Sabrina's new bike came in the mail yesterday and she got to ride it for the first time today. She loves being able to go as fast as her brothers. We had a little rain yesterday, so Danny sat outside with the kids and let them ride back and forth through the "creek" in our ditch. They were wet and muddy by the time they came inside, but what's a little extra laundry when they are smiling like that!
Getting five kids ready for the day can be a daunting task at times! We follow pretty much the same routine everyday - eat breakfast, get dressed, make beds, brush teeth, comb hair and then play with toys. Since we do the same thing on "stay-at-home days" and "out-and-about days" the kids don't fight getting ready as much, which is nice on days like today when we have to get to church. It also makes those days when we stay in pajamas all morning even more special!
Danny took the kids on a bike ride through all of our neighborhood driveways today. Wyatt, Sabrina and Colter rode their bikes and Danny pulled Monique and Zane in the trailer. The kids had lots of fun and keep asking Danny when they are going to do it again! 
playing peek-a-boo with "horsey"
sleeping essentials:"horsey", "Noni blanket" and "paci" (although this one will disappear sometime in the next few months!)
using his push toy as a climbing wall
hiding in the tee pee
finally deciding that yogurt is good enough to let me feed him with a spoon
I think a big brother or sister helped with this one!
bath time is all about splashing and splashing and more splashing
finding a sweet baby to play with on the trash can
We haven't had much rain this summer (unlike some of our friends in other parts of the country who have had more than their share), so we have been really excited to have some rain the past couple of evenings. Colter, who has always been fascinated with all kinds of creatures, was thrilled to find some snails outside while he was waving to Danny this morning. He played with them for a while and then put them in a jar to save for later!
Wyatt, our little naturalist, has been counting down to the first official day of summer. So we celebrated with a picnic in the front yard, complete with homemade snow cones for dessert. 
This was the scene Danny saw when he came home from work today. They were pretending to go to a "princess movie" and needed to wear their skirts. Danny felt better about all of this when I told him that before they put the skirts on they had been running around shooting each other with their foam disc guns. We did decide to order some swords and pirate hats for the dress-up box to give it a little more balance!
Wyatt gathered up all of the random plastic trees in the playroom (some from Playmobil sets, others from plastic animal sets - I never realized we had so many plastic trees!) and started playing with them on the floor. After about 30 minutes he said, "Look Mom! I made a rainforest!" 
Wyatt and Papa spent at least a few hours each day snuggled up in the chair reading and discussing Wyatt's tree books. Wyatt even took Papa on little "field trips" around our yard to see all of the different trees. He was so excited to have someone new to "talk trees" with him!
Our kids love to read books so there was lots of reading and snuggling on the couch.
We took a trip to the Panhandle Plains Museum in Canyon one afternoon. The kids loved showing Papa and Grandma some of their favorite things at the museum.
We also spent lots of time outside, swinging and sliding on the slide.
We are so happy Papa and Grandma were able to come visit us! The kids are so blessed to have been able to spend this time with their great-grandparents.
I took this picture (along with many more!) while we were all outside on the porch enjoying popsicles. As I was browsing through them later on the computer, I realized that just one short year ago these three were not here. Oh, they were already part of our family, we were praying for them and each one had a special place in our hearts, but all we knew is that they were coming. We didn't know them. How did we ever live without them? They have each brought so much joy to our family and helped make our life richer. God has blessed us greatly in the last twelve months! 
It has been really windy lately which is not very conducive to backyard swimming. We finally had a calm day today, so we pulled out the swimming pool. The kids had fun splashing, sliding and jumping into the water!
Zane has his own little swimming mat, so he can splash in the water and watch all of the commotion in the other pool without getting stepped on or knocked over!
I think next year we may have to get a bigger pool!
This week was VBS at church. Danny and I helped with Sabrina's class. There are lots of sweet kids in her class and it was fun to spend time with them and watch her developing so many strong friendships.
The kids always like playing musical chairs at the end of music class. This is Wyatt (in the red) and some of his buddies fighting for that last chair.
Colter and Monique's class did a quick little program for us at the end of the week. They were the cutest little cowboys up there!
I had to make a quick day trip to Lubbock, so we left after breakfast and spent the morning at Legacy Park. If you can't tell from their smiles, the kids' favorite part was the super tall slide!
Zane hung out in the stroller and snacked on crackers. My mom met us there and took my camera from me so that I would be in some pictures. Thanks, Mom!
Driving in the car for almost three hours round trip is not exactly fun for these guys, so a trip to the park certainly helped sweeten the deal!
Just a few highlights of Zane's 10th month:
The last day of school at the kids' preschool is always "bike day." The kids love riding their bikes around the parking lot and eating snow cones! As a special treat I let our three ride their bikes home from school. I had Colter and Monique in the stroller and we slowly made our way home. They did a great job, although I thought it was going to be all over when one of the neighborhood dogs started following us (Sabrina has a big fear of animals, especially dogs)! Thankfully they just kept shouting "No!" and pedaling their little bikes and we made it home just fine.
Wyatt's preschool graduation was today. I got this picture of him in the hallway before they walked in - so Wyatt!
My favorite part of the graduation was when each child shared their name, their age, what they like about school and what they want to be when the grow up. Here is Wyatt's: "My name is Wyatt Griffis and I am five years old. My favorite thing about school is the swings. When I grow up I want to be a mountain climber and a tree climber." Once again - so Wyatt!
Wyatt getting his diploma from Mrs. Pybus. She has been such a blessing to our family and especially to Wyatt. She "gets him" and his crazy little personality. She doesn't let him get away with anything, but also understands his frustrations. We are so glad that Wyatt will get to enjoy another year with her as his teacher. 
Since Wyatt will be the "kindergarten helper" in his preschool class next year (we will be homeschooling him for kindergarten, but he will still go to preschool in the mornings) we really wanted to find something that would make his position unique. We are going to work with his teacher to select a topic each month that he will research at home and then do a presentation on at school. Wyatt was so excited about it that he wanted to start this month, so he learned about the different habitats in Rocky Mountain National Park while we were on our trip. He and Danny created a poster with all of the information and Wyatt shared it will his class. I love that not only does he like learning new things, but he also likes sharing his knowledge with others. 
To the casual observer these are simply pictures of my kids playing together, but to me they represent so much more. They show the relationship that has developed between a group of brothers and sisters who only six months ago didn't even know each other! On this particular afternoon I was working on supper and the girls were playing in the playroom. I heard Sabrina say, "I'm going outside to play with my brothers," and Monique quickly added, "And I'm going to go play with Zane." It means so much to see the bond that continues to grow between all of our kids.
Wyatt and Colter came home from vacation to a fun surprise - new bikes! Wyatt was needing a bigger bike to help him ride without training wheels and Colter had outgrown his tricycle and was ready for a "big boy bike". We decided to get them matching bikes in different colors that will last them a couple a few years. Wyatt's favorite part is that he can ride "super fast" and Colter loves the water bottle that is "just like Daddy's!"
