the temple for the first time.  The kids had homemade pizza, watched Big Hero 6, and then went to bed.  Mia, Zaya, and Sophie stayed up until like 11:30pm.  In the morning, we made pancakes and then they played until about 3:00pm, when their parents came to pick them up.  

At about 4:00pm, we went to City Forest to go tobagganing.  It was the first time we'd gotten around to going this year.  Unfortunately, it was too warm and they had shut town the tobaggans for the season.  We were bummed, but we tried to make the best of the situation by going sledding and ice skating.  There were very few people at the sled hill, so it was extra enjoyable.  We even found a run that had a mound of snow that we could aim for and it created a ramp for us so we could get some "air" while we were coming down.  Brooklen, Hurley, and I had some fun trying to aim for that mound!

Week Nine

This was a pretty eventful week for Zaya. On Wednesday, she had her bi-annual appointment with the pediatric dentist. Zaya sees a special pediatric dentist in Saginaw because she hit her tooth sometime when she was very young and it has turned very grey. She has never been very good at all at the dentist. She always cries and screams and doesn't really let Dr. Bentowski do much. About a week ago, I started warning her about the upcoming visit. I told her that she was a big girl now and that I knew that she was going to be very brave at the dentist. I had found a Sophia toy at Marshalls on sale last month and had been saving it the basement. I tried to motivate Zaya by telling her that if she was good, she could have it. Well, all of that worked. She was so brave and sweet at the dentist. They were even able to take x-rays of her teeth. The dentist thinks that the grey tooth looks good at the root and doesn't want to pull it at this point. Since Zaya was calm and happy, she suggested that we could maybe glue on a translucent cover to hide the grey. While the grey is not the prettiest, it certainly has become a part of Zaya and I even find it kind of cute. So, we gave Zaya the choice. At this point, she wants us to make the tooth look white, so we have another appointment scheduled at the end of March.

 On Thursday, Zaya got to go on a field trip with her friends from "preschool" to Pizza Sams. They do such a nice job there. They took the kids on a tour and let them make their own pizzas. And, best of all,

she got to spend time with her little friends. 

On Friday night, the kids had a Sock Hop at school.  This is always such a fun fundraiser.  They dressed up in 50's attire and played games, ate a pizza dinner, and danced the night away!

On Saturday, Rob went down to Canton to put light fixtures in our rental house. We are getting ready to sell it and we never had any light fixtures in it when we were living there. Poor Rob ended up spending about six hours putting up lights. While Rob was gone, I had the opportunity to take the kids to the church to work at the mobile food pantry. It was such a unique, wonderful service opportunity. What I really loved about it was that my kids could do most of the work while I supervised. They helped fill up the shopping carts with food, which were then pushed out to needy families' cars. Brooklen even got a turn to help push one of the carts with my friend, Julia. After the service project, we went to Meijer. We spent about 90 minutes shopping for groceries, only to find out (as they were ringing me up) that the credit card readers were down and they couldn't process my payment. Luckily, Meijer still had money in their ATM machine. All things considered, the kids were very well-behaved. 

Later that day, after Rob came home, we took the kids to City Forest to go ice skating. I tried to ice skate with my kids, but I was particularly hopeless. I downright determined to learn to do these things that I should have learned when I was a kid. It is so painfully embarrassing, but, mark my words, I will pick it up eventually.