The last days of school....

The year is over, it went by way too fast....and next year, 3 girls will be in "real" school. There was some sadness at our home for many reasons over the last month--happy and sad mixed together. Is that called "sappy"?! ☺

Above, you will see the girls as we celebrated all being done, having lunch at Fuddruckers last week. Ava is doing "zero" for kindergarten, Ellie will go to 4th grade and Jayna to 2nd. I will keep Colin by my side forever.....just call me "sappy".

Ava graduated preschool just before Colin's birthday in May. Below, a collage of her last celebration....the upper left photo captures Ava to a "T"...little bitten lip and all!
As you will see, Colin has a graduation cap too...Ava made hers in class and came home saying "I have to make COLIN one too! He was very happy to wear it all day...until he accidentally sat on it and then it was ruined!

Of course, we have cute video to watch if you have time:
Jesus Loves Me by the preschoolers is here.
If I Were A Butterfly part 1 and part 2.
Hip Hop Happy Day can be found here. (Very entertaining little song, along with Ava losing her hat!)

We (Ava) are (is) ready for next year....but she is kind of the baby of the family, so we'll see how we fare next August....

And then the big girls had their Learning Celebration last Friday....and what a special event it was. We've been to a few celebrations now, but this one was spectacular....from the opening song of "Amazing Love" (found here) to the middle school teacher's tearful farewell that was so touching to EVERYONE....it was wonderful and very emotional! God has been great, God will be great again....what a wonderful year it has been...despite trials, we have all grown!

These photos speak for themselves...the girls with their wonderful teachers, and snapshots of them during the celebration. We can always count on Jayna for some good expressions...and she was so nervous about the celebration--she missed the last 2 days of school with a high fever...but she was beaming on Friday morning, with her 1st grade class!
The children also received their "Christ-like Characteristic" from their teachers--what was observed throughout the year with their character....Jayna received "Initiative" and Ellie received "Diligence"....both were very fitting, from what their teachers had shared with us at conferences this year. Great job, girls!

The kids also ended the chapel with "Tell The World", a song that has been sung many times to parents etc this year....and I don't think we can get enough of these precious little people sharing about going out and TELLING THE WORLD about Jesus!

Happy Summer!!!!

Change of Plans Weekend...

Sometimes the best laid plans.....don't happen right?!

4th weekend in July....is to be the Evenson family reunion at Lake Wapogasset in Amery, WI. We were all set to go, reserved our room(s) at the Forrest Inn months in advance....and then Kimberly Clark came out with their reorganization idea. Turns out, the announcements of "have job/ have no job" were to be the week we were going to be in Amery. SO, we cancelled our trip. Bummer.

But, when 1 window closes, another DOOR opens right?

Shortly after we cancelled our hotel reservation, we received an invite to our former neighbor's surprise 75th birthday party. We were the only NON family invited! But, as the girls informed me, we are like family--especially because she is GRANNY Marlene to the children.

The above picture is of Granny and the girls at Ellie's music camp performance. At the last minute, Ellie had said to me "Did you invite Granny mom?" I quickly called Marlene and she had plans...but she rearranged her plans to come see Ellie. She loves the children and they do love her too....and miss her as our neighbor! Happy Birthday to Granny Marlene!

The next few pictures are from the party....it was held on Lake Winneconne at the Vanderloop's cottage. Anyone heard of my 'super sitter' Cindy? Well, this was at her parents' cottage. It was a wonderful time and it was so good to see all of Marlene's family again. The children LOVED swimming in the lake, despite the cold and the wind! To get an idea of the wind and how far out the shallow water goes, click HERE. Super Sitter Cindy and Amazing Sitter Amy (we are so blessed in the babysitter department!) took the girls out swimming in the lake--they were the only ones brave enough to enter the water on the windy cool day!


Colin LOVED all of the rocks that landscaped the Vanderloop's cottage....LOVED them. And the girls LOVED Marlene's "grand-dog" Buddy. It has been good to be around calmer dogs for Jayna's fear of dogs--she is coming right along in learning to like dogs! Click HERE to see video of Colin dancing, his new trick.

Cindy's dad caught a nice sized fish (center picture is Cindy's brother Andy holding "the" fish) and Mr. Chuckie did a demonstration for the girls on how to clean a fish and prepare it to be grilled. Ellie was the only girl to try the fish--and she LOVED it.


And finally.....back to the one window closing, another door opening.....not being able to attend the reunion meant that Andy was able to tie up some things at work, and get some much needed "stuff" done around the house. I was able to attend a women's conference at my friend Stacy's resort, I mean house and while I was gone....Andy and the girls mulched 12 yards of mulch! To my shock, all 12 yards were off the driveway by the time I arrived home at dinnertime! Amazing! I'm sure you all will get a kick out of the above picture--the big girls wearing their science laboratory goggles, and Ava wearing her winter boots!

As far as the actual DOOR opening when a window closes....you'll have to stay tuned for that type of information! :)

Summer Music Camp!!!!

Last week, Ellie attended a music camp at Appleton Alliance Church. We had NO idea what to expect....and boy, were we ever in for a treat! To start with, Ellie & her allergies have never been left with anyone that wasn't 1) family 2) friends 3) school or 4) OUR church....this camp? They knew NOTHING of her and *I* was very nervous about this new experience. I felt nervous that they wouldn't understand food allergies as I approached the camp director...and it turned out that she knew all about epi pens and how to administer them! When I picked Ellie up after that first day, she was beaming and I think she floated through life the rest of the week--she absolutely loved the experience.

The camp was 1 week long and the children were expected to have the songs memorized by the first day of camp. On the first day, the directors taught them the actions to 9 different songs and then on Friday night, the children performed the musical "Livin Inside Out In An Upside Down World".

Here is a snippet of our home last Friday--it was definately energy charged! We started the day waking Ellie up singing "Happy performance day to you..." and then the rest of the photos are of Ellie and the girls being silly for Andy....

The musical was a cute story about a little boy who hurt his ankle...turns out, the ankle wasn't the only 'hurt'--he was "puffed up with pride"....and the setting was a gym class. Through the songs, the children teach this prideful boy what it means to live like God desires us to live.

Here are some snippets of the songs that were performed:
To hear "Inhale The New Life", click HERE.
To hear ""Here's What-cha What-cha Gotta Do", click HERE.
To hear "Livin' Inside Out", click HERE.


The above photo and the one below it were snapped during the song "3 Blind Guys"...the tune of 3 Blind Mice, but a cute song about how filling your life with "things" won't bring you the joy that Jesus brings us. To hear "3 Blind Guys", click HERE and HERE.


To hear "The Ways of the World", click HERE.

Many of you Austin-ites don't know that the girls are NOT in dance--for various reasons. On Friday, when we went in to pick Ellie up, we could hear the children singing and we snuck in the back door to watch. I had tears in my eyes, seeing my little girl up on stage, singing her heart out and "dancing"...it was just precious. Makes me wish I had access to some old Rythmic videos!

To hear "Shepherd Boy", click HERE.
To hear "Only You", click HERE. (This is one of our favorites!)
These 2 songs have some amazing solos. Actually, all of the soloists were outstanding...again, it was amazing!

And finally...to see the end song "Everyday", click HERE and HERE. The 2nd option shows the enthusiasm of the camp directors! They were awesome!

The 3 Glynn girls afterwards--we left Colin at home, sleeping in his crib with "super sitter Cindy" so we could enjoy the performance sans crying baby! It was such a blessing to have another favorite babysitter, Valerie and "Granny" Marlene come to watch the show--that blessed Ellie's night!

Here is a photo of Ellie's classmate Abby signing her shirt. It was cute--we were walking to get refreshments and Ellie comes up to me and says "Mom...would it be alright if I let my friends sign my shirt?" Later she said "I asked you because it seemed like it might ruin the shirt if we draw on it with a Sharpie!"

Refreshments afterwards--Ava LOVED the lemonade. It was fairly humid on Friday night--before we left, we brushed Ava's hair "straight"...as you can see, the straight look did NOT last AT ALL! :)

Last Minute Weekend Plans!

Did you know how much we love Door County?
This last weekend, we made an impromptu day trip to DC and had an amazing day. The weather was wonderful, Sweetie Pies had the "right" pie available, the girls got to swim in Lake Michigan and we made many great family memories.

Above is the picture from our 2nd stop....the 1st stop was to one of my favorite stores, The Lang Store in Sturgeon Bay. We ALL always go in to shop.... "OK girls...what are the rules? No running, no touching, stay by mommy and daddy...." and this time, guess what the clerk said when we were browsing the store?: "Are you the family from Appleton?!" I have no idea WHY they would remember our large family with 3 girls and 1 "poor" boy....

But back to the first picture: Ava is my pie girl...and I think the upper pictures tell it all--she was in heaven with her piece of cherry pie. The big girls? They were happy to just be out of the van and able to run around the Settlement Shops' grass.

Our original plan was this: Katie and Ava get out for pie; Andy feeds Colin his lunch in the van. Well....Katie and Ava were about 10 feet away from the van when we heard "Wait Mom! I'm coming too!" (Jayna) We made it another 10 feet and "Guys wait! I want to come too!" (Ellie) and then as we were getting our pie...."Girls, why don't you invite Daddy to feed Colin by us?!?!?!"....and hence, the photo sequence of Colin eating was created! Colin is quite obsessed with berries....I have no idea where that obsession comes from...

After our pie fix, we traveled into Fish Creek....another "given" when we go to DC: The Candy Store. However, as we parked the van, Jayna spotted these MASSIVE turtles....with a massive price tag as well! $900 for the lovely little yard ornament she is kneeling next to!

The girls by the geranium flowers was SUPPOSED to be all 4 children....instead, it was just the girls and Colin's displeasure with the photo shoot provided much entertainment to all who were hanging out near the candy store!

Colin fell in love with the Sesame Street stuffed characters in the candy store--we have no idea how he knows them--he's never seen the show! We did find ourselves caving and buying him his very own cuddly Grover....

We were also trying to find the sand dunes....again, we didn't really succeed. I guess we'll have to go back another day! We made our first water stop at the caves. This time, the water was still freezing, but it was enjoyable to be splashing down by the waves. It was very comical to see the big waves just appear at the girls' legs and see their reactions.

After the fun walking around the caves, we entered the state park...to find the dunes...we did find a beach, and we told the girls they could stand in the water. It was like ice cubes....freezing! The girls would try to stand in it and quickly run out. And all of a sudden, there was Jayna--WAY out standing in the Lake! (see upper left photo) The girls had a blast swimming in their clothes and making sand castles...what a memory!

On Sunday, after naps, we made our first trip to the Neenah fountains. Ellie woke up in the morning and said "Well....it's Sunday, and we ALWAYS go to the fountains on Sundays!" We went and enjoyed the water and had a (windy) picnic up on top of the pavilion. The girls mainly had the fountains to themselves and enjoyed running and splashing through the water.

After a couple of hours, Colin discovered another new love: crawling on cement. His legs look horrible and he is not fazed by the scraping of his skin. I think he is trying to set a record for "oldest crawler"....

And speaking of Colin....here he is experiencing the fountains for the first time--he didn't love it so much (left photo) but grew to love them (right photo). And how about his snazzy shirt?!?!??!

Happy Birthday Andy & The Glynn Group...

What a crazy week this has been! Andy is on vacation this week and we're getting ready for our annual trip to IL for the 4th of July....Andy has made many trips to the local fireworks tents...

The week started with Ellie needing something to do while she waited to have her hair fixed for church....she put Colin on his helicopter and away they went! Colin just LOVES riding this toy! A big THANK YOU to Great Grandma--this is one cool birthday gift!

With 6 people, your van fills up FAST when you travel. For Christmas, all we wanted was money toward a new "cartop carrier" to hold all the stuff we take when we travel. This week, the Yakima will take it's maiden voyage...but first, we had to figure out HOW to get it on. Once Andy got it secure, he wanted me to see how easy it was to open it. I stepped up on the ladder, opened it up and BAM, there was Ellie yelling "Surprise!" She was IN the Yakima! Well, then of course, all 3 girls wanted to be IN the Yakima....

TODAY is Andy's birthday! Happy Birthday Andy! It was especially fun to have him home for his special day! We have free bowling cards for the girls and decided to use them this morning. We had a blast bowling....Colin even enjoyed it (well, he enjoyed his treats and falling alseep on the way home!)! Our family has a great time when we go bowling....and it's starting to be a birthday tradition around here. Ellie's theory is that IF it is your birthday, you will bowl strikes!

Here are some photos of the 'cake'. The girls decorated cookies last week with their friends Silas and Shae. It's an annual tradition to get all 5 kids together and they 'paint' the sugar cookies with this cool frosting. This time, we decorated tiger hawks (Iowa Hawkeye mascot) and I gave the girls instructions to decorate them nice for Daddy! (After all, the cake fairy IS on vacation!)

Andy enjoyed getting yummy Jelly Bellys, some shirts, a CD and a gazebo for our shade-less backyard. His most exciting gift though? To plan his fireworks show with his brothers....stay tuned for the blog entry on that fun!

Dad Date & "Joe-Fuss"

We had a rainy weekend this past weekend.

The girls were also informed that Andy would be traveling during their end of the school year learning celebration. There were many tears about that. To make up for it, Andy took the 3 girls to the movie UP. The reviews were as follows: Andy: "LOVED the message--we'll buy it when it comes out on DVD." Ellie: (crying) "It was scary mom!" Jayna: "I LOVED it mom, it wasn't scary at all!" Ava: "It was a little scary but I DID like it mom!"
They all must have liked it to some extent as I am hearing them converse with lines of the movie. (Those of you who are related to the Glynn girls can identify with the girls knowing the words to every song they hear 1x!) I am feeling very left out, not knowing WHAT the girls are talking about.

We also spent a considerable amount of time watching the 3 Glynn Girls put on their production of "Joe-Fuss" And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Anyone who knows Ava, has heard her precious pronunciation of "Joseph" as "Joe-Fuss". Funny enough, we are all finding ourselves saying Joe-Fuss now. The girls are OBSESSED with this musical. They saw a classmate in the musical a few months ago and the lyrics have been floating around our house ever since. We do realize that someday, we NEED to take them to a big production of this musical.

Anyway--the girls got all fancy (haha--it involved un-fixing their hair, involved straightening Ava's precious curls and putting on dress up shoes!); they covered up all of our furniture, learned how to change the lighting in our playroom, and put up a sign on our fireplace. They took turns singing for Andy and I....and the most amazing singing came from AVA, of all people. Just 2 months ago, at her 4 year check up, our pediatrician asked me "Does she talk? In all of my years seeing her, I've never heard her TALK!" (Ah, yes.....she DOES talk!) However, we have never seen her sing like this before.....

Enjoy sweet Ava singing here and here as well as Ellie and Jayna dancing across the camera! :)

Good job, Dad!

It's not too often that Andy gets the press on the blog...but I thought this was note-worthy!

His new position at Kimberly Clark requires him to travel much more than he ever has...and years ago, we started something--Ellie got a gift everyday that he was gone. (See how many years ago that was? We just had 1 child!) Now, however, with 4 kiddos and him traveling a lot, a gift everyday for each child has just gotten too much. Either you get little junk gifts from the dollar store (who needs 20 more pieces of $1 junk each week that Andy's gone anyway?!) or you get disappointment from the girls who thought they'd get something HUGE (like an American Girl?!).

So, we started something new this trip--the girls woke up to a note from Andy as well as a little cup of Starburst candy. The note reads: "To my dear, sweet, loving, caring, filled with joy, amazing daughters-- I love you all sooooo much and can't wait to talk to you every night this week. Thank you for the fun special time we each got on Sunday. I loved the time I got to spend with each of you! Ellie--thank you for the special reading and fun piano lessons (with that crazy piano teacher Borak! :) ). Jayna--thank you for the fun game you played with me and the story and book time. :) Ava--thank you for the great puzzle time. It was so special to see how good you are at puzzles. This week for your speical gift, I am leaving you with Starburst. There is one for each of you for every morning and every evening. I am also bringing Starburst with me! Whenever you eat one, think of me and whenever I eat one I will think of each of you! :) I will miss you this week but will be thinking of you 3, Mommy and Colin a lot! Have a great time and remember I love you. You are my three Starburst! Lots of love, Dad :)

Awww...good job, Andy!

And, as a side note, here is something interesting---we bought 3 sticks of Starburst. If the girls eat one each morning (5) and each evening (4), they each need 9. In each stick of Starburst, there were 12 little pieces of candy. With each girl only needing 9, that left 3 pieces from each stick...a total of 9 Starburst left for Andy, just like the girls! How perfectly that worked out!

And as for the above picture...Andy bought his girls flowers the week before Easter and they lived beautifully until last night. Andy cut off the carnations and the girls thought it was cool that all of the 'girls' of the family could wear them in our ears! The picture on the right is what the girls woke up to this morning, the Starburst treat!

Jellybean Blessings

Every year, at all of the 'major' holidays, I always have good intentions of blessing our neighbors in some unique way...and every year, the hustle of the holiday overtakes my desires! But this year, we accomplished our goal! Thanks, Jessica, for the idea of the Jellybean Poem!! (The girls later pointed out to me that the poem is actually included in the book "The Color Of Love"! Such memories the girls have!)

We sorted the jellybeans; we determined that each girl got to stuff 4 baggies and help tie them with ribbon. Ellie punched all the holes in the paper and I attached the notes . We then went to the 12 homes on our block and blessed them with an Easter greeting.

What we discovered was interesting....1) Amounts of jellybeans in a bag are not created equal (see photo of jellybeans in the bowls!).
2) The girls LOVED surprising the neighbors with a little treat!
3) The NEIGHBORS loved having a familiar face ring their bell and actually have a conversation with them!
4) That these little ways of blessing touched our lives just as much as the neighbors that received a sweet treat.

And as with most experiences that we all have, there is a "ps"....the day after we delivered the bags, I was running errands with Ava and we were leaving Wal Mart. Suddenly I heard someone say "hello....HELLO!" and I turned--it was the man on the very end of our street. He said to me "Say....thank you so much for the jellybeans and note...I really appreciate that...thank you!" We don't even know this man's name--he knows what our van looks like, he knows we have a little baby, and the girls refer to him as "the man who walks the dog that is afraid of children"!

Minneapols Trip in March!

It all started with Andy having cabin fever. HE wanted to go to Wisconsin Dells.
THEN, Andy got a hole in his shoe and our trip was created! Andy ALWAYS wears Ecco shoes and he always gets the best shoes at the Mall of America in Minneapolis (and no sales tax on clothes!). We love the Mall of America--we always walk in and say "Ahhh....like an old friend!" Katie never wanted to go to Wisconsin Dells...she wanted to find a reason to go to Minneapolis to see Megan and Tony and to finally meet Baby Oscar! So, we took off last Sunday morning and stayed at the Embassy Suites in Bloomington . We shopped the first day for Andy's shoes, we went to our favorite christian bookstore, Northwestern Bookstore, and then out to eat at Fuddrucker's.

WHY is there a photo of Ellie eating? Well...it was a pretty big deal! I called ahead and the nicest manager pulled some of the menu items and read me the ingredients and we determined what was safe for her to eat. Her entire meal was ordered off the menu--it was very fun for her (and us!)!

The top photo is a snippet of our time with Megan, Tony & Oscar. We just loved seeing them. The girls were especially excited to see Megan...and to talk her ear off. Tony was goofy as usual and he and Ava really click in that department--note the photo of the 2 of them being crazy!

Oscar--what a cute and precious little boy. I (Katie) was elated to "get" to feed him his bottle and we tried to get a good picture of Oscar and Colin--Megan held Colin and Katie held Oscar. It was funny when Colin tried to attack Oscar--Megan wasn't prepared for a baby to actually try to move out of her arms!

One of the most amazing gifts of the trip was the gift of free ride wristbands! The Mall has been running a promotion where you collect your receipts and you can quality for free ride wristbands. Between Megan and Tony's purchases this year, Andy's shoe purchase and the $$ spent at the American Girls store, our entire family earned free ride wristbands. What a blessing!

All in all, it was a very fun trip, minus the non-sleeping Colin experience. The girls had a blast, we had a blast...and Andy now has shoes without holes! (Click on all of these collage photos to make them bigger!)

ps--thanks to Krista and Scott, Katie's friends from high school for ideas on what to do in Minneapolis with children!

Minneapolis Trip--Tuesday

Tuesday was the last day of our trip, and we spent the morning at the Minnesota Children's Museum. We've been to enough children's museums in 8 years to recognize that this is one of the best museums around. It was amazing--very clear instructions for the hands on activities, and very spacious...and extremely interactive for the kiddos. The girls/Colin LOVED it. We could have stayed a few more hours, but the snow was flying and we had NO idea what we were driving into. For anyone who's planning a trip to Minneapolis--this stop is highly recommended!