Summertime Fun!

I love summer!!! I love the time away from hitting the books, working on homework and have 100 scheduled activities each day. We have already had time for family bike rides, tennis games, hours in the community pool, trips to the library and a family Euchre game. I love it! This summer, I am only working 7 til 10 a.m. each day so the kids and I have the whole day in front of us when I get home from work. Max is having a great time at Camp Grandma but his siblings (and his parents!!!!) are definitely missing him! Calvin tells me about 5 times a day that he misses his buddy/roomate and as much as Max's loud voice carries throughout the whole house, the quiet without him is a little lonely!

Good Friends

We have had such a nice, relaxing weekend. We hardly know what to do with ourselves without soccer games, baseball games, swim team, school work, etc but we sure could get used to this!! Josh and I went out to eat for some good Texas Barbeque for to celebrate our anniversary on Friday night. Tabitha babysat the younger boys for us while Quincy babysat for a neighbor. (He is making some good money with babysitting these days!) On Saturday morning, we did some yardwork around the house before heading to Indianapolis to meet and pick up Quincy's good friend, Max, from Batesville. Those two old friends picked up like they had just left off and dove into movies, video games, basketball and mock sword fighting. They have had a ball! On Sunday, we drove our Max to meet Josh's mom so that he can spend 5 days at "Camp Grandma". He was so excited, I thought he was going to explode. He carefully packed everything he thought he might need in a paper sack and cardboard box. He was so proud of himself, I didn't have the heart to tell him to pack his stuff in an actual suitcase! Oh well. More yard work and lazing around the house before we take the other Max back to Indy to meet his mom since he has to go to school tomorrow. Quincy will hate to see him go although Quincy does have an end of the year party at a local park this afternoon for his entire 6th grade class. They move on to the junior high next year so they make a big deal out of the end of 6th grade here. I'm including a picture of my good friend, Leah, in a shot that we took in San Francisco. I'm also including a shot of Maxwell and Taba under our beautiful flowering bushes in the our backyard. We have had rain on and off all weekend so everything seems to be just thriving!!

School's Out!!!

Can you believe that the school year is over!!? I'm not sure that I am mentally prepared to have the kids home all day every day but they sure are excited! As of 11:30 this morning, their year will be over. Yesterday, Max's kindergarten class had a little graduation party as they all move on to 1st grade. Max was so proud! His teacher made a picture for each of them with little statements about their strong points. She was crying through the whole presentation. Very sweet. All 4 kids have had a great year and have really grown mentally and physically. So fun to watch. Josh took them rollerskating last night to celebrate. They loved it! This weekend we will have one of Quincy's good friends from Batesville come for a visit and Max will head to "Camp Grandma" with Josh's mom for the week. Should be fun to get the summer rolling!

Field Trip

I just got home from a 14 hour field trip to Chicago with Tabitha's 5th grade class. We had a great day at the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum. I only had to be responsible for Taba and her friend, Jill, so it was actually a pretty relaxing day although quite tiring. Josh is in D.C. again for a few days so Grandpa was kind enough to take care of the boys this evening until I could get home. Thanks Grandpa! Today was also our 14th anniversary.... Can you believe it? I'm not sure that I can. Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend our anniversary together at all so we will have to go out this weekend to celebrate. 14 years!!

San Francisco.... wine, chocolates, shopping and friends!

Just a quick blurb tonight before I hit the sack! I just got home from 4 days in San Francisco for a long weekend with my college roomate! We had a wonderful trip and a wonderful time catching up! It was completely a "foodie" vacation where we took a "local taste" tour of the city and watched them make sourdough, learned how coffee is roasted, olive oil is pressed and wine is made. We ate our way from one end of the city to the other and loved every minute of it! I'll show you more pictures at another time. Gotta get to bed and try to get over this 3 hour time change!

Tuesday

Hopefully all of you great moms out there had a nice Mother's Day. I certainly did. Josh and the kids took care of everything around the house while I got to do what I wanted. Taba even made me breakfast in bed! After my breakfast, I went for a 20 mile bike ride with a friend. It was beautiful and fun! We ended our ride with a big lunch at a favorite restaurant. Quincy and Tabitha then had a end of the year band concert that we all attended with Grandpa. They did a great job! Quincy really does well on the drums! It is something that he truly loves and actually enjoys practicing. Taba enjoys her flute also but not quite to the same degree. After the concert, the kids and I did some planting in the yard. We planted cauliflower, peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, jalapenos and beans. Max and I also planted some vine seeds to cover his flower fort that he got for his birthday. Our yard is really starting to look beautiful with everything blooming! I'm including a picture of Max watching the bigger kids play soccer in the neighbor's yard. He can certainly hold his own with them but sometimes he would rather watch. One sidenote.... today when I was braiding Taba's hair for school, I could no longer see the top of her head when we were both standing!!! The doctor measured her recently as 5'5"!! She's 10!!! She loves it and Quincy hates it, he's probably only 5'4".

Week of Activities

Wow! This has really been a crazy week full of end of the year activities. On Thursday evening, Calvin had another baseball game which they won again. At the same time, Quincy had his final acting class at the Civic Theater where they put on a short skit for the parents. Quincy played the role of a man who wanted to be a flag pole. He played it quite well and certainly had the part of being tall and skinny down perfectly. Shortly after the skit, Tabitha had her final choir concert for the year. The 16 girls did a great job with a wide variety of songs. On Friday morning, Taba had her "State Fair" at school. Each 5th grader had to do a big presentation on a state of their choosing and then be present in front of their display for the rest of the day so that people could come through and ask questions. Taba did Ohio since that is the state where she was born. She really did a nice job and enjoyed it. She dressed up as Annie Oakley to represent a famous Ohioan. After attending the "fair", I ran over to Calvin and Max's school to watch a presentation for Max's class on bugs. His teacher had agreed to hold a tarantula with an entomologist from Purdue if the class read a total of 750 books, they read 1006 so she was stuck. It was pretty entertaining and the class just loved it! Max and I got to "pet" the tarantula afterwards. After running home to get a run in for my triathlon training schedule, I ran back over to Calvin and Max's school to assist with their all school one mile run. They had each class run one mile. It was great fun! Both boys did a super job despite the high humidity and 86 degree temps. They were hot, sweaty and tired afterward. After school, Calvin took off for a sleepover at a friend's house. We'll be picking him up soon to get started on our weekend activities.

Field Trip

Yesteday afternoon, I was able to go on a field trip to the local zoo with Max's kindergarten class. We had a great time checking out and learning about some rainforest animals. Max was adorable with his little friends! He has a great friend named Grace. He always hesitates to call her his friend for fear someone will accuse him of having a "girlfriend" but they really are inseparable and have a great time together. She actually fell asleep on his lap on the way home on the bus. Very cute!

Play Ball!

Baseball season officially opened around here last night with a big to-do over at the new ball fields. It didn't begin for us until tonight though when Calvin had his first game. His team did very well (winning 38 to 11) and Calvin got 3 hits (machine pitch), scored 3 runs and did an excellent job throwing people out at first when he played in the pitcher position. Quincy loved the evening as well as there are 4 ball diamonds all in one spot so he could just cruise around visiting with friends and stopping at the concession stand. Max hooked up with one of his friends and played all evening. Tabitha was home working on her 5th grade state project that is due on Friday. It was 86 degrees today so it definitely felt like baseball season! Max noticed today that he officially has his first loose tooth!!! He is so excited!

First Holy Communion!

Calvin made his First Communion this weekend! So grown up! He read two petitions during the Mass because he never hesitates to volunteer for anything. We had a big weekend with all the goings-on. Saturday morning, Max had a soccer game where his team got crushed! It was their first loss. He didn't seem to mind too much and was an energetic as always. Tabitha took a babysitting class on Saturday afternoon so that she is all prepared to do some real babysitting when she turns 11. My sister and her family arrived yesterday afternoon for the weekend so our kids ran around the house and yard with their cousins for the rest of the weekend. They all slept in tents in the backyard last night despite the cold and wind! This morning, everyone was up at the crack of dawn, playing with cousins, eating a huge breakfast and then getting ready for Calvin's big day. 45 kids made their First Communions at Mass so it took quite awhile but everyone held up well. Max took a 40 minute nap on my lap so he was well rested afterward. We then came home to a big lunch with more play time and gifts for Calvin. Max had another soccer game this afternoon so Grandma, Grandpal, Grandma and Jeremy stuck around and watched his game. Pretty fun. Josh took off for a trade show in D.C. after the game so this might be a long week....

A Runt!

We have a runt in our midst! I took Max and Quincy for their yearly check-ups yesterday and as always, Quincy is in the 90th percentile for height and 50th for weight. But, Max is only the 75th percentile for height and the 50th for weight! We have never had a 75 percentile height kid at any age! Hope those Weber genes aren't going to bring him down!

Our Girl!

Tabitha is growing up so quickly! She is still such a great kid though with such diverse interests. Here you can see her solution to the problem of me telling her to go outside and play rather than sit inside and read her book all day! I've also included some pictures from her private baton lessons that she takes once a week. Her teacher really thinks she is quite good for her age and has started mentioning doing some competitions but Taba is not really the competitive type and isn't sure she wants to do that. Tomorrow at lunch time, Taba leaves for "5th Grade Camp" where the whole 5th grade class goes to overnight camp at a local YMCA camp until Friday. She says that they will be learning in an outdoor classroom while studying birds, plants, etc. She is so excited that she could hardly go to sleep tonight. We'll miss her until Friday evening but she'll have a ball.