A Medley of Events

We have been so busy the past couple weeks! The kids have had a busier social schedule than I've ever had, even when I was single and living in Chicago! The boys have been wrapping up the school year with performances and concerts. Ty had a spring concert with the elementary classes, and he was in all his glory. Fortunately he was in the front row, because he definitely wanted to be seen and heard! Then Cameron's class put on performances for the parents in their music room. The kids got to choose their talent for that day and most did a song & dance as a small group, but Cam, not being a big singer, chose to play the xylophone solo. I was really proud of him, because he's never been a kid who's comfortable in the spotlight and I would think playing by yourself would be more stressful. So he played Mary Had a Little Lamb about as quietly as the instrument could play and spoke in a whisper when he introduced himself. It was so sweet. He would have rather been anywhere else in the world at that moment! He's like me in that respect. I don't do center stage well, either.

But speaking of talent, Ty has found his. He came into the kitchen the other morning and showed me that he could squeak just like Tina, their guinea pig. After he forced the sound from the back of his throat he looked at me with a really excited expression and said "I have a talent!" I'm so proud of him. I'm sure he'll make millions from it.

My dad came and visited from Colorado for a week. It's always nice to see Grandpa Jack, and the kids really enjoyed it. The girls had him wrapped around their fingers. All they had to do was look up at him and say in their sweet Minnie Mouse voices "Grandpa Jack" and he melted. He's so easy. He brought the boys to see Shrek 3 while he was here, and from that movie we've planned our Halloween costumes for this year. For those of you who haven't heard, Shrek and Princess Fiona had triplets (sorry for the spoiler) which gives us the perfect head count. Scott could be Shrek, myself as Princess Fiona, Cam as Puss 'n Boots, Ty as Donkey, and the girls, obviously, as the triplets. This is all just talk, though, because I don't see myself and Scott dressing up for trick or treating. And why I'm already thinking about Halloween, I don't know.

Memorial Day weekend was pretty low key. My mom and Kenny took all of the kids for the day on Saturday so Scott and I took advantage of the free time by sorting kids clothes. This was obviously Scott's idea. Sunday the kids played at home in the morning then I brought the boys swimming while the girls were napping. Scott was sick with the flu that day, as was my girlfriends husband, so they both spent the day moaning on their couches. Now don't get me wrong. I'm very sympathetic when Scott's sick. If you're sick, the couch or the bed is where you should be. But what's up with the moaning???? Why do men have to moan when they're sick? Scott swears that every time he moans he gets a bit of relief. I'm just wondering what the Labor and Delivery ward would sound like if men had to go through childbirth.

The boys are taking swimming lessons now to get tuned up for summer. Cam became a great swimmer last summer so I just want him to take one session of classes to get used to the water again, and Ty is just really getting the hang of swimming, and not just playing, so he'll need a couple more sessions for me to feel comfortable. The girls have never been big fans of the pool until last weekend. I took the girls to the pool by myself, since it was Scott's reserve weekend, thinking I would only be there long enough to get them all in the water kicking and screaming one time. Well, for whatever reason, ALL THREE of the girls decided that they LOVE swimming, and as soon as they saw the pool they started running to it to get in. At that point I was in over my head because I wasn't expecting to have to try and restrain 3 toddlers from getting in the pool without me or floaties. But it worked out great. Since I'm physically unable to hold all of them at once I had to dress them head to toe in floatation devices. They looked like the Michelin Man in their vests and water wings, but they had so much fun floating around the pool like little ducks. They're going to be in for a rude awakening the first time we take off all the floaties and realize that they can sink like rocks!

Cam had a bad day in school Monday. They had a substitute teacher and he decided he was going to goof off all day. He was in a lot of trouble when he got home and spent the afternoon in his room writing apology notes to the teachers, and he lost TV priviledges for a week. However, I made the mistake of making him tell me everything he had done wrong that day. He told me that his friend had been encouraging him to make noises, one of them being to bark like a dog! So my mood went from furious and surprised by his behavior, to slightly amused at the image. How bad of a parent is that?! Then he demonstrated the bark and I busted out laughing! I couldn't help it! I was trying sooooo hard to keep a straight face, but the demonstration pushed me over the edge. So I completely unraveled the seriousness of his behavior. Mother of the Year.

Another Mother of the Year moment was last weekend when I turned around and noticed that our back door was open and two of the girls were gone. Now they'd only been out the door for a few seconds because they had just been in the kitchen with me, so I walked outside and found our neighbor walking them back home from ACROSS THE STREET! Oh ya. I'm good. Their balls had apparently rolled down our driveway into the street so they went into the street to get the balls and decided to stay out there and play!!! I was sick to my stomach thinking about what could have happened in those few seconds. I've ordered a mesh fence to pull across our driveway to catch any balls or kids that come rolling down the hill.

Have a wonderful weekend. My next post will have pictures of the girls new big girl beds!!!