On June 2nd, I was able to go with Spencer on his Kindergarten field trip to the Detroit Zoo. He went last year for his preschool trip but Kalen went that time, so this was new for me but Spencer knew exactly what he wanted to see and do while we were there. I was thrilled to find out that there were so many parents coming on this trip that I didn't have any other kids assigned to me. So Spencer and I had the whole day to explore on our own. I've never had that happen on a field trip. (Remember the story of my being 8 months pregnant with 4 preschoolers in a 3 story museum? Yeah, that's the usual way things go.) This was wonderful! After lunch, the first item on the list was a train ride since he didn't get to do that last year. He was so excited when I handed him his ticket and held on to it so tight, I'm pretty sure is was a mangled mess by the time he gave it to the ticket taker.
We also visited the Arctic Circle, which was one of my favorites. They had this little area where you just follow a path and get to see all sorts of arctic creatures like seals and sealions, arctic foxes and of course the polar bears. We thought this underwater tunnel was pretty awesome. The fish and seals would swim right up to the glass or go over the top.
Probably the thing Spencer wanted to see the most was the prairie dogs. Last year he had so much fun watching them and he loved the little plexiglass viewing areas in the middle of the dirt mound so you can get right up close. This year it didn't work out so well. There were SO many field trips that day with lots of bigger kids who just plowed over the littler ones who were trying to get into the little viewing area. Spencer tried three times to get in there and all three times he just got shoved out of the way. Lots of little kids would come up the steps crying, including Spencer. I tried saying something to some of the bigger kids, but once they got down in the area where no adult can possibly fit, they did whatever they wanted. Obnoxious little bullies! (With even more obnoxious chaperones who did absolutely nothing to stop their kids' bad behavior!) So Spencer was pretty sad for awhile but he still wanted a picture with the prairie dogs. I told him I'd take his picture if he would smile. This was what I got:
He cheered up though when we got to see the ant eater. It even had its long, sticky tongue out at one point so that was fascinating. They are such weird creatures!
And we loved the butterfly house! All the kids there were trying so hard to have a butterfly land on them and Spencer became the center of attention when he caught one.
It crawled up his arm and perched on his shoulder for awhile. It was hilarious when it crawled around to the back of his neck which is apparently one of Spencer's most ticklish places.
The other disappointment of the day is that I had told Spencer we could get him a slushee like he and Kalen had last year. The zoo has millions of ice cream stands all over the place but only a few places that sell slushees. We were running out of time and all we could find was ice cream, which unfortunately would have spelled doom for our anaphylactically allergic son. Finally I spotted a slushee stand and we rushed up to it...and found that it was closed. And then it was time to meet the rest of the class to board the bus, so we couldn't continue the search. But the next best thing to slushees, as everyone knows, is a stuffed snake! (You did know that, didn't you?) So we snagged one just as we were leaving the zoo, and life was right again.
We took care of Mom's house while she was out west again, so we got to see the beautiful bushes in her yard in full bloom every time we came to feed the cats and get the mail. Kaya loved it because it is her favorite color.
And speaking of Kaya. I think she's going to be our one to watch when it comes to accidents. A couple of weeks ago we were at Spencer's last soccer game and she was sitting in her little kid-size lawn chair when it tipped over. She was really, really upset and so we figured it gave her a bad scare or something. But she kept telling me that her shoulder hurt. Kalen said he thought she may have bumped it on his chair when she tipped, so we figured maybe she'd bruised it. We decided to go home and see how Kaya handled the rest of the day. We had planned to go that afternoon to Turkeyville with Jonathan, who was here for a quick visit to bring us our "new" van (that's another story I'll have to share sometime). Kaya took a good nap and seemed a bit better when she woke up, but still said her shoulder hurt. So like the great parents we are, we decided to go ahead and go to Turkeyville.But we knew once we got there that our plans would have to be altered. Everytime we would try to pick Kaya up, she would scream. I went to change her diaper and that was a disaster. So we decided we'd have to make an E.R. trip. First though, Kaya wanted to ride the turkey truck.
After that, Kalen took her to the E.R. while the rest of us finished our Turkeyville visit.
Once we were through there, we called Kalen who said they were still waiting and to not come to the hospital yet. So we drove down to Marshall's fountain.
Spencer actually got so he could nearly run around this thing and not fall in. Kendall decided if Spencer could do it, so could he. Nope. He ended up drenching his foot and leg.
There was a guy there playing his guitar (and he was actually really quite good). Earlier Mom had sent Kendall over with a dollar to put in his guitar case. And then later Jonathan gave Spencer five dollars and told him to go throw it in. Spencer looked confused but said "okay" and then went toward the fountain to throw it in the water with all of the other coins! We stopped him in time and pointed out the guy with the guitar and told him to go throw it in the black case. So he ran over but passed the case and headed for the black garbage can instead! Kendall stopped him once again, just in time and showed him what a guitar case looks like.
After we finished at the fountain, we drove down the road to a fiber arts festival. They were wrapping up but we got to see some of the llamas and alpacas.
And finally we drove over to the hospital. I went back while everyone else stayed in the waiting room. I got to the room just as they were coming out of x-ray. Poor, sad kid.
Turns out that little tip of her chair broke her collar bone! Of all the stuff she's done with scaling furniture and jumping off of stairs and couches and curbs and swings, etc. she breaks her collarbone by tipping over on a tiny chair. Crazy! She thought her new sling was pretty awesome. At first.
Now she's tired of it and ready to be done with the whole thing. But she's supposed to avoid lifting her arm up over her head and the sling seems to remind her that she can't do that. Other than that, it hasn't slowed her down at all. We have a re-check appointment next week, so they may decide she can lose the sling after that.
After that, Kalen took her to the E.R. while the rest of us finished our Turkeyville visit.
Once we were through there, we called Kalen who said they were still waiting and to not come to the hospital yet. So we drove down to Marshall's fountain.
Spencer actually got so he could nearly run around this thing and not fall in. Kendall decided if Spencer could do it, so could he. Nope. He ended up drenching his foot and leg.There was a guy there playing his guitar (and he was actually really quite good). Earlier Mom had sent Kendall over with a dollar to put in his guitar case. And then later Jonathan gave Spencer five dollars and told him to go throw it in. Spencer looked confused but said "okay" and then went toward the fountain to throw it in the water with all of the other coins! We stopped him in time and pointed out the guy with the guitar and told him to go throw it in the black case. So he ran over but passed the case and headed for the black garbage can instead! Kendall stopped him once again, just in time and showed him what a guitar case looks like.
After we finished at the fountain, we drove down the road to a fiber arts festival. They were wrapping up but we got to see some of the llamas and alpacas.
And finally we drove over to the hospital. I went back while everyone else stayed in the waiting room. I got to the room just as they were coming out of x-ray. Poor, sad kid.
Turns out that little tip of her chair broke her collar bone! Of all the stuff she's done with scaling furniture and jumping off of stairs and couches and curbs and swings, etc. she breaks her collarbone by tipping over on a tiny chair. Crazy! She thought her new sling was pretty awesome. At first.
Now she's tired of it and ready to be done with the whole thing. But she's supposed to avoid lifting her arm up over her head and the sling seems to remind her that she can't do that. Other than that, it hasn't slowed her down at all. We have a re-check appointment next week, so they may decide she can lose the sling after that.The kids all had a pretty good spring soccer season. Spencer is getting the hang of it better although he still goofs around more than he actually plays. Kendall has gotten quite good at being goalie and is still so good on offense. And Lynnsey continues to improve and her coach (who is also her dad), says she has some pretty amazing skill as a midfielder. It was fun to watch them all play. This was from their last game.
And it was kind of an unfortunate last game. They played their hearts out and ended up doing really well but the other team was pure chaos. No one seemed to have any assigned positions and so the entire group would swarm after the ball and usually someone would go down and have an injury so there was a lot of wasted time. Lynnsey took a ball in the face because a player from the other team, who wasn't even supposed to pick it up, threw it to her. But the real kicker came from one of the parents on the other team. We were sort of annoyed with her already because she kept blowing on the horn of her SUV everytime someone on the team even came close to scoring. When they finally did score a goal, she blew the horn and wouldn't let up forever after. I think even some of the other parents on their team were getting annoyed because they were sitting right in front of her car and it was a bit loud. But then this same parent became irate at Kalen. The ball had started out of bounds by one of our team members but ended up bouncing off one of theirs. So Kalen gave it to our team to throw in. Well, she was furious and screaming that it was red's ball and that she had seen it go out on purple. Kalen called back that it bounced off red. She insisted it was off of purple and that she had seen it perfectly from her spot way across the soccer field. Kalen yelled back that it happened inches from him and it was out on red. Anyway....tensions were high after that and when the game ended, one of the moms from our side tried to talk to the lady who was so livid and still insisting that she was right. Finally the mom from our side left and said, "she's got some anger issues!" Kalen had thought about talking to her but it's probably good he didn't, or she may have assaulted him! Anyway, it really spoiled the game for both teams I think.
The most sad part of the whole thing was that not only was this their last soccer game, but this was Kendall's very last soccer game of his career, most likely. (You can see that he's upset in the photo). He's actually remained at this level for two years longer than he was supposed to because of his heart condition. But now it's hard to justify having a 6th grader playing against kids as young as 2nd and 3rd grade. And we're not sure moving him to the next level is an option because they play on a full-size field and we think it'll be too hard for him to play as hard as he needs to and have the kind of stamina that requires. He could just play goalie, but he doesn't love that position like he loves to play offense and he always takes it so hard when he lets a ball get by him. He feels like he's let the team down and failed them. So this may be it for him. He says he'll at least be Kalen's assistant coach next year, so that's something, but not the same thing as what he's loved all these years.
And speaking of Kendall, we finally made him get a haircut after this little incident:
My baby girl is THREE now! That was such an unbelievable fast three years, I can't quite get over it.
She is still, as she always has been, such a sweet kid. She has followed the example of her big sister and is into all things girly. Stories about princesses are the best. She ooh's and aah's over dresses and skirts. Her favorite color is purple and when she wears it she'll tell me "I'm a Purple Gurple!" She loves to play outside, especially if there water involved and any outing for her is an exciting adventure. She loves the shows Team Umizoomi and Bubble Guppies and the movie Despicable Me. She tells us all the time that she is "Ag-a-ness" and she can do a dead on impersonation when she gets her own stuffed unicorn and exclaims, "It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!" She is constantly cracking us up with the things she says and the way she says them. She loves playdough and crafts and loves to be read to. She HATES having her hair done until it's finished and then she'll go admire herself in the mirror and tell her reflection how beautiful she is. Lately if there is something that she doesn't want to do, she'll tell us that she can't because she's too shy. That includes going potty which I was sure we'd have mastered by now because she was so young when she first went. But she won't do it unless she wants to, which is usually about once a day. We'll tell her it's time to go potty and she'll say "No sanks, I already went today." Oh well. I just tell myself, like so many other things, that she won't go to her prom in diapers. We'll get there eventually.
And it was kind of an unfortunate last game. They played their hearts out and ended up doing really well but the other team was pure chaos. No one seemed to have any assigned positions and so the entire group would swarm after the ball and usually someone would go down and have an injury so there was a lot of wasted time. Lynnsey took a ball in the face because a player from the other team, who wasn't even supposed to pick it up, threw it to her. But the real kicker came from one of the parents on the other team. We were sort of annoyed with her already because she kept blowing on the horn of her SUV everytime someone on the team even came close to scoring. When they finally did score a goal, she blew the horn and wouldn't let up forever after. I think even some of the other parents on their team were getting annoyed because they were sitting right in front of her car and it was a bit loud. But then this same parent became irate at Kalen. The ball had started out of bounds by one of our team members but ended up bouncing off one of theirs. So Kalen gave it to our team to throw in. Well, she was furious and screaming that it was red's ball and that she had seen it go out on purple. Kalen called back that it bounced off red. She insisted it was off of purple and that she had seen it perfectly from her spot way across the soccer field. Kalen yelled back that it happened inches from him and it was out on red. Anyway....tensions were high after that and when the game ended, one of the moms from our side tried to talk to the lady who was so livid and still insisting that she was right. Finally the mom from our side left and said, "she's got some anger issues!" Kalen had thought about talking to her but it's probably good he didn't, or she may have assaulted him! Anyway, it really spoiled the game for both teams I think.
The most sad part of the whole thing was that not only was this their last soccer game, but this was Kendall's very last soccer game of his career, most likely. (You can see that he's upset in the photo). He's actually remained at this level for two years longer than he was supposed to because of his heart condition. But now it's hard to justify having a 6th grader playing against kids as young as 2nd and 3rd grade. And we're not sure moving him to the next level is an option because they play on a full-size field and we think it'll be too hard for him to play as hard as he needs to and have the kind of stamina that requires. He could just play goalie, but he doesn't love that position like he loves to play offense and he always takes it so hard when he lets a ball get by him. He feels like he's let the team down and failed them. So this may be it for him. He says he'll at least be Kalen's assistant coach next year, so that's something, but not the same thing as what he's loved all these years.And speaking of Kendall, we finally made him get a haircut after this little incident:
My baby girl is THREE now! That was such an unbelievable fast three years, I can't quite get over it.
She is still, as she always has been, such a sweet kid. She has followed the example of her big sister and is into all things girly. Stories about princesses are the best. She ooh's and aah's over dresses and skirts. Her favorite color is purple and when she wears it she'll tell me "I'm a Purple Gurple!" She loves to play outside, especially if there water involved and any outing for her is an exciting adventure. She loves the shows Team Umizoomi and Bubble Guppies and the movie Despicable Me. She tells us all the time that she is "Ag-a-ness" and she can do a dead on impersonation when she gets her own stuffed unicorn and exclaims, "It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!" She is constantly cracking us up with the things she says and the way she says them. She loves playdough and crafts and loves to be read to. She HATES having her hair done until it's finished and then she'll go admire herself in the mirror and tell her reflection how beautiful she is. Lately if there is something that she doesn't want to do, she'll tell us that she can't because she's too shy. That includes going potty which I was sure we'd have mastered by now because she was so young when she first went. But she won't do it unless she wants to, which is usually about once a day. We'll tell her it's time to go potty and she'll say "No sanks, I already went today." Oh well. I just tell myself, like so many other things, that she won't go to her prom in diapers. We'll get there eventually. She was so excited for her party, which we had to have early because Kalen and Taylor and Kendall had a scout campout that evening. She is at such a fun age to open gifts. Everything was exciting. "Wow! A box!"--that sort of thing. Her favorite gift was this little puppy flashlight that Kendall bought for her. She'd open a present, exclaim happily over it, and then pick up the flashlight again. Kendall felt a little bad about that, but you can see how pleased he really is that she loves it so much.
She insisted on a pink cake with pink frosting, which we did and then put fresh strawberries from our garden on top. It was SOOOO good!
After the party, Kalen and the boys finished packing up for scout camp. This was Kendall's very first campout. He doesn't get to go to the big yearly campout till he's twelve, but the troop campouts are open to eleven year olds. He was so excited. So far he is loving scouts so much and really gets into it all--more than Taylor ever has.
And that's it for now. I'm mostly caught up except for Taylor has now had his birthday, so I'll have to get that on here soon along with a few other things.
( I still can't believe she's already three!!!)
She insisted on a pink cake with pink frosting, which we did and then put fresh strawberries from our garden on top. It was SOOOO good!
After the party, Kalen and the boys finished packing up for scout camp. This was Kendall's very first campout. He doesn't get to go to the big yearly campout till he's twelve, but the troop campouts are open to eleven year olds. He was so excited. So far he is loving scouts so much and really gets into it all--more than Taylor ever has.
And that's it for now. I'm mostly caught up except for Taylor has now had his birthday, so I'll have to get that on here soon along with a few other things.
( I still can't believe she's already three!!!)
