Some summer fun

The shmuffin kids started school this week, but here's a little about our summer.

The big kids got to do two weeks of vacation bible school this year (out of the four that our church did), since Patrick was helping out.  He played a cowboy in the skits, and he and the kids had a grand time pulling out all the stops dressing up.

The big kids also had three weeks of swimming lessons in July.  They loved it!  Elijah continues to struggle with taking risks and being persistent in things that are not immediately easy for him.  Swimming was a good change to practice those things, and he still had a lot of fun.  Molly jumped into all of it with her usual enthusiastic abandon and even made a friend - who also happens to be in her class at school!  She worked her way up to jumping off the high dive by the second week - brave girl!

We also got to spend a long weekend visiting Rhode Island.  This was our first chance to go back since we moved away almost three years ago!  We had a great time catching up with friends and going to the beach.  It was Finn's first beach experience, and he had a great time!  The big kids loved going out as far as they could stand and jumping in the waves (with one of us, of course).

We also enjoyed plenty of low-key, regular fun.  We played outside and took a few picnics to the parks, went to the library and played inside when it was too hot.  All three kids played really well together most of the time.  We read and listened to some fun chapter books together too, which we don't usually have much time for during the school year.

At the end of the summer, Nana came to visit for a couple of weeks, and the kids packed in pretty much everything they wanted to do before school started.  They did lots of crafts and played and went to see Planes in the movie theater, and had tea parties and special dates with Nana.  It was great.

A little ahead of his time ...

Finn really wants to be big, too.

On Monday, the kids had a day off of school, and I was laughing to myself watching them all crowd around Elijah while he tried a new game on the ipad - all about grammar.  He figured it out pretty quickly, and the other two thought it was great.  How much do you think Finn learned about verb tense and adjectives? =)

Yesterday Finn pulled down every book in the playroom - board books and paper books.  But I didn't mind because he took each book over and climbed into the big arm chair and "read" them to himself, and then got the next one.  He was even careful with the paper pages!  It kept him busy for a long time.

Today he was so quiet in the playroom that I got nervous and went to check on him.  He was very busy doing Elijah's math workbook. 

What a funny kid!

Dance, baby, dance!

The kids were enjoying some Saturday morning music and dancing ...

So funny!

On the outside, looking in

Legos

Some more summer pictures

Here are a few more pictures from our summer so far:

Elijah loved playing t-ball this year

batter up!

Elijah's best friend from school was also on his t-ball team - so fun!

just chillin'

A favorite past time - he reads around 50 library books a week, chapter books and "fact" books

This was my favorite reading chair as a kid, too - Elijah likes to sprawl across it just like I did!

Molly is busy "reading," too.  She has suddenly become much more interested in looking at books on her own - she used to usually wait for someone to read to her.

The big kids love picnics on the deck!

Summer fun

Wow, we have a lot of catching up to do around here, as usual. =)  Lots of pictures of kiddos enjoying their summer!

Silly girl!

a fun end-of-school party at the playground

 

"hi, molly!"

Cooling off and chilling out, and snuggling together

our little artist

The kids love to play with water on the deck - a bunch of containers and kitchen stuff and they are set for a full day of fun!  We had a very hot day where they stayed cool by playing with water in swimsuits, followed by a very rainy day.  They wanted all the water stuff again, and had a grand time splashing around in their rain gear!

In a blanket fort with cousin Evan

Spring Finn

Here are just a couple of baby pictures from May.  Our little man is growing and growing ...

Finn is 10 months old and is getting around the house with his modified army crawl - using only his right arm and his big toes.  He is alarmingly fast despite the inherent difficulty of his method and shows no interest in trading up for a traditional crawl.  I suppose we can commend him for his tenacity - and attach a fuzzy rag to the belly of all his shirts so he can keep the floor clean as he chases, uh, follows me around all day!

Finn continues to enjoy being in the middle of whatever his brother and sister are doing, but more and more also wants lots of attention from his mama.
 

He sure is a smiley little dude, and loves to laugh at just about anything, especially Elijah being silly.  He has had the most difficulty/pain with teething of any of our kids, but still has plenty of grins for us!  He started teething late, but they came very quickly - the first four came one right after the other.

The night before Mother's Day, Finn slept for 10 hours straight - which was far and away the longest he's ever gone.  His sleeping is getting so much better all of a sudden!  I am thankful for every good night and each day with reasonable naps.  For so long it seemed we would never sleep again!  Hooray for a sleeping baby!

Um, yeah.

Elijah: Daddy, do you know what purloined means?

Daddy: What?

Elijah: It means stolen.

Daddy: Um, yeah.

{The look on Patrick's face was priceless.  Mine, too, I'm sure.  After the first moment of shock, I laughed so hard I almost cried.  I don't know why we continue to be surprised by this kid, but it sure is funny!}

Spring pictures

Wow, it looks like we're a couple of months behind on the ol' blog!  Sorry about that.  Here are some pictures from this spring so far.

Trying his second food, pears.  He is not sure about this.

Playing outside with the big kids

Bare feet and bubbles - hooray for spring!

Proud in his T-ball uniform!

Elijah is playing t-ball this year.  We thought it would be a fun way to get in some extra gross motor skills practice, which he always needs.  He loves it!  He is getting better at throwing and catching and hitting, but has a really hard time paying attention during games. =)  (Really surprising, right?!?)  His best friend Isaac is on his team, which makes it even more fun.  The town's baseball and softball leagues have a fun festival on opening day, and the big kids really enjoyed it.

They got to check out the fire truck

and a race car from the local race track

Elijah had an Easter concert at school again this year.  This year he managed to sing and do the motions for all the songs.  It was cute.

Miss Molly loves her fancy dress.

Looking so handsome and grown up!

Finn is starting to overwhelm Molly's lap - but she doesn't mind.

Three cute kids!