Creating

Last week I spent a good part of a day planning out our summer - from booking some childcare for crucial workdays to marking all of the Colorado Free Days for museums, gardens, etc.on my calendar.  It felt good to have a few things nailed down, but I sure do look forward to the flexibility and spontaneity of summer!

While looking for free days, I noticed that this weekend Bemis Art School, part of Colorado Springs Fine Art Center, was hosting a free family art day.  All three kids love arts and crafts and I am not overly motivated to do a myriad of crafts at home, so this was a no-brainer.  Kurt worked at home and the four of us had a blast getting messy and making some fun things.  The theme was Native Americans and there were four or five well-planned art activities in which families could participate.  We will definitely be participating in these family fun days again.

It was a great reminder that we were created to be creators.  Our creator, the creator of the universe, created each one of us uniquely, in His image.  No matter how "unartistic" we deem ourselves, we are creators and our creations are a form of worship!

The End of an Era

Yesterday was Elyse's last day of preschool for the year.  She still has a whole other year of preschool, so it's not really the end of an era, but it's the end of this season.  She's been in school three mornings per week this year.  Next year will be four mornings per week.  She is so ready.  She actually thought that Kindergarten was next year.  Why wouldn't it be?  Isaac went to Kindergarten, then Ace, and naturally, she would be the following year. 

One last story with Mrs. Dwors

Elyse and her friend, Hadessah enjoying ice cream sundaes

Elyse with her fabulous teachers, Mrs. Dwors and Mrs. Trujillo

Sorry, little girl!  You still have another year of these sweet preschool years.

Our Little Sweetheart

The title of this post should actually be "Every one's Sweetheart!" 
It's clear that Ace is naturally our nurturing, sweet kid!  He just cares for others, shares, and loves from his heart, not because he knows he should, but because that's just his nature.  Simply put, he's a sweety.  This is not to say the other two aren't sweet kids, but they tend to be sweet because they're - dare I say - for the most part, "well trained."  There's no filter with Ace.  What you see, hear, and experience is the real deal.  Many times I've been stopped by teachers and parents to hear a story about a situation where Ace was himself, and just extremely nurturing or helpful to a peer, a teacher, or a younger sibling of a friend.  That's just what he does.

However, he's also "our little sweetheart," because he is already turning a lot of heads!  The girls in kindergarten and first grade tend to whisper and talk a lot about this little man of ours.  He's been given flowers on numerous occasions from girls in his class and moms have joked with me that they have already started their daughter's dowry and they want to know how they can arrange a prom date with Austin for their daughter, because they "know he'll have her home by 10 and be the perfect gentleman."  Seriously, I'm not just talking about one conversation or one mom.  He's catching the hearts of little girls and moms!

The other day, I found a note in Isaac's backpack from a friend of his - a first grade girl.  It was apologizing for something.  It was, as some first-grade writing is, a bit difficult to decipher, so I asked Isaac about it.  He explained that everybody was talking about Ace and he didn't like it.  I asked them what they were saying.  He said, everybody was talking about all the girls liking Ace - the first grade girls and the kindergarten girls!  I told Isaac I'm happy for him to stick up for a friend or a sibling if people are speaking inappropriately or meanly about someone else, but that it isn't mean to say someone likes Ace.  He just kept saying, "I just didn't like it."  As we talked, I started to realize that some of his dislike could have spurred from jealousy.  We talked about how Ace is a very likable kid and he will probably always be talked about - in a good way.  Isaac is a very likable kid too.  He's the kid that is nice to everyone and everyone likes and respects him.  Somehow though, at this point in the game, Ace is capturing a myriad of hearts, in a different kind of way.



Who could resist this sweet face, paired with his loving heart?

 The best part about "our little sweetheart?"  He has no clue!!  He's just living life the way His creator created him and is completely oblivious to all of these onlookers!  I just love that!  It's incredible to see God's fingerprints all over our kids, in such unique ways.

Preschool Mother's Day Luncheon

Elyse's preschool teachers hosted a Mother's Day Luncheon for all of us mothers last Thursday.  It was so sweet and Elyse was thrilled to give me a gift she had made and sing the songs.  She likes the gift so much, that I think she's decided to keep it!

As you can hear, she has no problem being heard!

Dreaming Big

Isaac's swim team practiced at the Olympic Training Center last week! It just so happens that the Michael Phelps is currently in Colorado Springs training at the OTC, as well, but unfortunately there were no sightings of the swimming icon.

However, Isaac did share the pool deck with another Olympic Gold Medalist.  Rudy Garcia Tolson.  Rudy is a Para-Olympian gold medalist, who Ace actually met a couple of weeks ago on his field trip to the OTC.  He was quite the inspiration to these little Kindergartners.  He is an Ironman and has four pairs of "legs!"

Walking toward the OTC pool

Excited to swim

 He had an amazing time and I'm sure there will be more days at the OTC.  Swimming is his current passion!

We weren't allowed on the pool deck during practice, so E, Ace, and I did our own "training" while he was swimming!

 Future Gold Medalist Weight Lifters

If ballet isn't in her future, this certainly may be...

Ace and Carson on their first school bus ride headed to the OTC for their field trip

The Kindergartners with Rudy, wearing his "walking legs"

Our First Ballet Recital

 Our little Ballerina

Saturday marked the first (most likely, of many) ballet recitals.  Elyse has been dancing at a fabulous studio that teaches the girls ballet and other dance as a form of worship.  Most of the songs they dance to are worship songs, they have a monthly Bible memory verse, and they focus on modesty.  It's been a great place for Elyse to get started.

Her young group danced to Baby Face on Saturday and I video taped (most of) their rehearsal.  It was pretty darn cute.  She had an absolute blast dancing on the big stage under the lights.  For the actual recital, I volunteered to collect tickets, so I got to pick our seats early.  We were dead center in the front row!  She could see us, so I think we were a bit of a distraction, but she was so excited to see us and Megs and Bunkie!  It certainly brought back many memories of my dancing days!

 Elyse with Ms. Jennifer

 Curtain Call

So excited!!

Self portraits

Elyse is a budding photographer!  If she gets ahold of a camera, we can be sure there are at least 50 new photos on the memory card, in a matter of seconds.  At least 80% of those new photos are self-portraits.  We have so many photos just like this one!  What a beauty!

Irony

Less than a week after posting about Isaac losing his first two teeth quite some time ago and how his mouth seems to be holding onto all the others, with no wiggles in sight,  he lost 2 more this weekend!  As of Friday night they were all solid.  Saturday at lunch he bit into an apple, Ace noticed some blood, and the discovery of a slightly loose tooth was made.  With a lot of self-induced torture (according to mom) and some pushing and pulling help from mom, he lost an upper middle tooth in less than 8 hours.

The next morning he realized, thanks to all the pressure he put on the tooth he lost, that the one next to it had loosened a bit.  When that kid puts his mind to something, there is no stopping him.  He was adamant that it was coming out, even though it was barely loose!!  As Kurt said, he is definitely David Tilney's grandson.  He worked on that thing so much that I had to make sure he knew that you don't pull out adult teeth!  By the end of the night, the second one was out.  All in less than 24 hours!

The perfect first-grade grin.

Proud Mama

This afternoon was one of those days.  I was in awe of each of my kids.  It's not as though any of them mastered anything new, but they each simply impressed me.  I know I'm not supposed to boast, but this is a blog for our family's benefit, so I think it's okay to brag on my kids a bit...

Ace, our kindergartner bookworm, managed to read a Magic Tree house chapter book, cover to cover, during his brother's hour-long swim team practice!  Whoa!  I am continuously blown away by him!

This next one won't sound nearly as exciting, but trust me, it is.  Elyse wanted to go sit in a sort of special place at the pool during Isaac's swim practice.  I told her she could, but she needed to come back to me in five minutes and check in.  Sure enough, in 4 minutes, she was back and quickly asked if she could do it again.  I was pleased she obeyed so of course wanted to positively reward her.  So, she was told to come back in 10 minutes.  9 minutes later, she was huffing and puffing with excitement letting me know she was checking in and ready for "more privileges and responsibilities."  This went on and on throughout the entire practice and she thought it was fabulous!  (Truth be told, so did I!  She was finally recognizing the connection between listening/obeying and additional privileges, opportunities, and responsibilities.)

Finally, our little fish!  Isaac is knocking the socks off his new coach!  She pulled me aside to say with a huge smirk on her face, "I just have to tell you...your son is fabulous.  Fabulous!"  She went on and on and it was so obvious that she is excited about Isaac's love of the sport, ability, potential, and enthusiasm to learn.  She asked me if he had told me about his goals for swimming.  She was clearly so impressed, she didn't really give me a chance to respond.  Pulling out her notebook, where she recorded each swimmers goals for the rest of the season, she smiled and said, "He said his first goal is he wants to understand everything I'm talking about."  At first, it sounded a bit silly to me, but oh my goodness, this coach was seriously in disbelief of Isaac's earnest desire to just LEARN.  Her face said it all.  When he gets excited about something, he is without a doubt a favorite of any teacher/coach because his eyes burn with his dreaming.  I've had people pull me aside many times to say how they can see the lights turn on and the passion light up in his eyes.  Clearly, Coach Jen has seen it and is so excited!  She also was thrilled that his second goal was to learn how to use the time clock.  She just loved his understanding and desire to understand the whole sport!  I laughed and said something about how he loves it and would love to be the "next Michael Phelps."  With big eyes, she said, "He may be!"

It sure is fun to see other people dream with and for my kids!  It's fun for us to dream with them!

Then, we came home to read and go to bed and well...what can I say, I'm proud of the two little "Captain Underwears!"   There's real potential there!