Memorial Day week long celebration

During the week of Memorial day I felt better than I had felt in a long time.  So what did I do as soon as I got my energy back?!  Well, for starters I took one day of the week and worked on one room at a time.  I cleaned out our winter wardrobe, boxed them up and put them in the shed.  I washed walls, doors, and cleaned bathrooms like never before.  These are chores that my kids had been doing for months, but truth be told my hand was truly needed.  I cleaned out closets, drawers, and organized my kids' school work.  And I did some blogging; it feels good to be caught up with family's record keeping.  I was grateful to Heavenly Father for giving me some of my energy back, so I could take care of my family, and the house before my mom gets here, and before the kids get out of school.

I also felt such great love and gratitude for my sweet Charlton.  When he didn't have preschool, he would stay home with me, and instead of complaining for lack of my attention, he would silently follow me in each room I was working and would find something to play on his own.  It truly made my job so much easier.

On Friday before Memorial Day weekend, Charlton had his last day at Pre-K.  That night, Mrs. Perona's all of four classes had prepared a program where they each shared something they had learned and sang a bunch of songs that they had sung during various months of the year. Charlton's favorite part was the time when he got his diploma;  he kept telling me afterwards that he was ready to start kindergarten right away because he already graduated from Pre-K.  In the end of the program, a friend of ours had compiled interviews from each child about their thoughts of Mrs. Perona.  It was very touching, hearing funny and sweet things come out of the mouths of babes.

Charlton has grown so much this year. He has loved his teacher, his classmates, and especially his best friend William.  He is so ready for Kindergarten, and although he is the youngest, he knows how to make his voice heard.  He loves to color and cut, just started writing phonetically, loves to do homework ( various work books), and is so ready to read.  Hopefully this summer, he and I will be working on his reading book a bit more systematically; he's halfway done.  However, my favorite part of Charlton is the fact that he has matured so much as an individual.  I love it that he can already sense and understand situations and people.  This is a funny age where they are so concentrated on themselves they are at time oblivious to what's going on around them.  Charlton has his moments with this, but I think because he observes how his older siblings work together and think of others, it has made him way more thoughtful than his age allows.  I'm grateful for that.  We live in an age where thoughtfulness and kindness has to be scheduled, but if I want one thing for my kids to adopt from their heritage is charity for others: kindness, thoughtfulness, love, giving, understanding, accepting, service, forgiveness, good manners.  My other three have taught each other by example; there isn't a day that goes by when I don't receive some kind of loving service from my children.  I hope Charlton learns these lessons from his parents and siblings as he grows up and becomes a very thoughtful and kind young man.  He's already on his way.  I'm so proud of him.

This past Saturday, after sleeping in and having a delicious breakfast prepared from my husband, we joined forces in cleaning up the house and getting it ready for the Sabbath.  After which, the kids and I headed out to the pool and stayed there till dinner time.  The weather was perfect, I felt good, the kids had friends and water guns to play with, and my friend, Christina, came and chatted with me.  I swam 16 laps, sun bathed, played with Charlton, read, and took a nap.  Best Saturday I had had in a while!

That night, a friend of ours organized a movie and popcorn in their backyard inviting a bunch of us and kids.  I was exhausted from swimming, but it was fun seeing all the kids getting excited about watching a movie together.  Gillian kept giving me hard time for wanting a picture with all of the kids, so I'm putting a picture of her making faces in case it will help her not to do that again.

We had planned nothing for Memorial Day, thinking that I didn't feel well and wouldn't have enough energy to throw a party.  Well, I did have energy, and the lack of plans didn't stop us from having fun as a family.  We headed out to the pool again, played hard, had Elijah join us for a picnic dinner, and then came back to a clean home.  Not very eventful at all, but positively relaxing.  I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend with your family and friends.

October Fest

We started October and its first week by hitting the pool; temperatures were reaching at about 103 in midday.  I couldn't help but take advantage of the weather and let the children swim for hours... till they had to go to cross-country.  Fortunately, the heat wave for the day passed before they had to go running. 

On Tuesday, Charlton had preschool where they reviewed letter Q among other things.  They played games and read stories about Queens and Kings.  Charlton is loving preschool, and every time he comes back from it he wants to either watch an ABC movie, read books about letters and numbers, or trace letters on his own.  His motor skills leave a lot to be desired, but I'm just happy he is so interested in learning.

On Wednesdays, Charlton and I have been attending story hour at the library.  He gets story hour at our house at all times of the day by his father, siblings and me, but he loves going to the library and associating with kids his age.  He loves the songs they sing and the flannel board stories told by the librarians.  This Wednesday, he insisted in wearing his king/knight costume at all my errands including story hour.  I didn't think to take a picture of him sitting down amongst his peers and admired by them all, but I did take a picture when we got home.

On Thursday, all the preschool moms and friends visited Fairyland, a perfect little theme park catered toward Charlton's age.  All the kids had so much fun going through fun rides, slides, and storybook sets that they didn't want to leave.  When we got home and asked Charlton what was his favorite  part of the field trip, he couldn't decide between being with friends or the watching the puppet show.

The kids couldn't get enough of the dragon slide:

 

They loved rolling down the hill:

 

 

They enjoyed waving from the train:

 

They hopped on the carousel choosing animals with similar colors to their shirts or pants:

They conquered their fears as they climbed the Ferris Wheel, but then they didn't want to get out when they realized how fun it was:

They pretended to be cowboys and entered the Old West town's jail:

 

They were very attentive to the story of Sleeping Beauty that the Puppet Company was putting on for them:

 

 

Before we left, we said 'goodbye' to the Happy Dragon that greeted us in the beginning, and then headed home.  This had been a very successful field trip with relatively little stress and a lot of fun.

Friday was a busy day for me.  It was my turn to volunteer at the Mom Day's Out Preschool.  The kids got along very well with each other and we had very little crying from most of them.  There are twelve kids with two moms supervising each week, and the fact that half of the kids are from our ward helps them to have fun with each other.  We read a few books, played outside, ate snack and then lunch, told some flannel board story, and colored pictures that told the story of the Little Red Hen. 

After preschool, Charlton and Mckinley visited their best friend, Teya, and wished her Happy Birthday by playing, eating a yellow lunch (Teya's favorite color), and decorating their own cupcake with yellow frosting and sprinkles.  What fun!  I can't believe Charlton is old enough to get to go to his own friends' birthday parties.

We got back right before my older kids needed to be picked up.  Since I had been gone all day, I hadn't prepare any snacks for the kids or dinner for later.  Seeing that I was tired a bit, Gillian offered to cook dinner if I took care of the snacks.  That was much needed help.  I was very proud of my sweet girl as she cooked us spaghetti with meat sauce, salad, and garlic bread.  The dinner was delicious and I appreciated Gillian's help.

 

Saturday and Sunday were wonderful days since we got to hear our Prophet and the Lord's servants teach us in General Conference.  I was happy to notice that most of the talks were focused on loving and serving one another as Jesus did.  There were several great talks that taught me how to be a better servant of the Lord.  One that comes to mind at this moment was the General Relief Society President's talk. In it she said that to better serve others we must first observe then serve, just as Gillian, my sweet girl, did when she first observe me being tired, and then proceeded to serve.  Such simple words, but so amazingly true.  

The other thing that I remember from Conference was the exciting news that our young men and women can start serving a mission as soon as they turn 18 for boys and 19 for girls (instead of 19 as it used to be previously for boys and 21 for girls).  This will help the youth of the church to start preparing spiritually earlier.  It will also help them to go to their missions straight from high school without interrupting their college studies.  My three older kids will get to go one after another with Gillian starting off first.  I will miss them so terribly when they go to their missions, but knowing that they will be serving the Lord will give me comfort.  Charlton better stay cute and adorable and help me overcome my longings for them.

We loved watching conference, two sessions on Saturday and two on Sunday.  I can't wait to read them in print.  The kids listened with us and they were very attentive, Charlton included.  We tried to let them in between sessions to play outside.  That helped.  When I once went to check on them, I found Charlton, still in his pajamas, playing with leaves and entertaining his siblings. I love it that my children are so happy all the time.  Charlton's smile brings a smile to my face.