Update on the Kids

I stayed up half the night last night talking to Susie. She asked what the kids have been up to and in telling her, I realized it's been a while since I've talked about each of them.

Megan turns ten this summer. I don't know how exactly she's gotten that old. Susie pointed out that at this point, Megan is only a year younger than Susie was when Megan was born. Eeeek! Megs will be in fifth grade next year, so she only has a year left before she starts middle school (that sounds so weird). She still LOVES to read and devours books in days or hours even if they are hundreds of pages long. Her current favorite is the Percy Jackson series. At the end of the school year, she had to study various colleges and has decided she is going to go to Texas A&M and major in agricultural engineering. She has wanted to be a farmer for years, but very recently has decided she does not want to get up at 3am (which for some reason she thinks is the hour that farmers wake up), so she has changed her mind and now wants to be a billionaire who happens to have farm animals on her property. Originally she planned to become a millionaire by winning "America's Funniest Home Videos" ten times. She was very disappointed when I explained to her that $1000 times 10 is not $1 million. She even had several plans for funny videos she wanted to film at Miss Jojo's pool. Upon finding out that she would have to win 1000 times, she has changed her mind and decided to be an inventor. She has already come up with several ideas, such as "the world's yummiest chocolate" and the "helicar" (a car/helicopter). She graciously told me that as I suggested she become an inventor, she would give me $1000 when she becomes a billionaire. She is struggling a bit socially at school and feels that she doesn't have many friends. She emailed Veggie Tales about it and they responded to her with a story! We thought that was pretty cool :)

Kylie has really enjoyed getting to watch lots of tv and play on the computer all the time this summer. She is also spending a lot of time with Caitlin and Caitlin's family. She's looking forward to starting soccer again this fall. This coming season she gets to start traveling for games (yay - and yes, that is sarcastic) and having two practices a week. She is still goalie and does an incredible job at it! She had a wonderful birthday. Instead of doing parties, we let the kids pick between a few things. Kylie choose to go to a movie with Caitlin and me and then out to lunch at McDonald's. We saw a remake of "The Three Stooges" (I let Kylie pick between all the movies - all four of them - that were PG or G), then we actually parked and went into the McDonald's and Kylie and Caitlin got to play on the playplace. Kylie picked IHOP for our family dinner out for her birthday and we made sure to do it on a night when Kiki was home and could come with us :) Kylie loves school and is excited that she'll get to keep her 2nd grade teacher for 3rd grade as the teacher loves her class so much that she is moving up with the class!

Beth just finished kindergarten. She managed to wear dresses all year long; the only two days she wore anything other than a dress were field day and Polar Express day, when she wore pjs. Beth has such a definitive view of life. She is very definite about everything and in order to change her mind about something, you have to present her with definitive proof and several examples. She cracks me up. Her latest interest is special effects in movies and she loves to explain to others how they special effects are done while they are watching the movie. She usually gets it wrong, but her explanations are hilarious :) She is still very sure that she wants to be a doctor. When Megan was studying colleges, Beth decided she wanted to do so as well. She (at the age of 6) has decided to attend Baylor University as a pre-med student. She plans to get married and stay at home with her kids though after earning her degree.

Jack continually cracks us all up. He comes up with the craziest ideas and statements. He is very into superheros, specifically the Avengers, and Avatar, a sci-fi series. The outfits he wears are hilarious :) He is very friendly and talks to everyone everywhere we go. He makes everyone, even strangers, smile. He gets picked on a bit by his older sisters sometimes and is looking forward to starting school in the fall and being able to hang out with boys. He loves wrestling with Kylie and Eva. His favorite toys are his Captain America shield and his toy sword. He is super sweet as well and frequently tells me "Go lie down. You need to rest to keep Laura in. I'll do everything you need done."

Eva is talking. A lot :) She has tons of words, although most of her talking is hard to understand at the moment. Occasionally a very clear phrase will pop out though. Her first three word phrase was "Mom! My shoes!" said as she requested that I put her shoes on for her. Shoes are very fun. She has also learned that she can have conversations by using words she knows. Her favorite conversation, which we have literally a dozen times each day, goes as follows: "Ma?" "Yes Eva?" "Ma!" "Yes Eva?" "MA!" "Eva!" "MAAA!" "EVAAAA" "MAAA" "EVA" "MAMAAA" . . . you get the drift. This continues for about 10-15 minutes each time. She has also learned to express excitement very well. When she hears the garage door goes up as Rob gets home from work, she screams in excitement and runs to throw her arms around his knees. When we do things like get pizza for dinner (which is pretty often as that's what I'm craving still), she yells "YAY!!!!" and claps her little hands together. She also says "WOW!", which is very cute as well. She loves tackling her brother and sisters from behind and trying to knock them over, especially when they are watching tv. She thinks it's funny to randomly bonk people on the head (we're working on that) and also uses that technique when she is mad at someone or wants something someone else has. She loves to give hugs and kisses and blows Rob and I (and Miss Betsy) kisses when we are leaving or when we put her to bed.