soccer is finished

Seth "played soccer" this year. The quotes are there on purpose because while other children were kicking soccer balls and doing something at least somewhat related to soccer, Seth spent most of soccer practice doing anything BUT playing soccer. He was on the same field as the soccer balls, though, so I'm saying it counts as "playing soccer." He really enjoyed himself running around, occasionally kicking a ball, jumping off an incline box at the side of the field, and trying to pull down the giant net that connects to the ceiling. This was a three-week program with practices twice per week -- very short season -- for people with special needs. Last night was the final practice, so each player received a medal. I'm assuming that Seth's medal was for being so stinking cute because it couldn't have been for participation!

i gave up

some battles are worth fighting and some aren't. some battles are possible to win and some aren't. apparently this is one battle that falls in the "aren't" category. i never realized how ultra-conditioned even the most liberal of liberalists are: girls have long hair, boys have short hair. it doesn't matter if a child has on a pink frilly dress; if the hair is short, it's a boy. and it doesn't matter if a child has on a suit and tie like a miniature man; if the hair is long, it's a girl. INSANE!!!!!!!! i might be a majority of ONE in the philosophy that there's more to a person than appearance.

and now as i not-so-graciously step down from my soap box, here are the pictures of my surrender:

obsessed with loonapix!

No lie! I have been spending hours every day putting frames on my pictures. I think this might qualify as wasting time, but I DON'T CARE because it's so much fun to me! I had to take a break from it today, though, because my printer ran out of ink from printing all the pictures I make.





I also started some sewing projects. I decided that my ipod needed a protective cover for when I need to carry it in my purse (which is generally NOT a safe place for an ipod to be). So I got a scrap of material at Walmart ($1) and a piece of felt ($0.41) and made myself and Joel ipod carrying cases:


They are pretty obviously handmade, but I'm VERY proud of myself for making them at all and especially for making them up out of my own head without a pattern. I also made Joel and Luke new pillowcases. I meant to buy myself material for a new pillowcase. I even showed Joel some pretty sparkly butterfly material, but forgot that I wanted a new pillowcase because I was thinking of making Joel's and Luke's. When I got home and realized my mistake, Makenzie wanted me to go right back to Walmart and buy it; but I was tired of the Saturday traffic. My sparkly butterfly pillowcase can wait until Monday.

summer busy-ness

I've fallen out of the habit of keeping up with blogging. I'd love to say that I'm going to get better at it, but reality is I probably won't. I've tried for years to stay in contact with friends and family, but I don't do a good job at all.

Anyway -- we've been busy with summer activities: parks, playing outside, watching movies, playing video games :-)

Joel is now finished with kids' church because he's going into the sixth grade. He can be a helper, but he can't participate as a "kid." On his last chance to win the big "jackpot" of candy, HE WON :-) Normally the winner gets a giant bag of M&M's, but Uncle Richard got Joel Skittles because they don't have milk in them :-)


Joel was even nice enough to share with his brothers and sister (I was amazed!):


Seth is still going to his private therapists throughout the summer. His speech therapist let him keep this yellow truck that they were playing with in one session. He played with it for hours at the park.


My big 11-year-old is pretty much too big to enjoy playing at the park unless he has a friend to do "big kid" stuff. He had a friend and another kid's dad to have fun on this day:


On Memorial Day, the second hand store had a big 50% off sale. Joel and I went at 7 a.m., and then I took Makenzie and Luke a little later. Luke picked out this Hawaiian print shirt because he really likes it:


And here's our summer-time dinner set-up:


Almost no clean-up required! We've been loving the sunny days so far!

Luke exaggerates

Luke is sitting in time-out in that picture because he had been yelling at everyone outside. He didn't stop with the siblings, though; he kept on yelling inside at me.

Luke: "I'm hungry!"
Mom: "Sorry, Luke. You didn't eat your dinner, so you can't have anything else to eat."
Luke: "But I'm HUNGRY!"
Mom: "Luke, you have to think of the consequences before you do things. What is the consequence of not eating your dinner?"
Luke: "I have to STARVE for the rest of my DAYS because of my mean mother!"

"mosquito" park

I let Joel decide what park to go to today. I had to go to the Walmart on the other side of town, so I gave him a few choices in that general area. He picked the one with the biggest field area to play kickball. So we got Subway and headed over there. Somewhere along the way, Joel got a headache from Seth's yelling in the van. He also started feeling nauseated, probably because he tried to eat food that had milk in it to see if he really is lactose-intolerant.

Luke and Makenzie have been playing very nicely together the last few days. It's a nice change from the yelling and crying!


Seth LOVES the freedom of playing at the park (or even the back yard -- he just loves to be able to run around on his own).


Makenzie's glad when we go to a park where Seth doesn't need much supervision because she is, of course, the "Seth supervisor."


I love this face on Luke -- HAHAHA!


Here's how Joel "enjoyed" the park that he picked out:


We didn't stay long at this park, though, because there were GIANT SWARMS of mosquitoes!!! I thought they were just flying bugs when we got there. I realized when I got a closer look at them flying all over the inside of my van that they were in fact mosquitoes :-( We had to pull over a block away from the park to kill those evil creatures. I had never in my life seen so many mosquitoes! So now Jewel Lake Park must be re-named "Mosquito Park"!

awards & pre-school graduate :-)

Joel, Makenzie, and Luke finished their school year on Wednesday. The day started with an awards ceremony. Joel received one of the 5th-grade library awards for reading so many books. Makenzie got the awards for having the highest grade point averages in Bible, English, and History in her class. Luke didn't get any awards, but he got really good grades this year.

This silly little boy . . .


. . . graduated from pre-school yesterday :-)


Even though Seth had only gone for two or three weeks, he got to participate in the graduation celebration. He was feeling a little sick, though, so he didn't do much celebrating. It was all as cute as could be! The kids wore graduation hats with a 2010 tassle and Hawaiin skirts and leis. They sang a few of their favorite songs and shouted out what they wanted to be when they grew up. Since Seth wasn't feeling well, he just sat in his chair instead of singing or doing the motions to the songs. I'm not sure he would've joined in even if he'd been feeling healthy, though. There were quite a lot of people in that little classroom, so I'm sure he was feeling quite overwhelmed.

Seth enjoyed his time in pre-school, but he likes being with his mom even more. He wasn't too heart-broken to walk away from the school for this last time.


His teachers were SO patient and encouraging to Seth. His main teacher tried pretty hard to get a special allowance for Seth to have one more year of pre-school, but no child can go to public pre-school if he turns five before September 1. That's a pretty stupid rule in my opinion, but no one asked my opinion. So Seth is starting kindergarten in the fall. He won't have the average kindergarten experience like Joel, Makenzie, and Luke had. He'll be in the regular class for only a short amount of time probably and then be in special classes and therapies for a lot of his time there. He'll probably also only go half days and not at all on Wednesdays since he sees his private therapists on Wednesdays. Life is just a continuing adventure with my sweet Seth.