And with pictures!

Samuel had his first shiner recently. You can't tell from this picture, but he sported it proudly. He looked in the mirror early on and said, "Oh, it was purple yesterday and now it's blue". I told him to expect other colors and that it would get back to normal in a few days. He thought lots of colors was going to be pretty cool!

Some months ago I promised the kids that if I got a job I would take them to see Toby Mac in concert this summer. I got the job. We saw the show. The kids and I trekked to South Bend to attend the World Pulse Festival, or at least the last quarter of it. The kids made the best of a sticky (due to the heat) situation and bounced their little legs wiggly on the bounce houses in the Kids' Zone. By the time they were done there, Amy Grant was finishing up her 90's set (serious de ja vu for me) and we headed over for the main event. During the show it was determined that

1. Anna enjoys a concert in true Kinnaman fashion. Mostly sitting, a little clapping, and a blank look. She later verbalized that it was "awesome."

2. McKenna is a better dancer than I could ever hope to be. She volunteered to teach me to dance but I think she's already determined me a lost cause. At one point I tried to dance like she was and appropriately, Toby said at that moment, "Stop!" McKenna thought it was because I was dancing. I don't remember the real reason he addressed the crowd like this. Perhaps she was right...

3. A concert is a great place to throw a tantrum. It was super hot and Samuel was probably a little out of his league in terms of endurance requirements for the day. He wavered between having a great time and flailing on the ground having a fit. Due to the loud music, he bothered no one. I hardly even noticed.

Anna is now missing a top tooth. Her smile is adorable, her lisp minimal. She is counting the days until she gets to go to co-op for ballet and PE. (Side note: She called PE "PC" earlier in the summer when we were shopping for new running shoes. When she realized that the correct terminology was "PE" she informed me that it should stand for "play and exercise" instead of "physical education".)

McKenna has new running shoes and thinks they're pretty great. She's confident that she won't come in last in her kindergarten half mile race this fall. :) We've had the it-doesn't-matter-what-place-you-finish-if-you-try-your-best conversation and she thinks that finishing last is OK, but these shoes will ensure that she doesn't. She is reading (er, "guessing the words") very well, even though she claims that she can't read.

Samuel is ornery. No doubt about it. He was, for the second night in a row being quite the pill at bedtime tonight. He knew that he had ignored and disobeyed me. He knew what that brought last night. As he got into his pajamas tonight he told me, "You are the nicest and best mommy. Nicer than the other kid's moms. Nicer than all the kids' moms." Nice comment, for sure. I will remember it always. Half because he then admitted that he said it because he thought it would want to hear it and it would get him out of trouble. Suddenly, bedtime seems like a small issue!

He might as well be a limo driver

Samuel loves his red tricycle. He's got to be close to putting a hundred miles on those tires this summer. Recently he discovered that he can peddle it standing up. I mentioned to him that if he was going to ride like that he ought to wear his helmet. He replied, "Don't worry, Mom. I'm a professional" and peddled off.

If

...I've run a proverbial nursing marathon then this must the "sprint" (if there's any left) to the finish. From this vantage point the past 26 miles weren't as hard as I thought they would be. Next week I'll reflect and likely think they were harder than they really were.

Another hodgepodge of things to remember

According to my sweet son, I am "cuter than a baby baboon". I smile every time I think about him saying that.

We took the kids to the NCAA Final Four team practices and college All Star game last week. It was a beautiful day in Indy and we made some fun memories. The kids didn't care so much about the basketball, just that it was at Lucas Oil Stadium. Funniest thing of the day was when McKenna was watching the game and a Hershey's player drove the lane and hit a lay up with the Reece's players not playing much defense. With binoculars at her eyes she yells, "Don't they know how to block?!" The kids were also thrilled to be able to try Steak 'n Shake's new tropical punch kool-aid milkshakes. I tasted one. They taste just like the name sounds.

Anna is nearing the end of her kindergarten year at our (still unnamed) homeschool. I realized today that I have subconsciously been stretching this out as long as I can. She could have met all of her required days a couple of weeks ago. I'm just hanging onto the fact that my oldest is still IN kindergarten and hasn't yet completed it.

Perhaps most remarkably, we were able to get a good picture of the kids together, each child separately, and our whole family on Easter. No, that's not the remarkable part, though in itself it really is. The most remarkable part is that EACH of those was obtained on the first try. I never thought the day would come...

48 Capstone hours done, 64 to go. Graduation is one month away.

What a fantastic day...a Mommy-date with the kids at Starbucks (hooray for free pastry day! and dark cherry mochas!), a day of fun and learning at the Children's Museum (without losing any children, even for a minute!), the girls' class at the library (and one on one reading about trucks and spiderman with Samuel), playtime in the yard (the wagon and super-fun swing are fixed!), almost an hour of reading to the kiddos (about Ruby Bridges followed by Little House on the Prairie)...

This week's quotables:

Anna playing with her dolls this week asking them which one wanted to do the "dusting and brooming"

McKenna asked me if the reason for my success in the wii fit games was "because of all my weight".

Samuel sang an original song to me in the car on the way to the museum. (He does this a lot, usually to 'sing me to sleep' during the middle of the day.) He sang "I love you, I love you, you love us so much, you love us so much, you love Jesus too, you love Jesus too, I love you, I love you". Of course I asked him to sing it again. The second rendition had completely different lyrics. "Please be nice all day, don't be upset with me, I love you, I love you".

Couldn't make this up

In a random moment while getting ready for bed Samuel announced, "I'm going to change my socks every day 'til Jesus comes back." Oh, these kiddos make me smile...

I love when Samuel speaks...

In a recent prayer Samuel was "thankful for Kansas", essentially so that they could keep all the tornados.

When I mentioned at home that our cohort lost a classmate after last semester Samuel sat quietly. Then he asked me if we looked everywhere for her.

In the spirit of the Olympics and having fun with the new wii game we taught Samuel how to ski jump with the balance board. He told my mom about it but it went more like, "I did the new game and I was a snowball but not every time". We had to fill in the gap. When the mii character falls off of the jump it tumbles down the hill and forms a large snowball around the person. After some practice Samuel was able to go from snowball to successful.

Samuel still tells me almost every day that we're best buddies.