Larkyn officially started "army crawling" today! While she has been rolling to get where she wants for months, she officially started a new type of locomotion. Here is a video I snapped from today...
She is now getting into everything! One of her favorite things to do is pull books off the shelves and pull things out of the fabric toy organizer drawers. In this video she looks like she is getting close to pulling up...if she can just figure out how to get her knees under her ;)...
We have been excited to start camping with the kids for a while now, and because Larkyn is such an easy going baby, and the other two are at such great ages for camping (3 and 4.5), we decided to give it a whirl this past weekend! We headed up to Wilmar (Paul's cousin lives there and her high school graduation open house was Saturday evening) and stayed at Sibley State Park along with Grandma and Grandpa T and Javonte. As I told quite a few people before we started out, I had high hopes but low expectations :). Well, I was completely blown away by how well it went and how great everyone slept that I can't wait to go again! Here are a few pictures to document our first camping trip:
Setting up the tent
firewood!
Playing while Daddy sets up the tent.
Dinner
Dinner!
And of course...S'mores!
Mmm :)
Bathtime in the campground bathroom.
Bedtime for Larky Loo
Bedtime for Princess and Lightning McQueen
Portable Potty in tent for nighttime needs, complete with light up glow stick so its visible at night (worked perfectly!)
Campsite
Hanging with my hubby at the campfire just like old times! (only now we have 3 kids in the tent!!)
Gorgeous sunset over the lake
Pancake Breakfast
Walking around the campground
Played at the giant sandbox for hours!
Walking with Uncle Javonte while kicking the soccer ball :)
Lunch - taco in a bag
Nerf guns!
"Walking" with Grandma :)
Grandma brought all sorts of fun games for the kids, including "Mosaic Mysteries"
There were so many wonderful hiking trails calling my name, however we didn't get to do many as there was a thunderstorm rolling in. Summer, Larkyn and I started a fun one but turned around when we felt rain. This little girl loves hiking as much as I do!!! Here is a picture from the trail we started.
Grandpa cuddles!
At the open house for Paul's cousin Hannah we saw lots of extended family, including Kopel. Summer and Kopel had so much fun playing together! Don't they look alike in this picture? :)
While we had planned to stay two nights, the thunderstorms rolling in had us heading home on Saturday evening. We were all so disappointed!!!! Oh well, at least everyone had fun! We all can't wait to go again!
Colton doesn't get the "monthly" updates like baby Larkyn does nor the "new stuff" updates like first-born Summer does, so I will dedicate this post to my favorite little boy, my "middle" kid, my Colton-buddy!
Speech
Colton has the cutest way of saying things! His "L" sounds are "W" sounds, his "Th" sounds are "F" sounds, etc. While I love his little voice and how he says things, it does make it tricky for other people to understand him sometimes. When he turned 3, I made a list of the letter sounds that he says incorrectly and we decided to try practicing saying things the "right" way through songs and games. He responded very well to it and does a great job of practicing with us. I think he likes the extra attention :-). The first sound we decided to tackle was his "L" sound. When he says a word, like "wuv" (love"), have him repeat it with "la-la-la" in front of the word, for example, "la-la-la-love", in kind of a sing-song way. We make up games like seeing how many L words we can think of, as well as I printed off cards with pictures of L words and we have used them to play Monopoly. He can now say L words correctly without the "La-la-la" practice prefix.
Here is a video of him from April when we first introduced the "L" game:
Here is a video of him from today when he was able to say almost all of his cards correctly without any "la-la-la" prefix.
School
Over the past month Colton has loved doing workbook pages! While he is normally a move around sort of guy, he is having fun with the activities and mazes in his preschool workbook.
One of my favorite memories of our times together is watching how he thinks. He doesn't just circle the easy answer, but rather thinks things through so much! For example, when given various pictures and asked to circle the items that would be found in a bathroom, he easily circled the towels, soap, toothbrush. But when he saw the watering can he reasoned that it held water, which was in the bathtub, which was found in the bathroom, so that should be circled too.
Or when the directions say to circle things that are the same in some way, instead of just circling identical pictures, he will circle two things that are both animals or two things that are both red.
He is also doing great at writing his name by himself and practicing tracing his other letters. He is also doing amazing at basic addition with manipulatives, although he still struggles a bit with counting to 20 (he routinely skips 13 and 15). I love this special time with him!
He signed his own name on all his birthday thank you notes.
He also decorated the cards for his thank you notes. The one on the right is "roads with cars on them".
Sports
Colton is not yet old enough to play soccer through VAA (have to be 4) like Summer, however he CANNOT WAIT to play! He was so excited this week when not all of Summer's team showed up and they needed extra players and Coach Daddy let him scrimmage with the team! He ran all over the field and loved it! We signed him up for soccer through the YMCA that will meet one night a week through July and August. Each night they will practice for half the time and play a game for the other half. He is VERY excited!
Colton and Coach Daddy during one of Summer's practices
Summer finished up her 6 week community ed ballet class two weeks ago, so now it is Colton's turn to take a community ed class. His class is called "Amazing Athletes", and meets from 11-11:45 for 6 Thursdays. They run (a lot!), stretch, play games, learn bits of health trivia like names of muscles and different kinds of healthy foods, but mostly how to play 11 different kinds of sports. So far he has learned soccer, golf, lacrosse, basketball, hockey, and volleyball.
I just asked him what his favorite sport he has learned so far, and Uncle Eric would be proud - he said hockey! (Probably because he just learned it this morning!)
Coach Sarah is GREAT with the kids! She keeps 8-10 little boys in-line and having fun, while also keeping them moving!
Memory
Colton has really improved in his memory work doing the verse of the week. I mentioned a few posts ago that we are memorizing 1 John 4:7-21 throughout the summer. We just started verse 10 this week and Colton is doing an amazing job! Here is a video of him practicing his verse "on stage" (Summer created a stage for him ;) )
Other Random Stuff
Colton continues to be a sweetheart and gives the best hugs! He is extremely competitive and adoring of his older sister and sweetly yet energetically loving his little sister. He is pretty funny and keeps us laughing! Some of his favorite things to do are play with trains and build all sorts of tracks with them. He plays with his Lighting McQueen track set almost every day during quiet time. He does his chores without me needing to ask him (putting away his clean laundry, making his bed, packing and unpacking his swimming lesson bag each Tuesday, cleaning his room each day after quiet time, brushing his teeth, and putting his dirty laundry down the laundry chute). I don't think I officially wrote this before, but he is completely potty trained both night and day and has been since mid winter. He is a great eater and will eat any food I put in front of him, without complaining. It's sweetly sad to watch him eat chewy meats or slimy onions though, because they "sit" in his mouth for quite a while as he has trouble swallowing them - he doesn't complain, he just keeps chewing! He has been enjoying the "Andrew Lost" adventure books, and we often read a chapter together during his quiet time after his Bible story. He is a big helper, and loves to help me in the garden and in the kitchen, and loves to just hang out with me (which I love!). He loves to play trip with his sister, where they pack up their things and pretend to go on a trip. He still loves Lightning McQueen and Dusty the Cropduster, and those two stuffed friends go with him everywhere. His "baby deer" and "blue monkey blankie" are still favorites as well. I often tell him, I am so glad God gave me a little BOY and he holds such a special place in my heart :). Love ya buddy!
