In April, our crazy and fun kept the good times rollin'. Some nights we had three kids in three different places, but thank goodness for friends to help lighten the load! It's hard to not get too busy but to let each kid pursue something outside of school. And with Matt leaving early for work on work nights and the boys often gone to practice, it felt like a miracle if we all ate dinner together. I never wanted it to be like that, but here we are. I think this is just life with teenagers??
These three love their back scratches and are often trading off.
We decided to use a giftcard and do a family dinner out, which is not something we hardly ever do...especially at a place you have to wait. It got a little dicey at times and I made everyone play the game where you take turns saying a food that starts with each letter of the alphabet and memorizing everyone else's foods. What could be more fun? Right? :)
AHHHHH! My Bible Study girls and I got to spend a weekend at the beach. It was a little chilly and overcast most of the time but we made the most of the time and were sooo happy to get away and have a break from our jobs, housekeeping, taxi-driving, schedule keeping, parenting, etc, etc. True relaxation! (Thanks, Nanny and Pa!)
Meanwhile, Fun Daddy took the kiddos to the Life and Science Museum in the rain. I don't remember what else they did but they had such a good time that Gray was lamenting when I got home because I missed all the fun. Nah, buddy, I had plenty of fun of my own. :)
Chilly day on the beach...who needs sunscreen, right? Oops. Everyone got a little burnt on the random exposed skin. My friend in the front has pink legwarmers for the remainder of the summer. :)
Annnnd, the next day we covered up a bit more.
Out to dinner with our lobster faces and necks. Such practical, responsible moms.
I came home to a gymnastics show in the back yard. Julia had taught Allie a routine on the "beam bar" and made signs of encouragement for everyone to hold up while she performed.
Also while I was gone, the boys offed their fish. One we thought was eaten, but had been hiding for months and the other was severely bloated from disease. They were buried and Gray made this sign for his...though it remained on the kitchen counter rather than at the gravesite.
You can just see in this picture how much Julia is loving volleyball. Everyone has to serve and she could not make it over the net. So finally after hearing so much complaining, I told Julia we should practice every day. We did for two weeks and....she made 2 of 3 serves over! I nearly cried. So happy for her to learn that hard work pays off. And when this girl determines to do something, she is all in till she gets in. (And then she's over it. :) Not much practicing since then.)
The kids had the privilege of going to a Seder dinner at our church the week before Easter. How cool for them to get the rich history of the Passover meal in a lesson they can see and touch and taste. They love this every year. It was the first time for Allie and she was sooo excited and ate up every bit of the food, declaring it all so good.
It's been a crazy weather year and April saw us hanging in the closet for a real live tornado that came through the other side of town. Crazy! The kids were pretty terrible and complained a lot at this terrible situation of having to sit quietly in a small space for an hour. Could life be any worse? The one moment of peace was when I read "Peter's First Easter"which goes through the end of Jesus' life, his death, and resurrection in narrative form with lots of great pictures. We read by flashlight in the dark of the closet with the storm going on outside, which was kinda cool. We lost our power till the middle of the night (when everything came back on and woke me and Joshua up) so....
Family Fun Night at Cameron Park. Allie won this "nudicorn" at a cake walk. She and Julia got their numbers called on the second round. Ten rounds later, with his fierce determination holding him up, Gray finally won the stuffed animal of his choice.
Some things are a process. In Gray's life, learning concepts are a snap, but learning boring and practical tasks are a huge process, usually with an abundance of arguing, postponing, tears, excuses, shouting, etc. Cutting the grass has been one of those things. I took this picture on his first time cutting the grass by himself. He'd done one practice run with Matt and declared himself ready to be on his own. In actuality, it's taking a bit longer than he thought to learn how to do a good job and we've had some humdinger moments. Getting started is terribly hard for him, but even once started, his mind just can't stay on it. Often I look out the window to find him sitting on his knees a little ways from the lawnmower, unable to go on, just needing to stop either in frustration or to think about something. Sometimes I find him stopped in the yard with the mower going, amazed by his ability to make the air blowing out from the mower blow all the seeds from a dandelion. Sometimes he stops the mower to show me a big butterfly. Sometimes he stops it to go inside and get his little teddy bear with blanket attached to put on his head when he wants to take a break. Gosh, I love him. If we can just curb the arguments of why he should not mow the grass right now and cut his start-up time down to less than half an hour, I think we can make it through the summer.
Joshua has a really great friend group and what's so funny is that three of them were born on the same day. This year they did a big group party-- frisbee and games outside with dinner, then separating boys and girls to do sleepovers, but still texting each other for things like the boys judging cakes the girls made. What a sweet setup he has! So thankful.
April was a good one!!
