"Reentry" into Summer

Reentry of the space shuttle is tricky business.

Reentry into summer with kids is also tricky business.

If not done properly, both could have disastrous results.

And so far, ours has been disastrous.  I am not sure why the transition from school to summer has been hard so far.  Was it this way last year?  I honestly can't remember but I am telling myself it was and that the kids settled in because I remember being sad on the first day of school.  Being sad that they were going to be gone and that I was going to miss them.

So far we have had a real lack of kindness and patience mixed in to our days.  And so, I keep telling myself that they have to learn how to be summerites.  That it will come.  But, maybe, just maybe they need my help a little.  In fact, I know they need it.  They need to be busy.  And, without me, they would watch tv all day and do nothing productive.

But, I have a plan.

• We have a checklist.  The checklist has been around since the boys were very little.  Being that I was at home and that there was never consistently a place we had to be, I was having a hard time making sure the important things like prayer and brushing teeth was getting done.  So, I invented our morning checklist.  The checklist consisted of:  getting dressed, brushed teeth, and morning prayer.  I would call down the list and the boys responded with a resounding check if they had done it.  And they loved it.  It worked for us.  We are still doing the "checklist" all these years later. Now I have added cleaning room before playing with friends.
• "Summer school".   Knowing that studies show the elementary children can lose up to 1 and a half years of reading development over the summer, I wanted to help prevent that.  So we have a math and reading part of our day.  In the morning.  
• Scripture Scavenger Hunts.  As with most families in our church we read the scriptures with our children and wonder if they are getting anything out of it.  We usually read by dividing up the chapter with each member reading our assigned number of verses.  At times Steve or I take turns discussing what the verses mean.  Because let's face it, sometimes you can read scripture and think, "What did I just read?"   And, I am not sure they are enjoying it.  I love the scriptures and love learning about them and I want to pass this on to my kiddos.  So, trying--key word is trying--to make it fun, I have created what I call Scripture Scavenger Hunts.  Basically it's a 10 question quiz with fill-in-the-blanks, true/fasle, matching, and one thinking question to help them learn the layout of the scriptures and to think about gospel principles.  We've only done one so far and they loved it.  Ethan wasn't quite used to my questions--and maybe they weren't developed enough for him--so he struggle a little bit in finding the answers.  I am not trying to be intense or make this hard for them.  I tell them exactly where to look to find the answers and if he couldn't find it, I was right there to show him how. 
• Friends.  I have been collecting the phone numbers of my children's school friends all year.  I want to make sure they have plenty of opportunities to play with friends.  
• Legacy Center.  Luckily we have been blessed to afford passes to the Legacy Center where the kiddos can go swimming.  I remember as a kid being so content swimming all day.  

I know we are bound to hit some "air resistance" or "drag" along the way.  I am going to do my best to be patient with that as well.  But, having a plan in place makes me feel so much better.  Like I can jump into summer with both feet.  I know my kiddos are growing so fast and  I want to enjoy this time, not endure this time.

Being Six Means...

Being 6 means my children get their first friend party.

 And, this is the year for my little sunshine girl!  Boy was she happy.  She was excited as each friend would knock on the door.  She would open it to see who was on the other side and then dissolve into happy laughter as she saw who it was.  Overall, we had 7 of her friends here to celebrate with us.  Only 1 friend couldn't make it.

This picture is just so her....Little Miss Sunshine.

These girls are all so sweet.  It was really interesting to see which girls wanted to help me, which girls loved playing the games, which girls loved the crafts, and who wanted to sit by the birthday girl.

We invited them for lunch.  I went easy and fed them pizza.  My plan had been to go to Little Caesar's but when I was shopping at Walmart I saw their pizzas and thought that would be easier because then I could control when the pizza was ready.  You know what, I actually liked the Walmart pizza better than Little Caesar's.  I thought it tasted like Pizza Hut pizza.

Then of course it was time for cake and ice cream.

Blowing out the Candles

It's a good thing from these pictures you don't know how the cake tastes.  I was devastated when I realized that my frosting tasted horrible...that the shortening I had used to make it had gone bad.  The girls were funny!  I gave them total permission not to like the cake.  They each one--except one--tasted it and said, "This is horrible!" Instead, they ate the ice cream and cookies that we had.  It all turned out okay.

After cake, the girls finished up the last thing for their gift bags.  The princess candy necklaces.  They came in a kit and were perfect.  This was my favorite thing of the party.  The girls were all talking together and singing songs.  I thought it was darling to see the camaraderie.  Because of the distractions making the necklaces took a lot longer than I had planned on which meant less time for the games.

Cousins

We only had time for two games.   The first was Musical Chairs which the birthday girl insisted upon.  All the girls seemed to love it and having my ipad made it so easy to do.  The other game was called the Missing Slipper.  We gathered one shoe from each girl and placed them into a pile.  Once they were divided into teams, a girl would have to hop on one foot to the pile, put their shoe on and hop back to their team high fiving the next girl so she could go.  They loved this one too.  I heard lots of giggling as they tried to get their shoes on in a hurry.  

Happy Birthday to my Little Sunshine!

And the Medal Goes To...

I can't believe the opportunities that my children have through their school.

I don't know if I wasn't aware, but I didn't have half the experiences that they have had.  Good for them...that they are taking advantage of the opportunities being offered.

Tyler's teacher was in charge of the Liberty Bowl for his school this year.  And Tyler wanted to participate.  I was excited as history was one of my favorite subjects in college, especially American history.

Usually schools from the surrounding area participate but this year none of the schools wanted too so the 5th grade students would practice every Monday after school and then competed against each other during the actual Liberty Bowl.

During the Liberty Bowl, the students were divided into teams of 3.  Ty's team actually only had 2 members because one was a.w.o.l.  Two teams competed against each other at a time.  Both teams were
asked a history question, and each student tried to be the first one to ring the buzzer.  If they successfully answered the question, they were rewarded with a bonus question and given the points.

Tyler's team name was "The Pink Ponies".  When I first heard it I thought, "What, why not something patriotic?"  Later I found out that he had come up with the team name based on Laney's current love of My Lil Pony  and her favorite pony: Pinky Pie.  From Pinky Pie he went to Pink Ponies wanting to keep the alliteration.  How cute is that?

Meet the Pink Ponies.

 Ty had successfully hit his buzzer first.  If you look closely you can see that his buzzer is lit up and his teammate is smiling.  

 Below, after answering the initial question by himself, he was allowed to confer with his teammate on the answer to the bonus question.

Answering the bonus question.  They received 5 points for the regular question and 15 points for the bonus.

All of these students worked so hard.  I was proud of all of them for their effort.  But in the end...

only one team can win.  So proud of these two.  Especially Ty because he answered almost all of their questions to bring home the victory.  Often he was striking his buzzer before Mrs. Nelson had even completed the question.  Hard work pays off.

And the medal goes too these two!

Graduation from Kindergarten

I can't believe Laney graduated from Kindergarten.  Time is going way too fast!  She is now officially a first grader.

Alayna has had a great kindergarten year.  Her teacher was amazing and we loved her southern drawl (she's from Texas) as she would say Laney.

Alayna started out "behind."  For some reason her school measures kindergarten things on a first grade level.  And, while we did pre-school, it was with a few of my friends and we focused on the joy of learning rather than being intense and focusing on letters or math.  Consequently, she was behind on day 1.  But soon enough she was reading where they wanted her to be and she has had a great year.  In fact, I can't believe how much she can read now.  I love reading with her and my favorite book to read with her is Green Eggs and Ham.  She can read that whole book all by herself, but she likes it best when I read one page and then she reads the next.

Alayna made so many friends during the year and we arranged so many play dates for her.  I knew she would thrive in such a social environment.  She's like her mother.  I expect that we will continue those play dates over the summer for my little sunshine who wants to always be playing with friends.

I loved what Mrs. Wyatt said at the graduation.  She encouraged her students to enjoy their journey, to never stop learning, and to remember happy things when life gets hard.  We will miss her.

Aladdin

Ethan enjoyed being in the school play again this spring.  Boy did it keep us busy!  His school does such a great job and the costumes are amazing!

Ethan was one of the boys in charge of being the magic carpet.  One day, by chance, I was talking to a mom of another student in the play, and she told me that Ethan took his job very seriously and tried to follow Mrs. Weiler's directions perfectly.  What a cutie.

One of the townspeople.

Changes in L'attitudes - Jamaica

Always treasuring that "alone time" that is the holy grail to all parents, Steve and I went big and decided to grab some alone time in Jamaica.

Yep, again.

We went to the same place we went before.  Why go anywhere else when you've found paradise?

I love who I am when we are on vacation.  Intense Tiercy gets left at home.  And, life if just easy and good.

So many people have asked us which time we liked best and that is a hard question to answer.  I always said that there was so much to do that we didn't get to do it all the first time.  Even if we had, so much of what we enjoy is laying on the beach just relaxing...which we were able to do both times. I have never been a lay in the sun type of girl, but I really have enjoyed it both trips.  Steve really enjoys it too.

The only slight damper on this trip was the rain.  We had gone the same exact week 2 years ago and we only had rain one very early morning about 5 a.m.  This time it rained every day, about half the day.  You can't let a little bit of rain stop your fun though.  So, Steve and I found the game room.

We played ping pong the most.  We both loved it.  I knew that he was way better a player than I so I had a strategy.  And, it might have worked if I hadn't blurted it out with my big mouth.  Next thing I knew, my strategy was being used against me.  LOL. I am happy to report though, that by the end of the week, I was increasing in my score and making Steve work a little bit harder for each point.

On this trip, I was able to go scuba diving.  I would call it a try-ump.  After spending all morning getting "trained" (we watched a video and practiced in the pool), I let the worrier in my win.  Once our boat was anchored, I descended about 16ft to the bottom of the ocean floor; in fact, I was quite surprised at how easy it had been.  But then I couldn't get my body to sit there in zero buoyancy (I think that's what it's called) to wait for the other divers to descend and this started to worry me.  Of course.  I started to worry that since I couldn't do that, how would I be able to clear my mask if I needed to.  When I had tried this task in the pool, I had had problems doing it correctly, and had hurt my ear probably by blowing too hard to clear the water.  And, my worry won.  I motioned to the guide that I was going up.   I didn't feel so bad when about 5 minutes later another lady, who had dived 4 times previously, appeared on the surface.  Oh well.  It was such a new experience for me.  I would try it one more time now that I would be a little more familiar with the process.  I am happy that I tried it.

I also went snorkeling one day. (Steve opted to stay and relax on the beach.)  I had a little fish that was so curious about me that he kept swimming up to me.  I could reach out my hand and touch him.  What a neat experience.

Maybe you can't read the writing in the sand...a wave had come and washed it away.  It says:  Jamaica 2012

Oh my goodness, how could I almost have forgotten to include one of my favorite things.  We were able to get a couples full body exfoliation and massage.  It was awesome!  I must admit I wanted to cry like a little girl when she was doing the exfoliation.  It hurt.  But, my skin has never, I mean N.E.V.E.R. felt so soft.  Ask Steve, he would know.  I love the new experience. 

Looking at the resort from the beach.

In the Caribbean Sea

This is what my view was most of the time while we were on the beach.

I love that there is one fancy restaurant--resort fancy--that you are required to dress up and to have reservations.  We were lucky and ate there twice.  Since we were dressed up, we decided to walk around the resort and take some pictures.

The girl teaching me to dance is Kadian.  (Haha, I should say trying to teach me.) She is one of the entertainment coordinators at CTI and her job is to make sure the guests are having fun!  She was there the last time we were there and we totally remembered her.  In fact, through a series of events, she gave us her own carved wood turtle to take home with us last time.  I always felt so guilty about that.   Anyway, she remembered us too.  She is an amazing person!  So, we would watch the evening entertainment, then dance for an hour, then head to the piano bar.

I am not sure why, but last time we didn't make it to the piano bar. Our loss.  This time, we closed the piano bar down with the sing along.  It was so much fun!  Even though I couldn't carry a tune if you handed it to me in a suitcase.  Steve can and I love listening to him sing.

Funny thing about perspective.  One night, next to Steve, I was feeling quite ordinary.  I mean he can dance and he can sing, and people were noticing.  Someone even said, "Who knew a white boy from Salt Lake could sing and dance like you."  He was being the life of the party.  And, me, I was boring.  So a few nights later I was telling Steve my perspective of that night.  He looked at me and laughed and said, "Let me tell you my perspective.  I was there just dancing where I was watching you be a good sport on the dance floor laughing and having a good time.  Then we move to the piano bar where you immediately make friends with everyone around us.  I thought, 'I'll just sit here and sing.' "  Are we funny or what?

We also met these friends who went with us to the piano bar.  We met them the first night we were there.  They were sitting at the table beside us.  The resort, while big, is small enough that you run into the same people.  We hung out a few times and it was fun to meet new friends.






COUPLES SAN SOUCI

Think San "Suzy" and you would pronounce it right.

This is one of the other Couples resorts that is close to CTI.  While staying at Tower Isle, you are allowed to visit San Souci one time or vice versa.  But we fell in love with it over there and we went twice.  The Jamaican's are so laid back that they were fine with us going over there twice.  CTI provides a shuttle service to take you there at 10 a.m. and return at 4 p.m.  Just perfect for us.

We both think that CSS is great for the day but we prefer the dinner options and night life at CTI.

This charming little path is right at their main front entrance.  I loved it!

Below is Charlie's Veggie Bar.  I never met Charlie, but our bartender, she made the best smoothies that we could ask for.  Steve ordered mango and I ordered StrawberryBanana and we loved them.  These were made with greek yogurt and that made them so creamy.  We wondered why CTI's veggie bar didn't make them with yogurt.  We made sure to stop by here on both trips to CSS.

The bartender was kind enough to take this picture for us right after making our drinks.  (This time I had ordered cucumber water.)  Could you imagine this being your "office" every day!

This charming grass hut is where we sat during our visit to San Souci.  And, I must say that they keep the rain out quite nicely.  Even though we had rain almost every day on this trip we didn't let it stop us.  Because it wasn't a cold rain, it was still nice to be laying on the beach, under these grass huts.  

We also loved floating on rafts holding hands in this little pool and enjoying the privacy of the "cave" or  enjoying the sun on our bodies.  Ahh...sweet relaxation!

We seriously are already planning our next trip back!

It's Like Pulling Teeth

I can't believe it's here.

My little daughter has lost her first tooth!

And her second!

Well, she needed a little help.

I wasn't gonna be the one to pull it.  So Dad did.

I can't believe how brave she is this little girl of mine.

And it's out!