May and June 2012

Schools out for summer! School has been out for almost three weeks already and so far the kids and I have been having so much fun together. The months of May and June were CRAZY hectic with two kids in baseball, school finishing up, and the race season starting. Here is a little of what the kids have been up to!

Austin: Austin finished up third grade with straight A's! We were so so proud of his report card.... He reached his AR goal at 239% and his teacher said he "made good use of class time" and is "smart and funny." He finished up baseball and seemed to really enjoy it. His competitive nature makes him really enjoy all sports. So far this summer he has been having fun playing with friends, playing video games, and staying up late. His best friend lives two doors down so that makes it nice, he almost always can just go hang out. Austin loves having sleepovers, and he and his friend have been taking turns at each others houses.
I am still struggling with getting Austin to help out around the house. Sometimes he is nice as pie about helping out, and sometimes it is a fight. We are doing a chart with stickers, and each job is worth a sticker, and each sticker is worth a quarter. It does help.
Here is a picture of Austin meeting his new cousin Sophie.

Ellie: Ellie officially graduated from preschool in May and is so over the top excited to finally be able to go to Kindergarten and ride the school bus with all the big kids.She really enjoyed preschool but is so ready to be in Kindergarten. She is doing well in reading, and numbers and simple math come easy for her too.

Ellie had her ballet recital in May also, and lit up the stage with their jazz routine. She liked ballet, but when the jazz started, she was beaming from ear to ear, and got very into her dancing. The recital made her nervous. She had big tears at rehearsal, but was completely fine at the actual recital. She just has some stage fright, but once she gets up there, she does just fine....Next year I plan on putting her in a strictly Jazz dance class. Its just more Ellie Style!

Ellie finished up her first year of Tball, and it just may have been her last. She had fun, but it was not really her thing. She was more interested in accessorizing her Tball outfit.
Ellie is also enjoying summer so far... She loves riding bikes, practicing flips on the trampoline and watching some of her favorite shows on the IPad. She likes Jon and Kate Plus 8, Toddlers and Tiaras and Good Luck Charlie. She is very helpful around the house, and cheerfully does chores when asked.

Jaxon: My little guy turned 3! He is officially registered for Preschool this fall, and although he doesn't know what to expect, he seems very excited! He is going to be going with two of his good little buddies, so I think that will make it easier for him to adjust. I am excited about having friends to preschool carpool with. It got very old having to take and pick Ellie up 5 days a week last year. Jaxon will be in a three day a week program. Jax is enjoying having his siblings home and tries to follow them all over doing whatever they do.He likes to ride his bike, jump on the trampoline and play with Charlie.

A few weeks ago, Jax took off outside after Charlie. Chase had ran inside for a few minutes while Jax was outside playing. A man in a truck stopped, thought he was lost and tried to take him to a neighbor a few houses down. By this time Chase was looking for him, so the men brought Jax to Chase.The neighbor thought Chase was being irresponsible, so the cops were called, and thus, a report made to CPS. It shook up both up a little, but I feel ok about it now. I wanted to be angry with Chase, and say that it would have never happened had I been home, But I know that's not true. Jax is adventurous, brave and bold. He pushes limits and wants to do things on his own, in his own way. His dog ran away and he was going to go ahead and get him. I am very thankful everything turned out ok, and we both even more cautious when Jax is out playing. There will not be another "OOPS."

Jax loved Little Einsteins when he was two, but ever since he has been Three, it is all Power Rangers all the time. I love it. It reminds me of Little Austin so much, because he loved them too. Luckily we still have Austin's power ranger figures, so Jaxy spends a lot of time playing with those. I crack up every time during the show opening, because as it flashes each of the rangers, He will say "That's me!, That's Austin! That's Ellie! That's Mommy! That's Daddy!" Didn't you know we were a super hero family????