(sorry for the not so great pix - my good camera is kinda broken and I have yet to get that totally resolved, my old Rebel is image soft half the time, my point and shoot is dead and the charger is MIA, and that leaves pretty much the cell phone - part of me finds this all ironic and sad - anyone want to gift me $3000 for a new camera?)
1. We are all exhausted. We have had a very full week including hours and hours of soccer, activities, and what we are calling "life lessons". Some of my friends have jumped on the bandwagon of "The Plan" based on the book The Parenting Breakthrough. Basically, the object of the plan is to get your kids to be self-sufficient and able to do many of the life tasks that they should know how to do when they get out in the real world. What sold me on this idea is how many times you see missionaries and new college students and newly marrieds struggle to complete tasks in the real world - cooking, laundry, cleaning, paying bills, organization, etc. etc. Many of their moms always did everything for them and when they get out in the real world, they are lost. Also, with a family as busy as ours, it would be great if the kids knew how to pitch in and help with laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, etc. etc. I confess I am taking a much simpler approach to the plan. I am not doing binders. I am not keeping track of who has learned what. I am teaching my kids lessons collectively and I count success when they have shown me they can do a task unaided. Mastery of tasks earns rewards. So far the girls have all mastered laundry (Zack is almost there) and errand planning. We also have learned how to make egg rolls and Chinese pepper steak. We have also worked through closet and bathroom organization.
(this is much of the content of my kids' bathroom spilled out into the hallway as they cleaned and organized their bathroom)
2. Speaking of soccer, we have been engrossed in countless hours of it. Last weekend, we took Zack and the twins to the Mexico vs Venezuela match at Sam Boyd stadium. Zack went with his whole team.
During half time, the boys got the privilege to participate in a scrimmage on the field against another local team.
Also this past week, Zack has participated in soccer camp. 4 hours every day from 4-8pm.
Zack has improved so much this past week with his soccer skills.
Also this week, we have had our series of training/tryout sessions for our twins. My husband Ryan is trying to put together a new independent competitive team which he will coach/train.
Each day, we also have our kids doing a series of soccer drills for 30 minutes that Ryan put together.
3. Did I mention how freakin' hot this week has been? I would be content to just lay under the ceiling fan in my air-conditioned house most days.
Yes. The thermostat does read 111 degrees. And yes, we were out in it almost everyday running errands and doing soccer. Of course, much time has been spent in the pool cooling off.
4. Another thing my kids have been doing a lot of this week is reading. Early in the week, we had gone to the library to sign up for the Summer Reading Program and to get books for summer reading.
My kids were not really impressed with the prizes or incentives of the summer reading program and so I decided to come up with my own "Summer Reading Program" to give my kids incentive to read and to cut down on "screen time" - TVs, video games, DS, touch, Ipod, computer, etc. etc. I told my kids for every page read, they would earn 1 penny per page. So far this has cut down on "screen time" dramatically in my house. My oldest, Madison has completed an entire series of 4 books.
5. On Wednesday, my sister, BIL, and my baby nephew arrived for a visit. My kids got to meet their first cousin on my side of the family.
6. Wednesday evening, I took my girls and along with my SILs and the cousins, we went out to Spring Mountain Ranch for Super Summer Theater to see "Annie". It has been an annual tradition to go every June for the past few years. We go early, pack a picnic dinner, and enjoy the show.
7. Thursday evening, my sister brought my nephew to stay the night with us. They went out and checked into a hotel for the evening to celebrate their anniversary. Weston is such a good baby. On Friday morning, he woke up at around 5:30 to eat and was so animated and happy. Since the light is so pretty at that time of day and he was all smiles, I took him outside to snap a couple.
Isn't he the cutest baby? So handsome. And smiley. And he is only 7 weeks old.
8. The kids did In N Out Friday and then babysat Weston so my sis, BIL, and I could go out for some sushi.
isn't it pretty? Was so so good too!
9. Tomorrow we are going to attempt some baking "life lessons". The kids are going to learn how to make banana bread, scones, and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
10. As I am wrapping this up, I am realizing just how much I have not blogged about because life has been so tremendously busy. I am still keeping up with Project Life but I just need to find a free minute to sit down and update and put everything into the album.
Hope you are all having a wonderful and fun-filled summer! I am so glad to say I have yet to hear the "B" (bored) word at our house. I hope the trend continues.
TTYS. (hoping much sooner than later)
