Summer Time

The last two weeks have been very busy.  I decided I needed to take time to write tonight, or it might be another week before I have time to sit here.  With all four kids at home we have been a bit crazy at times.  It has been fun to have everyone around.  We have had fun discussions, have done experiments, read books together and played in the water.  All around, it is being a fun summer. 

I have enjoyed my early morning walks.  I get up and go during the six o’clock hour in the morning.  Often the kids are still sleeping when I get back, so it is quiet and they don’t miss me.  I enjoy the time to myself and also getting the exercise in.  I know it helps me physically and mentally to get through the day.

So much happens around here, but I thought I would share a few high lights of the last couple of weeks.  Andrew put together a 1000 piece puzzle with a picture of USA history things on it.  Neal, Ruth and I helped with it some, but Andrew did the most.  It actually was easier than it sounds.  Because the picture had writing on it and was easy to orient the pieces, you knew what direction the piece would go, it made it easier to place it.

Ruth was assigned to give a talk in Primary.  I reminded her about it and then I kinda forgot about it.  Sunday morning I asked if she had it ready, she said she did.  I was conducting Relief Society so I wasn’t able to go hear her.  Neal got busy with doing things in the clerk office so we both missed hearing Ruth give her talk.  After church she read it to me.  I thought it was pretty good that my 10 year old could write and give a talk without input from her parents.  She did say that there were only 4 kids in senior primary that day, so it wasn’t a big deal.  With families moving from our ward and others on vacation our primary has been very small this month.

Spencer is learning how to read.  He is doing so well.  He likes to get out books and sound out the words.  He likes to play doggies with Caleb.  They pretend they are doggies and crawl all over the house saying “woof, woof.”  Sometimes I think that Caleb believes he is a dog.  He will just bark at me when I ask him something.  He even pants and rubs his head against me when I hold him.  Caleb also likes to say “I am really goofy” when he does something silly.   He also likes to count backwards from 5, then pounce on something or blow something up.  He is very active and likes to do things by himself, which means we also get lots of messes to deal with.  Spencer likes to snuggle with me and will climb onto my lap and curl up.  He still needs lots of affection and attention. 

I bought the kids spray bottles.  They had some friends who had them to play with and they had been wanting them.  They put water in them and go outside, spraying each other and other things in the yard.  They have really liked playing with them.  And, they have left the hose alone.  They aren’t making mud puddles either.  It is nice to get them interested in other water play that doesn’t have anything to do with mud.

We went to the children museum.  It was fun to play with friends and see their summer special exhibit “Goosebumps” talking about why we are afraid.  We have enjoyed going to the library special activities.  We saw a fun magic show and a “mad scientist” show with some cool experiments.  The kids have also been filling out reading logs to earn free treats.  We have gotten free donuts and ice cream so far.  They earn a coupon from a fast food place for every log they fill out, over 8 need to read 5 books and under 8 read 10 books.  Ruth has been reading about one chapter book a day and Andrew just goes through the books on our shelf looking for ones he can read by himself, his reading has improved so much.  He even reads silently now.

Last week I took the kids down to visit with my brother Doug who is living in the Houston area.  We haven’t been to their house since they moved from the Dallas area.  It was an adventure to drive there and back.  The kids did great with the long ride, it took a little over 3 hours.  It wasn’t too bad because most of it was through farming country.  It was a pretty ride.  On the way home we stopped in College Station at a park and played and watched the ducks and geese in the pond.

It was fun to visit with Doug and his family.  I enjoyed the visiting time.  The kids enjoyed playing in their pool!  Doug and I also went to the Houston Temple friday evening.  We enjoyed listening to a choir concert with a group Jenna is in.  It was a nice trip, but we missed Neal being with us.  Saturday evening we went out to dinner as a family, with Neal, to have some fun family time too.

Monday our friends invited us over to play in their pool.  The kids loved having more pool time.  I think I had enough pool time to last all summer.  I am just not a one who enjoys being in the water.  I am glad that the kids had fun with it and could gain confidence with swimming.

I am thankful for my family and that I can spend time with my sweet kids.

Caleb loves playing at the piano, Andrew is getting better with his music.  A short video showing their talents. 

We put this together in two days.

Playing in the heat of Houston

Pool time at Doug's house

Andrew loved jumping into the pool.

The Houston Temple

At at park in College Station 

Our Anniversary

I think the late afternoon is the hardest time for me.  The kids are getting tired, they are a bit bored of the activities of the day, they are tired, and it is too hot to send them outside!  I hope we survive another hot summer.  The last couple of days it has heated up a lot.  It is definitely summer time.  The kids seem to be attracted to water and mud.  It has been frustrating to me that they keep getting into it.  We have been doing our summer school time after lunch.  They seem to like doing things with me.  We have already read one short chapter book together and are working on keeping everyone up on their math skills.  Caleb is working on learning his alphabet.   This week I have started teaching him the “Days of the week” song I know.  He will come up to me and ask me to “sing Sunday.”  He is trying really hard to learn it.  Maybe it will be his favorite soon!

Our garden is getting hot and slowing down in production.  We are starting to get tomatoes and cucumbers that have been tasty.  We have had so much yellow squash this year.  We have enjoyed sharing it with some older members of our ward.  I have enjoyed going for walks first thing in the morning, like I did last summer.  I usually am back home before all the kids are awake.  It works well because it isn’t too hot outside at that time either.  I had to close up all the windows with the double panes yesterday, we are past the open window weather.  

Last Thursday was our 11^th anniversary.  On Wednesday Neal came home with a dozen red roses.  They have been so pretty to look at.  

Friday I took the kids to the spray pad to play.  We brought a Little Caesars pizza with us to eat and had fun playing in the water with friends.  

We signed up for the library summer reading program.  The kids have all been excited about reading books.  Andrew sat on his bed one day for over an hour reading!  Spencer has been working hard at reading beginner books and is doing a great job.  They were happy to turn in their first completed reading logs today at the library and receive donut and ice cream coupons.  I hope they can keep their excitement for reading going.  Ruth has decided that Nancy Drew books are wonderful.  I bet she will read all 60 something books this summer.  This morning we went to the park for a library summer party.  They had lots of carnival type games the kids enjoyed.  I could tell it was hot and humid because I was dripping in sweat just watching them play. 

Friday evening we went to the park for dinner. The group that Neal works with were gathered together with their families for a dinner together.  It was nice to meet the men that Neal works with.  The kids had fun playing at the park too.  The weather that day was so nice too, a storm system had been around and the weather was cooler and drier than normal. Andrew had brought his basket ball so we could shoot some baskets at the hoop there.  He had fun with that.  It made me wish we had a basket on our drive way for him to play at.

Caleb has been having bad dreams that wake up him between 1-3 in the night most nights.  He cries and has a hard time falling back to sleep.  So sometimes he will come wake me up 3 or 4 times and I hug him and send him back to bed.  Then once in a while it is bad enough that I let him sleep by me, that way we can both get back to sleep.  I hope this phase passes soon and we can get back to sound sleep at night.

Sunday was a nice day.  It rained in the morning, which actually cooled things down.  It felt nice all day.  In the afternoon Ruth wanted to make cookies.  She did all the measuring and most the work.  I just helped run the mixer and do the oven for her.  It is fun that she is wanting to learn more about cooking. That evening we went outside and let the kids chase fireflies.  They had so much fun watching them light up and catching them.  They were putting them into a little plastic container to watch.  It was fun to watch the kids, laughing squealing with delight and being so excited.  

Sunday I also found out my cousin died.  It was a bit of a shock to me for some reason.  It isn’t like I have been close to her in recent years though.  I haven’t seen her since our grandpa’s funeral in 1986.  But for some reason it really affected me that day.  She was only 18 months older than me and I have many memories of us playing together as children.  I guess it was hard to think that someone my age had passed on.  I am so thankful for family and the blessings we have when living the gospel.  I can feel peace and know that all will be right.

Neal has been busy this week with work.  Monday evening he decided to lay down on the couch after we put the kids to bed.  I think he was just planning on resting a bit before working on some things around the house before going to bed.  Well, he slept until 5:30 the next morning.  I guess he was tired.  He works hard trying to keep up with everything.  I appreciate all that he does.  

Happy Summer Vacation!

Today was the last day of school.  The kids are now sitting outside on the porch having a Hubbard kid summer club meeting, discussing all the things they want to do this summer.  I can hear them through the window and am enjoying that they are friends.  I hope we do have a great summer.  We have lots of plans for activities and science experiments they want to do.  I hope we can see many of our family too.

This morning was Kindergarten graduation.  Spencer was very excited about it.  He dressed up and got ready for school early.  He was fun to watch on the stage as they sang songs.  He had a big smile on his face when his name was called.  And he had a huge hug for me when I met him in his class room.  I am glad that he had a good start to his school years.  

Monday I went to the school for award ceremonies for the other kids.  They both did well.  Ruth had straight A’s and advanced performance recognition of the state STAAR test.  Andrew had A/B honor roll and had passed off all his math facts.  These were memorized timed tests for addition and subtraction.  He also had worked on multiplication and got up to his 4x table.  They were both happy that I came to watch them get their awards.  Andrew was excited he got the math facts passed off because he then earned playing kick ball yesterday.  Yesterday Andrew’s 2^nd grade group also had a Luau to celebrate the end of their Hawaii unit. 

Last Friday was science day at the school.  Each grade rotated around to different classrooms to do science experiments and have some fun.  They were so excited about all the different things they had done.  Ruth liked the earth quake discussion with cookies and frosting.  Andrew liked watching a pop bottle explode with a volcano discussion.  Spencer came home with some slim to play with.  It was a fun activity to end school with.

Last Thursday evening we went to the school for a GT showcase.  They had art work from all the GT kids on display.  Ruth was happy to see things her friends had made and talk to her teachers.  I had a parent conference with the GT teachers yesterday and enjoyed talking to them about how Ruth has grown in her learning and has matured in her behavior.  Tuesday Ruth went on a big field trip.  They drove to Austin and were able to go to a big Texas history museum to end their year of studying Texas history.  Saturday afternoon Ruth was able to spend with her friend Ashleigh.  The girls had fun painting their nails and decorating cup cakes.  It was a fun afternoon for them.

Also on Saturday the family went to the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco for the L-3 family party.  You know you work for a big company when they rent out the city zoo for an activity!  There were a lot of people there too.  We got there early and were able to go see all the animals and enjoy walking around together.  L-3 had ice cream and cold water out for us to enjoy and we did. Then we went to the main pavilion and they had lunch for us.  A BBQ restaurant had catered the lunch and we had some good BBQ brisket and sausage with beans and potato salad. We were all stuffed after eating.  I was glad we had already looked at all the animals because it was starting to get hot and there seemed to be more people coming all the time.  It was nice to spend the time together as a family.  We dropped Ruth off at her friends home on the way home from the zoo.  Later when I went to pick up Ruth I stopped at a shoe store to get her new church shoes.  She had been complaining of toes getting pinches.  Her old ones were size 5, we bought a size 7.  I guess she was ready for new ones!  She is going to have long feet if she is already in women sizes at age 10!

That afternoon boys helped Neal do yard work.  The big project was cutting down the tree that I mentioned before.  Neal was able to do it safely with ropes, sand bags as a counter weight, and a chain saw.  The boys stood back to watch.  When the tree was on the ground the boys helped to clean up the area.  Andrew especially was a good helper carrying branches out of our neighbors yard into our yard.  It was good to get the tree down.  They were able to get the neighbors yard cleaned up and the fence put back up by night fall.  Monday Neal worked more on getting our yard cleaned up.  He has cut up all the big pieces and has it stacked up in the back yard for use as fire wood in the winter.  We still have the leafy branches to get rid of.  The kids are having fun playing with them right now.  Saturday night we had some rain.  I slept through the storm and didn’t realize it had rained until Sunday morning when I noticed things looked wet and I looked in our rain catcher and found we had 1/2 inch of rain!  I guess I was tired and slept soundly.  Ruth said she woke up in the night hearing thunder and rain.

Sunday afternoon we were outside looking at things and the boys were climbing all over the tree.  Caleb climbed on a big log and then was trying to get down and tripped and fell, hitting his face on another log.  (It didn’t help that he was wearing Ruth’s sandals, so his feet were flopping around.)  He got a huge bump on his forehead, we put ice on it and helped him.  I am thankful he is doing just fine and hasn’t had any problems.  It is looking sore still, but much better.  We kept it covered for two days to protect it and help the scratches to heal.  Caleb has been enjoying helping me water the flowers and likes to go out and turn on the hose.  He insists that the flowers need a drink all the time.  I let him help me when I do it.  He also likes to help when I put the sprinklers out on the lawn or garden.  He will go pick up the wet sprinkler when I need to move it, so my shoes don’t get all wet.  He is a good helper.

Last Thursday I watched the Baker boys for a couple hours.  It went well.  The baby slept the whole time.  We were sad that we didn’t get to play with him.  I was also able to do some sewing that day.  I finished making Ruth some pajamas and I also made her some shorts to wear under her new skirt out of the same fabric her skirt is made from.  

Yesterday I bottled 7 pints of sweet cherries.  I had bought them through the Bountiful Basket program for about $1.60 a pound.  They tasted good and now we have some for later. Today we went to the library and got the kids signed up for the summer reading program.  I hope that things can go well this summer.  I feel blessed to spend the time with my children.

Ruth with her GT teacher, Mrs. Ashenfelter, and by her art work at the GT showcase

The family at the zoo

We discovered a new giraffe statue at the zoo, so of course we had to take pictures. 

The happy butterflies.

And the tree came down. (see previous post to see the upright tree)

Ruth getting her awards, she is shaking hands with the vice principle 

Ruth with her home room teacher, Mrs. Tomecek

Caleb with his sores from falling on the tree trunk. 

Andrew was sitting right in front of us at the award ceremony.  Then he is getting his awards from the vice principle 

First Day of School back in August!

Last Day of School! Ruth wore the same clothes on purpose that she had worn on the first day of school.  Caleb just happens to be wearing the same shirt!  It is his favorite one. 

Spencer graduating from Kindergarten, he is in white shirt shaking hands with the principle

Spencer with his class on the stage

Spencer with his friend at school

Spencer in the class room at his table, with Caleb and his sore head.

Spencer with his teacher Mrs. Fajardo

 Spencer and Caleb in front of the school.