Thursday, May 28, 2009

Why you shouldn't fall asleep first

This, my friends, is why you should never fall asleep first at your big sister's slumber party.

Justine and her friend Sophie.




The punishment was absolutely brilliant.
Justine's two big sisters had to give her a bath, wash all the marker off and fix her hair.
Sophie's two big sisters had to do the same with her. Then the big sisters had to play with the little sisters for the rest of the day.
Parenting genius, aren't I?
Photobucket

Ellipses?!?!?!

Tonight as I was preparing a few blog posts, I recognized my erroneous grammar habits aloud to the room: "I use ellipses way too much."
Jeff replied with, "Yeah and those three little dots."

...

Laughter ensued.


Photobucket

Graduation Party

Thank you to everyone who came to Jordan's graduation party. Jeff did a great job cooking all that BBQ. It was delish!

It actually stopped raining for the first time in weeks and was a beautiful day. The kids played in the park. Justine monopolized baby Ella. We were able to see old friends, new friends, and family. Jordan really appreciated all the hard work we put into giving her a great graduation party.

Jordan and her "Snuggie" for the cold winters in Chicago.


Rock climbing and clowning around.


I love this face... even if she was making fun of me.


Jordan's sister Ella was a big hit with Justine.
She's ready to come to Oregon to be your nanny at any time.



Our shrine to Jordan.
A built in babysitter.

Photobucket

My ahhhh moment for the day...

I spent the better part of the day cleaning and rearranging the girls' room. I was planning on doing this anyway... at some point... but the fact that Jameson spilled an ENTIRE gallon of water on the floor and left it there made my cleaning schedule move up a bit.
We moved furniture. We cleaned the closet. We went through clothes. We washed bedding. I cleaned candy wrappers, left over food, dirty clothes out from under their beds. It took us all day, and you'd think I would have taken a picture of what the room looked like after all that cleaning, but no... the picture I have to share is a card I found from Jameson.
Made me want to ask her if she wanted another gallon of water...

Photobucket

Friday, May 22, 2009

Overheard

Justine was explaining the story of Adam and Eve to her little friend today.
This is the part I overheard:

"So, they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
And then their clothes fell off."
Photobucket

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Sibling Showdown

Jack hasn't learned his lesson yet...

You don't mess with an angry Ethiopian...







Photobucket

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

School's Out for Summer....Or is it?

School's out for Summer!
With Jordan going to college next year and all of us here at Ellerbeeville needing a little more flexibility and $chchange$, our kids (yes all 5 of them) are going to be totally homeschooled next year!

We are so excited about our new adventure! So excited that we are getting started right away! School starts June 1st!

We are going to be doing school for 6 weeks on and then 2 weeks off..... all year round! We have made our breaks correspond with Jordan's breaks, and we are going to be free to go to Chicago more often than if the kids were tied down to a regular school schedule. The Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Chicago Art Institute and everything in between will be our supplementary schools next year!

The kids are excited, and I'm mentally preparing myself!


This is Jaiden on the last day of school. There are few pictures of her to share because this is what she looked like in EVERY picture.

Justine loved her Kindergarten teacher SO much. She was very sentimental all day, but seems very happy to be home with mom every day!

Jack received a gold medal for having a cumulative GPA of over 95% in all of his classes. This year has been quite busy for us, and I am SO proud of him for doing so well. He tried so hard, and is such a smart boy. He amazes me!
Jaiden received a bronze medal for having a cumulative gpa of 90 to 93% overall. We are very proud of her as well. Evidently she was expecting a gold or silver because when they announced the bronze, she shouted out, "What?" Pretty funny girl. She is so smart and SWEET!
Kindergarten Graduation!





Jack and his best friends.
Years ago, he used to say he was in a "maternity" and those were his "maternity brothers." We had an awesome sleepover with these boys after school and are so happy that we are going to be keeping in touch with them!

Photobucket

Prom pics










Photobucket

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Graduation Week in Numbers...

It's been a difficult week here at Ellerbeeville. Difficult? Maybe that's the wrong adjective... overwhelming, exciting, emotional, exhausting...

Now that Jordan's graduation party and graduation are now over, we enter the rare and time consuming introspective mode.
And tonight, we shall do so in numbers...

that's the number of pouting, whining children who slept in my bed last night.



that's the number of times those two children kicked me in the back/head/kidneys last night.


that's the least amount of dollars I think I spent on graduation party food, decorations, and gifts this week.


that's how many times I changed my clothes before Jordan's graduation ceremony tonight.



that's the number of nights I slept squished in the side of a bunk bed with a whining, pouting child.



that's the number of friends and family who cheered as Jordan walked across that stage to get her diploma tonight.


that's the number of tears I have yet to shed when I realize that it's actually over... and my baby has graduated from high school...
Photobucket