DWTF #4

 Our first time at Great Wolf Lodge -Poconos.  We’ve been to other GWL’s before but this was our first time in the Poconos.  We were supposed to go at the end of January, but the weather had other ideas!  They actually had to move the end of the marking period in January because of snow days and Jake had an important play meeting he couldn’t miss.  BUT... since we went in May Rachel was home from BYU so she got to come with us!!!! ❤️❤️❤️

DWTF #3

Fun pics from Shelby’s 4th grade trip to Ft. McHenry.  So happy she has a nice group of friends.   This was the 2nd time I’ve taken this trip.  Super fun, especially since I learned a lot from the 8th grade social studies class about early American history.  So neat to live near history.   Shelby fell asleep about 3 minutes into the trip back home.

DWTF #2 - Braces

Our last braces selfie!

Phase one is done....  in a couple of weeks she gets a retainer to use until all her baby teeth fall out and adult ones come in...  

Don’t want to forget #1

Just going through my phone...maybe I can catch up on a few memories..

2018/2019 - Last day of school Ice cream pics! I now have a 5th grader a Freshman and a Senior!  Yikes!!!  I also had to get one this year, because I finished my first year as an Instructional Aaasistant for Middle School.  It’s been a long but fun year.  I’ll miss the kiddos I worked with this year.

***note to self for the future ... I should really get all the last day of school ice cream pictures together and display them.... love these kiddos, but they’re growing too fast *****

Down in the farm...

Just seeing if this blog works from my phone.   Tried it a few years ago and it wouldn’t work.  Hopefully it will.  So fun to look at the blog from many years ago and see forgotten memories.   So if this works, maybe I’ll keep this up for my sake ( and for Grandpa Hardy if he checks :)).  

Summer has been lots of fun.  Shelby went with friends to South Mountain Creamery to feed the cows.   Guess the cow liked Shelby’s shirt for dessert!

May Days

We have had a busy last couple of weeks... 

Shelby's preschool had a Mom's and Muffins day to celebrate Mother's Day.  It was very cute.  She sings the songs at home, but during the performance she freezes up and only sings a few lines and does a few movements.  She was cute that day, because right before we left for preschool, she found a strand of pearls that she wanted to wear.  She wore them all day.  The funny thing about preschool is that she is sooo tall compared to the other kids.  She does have a late birthday , so she is 4 1/2 where some of the other kids could be just three turning 4 by the end of the year. 


Mothers Day was fun.  Scott made dinner and lunch and I took a nap.  I love taking naps on Sunday, because Shelby usually joins me.  I will miss when she doesn't think Sunday naps are special with me.

Madison competed in a 24 tournament for the county.  She was one of four 4th and 5th graders from her school to compete.  You have to be the first one to take the 4 numbers on the card and figure out how to make them turn into 24 by adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.  She beat me every time.  She did well, even though she didn't win it was still great to represent her school.




Jake and I took a fieldtrip to the Museum of Natural History yesterday.  It was fun... it was the 3rd time I have taken this fieldtrip, but they have added some stuff.  We watched the tarantula feeding, walked through the butterfly room, and saw lots of cool exhibits.  I took my camera and took a few pictures.  Jake took his IPod and it was cute to see what he thought was cool, by seeing what pictures he took.   I started to get car sick on the way down, but on the way back I almost lost it.  I came home and laid on the couch for 45 min till my stomach settled down.  I must remember to take the motion sickness medicine before I go again.  Ugghhh it was HORRIBLE!

It was fun watching all the boys in the butterfly room.  They were all huddled in a group trying to get the butterflies to land on them.

 

As for Rachel, she took the HSA's for math today.  Because she is in the advanced math class, she is learning what she needs to know for the high school assessment.  I guess the kids need to pass this test to graduate high school.  She said she did well. 

Last but not least, last Saturday, I took 11 Girl Scouts to Hershey Park ... and two other ladies...for our end of the year activity.  My girls have been in Scouts for a long time, Rachel since 1st or 2nd grade and Madi since Kindergarten.  They both had the same amazing leaders.. just met on alternate Thursdays.  I took over a leadership role two years ago when one of the ladies went back to school.  The other lady that stayed is wonderful.  I have enjoyed working with her and having our friendship grow.  This year though we became a little jaded with Girl Scouts organization and the girls were getting too busy with other activities and the troops were dwindling.  We decided to end our girl scout experience this year.  I will miss the girls and having fun with the other leader, but I will not miss the work involved.    Hershey was fun.  We had enough money that the girls got to make their own Hershey bar.  It was a fun experience. 

Not our Girl Scout Trip to Hershey Park, but our visit the Saturday before Mother's Day.  We take our own food and we were glad we did, because it rained and rained while we were eating.  It was nice because the rain kept some of the people away so we had very short waits at the rides/coasters.

I am sure the next couple of weeks will be just as crazy as these were... only 14 days of school left, Jake turns 8 and is getting baptized, Madi graduates from 5th grade, and another concert or two... better go check... lol  :)



 

Music's in the air....

May is always such a busy month...  especially when you have school age kids.  Every grade tries to slip in a field trip before the end of the year, and everyone has some kind of concert! I hate the choir/band concerts at our elementary school... well I don't hate the concert just the craziness of having to get there early to wait in line and then when the doors open the mad rush to get a seat.  Luckily, I have a wonderful husband that took the older kids to do it this year!  I only had to arrive ten minutes before and had a second row seat!  THANK YOU SCOTT and Rachel... (who made me add that because she ran and got the 2nd row) !!! 

It was a really cute program.   My favorite song the chorus sang had the kids doing the hand jive!  At the end of each year, the 5th grade band preforms "Louie, Louie."  Madi was excited that she got picked to play the Keyboard part of the song while all the other 5th graders do a little freestyle piece.   I realized on the way home that I get a break next year from the elementary concert scene...  Jake will only be in 3rd grade and band/chorus does not start till 4th grade!  Wooo hooooo!

 

Born to "Hand Jive" 

Madi's first instrument of the night.. the claves.

 



 Her second instrument...the clarinet.

 

Getting ready for her 3rd instrument... the keyboard.

Time keeps on slippin.. into the future!

Where does the time go?  What happened to my babies?  Rachel is a teenager, Madison is almost done with elementary school, Jake is getting baptized next month and Shelby... she is 4 1/2 ...what happened to my baby?  I guess it really hit me the other day when the kids wanted to watch old family videos... I don't feel any older, so why do they have to get older?

I realized I have not been taking as many pictures and recording the events of our family life, so we bought a new camera and hopefully I can record some of these everyday events on this blog for our extended family and friends, as well as for my own personal memories!  So instead of trying to catch up and being overwhelmed... I will start with yesterday and maybe add a few memories in as we go.

Yesterday, Madison had a fieldtrip to a local nature center and a quarry.  It was neat to see the quarry... we have passed it on the road  a few times, but never got to go in and see what it looked like.  There was a huge.. Grand Canyon-type hole back there.  I find myself getting nervous when my kids get anywhere near the edge of something they could fall off.  Little butterflies/ tingles go through my whole body and it kinda freezes me up.  I could go to the edge of cliffs  and look down them as a kid without any kind of fear, but when my kids get close I cannot handle it...maybe its a control thing...  Anyway, the quarry was fun, but it was raining the whole time.   Luckily the 1st half of the fieldtrip was at the nature center and it wasn't raining.  Here are some pictures...

 

 At the nature center, our guide made Madison the "princess" of this kind of weed.  I think it was some kind of plant not native to the nature center.

 

In front of the "Grand Canyon" in the rain.

T

The trucks they use to haul the rocks are huge! 

Also, here is a picture of the kids that I took trying to get used to the new camera.  I have so much to learn... so many settings, so little time!  :)  Next time I will have to take one with Rachel!
 

Summer !

Summer!  I love the summertime!  I love how I do not have to get up at 6:20 am!  I love that the kids get to be home with me.  I love that we get to go to the pool in the afternoon!   I could do without the fighting and extreme heat, but overall I love summer!

Our last day of school tradition is to go get Hoffman's ice cream after school.  I usually pick the kids up and we go right after school, but this year Rachel was in middle school, which runs an hour later than the elementary school so we waited for her to get home.  

On our first day of summer vacation I took the kid's to Gettysburg and we played on the rocks at Devil's Den.  I think they enjoyed it, although I am becoming more like my mom and freaking out when the kids get to close to the edge.  I have visions of the falling and hurting themselves.   I remember once on a family vacation going to the Bad Lands in South Dakota and getting as close as I could to the edge to look down.  I was so annoyed that my mom kept telling me to get back...in my mind I was perfectly safe... it's funny how perspectives change as you get older!

That is Jake, Rachel and Madison up on that rock in the backround. 

Shelby kept wanting me to take her picture.  She posed like this herself.

 Just yesterday, we went to Hershey Park.  The kids loved it.  It was very hot, but they still enjoyed themselves.  I think Rachel and Madi rode every roller coaster.  Jake rode all the ones he was big enough for and Shelby even rode the Trailblazer!...twice!!!

Today Scott took Jake to the Chevy Youth Baseball Clinic at Camden Yards.  Jake had a fun time and they also gave Jake and Scott tickets to the game tonight.  Too bad the Orioles lost....bad!   They had lots of fun though.  Scott said Jake was so excited that he was able to have some of the old Orioles players sign his hat!

Where's Shelby?

Today the girls went to their mom mom's house for a sleepover. Jake likes to sleep on the girl's bunkbeds when they are gone. So at bedtime Jake got on the top bunk. Shelby seeing this decided that she was not going to be left behind so she crawled into the bottom bunk. Scott and I tucked them in and shut the door, thinking that Shelby would come out. (We did not have the rail on the bed at the time.) About ten minutes later we peeked in to find her like this... all the way over at the wall. Scott put the rail up... so we shall see what happens... They grow up to fast!

Where's Shelby?

Oh...there she is!

Do you like the bright green walls? When my mom was here for Thanksgiving, she painted the girl's room . Madison picked green. What you cannot see is the purple Rachel picked for the top of the room on two of the walls! I thought it would be crazy, but it turned out nice.

Something has to give....

I feel soooo guilty. I am not sure how Christmas came so fast. So much to do, so little time..right. I think I have made the decision not to send out our traditional Christmas picture card. I was trying to take a picture myself... because I was way past the time frame to go to a studio... but the pictures were not turning out right... two year olds have only a 2 picture window to get the perfect picture I have found. So this was the best picture I took out of 20 and it just didn't look right. So to all those who normally get a Christmas card from us... I am sorry.. I will try to do better next year! :) Merry Christmas ~ Love The Wolfes

1st day of summer vacation...oh my !!!

I know it's been over a year... no apologies, just having fun ...

So, I have only been up for 3 hours on the first day of summer vacation and we are already having fun here at the Wolfe household.

We have already had all the Q- tips in the bathroom fall in the toilet. My blush has been found on the floor, wet and next to the toilet, so I am sure that it took a swim as well. I have had crayon and marker marks on the kitchen floor, and on one young girl. (Who is as I type, lying on the floor naked...she has taken off her diaper...a trick she enjoys doing now)

The upside, Jake and Shelby both slept in! and momma did too!

I love the kids being home! I really do! Just much more activity!

Happy Summer!