Summer. Weeks Four and Five.

These weeks alternated between busy-ness and boredom.  Do other people's summers have that same pattern?

Emmett was out of town for a few days.  During that time, the kids and I celebrated cows at Chick-Fil-A, ate lots of macaroni and cheese, and hung out with some friends.  

I also stayed up way too late multitasking.  I watched Season One of In Plain Sight on Netflix and did lots of blog-reading and researching Down syndrome and Down Syndrome Associations.  The highlight of the weekend was a big pool party with our local Down syndrome families.  It was our second annual pool party - and we had more than 80 people there.  

I took a sweet friend (all star babysitter, house-sitter, college student and cleaning help) with us to the pool party because there was no way I could take the 3 kids by myself to a pool party AND try to be helpful.  When we left the pool, my friend looked at me and said, "I keep thinking that this - the party, all these people - this happened because Ben was born."

Wow.

 

 

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Benjamin learned to climb onto the arm of the couch and jump off onto the cushions.  He doesn't speak yet, but he sits on top and counts to three: "Ah da.  Ah da.  Ah daaaaah!" as he throws himself onto the cushions.  This is just what his brother and sister do - even though none of them are supposed to be climbing on the couch.

 

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Meanwhile, Emmett returned - hooray!  And we had a typical week - pool, playdates, TV, some board games at home.  Evan had a couple of school friends over.  Emmett, Evan and Corrie bonded over Minecraft.

Evan saved up enough money to buy a new Skylander.  He's been spending a lot of time in this position.

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Corrie is in a great creative stage of life.  We recently watched Mulan and Mulan 2, and Corrie was inspired to design her own princess costume.  Note the bow, the fan, the chopsticks in her hair, the bag of goldfish tied at her waist, and her attitude.  I love her.