Musical Beds

I feel like we play this game every few months! We have tried to put certain kids in a room together and give other kids their own room, and in the end they somehow make their way back to the room they want to be in. It all started back in December when we decided to have the girls share a room, instead of Emma and Matthew sharing. Matthew was keeping Emma up late and she was exhausted every day when she went to school. So, we made the switch. And it only lasted a few weeks. Matthew thought it was pure torture to have his own room (he and Emma have shared since he was a day old) and Emma didn't like that she had nobody to talk to. When I pointed out that Ellie can talk, she responded with, "yeah, but I can never understand her". So, she was allowed to sleep in Matthew's room on weekends. And that slowly turned into "just one more night", which eventually turned into Emma moving right back into his room. Sigh...

So, fast forward a few months. Surprise! We've found out we're expecting another baby. I really didn't want to have Ellie sharing a room with the baby, but there was no convincing Emma that it would be fun to share with the baby. And Matthew wasn't going anywhere either. So, we toyed with the idea of having the 3 of them share...but every time we put Ellie in with them, it turned into play time that stretched into all hours of the night. Fun for them...not for us. We spent the entire summer battling this sleeping situation. Ellie REALLY wanted to sleep in the kids room. Sleeping in her own room became a form of punishment. So, we kept letting her try. Sometimes she was able to stay and sleep with them. Other times she would end up back in her room. And now, with one month left before baby arrives, we're pretty much still where we started, but with a few more sleeping variations thrown in for fun.

Matthew usually ends up in the toddler bed that we bought for Ellie...he says he sleeps better there than on his bunk bed...

And Ellie insists on sleeping on Emma's bed (see her there in the red and white?). They often end up in awkward looking positions with Ellie slung over some part of Emma, or Emma's feet resting somewhere on Ellie, but it works...except for the nights that we see Ellie wander out of the room after the kids fall asleep. She slowly carries her pillow, blankets, and other miscellaneous items to her room and puts herself to bed there. Sometimes it's in the twin bed, and recently she has started climbing up into the crib to sleep....agghh! No! I'm beyond the point of worrying or caring anymore because it'll probably all change again before the baby comes. :)

And that my friends is the story of our musical beds.

The Summer That Never Slowed Down

Every year as the school year is coming to an end, I panic a little. I am always ready for summer to come...for a slower pace and to have some down time with my kids. But, I always worry that we are going to be bored out of our minds. Somehow, our summers always fill up and before I know it, school is starting and I have NO idea what we did or where the time went from June to August. This year was no exception. More often than not I found myself stressed and exhausted, wishing that we could have just one day where we didn't have anywhere to go or anything to do. It was a pretty insane summer! So, since blogging was the lowest priority on my list (and I just haven't had the brain power for it this pregnancy), here are some of the highlights of our summer. 

-Emma and Matthew took swim lessons again through our city's rec department. They did one 2 week session last summer and loved it...but I swore off ever doing it again because it gets to be so much to get everyone ready and drive to the other side of town every single day in the middle of the day for a half hour lesson. But, somehow I found myself signing them up again...They ended up doing 2 sessions this time (even though I swore up and down we were only going to do one...ha!) because they were both doing so well and making a lot of progress. Emma moved up two levels and Matthew moved up one. They are little fish! 

- Emma also started taking piano lessons from one of her very favorite people from church, Sister Park. It has been a really positive experience. She is flying through her books (and actually skipped a few of the beginner ones because her teacher said she was too advanced for them) and making a lot of progress. She still voluntarily practices, sometimes multiple times a day. I know it'll end eventually, so we're taking advantage of it for now.  :)

- Matthew started gymnastics and loves being able to go with Emma. And I love that one day a week they get to go get some serious energy out! 

- Jon went on a million and two campouts with the scouts...and they somehow seemed to line up for 2 or 3 weekends in a row, multiple times during the summer. I'm not going to lie, I definitely hit a point early on in the summer where I hated the scouting program! Four days on a high adventure, followed by a two day campout the next weekend, and 5 days at scout camp the next week was more than enough for me...and Jon. 

- In the middle of the campout craziness, Jon and I were able to sneak away for a night. Jon's parents took the kids so we could have a relaxing getaway before baby comes. Because of Jon's crazy schedule and the fact that we HAD to get a new car before our big family reunion road trip, we ended up spending our "relaxing" weekend car shopping. But we got a car and were so happy to have that done and out of the way.

- Between friends and the YMCA, we were able to go swimming quite a bit. The kids have been in heaven! We had a heat wave for a couple weeks at the beginning of the summer and all the water time was a life saver! I don't think we left the house at all during those two weeks, except to go swimming or hang out in various air conditioned stores. 

- We attempted to do summer school. I had all these great plans and ambitions to have school time and do fun projects, read, get Matthew practicing his reading and writing...and yeah...that lasted about 2 days. I am a little bummed that it didn't happen. Emma was especially excited about it and I felt horrible letting her down. Sigh...maybe next year...

- I've survived my first summer being huge and pregnant. I've always sworn I would NEVER have a fall or winter baby...and I've been reminded a million times over this pregnancy why I said that. Hot weather, lazy mornings, pregnancy brain, and exhaustion are just not a good combination when you're home with 3 kids who have endless energy all summer. We've definitely had more screen time than I hoped we would, but we've all survived.  :)

- Emma and Matthew did their first ever summer camp. It was through the Lutheran church where they both went to preschool and it was a lot of fun for them. Several of their friends also went, and they spent a week doing fun projects, learning lots of new songs and games, and playing hard. They LOVED it...we hope we can do it again next year.

- We took our biggest family road trip yet for my family's reunion in New Mexico. It was an overall good experience, and the kids did amazingly well, for as long as we were on the road. But, this trip gets it's own post...hopefully sooner than later!

Last day of school...my goodness, that feels like FOREVER ago.

All ready for the 4th of July

Our new (to us) van....LOVE!

Jon won an iPad mini in a drawing at work! Sweet!

Turbo Day at Dreamworks...they always do a big lunch party the day a new movie is released.

At the end of summer camp, they had an ice cream social. The kids sang several songs for us and then we chatted and ate ice cream. It was fun to meet their new camp friends.

This was me at 31 weeks...I'm now 35 weeks and feel like a blimp. So ready to be done!

Silly faces courtesy of Jason and Lindsay.  :)

School FINALLY starts this Wednesday, and I'm pretty sure I'm more than ready. It's  been a good summer and I've definitely loved all the down time, especially since I've been so tired. I'm looking forward to the routine though, and the kids are so excited to be heading back to school.