It's Not Summer Yet....

It's 5:300am, and the last day of school.  I'm soaking up my last hour of peace and quiet and catching up on the blog before the chaos in my life increases exponentially.  We've had an unusually calm last few weeks of school.  Typically our lives are packed with all the end-of-year celebrations and school activities but other than a couple choir concerts that happened a few weeks ago, we've had nothing.  It has been weird and enjoyable.  Here's a brief update on each boy....
Henry is doing great!  His stitches haven't dissolved completely but the scar is looking better and better.   Or maybe we are just getting used to it?  Yeah, that's probably it.  I can't tell you how much of my day is spent following this kid around trying to prevent him from hitting his head.  Henry is a climber and he is constantly trying to do things that should require a helmet and a soft landing pad.  Keeping him alive is no small task.  But we love and adore him anyway.

Henry in his new and safe high chair to replace the booster-strapped-to-the-stool-death trap

Henry got his head shaved and looks much better

Thanks to Barb for saving the day with cute hats to hide the scar and cover his bald head because I can't put sunblock on his scar

Shopping at Old Navy meant following him around while he climbed on everything while Marcus tried to find pants to fit his giant quads

Parker has been bored out of his brains waiting for his brothers to get done with school.  He's almost finished his daily reading lesson book and has become a pretty good reader despite his efforts to put off reading lessons with every excuse or temper tantrum you can imagine.

 We had to drop off our Oki friend Aaron in Seattle so we bought a cone at McDonald's so we could score free parking while we went to the City Center.

 Parker takes great care of Henry.  Until he gets tired of him, that is.  Then he just walks away.

Since Parker's backpack hasn't been used, Marcus decided to start using it instead.  After tons of compliments he's decided to use it in high school too. 

Landon has survived 2nd grade and the meanest teacher ever.  Seriously, I think the only reason she has a job is because her students get great test scores.  She seems to hate kids but Landon has endured and only come home from school in tears a couple times.  He finished another season of soccer and is showing some real potential.  If it weren't for him, I'm sure his team would've lost every game.  He's gone to a few Mariner's games with his best friend Luke (Brother from Another Mother) and is now obsessing about baseball.  We will see where that leads....

Landon and Desmond were the only kids on the team to score goals the whole season so the other boys were super grateful

These two play so well together

Landon killing time by playing on his kindle while waiting for the choir concert to get over.

Turning in his last homework packet!!

Ethan has discovered the joys of being a pre-teen and is taking advantage of his newfound freedom by spending endless hours biking around with his friends.  His group of friends have finally figured out if they ride their bikes to meet up instead of waiting for their moms to coordinate rides, they get to spend a whole lot more time together.  Ethan told me he's so glad to have 6th grade over because "I'm tired of trying to not do anything embarrassing at school."  I told him that's what middle school is all about but I'm pretty sure he thinks it only applies to 6th grade.  Ethan finished up a good track season, is still begging me to sign him up for football (jury is still out on this one), his choir class voted him "Most Improved" and he had an awesome solo in the last concert.  Ethan's grown up a lot this year.  He has become an awesome lacrosse player and scored more goals than anyone on the team.  He's a scrapper on the field, fighting for any ball all the while getting pushed around by boys much bigger than he is.  At the end of one of their tournament games, another coach told Ethan he'd love to have him on his team any day.  Hooray for Ethan!

Cutest and toughest mid fielder on the team

Ethan doing the long jump.  He wasn't impressed but I was.

His big 6th grade Hero Palooza service project where he fed the homeless cheeseburgers and did yard work for an elderly couple

Ethan fighting and winning a face off in a lacrosse tournament.  By the way, Marcus and Ethan had tournaments on the same weekend which means I sat through 6 lacrosse games in one day.  Six!  And I still have no idea how to play the game.

Posing after their last choir concert

Choir Boys and Choir Awards!

Marcus has been busy! He finished up his track season by qualifying to compete in the district meet where he took first in long jump (one time he actually jumped over the pit he jumped so far), first in the 100M, and second in the 200M.  He is one fast kid!  He finished up his lax season with a couple long and torturous tournaments and was also selected to play in an All-Stars game where a couple kids from each team are all selected to play together.  He's improved a ton and is definitely MVP on his team.  All the parents cheer him on and know him by name and I still have no clue what's going on.  He comes home from games covered in welts and bruises from all the hits he takes and then goes back out for more the next day.  Marcus went to Disneyland back in May with the 8th grade choir, band, and orchestra members.  He's only been to Tokyo Disney and can barely remember it so this trip was a big deal.  The chaperones and his teacher couldn't get over his excitement at seeing everything for the first time and when he saw Cars Land he actually cried!  (He said he was sweating from his eyes")  When Marcus was little he LOVED Lightning McQueen more than any other boy I know so I thought it was pretty cute that most of his pictures from his trip were all Cars stuff.  He also never sent me a single text the entire 4 days he was gone.  I was so mad!  But proud of him for paying for half of the expensive trip and using his own spending money for meals and such.  I'm confident he was the only kid there who did that.  He was voted "Most Inspirational" in choir and also had a big solo in the last concert.  At the 8th grade end-of-year party, he was voted "Most Athletic."  No surprise there.  The big surprise is that PE was his lowest grade.  Can you believe that?  I'd have words with the PE teacher but since his GPA doesn't matter right now I'll let that battle pass.  Marcus had his 8th grade promotion ceremony yesterday which made me surprisingly emotional.  He's come a long way in the past 3 years, made a ton of friends both with the kids and staff, and has really matured.  I'm sad to see his middle school years end.  As soon as school gets out he is heading off to Youth Conference with our ward for a few days where they are going to some island to zip line and attend workshops, then he's off to EFY the next week.  Throw in a couple camping trips with the scouts and his summer is pretty booked.

Fastest kid in the district!

Lacrosse model!  this pose the photographer made him do cracks me up,

His buds in the All Star game

 Disney!

The middle school gets torn down next week so they had a big party and the kids got to spray paint the school which made for a cool backdrop

Marcus and his lacrosse buds

After the ceremony it was picture taking chaos.  I felt like the paparazzi so I'll only post a couple of the many pictures I took with Marcus and various friends.  Promotion ceremony is a big deal for the girls.  They all had new dresses, shoes, nails done, hair done, the works.  And they all got flowers.  Glad I have a son for this one.