Part Three -- I'd Rather be Busy than Bored

The long-awaited part 3 to our mini-series of May -- and I'm getting it done before the end of June (although barely)! To say that so much has been happening would be a bit of an understatement. So, I'll finish up with May and perhaps if I have time I'll do some catching-up to the present as a little lagniappe for all of y'all.

But first, Memorial Day weekend. As I mentioned before, we decided to get the heck out of dodge for the weekend to allow the house to stay clean and to have some fun with my family. We headed up to Sarah's house and aside from multiple threats to the children that we would have to leave if their behaviour didn't improve, we managed to have quite a fabulous time. And since they only live about 45 minutes away from Kirtland, OH we decided to take advantage of the proximity and make our trip even more fabulous. We also thought it might be nice for my family to have a little break from us (and the madness that inevitably follows whenever my kids are around) on the Sunday afternoon while we packed in a little more bonding time for us.



It was really neat to see the Kirtland temple. We didn't actually take a tour of the inside because apparently that costs money and we didn't have any cash on us. Not to mention Ethan is our resident rule and commandment enforcer and probably would have freaked out if we were spending money on the Sabbath anyway. We walked around the visitor center and took a few snapshots in front and these were the best we came away with. Please note the extreme looks of happiness on all of their faces.






After the temple excursion, we drove over to Old Historic Kirtland (at least that's what I think it was called) which IS actually owned by our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and watched a short film and then went on a tour of the Newel K. Whitney store with a bigger group of people. Here's where things got a little messy. As I have discovered again and again, my children are spirited (a more in-depth post on this may or may not be forthcoming). And they don't do well when a.) they're off their regular schedule (which -- let's face it -- has been this entire summer), b.) they're not getting enough sleep (like when we've been spending a couple of nights away from home), c.) they're hungry (which is most often right at the end of the day before dinner time), and d.) they're hot (which is basically whenever we're outside these days).

There's nothing quite as fun as dealing with a melting down Grace in public. Let me just tell you. I can't decide which I love more -- the looks I get from other people who think I'm a terrible parent who can't teach their kid how to behave or the complete and total lack of control I feel when nothing I say or do will stop the storm of emotions in its track when one of the kids has had enough. To say that Grace had had enough while on the tour is an understatement. In retrospect, we really should have just picked up and left before we even started in the store. It was a super hot day, we'd already been out and about for a few hours, it was the end of the day, everyone was tired and hungry, and Grace was already showing signs of deterioration (see picture below). In the end though, it was my stubbornness that probably brought everything to a head. So, yes. It was mostly my fault. I had never been to Kirtland before and I really wanted to hear about everything. Ethan was interested as well, and when I finally had to pick Grace up practically kicking and screaming while in the School of the Prophets to physically remove her and her distractions from the room, he threw a pretty big fit himself. On the plus side, Scott was already outside with the baby so there were 2 less people making an embarrassing exit than there could have been. On the down side, Scott was outside with the baby and unable to help haul the remaining 3 children out of the building with as little distraction as possible. Fun times!






Once we were back at Sarah's house the peace was quickly restored once dinner was served and the rest of the vacation up there went fairly smoothly (minus one near-midnight incident of almost leaving to go home because of how abominably the kids were behaving while trying -- and failing -- to get them to go to sleep at bedtime). An attempt to go to a water park was made, a Memorial Day barbecue was had, and lots of cousin bonding was done. All-in-all it was a really fun trip and we thank Sarah and Andrew for letting us come up.

Sophie, Grace, and Eleanor

Having a little barbecue picnic

Granny Nanny with some of her girlie bugs -- Grace, Eleanor, and Jane

Once home there were only 2 days left of school and on the last day for Grace, all the preschool classes had a picnic at the park. Here is a picture of Grace with her two teachers from this year -- Miss Eileen (on the left) and Miss Tracey (on the right). They have been so kind to her and Grace has loved her preschool experience. I have loved it as well.



During the first few days of Summer Vacation, Ethan helped us all out by creating our summer schedule. Here it is for Monday through Friday. I'm pretty sure he left nothing out. Hahahaha. I'm not quite sure how closely we'll be able to follow this considering we'll be nomads here in just a little bit, but we've tried our best while it's lasted.

{Sample Monday schedule: brekfast, brush teeth, scriptrue time, chore time, nap time/play time, snack time, go to the ymca, lunch time, nap time and reading time, library time, pool time, quick pick up time, dinner time, book of mormon stories, brush teeth, bed time.

Exhausting, don't you think? And each day of the week is supposed to have a different afternoon activity. Monday is Library Day, Tuesday is Art Day, Wednesday is Park Day, Thursday is Music Day, and Friday is Movie Day. Oh and we also need to be getting ready to move in a couple of weeks. I bet you all wish you lived at my house. Hahahahaha.}

Perhaps the highlight of the summer so far occurred during a recent trip to the Salvation Army for some summer wardrobe pieces. Wednesdays are family day which means 50% off on pretty much all children's clothes and with 3 kids needing outfitting that equals some pretty good savings. Technically you could argue that Sophie didn't really need "new" clothes seeing as to how she has all of Grace (and Hannah's) hand-me-downs, but Sophie really loves to shop and she really loves dresses, so I took some pity on her and bought her a couple of things as well. Once we got home and I gave the clothes all a good washing, the kids could hardly wait to put them on. Here they are in their favorite outfits highlighting: an old-school lacoste shirt on Ethan, a rainbow colored bias-cut skirt from Gymboree for Grace, and a 2-in-1, shirt-jumper combo on Sophie that she couldn't wait to put on (and wouldn't take off for a few days straight).






And now a brief interlude as I give you the story of Puppy -- Lost and Found:


Once upon a time there was a little girl named Grace and she loved her little pink puppy junk more than all the others combined. They were practically inseparable except for when they were and a few months ago puppy got lost and she couldn't find him. It wasn't such a big deal at first because, after all, Grace had LOTS and LOTS of other junks but whenever she was especially tired or upset or distraught she would cry and cry for Puppy and this tugged on her mother's heart strings more than you would think. After searching high and low and after spring cleaning and organizing the whole entire house, her mother thought for sure that she'd find the little junk, but at the end of it all, there was still no Puppy to be found. Her mother racked her brain to think of when it possibly could have gotten lost and where it possibly could have been left but this was to no avail. Finally, after quite a few months, they were reading a story in the Friend magazine one Saturday morning about a little boy who lost something very important to him and then said a prayer to help him find it. When he finished his prayer he looked under his bed and lo and behold -- there was his special box.

After reading the story, her mother convinced Grace that perhaps if THEY said a prayer then Puppy would be found as well. Grace took a little time, but eventually gave in and knelt down and offered a quick prayer that "Puppy would be found." Now this put the mother in a bit of a pickle. On the one hand she wanted Grace to learn that Heavenly Father really does answer prayers -- because He does. But on the other hand she also knew that He doesn't always answer prayers right away or in the way we want them to be answered. Luckily, all was well 2 days later when she learned that she should have had more faith in a child's prayer. As she was putting clothes away in her son's room the thought came to her mind that she had never technically organized this room -- all of that had been left up to Ethan. Another thought came to check under HIS bed and after a quick look the long lost Puppy was finally found and brought down to Grace who was so happy she wanted to cry (but didn't because her mother foolishly tried to comfort her).

The End.

Puppy -- tucked in and dolled up next to Grace at bedtime.

Well, that's about it folks. The irony is that I thought I was going to be so on top of things with my update on May, and now June's over and there's plenty more to document about that as well -- such as: our house-hunting trip in St. Louis, Ethan's birthday celebration, keeping our house clean 24/7, and navigating the rocky waters of bedtime enforcement (as I type at 10:09 PM, 3 out of 4 children are STILL awake. AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!). Hopefully I'll be able to get a blog post up about all of that soon, but I wouldn't hold my breath considering we have the following on the docket: Scott's parents get back from their mission tomorrow and we're all going to Indiana for the 4th of July weekend, the week after that our moving trucks get here and we will need to be all ready to go, I'm flying my sister Amy up to help me drive down to New Orleans to visit for a week while Scott is working and we can't get into our new house yet, (we just might try and go to a beach while we're down there although we'll have to see what the oil spill is doing to those grand plans), we'll drive up to St. Louis just in time to unload and unpack and then repack for our trip out to Utah for a Family Reunion at the Aspen Grove Family camp, and then finally, FINALLY we'll be back home for good to settle in to our new city and get the kids (KIDS???) ready to start school the next week. Now I know you all REALLY wish you were hanging with us this summer. Hahahaha.

I'll leave you with a picture of my little artists hard at work on an oil pastel drawing of our house. Don't they all look so cooperative and manageable here?