One-on-one time and technology is great when it works!!

The last couple of weeks have been jam-packed with last days of school stuffs: projects galore that have kept the kids up late into the evenings, and that have kept us attending parent-invited events during the day and at night!  It's been crazy but fun, and the best part has been that Shawn stayed home this week because there was just too much he would have missed out on family-wise.  We have attended a gymnastics recital (Maddie), a choir concert (Maddie), two orchestra concerts (Kami), a band concert (Caden), gotten kids off on at least five field trips, and attended some during-school functions - reports, etc.to name the big things...an there's more to come!  Summer vacation is going to feel so relaxing.

Shawn and I were out until 10:30 on Thursday evening at a ward temple night, and the older kids had put the younger ones to bed.  Friday morning, Nolan bounced into the room for scriptures at 6:00 already all showered and ready to go for the day.  He was glowing with excitement and reminded his dad that THIS was the big day to ride bikes to school!! Shawn hadn't even mentioned it to him for days, but Nolan had been counting down the moments:) They got a bit of a late start, and it took about half an hour to make the three mile ride to school on those tiny bicycle tires - It was pretty cute to watch them taking off with Nolan pedaling as fast as he could go and Shawn trying not to pedal at all so that they could stay together.

Shawn said that when they arrived, the class was all ready to leave on a field trip to Bear World, which is a pretty neat place for little kids to visit, but which Nolan hadn't even been mentioning because he was so much more excited to go with his dad.

I think that Shawn had so much fun that he decided to devote as much of his day as possible to having as many one-on-one moments with each of his kids as possible, because at noon, Shawn took Isabelle on a date to lunch. They had a great time.

Right after school I had to take Kami to an orchestra recital after school.  Caden had a scout camp-out that Shawn felt like he needed to go to, so he and Caden were hurrying around getting ready for that. It was time to take Kami, but I was getting worried because Maddie's bus still hadn't dropped her off. The older kids told me that they thought that her bus driver had switched up the route and she ought to be home soon. Finally I had to leave, but started calling the school on my way.  No one answered.  I tried finding a number for the bus department, and couldn't find one, so I called a neighbor whose kids ride the same bus.  She asked her daughter if Maddie had been on the bus and she said, "Yes, but the bus driver missed Maddie's stop so she just dropped her off at the side of the road (on the highway) and asked her if it would be OK if she walked home." WHAT?!?!  I started to really freak out because it had now been 20 minutes past the time that she was supposed to get home! The recent kidnappings of those three girls on the news was fresh in my mind!!  Anyways, the mother I had called and I started looking all over for Maddie.  Caden was also out on the road trying to find her.  Finally, I called Shawn who had run to the store and told him to hurry home and told him I couldn't find Maddie ANYWHERE!!  I was ready to call the police and get help finding our girl! He calmly replied, "check your texts".

Then I remembered a text coming in at about the time that Maddie should have arrived home, that was from Shawn, that said, "I have Maddie."  Normally that would have been just dandy, but all week my phone has been acting funny and that very day I had received a bunch of texts that people had sent me days ago.  In fact, Shawn had picked Kami up from a lesson on Monday, then on Thursday he offered to pick Maddie up from gymnastics.  1/2 hour after he was supposed to have picked her up, I received a text from him that said, "I'm at the Jr. high.  Where's Kami?"  Apparently he had sent that on Monday, but when he didn't answer a text I sent right back, I called because I thought, "Oh no! he went after the wrong kid!!" So my phone had been going crazy, and I thought that this text about Maddie was from the other day when  I thought he'd picked up the wrong child.  So I was beyond worried and I was still very up-tight and I let him know that he knew my phone had been having texting issues and he should have CALLED!! He felt pretty bad - the poor guy was just trying to spend time with his daughter...

weekend excitement

What an exciting weekend!! Doesn't this look exciting?

Shawn and Caden washing windows

A little too much excitement for me, which is why my five back and side second story windows on my house have not been washed since right after we moved in!

More exciting than that *but in a different more important sort-of a way* is that my brother Eli got his mission call to Santiago, Chile! He will be leaving straight for the MTC that is in Chile, on September 11th. Now that my parents know when he will be leaving, they will turn in their mission papers with Sept. 11 as their availability date.  Lots of mission stuff going on lately in our family - we are expecting to hear any day when and where my niece, Abby will be going.  (I will add that later if she finds out in the next couple of days, because it was supposedly in the mail on Sunday) Also, on Sunday, Shawn's parents left for the MTC.  They will be serving at the Idaho Falls temple visitor's center for the next year and a half.  We are so excited that they will still be living at home and close to us!

This Nolan boy suddenly jumped on his bike on Friday afternoon and took off! Last year he wouldn't even try it without training wheels.  He has been riding his bike every spare moment, squeezing in the five minutes before the bus arrives in the morning and for hours after school.  He has been enjoying the spring-time thunder storms that we have had in the afternoons twice this week, because then he also has puddles to ride through!!  This morning, at Nolan's request, he and Shawn made plans to ride bikes to school one of these mornings before school lets out for the summer.

A few things from the last month

After cleanings at the dentist - the kids getting a kick out of Abram falling right to sleep while they waited for my cleaning to get done:

Isabelle babying Abram ( reading to him " to get his mind off of it") after he fell down and scraped his knee - he cried for at least an hour and she was as patient as can be:)

Isabelle babying Abram (reading to him "to get his mind off of it") after he fell down and scraped his knee- he cried for at least an hour and she was as patient as can be:)

The kids have really been into archery for the last month or two.  They set up a target out in the yard and try to hit it - although Nolan prefers to shoot his arrows as far as he can make them go and has landed some in the bottom of the pond:) Isabelle, Caden and Abram below:

Nolan and Abram *gotta love those sunglasses* they don't dream of being Robin Hood or anything like that.  Hawkeye is their motivation for learning to shoot arrows:)  Yes, their dad corrupted them and let them watch Avengers with him:)

Better than a rubber band gun!

So as part of the whole braces experience, Kami has to wear these little bands on her braces.  Today during her lunch break she was talking to her friend Annie when suddenly one of these bands flew off of her braces and hit her friend in the eye!  (We got quite a kick out of this) Her friend shrieked and freaked out for a moment or two wondering what in the world had just happened to her.  Evidently this is a pretty common occurrence with band wearers, because after she realized what had happened Annie said, "Now I know what Chloe (another of their friends) went through when I had MY braces...I did that to her all the time!!"

This has GOT to be better than a rubber band gun because there is SUCH an element of surprise for BOTH parties involved!!