Emery's piano recital

Emery had a piano recital on June 11th. She has been doing so well! And we are so proud of her!

I wish I could have been on the other side to get her hands playing, but regardless she did very well.

She also participated in the AIM (Achievement In Music) program. Which is an evaluation/testing program which just helps the student be more aware of their progress. They get to play in front of evaluators which gives them more practice performing for others.

End of School

Well, the ending of another school year has come! Ethan thinks he's so grown up now that he is done with elementary school. Next year he goes to Jr. High! (kinda freaking me out) Emery will be in 5th grade, Nate goes into 3rd and Will starts 1st! YAY for me! All day school next year!We are looking forward to a very busy yet FUN summer!! But trying to keep my sanity, I usually come up with some sort of chore chart so the kids stay busy and not letting the house go to pot (to much more than it is).

A couple of years ago I made this chart....and hung it inside my hallway closet.

Last year I had the kids do different chores that would earn them time on the TV or some sort of computer game. They each had a bucket that they would put their tokens. After doing a job (I had a list of things they could do with the corresponding time, ie. sweeping the stairs=15 min, something like that) they would put their minute tokens in the bucket and could either use them or save them up. (they usually wanted to save them up since 15 min barely gets you started on something) It worked pretty well, but I needed to mix things up a bit so they wouldn't get to burned out.
So this year I made a list of all the things I wanted each kid to do. They have to show me their chart before being allowed to hang out with friends, watch TV or play toys. Very simple! I also have on there "mom's choice". This is so if I need something different done, I don't get whining and complaints saying "it's not on the chart". Sneaky eh?

More building mishaps!

I've been wanting to redo Ethan's bedroom for a while now, he kinda outgrew the pirate room. So I went searching for ideas to make his tiny room cool for an almost teen boy.

I came across this hanging bed..... and he about died he wanted it so bad.

So I broke down and said sure. I went and bought all the wood, and spent (not to long, it was actually really easy) the time building it. And it looked perfect....until......I went back in his room and quickly realized his room is way to small! The ceiling is to low and because of doors and the window, it would stick out almost to the doorway and be so low that it hits you in the eye.

Josh had to tear apart the bed with a crowbar (not one of his favorite moments or mine *gulp), needless to say Ethan was heartbroken. So I came up with my own plan to make him a cool bed that he could have a fort under and be useful/practical and not take up the entire room. His closet is really quite big (thanks to my dad!!) so we got rid of his dresser and got baskets for his clothes on the closet shelves.

I got him a camo-net that he can hang, and I still need to get some things for his walls and do a little more painting.

But here is the finished bed.....

Bookshelves under the bed for weapons stash or books or whatever.......and he has a little fort, that he and his friends have been loving!
So AGAIN, a major constructing catastrophe that ended well. (Aside from the paint color on the wall, I was hoping for a little darker shade, but I really don't want to repaint any time soon.)

Random shot of the day......Emery and her dream of being a rockstar, and her sidekick Nate.