May 31

Happy Birthday Clay!!!

After piano lessons, we headed to a local park to play before it got too hot outside. By 10:30am it was already in the mid 80s. In honor of Jonathan's first day with us this summer, we went to Taco Bell for lunch. The boy craves that place!

 

 

 I was cracking up at Jonathan. Apparently Elliott thought it was funny too (look closely at the little copycat).

May 30

Happy Birthday Grandpa Tim!!! 

We had no plans when we woke up this morning. However, Hulk's foster mom contacted me and wondered if we'd be interested in a child swap today. Elliott spent the day at Hulk's house and Hulk's little foster sister came to our house for the day. The girls played Barbies, Play-Doh, house, jumped on the trampoline, and had fun cooling off in the sprinkler. 

Hulk and Elliott also had fun and wore themselves out. They were both passed out in the back of the minivan when we went to swap kids back this evening. I'm so glad we get to stay involved in Hulk's life. Elliott really enjoys his friendship - especially when he's not living with him. :P

Clay worked hard on the deck and cutting the grass... not a relaxing day for him, but he got alot accomplished.

May 29

 

 Kat has a new friend from church named Christy. She came home with us for a few hours yesterday. Super sweet kid. Kat had purchased a chocolate fondue fountain at a yard sale, so we decided to give it a try. Really, you could dip just about anything in chocolate and we'd eat it.

 

 Just to show that it's not all fun and games at our house, here's a picture of the kids weeding the back yard. Clay is busy scrubbing the deck. I'd sure love to help (ahem), but my back has been giving me trouble off and on for a couple of weeks. Darn!

May 28

Jonathan, Matthew, and Elijah spent most of the day with us today so their parents could celebrate their anniversary. We had a fun day riding bikes, jumping on the trampoline (the kids- not me. After 4 kids, I can't jump without a diaper - Ha!), watching a movie, and playing in the water outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 27

 

We went to a huge homeschooling book sale/swap today at a church in town. The kids spent a good part of the day playing on the playground. It's rained so much lately that we haven't spent a lot of time outside.

May 26

 

 Yesterday was the girls' first day of achievement tests. Today is the second (and final) day.

 

 Elliott had a test of his own yesterday - to get his black stripe in jiu jitsu.

 

He had a big night. First, a black stripe for his belt. Next, a new gap in his mouth. PS - When you lose your tooth biting into a McDonald's cheeseburger, the logical place to store the tooth is in a ketchup cup. Right?

May 25

 After dropping Julia and Kat off at piano lessons yesterday, we met up with Clay at a local park for a little while. He had a couple of hours off work in the morning to go to a follow-up appointment with the periodontist. 

We brought Bethany home with us from piano lessons and the girls had a great time playing.

We had the pizza buffet at Mr Gatti's last night. Clay and the kids all enjoy it. The food is terrible, but my kids will eat about anything if it's on a buffet.They think it's fun to go pick out what you want to eat, and then eat as much as you want. Clay and his sidekicks had fun playing in Mr Gatti's arcade.

May 24

 

 While the boys were at jiu jitsu last night, the girls and I went to the store and bought flowers to fill our pots and Julia's fairy garden.

May 23

We are trying a new system this summer. The kids have to complete their chores (Elliott and Lucy's are the top sheet, Julia and Kat's are on bottom) before they are allowed to play on the Wii, ipad, or computer. We spend too much time on electronics. I am hoping this encourages them to play with their toys, use their imaginations, and play more. I am also going to try to limit my time on electronics. I don't want them to all be teenagers staring at screens all day, not interacting with the real people in the room with them.

May 22

 

For our Family Adventure Quest, we had to make a mascot out of natural materials. We will have to take pictures of "Bugsy" at two different state parks this summer.

 

Kat and I worked on this moose puzzle for a couple of hours.

May 21

Julia entered this design in the zoo's t-shirt design contest for their summer daycamp t-shirts. She won 3rd place, which gives her one free week of camp at the zoo this summer! How awesome is that!?!

May 20

We took a field trip to Mammoth Cave yesterday.

 Ranger Jerry telling everyone not to touch the "fuzzy chicken nuggets" because they have sharp teeth (bats). This man is the 5th generation in his family to be a ranger at Mammoth Cave. He was awesome.

 

 

 

The kids completed their Junior Ranger booklets/questions to earn badges and certificates.

  

After we left Mammoth Cave, we started on a new adventure to Nolin Lake State Park. We have signed up to compete in the KY State Parks Family Adventure Quest. 

 Our quest for this park was to take a picture of our family participating in one of our favorite water activities, so the kids skipped rocks.

We were planning to go for a hike too, but Kat slid into the water and soaked her socks and shoes. Wet shoes on a hike are not ideal.