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Mom volunteers in Seth's class for part of Tuesday mornings. Each week she quizzes each of the 26 kids over some knowledge or skill they are supposed to already know or will be learning during kindergarten. The teacher told her last Tuesday that the next time she would be testing the kids over shoe tying. Since Seth couldn't tie his shoes, she knew he had to learn in a week because she didn't want him failing her Tuesday test :-) Well, she and Dad procrastinated waited until Monday night at 7:30 to teach him. Fortunately, he's fairly easy to bribe. He said he didn't want to learn, but with constant marshmallow reinforcement and the promise that if he learned, Mom would say yes everytime he asked to use the computer tomorrow (unless he was supposed to be doing something else,) he learned in 15 minutes. He is now ready for Mom's shoe tying test tomorrow. He'll won't need to know after that anyway. His school shoes and gym shoes are both velcro, and Mom intends to keep it that way for a few years. 
When it was time to put Morgan to bed tonight, Mom remembered that Morgan had homework for the first time that's due tomorrow. Instead of going to bed on time, Morgan got to stay up late doing homework. (Seth was very jealous when he heard Morgan up later than him.) She worked hard to do a good job but was very afraid that her homework could mess up her freshly painted pretty pink finger nails :-) 
We were supposed to meet Mom's family in Kentucky for Labor Day Weekend. However, Sydney and Morgan got sick, and we had to change our plans. We're now hanging out at home this weekend instead. Mom and Lydia spent most of Saturday cleaning and making stuff to decorate Lydia's new room. Dad and Seth are planning to golf on Sunday.
Sydney went for her 1 year checkup on Friday. She's doing great. She's 30.25 inches tall (85th percentile) and 22.5 pounds (70th percentile.)
Lydia and Seth attend a school with no air conditioning, and it is supposed to be over ninety every day this week but Friday. Mom brought popsicles to the kids this afternoon at the school. Lydia's room is upstairs, and it was stifling hot. It's amazing that kids go to school in that hot of a room. Seth is downstairs and his room is also hot, but it's better than Lydia's. Lydia seems to deal with the heat much better though. She hasn't complained much about it. Seth has struggled with it. He seems to have a hard time dealing with the high temperatures. He enjoyed coming home after school and playing in the water. Hopefully, this will be our last week of really hot weather. The town is currently building a new school, and the kids will have air conditioning starting next fall.
Sydney has had her crib in Mom and Dad's room for her first year. The plan was to move her to Morgan's room at some point and have them share a room. However, it seemed like it would be difficult to get them both to go to bed and stay asleep in the same room. Therefore, this weekend Lydia moved to the guest room and Sydney got Lydia's old room. It was a huge project moving everyone's stuff.Sydney HATES her new room. She screams everytime she has to go to bed in it. She was going to bed very easily before the move. Dad spent some time playing toys with Sydney in her room this afternoon to try to get her a little happier with it.
Seth asked after kindergarten today if he could make his own snack. He said he wanted to make his own peanut butter and cheese and crackers. Mom thought he meant peanut butter and crackers and cheese and crackers, but no... She wasn't paying attention and then noticed he combined his peanut butter and cheese on each cracker. He seemed happy with it though.
Mom gave Sydney whales since a baby with peanut butter was more mess than she wanted to deal with at that time. Sydney walked over and dumped them by her big sister's tennis shoes and sat down to eat. 
Tonight was Lydia's first soccer game of the season. She played on coed soccer teams for the past couple years, and she is enjoying playing with her friends on an all girls team this year.
Today was the first day of school. The kids both had a good day. Seth enjoyed playing with bubbles and sidewalk chalk outside, playing monster at recess with his friend from next door, Lydia, and some other kids, and his hotdog for lunch. Lydia liked organizing her new binder :-) 
Morgan loaded up her school supplies and went to her preschool open house this morning. The full sized backpack she is required to have is huge on her... fully loaded with school supplies she looked ready to tip backwards :-) She had fun seeing her classroom and talking to her teacher. She has the teacher Seth had for two years so she already knows a lot about what to expect.
Lydia and Seth went tonight to check out their classes and see their teachers for this school year. Seth will be in kindergarten and Lydia will be in third grade. They both had a lot of fun and are excited about next week.
We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house today to celebrate Sydney's first birthday. She'll be one on Friday. We had a cookout, visited with cousins Joseph and Isaac, and enjoyed cake and homemade ice cream. 
Mom feels terrible. Mom REALLY wanted a shower this afternoon. It's really tough with a walking baby in the house. She normally either showers while Sydney sleeps or has Lydia watch Sydney while she showers. However, this afternoon, Lydia was at a friend’s house, Sydney wasn’t tired, and Mom really wanted to go out to dinner without her hair looking like she just got of the pool. There is a playpen in the house, but Morgan likes to dive in with Sydney, and Mom worries about the risk of it tipping.
Therefore, against her better judgment, Mom looked at Seth today and said, “you’re a big kid now. I need you to help me. You have to watch Sydney while I shower.” He was practicing cartwheels in the living room. Mom also said, “whatever you do, make sure Sydney isn’t in the way when you do a cartwheel."
A few minutes later, she heard screaming coming from Sydney. It turns out that Seth did listen. He told Morgan (who weighs 30 pounds) that she had to move Sydney (who weighs 20 pounds) so he could do more cartwheels. Morgan carried Sydney across the room and dropped her on the edge of a table. Sydney now has a scraped bloody nose for her first birthday next week. She's ok other than that though.
Lydia and Seth have taken group kids' golf lessons all summer at a local golf course. They went every Thursday from 8-9. It was a great deal at $3 a week, and they learned a lot and had fun. However, Mom is thrilled that it's over. To get there on time, Mom had to have all four kids dressed, fed, ,and in the car with water bottles and golf clubs by 7:25 AM. Since Mom is a night person and never goes to bed before midnight, this was not fun! 
Morgan went to bed tonight sleeping in her new leotard :-) She didn't want to change out of it into pajamas. The gymnastics and dance clothes and shoes arrived today. She and Lydia loved trying things on and dancing around the house. In the next three weeks Morgan will begin 2 morning a week preschool, dance class, and gymnastics class. She is very excited about all of this. She tells everyone as often as she can what a big girl she is unlike Sydney who is a baby and wears diapers...
Mom has to do her grading for the week on Sunday evening/ nights, and Dad usually does dinner. Either ordering pizza or cooking Philly Steak and Cheese Sandwiches has become his Sunday night tradition.
The kids went to zoo camp in Fort Wayne again this year. They were there the week of July 19-23, but Mom is running late on posting the pictures. Lydia has gone every summer since she was four, and this was Seth's first year going full days. As always, they had a wonderful time. Lydia is dreaming of being one of the orange shirted teenage volunteers someday, and Seth is wondering if his group will be the goofy giraffes again next year :-)
Tomorrow is Mom and Dad's 11th anniversary. Grandma and Grandpa took the three oldest kids for the night, and Mom and Dad went to a Japanese Steakhouse with Sydney. It was a lot of fun.
Last week Lydia and Seth participated in a local soccer camp every evening. It brought out a whole new side of Seth. When we are going somewhere, Seth is normally the last one to have all of his stuff together and be in the van. However, he was so excited to go to soccer that he stayed on top of things all week. One day Mom was looking for him when it was time to go, and she found him buckled in the van with his ball and dinner to eat on the way. Wouldn't it be nice if every day was a soccer day...
This fall Lydia and Morgan will be taking dance. Last night the dance studio held open house, and Mom took all the girls. (Sydney has to wait a couple years to enroll :-) ) It was an insane place. Mom has never seen so many people packed into such a small space. She was supposed to buy the tights, shoes, leotards, and anything else the dance studio could think of to take Mom and Dad's money. However, she had to teach and knew she couldn't stand in line for hours. She ordered all the necessary attire online later, and the girls are excited to begin next month.
Mom is planning to cook some meals soon to freeze for the busy fall school nights ahead. She's been feeding kids random foods all week that are taking up freezer space to make room. They haven't been Mom's favorite meals. However, Seth was so excited about his pizza rolls. He tried one and said, "these are absolutely scrumptious!" Mom didn't know the word, "scrumptious" was in his vocabulary, but she's happy someone is enjoying frozen food week :-)
Yesterday Mom decided to make matching dresses for Lydia and her best friend's American Girl dolls. The girls picked out the fabrics and Mom sewed the dresses. Mom enjoyed doing something creative and went back today to buy fabric and accessories for more clothes. 
