Welcome summer!

Just a few notes about summer learning...
Rachel is doing violin every other week in summer, she started using the D string this week and is moving up to a bigger violin tomorrow (a loaner until we order her new one!)

Ford has 3 more books to finish this Bob book box.  He wants to finish by the end of June and take a break from formal reading in July.  He has ten lessons left in his math book, by the end of summer he should be able to tell time and subtract .  I want him to finish up this book so he can start with a fresh new book in Kindergarten.

Ruby insists that she's finished preschool...she's so ready for ballet in the Fall, she should be swimming with the big kids soon.  She's really good at keeping up with Rachel and Ford!

Baxter just keeps growing and moving!  He can pick up a cup and I even let him take a little sip of water today...he was so proud of himself!

Allen and I are remembering what the 4 hour body diet is like.  I'm ready to shed these pounds and it's going to take more than just exercising.  We've cut out dairy, white foods, carbs and grains, and fruit with one binge day a week.  Basically meat and veggies!  The last time we did this plan we lost a TON of weight... So here's hoping it works again!

5 years and 5 months

The boys of Ingram School are growing and growing and growing.  Before they get any older, let me tell you all about what they can do these days!

Ford turned 5 years old this past Wednesday.  He is becoming such a confident little boy.  He has been learning to swim over the past few weeks and told us the other day to just go on and give Baxter his puddle jumper!  Once he got brave enough to try jumping in without and going under the water, he had no need to wear that cumbersome thing any more!!  He is an emotional roller coaster most days and is a man of extremes.  Everything is extremely great or extremely horrible to him at all times!!  He is definitely a pleaser and wants everyone around him to be happy.  If one of his sisters gets upset, he tries his best to find something to make them feel better (unfortunately that usually means the other sister gets upset...it's such a balancing act!).  He can't wait to officially start Kindergarten.  On the morning of his birthday he said, "Well, Mama, let's go ahead and do my school work so we can get on with the day."  I wasn't going to make him do any school work, but he was so excited to skip count by 10s and read a couple of Bob books.  He has started trying to read signs when we're driving around and figure out words in books as we're reading them.  I don't think he'll have any trouble becoming a reader this Fall.  He is such a sweet guy.  Love you,  Ford!

The other big boy around here was 5 months old at the beginning of June and is almost 6 months old!!  Talk about sweet....once we figured out his tummy troubles, this boy has gone back to being a super sweet toe-sucking, finger-licking, smiling and giggling happy guy.  Baxter is quickly learning to sit up and grab his toys.  He LOVES solid food and will eat anything.  Luckily, I've gotten him to eat some Mulit-Grain cereal so that he can poop more than once a week.  Fruits and veggies with no cereal creates lots of screaming from tummy trouble for him!  Other than cereal, he hasn't met a food he didn't like (feeding these four when they're teenagers is going to be outrageous!!).  I love this age because I finally feel like I can play with him and the other kids are having fun entertaining him.  He thinks they are all hysterical and especially loves to grab their hair and pull (that's usually when they stop entertaining!). If we can just get Bax to sit up in his little boat at the pool, we are going to have a great summer of swimming.  For now, though, he just likes one of us to hold him while the other one watches Ruby and then Ford and Rachel jump-in-get-out-jump-in-get-out-jump-in-get-out....

He is taking a regular morning and afternoon nap now and gets up twice in the night when we put him to bed at 7 with everyone else.  There are still some nights where he wakes more often than that, but we'll get there.  I know as soon as we get it straight, the teeth will start popping in and mess it all up.  No biggie, haven't slept in 6 years, why start now???

Love these boys!!

Yep, this guy!!

Can you believe this guy is 5?!?!

Tweetsie and a Father's Day Hike

Kindergarten comes to an end

Rachel "officially" finished Kindergarten today!!! I kept thinking that I really wanted to do something significant to celebrate, so we started the day by making a notebook of all her work. She made dividers for each subject and we looked through her Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies together. She wanted to make a title page and on it she drew a cloud (from science) and a grass skirt (from Social Studies). She showed her work to Ms. Lisa at our play date today and to Baba. Since we were out at Lisa's and Allen had a half-day, we went and ate a celebratory lunch (she wanted Zaxby's) with him. Then we went and got a frozen treat and wrapped our afternoon with a viewing of The Pirate Fairy.
Rachel has accomplished so much this year and I am so proud of her. She loves to learn, loves to be outside, loves to play violin, and LOVES to read! At the beginning of the year she was reading pre-reader and Level 1 books, now she reads 3rd and 4th grade level Chapter Books!! She is truly amazing!!

Never Say Never...

Allen finishes his days with students tomorrow and Rachel is considering tomorrow her "last day of Kindergarten" (even though we've basically been done for awhile...moving was kind of our "ceremony"!)  So, Ingram School blog posts probably won't be too much about education for awhile and will be more about what we're doing these days.  I'm hoping to start regular routine school back the same day as Allen (August 25) so the kids feel like they're on the same schedule as he is.  We talked this morning about how everyone would be going up a grade.  Rachel is excited to move up to 1st grade.  Ford will officially start Kindergarten.  Ruby refused to say she was going to be in preschool (she thinks she's already completed preschool!), so we decided she'd be in "Ruby School" this fall.  I know summer hasn't officially started yet (thanks to our calendar lesson today), but it seems like it's going to fly by since school gets out so late this year.  Anyway....

The reason I titled this post "Never Say Never..." is because we are going to be doing something this weekend that I truly NEVER thought we'd do!!!  I wanted to take Allen somewhere for Father's Day so that he would get a little vacation now that school's out and so that he didn't have to have his Father's Day Breakfast with his mother-in-law!!  Plus, we spent our vacation money on joining the pool and swim team and such this year, so I was hoping for a little getaway that wouldn't cost much.  Lisa and Ed are kind enough to let us stay at their mountain house this weekend and Allen loves the mountains, so I thought, "Perfect!"  Well, after I got that squared away and had visions of hiking and playing at the park and such, Ford just happened to see a commercial for "Day Out with Thomas".  This is something I swore I'd NEVER EVER EVER do!!!  When I looked into going to one closer to where we live, it was SO EXPENSIVE.  However, Thomas just happens to be in the mountains this weekend and it doesn't cost any more to get into the park then it does normally.  Ford's birthday is next week and after seeing that commercial he decided that he didn't want a party, he just wanted to go see Thomas!!  So, as I often do, I had to eat my words that I'd NEVER EVER DO THIS because, seriously, if that's all he wants for his birthday and we just happen to be planning to be in the same city at the same time and it means I don't have to plan a birthday party, well, let's just do this.  I hate commercialism and I know there will be so many things in our faces trying to get us to spend money, but Ford knows that the train ride and day at the park is his actual birthday present.  So, this weekend will be crazy, fun, and hopefully a little bit relaxing at some point!!  We will just hang out and roast marshmallows on Friday night, then spend all day with Thomas on Saturday (seriously, we're getting there when it opens and we are staying until there's a meltdown), then Sunday we will celebrate Allen and do what he wants to do.  I think that means we'll be going somewhere fun for breakfast and hiking on a mountain somewhere and who knows what else.