Waiting for Baby

Most of our summer after school let out was pretty uneventful.  I was too pregnant to take any long trips, and most of our weekends were used to work on projects or get ready for the baby.  For example, we stacked Connor and Elise's bunk beds and moved Evan into a toddler bed in their room.  Of course, when he realized he could get out of bed whenever he wanted, it became the greatest game ever for a few nights.  Then I discovered that if I threatened him with the crib, he'd hurry to bed and stay there.  It was kinda cute.  One morning we found him like this:
  

 
Ryan had been working with Elise in the pool to help her overcome her water-in-the-face phobia.  I hadn't scheduled her for swimming lessons because I figured it would be a waste of money until she calmed down a little.  By the last week of July, she was able to put her face in the water (mostly) for a few seconds, blow bubbles, and tolerate being splashed (although she hated it.)  So, when we were told there was a last minute opening for a week of lessons, we took it.  She was a lot braver for her teacher than she was for us, and she was really proud of herself.
  

 
Of course, there were all kinds of kid-initiated projects and games, as usual.  My children are pretty good about entertaining themselves.  Oh, and you can see that Elise had her first short-ish haircut.  I think it's super cute.
  

Elise made each member of the family, and taped them to the windows.

Skeleton

It's a very tall skeleton.

  
Last year we met a friend of ours for lunch at In N Out.  With her order, she got a chocolate shake, with the excuse that she was having a baby in a week, so she deserved it.  Well, this made a great impression on Elise.  She made me promise that, if we were to have another baby, we would get chocolate shakes a week before.  She frequently reminded me of this long-standing promise throughout my pregnancy, so of course I had to honor it.
  

Joy School Graduation

My children now expect that anything amazing they do be captured for the blog, so they like to make sure this happens.  Here are a few examples:
  

"Mom"

Treasure Chest

Ceramics Class at School (He made a bunch of stuff there.)

Elise graduated from her two years of Joy School!  I've really loved doing that program.  It's a great preschool curriculum, but more importantly, it's helped my kids and me make great friends.  It will be weird not to have Joy School next year!
  

Andrew, Sarah, Andy, Charlie, & Elise

I've been rotating my kids' toys for about a year now.  I have clear plastic boxes in the garage, and the rule (although it's frequently ignored) is that they have to put a box back to get a new box out.  When we got the toy food back out after a year-long absence, it was a huge hit with everyone.  Actually, it caused a lot of fights and tears.  So, we put it away again.
   

  

Evan saw Elise making paint footprints (on paper) outside, and decided to join her.  My children always do their messiest projects right in front of our sliding glass door.  The cement there is still painty, actually.
  

  

Nana and Al

Mid-June was Evan's ear tube surgery.  He had been having ear infections or fluid behind his ear drums constantly for almost a year, so it was an easy decision.  Ryan stayed home with Connor and Elise while I took Evan to Children's Hospital.  Luckily, he didn't need his tonsils out like Connor did, so the surgery was pretty minor (except for the fact that he fell over and hit his head after they gave him a sedative.)  When he came out of anesthesia, he was pretty wild and upset, so it was really hard to get him to the car and buckled in by myself, but we eventually did make it home!  After a nap, he acted like nothing had even happened.
  

  
That same afternoon, Ryan's grandparents arrived for a visit.  They stayed for several days, and it was nice to be able to spend time with them.  One thing they wanted to do was see the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.  We didn't expect it to be too exciting, but it was actually great!  It was really interesting to learn about his life and political career, and even the kids seemed to like it.  The highlight was definitely being able to walk through Air Force One.  Imagining the people who had been in those seats was pretty fun.  
  

   
One afternoon while they were there, the kids and Nana decided to make lemonade.  It was very ambitious - I think they ended up with two full pitchers.
  

   
Nana and Al wanted to get us something for our living room, and we ended up choosing this table and lamp.  It makes the room look a lot less bare!  Plus, they helped us hang pictures and do a bunch of other things we'd been procrastinating.  Thanks, Nana and Al!
   

   

June Madness

As soon as we got back from Utah, we were thrown in to the craziness of June!  Our pool was finally warm enough for the kids to swim, although they never seem to mind when it's freezing, either.
  

  
Elise had her first dance recital!  Her class wore pirate costumes and danced to "Away Away Away."  The dress rehearsal was great, but for the performance, the teacher was offstage, so none of the girls was able to remember what came next.  It was cute anyway.
  

  
Connor had a "show day" at gymnastics, and although he had only been at this gym for a few weeks, he did a great job.  (We had been going to a much farther away class before that.)
  

  
Evan was just tagging along to everything.  He missed a lot of naps.  
  

  
Earlier in the year we had planted seeds for a butterfly garden.  It's been pretty neat because the type of flowers in bloom keeps changing as the season progresses.  The kids had fun trying to be the first to spot a new flower.  Oh, and there are sometimes butterflies, too.
  

  
Connor's class had their last Celebration of Learning.  They had been doing an animal class that included training a rat to run a maze.  The teacher had all kinds of cool pets that she frequently brought with her.  Connor's passion project was on magnets, and he did the poster almost all by himself. (Even the pictures are of Connor's hands.)
  

The Rat Maze