My girls

Recently I looked up some photos of Katy when she was Anna's age just for fun. But it was a little jaw-dropping for me. I felt like, if not for the setting of the photos, I wasn't sure I would be able to tell which baby was which?

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

I just had to throw this in there, because look at the baby cousins!

A - Anna
B - Katy
C - Katy
D - Anna
E - Katy
F - Anna
G - Katy
H - Katy
I - Anna

I know it's super obvious because of the Christmas pictures and my old camera giving her constant red eye, but I don't know...it's surreal to look at those pictures of Katy and think...wait...which baby?

School starts in two days: photo dump!

Summer has given the boys a lot of bonding time. They did not actually sleep, but even pretending is nice for a few minutes.

Mini-golf with Grandpa and Grandma Sue (at a former teenage stomping ground of mine)

So nice and shady - truly pleasant!

So competitive.

Hanging out with Great Grandma Martha

One afternoon they all wanted to skate at the same time. You other mamas know this represents 20 minutes of sweat to get all this equipment on. But worth it for this cuteness.

All Aunt Mel wants for her birthday is a homemade dinner and for my mom to make a cake. Done.

Annual trip to the zoo and Jungle Jack's Landing. The new attraction this year is Dinosaur Island. I didn't have high expectations for it, but it was the kids' favorite activity of the day, and Brian said it was actually pretty impressive. (Yes, the dinosaurs are spitting on them. Eww.)

My trooper of a husband. I didn't get a wrist band for me because Anna couldn't ride anything so I had to stay with her. He enjoys some of the rides but we're getting a little old for the spinning ones, you know what I'm sayin'?

Clutch. Poor baby was so good.

We were really proud of Luke and David. Katy is fearless and we knew she would ride anything (roller coaster, log ride, swinging pirate ship, bumper cars, you name it). But David got up his courage and rode everything that Katy rode - he was nervous to do the roller coaster but ended up going alone 4 times in a row when no one else was in line. And Luke - we almost didn't buy him a wrist band because he tends to be really timid and I wondered if he would just refuse to ride anything. But if Brian went with him, he rode everything that he was tall enough to ride. I couldn't believe it! Even the swings. He never wanted to ride anything a second time, though. :)

For part of the day, Luke, Anna and I went and did some calmer rides (train, carousel) and see some animals while the big kids rode their hearts out on all the bigger rides. He was really good, especially since he skipped his nap. We got our traditional Culver's afterward and he fell asleep in the car at 4pm on the way home.

Teething much? She kept opening her mouth and chomping toward his hat.

Updates/Stats/Anna at 6 months

Summer! Oh, summer, how you escape me! I literally canNOT believe that school starts next week. NEXT WEEK!! I keep reminding myself, though, especially when I look at my summer bucket list with several fun things that we never got around to, that there are still a good 8 weeks or more of warm weather, even if school is in session. So we can still be doing fun things for awhile, I hope.

Lots of updates. The biggest (most time consuming) update is that the patio is D.O.N.E. (Well, we are currently trying to grow grass around the outside, but that takes time. And lots of watering. But other than that.)

Brian worked his God-fearing tail off building this patio. I am forever amazed at his work ethic. And he's been so tired because he's really busy at work and we're trying to do summer fun, and you know...also the four children. But a couple of pictures... (incomplete because I can't get to my real-camera files right now - just Brian's phone photos)

Once the stones arrived, I couldn't believe how quickly it came together. It was like a big puzzle.

Two days to lay all the leveling sand, stones, makes cuts for the corners and steps, and fill in with the anti-weed sand. Shew!

I quickly did my part and filled it with stuff. (I'm most excited that we moved the sandbox so I can see if from the kitchen window. Game changer.)

First meal on the new patio!

So we love it!! Thank you to my wonderful husband for doing all that labor so that we could afford such a beautiful patio. 

Random photo of Luke - I love that we have room on the basement floor for set-ups like this now that we've purged so much stuff.

Katy ended up loving Girl Scout camp. It was actually the best experience she has had in a long time. No hesitation going each morning, talking excitedly about what she's going to do, what she did yesterday, making sure we packed the proper supplies for each day. God bless those leaders - camp is not easy to run! And they are all volunteers!

Rotate, darn it! Oh, well, you get the idea. It's quite the process to get ready for camp each morning - sunscreened and hair covered and body bug sprayed, ankles covered, water bottle frozen, lunch packed, mess kit clean, extra clothes, and on and on. And it all comes home soggy and smelly. 

This weekend Katy and David had a super fun weekend away at Grandpa and Grandma Sue's house. We were trying to remember the last time they stayed overnight without us - it's been a few years. Dad and Sue planned lots of fun activities for them and they had an absolute blast. They went to the county fair, dug for fossils at a local reserve, saw a movie, ate picnics, and had a good ol' time. I also appreciated the chance for Katy and David to do big kid stuff without the Littles holding them back.

The rest of us visited great-grandparents on both ends of the trip and stayed a night with Dad and Sue as well. I will share more pictures later, but for now I love this one of two mini-golfers who are disappointed with their performance on the green. 

School update: We did find out that David is in PM kindergarten with a teacher who is new to the district (but not a brand new teacher). Here's hoping for a good kindergarten experience. Unfortunately, the 3 families that I know with kindergarteners were all assigned to AM. But oh, well, we'll meet new people, I'm sure.

Stats and Anna update:  Three of the kids had well visits in the last week.  Here are some peanut stats:

Katy at 7 years:
43 pounds (10 %'ile)
44.5 inches (5 %'ile) - (but tall enough to ride a new set of rides of Jungle Jacks!)

Luke at 3 years:
29 pounds (25 %'ile)
36.5 inches (25 %'ile)

Anna at 6 months:
14 pounds, 12 ounces (20 %'ile)
26 inches (45 %'ile)

Before she turns 7 months, let's talk about Anna at 6 months old! She rolls around in both directions and has been sleeping through the night (shhh!! may not stick!) for several weeks. She doesn't support herself in sitting, I think she just prefers to stand up. She really does not care to eat cereal or solid food. She's still nursing pretty often throughout the day (every 2-3 hours) but considering she doesn't eat and sleeps so long at night, I'm fine with it. She got her first TWO teeth on the same day just a week ago. She's been a little more fussy and clingy lately, preferring for mom to hold her most of the time that she's awake. Her siblings are the best at making her laugh. I wish I could get it on video! She's at that perfectly precious baby stage - so chubby and smiley and cute. Love my baby girl!