Ode to Craiggle

We had a really wonderful Father's Day. I feel bad that I can't make it as special as I want to, now that I need more help with things, but we still had a nice breakfast together (and even slept in til 7:30am) and a nice lunch. It was fun to shower him with lots of needed gifts in the wardrobe dept. New shorts (the one's he'd been wearing were too big, left overs from the KY days), shirts, tie, swim trunks and shoes. Also a specially ordered Oreo cake and a lunch of his fav red cabbage and pork chops (never mind that the chops turned out like little hockey pucks). We all love him and hope he knows that he's everybody's favorite person in the family (EVERYBODY, even Sophie and that's saying a lot since she's still nursing). It's nearly impossible to make him mad, he's good-looking and funny and he is nice and clean. He also pretty much always does what needs to be done without ever needing to be asked; what's not to love?

Craig goes to Heaven, Amy goes to...

This weekend we had a ward temple trip. They rented a room in the rec center across from the temple so families could go together and one parent could attend while the other stayed and had some activities with the kids. What a great idea! That way I could feed Sophie right before I went in! Unfortunately, my temple recommend, which was issued to me in Oct of 2007 had March circled instead of October. Foiled again! So Craig attended an Endowment session while I stayed out (with all the Priesthood, way to go Dad's of our ward!). I'm hoping all those blessings will count for both of us, because it was 102+ degrees plus humidity today in Columbia, SC. Hotter than Haddes!!! So miserable. I haven't sweat that much since Girl's Camp of last year, or at least since the last time I attended spin class.

So fun!

This weekend we went down to the Farmer's Market and bought some bread and peaches. Then they had an event called "Touch a Truck" going on so we got to play on a city bus and a hummer and a backhoe, and a firetruck. It was really fun. We also went and fed the ducks afterward. Such a great Saturday with no soccer games to stress over. We got to go swimming later on too! Katie finally was able to finish her 300 piece Hannah Montana Puzzle that Taylor keeps taking apart. Hurray for Katie! (and hurray for Taylor, we were gonna have to beat him bloody if he touched it again. He's so charming right now).

Success at last!

Here's a video of Taylor during his swim lessons. He's doing awesome Katie is also taking lessons again. She is doing private lessons and as usual doing amazing. They are both such great swimmers. I guess we'll stick with this. It's fantastic to see them excel and really enjoy themselves. Thanks to mom for helping with Katie's swim lessons as part of Katie's birthday present. Katie's learning so much and can almost swim the whole length of the pool. I think we'll try to keep her in private lessons for at least one more session to see if she can improve her strokes enough to be on swim team if she wants to. The neighborhoods here have their own swim teams and they compete against one another during the summer months. Katie and Taylor's swim lesson teacher is the lady in charge of the swim team at the neighborhood where we're doing lessons. She's really excellent. I can't decide if swim team at this age is a good idea or not. I guess I'll have to ask more questions about how many practices they have and how long they are. All I know so far is they have to be able to swim the width of the pool and they start at age 5 and work on their strokes. Sounds like a good idea to me! I like that it's not during the school year too.

Last Soccer game, new hair cut and all that jazz!

This weekend was really nice. It quit raining (not that we're sad about the rain, because as everybody is quick to remind us, we need the rain, we're in a drought)and the sun came out. Taylor had a early soccer game and it was his last one(hallelujah). He really wasn't a stellar soccer player. Mostly he just cried a lot. We can do that at home without paying the YMCA and having Craig coach. He won't be playing an organized sport again until age 6 we've decided. Anyhow you can see by the pictures that during practice he was fine. Actually, in the 4th quarter of the game he did kick the ball away from his goal (great defense T-money). But most the time was spent crying, whining, or picking grass, as you can see from the other picture. In his defense the team was 4-5 year old team and he was by far the smallest kid out there. Also a lot of the games were in the afternoon and it's hot and miserable already. He and Katie start swim lessons this week so lets hope for more success there!
Also this weekend I got my hair cut! It was wonderful to take off without any kids after we got home from the soccer game. I also really enjoy having it shorter. It feels all neat and cleaned-up! This week I'll cut Taylor's hair (and maybe Craig's) and take Katie to get hers trimmed a bit. sorry for the pix of my tired face, but that's how I look at 11:30pom!

Any day at the Starkey house

Yesterday Katie and TAylor had fun playing in the box that held the chair cushions that mom recovered and sent back to me! It's the perfect size to be a bus or a sled! Then last night after I put the kids to bed and came down the stairs I saw this little frog attached to the front windows next to the door! How cool! I was tempted to catch him and wake up the kids, but it was nearly 10pm so I didn't. I just took a pic and then fed Sophie and laid her down. When I came back, he was gone. Too bad! I guess he was there because of all the rain we've been getting.

The end of school

Tomorrow is the last day of school for Katie. Taylor's school ended a couple weeks ago. He put on a little program and got to play the cymbols. He looks like a little wind-up monkey toy to me. Katie got the "Terrific Kid Award" and we're so proud of her. We already knew she was a Terrific kid but now she has the award to prove it. She also made her AR (accelerrated reader, they read books and then take a test on them to test their comprehension) goal and out of the whole class there were maybe only 5 kids that did that. Also Sophie started rice cereal this week. I'm excited for her to have another option (other than me) for food and excited to not have to pack lunches or run carpool or be at the bus stop. The incessant squabbling between Katie and Taylor has already been going for a couple weeks (mostly because Taylor is such a pill right now). Hopefully these pesky kids (that's meant in a loving way) will quit waking me up at night so I can get some rest and we'll have a wonderful summer break. Enjoy the pix of Sophie with Katie's teacher, Mrs. Bliss and Taylor with his teacher, Mrs. Ann.