Happy Birthday Ellie

I've said it before, she is growing up too fast! Here are a few things about Ellie at age five:

• she still sucks her thumb
• she's terrified of dogs, even though we've had Jamaica since before she was born
• she loves ballet, princesses, purple and pink
• she's excited to start kindergarten
• she is an artist, with a great sense for color and design
• her favorite sport is swimming
• she has thrived on a bread and cereal diet 
• she's a five-year-old fashionista, whose shoe fetish started at age two
• he won't admit it, but she has her dad wrapped around her little finger
• she's a great sister
• we love her so much!!!

Back to School

The boys were excited to get back to school, and maybe I'm a bad mom for admitting this, but I was excited to have them start too. Our kitchen/living room remodeling project started the same day, so it was good timing. 

Joey's starting second grade, and we're especially excited because Robbie's third grade teacher moved to second, and Joey's in her class! She is awesome; we couldn't be happier. Second grade is the year that Robbie read the Harry Potter books, and the way Joey has been reading this summer, he should be ready for them. 

Robbie will be in fourth grade, and we don't know his teachers well yet, but they seem great too. I'm hoping for a few more years before Robbie is past my math level, but you never know, it's not something I use much, and he's pretty smart. :)

Happy Birthday Shawn

Yep, we like to hang with the big-wigs. Hope you had a great birthday Shawn! From all of us, especially Ellie, who just said "Write my name on that." Ditto from Ainsley, known for her originality.

Goodbye laundry list

When I started this blog, I thought it would be funny to keep an ongoing count of how many loads of laundry I had completed—maybe I was hoping for sympathy based on the staggering numbers. But I have found that keeping track of this is almost as tedious as folding and putting clothes away, so I'm shutting down the sidebar. On average, I do about ten loads a week, so over 500 loads a year. By the time Ainsley is eighteen, that will total 7800, although I fully intend for my kids to be doing their own laundry well before then, which will help. Until then, I'm trying to think of it as doing my part to make the world a cleaner (and better smelling) place, one sock at a time. 

Birthday wishes

I plan to print this blog at the end of the year, and I'd like to have all our family birthdays documented, but I've already missed a few. Last week was Riley's and Matt's—happy belated birthday, you two. I still have a few hours left of Anne's birthday...I hope you had a great day Anne!

Not quite a super fan

After watching the amazing opening ceremonies, I told Rob that if I had the time and money to be a super fan of something, the Olympics could be it for me. There are a lot of pros: world travel, great ideals, lots of variety, and awesome achievements. Being the cynic, he pointed out the corruption and greed of the IOC, the doping and scandals, the commercialism. But he was cheering just as loud as Robbie and I were when the US men's swimming team "smashed" the French team and the world record last night. I may not be a super fan, but I'll be tuning in for the next thirteen days.