May ends, summer begins, and stuff

May ended! Yea! Schools out! I am so happy to have my kids home with me. It's been several weeks now and I have only had one time that I felt like sending them away. Haha! We are enjoying going to the park, library, or just being lazy.

Cleod started piano in January and just graduated into the next level of books. He's really enjoying it and I love that!

In this picture, he has a picture book on the piano and is making up a song to go along with the story. It was actually kind of cute too!

I have reconstituted QUIET TIME as well, and the boys are so good. Can you believe that 3 boys can be quiet for 30-60 minutes in the same room while their sister sleeps in the next room? I can. My boys rock. It helps that Cleod and Ryan are good readers and *usually* are good examples for Granty.

Cleod and his teacher on the last day of school.

Ryan and his teacher on the last day of school.
The big boys started baseball. Cleod's doing machine pitch and getting pretty good. Ryan is playing t-ball and is pretty bored. Because of his birthday and being the youngest in his grade, he's with kids that haven't gone to school yet. I don't know if that makes a difference, but I think he would have had more fun with machine pitch. Oh well.

Here's Grant at one of Cleod's games.

I have to pack lots of snacks and water for each game, but it's been fun.

Cora is getting big and cute. And crazy. She runs around making puppy noises. She has been saying "Ry ry" for Ryan for a month or two now. That's a big deal, because she only says a handful of words. Just this past week she's been saying Cleod. It sounds like "Cow" which makes it even more adorable. She calls Silas, "Papa" which is also absolutely adorable.

Cute girl!
Ryan at friend's birthday party.

Me and my big boys before I took them to our town's community theater production on Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was so fun!

After the play, Ryan said, "Can I be in a play like that?" (There was a good-sized children's chorus in the play.) Me: "Actually, yes, you can!"

This last semester, Ryan has been in a little song and dance group. He really enjoyed it and I thought that maybe we'd do it again, but we had free tuition this semester and I didn't know if we could afford putting him in again. Every time I would pick him up though, he would be SO happy. Then we went to the concert. He was actually really good! There were a few other boys and most of them got distracted or looked bored but he was trying so hard and had some good moves. In fact, after one spin thing, Silas whispered to me, "Did you see that?" It was so cute.

Anyway, the group is going to be practicing in the fall to be in the community theater's next production, Annie, in January. I am really excited. I've even wondered about auditioning. I probably won't, but I am going to be involved with it for sure.

So we're going to enjoy the crazy baseball schedule in June, be super lazy in July, start August with a much anticipated family reunion and gear up for fall. (Not only do we have school and dance and normal life, and holidays, but all the kids' birthdays are from August to December! Need some serious lazy time before that comes.)