Some firsts

This year Eliza is attending a little preschool down the street from us.  Lots of folks in our ward go there.  I loved Isaiah's preschool last year; I think it was a perfect fit for him.  But this one is working out well for Eliza and it's nice to have something a bit more conveniently located.  She goes twice a week and loves it!  When the year started there were only 4 students in her class!  Then a fifth one joined, and in January a 6th one.  Still a tiny class!  So twice a week we drop her off at school, then hurry to get Isaiah to school.  And then I have this wide open 90 minutes to myself before it's time to start picking them up.  Actually, one of the days I volunteer at Isaiah's school for that 90 minutes, so it's really only once a week I have that enormous break :)  I loved this moment--Zay helping Eliza get her backpack on for her first day of school!

Sometimes if I'm in the shower or something, Zay will take care of things himself.  I walked downstairs and he said, "Don't worry, mom, I knew you were busy so I got my own yogurt."

Isaiah is our little entrepreneur.  He has really gotten into Lego's lately, and I have not really gotten into buying them for him.  So he saves up bottles and cans, turns them in for a nickel a piece, pays his tithing, and then buys Lego's.  Several neighbors save cans for him, and sometimes we go over the ballpark near our house and pick up empty ones there.  It's been good for him to practice working for something.  

 This was my phone when I was a teenager.  The kids love playing with it.  When Zay first saw it he said "That can't be a real phone, mom, look it has that wire thing connected to it."

While little girls everywhere are tucking their dollies in for the night, Eliza tucks in her cars. They even sleep on their "backs."

Sometimes when Zay does really smart math at home, we take a picture of it and text it to Daddy.  Double praise is awesome!

Here is one of the Lego sets Isaiah bought with his bottle/can money.

This fall Eliza started taking a dance class.  It's a "creative dance" class with a focus on ballet-type movements.  For the first couple of months she absolutely hated going.  She would cooperate once she was in there, but getting her into that leotard and ready to drive over was a nightmare!  Once, a month or so after she started liking it, I  mentioned it was dance day.  She started crying her head off, which was weird.  So I said, "Eliza, did you forget you LIKE your dance class now?"  She immediately stopped crying, "Oh!  I forgot!"  It's VERY exhausting:

Summer School Fun

So this summer I did school with the kids every day.  Okay, not every day, but I tried.  Once they finished five days of lessons they earned a hot wheels.  So in theory if they did nothing but school all day they could've earned tons of cars, but in reality it was one every week or two.

Here's Isaiah doing some math.  He's finishing up his 1st grade textbook here.

Here's one of his story papers, "If I could go to a restaurant I would pick Olive Garden.  July 23, 2014."

Sometimes it went great and they both worked hard and were motivated and excited and, you know, just generally filled with curiosity and a love of learning.

But sometimes frustration would set in and it would look more like this.

And then eventually like this, "I HATE summer school!" followed by snapping pencils in half and throwing them at mom's face.  Someday when they are successful intellectuals and have mastered the skill of persevering in the face of difficulty, I'll remind them of this.  In the mean time they just think I'm the most horriblest mom every, and I'm okay with that.

And, of course, no school would be complete without a field trip to the library!

More randomness

It's harder to get pictures of Eliza swimming at her lessons because she is so rarely willing to let go of the wall.  But this summer she did much better than in the past.  The last time she took a class she would cry the entire 30 minutes!

After Eliza's lesson we sit on the benches and watch Isaiah's lesson.

Something about this reminds me of Cinderella's step sister trying to fit her foot into a too-small glass slipper.  It also makes me wonder why I buy toys.  And it answers the question of why I can't keep up on the dishes.

Bremerton & Seattle

Eliza and Cooper working on their alphabet skills.

This is Isaiah's mad face.  For real.

On the beach at Grandma Greene's house.

Riding the ferry over to Seattle

So there's this organ along the sidewalk in Seattle.  You put in a few quarters and it plays a super loud song.  It's tons of fun.  You dance around and have a great time!  Unless you're MY kids, then you do this:

We heard about a great burger place and decided to check it out. It's funny how things that are only like an inch and a half on a map end up taking like a 2 hour walk...Eliza got tired and rode the daddy taxi the rest of the way.

Fun with friends!

I got to watch these three cuties while their mom was in the hospital having their baby brother.  They are in our old ward.  Esther and Isaiah did preschool together, and all three girls just loved our crunchy (fake) grass!