Hello Summer

Arizona has been kind to us for our last summer here.  I would say that it's been "cooler" so far, but the sun's intensity changed this week to that 'hurt-your-skin' fun-ness.  Having a new car has also made a HUGE difference.  I haven't noticed the heat as much simply because the car gets cool the second I turn it on and I no longer worry about the safety of the kids in the back of the car.  I suppose getting used the heat also plays a part in this summer.  The boys have been choosing to wear pants most days, even with temps above 100.

This day really cracked me up; we were running errands when I had to stop and document the craziness.  Eli is wearing pants and it was 113°.  He clearly has grown and his clothes are too small.  Hence Colin.  I got out the next size up clothes for Eli and he refused to wear them, so Colin put them on!  If you take these 2 shopping, Colin is Ben and Eli is me (Colin can instantly find 20 things he loves and Eli will maybe like 1 thing).

We had their checkups this week and both are in the 70th percentile for height.  Colin's weight is in the 14th percent range and with no concerns from the doctor, we were happy with the report.  Even with all the growing, they still are in my lap the second I sit down.

We have become pretty good friends with the neighbors that moved into Liza's old house.  They are pretty much the only other family in our neighborhood that also plays outside so we've had many mornings riding bikes around or playing tag.  They went on a 2 week vacation and said we could use their pool while they are gone.

Alison's friend, Bianca, came with us one day. Colin makes life guards very nervous when we go to public pools because he throws his arms back and kicks his legs. I think he does it from swimming with the puddle jumper for so long (he would lift his arms to get the floaties out of the way).


 Colin was trying so hard to do a handstand like Eli and Alison, but he isn't heavy enough to get to the bottom. It was pretty funny to watch.

Check this out!  Out of the blue, Colin was pretending to be a dolphin and taught himself how to dive!

Keeping the White's

7 kids is no joke.  I thanked my lucky stars no one was in diapers and everyone was fairly self-sufficient.  Only one kid missed getting lunch one day and everyone left alive, so I call that success.

Just sitting at home was not going to fly, but Yuma can be scarce on activities, especially now that the heat has set in.

Friday was especially hot, so we started the day at the library...everyone loves the library, it had to be a hit.  It wasn't until we were walking into the building that the thought hit me "I didn't think this through."  Do you know what 7 kids do in a library?  They scatter.  And fill their arms with mounds of books.  My ideals of spending hours in a quiet, cool building just reading books went out the window and instead I began negotiating who could check out what and trying to figure out how to get all these books home.

That afternoon, we went to the Children's Museum.  It sounds great, doesn't it?  The boys basically played with this control panel for an hour and the girls were bored out of their mind.  It would be nice if they advertised that it was intended for much younger kids.

Saturday, we took the kids to the base pool.  No pictures were taken because there was no time to even think about that when were trying to keep 7 kids alive in a giant pool.  I now have a whole new respect for parents of large families.  From the pool, I took the little boys with me to the commissary and let them ride in the car cart and pick out a snack.  Tolson said this was the highlight of the trip :). Ben took the rest of the crew to Chili Peppers.

Sunday...well, Sunday was Father's Day and I don't have a single picture from the day or a fun post for Ben...but I love you Ben Shear and you are the greatest! and I survived the day!  Ben preached and I wrangled the 7 kids in the congregation.  Ironically, it was Colin who was the most challenging and kept asking when daddy was going to be done talking.

Monday was cool enough to go to the park in the morning, so we went to check out an addition to our favorite Castle Park.

We went to the White's house to swim that afternoon and then started to do their laundry and get them packed up.

I didn't get very many pictures and I started to feel bad, but then I realized it's because they never stopped moving.  

Never in my life have I had to say, "No playing war before 7am!".  

This was literally the only time I caught the boys still enough to get a picture.

But really, this is what was going on:

Did you notice the girls have not been in any of these pictures?  They were hiding in the school room most of the time, just reading or making bracelets.

Alright, we did sit down for a few minutes here and there.  Tolson was really missing his mommy and would ask me to snuggle quite a bit, which made Colin a little jealous so he would jump in too.

It was a loud, crazy, couple of days and our dishwasher broke in the middle of it all, but really I'm thankful that we have friends who trust us with their kids and I'm sure someday I'll miss being woken up in the morning by shooting sounds and swords hitting.

Colin's 6th Birthday

Alison stayed up late the night before to decorate the house and make Colin's birthday shirt.  She is becoming quite the party planner.

We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

Ben had to go into work for the morning, so we spent the time cooking Colin's birthday treats.  Eli helped me make the M&M cookie bars.

Colin helped me make the pudding for the dirt cake.

When daddy finally got home (I thought Colin might burst waiting for his return), we went out to lunch.  Colin requested the restaurant with the flame on the sign and the really yummy french fries.  It took us some time to figure out he meant Flat Top Grill, a little local place that we've only been to a couple of times.

Then Colin opened presents.

So many great things!  We let each of the kids get him a present.  Eli picked Lego's and a book.  Every single time we go to the library (which is at least once a week) the boys try to find this book and have checked it out a million times.  It's just a simple counting book with race cars but it's been a favorite for a long time.

Alison got him a bag full of candy :)

Trying to smile with a mouth full of candy:

The boys built Lego's for the afternoon.  Colin had lots of things to tell Daddy while they built, like how he felt his body growing into a 6 year old.

The White's came over that afternoon to stay with us for 5 days while Laurel and Brian took their turn at a little getaway.  Ben lined them up to give the official rules of the house.

We got them settled in, played pin the tail on the donkey and then had a water fight.

It was all fun and games until we realized the water balloons were too small and they really hurt to be hit with.

Ben and I win parent points for being outside with the kids when it was 110°.  After everyone was done and cleaning up, Colin and Tolson just sat on the slip and slide, shooting their water guns.

No birthday is complete without pizza!

Colin actually did not touch his dessert.  He said the pudding was too cold, but I really think he was sugared out from all the candy.

We ended the evening with a round of musical chairs.

Getting ready for bed, I realized that I was "babysitting" a girl who is taller than me...it was a very strange feeling.  How did this stage of life come so quickly?

I think Colin enjoyed his day.  We tried to make it the best day possible, but his requests were hard to measure up to.  His dream party involved us renting 5 of the blow up men stores put up for advertisements and putting them all over the backyard, creating an obstacle course.  Whoever could make it through the course without getting touched by the blow up man, would win a candy trophy.  He also asked we get boots for everyone that make them able to walk on walls and we would play tag on the side of the house.  I wish I had an ounce of his imagination.

Happy Birthday Colin!!!

Eli's last basketball game

Eli's game was at noon...it was 107°...and there was no air conditioning.  Thankfully they made it a short game, but it was not the most comfortable experience.

Ben was on a work trip, so Colin recorded for him.

I made a rookie mistake and forgot to push the record button on the most amazing play by Eli, but let's just say he has grown so much in the game this season and it has been so fun to watch him play.

I'm not a sports person, but I was honestly sad to see this season end. 

We all survived!

 

 Right after the game, they had an end of season party at the pool. 

Participation awards are getting out of control!

Perhaps the best thing that came out of basketball season was Eli making a new friend.  As we came to the last week of practice, Eli realized that meant he would no longer see his team 3 times a week and asked us to help him figure out a way to still see Nathan, his closest friend there.  So I gave him a card to give to Nathan with my information on it so his mom could call and we could set up a play date.  As we left practice, Eli asked, "So is that it?  Are we best friends for life now?".  I chuckled and he asked very seriously, "Why are you laughing?"  Thankfully Nathan's mom did call and we are able to keep the boys in contact :)

Friday Favorites

This is by far my most favorite sight:

 This was all on their own initiative; I started cooking dinner and they all jumped in to help and ended up doing all the work.  LOVE IT.  The boys made chicken strips and Alison diced peaches.  Now that I look at the picture, it's pretty funny...Alison's in a sweatshirt, Colin's in pj's and Eli is shirtless. Oh well, they ate a good dinner that night, that's all I remember.

I spent some birthday money on a hammock stan.

Ben brought home a hammock from Panama on his first deployment and we haven't had a place to hang it, although there have been many attempts.  This thing was the best invention!

The boys took helping me assemble it very seriously.

 

Man, does Eli ever wear clothes?  Maybe I've gotten so used to it that I don't even notice anymore.

Works like a charm and has been a huge hit!

 

There may have been a few arguments about whose turn it was to sit in it, but finding kiddos curled up in it reading is worth every penny.

Don't worry, I got my turn too and let Ben have a good laugh; I watched a show on my ipad while swinging in it...in our house.  Another big project came along, so we moved it outside today.  Even in the 100's the kids wanted to be out there :)

We are officially a camping family!

We took the plunge to invest in some camping gear, but really we invested in entertainment for our kids.  Big boxes=hours of building houses and playing.  I'm pretty sure we could never step foot on a camp site and they would still be happy.

The boys built a house and the long box was their canoe.  Alison tried to turn it into a jewelry shop, so now it's half boys cave and half jewelry shop.

 

Friday Favorites

One of our new favorites is the show 'Who Was' on Netflix.  It's a fun kid show about historical people and it has fit perfectly with our history this year.  It's also a favorite because all 3 kiddos like it!  That's huge in this house (Alison is past most educational shows, but still enjoys this one).  It has come in handy some school days where we might be needing some extra down time, but still want to be learning. 

Homeschool Thoughts from a Public School Teacher

We were at a church BBQ on Memorial Day, when I heard across the room,

"If you can homeschool, you should definitely do that."
   

My ears perked up, especially when I realized that it came out of the mouth of a public school teacher to a dad of small children.  I was too intrigued to let it go.  While I see this gentleman every week at church, I have never had a conversation with him and decided this was the perfect time to change that.  I had to apologize for eavesdropping but asked if he could please share with me his thoughts on education.  He graciously talked with me as he nibbled his corn-on-the-cob.

It was one of the most interesting conversations I've ever had.  Here is a man, who has been a high school math teacher for nearly 20 years, and doesn't agree with government education.  On average, students come to him at a 4th grade math level; if he's lucky, 7th.  He can't fail students, or he gets fired.  He also can't give too much extra help, or it shows favoritism and he'll get fired.  So, he has been working 80 hours a week, for years, to figure out the weak spots of hundreds of students, calling their parents and trying to guide them through fixing those weak spots, all under the radar so he can keep his job.  Some parents really appreciate it and some want him to leave them alone.  The often unsaid truth is, there is a lot of just pushing kids through the system; school administration needs good test scores and graduating kids and parents just want their kids done.

 So why are students at such a low level of math, with many holes in their education?  Problems rose with the introduction to common core because in essence, it watered down the material so that all students could meet the same standards.  This teacher says he encourages parents to file complaints with the school administration to change curriculum.  Perhaps his most interesting point of the discussion came in the section; the new teachers he's seeing come into education are not prepared to teach.  Is it possible that this is the fruit of the weak system?  Think about it...students who are getting watered down education their whole life and then are trying to teach on that...it's definitely something to mull over.

Some families do want to make the effort to fix the math problem so that the student can go to college.  I asked what percentage of students he sees go on to college now and it was a tough question for him to answer.  There's a handful that do go, but aren't necessarly on the path for success there.

There's another handful that want to go and shouldn't.  And there's yet another handful that don't go, but should.  Over all, he says, there is a lack of initiative and drive in learning.

On another note, he has seen many instances where homeschoolers have come to high school, completely unprepared educationally and socially.  It is a sad truth that sometimes homeschool really does mean NO SCHOOL.  I tried to play devils advocate a little and countered that maybe it's simply that what is being taught at home is vastly different than curriculum in government schools.  For instance, if I put my kids in public school right now, they would have no idea some of the "common core" concepts.  His rebuttal was that while they wouldn't know specific things, with basic educational skills, they could catch on quickly.  While he doesn't agree with government being the one to rule over homeschooling, he feels like there does need to be some kind of accountability for parents.

The social part of that is for a whole other post, but making sure our kids are prepared for college is a huge thing for me, so I asked what he thought were essential to get students on that path for success in college.  He said:

1. Create a learning environment at home, so learning is something that is always happening.

2. MULTIPLICATION TABLES.  Coincidentally, teachers now are giving students calculators in 4th grade because they have them on their phones anyway and they figure they'll just use them on homework.  My jaw dropped when he told me that.

3. Keep your kids around a variety of people.

This girl will be going to college in 7 years!  All the more reason I titled this blog 'Soak It Up' because that's just what I'm going to do for these short years I have with her.