Summer Chronicles

Last summer the kids and I were running around like crazy, exploring everything there was to do in our new home.  By the end of summer, I was so exhausted that I totally felt like I was playing catch up for the first half of the school year.  I vowed that this summer we would maintain a more calm, relaxing pace.  However, I've come to realize, that with four children, "calm" and "relaxing" are relative terms.  We are currently 3 weeks into the summer and it breaks down as follows:

Unscheduled creativity and play

At one of our excursions to the beach, the wind totally trashed our beach umbrella.  Aly pulled it out of the trash to ask if she could use the fabric (to make stuff for her American Girl dolls or something).  Next thing I know, Aly's wearing it as a skirt and talking about wearing it to church on Sunday (she was serious).  I didn't allow that, but she has been wearing the strap as an ankle bracelet for a couple weeks.


One day after the girls had gotten some bubbles at their swimming lessons' carnival, we had an impromptu bubble party on the driveway.  Aly was creating the bubbles by spinning and dancing.  Analise was blowing on big bubbles to make one bubble split into multiple smaller bubbles (pretty cool).  And Kate and Kylie were chasing and popping the bubbles with another carnival prize: ping pong paddles.


 We've had a few good rainstorms over here and the girls have loved getting out their rain boots to stomp in the puddles and make forts out of all the umbrellas we own.

Official Appointments

Here is a picture of Kate at her kindergarten screening.  Doesn't she look so excited?!?  It looked to me like she aced everything except how to hold the scissors. :)  I've also taken Analise and Aly to get their eyes checked - Lise has 20/20 vision :), and Aly's eyes are getting better.  Hooray.  Also, Analise met with the county psychologist to take an IQ test and she has been accepted into the Gifted Program!! I'm very excited for her (and a little nervous). :)

Unexpected Chaos

As much fun as we had in all that rain, it left us a little present we didn't necessarily appreciate - a leak in our roof.  (I take that as our token thing to go wrong when Chris is out of town, although the battery in the car died as well, so I guess we had two things this time.)  Luckily it wasn't a large leak, although it still cost a pretty penny to get it fixed.

Swimming Lessons

So you know your kids are in swimming lessons when they ask to wear goggles in the bathtub.  This picture cracks me up.  Having three of my girls in swimming lessons at one time (and yet at different times, because they're at different swimming levels) kind of took over my life.  Especially since Kate is having to make up swim lessons in another session because she was sick for half of hers (just with a fever, not with the before mentioned throw up, which was NOT the flu.)

But they learned a lot and would always sleep so well at night after having swam their little hearts out.  Here is a picture of the kids having a floating on your back contest to see who could last the longest.  This went on for quite a while.  And Kylie wanted to be a part of things so bad.  I would bring her in her suit a couple of times and hang out in the hot tub with her while the girls had their lessons.  She loved to kick and would pretend to blow bubbles in the water just like she saw her older sisters doing.  She never wants to be left out of anything!

Potty Training

Okay, so I was so NOT going to do potty training until the next school year was started and it was just Kylie and I at home.  But then Kylie started telling me when she need to go to the bathroom and exhibiting all the signs and I got worried I was going to miss my window and so I thought, "okay, sure, why not?  If she's ready to go for it, let's go for it."  So on the last day of school I did the whole "potty training in a day" thing with training the doll and all that.  Kylie loved all of it - training the doll, eating snacks all day, getting stories read to her on the toilet, flushing and getting treats.  The only thing she didn't seem to grasp was the "not going potty in your panties" part.  But then Aly came home and suggested we let her go naked and  - Viola! - she's suddenly doing great.  Over the next couple of weeks we plowed on amidst the flu going through various members of the family.  Kylie got diarrhea really bad and was still doing awesome on the potty training - as long as she was naked.  But you can't just take your kid naked everywhere, ya know?  And it started turning into me getting potty trained, as in, if I didn't run to the bathroom with her right when she said "I potty" then she'd have an accident, or she'd say "I potty" as she's having the accident.  Plus whenever I'd ask her to go to the bathroom because it had been awhile she'd say, "No, I good, I good." (No, I'm good) and throw a temper tantrum if I'd try to make her go.  She loved asking other people in the family if they needed to go to the bathroom, however.  I think it's pretty much come down to the fact that she really isn't coordinated enough to pull up and down her own panties or wipe yet - I mean she's not even two - which is why I ended up being trained rather than her becoming independent.  So we're kind of not stressing about that anymore because I don't want to be on pins and needles about accidents all summer, and then we'll revisit it when school starts, like I was originally planning in the first place! 

I also wanted to mention some cute things that Kylie is doing these days. . .
*She has started singing songs around the house that she has been learning in nursery.  "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" are her favorites.  (She just sings "bitsy bider" and "sun-beam!")
*She likes to have me rock her in the rocking chair when she drinks her sippy cup of  milk in the morning.
*She finally likes to sit in your lap and be read to.
*Her favorite movies and shows are Dora, Phineas and Ferb (A Ferb!), Ariel, Cars, and Finding Nemo
*Some of her favorite phrases are "love you", "see you later", "I turn" (my turn), "let go me", "stop it", "a corner" (trying to put her sisters in time out), "pease I have it", and "no fine her" (go find her - whatever she's looking for and wants me to find for her)

Fun With Friends

And somehow, on top of everything else, we've managed to squeeze in some much needed fun time with friends.  These are a couple of pictures taken at the splash pad on post and the playground across the way where we went with a fun family in our ward.  We also went to the beach one day and it happened to be the day they were letting the kids use the paddle boards and go on pontoon boat rides for free!  We hosted a "Movie at the O'Gwin's" one day and had a great turnout for our showing of "Kung Fu Panda 2" while all the mom's chatted.  We've also been to a swimming party at a friend's house and had  dinner/movie nights with various friends.  There is much to be celebrated in the summer, that's for sure!!