As you may have guessed, June turns into a crazy month very quickly in our house. This Mama is very tired already with all of our activities and special projects going on but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I am in the middle of a busy grant season at work - writing grants, planning programs and working with our doctor's to make sure that we are the most up to date HIV/Hep C program in the State. In order to do that I have to find time to work and that has not been easy because I don't like to miss anything fun! I have been staying up late at night when the kids are in bed trying to get several important grants written but tonight the blog is my priority!
First and foremost on the academic front - it is official that all five Harding - Wheeler children are going to be at Noah Webster next year. Lizzie and Ellie will be in the same class for Pre-K 4 - we decided on this because in subsequent years they will require or encourage us to separate them so we wanted them (and us) to enjoy one year of having them together. Annie will be going to Mrs. Murphy's kindergarten class in the fall, Molly will be going to Mrs. Caterino's class in 5th grade and Peter will have Miss Politi in 6th grade.All of the kids did great on their end of the year classroom work and activities making it very easy for their teachers to pass them to the next grade. One note that, as the proudest of Mom's, I must emphasize is that each of the three kids are exceptional readers. In every conference and meeting the teacher's are always very complimentary of the kids reading and comprehension and say that we must have been reading to them from a young age. I'm pretty humble about some things but this I just had to brag about because we are so fortunate to have a family of avid readers and great role models which the kids learned from! I love that this is their forte because I believe it will carry them far!
Last week we headed to the beach for Memorial Day and all of the kids were appropriately dressed in Red, White and Blue. This is Lizzie hanging in the pink chairs with Brendan!
Papa had a lap full all day!
The Kayak filled with beautiful children!
Lizzie loves the beach and the sand - despite the fact that she is supposed to have limited sun exposure because of her skin we usually have to drag her off the beach!
Annie Bananie loving the beach - especially having Brendan and Lila there,
Lizzie Bug
We have to watch Ellie very carefully because she plunges head first into the water and never wants to come out! She is definitely a little fishy!
Annie and Lila making a sand castle.
My beautiful baby girl!
Annie always looks a little contemplative when she is playing on the beach!
Molly Girl getting a kayak ride from Papa.
There's a smile from my little beauty - I adore that little freckle face!
Papa does a lot more work at the kayaking then the kids do!
Tiny sand covered piggies make my heart swell!
"More pictures, mama?"
My sweetie girl has NO fear when it comes to the beach!
Papa built Annie a "pool" in the sand so she could cool off!
Molly Girl loving the beach!
I love this picture of my big strong boy making a sand castle in the sand!
This was our third trip to the beach to play!
My little angle loving another evening trip to the beach for some playtime!
My two favorite Peters!
Molly is starting to compete in Irish Step Dancing this fall so we wanted to go cheer some of our friends on and get a feel for how the feis works. We had a blast but it was very hot! Lizzie and Annie found an interesting way to stay cool!
Molly girl relaxing and watching her friends compete!
My Irish girls loving the dancing - and their tent!
Sisters!
If there is one thing my girls love it is a picnic - there is something about eating on the ground that they can not get enough of whether it is at the park or in our living room.
The kids were also big fans of running up and down this huge hill with all of the kids and then holding hands and coming down in one line!
Ellie brought home a painting activity and then she went off to play so Annie and Lizzie took over. They love painting with anything and on anything!
Like I said - on anything!
The most fun part of being a mom is always saying yes to something they think you will absolutely say no to - in this case - "Sure you can paint yourselves!"
Ellie stayed nice and clean and then laughed hysterically at her crazy sisters!
What a mess!
Annie's favorite food - corn on the cob!
Lizzie has now taken to wearing a do-rag around the house just for fun! Who am I to say what is fashionable!
Remember last week when they claimed that it was going to rain for an entire week without stopping? The girls waited.....and waited........and waited.......and waited to get to use their umbrellas and then we sent them out without any rain to just get it out of their systems! Neighbors thought we were nuts but the kids had a blast!
My beautiful girls with their umbrellas!
Lizzie's pink rose bush!
Annie's scarlet rose bush!
Ellie's beautiful "noble" rose bush!
My little beauty doing - what else with her umbrella??? dancing!
Sweet pea smiling for her Mama.
I love how mischievous she looks in this one!
Still not one drop of rain but that doesn't stop us - having a blast!
Molly girl with her zebra striped umbrella - she was also dancing in the rain!
MY two strong men!
Buggy was trying to carry as many umbrellas as possible.
Umbrella time turned into a family soccer game!
Why does Annie look this way - because I had just informed her that the twizzler that she "found" in the garage was on the floor from Newport last year - Yuck!
She ate it anyways!
It was kind of funny - Molly was riding her bike with no shoes on and I commented that Papa would not approve. Her response was - "Oh so I'll put shoes on when I see Papa's face!" (Yes - it is shocking how she speaks to her Mom!) 30 seconds later my dad drove by and saw us all outside and stopped - Molly's face was hysterical! She ran in the house to get shoes!
Now even papa is singing in the........eh.....rain?
Wrestling match!
Papa and the five Harding - Wheeler kids!
I love this picture of my father and the kids - he is the best grandfather on earth!
Then they all crached into a pile!
Molly girl and her Papa - being silly!
Molly took this picture of Annie and I - not sure what Annie's face is about!
My gorgeous daughter - sometimes I can't take my eyes off of her!
Annie Bananie at Spring songfest - she was very nervous about singing!
Annie with her class!
Molly girl with her class - she is such a lover of music and dance! Not one person I talked to didn't ask me why she has never tried out for plays because she is so talented. The music teacher told me that I should really work with her to develop her singing and dancing - even in a crowd it is apparently very obvious how much she loves it!
The whole school sang to Mrs. Cole to say goodbye - it was a beautiful tribute!
Is it possible that this baby girl is going to kindergarten next year?
So we have another week filled with fun this week - school ends on Wednesday and the big kids are headed to Auntie Courtney's in Virginia for a few days. The little girls and Bob and I are going to leave for Virginia next weekend to pick them up but we are planning on stopping a few times on the way - I can't wait! I am so excited to have some extra time with the kids this summer - I'm hoping that once grant season is over I can take some time off - maybe a day or two each week during the summer to hang out with the kids! We also have camps, trips and lots of fun stuff planned so stay tuned!
GNM - ILY!
