Twitosphere

Yeah, I joined Twitter. I figured I should at least check it out. I got in on facebook fairly early on (before my grandparents, at any rate), and I was amazed how cool it was.

From twitter.com:

Twitter is a privately funded startup with offices in the SoMA neighborhood of San Francisco, CA. Started as a side project in March of 2006, Twitter has grown into a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices.

In countries all around the world, people follow the sources most relevant to them and access information via Twitter as it happens—from breaking world news to updates from friends.

I've signed up to follow CNN breaking news, NPR, Time magazine, but passed on Steven Colbert and Martha Stewart.

I'm reserving judgment on Twitter. I'm not even going to tell you what my twitter page is. Check back later and I'll give you my take on other twitterers and maybe even share some choice tweets.

Sixth Grade Promotion

It seems like just yesterday that we sent Michaela off to kindergarten. She was so independent and didn't even want to be driven to school on the first day. After she got on the bus Jeremiah got in the van and drove behind the bus to make sure she made it to school. Sometimes it is hard to let your children grow up.

Now fast forward seven years and suddenly we are sitting in the school gym for Michaela's Elementary School Promotional Ceremony. It is still hard to believe that she will be off to Middle School in the fall. I think I'm in denial!



We didn't really get any good pictures of the event. Here is Michaela and her teacher and a classmate waiting to get the go ahead to walk to their seats. Michaela looked so solemn and I think she was trying not to cry. She is a rather emotional little gal and is very sad to be leaving the only school she has ever known.

Michaela led everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance.

We spent some time the night before getting her hair ready for the big day. Michaela loves coming up with hairstyles so she had me put part of it in a french braid and then put the front part in curlers. It turned out cute and managed to hold it's curl even with the rainy weather.

Michaela is looking forward to her summer and will even get a chance to do a week long summer session at her new school to help her get a feel for things. Wish I could have done that when I was going into Junior High.

So, now the kids are done with school (finally) and the summer weather can start anytime! We pulled out summer clothes and might just start wearing them and pretending the weather is nice and warm!

Pinewood Derby fun

This morning our ward had a pinewood picnic event. We all got to make cars and enter them in the contest. The kids had so much fun creating their cars and adding the finishing touches with paint.

Abigail's flower car

Trevor's car

Natalie's car

Anthony's car

Michaela's car

Anthony's car won first place in the Cub Scout division which he was very proud of since last year his car didn't even make it across the finish line.




Abigail and Trevor had a great time sending their cars down the tracks and even when the race was over they ran back and forth racing their cars.



Jeremiah and I even worked on cars. Mine looked good enough to eat but didn't do very well on the track.

Yummy!

We called Jeremiah's the icar!

Playing in the rain

Tamara had to get the kids out of the house yesterday, and they were only too glad to oblige.

Doctors and Dentist

So I didn't plan it this way but somehow we ended up with two dentist appointments and two doctors appointments all on the same morning. It made for lots of running around but at least they are out of the way.

We left the house this morning at a little after seven this morning to get Michaela and Anthony to their seven-thirty dentist appointment. Natalie stayed home with Jeremiah who rode his bike to work after getting Natalie off on the bus.

Abigail, Trevor, and Emersynne did a great job while we waited for Michaela and Anthony and we got them to school only about ten minutes late and no cavities! Then it was back home for about 45 minutes before heading back out to the doctors for Abigail and Emersynne's check-ups. Poor Emersynne fell asleep five minutes before it was time to walk out the door. The mornings without naps sure our rough!

Both Abigail and Emersynne are healthy and doing great! I was a little surprised when they both got on the scale. Abigail is tall but is so skinny compared to what my other children have been at that age. Abigail weighs 31.7 pounds and Emersynne (who is really chubby!) weighs 21.7 pounds. It is so strange to think that my three year old weighs only ten pounds more than my nine month old.

Emersynne only had to get one shot this time but then we headed across the street to the hospital where both girls had to get some blood work done. After some tears from both of them, band- aids, stickers, and trying to keep Emersynne from eating her band- aid we were all done and headed home. Lunchtime and nap time and Emersynne slept all afternoon to make up for her busy morning!


Abigail loves to hold Emersynne on her lap. How long will that last I wonder? Somehow Emersynne managed to give herself a nasty scratch on her nose while she was sleeping. I just can't seem to keep her nails short enough.

Nine Months old

Today Emersynne is nine months old. She celebrated this new milestone by waking up at 3:30am. Not fun! I finally gave up and fed her at 4:30am after she spent the last hour crying off and on. I was so sure she would then settle down and go back to sleep but she had other plans. She wasn't crying but she wasn't sleeping either. She was bouncing around in her crib and making all kinds of noises. I'm amazed she didn't wake up the other girls. Guess they are used to it.

I can't believe it has already been nine months since Emersynne has joined our family. She is such a sweetheart and learning all kinds of new stuff. She has mastered sitting but is still working on crawling. Even though she doesn't crawl she is definitely getting around. She rolls and reaches and pushes with her toes when she sees something she really wants to get. Nothing is safe around here anymore!



She has two teeth and loves eating cheerios. It seems that a meal isn't complete for her unless we put cheerios on her tray.

Bloomin' Roses

About five years ago we bought a little rose plant at Wal-Mart and added it to our little garden. Each year we were pleased to get a few roses to enjoy and our plant seemed happy and thriving. This year our rose bush is big enough for me to see it out the kitchen window and we have already had lots of blossoms. It is huge and I love it!

Art Exhibit

Last month we went to an art exhibit at Clark Street Elementary to see what the kids have been working on this year. Now that the school year is winding down the art projects are coming home and of course the kids want to save them all. Wonder where we will stash them.








Michaela and her friend Caroline made the harp during their time in art club.


This is Anthony's pond scene which is currently on top of the piano for display. Anthony keeps asking me if we will have to throw it away. My answer to him....... eventually!

Presents

Abigail was so excited to open presents after dinner last night. I think she was most interested in tearing the paper off than actually figuring out what was inside the packages. She very carefully peeled off each section of paper and I was glad that there weren't very many presents or we would have been there all night!

As soon as she tore off a little corner of the present from Anthony she got really excited. Abigail loves Play Doh so Anthony got her the perfect gift.

Just this morning Trevor and Abigail sat down at the table and played with the play doh for one and a half hours. It was great to have them so occupied but not so great to clean up the mess after wards. Oh well. Guess you have to take the good along with the bad!


Natalie bought Abigail a pair of "happy socks" and Abigail immediately tore off the tags and put them on.



Michaela and Trevor put their money together and bought her some barbies. Notice the "happy socks" on Abigail's feet?


Abigail is now the proud owner of a pink and purple tricycle. Everytime we would go to the store and go past the bikes she would say, "There's my bike! I see my bike!"

Now it really is hers. As soon as she opened it up last night she wanted to go outside and ride her bike. It was dark so we told her it had to wait. Guess what she did first thing this morning, even before having breakfast? Yep! She took her bike outside and rode around. With a little more steering practice she will be all set. She is very happy to have a bike to ride when the other kids go outside to play!

Birthday Girl

Today is Abigail's birthday. She has been looking forward to this day since April. She noticed that everybody else in the family had a birthday but her so after the April birthdays were over she went around the house saying, "my birthday coming soon"

Well, it is finally here. She was one very excited little girl this morning to go downstairs and find her clown birthday cake sitting on the dining room table and balloons and streamers hanging on the walls.




After she had a chance to admire it and tell the kids not to touch her cake, we put it up out of reach for later.

We sat down at the table to have breakfast and after we had the blessing on the food Abigail said, "pease pass a cake." It took a little convincing to make her understand that the cake was for later but she finally settled for her yogurt and muffin.

So far she has enjoyed her day of being in the spotlight and her brothers and sisters have had fun treating her like a little princess.

Tonight after dinner she will open presents and the kids are so excited to see how she likes what they picked out for her.

Grocery adventures, Picnic Lunch, and Games

I knew today was going to be a busy day and really wanted to get my work out in but also really really needed to get the grocery shopping done. I had pretty much decided to skip out on my workout so I could get the grocery shopping done before swim lessons when Jeremiah suggested that we ride our bikes to the grocery store and he could pull the bike trailer to put the groceries in.

I'm not sure if Jeremiah didn't think I would go for it but after a little thought I decided it was a good way to get both my workout and get the grocery shopping done. Besides, it is so convenient to have a built-in babysitter for close to home outings. So, off we went. We got our groceries home without any mishaps other than a squished cereal box. No broken eggs and no squished bread. It was such a beautiful morning that it was wonderful to be outside!

After swim lessons we packed a lunch and headed to the park for more outside time. The kids explored the gazebo, ran in the grass, and Abigail had fun blowing dandelions.





When the little ones decided it was nap time we headed home, put them to bed, and started a game of capture the flag in our back courtyard.

We spent the day enjoying the beautiful weather and playing outside which meant that after getting the kids bathed and into bed it was a mad rush to get things ready for church. It was worth it and I'm hoping we have lots more days like today before we hit the hot and humid weather of summer.

I miss the White boys

...and the White girls.

Mini Olympics

Well, I didn't even know the Mini Olympics even existed here in Worcester but apparently they have been going on for thirty-two years now. This year we found out about it because Michaela was one of the participants. All the public schools in the city send twelve of their sixth graders (six boys and six girls) and Michaela tried out and was selected for the standing long jump.

We left the house at eight this morning so we could get Michaela to the stadium on time and I think it took me an hour the night before to make sure I had lunches, snacks, and all the necessities packed in hopes that the kids would last through the five hour ordeal. I really wanted to stay and watch Michaela but didn't know how the kids would handle it.

It must have been our lucky day because the weather cooperated and the kids cooperated! We had sunshine but a few clouds and a slight breeze to keep the temperature down. Emersynne was content to hang out in her stroller and actually fell asleep after eating her lunch. Trevor, Abigail, and Natalie had a great time climbing up and down the bleachers and watching the races.


Anthony was the only one missing. He went to school and it wasn't until after things got started with the Olympics that I had wished I had pulled him out and let him watch his sister. Natalie got to go because she has home sick yesterday with a fever and I wanted to make sure she was completely over it before sending her back to an enclosed class room full of children.

Of course the last hour the kids were restless and ready to go home and so was I! They occupied themselves by taking pictures of everything around them.

Natalie had fun taking pictures of things in the air,

and mommy,

and Michaela,

and Emersynne!

Michaela did a great job but didn't make it past the semi-finals. She had a lot of fun and was glad that she did so well in her tryouts and was able to be there.

Go Natalie!

Natalie has learned how to ride a bike! We are so excited but she is even more excited. All it took was me running around the courtyard with her a few times and she did the rest on her own. She is a little nervous about riding on an actual trail when we go on a bike ride but everyday she gains more control and more confidence.