And baby makes 15

Baby makes 15 what you ask, well, let's back up a bit.  It all started when one crazy guy met one shy girl (not really sure on the crazy and the shy descriptions, but it works well with the story so I'm going with it).  The guy, Jim Loken, the girl, Donna Erwin - they fall in love, they get married, and they decide to start a family (and a quick one I might add, 2 kids in 17 months).  Now we flash forward to today (some 30+ years later) they have 13 new members of their family . . . 3 kids of their own (they added Ash in a mere 7 years after me), 3 spouses (for their 3 wonderful kids), and 7 grandchildren (in 7 years non-the-less).  I've got to believe when they started out, they could never imagine what their family would become.  I know I think about my own kids and how they'll grow up and leave the house, get married, and start their own families, but I never really know what it looks like.  But, if it looks anything like this . . .

I know I'll be one happy lady!  How can this not be every one's dream?  Seven little faces looking up and calling you "Grandpa" and "Grandma" - sign me up!  So there you have it, you start with a little family of 2 and you become a large family of 15 (and I'll add here that more grand kids are in the foreseeable future, just not from me, I did my part) - nice work Mom and Dad, I hope you are enjoying it all!

And here is a picture of the newest member of the family (#15), baby Kate was born on Friday, Sept 21st.  She weighed in at 6lbs, 15.9 oz and was 20 inches long.  The little girl has a TON of jet black hair and a lot of people waiting to give her lots of lovin' - hope she is ready for all of it!  And congrats to Ash and Mike, you make cute babies so keep up the good work!

Email from Ryan's teacher

Hi there, it’s Alyssa Cappelli, Ryan’s teacher. I meant to email you last night, but It ended up getting too late. I just HAD to share this cute story with you!

Yesterday, Ryan shared about his writing idea. He was writing about his trip to the Renaissance Festival. He added SO much detail to his sketch of himself doing the bungee jump. It was a great memory to write about and he remembered quite a lot from his trip there. The cutest part was when he looked at the group and said, with a very serious look on his face, “Yea, and the guy running the thing could see how nervous I was. He was dressed in really old clothes….like from 1993.”  I just thought it was so cute that 1993 was the year he placed the clothing! JBoy, I knew I was old, but I didn’t realize how old I was! Ha!

I just thought that might make you chuckle a little on a Wednesday, I sure know I was having a silent giggle to myself.

Now, the question is, do I break it to Ryan that just four years after 1993, his mother graduated from high school!  Not sure if he needs to be shocked by that fact, I'll let him still believe that I'm, "not that old yet."

"Big Kid" preschool

Today was Lauren's first day of what she calls, "Big Kid" preschool (meaning she is in the big kid classroom at her same preschool as last year).  The little lady woke up happy and cheery (which is not usually the case) so I took it as a sign of good things to come for the day, and as it turns out, I was right.  When I picked Lauren up from class today she walked out and said, "it was fantastic" without me even asking how the day went - love it!  And what's not to love about preschool, she is in a class with a bunch of her friends from last year, she already knows (and loves) the teachers (from seeing them last year and they were also Ryan's teachers when he went to preschool), and she was dropped off by almost her entire family (Trav, myself, Ellie, and Colt subbed in as her "brother" as Ryan was already at school) - not a bad way to start a hopefully great school year.  Here are a couple of pictures from this morning.  It should be noted that any picture that has Trav or myself is in took at least 4 shots to get an "acceptable" picture, meaning one where either our eyes weren't closed, our seventeen chins weren't showing, or we didn't in general look terrible.  And this is exactly why I try to just stick to pictures of the kids and not us - they look cute all the time, we look not cute all the time - enjoy!

Ellie is probably laughing at Trav because this was take 40 trying to get a "good" picture

Lauren and her buddy Myles at school

Lauren's final Friday of freedom

Friday was Lauren's last official day of summer (preschool and speech school start this coming week) so in honor of her "last big day", I let her choose how we would spend the day.  Her choice . . . the zoo.  This sounded like a perfect idea to me.  The weather was great (high 60's low 70's) and the place probably wouldn't be too packed considering most kids were already in school.  So we packed the van up with a wagon (a big step considering I usually strap the little ones into the stroller so they can't escape), and a nice little picnic lunch and headed out.  We got there bright and early and were able to play at the park and run around all before the 10am dolphin show.  By the time the show wrapped (it doesn't matter how many times we see the exact same dolphin show, the kids are all still amazed), the kids were ready for a quick snack then we ventured out to see some animals.  The highlights were the sea otters who so graciously swam right in front of the glass for a good 20 minutes before the kids had had enough, and the grizzly bears (they also kept the kids entertained by constantly pacing back and forth right in front of the glass).  After those animals we stopped at another park to do some more playing and then headed out to the farm for lunch and some animal petting.  When it was all said and done, we spent about 4 hours walking, running, pointing, and screaming at all the animals.  The kids seemed to enjoy themselves (Lauren told me it was, "the best day eva" and yes, she said "eva", and not "ever" - thank god speech school starts this week, maybe she'll be saying her "r" sound by the end of this year), and by the time we were five minutes into the drive home, both Ellie and Colt were out cold, and Lauren sat with a dazed look on her face.  Mission accomplished . . . fun day, tired kids!  And to make the "best day eva" even better, the little ones kept sleeping even after we got home and I had to transport them each to their beds - what good little kids they are, and Lauren did her part as well by asking to have some "cartoon time" so she could rest for a while too - yippee for me!  Here are some pictures from the day.  Monday should be interesting . . .  first day trying to get both kids up and out the door for school - fun times ahead.

2nd Grade

Today is the first day of 2nd grade - how weird that our kid is old enough to be in 2nd grade?  Anyway, things went smooth this morning.  Ryan rolled out of bed at 7:15am, got dressed, and was at the table for breakfast by 7:23am - a good pace for him considering some days getting dressed takes at least 15 minutes. When it was all said and done, Ryan was up, dressed, ate breakfast, and was ready for school by 7:36am - I'm hoping this morning sets the standard for the rest of the year.  It is so much easier, and much more relaxing to have extra time in the morning versus no time.  With Ryan ready, I checked on the girls a few times and apparently neither of them were ready to let summer go considering they were both sound asleep in bed (and stayed that way until about 8:15am, well after Ryan was already off on the bus to school - so much for supporting their big brother on his first day).  With the girls still sleeping, we skipped the "first day of school family picture" and opted for some of just Ryan and a couple with Trav and I.  With one down, it's just the girls and I today - what to do, what to do . . .

Can't wait to hear all about the first day of school when the boy gets home today.

Summer wrap-up

Summer has officially come to an end, and looking back, it seems like I took the last few weeks off from writing for my final "summer vacation." Well, I'm back now, and it's time to catch up. Things that have happened in the last few weeks . . . the girls and I went to visit an old college friend out in South Dakota. The original plan was to take the two older kids and leave Ellie home with Trav, but the trip happened during one of Ryan's "rough" times (he either had strep, 5th's disease, or a viral infection - can't remember which one it was at that time, so he was left home). So it became a "girl's trip" and it was a blast!! The girls played, swam, and Lauren even did some tubing - a great little vacay! In addition to our last summer trip, we've also been squeezing in lots of time at different parks around the area. It's been fun to go online, check out a new park, and take off. It keeps "going to the park" interesting, and makes keeping everyone from the age of 1 1/2 to 7 happy much easier. We've also made a few more trips to local "swimming" ponds - they are perfect . . . sand, water (clean water), concessions, umbrellas, and the ever important bathrooms (especially when we are traveling with a very pregnant Auntie). And the best part of summer . . . playing with friends. It seems like both Ryan and Lauren have been keeping extra busy these last few weeks by squeezing in lots of last play dates. Hard to believe school starts tomorrow. I'll have plenty of "first day of school" pictures tomorrow, but for now, I'll leave you with some random shots taken over the last few weeks.

Ellie's "friends"

Here are a couple of videos of Ellie and the horses.  In the first one, she turns and yells (to anyone who will listen), "my friend, my friend."  She seriously loved that thing!  And in the second one (after about 30 mins of quality time with the horse), she finally lets her buddy go off and be with some other horses.  But lucky for her, she was only alone about 5 minutes before the other (white and brown one) horse came along and she found another "best friend."