Swim Lessons

With Seth in swim team and Aaron being Aaron, Catherine was the only one who had swim lessons this year. She lucked out with awesome teachers again. I didn't get much of a chance to watch her since I was trying to keep Aaron and Elise from jumping in the pool, but she always looked like she was working hard and having fun. 

Best news ever!

Someone is ready to move up to the next level!

She was so proud of herself. 

Swim Team

For a couple of years now our friends have tried to get Seth to join swim team. Between the early mornings and a newborn Elise, I was not up for it. But this year everything worked out and Seth became a Piranha. 

He's on the second row, fifth from the left

Team selfie.

He's the one too busy drinking/eating to look at the camera.

Ready for his first meet

Still working on diving

He swam backstroke and freestyle this year and started learning breast stroke. 

Seth's coach (who is also my pianist in Primary) is the best. I was hesitant to join because Seth is not a strong swimmer. Coach Doug made it clear that he is all about personal improvement, not about winning meets. He was so encouraging--there was never any yelling or shaming. And there were ducks. Every time a swimmer improved his or her time, they got a duck at "duck ceremony" after the meet. Seth ended up with quite a collection of ducks. 

I spent every swim meet being clerk of course, which meant I was in charge of getting everyone lined up in order. It definitely kept me busy! 

At the end of the season we had an awards ceremony and pizza party. Seth got the "Your Goggles Are Here" award. This may be the most appropriate award ever given in the history of swimming. Between me, his coach and his coach's wife (who gave him a ride in the mornings), we were constantly trying to find his lost goggles. This kid...

I was really proud of Seth. Practice started at 7:15 am every morning. For Saturday meets we often had to be somewhere before 7 am. He always got up without complaint and did what was asked of him. He also made huge improvements in his swimming skills. Next year we're going to have Catherine join, too. I'm grateful for awesome coaches who made it a good experience for all of us!

Lots of Camps

Last year when the boys were at Scout Camp, the girls got to attend a Princess Camp hosted by two teenagers in the ward. When it didn't happen again this year, one little girl was devastated. We gathered our resources and managed to pull off a few days of Princess Camp rotating between various houses.  

I begged to host the last day because the weather was supposed to be hot. A perfect day for an outside water party! I also invited a few extra little boys over (to help out their moms), so it was more of a Prince and Princess Camp. Luckily princes also enjoy getting their fingernails painted:

Catherine was quite pleased with her crown:

Emma and Catherine with their silver hair (kind of hard to see):

Aaron requested "a doggie and a kitty" on his face:

We only had one wasp sting, so I'd call Prince/Princess Water Camp a success!

Knowing that Catherine would be bored without Seth, I signed her up for a gymnastics camp. Gymnastics AND art, actually. It's like they planned this camp just for Catherine! On the last day parents were able to come watch them show off their skills on the obstacle course. Because I'm amazing, I thought I was taking a video of Catherine. Turns out I took a single picture:

I was very sad to not have the video, especially since she rocked it! She made it further than anyone in her class with the exception of one boy. I was very impressed with her skills!

At the end the kids all formed a human pyramid. Guess who is the only girl with her hair in her face?

Catherine LOVES KYA and so do we!

Cub Scout Camp

Another year, another awesome week at Cub Scout Day Camp!

Seth is on the fence, 3rd from the right

Examining his owl pellet.

He scored and got a mouse skull in his:

Building Lego cars in the heat:

Lego car:

Performing CPR:

Despite the heat and the long, long days, Seth had another great year!

Crazy to think next summer will be his last Day Camp. 

Aaron's Hair (and Underwear)

Jon keeps telling me Aaron needs a haircut. I say why mess with a good thing?

I told Aaron that Kaia was coming to babysit him tomorrow.

He immediately ran to the driveway to wait.

It's going to be a long night.

Potty training has been an epic failure. We thought maybe doing away with diapers entirely would motivate Aaron (and us) to move things along. And so we bought some dinosaur undies and Aaron looked totally adorable. 

Is there anything cuter than a little boy running around in undies while wielding a stick?

I think not.

Unfortunately, this plan was also a failure. And so we retired the underwear, pulled the diapers back out and will try again later. Here's to hoping he's potty trained before kindergarten!

After much whining from Jon, I finally caved and cut Aaron's hair:

Jon was not impressed. 

I thought he'd enjoy the tribute to his West Virginia culture.

Assorted June

Catherine has a deep love for all creatures. Several times a week she hunts down slugs in our yard and carries them around like this. Also dearly loved are butterflies, worms, and lightning bugs. 

When Mom drags you to Home Depot, you get giant suckers.

I love this picture of Catherine. And not because she's wearing a sparkly leotard under her outfit. Or because I can't remember the last time she brushed her hair. Or because she insisted on riding in the baby cart even though she's way too big. I love this picture because of the second sucker in her hand. No matter where we are, Catherine always thinks of Seth. He was at a friend's house and missed out on the super exciting Home Depot trip, but thanks to Catherine he won't miss out on the sucker. I'm grateful for this girl and her generous heart.

Some friends were getting rid of their bunk bed and we jumped at it! Our goal is to eventually have Elise and Catherine share a room, so this was a perfect setup. Catherine loves having one of her brothers sleep over in her room. It was Aaron for a few weeks, now it's Seth. She also loves climbing on and hanging off of her new bed. We have a very happy monkey girl now!

One time I was walking through my clover-infested lawn barefoot (brilliant, I know) and got stung. I didn't see what stung me, nor was there a stinger in the skin, so I assume it was a wasp or hornet. It also hurt like crazy. I went inside, put baking soda on it and waited for it to swell. I've been stung quite a few times and it always swells a bit. 

But this time it didn't stop. At first I thought it was because it was a wasp/hornet and not the average bee. Or because it was near a joint. But when it started getting hot and red, I finally headed to urgent care. The doctor still wasn't entirely sure it was cellulitis and not just a reaction to the sting, but he prescribed antibiotics anyway. By the next day the swelling was hardly visible. Within two days I could walk normally again. Medicine is amazing stuff! 

Elephant-footed Megan!

My mom frequently surprises us with Amazon packages, but this day we got something extra special:

Someone else saw his sister in the box and had to imitate:

Happy June!

End of School Fun

The school sure likes to pack all the fun stuff into the last 4 weeks of the year! We had field trips, Patriot Programs, Field Day and class parties all one right after the other. The kids, of course, were thrilled. I did my best to attend what I could, but getting babysitters for everything was expensive and complicated since school was still in session (and all my friends have kids at the same school in the same grade). But I was able to be there for their class parties, which made them both very happy. 

It was raining the day of Seth's party so all the festivities had to be moved to the gym. While a gym full of enthusiastic 3rd graders was not my favorite location, it was nice to have some time with Seth. 

Egg carrying race

Seth & Mom selfie

Racing on wheelies

The weather was much more cooperative for Catherine's party a day or so later. Outside is definitely a better location for these parties!

Bubbles with friends

Crab walk racing

We also got to go to their school art show. It was a farm theme, so everybody at the school created art based on farm animals. What I didn't realize was that they were only allowed to choose between 3 different animals (because farms only have cows, pigs, and horses, you know). Way to foster creativity, Fountain Green.

Catherine's cow

Seth's pig

Also a freaky grass/scarecrow thing to cover up a mistake.

But the best part of school is when it's OVER!

We celebrated by burning all their papers (and there were many) in the Knoxes' fire pit:

Goodbye Kindergarten and 3rd grade!

Seminary

Earlier this year we got a visit from our Stake President. It wasn't entirely uncommon since he is our neighbor, but the private conversation with Jon was odd. There was no church dress involved, however, and no calling extended, so I wasn't quite sure what was going on.

Not too long after, Jon was called as a seminary teacher. I knew it would be a heavy load, but he was already in Stake YM and 11-year-old-Scouts, so I thought we wouldn't have to adapt too much. Ha. Hahaha. 

Seminary is not easy. Class starts at 5:55 am. We can handle the early mornings just fine (we only had to adjust to waking up 30 minutes earlier--not too bad). But due to the time teaching, Jon gets into work much later, which means he either has to stay later or skip out on his Friday off and go back to a regular schedule. We opted to skip the Fridays off, but that was hard, too. We depended on those days for getting housework done and for time to just play with the kids. Plus we lost one Saturday a month to seminary training in DC. 

But that's not all: seminary takes prep time. A LOT of prep time. Especially when you come in mid-year to a class that's about 12 lessons behind. Almost every night Jon would need an hour or more of prep time. Which meant I was cooking dinner, cleaning up dinner and getting babies in bed by myself every night, then immediately heading to bed so we could be up at 4:45 am. 

It was rough. Really rough. We both had to make some serious adjustments to our expectations. I might have cried a few times. But it was only a few months until the year was over. We survived until the end of May (barely). Jon even got to claim his first seminary grad, Ethan (he has a small class: only about 7 kids). 

Jon, Ethan & Calvin (the previous teacher who moved to VA)

Having the summer to prep has been wonderful. We've settled on a few days a week for him to have evenings to prep, plus I give him Sunday before our 1 pm church. He has 19 lessons ready for the upcoming year and will probably manage to plan a few more before the beginning of the school year. We're hoping we can stick to just needing a few nights a week for prep. We can survive that. But what we're REALLY hoping for is a co-teacher! The burden would be a lot lighter just teaching 2-3 days a week instead of 5. Plus he's one of the only ones in the stake without a co-teacher. But we shall see!

After seminary graduation Jon presented me with flowers. I was immediately suspicious as I knew he did not go out and buy flowers for me, and especially not on a Sunday.  All he would tell me was, "As far as you know, these are from me to you." Okay, then. But as my friend (and seminary teacher) told me, "The spouse of a seminary teacher deserves flowers just as much as the teacher does!" I'll agree with that!

Here's to a good year of seminary that (hopefully) balances a little better with our life!

Dinosaur Cat

Oh, Miss Lori: it has been quite the month with you. It started like this:

And quickly escalated to this:

All because of this:

Yes, you threw an epic tantrum because Daddy had the audacity to hold one of his other children.

And yes, Aaron is gloating. 

Another day, another tantrum...

Systematically tossing all the blueberries on the floor.

Constantly climbing on the kitchen table

Throwing leftover lunch onto the floor

Mysteriously acquiring Sharpies and decorating the walls and yourself. 

You are a dinosaur cat and I can't keep up with you.

But you're also adorable:

"Welcome to my house!"

"Just kidding! I will slam the door on your face."

First ponytail!

Cheeseball yogurt face:

You have claimed the secret compartment in the couch as your throne:

Gold dress, gold shoes, gorgeous jewels = all ready for church

Thanks for keeping us constantly on our toes, Little Miss!