Vacation 2011, day 1

Our very first week long family vacation started Saturday, June 18th at 6am...on the dot.
Our goal was to leave at 6am...and we did! It was an awesome feeling accomplishing that goal!
Our first stop to stretch was an oasis outside of Chicago....Andy had taught the kids the "vacation dance"...and here they are doing it. It was hilarious. The girls were embarrassed...Colin was just thankful to be unbuckled from his seat!

We had lunch at Portillos outside of Chicago. Funny thing here....we never dreamed we'd arrive BEFORE they opened for lunch! We had to burn about 20 minutes waiting for the doors to be unlocked! It was a yummy start to our week of dining on the road!

12 hours later via the clock or 11 hours later according to our bodies, we arrived in Taylorsville, Kentucky. We were staying at a resort just outside the Taylorsville Lake State Park. We had a very quaint, clean, and modern cottage that had a breath-taking view out the back windows. The sunsets and sunrises were spectacular.

Some of us had dinner upon arriving:

And then the children jumped into the hot tub...except Colin. "No Me like Hot Tubbie!"
He did splash from the side to the girls...and then Andy eventually got him in for a minute or 2.

This photo below describes the girls' free time in our cottage. Usually we were there early in the morning or just before bedtime...so they spent time relaxing and journaling about their fun activities of the day.

As you can see below, the girls' bedroom had a trundle bed! Good thing we stayed 3 nights--everyone got a turn in the fun bed that could be hidden under another bed!

Our first day was such a long driving day, but leaving really early made all the difference in the world. It gave us hope that in the future, we COULD do another long driving trip somewhere!

Summer, Week 4

HaPpY BiRtHdAy to Andy....TODAY, June 30th!
Usually Andy takes the day off on his birthday...and this year, he had to work. It was very odd around our house! We shall continue celebrating this weekend, though, as we visit Andy's family in IL.

Back to week 4....
We returned from our trip...1750 miles of driving....to the strawberry fields of Wisconsin! Jayna and I promptly headed out to the fields on Sunday and then again Monday morning with Cindy! A great time was had by all....and great berries were picked by all....
This photo is just some of the goodies that we ended up with:

Our time picking with Cindy was so special. Does everyone know Cindy?
In 2000, we moved to Wisconsin. "Granny Marlene" was the 1st neighbor I met. Cindy is Granny's granddaughter.
In 2002, Cindy started babysitting for us. She was 12 years old!
In 2011, Cindy still babysits for us....except now she lives almost 2 hrs away! We take her when we can get her! :)
When Cindy went off to nursing school, she introduced us to Amy....the girlfriend of her brother.
Guess what? Amy married Andy (Cindy's brother)...so Amy's part of Cindy's family now too.
And Cindy and Amy kind of look alike....and they both love the 4 Glynn kiddos....
And Colin keeps calling Cindy "Amy" now...
We worked with him though, and by the time Cindy arrived Monday morning, Colin was ready to say the right name!
As you can see below, Colin snuggled right up to our Cindy!

This week, the 3 big girls also attended Camp SonRay at our church! Remember 5 years ago when we had Camp SonRay in our backyard? It is a 1 day VBS and the kids just love it. As you can see, they had their faces painted and participated in "The Amazing Race" and learned about missions and how they can help other countries....how even kids can help out!
Currently, we have 3 "rice bowls" to fill with change. Did you know that just 25 cents can buy a child an entire meal? The girls are excited to turn their rice bowls full of change into the church in August.

And back to today....Andy's birthday.
You all know the kids live for birthday celebrations right? Well...we waited all day to have Andy come home to start celebrating. In the upper left photo below, Colin is actually saying "You so funny, Daddy!" because Andy put ribbon around Colin's neck! The kids made meaningful cards for Andy and we surprised him with fun, unique gifts.

We made him a triple layer white cake with the Chicago Bears' logo on it....
And of course, Andy had to do silly photos of blowing out the candles!

It's been a fun week!

Summer, Week 3

Week 3 of summer vacation was filled with many piles around the house, many lists for this and that....and what you see above, is MY reason we survived with food and clothing on our big vacation that we took last week.

My Mom had cut an article out of the newspaper for me...it interviewed a family of 4 going on big vacation and listed their tips. One of the tips was each child having a treat bin with enough snacks/treats for the duration of the trip. The girls had such fun packing these little bins and they were WONDERFUL! I was never rushing to figure out a snack to bring in the morning and the kids got to choose from their own packed treats what they'd have when hunger striked!

Another idea from this family was to leave early...VERY early for a long trip. We agree...we figured out last April that we do travel better in the morning. This trip that we just experienced....the first day we had about 10 hours of driving. We left at 6am...it was fun to be on the road so early!! With the entrance into eastern time and stopping breaks, we arrived in Kentucky at 6pm!

MY idea for clothing survival was to pack all the kids clothes into grocery bags and label the day they'd be wearing them. It kept the suitcase so clean and orderly--it was wonderful. After we opened the bag of new clothes, we simply filled it up with the prior day's dirty clothes!

We started our trip on Saturday, the day before Father's Day...and our first stop was Portillos for lunch, in Indiana. The entire family LOVES Portillos! Here is Andy with the kids:

And would you believe...I don't even have a picture from Father's Day of Andy with all 4kids! The one great picture I do have from the actual day, Colin is sleeping in his stroller, out of the view of the camera!
This photo was taken the day after...and since we celebrate the event's "week", I thought it would suffice as a memory:

We love you, Andy!

Summer, Week 2

The big event for week 2 was the concert that ended the girls' summer music camp.
Did I mention how wonderful the camp was? It was truly an awesome experience for the girls. Most of the instructors are affiliated with Valley Academy for the Arts in Neenah and it was quite amazing that these kids could pull off a 45 minute concert after just 1 week of camp.

The above photo says it all--we'll definitely make this camp a priority during the summer!
For a glimpse of the concert songs, Andy did capture some beautiful recordings. To hear the songs live, all you have to do is hang around our house. In fact, tonight, the girls were belting out a song and one of the back yard neighbors had walked up onto the deck and just listened to them before saying "hi"! (The girls were embarrassed!)
To hear "Sing Me A Song", click HERE.
To hear "O Des Aiyo", click HERE.
To hear (my favorite) "For The Beauty of the Earth", click HERE for part 1
Click HERE for part 2
Click HERE for part 3.

This week was a quieter week activity-wise but Ava did start her ballet class. During the school year, she took a 30 minute lesson 1x a week. This summer, she's doing 1 hour 2x a week. After today's lesson, THIS is what happened:

Now, a little background....if you have spent a lot of time around Ava, you know that she hits the tired wall FAST and FURIOUS. Our summer days are full of playing and dancing and having fun...and by today, she could not function any more. I convinced her to take a nap, to "camp" in my bed with random blankets for 1 hour...and this is how Ellie found her 1 hr later. The winter hat? Well, our neighbor is having a rummage sale and she had these great kids hats that didn't sell at her store and Ava claimed one. Turns out, Ava says it is the most comfortable hat she's ever worn and needs to wear it to calm down and to sleep. She also wants to take it on vacation next week. That should be interesting in 100 degree weather....

Summer, Week 1.

We just finished week 1 of Summer break!This summer, I decided to do a true "scrapbook" entry of each week....especially since I recently discovered a site to print the blog!

Our summer vacation started last Thursday and Ellie and Jayna went to the auditions at Appleton Alliance Church for the children's musical that will be held later this summer. Ellie was chosen as an "aside speaker", which is sort of like a narrator. Upon finding more information out about this part, we were told that she will be tying the play's story line to God's word and truth! She is very excited! Both girls will be in the chorus for the play--they can't wait.

On Friday, we had a "Father's Day Craft Session" with our friends the Landsverks. That's all we can say about that....after all, it's not Father's Day yet and we'd hate for the dads to see what they are getting...

And after 13 months of waiting....our sand FINALLY arrived. On Friday, Colin played for 5 straight hours in the sand, taking about a 20 minute lunch break. He was in heaven! On Saturday, he played for about 3 hours straight! The sand is definitely loved by all.

On Saturday, Andy, Ellie and Jayna went to Cherry On Top in Neenah to tie dye shirts! It was a VERY hot day and it was very messy...but the shirts turned out so cute! We'll be wearing them as a family when we go on vacation--I'm sure people will notice them, they are so bright!

While Andy and the girls were tie dying, I took Ava to see a ballet performance of "Where The Wild Things Are". She loved it....and can't wait to start ballet next week again!

On Sunday, we had an impromptu "fix the faucet BBQ" at our house!
One of our bathrooms had a leaky faucet and I was just collecting all the water and dumping it on my plants each day. We found out that a friend could help....so it was "bring the kids to play while the dad's fix the faucet" day! We had such a great time with the Schlafmans and I captured this photo just as the kids arrived:

Rub-A-Dub-Dub....5 girls in a "tub"...

They did eventually move to the bigger pool, the trampoline, the swingset, the basement, the sand, the basketball court....we covered all activities in 1 short afternoon/evening!
As you can see below, all 7 children were just having a ball together: (check out Colin's macho man look with Lexi!)
Another first for our family: I took all 4 kids to a public pool by myself, on a VERY hot (and busy pool day!) day! We surprised Ellie and Jayna with the activity and Ellie said "Are you sure mom?!" My response was "This is either the best idea and the start of something new or the worst idea and we'll never do it again!"

All the kids LOVED it, and we will definitely go swimming together again!

Colin is doing a Pull Ups study and it is quite interesting. The testing is a sensor attached to the Pull Up; when the child wets, the sensor sings "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Quite funny! However, we first found that Colin LIKED to hear the song (wrong behavior to enforce) and now our sensor is acting up and playing every 5 minutes, even without wetness. Now he is upset at the song. It has been an experience!

And, Ellie had her 1st swim meet of the summer! We love the local meets and this one was very low key, a dual meet between Fox Cities and Oshkosh. We were trying to pump Ellie up in the afternoon before the meet....it was either the Wiggles' "Swim Like A Fish" song or "Just Keep Swimming" from Nemo. At any rate, she swam wonderfully; it is so neat to see her improve and get stronger....which equals faster!
For the swimming fanatics:
Catch the 50M butterfly HERE. (Ellie is the 2nd to last lane)
Catch the 50M freestyle HERE. (Ellie is 2nd to last lane)
Catch the 50M breaststroke HERE. (Ellie is in the 2nd lane)

We did forget our camera at home...but thankfully we had 2 iphones...1 for videoing and 1 for timing her events. We had NO idea that she swam so well in the freestyle until we were leaving and checked the results. See for yourself.....moving on up....Way to go, Ellie!
In other news of the week, both Ellie and Jayna have been attending choir camp through the Appleton Public Schools. WOW. I am left speechless by the organization, the beautiful singing I have heard, the instructors...everything! The end of the camp week is a concert,which will be included on week 2 of the blog roll. And while the big girls were singing, Ava was learning how to ride her 2 wheeled bike! We're almost there!
Until next week...

2010-2011 School Year....DONE!

What a great school year the girls had!
It is hard to believe that 2010-2011 in the form of "school" is done.

The girls really had fabulous teachers....they enjoyed learning from each one and will be sad not to see them daily (or at all for Mr. Schmidt who is moving on!). Today was the Learning Celebration and as usual, it was beautiful and touching.

There was singing:
To hear grades 1-7 sing a snippet of "Your Grace Is Enough", click HERE.
To hear Band B play their song "I'm Free", click HERE. (Warning: for this one, there is some serious 'Ellie dimple' showing!)
We also had a "surprise" announcement! The entire school submitted Earth Day posters to a local company, SCA. New Hope Christian School won an award for the school with the most winners and there were MANY NHCS kiddos that were recognized.....
One of those kiddos was JAYNA GLYNN!!! SCA keeps the posters, but she got a certificate with her name and a photo of her poster on it, a book about recycling and our family got an entire case of paper toweling from SCA. More on that in another blog post. ;)
For the school's award, they get a new tree for the school yard, to be planted in the fall!
Go Jayna! For those immediate family members, I realize you are laughing and saying "She didn't get her talent from Katie!" :)

Here is our now 5th grader, Ellie....from first day to last:

Her "Christ-like characteristic" was Persistence. SO true of this year...really true!

And Jayna....from first day to last day...
(Wow....did phase 1 braces really do a change to Jayna's face or what?!)

Jayna's "Christ-like characteristic" was Helpfulness. This was something we heard over and over from the teachers about Jayna this year. She loves to help! Jayna had a special bond with her teacher, Mrs. Koeller...and when it was time for the 2nd grade presentations, I could see Jayna blinking back the tears--she will really miss Mrs. Koeller!

After the celebration, we went out for lunch....at Fuddruckers! Here are my 3 all day school girls for 2011-2012!

Happy Summer, Everyone!

Kindergarten Graduation!

Today was Ava's last day of kindergarten...her "last" day with me! She told me that she doesn't want to go to 1st grade...because then she won't be with me in the mornings! Sweet girl.

Andy commented that Ava doesn't seem to age. She will love that when she's approaching 40.
Above, you see her on the 1st day of school....and then today on the last day of school. Difference? 1 lost tooth and shorter hair. I think she may have grown an inch or 2 as well!

But before we get to the graduation....check out this collage:

We lovingly call this dress "the graduation dress".....and this is the end of line, sweet sundress. Andy says Colin is not wearing it...and he joked that we should cut the dress and put a bit of it on Colin's kindergarten graduation outfit. He was joking...I liked the idea. So stay tuned. In 3 more years, we'll report back on "the graduation dress"!

Below, you will find Ava sitting waiting for the ceremony to begin, and the Glynns4 kiddos. I love how the older siblings really appreciate being able to attend the younger kids' programs. So sweet.

The teachers always give each child a "Christ-like Characteristic". This year, Ava's was "initiative". You can watch/listen to Mrs. DeYoung give this to Ava HERE.

The children also did some singing. Precious, of course. My favorite was another singing of "I am Loveable". You can watch these excited kids sing it HERE.

After the graduation, we had 1 hour until the big girls finished school....so what do we do? Head on over to Cherry On Top, of course! We were the only ones in there! We enjoyed our ice cream and then had fun making butterfly crafts. You know, we hooked onto Cherry On Top because they always stock a dairy free ice cream and it is so special for Ellie. BUT....even more, it is a fun place. Usually, there is a craft for kids to do, and this Saturday? Well, stay tuned. Another fun event at the ice cream parlor in Neenah!

Tonight, as the big girls are getting their beauty sleep for their learning celebration tomorrow, I leave you with this last photo:
Introducing Ava Glynn, 1st Grader!

We love you, Ava!