Teeth, Preschool, and Birthday

He lost a tooth about a month ago, and then lost another a week later.   He was eating a banana when the first one fell out.  Didnt take much because the adult teeth were basically grown in so they just pushed the baby ones out!  He got 50cents from the "tooth fairy," and then we realized you can't buy much with 50cents so we gave him a dollar for the next one so he could buy something at the dollar store.  He told us he wanted an imaginex dragon (i think it costs $40), and when we told him he didn't have enough money, that he would have to save alot of money, etc.  he said "well I can just lose some more teeth."  

Backpacks for preschool

Lincoln's new bike

Since I have gone back to work, everyone is pitching in more with housework.  We hired someone to clean our house, Matt does his and the kids' laundry, and Lincoln and Lyla unload the dishwasher pretty much every afternoon.  Matt says it takes them almost an hour, but they get it done!  Lincoln stands on the stool next to the cupboard, and Lyla stands by the dishwasher and brings him the cups/plates.   We haven't had any broken dishes yet, and most things get in the right spot.  This particular time Lyla did it all by herself.   I had told Lyla I would play a game with her after I rested on the couch for a few minutes.  I went in the living room and laid on the couch, and then realized that I was getting away with laying there  for quite awhile so I knew she must have gotten distracted with something.  I asked her what she was doing and she said something about putting the dishes away while I rest. Love that girl. 

Standing in front of preschool

Lincolns first day.  He likes it for the most part I think, but has commented a couple times that he wants to stay home. I am hoping this is because we ended up switching preschools for various reasons, so after two weeks at the old preschool, adjusting to another one might take awhile.  He has always been pretty content to stay at home, it seemed to me more then most kids would be probably, so I am not too surprised by this.

Lyla's first day.  So far this girl has loved going to school!

Lincoln's 5th birthday party!  He and 3 of his cousins, Brock, Blake, and Caleb, and also his friend Jake,  all slept in the tent in the backyard.  Abby, Lyla, and Bethany (Jake's sister) got in on the pizza and ice cream but no tenting.  Apparently Lincoln told Gm Pam that there were "no girls allowed" in the tent."

He wanted a Mario cake (Super Mario Brothers), but after looking at all the way too complicated Mario cakes on the internet, I went with the Mario star!

Matt organized a pretty cool hunt where the kids had to use maps he had made to find graham crackers, marshmallows, chocolate, and firewood.  The boys all thought it was great to read the maps.  I think he had graham crackers hanging in a sack on the fence here.

Lyla carried the graham crackers. She tried REALLY hard to keep up!

This is right before Blake yelled, "Could somebody PLEASE help me carry this??!!!  He had been the only one hauling the wood around and had definitely had enough of it.  What cracked me up more was when the other boys came and took some from him, they were not that helpful because as Blake told them; "you keep taking it from the bottom!" I understood the frustration- whenever they would pull a stick out it would make another one drop to the ground!

Making a fire and roasting the marshmallows for smores. 

Ready for bed, although Brock may have been the only one who seemed ready to sleep!  I guess they were asleep by 10 and I didn't hear them till about 6:30 the next morning so that seemed pretty decent for a tentover! Definitely could have been worse!  I heard the next day from Brock, Blake, and Jake, that Lincoln and Caleb kept talking and kept everyone up, although when I was in the tent at 9:30 Jake was suggesting pillow fights and Blake was showing "movies" with his hand/shadow.  Brock did look pretty tired the next morning, and had his clothes on by 7am so I think he was ready to go home! Both he had Blake are quite a bit older then the others but they were good sports.

We gave them little plastic guys with parachutes in their party sacks, so everyone  tried launching theirs out Lyla's window upstairs.

Playing with toys the next morning


These quotes are mostly for mom's of the kids at the parties but  they are pretty funny:

Brock: While everyone was playing with new toys.  "Who put the screws in without looking at the directions?"

Jake: "I have been a Froese forever," with an accented EVER.  I had mentioned that all the Schroeder kids like eating with their fingers since Jake and Caleb were the only two who wanted forks to eat with their cinnamon rolls.  Brock said he liked to make things with his food, food art from what I gathered. Anyway, somehow we started talking about how they were boys so they would always be Schroeders, and Caleb said, "my dad has always been a Tofteland."  That's when Jake said how he had always been a Froese.  Cracked me up.

Caleb and Lincoln:  When the kids came out of the tent in the morning, I heard Caleb saying Ow, ow, etc. and then I heard Brock say, "he says he broke his arm but he can turn it around."  Caleb then came and told me that people were jumping on him and "Lincoln did it the worst." They sort of did this all morning where one would come up and tell me the other one had hurt them, and then I found out they had been wrestling and basically just doing the same thing back that the other had done to them. Anyway, when I told Lincoln to apologize for jumping on Caleb's arm:

Me:  Lincoln did you apologize to Caleb for hurting his arm?  Lincoln: "Oh, I forgot."

Brock:  One of the maps took the kids to the "forest" (tiny tree/wooded area in the park).   Brock takes a glance at it and says; "Could you like mow this so we can walk through it?"

Blake" "Can someone PLEASE help me carry these sticks?  You keep taking them from the bottom!"

Jake:  When everyone was in the tent for bed he asked politely for some water.  "Can I please have some water?" (Thought you would like to know how polite he was Sara!)  Anyway, Matt brings some back and he tastes it and says, "This isn't FRESH water. Can i have some FRESH water?  It was funny seeing Matts reaction because he said something like how he just went and got water from the fridge but he would go and see if he could get some fresh water.  He went back and got some more and then gave him the 2nd glass.  Jake wrinkles up his nose and says, "this still isn't fresh, but it's fine, it will be Ok, etc"  This whole thing is CRACKING me up.... when I finally figure out he means he wants some ice.  I said "you mean ice?", and he says, yeah! "FRESH, ICE!"

Thanks parents, for sharing some great boys.  They all were so easy to have around, it is obvious they have great parents!

A few more things to do before the end of summer

#1 Slip N Slide.  I bought this for the kids mid-summer, and I think we only used it two times because we went to the YMCA pool so much.  The second time went much better because they got the sliding thing down.

 #2.  Turn in our reading logs to the library and get a prize bag. One of the books Lincoln read had instructions on drawing a bat.  I figured he would wait until I could help him, but I noticed later he had drawn it by himself.  Not saying this is anything remarkable, but def. if he gets any better at this he will surpass both his mom and dad's drawing abilities.:)

#3 Sleep in a tent.  The kids watched a Curious George episode where he went camping, and ever since have been asking to go.  I told them we could probably go sometime this summer, and didn't really come up with any plan until I found out my parent's still had their tent.  It's' a petty big tent, and in decent condition since I don't remember it being used a whole lot.:)  I know my Dad for one, has great memories of this right Dad?LOL  We decided to sleep in the backyard, mostly because I knew I would probably not last the whole night!  It ended up being a pretty late night before we even tried to sleep, because I had to go to the store to buy some missing pieces, and also because one of the poles was broken.  We got it up though, and it lasted the whole night into the next afternoon. Not sure if you can see, but there is an extension cord going from the tent along the grass to the house.  That was for the fan that we had blasting in the tent to cool us off, and block out those NOISY bugs...zakedas?  No idea how to spell this, but if you live in KS you know what I am talking about!

 We also attempted roasting marshmallows over the grill...don't laugh.  Hey, the kids thought this was terrific!

 No, I did not last the whole night, and Matt now has some weird foot problem that is better now but made him limp around for a couple days. Long story, but we thought we had an air mattress but realized after it was already really late that we did not.  Matt told me he would "be fine" of course, so we ended up piling a ton of blankets for some cushion.  A couple hours later I came out with the crib mattress, and said to him, "we are going to need another one of these some day."  No, I am not pregnant, but would like to be at some point again, and those things are not meant for Daddy's to sleep on! LOL   I guess it did help alot though.
I would have been fine with sleeping on the blankets if it wasn't for those stupid loud, ok I looked it up, I think it's "cicadas.".  I cannot believe how loud those things are. Like I had the fan blasting in there and still could not drown them out!
So after reading all that you probably think we are done with tenting.  Wrong, although for the most part the plan is now for them to fall asleep out there and then we put them back in their beds.  Also I think Lincoln is going to have his 5th birthday party be a tentover so we will be investing in a quality air mattress.   I am annoyingly determined to do this once every summer with the kids,  so I will also be getting ear plugs and a really loud battery operated noise maker for next summer's attempt. After all, camping is alot of fun it wasn't for the sleeping part.:)

On another note...hope I can keep this blog up, but my entries may be a little sparse this year.  Kids start preschool Wednesday, my first day of school.  Matt is going to be able to work from home and be with them after they get done with preschool. Very thankful for that, but it will still be a change for us all. Appreciate the prayers.
12:22a.m.  supposed  to be switching my clock around. Good night!

Nebraska

A few days after we got back from KC we went to visit Matt's parents. All these trips explain why July went so fast! And I guess the fact that I knew I was going to have to start working again in August...

In June I accepted a full-time elementary music teaching job, so the rest of this summer has of course FLOWN by!

Lyla is a pro at driving this now

Playing Mario- this is definitely one of Lincoln's favorite things to do at Grandma's.

At Great-Grandma Schroeder's house.  They are playing a game Matt said him and  his brother used to play a lot when they were little.

Grandma gave us some yummy pie!

We went to the fair and this was Lincoln's reaction when we went to see the animals.

Matt's Uncle Norm and Aunt Sandy selling homemade ice cream at the fair.  It was REALLY good!

Watching the rodeo.

 

KC trip

Two weeks after CO we went to KC for Abby's birthday party.  We went to Jumping Jax and Legoland while we were there.

Abby, Lyla, Caleb, and Lincoln at Jumping Jax  I realized I didn't get many pictures of the boys because I followed the girls around most the time!

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I was really pretty amazed how well Lyla followed directions during this .  There was a lady in the front of the room giving step by step directions on how to build the lego camera, and she seemed to get alot of it on her own.  I knew Lincoln could do it because he does so many legos at home, but I guess Lyla has picked up alot from watching him so much!

Imax theatre at Legoland.  Lincoln of course LOVED this and went a couple times.  It was a little scar y for Lyla so we didn't make it too far into the movie.  She didn't like it when things looked like they were so close to her.

Happy 3rd birthday Abby!

Tossing water balloons