I am disappointed… I was doing such a good job of getting on to post every (week) day and then this past week I wasn’t able to post on Thursday or Friday.  Now part of that wasn’t actually my fault; for some reason it wouldn’t let me log into my admin panel (very strange).  But today I’m back!

But it’s probably for the best.  We ended up being crazy busy over the past 5 days.  They had Wed-Fri off from school, but I still had lessons, so that makes for some hectic days.  Then on Saturday we laid low and Tim did some work around the house (like installing a new light in the entry way–it looks AMAZING by the way!!  I’m so lucky to have such a handy hubby!) and then Sunday we had church and football friends over then family pictures and swimming lessons.

I did make an extra effort to make their days off from school special as well, so we had a bunch of little things in there:  playdates, trip to the library, pizza and DQ in the van for lunch, trip to MOA (Mall of America), trips to the park, reading books with Chloe, making brownies, walking down to the haybales, and teaching Chloe how to make pigs in blankets (all by herself!).   After all that, though, I am so ready for a nice normal Monday.  This morning was a little bit of a struggle to get everyone back into gear, but we made it out the door and even had time to spare at the bus stop.  Boo-yah.

Choe and I were big readers over break.  We have now finished (ok, she’s just a couple chapters shy, but very close to finishing) 4 books now.  We’ve read:  Book Scavenger, Last in a Long Line of Rebels, Terrible Two, and Soar.  Apparently we read the hardest one first, so the last 3 books have felt  pretty easy in comparison.  She still has 6 more to go, but I’m so proud of how she is doing. It’s definitely taking extra effort on my part to find time to read but it’s worth it to help encourage her.

Josiah was also a big reader over break.  I think he read at least 8 books.  I’ll have to double check.  He’s devouring those easy chapter books like a pro.  He is “star of the week” this week.  He was thrilled to present his poster to the class.  I took a picture of it, although you probably won’t be able to read everything since the writing is pretty tiny.  It was very important that he write everything himself on the poster.  You can tell that Chloe helped him color a bit.  She maaaaaaay have gotten a little carried away…

 

Madison is having a bit of a tough time this morning, now that the Big Kids are back in school.  She’s definitely a little more needy.  She really liked having them home and having someone to play with her all the time. Her most favorite pastime these days is to find anything of Chloe’s to play with.  The “off-limits” toys are definitely the most desirable.  Ha!

Levi is entering a new phase of playfulness. He’s starting to really develop a quirky, goofy disposition.  His screaming has definitely gotten better, although he has nice epic tantrums still.  I think that’s just part of being 2.  😉  He wasn’t a huge fan of family pictures yesterday.  When he is done with something, he is DONE.  So, he was nice and sat through a few, but then he was done.  There will probably be a few epic-ly (albeit humorous) bad pictures of him.  Ha!  I’m sure we’ll look back on those someday and laugh.