The kids have also discovered that a little rainbow appears around 7:00 every night on the wall by our stairs from the peep hole in the front door.

Tonight, either for fun or to avoid impending bedtime, Jonathan was playing “puppy dog” with Ryan and Gracie.  He had a leash (workout band) and walked around the house while they pretended to be puppy dogs, crawling around saying “ruff, ruff”  They took their roles as puppies seriously.  James joined in the fun and pretty soon the littlest dog was being kicked out for not following directions well enough in rolling over and performing tricks.  He quickly changed his wayward puppy ways. 

As of last month, James qualifies to get speech for his R sound at school.  Part of this process included me meeting with his teacher, the school speech therapist and the school principal.  I wasn’t prepared for how much that boy has won over his teachers.  His 1^st grade teacher, Ms. Saleeby and the speech therapist, Ms. Wick, gushed on and on about him.  His teacher said how she always thinks of him when she reads about Jack in the Magic Tree House books and told the principal she’d be willing to teach 2^nd grade if James were in her class.  They went on about how neat his handwriting is, how cute he is, what a good student and so on.  I know they like to make the parent feel like they like his or her kid but they really are quite enamored with him.  It reminded me of how his church teacher from two years ago requested to teach the next age level so she could keep teaching him and how even at the age of 3 he’d get his swim teachers to carry him across the pool after swim lessons rather than have to walk in the cold to the other side like all the other kids.  So he must put on his charm at school.  I guess that’s a good thing.

Report cards were great which means these boys are either super smart or the standard isn’t very high for 3^rd and 1^st grades.  Despite us not letting him read the last few Harry Potter books yet, Jonathan got a million gazillion reading counts points for all the quizzes he took on books he read this year.   I’ve threatened to make him get a handwriting tutor if it doesn’t get better this summer.  We sit down to work on it and James proceeds to write out every letter of the alphabet in his best handwriting right next to Jonathan saying little things like, “Good job Jonathan.  That’s almost as good as my A.”  If those boys ever succeed at anything, although I’m sure I’ll take credit, in reality, it will probably be solely because they want to one up each other with everything.

School ended and summer vacation has gone well so far.  Many mornings consist of cannon balls off beds, sword fights using light sabers, super hero capes and stuffed animals being swung around as weapons, piles of pillows, blanket forts and cuddles and wrestling matches.  I’m finally getting the hang of doctor, eye and dental visits and schedule the four kiddos check-ups for the same time.  It was cute to have them all sitting in the line at the doctor’s office with their shirts off, getting their tummies poked, noses, eyes and ears checked along with the tears of sympathy for anyone needing shots.  No cavities -which is curious considering all the toothpaste that manages to end up on the sinks, mirror and floor rather than on teeth.  Ryan’s started going pee-pee standing up.  A FHE on better aiming is on the agenda.

Gracie gave me a gift of 50 or so envelopes that all said “Gracie” on them this morning.  There are only so many items I can store up high in the house.

Ryan turned 3 and we had a yellow birthday cake, which he had been requesting for the 6 months prior.  We also added blue chocolate balls to add some color.  Yellow pretty much sums up his personality.  He lied for the first time I can think of yesterday.  He knocked down the back screen door.   When Michael asked what happened he said, “Mommy did it!”