Happy 8th Birthday Ella

Here's a little about Ella at 8 years old:

Favorite Friends:  Ginny, Reagan (both live in our neighborhood, Reagan lives behind us.  There are some sparse trees between our houses, and Madeline, Ella and Reagan spent many days this summer with duct tape and stalks that they used to build a shelter in the trees.)

Favorite Activities:   Apple Bobbing(never tried it before, but she is sure she will do it sometime and will love it), baking (her and Madeline recently made their first batch of sugar cookies entirely on their own)

Favorite trip during her 7th year:  Dominican Republic.  She loved going to the sea and finding sea-shells, which we have sitting in our closets.  She loved the buffet choices at the resort.  And of course, she loved spending time with her grandparents

Favorite books:  Rainbow Magic Fairies, Geronimo Stilton, Chronicles of Narnia

Favorite foods:  Mashed Potatoes with gravy and Turkey

Favorite Dessert:  Apple Pie, Cinnamon Rolls (At the dinner table every night, in an effort to encourage our kids to sit for longer than 3 minutes, Ryan asks an open ended question about different things.  One night he asked what makes a house a home, and Ella said, "Smelling cinnamon rolls every day makes a house a home".)

Least Favorite Thing:  Curries (which she must smell because that's what we are having for dinner. Yum.)

Ella has become a pinterest fan.  She scoured websites and pinterest exploring different birthday cake ideas, ranging for wedding cake to cheesecake.  She settled on a  couple of cakes that looked like they would take about 3 weeks on full-time work to complete, and I told her those were beyond my capability.  She finally decided she would be happy with a rainbow cake, which was within my commitment level.  

Ella and her friend Ginny

Ryan's favorite memory of Ella's 7th year:  Watching her crouch down in the sand on the Jacksonville Beach, scouring the sand for sand crabs and seashells.  And, having Ella grab his face between her hands, and say, "Daaaad, are you serious".

Jenn's favorite memory of Ella's 7th year:  Ella triumphantly telling us at the dinner table that she skipped her reading class by jumping out of the line, and hiding in a toilet stall in the bathroom for an hour.  No teachers found out about her escape.  Ryan and I are worried about teen years.

Madeline's favorite memory:  trick or treating on the trailer with Ella's friend Ginny, and neighbors Sawyer and Declan, and getting to go over to the extra neighborhood after canvasing our neighborhood.

Sam's 3rd birthday celebration

"Those are Max's fingerprints in the crepes" --Sam Swapp when told that no one would get any crepes until whoever pushed their finger through all the crepes confessed.

And so continues the adventure with Sam that started more than three years ago.  Quick-witted and warm-spirited, he gives me a "morning hug" followed by a "morning kiss" every morning, and a running bear hug every night.  He asks for a kiss for every boo-boo, and he acquiesces when I ask him to wash his hands and then I'll give him a kiss.  He yells when he doesn't like something.  He loves to play on Starfall, loves to watch Diego and Little Einsteins, and likes to be with his siblings over playing with toys.

Madeline made a beautiful mural for him, Ella bought a movie for him, and Max, who discovered last minute that he was the only one without a present for Sam, gave him his favorite present, a sucker his primary teachers had just given him. 

To celebrate, we went to Whitewater State Park.  The kids played on the sandy shore of a lake for a long time, the kids transporting tiny fish they caught to a makeshift pool.  Another boy started catching fish with them, but his mom, rather blatantly redirected him to return his fish to the place they originally came from, "so that we don't kill them.  They are too cute to kill them".  I wanted to let her know that the fish weren't cute, that the kids weren't killing them, and that kids learn to care for the earth and the things on it by engaging with them, but I kept my mouth closed.  After Madeline and Ella killed all the minuscule fish, we went over to grill our hamburgers and s'mores where undoubtably, the kids found other creatures of God to terrorize.  

Finally, we lit the sparklers, those ones that I had bought for 4th of July and forgot about.  Madeline and Ella tried to teach Max to write his name twirling the sparkler.  

By this time, it was dark, which was our intent, we had a fire ready to go, we lit it, and sat around as long as a three year old will amiably allow.  Ryan told a ghost story, which the kids begged out of him. Then Madeline told a story, finally Max told a mostly unintelligible story.  

Everyone is nervous about what is going to happen in the story.

Ryan reveals the crux of the ghost story.  Everyone is relieved to still be alive after the anticipation.  After the stories, we put out our fire, and headed home in the dark, a satiated and satisfied crew quietly listening to the music in the back.

On Sam's birthday, we had crepes for dinner, which someone- we think Max, punched holes through the entire stack.  Still, we enjoyed them.  We ate them with Apricot Jelly- Croatian style, and with Nutella, and homemade strawberry jam.  

We had apple crisp for dessert.  The day was prolifically filled with carbohydrates, which is the only food Sam eats with any amount of enthusiasm.

Sam's favorite present was a lollipop Max gave him.  

He was very excited about his baseball mit.  Our one left-handed child has had a struggle, when we put mits on to throw balls, he insists on putting on a right-handed one, even though he's putting it on his right hand.  Now he and I will have the two left-handed mits.  We've enjoyed a couple of games of baseball since Sam's birthday and the hit is a winner.
Three year olds sure love their birthdays.  They talk about it beforehand and afterwards, and want to know every day how long it is until their birthday again, and who gets to have the next birthday.  It's always a pleasure to be part of the enthusiasm.

The inevitable has begun, we have returned to another year of school. A week before school started we went to turn our paperwork in, and see who Madeline and Ella would have for teacher's this year.  Madeline made a hierarchal list of whom she wanted in terms of teachers (and hence, whom she didn't want) Ella was just excited to see friends.  Turns out Ella got Madeline's favorite teacher ever:  Mr. McClure, and to add insult to injury, Madeline got a brand new teacher, Ms. Knoll, who according to her ranked below all the known teachers simply because she was unknown. Madeline was certain this would mean terrible things for the coming year.  Tonight though, when we went to the back to school cookout, Madeline wanted to find two people, Ms. Knoll, and her friend Sarah.  Ryan asked her if that meant that she liked Mrs. Knoll, and Madeline looked at him like he was a dunce, "Well, yes dad, she does lots of really neat things you know".  Ella has been disappointed to discover that Mr. McKay is the strictest teacher she has had.  

It's pretty fun to see what these girls are thinking about.

Ella and Madeline 2nd and 4th graders

Max has been excited to start preschool.  A week into it, he nonchalantly told me that his teachers were so nice, he didn't think they would ever get mad at him.  Every day he walks into preschool with a huge smile on his face, and every day he leaves with a huge smile on his face.  Sam was asking so man¥ questions about who his teacher was, and where his school was that I decided to try and set up a play-date for him.  Luckily, he has recently become friends with Eric, they have been in each other's company since they were born, but have always just bristled around each other, until recently.   So, Sam has a place to call his own now as well.  When Max talks about going to play at Eric's house, Sam quickly let's him know that Eric's house is his domain alone.  

Max and Sam preschool and playmates

With the return to school, I have been focused on discipline again.  I talked Ryan into taking a love and logic class with me.  I like the idea of love and logic discipline because I think our ability to make choices, regardless of what happens around us is one of our greatest blessings.  Like money, I think kids need experience learning how agency works.  I think often of God when I am focusing on setting limits for the rules that we have, and then allowing the kids to make choices and following though with the consequences of breaking the limit.  I imagine this is something we'll be working a lot on as we start this school year.  

Sanofsky/Hannah visit to Minnesota

A few days after we returned from Utah, Erin and her family and Hannah came to visit us.  The kids were just thrilled to over excitement at going from one fun trip to another to another.  They were really happy to have their cousins come to visit our home.

Hannah was climbing on the tire swing when all the kids saw her and asked her to push them.  We were in beautiful little Lanesboro to bike along the Root River.

Hannah pushed Katie, Sam, Madeline and Ella.  Then she pushed Max, Marcus and Sam.

All seven kids heading on our bike ride.  

Sam and Addy 

Marcus 

After the ride, Sam was climbing up some rocks

Madeline and Katie ran through the sprinklers.

All the kids love Hannah.  She was so entertaining and so nice.

Waiting for ice cream

6 of the seven kids choose superman ice cream.  Ella got Caramel delight.

A man who looked similar to Santa, and gave the kids pictures of Santa and his reindeer.  Marcus was enthralled the entire time.  

Ella and Katie loved the special breakfasts we had:  German Pancakes, Biscuits with homemade jam, sugar cereal.  No one complained.  Later that day, we went to our third cave in a month.  Max was still apprehensive, but wanted to keep up with Marcus.  The girls were pointing out the cave formations of soda straws and cave bacon.  

The girls enjoy one of our favorite activities in Rochester. Every Tuesday in the summer, the track club hosts races for the kids.  The races are divided by age and gender, and the kids can run 50m, 100 m, 200 m, 400m, 800m and 1 mile.  After that, we went to the YMCA and went swimming, which made everyone happy.  then we stopped for pizza on the way home.  Late bedtime for everyone.

Addy loves Hannah.

Sam loves to run, and loves his ribbon for running. Many of the kids his age have a parent run with them, but Sam wants to run by himself.

Max is lined up with the 4 year old boys on the left hand side.

cousin Katie running with the 5 year old girls.

All the kids loved our quiet time activity of building something with marshmallows and toothpicks.  

Ella build a 3 dimensional house.  The children didn't let any of the marshmallows go to waste afterwards.

We had a few sleepovers, which kept the girls up late and up early in the morning.  We had fun showing everyone what we like to do here in Minnesota.  We loved visiting with Hannah and talking about her mission to the Dominican Republic.  The kids loved riding their bikes in the culdesac, and playing in our back yard.  

Their last night here, Ryan watched the kids, and Erin, Hannah and I went out for Vietnamese food followed by a Dalia specialty, shopping at Goodwill.    

Colorado-Utah Swapp Reunion

The day after school let out, we headed to Colorado for our much anticipated family reunion.  The kids were excited to see their aunts and uncles and to meet their new cousins.  Madeline and Ella brought along their violins, and played Beautiful Savior at church for their grandparents farewell, while Ryan accompanied them on Piano.  Before she went up to play, Madeline told me she was really nervous that Ryan was going to mess up and she wouldn't know what to do.  The nervousness was for naught, as it was beautiful.

Saturday night, we had a bbq, and celebrated Madeline's birthday. We had cake and ice cream, and sang to her.  Madeline was surprised that her aunts and uncles and Gwen and Mike remembered her birthday, and it warmed her heart because she wasn't expecting it.

After church on Sunday, we drove to Utah.  Ryan and I loved being in Midway again.  We enjoyed fun activities every day.  Mostly our kids loved seeing the babies (Max every time he would see a baby, would smile and say, "Ooh, what a cutie-pie"), and playing with their aunts, uncles and grandparents.  

Jenn, Max and Sam in the wave pool at Seven Peaks 

"Let me Down" was Sam's constant move the entire trip

Max loved being in the water

Ella found Uncle Lance and he went in the wave pool with her

Madeline and Ella chatting and warming up on the cement.  It was borderline cold at Seven Peaks that day.

Ella and Madeline really enjoyed all the rides, she went with uncles and aunts and her dad on all the high and curvy rides. 

Gearing up for a hike up to Timpanogas Caves.  Probably sneaking candy or ibuprofen.

An arch on the way up to the cave.  Ryan and Sam, and Greg and Will.

A break on the way up.  

Max, Ella, Madeline and Grandma.  The kids were great hikers.

Grandpa with Edmond, Max, Madeline and Ella

Ella and Madeline loved hiking ahead with Tom and Ashley, or Greg and Darlene, or Lance and Mai.  Ella rode with Tom and Ashley and Afton in the car ride over.  Tom said 30 minutes into the 8 hour drive she was asking how much longer they had.  Tom, in a stroke of brilliance stopped at a redbox at a gas station and got some movies for Ella to watch.  After that, she sat with his headphones on, laughing out-loud, and giving Afton a perturbed look when she cried.  At one point she asked Ashley, "Is Tom ever annoying to you"?  She loved teasing Tom, and everyone else.  

Madeline and Grandma resting in the shade.

Sitting on a bench after the cave walk.  Max was uncomfortable going through the cave, he didn't like the dark and small spaces.  The sheer amount of company and attention in the cave took his mind off of his discomfort.  The promise of a milkshake was how we cooperation to get down the mountain.  We loved the Purple Turtle, the kids followed uncle Greg's lead and ordered corn dogs, and they were enthralled with bubble gum milkshakes, a combination of two great things. 

Madeline with American Fork canyon behind her.

The Dearden family Reunion at Aunt Gwen's house in Fillmore.  Max and Sam loved playing with Misty's boys.

Sam acquired numerous fruit juices while we were there.  He would just take new bottles up to different adults to open for him.

The older kids loved the inflatable water slide.

Ella heading down.

Someone brought out the water balloons, and Ella surprised her dad while we was peaceably sitting by throwing a water balloon at his back.

Ryan grabbed Ella for his revenge.

Gwen's cherry tree was ripe and overflowing with Cherries, so Madeline, Ella, Greg and I picked several buckets to take home with us.

The awesomeness of the family reunion was cap-stoned with a pinata.  My children adore pinatas, and have happy memories of any event we've gone to where there was a pinata.

After they collected their bags of candy, Ella and Max amiably sat side by side to eat as much as they could get away with.

Sam ate several pieces of candy at the same time.

He tried one and then the other.

And then, he let Will taste both of his suckers:) 

Grandpa and Baby Afton at The Brick Oven in Provo.

Edmond was well-loved by my kids.  

Waiting for pizza at the Brick Oven.  Kids were still contained at this point.  

By the end of the trip, and still 6 weeks afterwards, Madeline tells everyone she wants to move to Utah (or Virginia to be near my family).  It was fun to see her so engaged and happy with so many people.  I'm glad she will have as happy of memories of Midway as Ryan and I do.