June 2016 Pictures Part 1

June 2016 Part 1

Books - We finally finished reading The Year of Billy Miller.  I don't think it was as good as everyone said, but it was sweet and low key.  The kids were kind of meh about it.  We have been reading The Tale of Despereaux with Seth / Logan, they really liked the section about Despereaux and are eager for the story to go back to him.  I have been reading Lemonade War still with Andrew.  We have a lot more late nights in the summer and less time to read.  We finished reading The Story of the World Vol. 2 and have also added reading The Story of Us for some American history, so we usually alternate between the two unless we have lots of time.  Almost done with our space / world Childcraft volume.  We finished listening to Alvin Ho in the car (both volumes) and the kids loved it.  We listened to some Arthur stories and some Tall Tales and are not listening to The Moffits.  The kids mostly like it, but boy was the world different back then.

Movies - Seth got the Star Wars 4-6 for his birthday, so we watched the first two of those.  We also watched Megamind with Sarah and Danny.  We watched Little Rascals.  We watched Penguins of Madagascar ... again.  We went to the movie theater (Noah did great!) and watched the Iron Giant, which we all really liked.  We tried to watch Zootopia at the library until Logan stuck an M&M in his nose and we had to leave to try to get it out.  So, we need to finish that one.

Garden - lots of okra (wishing we planted more), summer squash, and tomatoes.  We get an occasional zucchini.  And some cucumbers.  We really need to pick the herbs.  The asparagus is going crazy - that is a huge forest.  Definitely going to plant things differently next time, but we have a lot of space for fall veggies.  We are getting tons of strawberries and we have a lot of watermelon growing as well.

Fun Things This Month

• Seth broke his glasses in Sunday School (!) and he has had them at the eye doctor almost all month. We need to go pick them up today.
• Awards assemblies.  I already posted about Andrew.   PE Award, Student Leadership Team award, Character Kid of the Year Award, Math Masters Challenge award, Ridgewood Math Fair award, President's Education Gold Award, and Honor Roll Award.  He got trophies for the math fair and math masters which I am sure he will be super excited about.
• Seth's award assembly - he got the award for all S's and also got a trophy for the math fair and a certificate for participating in the science fair.  The first grade awards are a lot more low key.
• Andrew had his 9 year old well check the same day - super busy day.  He weighed 71.6 lbs and was 52.5 inches tall.  His BMI is the 81st percentile, which I feel like is getting a little high, so we will work on portion sizes with him and being active.  Otherwise, everything looked great.  His vision is a not quite 20/20 in his right eye with glasses, so I bet he will need a new prescription when we go there.  Need to make him an appointment.
• More & more baseball games.  Seth also played two games in the tournament.  By the end, he was so ready to be done!  I think he progressed a lot and had fun, but I am not sure if he will do it again or not.  Greenville baseball is no joke!
• Sarah and Danny got here on the evening before the last day of school.  They were here for a week and a half and it was a lot of fun.  The boys loved playing games and stuff with Danny and getting to spend time with their cousin and their Aunt Sarah.  
• Katsu was out of town at the Diabetes conference, so the rest of us hung out and had fun.
• We went to the beach together!  Going to Atlantic Beach is always great fun.  I think everyone enjoyed it, though poor Danny sure got an ankle sunburn.
• We had a busy Saturday with t-ball, the walking school bus pool party, and a baseball game.  Glad that not everyone had to go to everything.  It was a real scorcher.
• We went to the Creamery.  We went out to eat - Chinese buffet, got pizza, Chick-fil-a, our favorite ENC barbeque.  We went shopping - Barnes and Noble, Sarah and I got a lot of clothes at Burlington which was fun.  We went on walks and to the pool.  Glad they could visit
• Went to the splash pad on a day it finally cooled down and had a blast.  Noah didn't like his face getting wet (he does love the pool again, though), but he had fun running around.  We'll have to go again.
• Another busy Saturday with tball, cub scout orientation, first game of baseball tournament and a pool party at our friend's house.
• Father's Day!  We tried to make the day special.  I did Katsu's usual Saturday chores, so he didn't have to do them.  We had homemade hashbrowns and bacon for breakfast.  Katsu got some presents - Andrew got him Bean Boozled - a game he loves where you eat a jelly bean and it's either a good flavor (like chocolate) or a bad flavor (like canned dog food) and they look identical.  Katsu is not so sure about it ... ha ha, but the boys think it's fun.  Seth got his a tabletop soccer game.  Logan got him an outside horseshoes game.  Noah got his a jar with hugs and kisses inside and it has words from the song "I'm so glad when daddy comes home" on it.  I got him beef jerky, a card, and lots of different cheeses.  We had steak for dinner which is exactly what he wanted.  We also played Monopoly all morning - Seth and Andrew's new favorite game.
• Andrew had twilight Cub Scout camp all the next week from 6-9 pm at the Nature Center.  He had a lot of fun.  The theme was Knights of the Round Table - they made shields and hats.  They did skits.  They did science experiments and saw animals at the nature center.  They went on a hike.  They did archery and badminton and shot BB guns.  On the last night, we all went and saw the skits and had some food.
• Katsu went to a 1 day conference in Raleigh.
• We went to the movie theater.  It was a success - Noah sat down and enjoyed it the whole time, so we'll have to do it every week we are around town.  Fun, cheap entertainment.
• Lots of days swimming.
• The boys also are supposed to do every day: 1-2 hrs active time.  Workbooks (math and writing).  Chores (extra for the summer).  Read a book.  Practice piano.  It is more or less working.
• Seth's birthday was June 24th.  We decorated his door and had presents and cake for breakfast.  He got his Vivofit, which he is in love with.  The first day, he just ran around the house and did laps and got 20000 steps.  He always gets more steps than me.  He has already scratched up the screen quite a bit, though, which I guess I should have expected.  That kid is so hard on everything!  He also got the Star Wars movie 4-6.  The boys got him little presents of candy and gum.  My parents got him scriptures and Ricky Ricotta boys, all of which are already well loved.  The boys were fighting (!) with the scriptures on church on Sunday doing scripture chases and arguing.  Sigh.  Boys.  Seth wanted to play video games all day.  I tried to vary it up.  He read lots of comic books, we watched episode 4 in the morning, but he did spend the entire afternoon playing video games.  4 straight hours!  He enjoyed it!  Then, we went to the Twilight camp in the evening.
• We went blueberry picking.  All the boys got some, except Noah who just ate them all (to be fair, we didn't get him a bucket because we didn't think it would be worth it).  It was lots of fun and the berries were yummy.  We spent most of the rest of the day arguing over chores (the real main Saturday activity here), but finished in time for Andrew & Seth to go to a bowling birthday party.  Then, we picked up a pizza (too hot to cook it here in the summer) and watched Episode 5 together.
• Lots of books time.  Boys have been getting prizes at library - free burger & ice cream, free donut, free ice skating (haven't done that one yet).  
• Katsu almost surely got his big grant!!!  Yay!!!  He got a good score, a couple points below the payline (the cutoff for funding), so it should get funded.  
• So, Tuesday, he took the day off work, and we went to Wilson to see a baseball game.  They have a college summer baseball team there - the Tobs (short for Tobacconists and believe it or not, the mascot is the tobacco worm).  They were having water day, so the kids got to go down water slides and then we watched the game while eating hot dogs, chips, and drinks.  Noah was in heaven.  He wore his baseball hat and watche d the entire game intently.  Best part - the game was only 2 hours, so it was the perfect length.  Then, we drove over to the science museum and perused the galleries for an hour.
• Movie day at library - Zootopia - but as I said we had to leave early since Logan stuck an M&M in his nose and I couldn't get it out.  We never could get it out.  I think he sniffed it in too far and probably swallowed it, but since it will melt eventually, I think we are okay.  He was pretty upset and crying for quite a while.

Awards Day 1

I'll forget if I don't post now.  Andrew had his awards ceremony this morning for 3rd grade and received - PE Award, Student Leadership Team award, Character Kid of the Year Award, Math Masters Challenge award, Ridgewood Math Fair award, President's Education Gold Award, and Honor Roll Award.  He got trophies for the math fair and math masters which I am sure he will be super excited about.

A few more pictures

still waiting for our pictures of Seth's birthday party to upload ...

Pictures from May 2016

Funai Family in May 2016

Books - We finished the Enormous Egg.  We have been reading The Year of Billy Miller.  It is kind of slow going, but the boys like it okay.  We switched the boys rooms so now Logan and Seth have the bunk beds so I am reading the book to them.  Andrew already read it himself, so I go and read to Andrew separately now.  We are reading the Lemonade War together.  We are still in the solar system for science.  We are doing the Renaissance and Gutenburg in history.  We didn't get very far in any of them this month because we have had so many baseball games and practices.  In the car, we had a few trips, so we listened to some books on tape - How to Train Your Dragon (which everyone really enjoyed) and Alvin Ho - the first two books.  The boys crack up all the time to Alvin Ho and I love listening to an audio book narrated by a child.  Even Noah will laugh if everyone else is.  Boys also listened to a couple books on tape - a new bunnicula book and some of how to train your dragon 2.

Movies - We watched The Water Horse, last night, which everyone liked.  Finally finished up Amazing Race after doing a marathon of the last few episodes on Sunday.  We watched How to Train Your Dragon and How to Train Your Dragon 2 since we listened to the books.  Very different from the books, but the boys loved them.

Garden - the spring veggies are all done and mostly pulled out - we are still getting a few random peas.  We are getting lots of strawberries right now.  Noah loves to run over and check for new ones all the time - so does Logan for that matter.  We are starting to get a lot of summer squash.  The gardenias are in bloom like crazy and it smells heavenly from the porch.  The lilies have started to bloom.  The hydrangea are blooming very  nicely too, nice and blue.  We stuck a whole bunch of pineapple plants in the new plot to see if they grow.  That one is an experiment.

Fun Things This Month:

• Logan had his last soccer game.  We all went and got donuts afterwards.  Our first time to Duck's Donuts.  Katsu got the bacon ... it was interesting, but we had fun.
•  Katsu drove to Raleigh to get fingerprints done for a new green card.  Who knows how long that will take.
• Logan's class went to a puppet show at the library - the 3 Billy Goats Gruff.
• Baseball ... baseball ... baseball ... Thankfully, we are done to 2 games and 1 practice per week.  Seth has played in the nice ball field and that was fun.  He has made a couple hits and he has been playing in the outfield.  I wish they would switch around their positions more, but it's okay.  I think he is mostly enjoying it.  He broke his bat on one of his hits, so we had to wait for a new bat (thankfully, they have warranties ... who knew) for awhile, but he got it finally.
• Logan went on a walking field trip to the fire station.  I was able to go with him, which was fun.  He liked watching them go down the pole and seeing all the trucks.  
• Logan started Tball - I still don't see the point of it, but Logan seems to really enjoy it and it's every Saturday and just low key.
• Mother's Day - the boys and Katsu treated me to a great breakfast and dinner.  It was really fun!  I felt spoiled for once.
• Andrew turned 9!!!  We decorated his room and a chair and got him a little cake to blow out and eat for breakfast.  I went to school and had lunch with him.  I brought him some food from Chick-fil-a and we talked and had fun with friends.  That evening, we had some of his favorite foods for dinner.  We went to cub scouts as a new bear, but his leaders were gone, so we went to Barnes & Noble for a birthday cupcake and to buy a few books.
• Pajama Night at the book fair.  Books all got books and some free books - too many books!  We love books.
• Friday the 13th - we all went to the State Math Fair in Durham for Seth to compete.  We listened to the book How to Train Your Dragon and it made the drive a lot more enjoyable.  We had to get there by 9 so we left really early in the morning.  It was a long morning.  We checked in and then Seth went to a room to do fun activities (they had crafts, but Seth seemed to just sit and do math problems!) with the other little kids while we waited ... and waited ... and waited ... and waited.  Then, we went on a tour of the school of science and mathematics.  And it took an hour!  Noah and Logan and Andrew were going crazy.  But, we loved the school.  Something to think about.  Then, we had some snacks in the car because we didn't have time for lunch.  So, we waited for the awards ceremony and then they kept postponing and then, finally we went in and Noah was finally exhausted and falling apart, so we had to take turns taking him out.  But Seth won an honorable mention!!!  We were so proud of him!
• After the math fair, we went to the Museum of Life and Science.  The kids had a lot of fun running around.  And then, we went to Red Robin to celebrate the math fair and birthday.  We had a lot of fun.
• Last day of preschool for Noah and Logan.  Noah has done really great and we'll see how 3 days a week goes next year.  Logan had a fun last day at Sonic!  I ended up staying the whole time - they played at the play ground, played in the sand, played with the parachute, ate, and had lots of fun.  Logan loves to look at the little book of pictures from the year that his teachers gave him.  He genuinely enjoyed preschool, but isn't particularly attached to any of the kids or even his teachers.  He really mostly just loves his family, though he enjoys going to preschool and having fun and playing.  It was a fun last day.
• Pool opened ... we got free hot dogs and slushes.  Boys have been enjoying the pool (except Noah who doesn't want to go in ... a bought a pool ball and he cries when it gets wet).  Also, the boys have been enjoying getting slushes or ice cream from the ice cream truck that comes by each week.
• Andrew had his Star Wars birthday party.  It went great.  We had decorations (!), all kinds of games, pizza, Darth Vader made a visit, presents.  We watched some of the Star Wars movie.  It was a blast.
• Ward Picnic - inside because of the rain.
• Seth's field trip - I chaperoned the field trip.  They were going to Wilson to the science center.  I drove up with a friend and then we were to meet them at the science center.  But they still hadn't left Greenville.  So, we went and walked around Wilson for an hour until they got there.  We had 5 kids in my group and went and saw a program about plants and then walked around the museum and had lunch and then back to Greenville.  Logan and Noah did really well playing with friends all day.
• Memorial Day weekend we were going to go to the beach, but Logan was running a fever, so instead we went to the state park in Washington and the little beach area there.  It was nice, not too crowded, and the boys still go to play in sand and run around in the water.  Noah even enjoyed it and the water had not too high of waves and didn't go higher than 4 feet.  We had a little picnic, too.  It rained a lot that week and weekend, but it was nice to have the day off.  We also had smores the night before since the rain was coming.  On Memorial Day itself, we had hot dogs and brats and went to the pool for a bit between the rain.  It was a nice and relaxing weekend.  
• Blue & Gold for cub scouts.
• Andrew took his big 3rd grade standardized tests.  He was nervous, but did really well.  He said he finished both days in like 30 minutes and then had to just sit around for hours doing nothing while everyone else worked on it.  He got a level 5 - the highest level - on both exams.  It corresponds to about a 90%.
• Seth had a soccer birthday party.  We had it a little early this year so that it was before vacations and school ending.  Almost no one RSVPed and then I was worried no one would come, so I followed up with people and then we ended up with like 16 boys (including ours).  And it rained off and on all the party.  So, it was a little crazy.  They played soccer outside - Katsu painted a soccer field on the grass again.  They also had a competition with shooting targets with water balloons.  We ate snacks (donuts, chips, soda, Bagel Bites) and cake.  Seth wouldn't blow it out so we had to keep relighting it because everyone else kept blowing it out and then we just had the whole group blow it out and I don't think Katsu got any pictures of it.  Seth wanted a strawberry cake shaped like a soccer ball - it turned out better than last year and was moist and not burned (yay for me!).  Then, after presents, the kids ran around like crazy inside and out.  I am still exhausted from that party!  And the boys have been fighting over all the cool presents Seth got ever since - we have made bouncy balls, played with nerf guns, swords, outside games, spy glasses, etc.  What a birthday and his birthday is still not for 2 weeks!

Amanda - still burnt out, but finally stopped nursing and while the hormones are kind of all over the place (I guess 9 years 9 months of continuous pregnancy and / or nursing puts things kind of out of whack), I am finally getting better sleep ... Noah still wakes up every night, but a lot less frequently.  I haven't gotten any work done for ECU, but I've been resting (except the nagging in my head about getting to work).  

Katsu - grumpy grant man ... ha ha ha.  Katsu loves to go in "his" garden and harvest and take care of everything and then cook up the vegetables.  I think it's his true joy.

Andrew  - a busy month at school.  He has been done with Math Masters and the pull-out programs, but he has been going to battle of the books practice each week.  I think he just finished reading all of the battle of the books books (18 of them!) and he got a ridiculous number of AR points this month - like 1000% of his goal of something.  I am pretty sure he will be on the team next year, but I bet he will be practicing and reviewing all summer, too.  He also spent all month studying at school for his EOG's, so we are glad those are done.  I knew he would do well, but it's a relief for him to know that.  He has been spending a lot of time playing with his friend Robert this month.  He also is really into this Bean Boozled game that his other friend has and tells me about it ... all. the. time.  He is always a bit of a handful and that hasn't changed.  Katsu has been trying to spend more time with him so he has been going in and playing board games with him at night after the other boys are asleep.  I have been reading with him, too.  I really think putting him in his own room was a great move - it helps a lot at night.  Andrew had a talk at church this month and I refused to write it for him because I thought he was old enough to do it himself.  I gave him the Gospel Principles manual and he wrote it himself and did a good job - it was on the restoration, which we have also been talking about in Family Home Evening.  Andrew got a new bike for his birthday and has enjoyed riding it and practicing with the different gears.  He also has enjoyed the swimming pool.  it is hard to believe he is 9.  On the other hand, he doesn't seem like a little boy anymore.  He is getting big, eats constantly (we argue a lot about this because he wants to eat cans of soup and other things constantly!), and is just getting older.

Seth - this was the month of Seth.  The math fair was a really big deal.  It was really fun to go to the state math fair in Durham and Seth did a great job competing.  I helped him redo his board - just adding some cardstock to the back of the papers and a couple pictures to make it look nicer.  His teacher was so excited for him.  She texted us a picture of the his class with signs saying they knew he could do it.  And then, that day, everyone in his class wrote him a card wishing him luck. She got him special treats, too.  He was really spoiled!  We told him he was very likely not to win since all the best projects were competing, but he got an honorable mention and we were all surprised!  He got a TI huge purple tshirt and a certificate and took pictures.  He is even supposed to present at the state math conference in the fall, but we'll see about that.  It was a really fun experience and the boys are excited for next year.  

Besides that, Seth is super busy with baseball.  I think he has a love / hate relationship with it, but I am pretty sure he will want to do it next year, too.  Katsu has tried to spend some time playing ball with him and I think that is a nice thing to do together.  He really wants to do well and wants to have a baseball party next year!  I wish his coach would play him in different positions.  I think Seth is really quick on figuring out where to be in the field and makes less errors.  He just isn't as strong at hitting or fielding because he has had less practice than the other boys and is probably the youngest kid on the team.

Seth is a handful in an entirely different way than Andrew.  He is just too smart and is constantly bored.  Constantly.  He probably says he is bored like 100x a day.  Maybe more.  It is kind of ridiculous.  And I keep wishing he would read like Andrew does so he doesn't get so bored.  But he does read quite a bit, too, he just kind of does it hidden so you don't really know how much or what he is reading.  He loves graphic novels, but he'll read other things as well if it suits his interest.  He also loves to learn - he is constantly doing memrise - languages or a history course I developed for him based on the timeline in the kids office.  He is always learning new things in math and basically knows all his time tables.  The work he completes at school is crazy - multiple digit multiplication, long division ... and he is still bored all the time.  He rushes to complete everything - waking up early and doing his piano practice before school and his homework immediately.  As long as he can run around outside and play with other kids, he is happy, but otherwise ... I am trying to each him to say "What fun thing should I do now" or instead of "I'm bored", but he answers that question with "Say I am bored" ... silly boy.

We were making lists of goals for the summer on Memorial Day.  Of course, Andrew was oblivious and didn't make one (what?  we were talking about what we wanted to do this summer), but Seth really followed through.  I love his list:  1)  Stop chewing on shirt.  2)  Finish course timeline.  3) Read one book a day.  4)  Find something other than screens.  5)  Help around the house.  6)  Pick watermelons.  7)  Increase brain.

Logan - he finished up preschool this month.  And now, he sits at home and basically is my shadow.  Noah plays much more independently than Logan.  On the plus side, Logan and Noah have become best buddies and are playing together all the time.  They will go outside and play together in the sand box or chase each other around the house.  Logan loves to play with our quasi-coach.  He puts in on his side and he and Noah climb on the pillows and then push it down and they go flying.  They love it.  I tolerate it.  Logan had ABC mouse for most of the month and LOVED playing with that, but I quit after the free trial - he just wasn't learning that much but wanted to do it all the time.  He has been loving his Kumon books.  He already finished his maze one, in just a couple sittings, and works diligently on his gluing one.  He loves it.  He loves to cut with his scissors and it actually quite good.  And then, each craft, you do a little gluing and he loves having his own bottle of glue and is quite possessive of it.  He works on the math ones, too and is getting pretty good at his numbers - knows all through 6 and is working on recognizing past that through 15.  He likes doing workbooks and puzzles and crafts and coloring - actually, he is getting pretty good at drawing.  Just leaving all the art supplies out makes such a difference and thankfully, Noah is good at just drawing on paper, more or less.  

Logan has been dying to ride his bike.  We took the training wheels off a while ago, but then haven't done much with it and his chain keeps falling off and we don't fix it.  It's probably been off for like a month.  So, Katsu finally put it on this week and then Logan just started riding his bike.  He pretty much did it on his own and can start off and ride his bike all by himself.  I am pretty proud of him.  He generally is a big, strong, coordinated kid.  He started Tball again and loves it.  He is always asking when it is time.  Not my favorite, but he enjoys it - I don't know if really enjoys it that much when he is there, but he talks about it all week - and I'm sure he'll want to do baseball again.  He is pretty good at soccer and enjoys playing it, though he isn't as enthusiastic about it.

Logan has wanted to do piano, but hasn't been quite ready.  We got a kid drum set, a nice one, and Logan loves to play with it.  I will have to find some videos or something to teach him a little bit because he loves the drums.  Maybe it'll be a good gateway instrument.

Logan loves to read stories with me.  He loves just sitting with me.  He just loves me.  

Noah - biggest news - no more nursing!  It was a pretty smooth adjustment and after a day or two, he didn't even ask about it.  So, yay!  He sleeps better at night - still wakes up and me or Katsu will sleep with him upstairs or he will sleep with us downstairs, but he wakes up a lot less.  I think it is much better for everyone.

His vocabulary has finally started increasing again a lot this month.  He mostly has nouns - he loves to say "hoop" and "bat" and "ball" and "goal" and even "racquet".  He says "fish" really cutely.  And lots of other words and sounds.  He has a few sentences "there it is", "there he is", etc.  He babbles quite a lot.  

Noah is super obedient and helpful and will do what you ask.  He is always trying to help.  If I am yelling for one of the kids, he will yell, too.  He is always putting our shoes away.  If he wants to drink or eat something, he will go get his cup or bowl.  If he spills, he will get a towel and clean it up himself.  He loves being clean, but hates baths and is still not so sure about the pool.

Noah is OBSESSED with sports.  It reminds me a lot of Seth.  He loves to look through books and will spot any sports equipment anywhere.  Still is super obsessed with Sports Illustrated and is super excited when it comes.  He knows how to use equipment and will try to make a goal in soccer, or hit a tennis ball with a tennis racquet.  He always swings one arm super fast when he runs or when he is trying to kick the ball.  He kicks really well and throws pretty well, too.

He is playing a lot and independently.  He likes to play with trains, cars, planes, marble runs, guns (he will make anything a gun and try to shoot me ... he makes a pretty good shooting sound :-(  ).  He likes to play with people (he especially loves his Spiderman toy) and animals, but especially dinosaurs that he makes roar.  He loves anything with steps, stairs or ladders and will just say "up" repeatedly.  He likes to dress up and run around the room.  

Another fun month.

Andrew's Wax Museum

More Photos

April in the Funai House

Books - We finally settled in on "The Enormous Egg" and the kids really like it.  We are almost done.  We are almost up to Christopher Columbus in history and are starting to read about the Solar System in science.

Movies - We watched half of "Once I was a Beehive" and need to finish it.  We also watched "Anastasia" - my choice, but I think the boys ended up liking it.  We also watched "ET" which the boys really liked.  We have been watching Amazing Race and Andrew and Seth really love it.  We also watched the new Star Wars movie a couple times after I bought it.  Boys LOVED it.

Sick - The really big event of the month was Noah being sick, basically for the entire month.  He started running a fever on April 1st and was sick for a good 4 weeks.  He still has some coughing and runny nose, but is finally mostly better.  We took him in after several days of a super high fever (104), though it would come down with medicine.  He had 2 ear infections, RSV, and pneumonia in both lungs.  They also diagnosed him with strep, but it turns out he didn't have it.  The fever kept going away and coming back.  So, as soon as we though he was better, the next day he would be sick again.  His blood oxygenation levels were kind of low, but went up enough that he didn't have to go the hospital.  But the first several days we had to give him his inhaler night and day every 4 hours.  It was an exhausting month!

Garden - We planted all the summer veggies - we might just add some pumpkins or other squash.  We have been eating greens (cabbage, collards, and broccoli) several days a week and asparagus several days a week as well.  We will stop cutting asparagus this week and let it turn back into its forest.  Andrew likes to eat the greens and asparagus, so the garden is already a success.

Fun Things This Month

• Seth got glasses.  It was spring break, but they had an opening so I took all 4 boys (!), but we survived.  Seth was 20/80 and pretty upset about having to get glasses, but it was neccesary.  They are small and cute on him.  I think they make him pretty handsome.  The first day he kept leaving him everything, but once we clarified ("face or case"), he got it.  He wears them mostly at school, but is starting to wear them more at home, but refuses for sports.
• General Conference - we watched with a sick Noah.  Boys watched on and off.
• Lots and lots of soccer games.  Seth had a couple practices, and several games were called off due to rain (and one even due to high winds).  But we usually had soccer games each weekend and several Mondays.  Katsu coached both their teams.  Seth is done and Logan's last game is tomorrow.
• Katsu took everyone but Noah to the ECU Art Fair.  Boys made lots of fun projects that they brought home and seemed to have a lot of fun, though Logan got a little bored.
• Katsu and I had a dance performance to go to, but since Noah was sick we had to stay with him.  So, Katsu and Andrew went to see Bodytraffic.  Andrew seemed to enjoy and felt really mature to go to an 8pm show with almost no other kids.  He liked the dancing.  I'm glad - but next time I want to go!
• Katsu took all boys sans Noah to Pirate Fest.  It was really windy, so the bounce houses weren't up (secretly happy about this), but they enjoyed seeing all the pirates, the bike shows, getting free chips, and playing all the little games to get candies on the Common.
• We have finally gotten into a good vibe of Family game morning on Sunday mornings before church.  Kids have been enjoying our pirate game, Ticket to Ride, Forbidden Desert, and others.
• Andrew went on a Field Trip to New Bern.  He had a lot of fun seeing all the buildings and came home with a whole goody bag.  If he wasn't telling you how much fun he had, he was enumerating all the reasons it was the "worst" trip ever - car sick on the bus ride (it's about an hour away), and they had to eat lunch on the bus because otherwise they wouldn't have enough time to see everything.
• Go Science - this time on the science behind the different dragons in "How to Train Your Dragon".  I guess we should have seen it first.  It was just our family again.
• Awards ceremonies - pretty low key this time.  Seth got an award for all S's and Andrew got an award for all A's.
• ECU earth day expo - we met up with Katsu and we saw a few exhibits before I ran off to office hours and Katsu showed them the rest.  They did art work, learned about the environment, and saw animals.
• Baseball - Seth started baseball.  He had tryouts, which were a little crazy.  The age range is 2 years and he is almost the youngest, so he is very very small and the other kids, a lot of them are crazy good.  We are already thinking about quitting because it really is way crazier this year.  No one seems friendly, the kids have crazy amount of gear(!), and they schedule practices basically every day.  We found out his team on Wed.  They had practices schedule Th, Fri, M, T, W, T, Friday and Sunday so far since then.  It has only been a week and a half!  Seth has gotten hit in the head several times and basically is not liking it at all.  I like the idea of his training and applying himself, but I think this is nowhere age appropriate.  And as practices are usually at 5:30, we are gone from 5-7:15 every night practically.  It is just wrong.
• Party - end of the year for the engineering department.  Boys always have a blast and eat too much.
• Star Wars at the Stadium - we had just seen it the week before, but this time it was on the big screen and you sat out on the field.  It was very chilly from the wind and we did not bring enough blankets, so we left after about an hour.  The boys loved playing with friends on the field before it started (I swear, we knew at least half the people there), getting their faces painted, eating the movie theater candy we brought, getting pictures with star wars characters and having a blast.  Can't wait for next year.
• Free Chipotle if kids wore a soccer uniform.  The boys ALL got free food.  I was shocked they were so nice and the boys have a new favorite place to go.
• Dave Barry - Katsu and I were able to go to the last show of the season, an hour of comedy with Dave Barry.  It was pretty funny and we spent the whole night laughing.  Nice to get out.
• Stake Conference in New Bern.  Hate the drive out there and of course, spent most of the time in the conference center hall with Noah with his balls, but afterwards we had a picnic (lots of wind!), saw some bears, and drove over to the History Center and watched a movie and then played on the little playground there before we drove back home.  Took the whole day of course.
• Boys had Field Day and had a lot of fun.
• Katsu and the older boys went to Brother's Keeper to feed the homeless and had a good experience.  Little boys were at a birthday party until Noah had a diaper blow out ...
• Had a picnic and all watched Seth's last soccer game together.
• Andrew received his Wolf Badge for Cub Scouts and about 6 or more different belt loops.  They said he must have been working hard - yes, but really it's just because they haven't given awards to him since December ...
• Andrew's class had a Wax Museum where they each dressed up as a different famous person they had been studying for that month.  When you pressed their button on the floor, they gave a memorized one minute speech about the person.  They also wrote up a report.  Andrew got Shinzo Abe.  Andrew picked out the asian people on the list, but Katsu was not so impressed since he does not like Abe's politics.  Andrew dragged his feet on actually doing the project, but he ended up dressing up well and gave a perfectly memorized speech (most of the other kids read their's).  He did great!
• Andrew had his big Math Masters Competition at ECU that he has been working towards all year.  At the beginning of the year, 3rd through 5th graders take a test and the best 6 from each grade get to participate and train all year.  I got a babysitter and went to watch.  They did an individual and group competition in the morning and then parents could come for lunch and to watch the best students compete on stage.  Andrew didn't win any awards, but he loved cheering on his teammates.  His school did great and had tons of team pride!  I can't wait for him to participate next year.
• Andrew started Battle of Books practice today.

Amanda - this has been a long month and a long semester.  We basically gave up on babysitters - they moved, or ran into our mailbox, or worked out really badly, or had sick family members, etc. etc.  The last straw was when we tried someone new and then their school was on lock down.  No matter who we got, it always ended badly,  So, the last month or so, Katsu just watched the boys when I needed to do office hours.  Next year, we have it set up so we won't need babysitters for the most part, so it will be much better.  Glad the semester is almost done - my students are taking their final right now.  I will be redeveloping the course over the summer, because it just didn't happen this semester (the books I ordered to review never arrived + no babysitters + sick kid), but I am ready for a break!  I have been really burnt out lately.  I really just need no kid time or just me and Katsu time but that seems almost impossible to get lately.  I don't have hardly any friends, so it's been pretty lonely here, but we did have 4 people at my book club yesterday (which is a lot, sadly), so maybe things will look up.

Katsu - he got a great score on one of his grants and a good score on another one.  So, he got a little bit of a break, but now is writing up another grant again.  He just had a tenure progress meeting which went well, kind of boring.  Lab seems to be going well, for the most part, although there is always some frustrations working with students who don't perform quite as well as you'd like.  He's always busy with bishopric stuff, but mostly just Sundays and Wed.  He has taken the boys by himself to church a couple times with Noah home sick.  He loves the garden and goes out to check it every evening and morning.  He has enjoyed harvesting and cooking all the greens and asparagus.  We had to get his green card renewal together and he has to go to Raleigh next week to get his fingerprints done.  Hopefully it will get renewed sooner than later, so we can renew his driver license and go visit Japan.

Noah - sick, sick, sick.  He has been a pretty good sport.  He has just been sick a lot this year with ear infections and wheezing.  When he got sick, he started nursing a lot more and now wants to nurse all the time.  Can not wait to wean him when he turns 2.  Every day, I talk about how he will have a party, we will go the mountains and celebrate his birthday and then when he comes home, he'll be all done with nursing.  He laughs and says No.  We'll see how that goes.

He has become obsessed with balls and sports.  He still likes his blanket, but what he really likes is his balls and they have become his security objects.  He took one home from a friends house and now he is firmly attached ... I hope they don't want it back.  His favorite are basketballs - he holds it all the time and points out every ball or hoop he sees.  He loves to look at any books with balls and hoops and read them over and over.  He loves to flip through Sports Illustrated and look at it all.  I swear, I spend half my day just saying "Yes, that's a ball".  "Yes, that's a hoop."  When he resists naps, which is often, I will take him on a walk till he falls asleep.  That takes forever, because he has to point out every single basketball hoop.  He also loves soccer balls and to a lesser extent baseballs and footballs.  I feel like he is saying less words, but that is probably just because half of his total words are related to balls.

He still like Thomas and trains and all characters.  He love super heros and pointing out Star Wars things as well.  Crazy boy!

He throws fits quite a bit.  He is quite a screamer when we wants to be.  He screams about half the time in the grocery store which makes shopping really pleasant.  He wants everything he sees, and in the grocery store, he wants to eat it all right then.  He is very picky about what cart he wants to be in at stores that have more than one.  He is just picky about everything and very vocal.  Definitely his favorite word is no.  Ranks right up there with ball.

When he isn't throwing fits, he is quite pleasant and loves to give hugs and kisses.  He loves to greet and say goodbye to people.  When we wakes up, he comes over and says "Hi hi".  Really cute.  Loves to sing which is also super cute.  He can kind of hum along with a melody.  He loves to rough house.  Loves to hide things.  Loves playing with his brothers.  Loves reading books.

Logan - pretty mellow month for Logan.  He is a bit on the emotional side for him, but he is definitely the most low energy child we have.  Still not getting anywhere with letters, so I am doing a trial of ABC mouse to see if that works for him.  He seems to learn in a different way than his brothers.  He loves it!  He loves getting tickets and doing his hamster cage and his fishbowl, but I am still not sure if he is learning his letters any better.  Maybe ... he is getting better at recognizing the letters from his name, anyways.  Good thing he is not starting kindergarten for another year, because he is not ready.

He loves sitting on my lap and reading and usually that is his favorite thing to do with me.  And he loves to eat.  That kid could eat every hour if he wanted to.  He liked soccer okay, mostly because Katsu was coaching.  I think he is more excited about doing T-ball again.  Not sure how I feel about whether he will like baseball based on our experience with Seth, though ...

Logan loves being swung lately and wants to swing all the time.  We took down Noah's swing because he hates swinging (although he will often want you to put up his swing because he is upset that I took it down).  So, Logan and Seth will swing and swing.  He is getting better about pumping himself, but still needs help.  He loves to water the plants and made me buy him a new watering can for him (the boys busted the other one ... how do they manage to break everything) and would love to water every day.  He loves to play with the neighbors and play outside.  

Sometimes, he will play with toys.  Mostly, he loves to find toys that need batteries and convince me to put batteries in them.  He is convinced that anything with screws is a receptacle for batteries.  I am trying to convince him otherwise.  He wants to learn the piano - I think he is too young, but when he gets the inkling, we will practice playing one of the songs from the primer.  I think we have gotten through two pages.

He mostly enjoys preschool and has fun with his friends.  He likes to bring things for show and tell.  He likes playing outside in the sand, playing tag,   He made a new friend the other day, which he was excited about.  They played with a parachute on Wed. in preschool and he really liked that.  They do a letter craft project every day.  Right now, they are making things for Mother's Day.

Logan was sick a little bit this month, too, with croup, I think.  And he seems just a little run down.  He took naps 3 days in a row, just falling asleep in random places, even the floor. 

Seth - anxious, high intensity little kid.  Still bored out of his mind - I took him and Andrew to church and he whined about being bored and how he was going to die for like 20 minutes till he feel asleep.  I think the family sitting behind us thought it was hilarious.  And once he woke up, even with only 5 minutes to go, he complained about being bored out of his mind.  When I'm not there, he doesn't complain, but his Primary teacher told me that he doesn't want to color and instead wants to write hard math problems on the back of his sheet during class.

He is still obsessed with screens.  He is very diligent and will always fulfill to the letter everything he needs to do to earn it.  But he tends to do things sloppily.  His homework will be slapdash.  If you ask him to put something away, more often than not, he will hide it somewhere.  I have found that setting standards works best.  I am working with him on his homework to make sure he has capitals, neat writing, punctuation, complete sentences.  He acts like I am killing him but it only takes a couple minutes extra.  If he knows the standards though, he will usually live up to them.

He loves the memrise app and is always trying to be the top in the world on the Leaderboard.  He has learned all his hiragana well and is starting to sound things out in Japanese books.  I want him to move on and learn something new, but it's tough because the other Japanese courses are really hard.  He also loves all kinds of math and problem solving websites.

I decided to leave out the art supplies and Seth will spend a lot of time making pictures that are usually pretty hilarious.  I will have to take pictures of some of them and post them.  It's nice to see him making art again and Noah has been good about not drawing except on paper.

Seth loves mostly playing outside and with friends and really does not like playing with toys. He still wants to be a professional soccer player when he grows up.  He told me his favorite sports are:  soccer, tennis, and swimming.  And baseball is not the sport for him.

He reads mostly in secret - loves comic books and books that are like comic books.  He also likes picture books.  I got this biography of athletes and what their lives were like when they were kids and he reads it over and over.  Maybe I should try more non-fiction.

He got his kite out this week for the first time and is loving it.

Andrew - he has been busy as you can see from what we did this month.  He will probably be involved in a lot next year at school, but he loves those kind of activities.  He also likes doing cub scouts, but doesn't always have a lot of follow through.  Generally, Andrew always gets everything done on time, whether it's piano practice or homework or Cub Scouts, but he does it only when he wants to.  He is often exasperating - always toeing the line - but is generally a good kid.  He is really into potty humor and rough housing.  He eats an enourmous amount.  At his Math Masters competition, he had two slices of pizza plus chocolate bar, air heads, brownies, pretzels, and all kinds of other candy.  He comes home and tells me that he had the smallest lunch ever and is dying and has to eat a can of soup right then.  I am sure this is normal, but our grocery bill has already climbed up, mostly from him (but also Logan and Noah are eating more, too).

Andrew has read a few of the Battle of the Books books for next year (Jake, Tale of Desperaux, Tuesdays at the Castle and Departure to Nowhere(?)) and has been reading a new series (the Inheritance series) that he really is enjoying.  It's on a 7th grade reading level, so he gets lots of AR points, which he likes.  This 9 weeks, he is actually trying to see how many points he can get instead of just quitting once he hits his goal.  School is going well - he did the wax museum and worked on researching and writing (finally!).

Andrew found a new friend in the neighborhood and has been spending a lot of time playing with him, which is great.  He still enjoys toys - making great big battles scenes, forts with toys or all of the blankets and laundry baskets and furniture.  He always has a plan and is rarely bored but always has some big grand thing.  He still is very quick to anger and is often hurting his brothers when provoked.  He is really into calling everyone babies which drives me crazy.  A big teasing age, but then, he will also spend a lot of time playing with his brother's.  No one quite like Andrew.