Last and Final for June 2013

We had some extra littles in the house one week.  Sara was gone somewhere…now I can’t remember where….I think girls camp, and we got to have the girls a couple days that week. So we pulled out our summer to do list and checked a couple things off.

Lemonade in a Baggie….an old favorite!

Paper Bag Puppets.  An oldie….but new to my kids. 

And then we made a puppet theatre in the hall and the kids each gave each other shows. 



We just finished up another 8 week challenge and one of our challenges during the week was to make our meals match that of the myplate.gov  plate.  That was a little tricky for me as I don’t eat much grain or Dairy.  But I did my best to make it work. On the left, my Green (well brown), oatmeal with local honey and eggs with cheese.  Then on the right, Guacamole Chicken over Greens and Quinoa and Cheese.  Both were absolutely delish. I took the pictures to share with my team, but I never did.  Oh well.



Now, this picture below may not seem too significant to most….but to me, it’s HUGE!  Jayden does not do chores. He hates them. He is my child with a mind and determination of his own.  WE have worked on many different methods to try to get him to do chores. We finally found one that kinda works, but not daily.  Well one day, he said ‘mom, I want to do some extra jobs and earn some money”.  Knowing he wouldn’t last very long, I was like yeah, sure, whatever.  Next thing I know he is vacuuming his room.  He ended up doing like 6 jobs in a row!  I was so shocked I HAD to document it!  He was able to earn a couple bucks to go buy something at the $ store.  That’s when I realized money was his motivator. The kids get a quarter each day for doing 1 extra job (which is part of their chores on their chart).  I figure, let’s break up the quarter and let him have a more immediate reward. So we lay out 5 nickles on the counter and each time he finishes a job, he gets to put one in his bank.  Again, MOST days it works, there are still lots of days it doesn’t. It might be getting old, and we’ll just keep trying. But in the mean time at least I know he knows HOW to vacuum!!

  

The Sunday before 4th of July I lined the kids up for a picture.  Since the big kids crouched down, Emma had to too.  No matter how many times I tried to get her to stand, she refused to be modest. The little stinker.  She sure has a lot of Jayden in her.  They also look the most like me. Maybe it runs even deeper than looks.  Ya think?

And then there was home again…

Jayden was concentration really hard this particular day in school so I just sat there taking pictures of his studiousness….cute kid!

The first Saturday of each month we try to do dates with the kids.  My date with Maliyah was playing soccer at the park then going out for ice cream. We were already dressed for some Baptisms so we just threw on our Tennis Shoes and went to the park all fancy.


Savannah helping me make some cupcakes.  She’s like her mom. Loves chocolate.

I saw these cute little chicks at Walmart and when you hold them, they Peep.  I had to get one. I put him in a little bag and told the kids I had a surprise.  I put my hand in the bag and let him peep.  You should have seen the kids’ faces!  Lol, they love him. His name is squeaky, and they each take turns watching after him for a day.  Squeaky also brought a special treat for each of the kids to make sure he started out on their good side.  Emma got a little over possessive of him the first day, but she has learned to share since.
The kids wondered if this was a test to see if they were responsible enough to keep a pet.  Nope…just thought it would be fun. 

Savannah was mad at me about something so went to the corner to pout.  She has the best pouty faces.  By the time I got the camera out…we lost most of it.

Spending some one on one with this funny little girl can be….well…funny!  She CRACKS me up!~

Too bad that night she started puking and didn’t stop till the next morning!  I haven’t had a child that sick (puke, high fever, lethargic) for a really long time. It was soooo sad!  Happy that she is feeling better now….not so happy that she is not ALL the way better so she’s still super crabby, but no longer is satisfied with just sitting in mommy’s lap watching cartoons.
This last Thursday Maliyah and Kyson were gone at Juanita’s house (an elderly lady from church they spend 1-2 afternoons a week with…cleaning her house and playing card games), and both the little girls were sleeping so Jayden and I got a little one on one.  I let him skip quiet time and we made cookies.  I let him do LOTS of the work…including eating ALL The cookie dough he wanted.

Jaydens Birthday PIctures

So I mentioned last week that I was going to post Jaydens birthday party pictures this week because I wanted to combine them with any pictures of his actual birthday which was on Monday. Funny thing is I just realized I didn't take a single picture of him ON his birthday! I'm such a bad mom.

So here's a few from his birthday party. Happy Birthday Jayden. WE love you!

His choice for his birthday was to have a Rio party. He has been obsessed with birds lately.



He loved helping make his cupcakes.



 

Not pictured we made badges for the boys to take home and the girls got feathery hair bows. Then the kids painted frames and we made sticker decal things to go on them.

 

Then the kids glued feathers on the frames



Maliyah helped me make this mural on the wall (this was actually her idea) and then we took each of the kids' pictures and printed them to put in their frames.

  

We made rio bird balloons and had to pop them.



Some kids liked it. ......................................Others not so much. Jayden did NOT like it.

 

Instead of a pinata we filled paper bags with candy, glued a picture of Blu on the front and hung it in a mini hula hoop...kinda like a bird sitting on a swing in a cage. The picture was fun being thanksgiving time because it says "This turkey can't fly".



The kids had to throw bean bags, but we resulted in punching.


 

All in all Jayden LOVED his party and the best was when he woke up from his nap that day and everything for his party was all ready and he got to see it! He was so excited and noticed all the little details that I (er maliyah actually) put into this party. She is definitely becoming quite the little party planner! Wonder where she gets that from? ;)