Joy School

Eli started Joy School this week. It is a group of four women (including me) and our four 3ish-year-old sons. I think Eli will really like having a school to go to like his brother and sister, I am LOVING having a couple of hours all to myself twice a week, and I even think I will like teaching the weeks it's my turn. Sounds like a good thing any way you look at it!

Dog Sitting

Last weekend we dog sat for Teo, and loved it! Ali has been longing for and begging for a dog, but she wasn't the only one who enjoyed having him here. All the kids spent more time out in the backyard while he was here than they have all summer, and even Jason and I enjoyed having this fun, well-behaved dog in our home. Teo is so good--he stayed off the carpet like we asked him to and was SO patient with our kids, not even reacting the time when Eli poked him right in the eye totally on purpose, when they poured sand on him, or sprayed him with water! Teo liked any attention he got while he was here, but he loved Jason. Once when Jason was out in the backyard, Teo cried and paced at the door until I let him go out there with Jason:)

Creative Writing

Toothpick

Logan was using the toothpick to get something out of his teeth and it got stuck....

Kindergarten!

It is Wednesday, August 21, 2013. Ali and Logan got on a bus this morning to go off the their official first day of Kindergarten this morning at 8am and won't be back until about 4pm! I thought I would get teary putting them on the bus, but surprised myself by not. Ali and Logan were both so confident, ready, excited, and happy that I found myself feeling proud and happy and not at all sad. They have, of course, been in my thoughts all day long, and I am ready for them to come home soon. But as it turns out, we all were ready for this.

We kind of had three "first days"--a school open house last Thursday night that I went to with all three kids where we found their classes and met their teachers, a two-hour mini day where Jason and I went to a parents meeting and Ali and Logan went to class, and today--the first real day. These pictures are from all those days:

We'll see what they say when they come home, but so far I think Eli has had the hardest time today, which I was surprised about. He's been a bit whinny and weepy, and keeps asking if "the kids" will be home after nap, or after we got home from the library, etc. Poor little guy! I'm glad I get to spend some more one-on-one time with him and I'm sure he'll realize it's not such a bad deal once he gets used to it.

Temple

Every summer rushes by faster than it should, leaving me to squeeze a bunch of fun things into the last week-all the things we were planning to do and hadn't gotten to yet. On our list this summer was a trip to the Chicago temple because the kids kept telling me they had never been there, which of course they had but have forgotten for some reason. 

So on Tuesday, our official last day of Summer 2013, we went to the Temple. As we pulled up they said, "Oh, YEAH, we HAVE been here!" We had fun dipping our feet in the fountain and running around it, smelling the flowers and walking around. Then we took Korrali out with us to get donuts and play at a park while Aunty Lianna went inside for awhile. It was a pretty good way to wrap up the summer, I think.

Face Paint

At our neighborhood party Ali finally realized her dream of having her face painted. She waited in line quite patiently for about 45 minutes, but she truly was the cutest kitty I have ever seen! Happy Summer!

Love Them!

My current favorite picture of my three kids!

Downtown Adventure

For a couple of summers I've wanted to take my kids downtown to these big fountains and "The Bean" but have never quite been brave enough to do so. But this summer I saw on her blog that my wonderful friend JaNae had done the exact outing I wanted to do, and she was just wonderful enough to do it again with us!

Two cute friends on the train:

 My kids, especially Logan, couldn't get over the buildings, "They're humongous!"

Did I mention how cute these two friends are?

Playing at the fountain:

Me and my friend:) We were reminiscing about the time before we had kids that we came downtown as couples for the 4th of July. I love that we're both still here in Illinois, still great friends, and that our kids are such good friends. (We had all the five-year-olds take turns taking a picture of us, and sure enough one of them didn't cut off our heads!)

The famous Bean:

The kids did pretty good on the forty-five minute, about mile long walk to and from the train station. We did have to pause once and awhile for photo-ops.

And the proof of a great time: all the kids were sound asleep within five minutes of the car ride home.

Museum of Science and Industry

Summer is rapidly coming to an end, which of course means we have to squeeze in everything we meant to do at our leisure in a couple of weeks:) One of those was to take advantage of Jason's work offering a free day to the Museum of Science and Industry downtown. There was actually tons of things our kids loved there and it was a really fun day out together. It was so fun, in fact, that when I asked Eli what he liked about the day before bed (as I do every night), he said, "the museum" instead of, "the beach" which is what he's said every night since we went to North Carolina about two months ago!

Trying out the fun-house mirrors:

 A real, live submarine!

Watching baby chicks hatch:

Checking out parts of an airplane you don't usually get to see close up:

Grandpa's 68!

We got to celebrate Grandpa's birthday with him today. We love Grandpa!

11 Years

Saturday was our 11 year anniversary. To say they've been a happy 11 years would be an understatement. I'm glad I signed up for forever.

Eli's Summer

This summer Eli took a sports class with Jason (pictures to come), but his biggest accomplishment is that he is a Potty Training Rockstar. Here he is with his wonderware (his word) and potty juice. 

It took him two days of two accidents a day to get it. Then basically no more accidents. And when he started staying dry during naps, we started getting him up once in the night to go potty. After a week of a wet bed every other night (and once we lowered the bar of his crib so he could climb out as needed), no more accidents at night! Thank you Eli for being the easiest kid ever to potty train! We're so proud of you!

Logan's Summer

Logan chose to take a Ukulele class (of all things) this summer, and he loved it. He was so excited when Grandpa Quillen bought him his very own ukulele so he could keep playing once the class was over. He'll often invite me to his room to hear a song he's been working on:)

Ali's Summer

Ali chose to do a ballet class this summer. Truth be told, she wished there was less stretching and more leaping involved, but the fact that we got to come watch the last class kept her working hard. She sure looked beautiful.

Ugly Faces

How can such beautiful faces turn so ugly?

Sweet Eli

My Eli is so sweet and loving. I love him.

Camp Out

Logan still talks about camping with his dad last summer, and Ali still talks about how she didn't get to go with them, so we thought a camping trip was in order. This lazy mom proposed a camp out in the backyard, and that is what ended up happening. This way, everyone got to play in the tent, roast marshmallows, and run around. But then Eli and I got to sleep in our own beds inside. That was the plan, anyway. As it turned out, Logan, Ali, and Jason got to not sleep in the tent until about 12am when they decided our neighbor's party in their backyard was never going to end and they came inside and slept in their beds too. But they still loved it!