Another teenager in the house

Kristin turned 13 today!!! She wanted to go out to dinner so after naming every restaurant I could think of she settled on Bugaboo Creek Steak House. It was no surprise when she ordered ribs. While she was washing her sticky rib hands Paul mentioned to the waitress that it was Kristin's birthday so of course they brought her a special treat. In the picture below I should have moved the sodas out of the way but it was a chocolate cake with ice cream and a candle on top. Kristin is blowing out the candle.
They even brought her the moose to kiss.

So now we have yet another teenager. Here's hoping she's not nearly as annoying as her older sister was (and still is!) :)

Kristin's Volleyball Game

Well at least she's useful, she got to do the scoreboard.
She looks a little bored doesn't she? You can also see that she's ditched her sling already, on the second day of having it. I think she'll probably wear her sling to school if only for the attention! Especially to get out of gym class (even though she has a doctor's note.)

Back to her game today. Her team won both their games, by a lot too. They play again tomorrow and then hopefully by next weekend Kristin will be able to play again. They have 2 games next weekend too.

It's not just Lauren...

...that gets injured in sports. Kristin was feeling left out so she went and hurt her arm at volleyball practice.
I think she's wanting to hurt the other arm by riding that scooter while wearing a sling!

This past Monday she said she went to hit a ball but found herself falling. To protect hitting her head she put her hands out to catch herself and that's when she got injured. She continued to play the rest of practice but complained of wrist pain when she got home. The next day her wrist felt better but her forearm hurt right near her elbow.

She could move it and it wasn't swollen so I just watched and waited. When she said it still hurt on Thursday I figured it was time to get it checked out so I took her to her doctor today and also to get it x-rayed. Well the good news, it's not fractured so she doesn't have to have a cast. The bad news is she can't play in her two volleyball games this weekend.

The muscle in her arm is swollen so that's why she's having arm pain. She's supposed to rest it in a sling for the next week to help it heal. If she does that then maybe she can play her games next weekend. At least she doesn't have to wear a cast for six weeks!

Our Weekend

Friday evening
We did end up getting to see Gus again before he left. Lauren and I only briefly since I was taking her to a football game but the rest of the family stayed longer. The kids went outside and played and had a great time.
Saturday
I had signed Zach and Megan up to build a firetruck at Lowe's, another one of their Build and Grow workshops. We arrived early for that one expecting it to be crowded since that was a cool project, the fire truck even made sounds. Well it did end up getting crowded but we never got to build the firetruck. Apparently there was a recall with the sound button and they sent out puppet shows to build instead. Since they didn't even hand those out until 20 minutes late we just took ours and left figuring we would just build them at home sometime. We still haven't built them but then again a puppet show just isn't that exciting.

As we were leaving Lowe's they had a real firetruck that the kids could check out. So we did at least do that.
Our next event that day was Kristin's volleyball game. Zach was getting antsy waiting for the game before hers to finish so we went for a little stroll around the church. Zach has such a cheesy smile.Game time. It was so hot in that gym that Zach couldn't get comfortable. He's always been a very sweaty little guy, here he is taking a rest on Paul.

Kristin actually started! She had a couple of really good hits and then kind of fizzled out. Her coach took her out to talk to her and then put her right back in. She did a little better after that. I have seen great improvement with her this year. I still think she needs to get a little more aggressive and go after the ball though.

Sunday

We went to church and then afterwards stayed for a Mystery Lunch. Each table has to solve clues as to what is being served and then put them in one of 3 different courses. For example: one thing on the list might be "Bugs' favorite shavings" which would be carrots. You also had to make sure you figured out any utensils such as this easy one, "2+2+3+8-11+K" which would be a fork. You end up being served what you guess for each course. For instance you might end up getting ice cream with tomatoes and shredded cheese for your appetizer and chicken with sprinkles and bananas for your dessert if you don't guess right. It's pretty comical to see what each table gets. Our table did fairly well today. We only got a few things mixed up. I don't want to tell you what we had since Paul wasn't there and he hasn't tried to figure out the clues for himself yet. Who knows? Maybe the kids and I will actually do the mystery lunch at home and he can have the same wacky experience as us.

Then next was Alex's birthday party. Since I've already blogged about it I won't repeat it but what a great way to end a weekend.

Happy 1st Birthday Alex!

Alex's birthday was today and so was his party. No more babies in the family since he's now a big boy.
Paul and Lauren went a little early since they were going to miss most of the party due to Lauren having an away soccer game. By the time the rest of us got there they were getting ready to leave. Lauren got a really nice hug from Ryan.
The kids went downstairs and played with the toys and the wii. I don't know about the rest of them but Zach sure seemed to have a great time while he was there.

Lehlan was full of smiles (as usual)!

Paul picked this present out especially for Alex. Paul couldn't believe that he actually bought something that had Yankees on it :)

On to cake and ice cream...Lehlan really enjoyed his.

The birthday boy didn't!

Hope you had a happy birthday Alex, we all enjoyed helping you celebrate!

Grandpa Gus

Another visit from Gus! He came all the way from Kansas so we just had to make the time in our busy schedules to go say hi to him.
I wish we could have gotten to see him more but these darn kids keep our evenings so busy. Usually we have at least Friday's to ourselves but this week we don't even have that. Have a safe trip home and we'll see you next time!

My 1st day

I don't know why but just spending a couple of hours with eight 2-yr-olds is exhausting! We're supposed to have 9 kids but one is on vacation this week. We can have up to 10 so we're lucky. Of course that spot can be filled at anytime.

Overall it was a pretty decent day. There were a couple of criers but they didn't cry non-stop, just sporadically, mostly at transition times. We did have one child take off running in the opposite direction when we were getting ready to go outside. He ran into the music room and went under a table. Silly kid, who doesn't want to go outside? Then there was also the incident of biting. And we have one that likes to hit and two others that love saying the word "no." Did I really just say that we had a decent day? For a first day that was pretty good but hopefully it gets better!

My kids (other than Zach) didn't have school today. Megan and her friend Martina came into work with me and wow, they were a huge help. We also get a third person (just happened to be the music teacher) for the first few weeks of school so we had 3 adults and 2 10-yr-olds to watch 8 kids. Megan and Martina helped entertain and distract them by playing with playdough, reading books to them and just generally playing with all the different toys in the room.

Two of the boys really liked them too! It was cute. I have no idea what Thursday is going to bring, Megan and Martina have to go to school! Can 3 adults handle 8 kids? :)

Zach's first day of Pre-K

He had his open house last Thursday where he got to go in and meet his teachers and see his room. Paul took him to that since my open house for my class was the same day. So...today was his first official day where I got to take him and drop him off.

I thought I was going to get to drop him off and then head to the grocery store and shop in peace but at the last minute I was asked to sub in one of the 2-yr-old rooms. Actually I was a 3rd person because you just never know how the 2-yr-olds are going to act. My boss kept apologizing because she knew this was the first time in 4 years that I had NO kids! But it was really no big deal, the 2-yr-olds are done an hour earlier than the rest of the school for the first week so I still had an hour to hit the Acme.

When I picked Zach up he said he had a good day. His teacher said he especially liked the playground and Zach kept talking about the double slides. This summer a new piece of playground equipment was put in and that seemed to be a big hit with all the kids.

Can't wait to go in and experience my class tomorrow! They did really well at last week's open house but their parent's were with them. They all seemed pretty confident, hopefully if there's crying it's short lived. (I still think I'll take some Motrin before going into work, just in case!)

Weekend Fun

This past Saturday Zach got to make a couple of things. We first did the Lowe's Build and Grow workshop where he made a dog leash holder. I don't know what I'm going to do with the thing since we don't have a dog. Oh well, I took him more for the experience of it anyway. Then a little later we went to AC Moore where he decorated a Thomas train. They were decorating them with a Halloween theme so he made his into a jack-o-lantern. I guess I should say Paul and I decorated it, Paul colored it orange and I cut out and put on the jack-o-lantern face.

In fact, Paul pretty much put the whole dog together too. I think Zach might have hammered in 2 nails. In the above picture he's showing off the crafts that his parents did!

Sports Sunday

Kristin

She's playing volleyball again this year and she had her first game today. They played two games but unfortunately lost both. Kristin has gotten really good at serving, too bad she only got to serve once. Here's a short video of her. She's #56 and you can see that she has one good hit over the net.

Kristin got the first point for her team when she hit the ball over the net and no one returned it. Yay Kristin! Her game was an away game so as soon as she got done we went straight home because then it was time for...

...Lauren

No sooner did we get home then it was time to leave for Lauren's away soccer game. It was her first game for the fall league.

This isn't the best picture but this was taken right after she kicked the ball into the goal. Yay! My baby scored!

Lauren scored the third goal for her team and they ended up winning 3-2.

This is the start to a very busy couple of months!

Children's Musuem

Yes, I know, another post about this place. I think this is the third one since June. Just remember that we have an annual pass to this place and Zach loves it so there will probably be more posts in the future too.

Last week Paul was off and since he had never been there Zach and I wanted to show him the place. We didn't get there till about noon. I was a little worried it would be crowded but there was hardly anyone there, I guess everyone was having lunch and taking naps!

Paul got to relive his rowing days in college:
Zach got a turn too.

Zach had the water area to himself. He loves taking one of the boats and going around the whole stream. Here he is trying to do the tornado/vortex thingie.

We went fishing next and caught a whole bunch of fish for dinner. Zach and Paul even caught a soda can, boot and a diaper which got put in the trash.

If we had more time we could have gone out to lunch in the area while we were there but two of the sisters were coming home from school soon so we headed home. If it wasn't their first day of school I wouldn't have cared but I wanted to know how there day was. We'll probably head back again in a few weeks. Maybe I'll spare you all and not take any pictures next time and therefore not create yet another blog about the place. Knowing me though I'll have to take pictures.

Last night's dinner

I was making tacos and had Lauren brown the ground beef, she also cut the tomatoes. No one wanted to shred the cheese though, that is until Zach came running into the kitchen yelling, "I want to cut the cheese! I want to cut the cheese!" I really wish I could have had a video of him because it was too funny! So here he is "cutting the cheese."

Pool Fun

I don't think I made one single post about the pool this summer. With it being such a hot summer we spent most of our weekends there to cool off. Here's a pic from early in the summer:

It took Zach awhile to jump off the diving board but towards the end of the summer he became a pro. Of course in this picture he has his little floatie vest on so it wasn't like he was going to sink or anything. He would jump and grab hold of Paul's legs.

Zach hanging with the sisters... well... 2 of them.

Okay, there's lots of pictures of Zach. That's because he's so darned cute! (Plus a lot easier to get pictures of than his sisters.)

I wanted to get a picture of him swimming but he kept being evasive. Every time I went to take a picture he would turn around. I finally got this. Look at that ornery grin on his face.

Sometimes Zach loves the attention, other times he wants his sisters to leave him alone. It looks like he's liking the attention at this particular moment.

Two short videos of Zach jumping off the diving board. In the first one he jumps off the board wearing his floatie vest (very short, 13 seconds).

In this second one he jumps off the board to Kelly wearing NO vest. Then Kelly makes him swim. (18 second video, I think.)

He did a pretty good job too. I wonder what he would have done if that floatie hadn't been there. Hopefully by next year he's swimming all over the place. Maybe over the winter I'll look for some swimming lessons for him.

Back to School

Megan started school yesterday, all elementary, 6th grade and 9th grade did. Megan is a big bad 5th grader this year, her last in elementary school.
Her school had a back-to-school night last Thursday so she got to meet her teacher and see some of her friends that she hadn't seen for awhile. Her teacher also called her on Sunday just to welcome her to the class. How sweet! So I think Megan was excited to go to school yesterday.

Kristin and Lauren, because they're 7th and 10th grade, didn't have to go to school until today. I'm not sure either was excited about it. I know I wasn't excited about getting up early today, that's for sure! I'm so not ready for that. Lauren of course is all about the fashion. She had to be looking good at least even though she had next to nothing in her back pack.

Kristin, however, meticulously gathered her supplies and had everything she was supposed to have in her bag. She's my little rule follower. She still was looking good with a brown top and a couple of necklaces. Yes, she did wear shoes, I just took the picture before she put them on.

Kristin's school had a back-to-school night last night that we went to. She got her schedule and we got to find where all her classes were. She's going to have a lot of walking to do this year! Most of her classes are at the far end of each hallway. Wouldn't surprise me if she didn't get some late to class notices this year. She noticed right away that she didn't have band on her schedule. That was Kristin's thing last year, she loved it. So we had to stop in the band room to check on this, Kristin was afraid she was kicked out of class for talking too much! If you know Kristin that's pretty funny since she's so quiet but I told you, band was her thing last year. The band director was surprised it wasn't on her schedule so he said he would get it straightened out.

One last picture of the two of them. In next year's picture Kristin will probably be taller than Lauren! Well she already is by a fraction of an inch, you just can't tell it in this picture.

Next year I can once again get all 3 of them in the same picture with Megan going to middle school. I will never get all 4 of them since Lauren will have graduated long before Zach gets to middle school. In a couple of weeks it'll be Zach's turn for his first day of school. Pre-K this year, boy is he getting big.

Making a Bus

This was our 3rd Lowes Build and Grow workshop we've taken the kids to this summer. I was looking forward to this one, it was a bus that had a secret compartment with a chalkboard top and it even came with the chalk. As I said, I was really looking forward to it...that is until the kids started making them. Or should I say Zach started making his. His didn't have all the pieces so he couldn't even finish it plus one of the sides that holds the chalkboard in broke off so the top wouldn't go on right. Of course this time they barely had enough kits for the people that signed up so I couldn't even get him an extra one. Luckily he didn't know the difference. Just give him a hammer and he's happy, like this:
Megan did most of hers by herself.

They got their certificates and patches when they were done and the woman running the workshop said to stop back at 11:00 and if they had any left then I could have another one for Zach.

I stop back and luckily there were some no shows so there were 6 kits left and we scored another one. We still haven't fixed Zach's bus yet but at least now we can if we want to! Unfortunately I never did take a picture of the finished product, Megan's came out cute though.

Soccer Tournament

We actually made it through a soccer weekend without Lauren getting any concussions. Yay! All summer long she's been seeing two different doctors for that 2nd concussion she got at the end of May. One doc specialized in concussions and the other doc had her take computerized concussion screens. It was amazing how low her scores were after taking the first test (about 3 1/2 weeks after getting her concussion.) She took the test again about about 3 weeks later and her scores had improved enough to eventually be cleared to play again. She did get a warning from the one doc that if she gets anymore concussions her symptoms will be worse and it will take longer for her to recover. I think everything the doctor said went in one ear and out the other because as soon as we left that last appointment Lauren was super excited that she could play soccer again. So needless to say I was super nervous about this weekend.

It was a local 2-day tournament that she played in, 2 games each day. Unfortunately her team didn't do very well, only winning 1 of the games. Here she is after heading a ball. Can you believe she did that? Actually the doctor told her that if done correctly, heading a ball will not give you a concussion. This particular one bounced on the ground first before she headed it.

Here's another picture of her. She played forward the whole time.

A couple of more weeks yet before the season starts so she has a little bit of a break. Plus a couple of weeks where I don't have to worry!

Hershypark

Yesterday we went to Hersheypark again. Twice in one year, I don't think we've ever done that. The crew was the 6 people in my family plus Kelly. To start the morning Megan, Zach and I went and checked out the kiddie rides while everyone else rode Fahrenheit. Zach picked the swings as his first ride. Then it was onto the mini pirate ship. Megan was still able to ride this so you can see her and Zach in the third row down from the top. Next year I think she's going to be too tall and Zach will be doing all the kiddie rides solo.

We then rode the Tiny Timbers or kiddie flume, I even got to ride on that one!

We squeezed in one more ride, the Dizzy Drums before I was texted that they were almost to the end of the line at Fahrenheit.

The picture is blurry but this is how he rode that ride.

We rode some more things, ate lunch, then got our swim suits and towels out of the car and went to the Boardwalk. My camera stayed in the locker during this time. Zach had a ball playing in the Waterworks, a big water-play structure that had slides and water squirting out of almost everything. Here's a picture of it that I took from 2008:
Zach found two slides that he kept doing over and over. One was the small red slide you see at the bottom right of that picture. The other was a tube slide that's on the other side of that one. He liked the tube one best because not only was it a tube slide, it was a twisty tube slide and he said he couldn't see where he was going. Everyone else (meaning Paul, Kelly, Lauren, Kristin and Megan) rode the bigger tube rides.

After finally meeting up and changing Kristin made us wait while she took care of her nosebleed. I told her I was putting this picture on my blog so here it is:

Isn't that just an awesome picture of her?

Megan, Zach and I went to get our picture taken with the Hershey Kiss guy while the rest were riding the Great Bear. We were third in line, the family that was up next was a mom with 4 boys. I didn't see what happened but after they went up to the Kiss the Kiss turned and walked over to the corner. Later two of the boys were told by an employee that they needed to calm down. The Kiss then left after that and we never got to get our picture taken with him. Darn kids ruined it for everyone. We waited a few minutes to see if he would come back but no, he didn't. Here's my wonderful, well-behaved kids waiting :)

We just had to drive the cars. Zach loves this ride. On the turnpike I rode with Lauren and we were in the first car. Kelly rode with Kristin (I heard Kristin wasn't a very good driver.)

Zach was special, he got to drive both Paul and Megan. It looks like he took his job seriously.

Megan likes roller coasters but for some unknown reason she doesn't want to ride any that go upside down. I find that really weird because when we went to Disneyland in the spring of '07, 3 years ago, she rode California Screamin' over and over, it was one of her favorite rides. That one went upside down so she's done it before and loved it.

Somehow Lauren talked Megan into riding the Sooperdooperlooper this time. It used to be an awesome ride back when it was first built. Apparently it was the first looping roller coaster on the east coast (at least that's what their website says!). But now with all the other cooler roller coasters around, it's just plain boring. Here's a picture of them as they started going up the hill. About the only person you can see is Kristin, she's in the second to last row. Kristin and Paul were together and Lauren and Megan were in the very back.

And here they are going through the loop.

Maybe next time we go to an amusement park she'll be more willing to ride the looping ones. I know she would like them. As soon as Zach gets old enough to ride she's not going to have any choice but to go on since we can then ride them as a family. In fact, by next year he hopefully will be tall enough to ride the Sooperdooperlooper and the Comet, you only have to be 42" tall to ride those and he's 40" now. Can he grow 2" in a year? The kid better or I'm going to have to put him in thick soled shoes!

It's starting to get later in the day but we rode a few more rides, here's the kids on the Tilt-a-Whirl.

While the girls were waiting to ride the Comet. Paul, Zach, Kelly and I rode the Skyview.

At this point it just got too dark to take any more pictures. The girls got off the Comet, they rode the Pirate Ship then it was off to Chocolate World to do the free ride and buy some chocolate.

It was a LONG day. It was very crowded, especially at the Boardwalk but at least that cooled us off since it was also a hot day. I took the stroller with us for part of the day in the hopes that Zach would take a nap but no such luck. He did a lot of walking and was asleep in the car before we even left the parking lot. He even slept through our stop to get something to eat on the way home. Other than wishing it was less crowded I think we had a good day.