Piano Recital, Last of Summer, Soccer Craziness, Last Picnic, Reunion, Catch Up #1

Wow I have been slacking!  Here's an attempt at a catch up.  The last week of summer flew by.  One day while Matthew was at his summer program and Sarah and Daniel were at a water party at a friend's house Josh, Noah and I went and had an afternoon treat--Jamba Juice.  At Josh and Matthew's orthodontists office they had a paper airplane contest.  While they were waiting to get their braces worked on they could both fold a paper airplane and then fly it across the office.  Whatever airplane flew the furthest won the contest.  This contest was for all the patients in the office.  Josh's plane came in third place for distance and for that he won a Jamba Juice gift card. Wahoo!  He'd been begging me ever since getting the gift card to go and use it so we did and it was good!  I had some good company to go with me, too.  We all enjoyed our smoovie--according to Noah.

 Let me just say Noah is a stinker.  He is a quiet stinker so I usually don't find out about what mischief he has done until well after it has been done.  For example I made some bread last week and for some reason Noah didn't want to wait for me to slice it up to get some.  He just took a few handfuls out of the middle of the loaf and went along his merry way.  Good thing I love that little boy.....

 Noah had a meet the teacher morning at his new preschool.  We were able to go and meet the teacher and see what his preschool looked like.  Noah was just excited they had food.  While we were checking out the preschool Noah ate three plates of food even though they were only supposed to eat one.  He took advantage of his lack of supervision from his parents and went to town on the grapes and cracker plates.  I really do feed my child, but judging by his stealing of plates you can't tell that.....

 Good thing the teacher is energetic because I have a feeling she will need extra energy if she has Noah in her class.

 Noah, Sarah, Josh and Daniel started soccer two weeks ago.  It has been a pretty crazy schedule for Aaron and me.  Aaron is coaching Noah's team and Josh's games are usually at the exact same time Noah's games are.  That means Aaron and I have to divide and conquer every Tuesday and Thursday nights between Sarah, Noah and Josh's games.  It has been crazy trying to coordinate everyone's schedules!  Daniel's games are every Monday and Wednesday as well. Anyway here's Noah getting ready to go to his very first soccer practice ever:

 Even with Aaron as a coach he was a little stinker.  He spent most of the time pulling his shirt over his head and not listening to what Aaron was saying.  I guess it was just like being at home ;).

 Last week Aaron only brought one water bottle to share for Sarah and Noah during their games.  He quickly learned that was a mistake.  As Aaron was trying to coach Noah's team, Noah saw Sarah take a drink from the water bottle.  That made Noah really upset because he had deemed that water bottle his and his only.  He quickly ran over to recover the water bottle from Sarah before she drank anymore.  That resulted in a big screaming match between Sarah and Noah all the while Aaron was trying to actually coach the team.  He tried to break it up, but wasn't successful because as soon as he walked away from them it all started over again.  After a while he just pretended he didn't know who those kids were--haha.  A mom after the practice just came over and told Aaron they were all parents and understood and had been there and done that before.  She also said she was glad it wasn't them who had the screaming kids and for Aaron not to worry about it.  **Sigh**  I wasn't there to help out because I was at Josh's game at a different park altogether with Matthew and Daniel so I was no where close by.  I guess Aaron will have to learn to bring two water bottles from now on and how to multitask coaching and breaking up sibling squabbles whether he wants to or not :).

Thursday was Noah's most recent game, however, I had taken Noah to the park that day.  Noah had played pretty hard at the park and seems to have worn himself out more than I thought.  During the middle of the game Noah just laid down in the middle of the field and tried to go to sleep.  Aaron kept telling him to get up, but he would say, "I'm so tired, Dad" and put his head back down on the grass.  The soccer game just kept on going.  They just had to avoid the Noah speed bump in the middle of the field.

However, Noah's extreme exhaustion quickly disappeared as soon as he heard there were snacks to be had at the end of the game.  Aaron had never seen him get up and run across the field so fast as when there are snacks to be eaten.  Again I promise I do feed him, but you can't tell when there are snacks to be had.

The last week of summer we spent a day at the splash pad again.  This day was a little bit cooler around 75 degrees, but it didn't slow the kids down any.  I did get a little cold sitting in the shade so I moved to a bench in the sun and the sun felt nice on my back.

 After a few minutes of running around between the spraying water and the playground Noah decided he was freezing and laid down to get warm on the warm concrete.  Everyone else had to avoid the Noah speed bump, yet again.  What a funny boy!

 A little bit later a cold Noah boy decided he needed lubs.  Although I really didn't want to get wet how can you refuse a cute face like that:

 I must say Noah lubs were worth getting soaked by holding a wet boy.

 Sarah decided it was time to come and dog pile on mom, too.

 Last week was Josh and Matthew's piano recital.  Their piano teacher did a fun recital and told the kids if they dressed up like their song they could get an extra candy bar.  She also didn't write down the name of their songs and let the audience take a quiz on who they thought played each song according to the song and how the kids were dressed.  Whoever got the most correct guesses won another candy bar.  Josh and Matthew were all over getting a candy bar so they were more than happy to dress up and take the song quiz.  She also had each of the kids tell a music joke before they played their piece.  Josh was a little overzealous so I didn't have the camera ready to catch his whole joke, but I caught most of it.  His song title was Sneaky Business.  He wanted to dress up like a detective, but I didn't have any dress up clothes like that.  I did have a jailhouse Halloween costume that I talked Josh into wearing.  Sneaky Business--burglar clothes--close enough right?!

Josh's joke went something like this, "(Kid)Mommy mommy I want to be a guitar player when I grow up.  (MOM) Now honey you can't do both!"  It took me a few minutes to get it, too.

 Matthew's song was Get Away.  He insisted on being a train conductor.  Even though it didn't closely relate to his song it was going to have to be close enough because there was no way I was going to be able to pry those train conductor clothes off his body for love or money!  His joke was, "What is the most musical part of a snake?--The scales!"

 

She did a spotlight on each of the kids and they were perfect.  In reading Matthew's you can definitely tell he is a train fanatic!

 You can tell Josh enjoys reading:

 IT was a fun recital and the kids did make sure they got their candy bars if you were wondering.  Thanks Katie for a fun recital.

 We did have to leave a few minutes early because that night was also back to school night for Sarah, Josh and Daniel.  This summer went by pretty fast, but it will be nice to get back into a routine again.  All their teachers seem very nice and excited to be teaching--which was a relief.  Matthew's back to school night was the previous night and unfortunately, they split the Learning Center at his school and Matthew got the new teacher.  We were sad because we really loved the old teacher, but what can you do?!  They sent Matthew to the new classroom to get him away from two physically aggressive kids that Matthew can't seem to leave alone.  To make a long story short these boys came as close as anyone can to beating Matthew up last year so it was a good thing to separate them.  Anyway, we went and met the new teacher and let's just say Aaron and I were not impressed.  In giving her the benefit of the doubt I just hope she teaches better than what our first impression gave us.  It will be interesting to see what happens as school starts.....

Friday we took everyone out for a celebratory back to school lunch.  All the kids agreed on going to Cafe Rio.  We let Daniel and Noah split a burrito and they both ate it.  The exciting thing was the burrito was quite diary laden and Daniel didn't react to it at all.  We aren't all the way done with the oral immunotherapy program quite yet, but we are close at only having two appointments left until we are.  This was so exciting.  Even though we are cheating a bit by exposing him to dairy before he is all the way done it has been fun seeing his reaction to trying different foods he has never tasted before.  The burrito wasn't his favorite, but we will have to work on that :).

 Friday afternoon we had a Terry family reunion at a park in the middle of nowhere in Copperton, Utah.  Before we left for the reunion it was 81 degrees outside so all of us were wearing shorts and flip flops.  Unfortunately by the time we got to Copperton it was windy, raining and the temperature had dropped to 57 degrees.  It was cold.  The reunion was supposed to go all afternoon and evening, but it got cut short because everyone was so cold.  I was not really very prepared so we only had two blankets in the back of our suburban.  Josh and Matthew wrapped up in one which was amazing.  It was so amazing I had to take a picture because these two don't usually get along very well so to see them wrapped up in the blanket together was pretty amazing:

 The other blanket went to Grandma, Noah and Daniel.

 Sarah wore one of my jackets that was in the back of the car.  She didn't want to be wrapped up in the blanket because she made friends with her second cousin Ashley who she played with the whole time we were there.  Ashley is my cousin Jeff's daughter.  Sarah is the gray cocoon sitting on the bench if you can't tell.

 We only stayed for about two hours before we were all too cold to handle it.  The whole way home we had the heater on which is crazy for an August afternoon!!  It was interesting to see that side of the family.  One of my cousins, Jackie, just had a boy diagnosed with autism so she came over to pick my brain for all the stuff we are doing with Matthew.  It is nice to feel like we are not alone in raising our autistic kids because it is hard!

Aaron has been so excited about Daniel getting over his allergies.  Saturday morning I was having a bout of insomnia and was awake at 5 am.  Aaron for whatever reason couldn't sleep either.  We both got up and went over to the local donut shop and picked up a dozen donuts.  I remember my dad coming home occasionally with donuts after work and it was such a treat.  We haven't been able to do this due to Daniel's allergies, but since he is getting over the milk we picked a dozen donuts up to let Daniel get his first taste.  He liked the chocolate peanut butter donut we got for him.  Like I said seeing Daniel taste things for the very first time has been fun.  Daniel loved the donut!

 Sarah has Aaron wrapped around her little finger.  Anytime she pulls a face like this when I have the audacity to tell her no:

 Aaron gives in and lets her have what she wants.  She knows to go to Aaron for all her wishes just because of that.  She is daddy's little girl and he spoils her!

Saturday evening we had Aaron's old friend Brad and his wife Jessica and their little girl Bailey over for dinner.  It was fun to visit.  We had a weenie roast over the fire pit.  Both our schedules have been crazy so it was nice to catch up over what's been happening over the past few months.

Last week in talking with Grandpa T he let it slip that Grandma was speaking in church that Sunday.  Grandma wasn't too happy about us finding out about it, but we invited ourselves over to her church to listen.  Her talk was great.  It was on loving others.  She gave the example of Matthew and the train engineer in her talk which made Matthew really excited to hear.  It seemed to touch quite a few people, too, because she had a lot of people talk to her after her talk and even call her afterward to tell her how that story touched them.  It really is a feel good story that I am thankful Matthew had the chance to be a part of.  After church we had a nice Sunday picnic in their backyard.  It is sad because it is the last time my kids will have a picnic at their house since they are moving this weekend.  We enjoyed the whole beautiful afternoon.

 Matthew even took a nap in the grass for a bit.  We will miss their beautiful house and yard...

 After helping them ready a few things to move we came home to get our kids ready for the first day of school the next day.  We did the annual kids height measurings.  Josh keeps gaining on Matthew, but can't quite pass him up height wise even though he so desperately wants to.

 This is how close they have been the last few years:

Keep trying Josh it will happen eventually.....maybe.....Aaron was also able to give all the kids a father's blessing before they started school.  I am grateful he is able to do that for them. I hope it gives them some comfort in starting the new school year.

Bubba Approved, Bouncy House, Splash Pad, Luau, Birthday, Fair

We have had a busy week!  With the summer winding down we wanted to stay busy. And busy we stayed.  Soccer started last week and Aaron and I were crazy enough to sign up Josh, Daniel, Sarah and Noah for soccer.  It will be an busy season because Josh, Sarah and Noah's games are all on the same days a few games at the same time, but at different parks.  It will be crazy.  Aaron and I will really have to divide and conquer for the next few months.  Aaron is even coaching Noah's team.  That will be interesting because Noah doesn't like to be told what to do....I will have to make sure to go and watch a few of those games just to see how things are going :).

As my kids are getting older and having more activities it is getting harder and harder trying to remember everything that needs to get done and everywhere they need to be.   I had a total brain lapse last week, though.  Josh and Matthew have continued taking piano over the summer.  I have never had a problem with forgetting piano, but there's always a first time, right?!  I can happily say that I didn't forget piano, but I did forget to pick Matthew up from piano when his lesson was over.  DOH!!  I had dropped him off and got busy at home and totally forgot to pick him up.  His sweet piano teacher called me about 20 minutes after his lesson had ended and asked me where I was because Matthew was starting to get upset.  Oh my word, I felt horrible.  I left immediately to get him.  When Matthew came out of the piano teacher's house he gave me quite the lecture.  Whoops!  Of all the kids to forget and leave at piano he probably wasn't the best one because he does get pretty agitated if things don't go according to the routine.  I still feel bad for Matthew and the piano teacher.  Next time I will put an alarm on my phone so I don't forget my kid....

 Last week was a friend's birthday (Hailey Einzinger) so Wednesday we celebrated her birthday at the bounce house.  When we got there we didn't know what to expect.  It was fun, but the older kids got bored of it only after a little while.  Luckily there was a glow in the dark Nerf baseball game room they could try out, too.  That was the hit of the day for the older kids.  The younger kids had fun just playing on bounce houses.

 Emma was a little scared to try it out at first, but Josh took her down the slide whether she wanted to go or not.  Although her face looks scared she did go back for more so hopefully it wasn't too scary.

This was the main bounce house:

 They did have another bounce area, but it was for littler kids 5 and under.  Since no one was there we did let Daniel and Sara try it out, too.

 They also had some arcade games around the bounce area that the kids liked pretend playing on.  Here's Emma and Noah playing on the train game:

 Mr. Romeo leaned in for a smooch, but Emma didn't seem too interested:

 After spending a few hours at the bounce house we stopped for some lunch afterward.  Now I have to special order Daniel's cheeseburger without cheese, but everyone else is pretty happy with whatever they get--or so I thought.  When Noah got his cheeseburger he was really upset that it had cheese on it.  He was so upset that he took the cheeseburger apart and picked off all the cheese.  The cheese had melted on the patty so it was quite the undertaking.  After he scraped the cheese off  he then just ate the meat patty.  Gross.  Oh well I guess Aaron would be proud that he has a meat eating son even if he doesn't like cheese on it.  

 However, the most exciting thing about our trip to Wendy's was that Daniel got to taste a Frosty for the first time.  His milk oral immunotherapy is going so well that he can start tolerating small bites of dairy items here and there without a reaction.  It has been fun to give him his first tastes of different things and see his response.  Most things he likes, but there are a few things he doesn't like pizza.  What crazy kid doesn't like pizza?!  I guess one who has never tasted it ever before and isn't used to the flavor.  We can't go overboard with the tastes yet because he isn't all the way over the milk allergy, but we only have a few more weeks left of the treatment.  We are so excited!!

Last week we did spend part of a day at the splash pad.  We use the one up on base because it usually isn't busy at all.  We were in luck, too, because it wasn't very busy when we got there.

 The kids brought their squirt guns and with all of Daniel's milk appointments we have a ton of syringes that they brought to play in the water with as well.

 Noah is funny.  Whenever he needs a break he just lays down on the cement wherever he is to dry off.  This particular place was right in the middle of the walkway between the splash pad and playground.  Not a very good choice of spots, but to the other kids he was merely just a speed bump.

 Friday G&G T came up to have a birthday lunch with Sarah.  Even though her birthday was Saturday we went for the birthday lunch on Friday because that when they could come.  We went to Pizza Pie Cafe.  After lunch was winding down the server brought her a birthday treat which was a cookie brownie topped with ice cream drizzled with chocolate and caramel syrup--yum!!  However, when they went to hand it to her and tell her Happy birthday she looked at them and said, "I don't really want that."  WHAT?!  I smiled very sheepishly at the server trying to silently apologize for what she just said. It was a little embarrassing and awkward, but they left the birthday dessert anyways.  Have no fear, though, Josh made short work of it so it didn't go to waste.

 How is she already 6?!  I still remember her just being born accidentally at home.  It can't possibly have already been 6 years since that crazy day can it?!

 One of her presents was a jewelry making kit.  Here's her first bracelet she made when we got home from lunch:

That evening we were invited to a luau put on by Daniel's allergist for all the OIT (oral immunotherapy) patients and their families.  There were a lot of kids there and many different allergies.  Most of the allergies were tree nut and peanut allergies they were working to overcome.  The doctor's office did send out an email of the menu items and all their ingredients so people could bring other food if they needed to in order to accommodate their different diet restrictions/allergies.  Luckily Daniel could eat all the food they were providing so we didn't need to worry about it.  When we got there we all got flower leis.  We also got to write down our English name on our name tags and then translate it into Hawaiian and also write that down on our name tags, too.

Here's all our Hawaiian names:

 They provided dinner and entertainment from a Hawaiian family.  It was fun.

 The Hawaiian family taught everyone how to hula and a Hawaiian dance.  Josh was brave enough to try and learn how to do a Hawaiian dance and hula:

Noah really got into the entertainment.  He was groovin' to the music:

Saturday was Sarah's real birthday.  We were going to go swimming, but decided not to when we realized it was only 70 degrees outside.  Brrrrrr.  However, we realized that after we had gotten all the kids dressed in their swimming suits already--DOH!!  After much pleading and coaxing we got them all dressed in regular clothes and headed out for a family day.  It was another free day at the Children's Treehouse Museum thanks to the RAMP tax in Weber County.  Even though we just went a few weeks ago the kids had fun going again.

 They got to try milking a cow:

 Playing in the percussion room on all the xylophones and drums.  It is even funner to have a drumming contest with dad:

 Making the craft which was a DIY matching game:

 We finally got a chance to play a chess game this visit with the huge chess pieces:

 Sarah loved doing some more tracing:

 After a fun morning at the museum we grabbed a quick lunch and then headed over to check out the Davis County Fair.  They had a big tent with all kinds of activities for kids in it.  All five kids loved playing with the ball tube exhibit.  You put different balls inside tubing and they were blown all around the tubing by a big fan.  It was fun to watch them.

 The Creature Encounters people were there with all their creatures.  The kids liked checking out all the snakes:

 Holding a tarantula:

 Noah, Daniel and Sarah absolutely refused to hold the tarantula.  I can't blame them I don't know if I would have held it if I had been given the chance.  There was also turtles and lizards they got to pet/touch.

As we were passing by all the booths there was a booth run by a beauty school.  They were offering some free services like painting fingernails/toenails and waxing.  When Sarah saw they were painting fingernails and she just couldn't pass that up.  She sat down and got pampered on her birthday.  She chose green polish with sparkles.  She felt like such a grown up.  It was fun to watch.

 Next the three youngest got to ride the horses.  Matthew was really sad that he was too big to ride.  Josh was ok sitting it out--He thinks he is too old to ride the ponies.  Here's Noah, Sarah and Daniel getting their turn:

 Next we headed over to the petting zoo.  There were all kinds of goats, sheep, a donkey, llama, pigs, etc. to pet.  Noah was having fun until a goat started following him around.  He started getting scared by it and came over and wouldn't let go of me whenever that goat would get close to him.  Other than that crazy goat Noah wasn't scared of the animals.

 Daniel tries to play it tough, but he really doesn't care for animals.  He doesn't really like dogs or petting zoos, but he did spend a few minutes petting a few animals before he got out.  The same went for Matthew and Josh.

 They had a mini pig and her baby that Sarah just had to pet even though they were in a cage inside the petting zoo.  Sarah didn't let that stop her in getting to them.  I tried to pick up the baby pig so Sarah and Noah could touch it more easily, but it started really squealing really loud so I quickly put it down before I got in trouble.

 We checked out the rabbit house and all the kids got to pet the bunnies:

 We went and looked at the chicken house, too.  It was noisy inside there.  I didn't know there were so many kinds of chickens.

 Next we went and checked out the elephant show.

After the fair we came home and had Sarah's birthday cake.

 

It was a fun day and I think Sarah had a good birthday, too.

Noah is starting preschool this year sniff sniff.  It makes me sad he is getting so big.  He needed a backpack for school and we found the perfect one.  It is covered in cars.

 Noah was excited to see it and try it on.  I think it is Bubba approved.