June 2017

Summer is officially here and we're all very anxious and excited for school to be over. We've been spending more and more time at the water park, staying up later, and eating loads and loads of strawberries. It's heaven. The only thing that isn't heavenly is the heat and that reminds us of, well, the other extreme.

Hannah started working on memorizing some Shakespeare this month. She is a fan of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet, thanks to her friend Jackson. Hannah is a really good goal setter and has great follow through, so she's reading and learning a lot. She has a goal to improve her math skills, a goal to read more books, and a goal to try and stay off a screen for most of the summer. A goal I'll gladly help her accomplish.

Paige accomplished a huge goal in June. She earned the Golden Rule award in Mrs. Evarts class. She's been desperate to earn it all year long, but her feisty spirit makes being obedient difficult sometimes. Her teacher wrote me an email and in it said, 

"One of the things I hate about my job is that I have to mold pieces and parts of their personalities to fit into an "acceptable" ideal of what a child should be. Sometimes it is rough. Sometimes a child just isn't going to be guided into that mold. Sometimes they aren't ready for the mold, but sometimes they overflow the mold and create something even better.

"I believe that Paige is overflowing with awesome! The things I love about Paige are the things that don't fit the mold. I secretly love when she dances down the hall. I have heard myself say many times this year, "there is no dancing in the hallway" and it always makes me smile because she is still full of magic and sparkle." 

It's so true. I wish I could bottle her personality up and keep the world out so she could grow up and maintain that innocence and sparkle forever. 

Sam perhaps had the biggest month of all of us. First of all, he turned THREE. He celebrated with an AWESOME Star Wars party and it was epic. Darth Vader came to our house and gave Sam some light sabers, and his cake was absolutely to die for. 

When Sam turned three we told him it was time to get rid of his diapers and use the toilet like a big boy. Sam has been a potty training champ. It took a few weeks for him to get it down completely, but after the second week he really turned a corner and started doing everything he needed to do. It's so nice to have only one in diapers and to have Sam be so independent. I have found with all three kids as soon as they potty train their vocabulary soars. 

Jonathan continues to be an absolute delight. He is becoming more vocal and has two words now that we're confident he can say: Mama, and Batman. He seems to have hit some sort of weird milestone where he's insane, opening every drawer and emptying its contents, running away every chance he gets, eating us out of the house and home...he's really just practicing for his terrible twos. My kids are so advanced.