Our summer break is into the third week. We have been super busy--as usual--but it's been fun!

Peach had Science Camp the very first week of summer break. She had to be ready to leave the house at 7:40 every morning--that's 30 minutes earlier than school days. What a way to start summer vacation, huh? But I think she thinks it was all worth it! She absolutely loved science camp. They had pond day, hiking, bug day, bird day, etc. It was all environmental science, so it was pretty hands on. She even caught a dragonfly (and shortly thereafter, relased it).

When asked about her favorite part, Peach replied that pond day was the best because she almost caught a frog, and she learned a lot about frogs that she didn't already know! I'm thrilled she had fun because I'd love for any or all of my daughters to be in this field someday. There are fewer females than males in this field, so I'm thinking a girl would be sought after for study programs and the like. But really, if it makes her heart happy--then I'm happy.

The next week, all three older girls had soccer camp.

 Brownie and Bug were in the same group, but Peach will be moving up in the fall--so she was with the older kids.

 Her camp was also twice as long as Brownie and Bug's. The girls have really taken off with soccer. This is Bug's first real experience with the sport, so the fact that she was the most excited everyday about soccer camp was exciting for me. I love seeing them get excited to try new things--I love when they don't hesitate or shy away from a new adventure.

In the midst of the camps, we've been swimming,

 had cookouts, eaten s'mores

been cooped in the basement at bedtime due to threatening weather

 played softball

 and said "hello" and "goodbye" to Auntie. And oh yeah, had a dance recital.

The recital was so cute. The two big girls dance in the same tap and ballet classes. Peach takes Jazz. And then Bug has her own tap and ballet classes. Needless to say--we had plenty of costumes for our recent recital.

The week of Memorial Day they had studio rehersals on Wednesday, reherslas at the Arts Center on Thursday, dress rehersals at the Arts Center on Friday (until 9pm--actually, it ran over a bit), and then the big performance was on Saturday afternoon. The girls did fantastic! I truly enjoyed watching every minute of their dances!

Peach and Brownie's ballet song was "Colors of the Wind"

Peach and Brownie's tap song was "Ever Ever After"

Peach's Jazz song was "Hakuna Matata"
Bug's ballet song was "Cinderella's Workshop"

Bug's tap song was "Kiss the Girl"

Yes, in case you are wondering these are all Disney songs. Their little section of the recital was called Happily Ever After. Besides all the sisters, Mom and Dad, both Grandmas, Papa, and Auntie came to see them dance. We were early enough to get seats in the very front row! Loved this!

We went to grab some Chinese food after the big dance. By the time we got home we were wiped out. We'd already welcomed Auntie home and celebrated Grammy's birthday the day before--and now we had to get ready for the gender reveal the next day! Yes, it was a busy weekend.

Here are some pics from mom's birthday. Before celebrating her birthday I had my 25 wk appointment, and after her dinner the girls had to scurry over to rehersals. So we squeezed in dinner, but left cake and presents for after rehersals. My sister and the girls frosted a roll of toilet paper to make it look like mom had her own little cake.

   She started to cut into it and we all began laughing.

Bug almost blew the surprise a couple of times--but Grammy was a good sport! We did have a real cake for her too, as well as some presents!

That catches us up through the first two weeks of summer--of course, I only hit on the major events. But I'll fill in what's missing!

Gender Reveal Party

There has been so many fun things happen lately, and I hate that I haven't blogged about them. Life has a way of just happening, I guess! I never realized how busy the end of school is---I swear it's just as bad, if not worse, than the beginning of the school year.  And we only have three in school so far--I just can't imagine what it'll be like in a few years with all six in school!

We've had so much fun already this summer, but one of the coolest things ever happened last Sunday. My friend, Caroline, surprised my family, friends and me with a gender reveal. We had a Dick and Jane theme (I wanted to be original--such a snob). I thought that other than being origianl (yes, I searched the web and saw nothing of the sort), it fit two Enlsigh teachers to have a literary theme--and so we did. I also happen to kind of love vintage stuff--so really it was a perfect!

Caroline did such an amazing job putting the party together. She did all things "decor" and "style." I love how creative she is---I plan to be her someday when I grow up :)  She made the invitations, set up the cute decor, and planned the big reveal. The manner in which she revealed our baby's gender was a surprise to everybody up until that moment!

Let me walk you through one of the coolest days of my life!

                                                   Welcome to our Gender Reveal Party!

                                 Here's our family of seven waiting to hear about our eighth member!

 Caroline and her husband built and painted this lemonade stand. I love it and want one exactly like it--remember I want to be her someday! Copy-catting really is the biggest form of flattery! We had cherry and regualr lemonade on our stand here.

 This table full of goodies was to the right of the drink stand. We served Ceasar salad, brushetta salad with garlic toasts, chips with guacamole, white queso and salsa, crackers with blueberry or blackberry jalapeno jelly poured over cream cheese, fresh fruit, sausage balls, and cocktail shrimp! Some of these things have been my cravings--the salds mostly!

Caroline had such cute vintage items to add to the table. My mom also let us borrow some toys from her childhood--this red trunk included (it held a stash of little doll clothes, originally)!

 I didn't get a close-up of this table, but it was adorable. Caroline made little tags attached to clothes pins for people to pin to their shirt--these read "Dick" or "Jane," and the guest chose one based on their own prediction for our baby's gender. This table also had little cards where each guest could write their name, whether they thought it was a boy or girl, and any name suggestions they had. I've kept these suggestions for the baby book!

After filling out their cards and picking their clothespin, the guests could sit down at the tables and play with all the vintage toys (of course, this worked because we had lots of littles there)!

 I tried to get around the room and visit with all my friends and family. I was so thrilled that they all came and were nearly as excited to find out about our baby as we were!

 Miss Caroline--the hostsess-- and me! She is so sweet and giving. I don't know how she comes up with all the cool ideas she does, but I do know she's had lots of practice throwing parties. This girl is in her element whilst party-throwing! I really don't know how she does it--I mean, she has four kids all five and under, blogs nearly everyday, serves in some ministries, and is a great friend! So blessed to call her friend!

Here's my first family of all girls-- my mom, sis and me. I was so happy my sister could make it to the party, but I wish my SIL and her family could've been there. It's been too long, Nancy!!!

Prior to the party, I wrote on a few chalkboards. One said what the Chinese calendar, the Mayan calendar, and the ring test predicted our baby's gender would be. In order it was girl, girl, boy! This chalkboard just lists some old wives' tales about predicting gender. There was only one true "girl" answer--one of the answers was both. But at one point during party planning, Caroline did assure me that the baby was just one gender!  

 Kids played outside for quite some time at the park next to the shelter house...

 ...while the adults ate and mingled.

Here is Peach and one of her besties! It appears they both thought "girl" and "boy."

I'm not a huge cake fan--but I'm a huge frosted cookie fan. And a week before the party I found the coolest place for such a treat. I wasn't even looking, but this cookie place happened to be next door to a pizza restaurant the girls and I ate at after a doctor's appointment. A few days later it dawned on me that I should order dessert for the party from there. I didn't go wrong--these were delish!

This is my mom's little red table from her younger days. Caroline had this cute little wagon that we stuffed with some trailmix for the kids. We also had paper plates (instead of the glass one we used for adults) and little after-dinner mints!

Once everybody was done eating, we all headed outside. The whole group broke into teams based upon which gender they thought Baby Copeland was. Look how huge the "boy" group was. I was a little surprised. I figured most people would think we were having a girl based upon our recored. That surely wasn't the case!

 Look how little this group was! Matt and I didn't announce what we thought our baby was until right before this picture. I wanted everybody to make up their own mind and not base their guess off of mine or Matt's.  I know some people think moms have intuition about their baby's gender--but I usually don't! My first inclination with this child was "boy" because my first trimeseter was so much easier than all five previous babies.  But as you can see in this picture, both Matt and I thought our little one was a girl! A total of 16 thougth this baby was a girl, whereas 26 people thougth "boy." I even made some snide remarks about how I was so sure this was a baby girl in my belly to my friend, Heidi, standing next to me in this picture. We had a good laugh--we were totally sure!

 After the pictures, we headed inside and Caroline handed Peach (who just learned to read this year) a book she made. Peach read the book aloud to the whoele group! It was written as the old "Dick and Jane" books were written with words like "Look. Look and see. Look and see what baby will be."

It was a little hard to hear her sweet little voice, but after she'd been reading for a minute I thought I heard her say "It will be a BOY!" See my face in the picture above--it's one of confusion and shock.

And this is me laugh/crying. I did hear "boy," and I was completely taken away. I had totally prepped myself for girl because I honestly didn't think we made boys. I had gotten used to the idea of having a house full of girls. I was ready for the challenge of six kids--and all were going to be girls. But when I found out it is a boy, I had a huge reaction. I had no idea I would react this way.

I just couldn't believe it. I told Matt later than evening that I had no idea I would cry, and I had no idea where the tears came from. I would be just as happy if I was having a girl. So I think the tears really did come from the pure schock I was in. Of course, my husband was as calm and cool as ever. It takes a lot to get a big reaction from him, but he was very happy too. He just doesn't break down cry/laughing when he hears news like this. That role is apparently left for me :)

 My memory is a little fuzzy, but I think this is where Caroline is reading it again to make me really believe what I heared was correct. And by the way, the illustrations and words went together so well. I'll have to show a page by page of this book becaus it was seriously perfect! And I loved that Peach got to announce it to the whole group! How special for her--for all of us!

                                                                        Yep, still in shock!

It's a BOY!!!!

Thank you Caroline, for throwing such a fun party. I had an absolute blast. I seriously would do this again in a heartbeat--so worth waiting the four weeks between our sono and the party. And thank you to friends and family who showed as much enthusiasm as I was feeling!

Zoo, Music Program and Tornadoes!

 Ever since we bought our zoo pass, we have been going almost once a week. The girls are so happy about that! Back when Brownie picked out the zoo animals for our shoebox zoo, I let the middle girls pick out tattoos. Here is Bug's elephant and...

 Boushka's giraffe.

 Our zoo recently added a temp penguin exhibit. In the weeks leading up to this exhibit, the zoo put out a bunch of penguin stuff. I got these three cuties to pose for a whole 10 seconds!

 This particular time we went to the zoo, our stroller was MIA. So sweet Scrunchie walked/got carried the whole time. She was so sweet the entire trip. She pointed at every little thing--it's so cool to see her see all of this stuff for the first time.

 I was told that we absolutely had to stop at the elephants--so we did. And this made some little girls happy.

 I think the snacks helped to make them happy too!

 This girl loved the ducks. She would point at them and say something in cute jibberish. Oh, I love this stage--no matter how exhausting it may be!

 I took about 25 pictures of them posing near these flowers, and this is the best one. Honestly, I think it's quite cute.
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 A couple weeks ago, Peach had her school program. Before her musical debut, we took the girls to a local burger joint. It's been around for 60 some odd years.  We noshed on old fashioned food and ended with shakes.

 This one had the best seat in the house--daddy's shoulders!

 And then we went to the school to listen to Ms. Peach sing her beautiful heart out.

 We got there early to grab a good seat. We were in the second row!! Brownie wanted to goof around prior to the beginning of the production. So we did (as pictured in the above photo). But when the show started, I honestly got a little verklempt. You know how sometimes weird thoughts pop in your head and they hit you head on??? Well, I had one of those shortly after her program started. I started thinking about all the moms, who for one reason or another, never get to experience what I was experiencing. I thought about all the kids who aren't here today to sing in their kindergarten program. I thought about moms serving over seas. I thought about moms who passed before their little ones were in kindergarten. I thought of them all--moms and kids. And I was overcome with bittersweet feelings--which I'm assuming are self-explanatory here. I know that everyday is a gift, but for one reason or another it just hit me hard at that moment in time. I'm just so happy I've been allowed enough time as a mom to these kids, to see the things I've seen, and to feel the things I've felt. The whole gamut of emotions I've felt since becoming a parent---I wouldn't trade any of them for anything in this world. And I hope I'm around for many more things to see and feel with them!
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 And then there was date night--a date night that I even wore a dress to--Shocking!!

A few weeks ago, Matt and I had our date night we get with our co-op group. We went to an early movie and saw 21 Jump Street (funny), and then we were stuck on what to do. Our original plans were to travel about 20 miles north to a casino, but there was a possibility of bad storms within an hour or two. It really didn't sound like much, so we got on the highway to go to the casino but at the last moment we exited to stay in town---just in case something crazy happened. I, of course, had visions of our destroyed city being barricaded and the police stopping anybody trying to get in. So the thought of me not seeing my kids was too strong--Matt felt this same feeling, but without all the crazy scenario stuff I think. We ended up going to a designer showcase house in our town. The moment we parked to get out of our car, the rain stopped. We happily went in to this gorgeous house, and we were presented with shoe booties. I sat down to put them on, and the tornado sirens went off--almost out of the blue. Usually, around these parts, we have a clue when they will go off. But I honestly thought everything was good because we had just listened to the weather report in the car as we parked. There were storms, but no tornadoes. 

 

So, a little panicked, we rush to the basement. We didn't even pay to get in. We're standing in this overcrowded basement with a lot of annoying people wanting wine, and all I want to know is where in the hell the tornado was. Matt, of course, is telling me not to panic. But he's not a mom, so he doesn't get it. There's some weird thing inside of moms that goes awry when there is the possibility of danger and her babies are not under foot or anywhere nearby. So I'm texting my friend Caroline (who has my kids) trying to make sure they know what's going on (because we were in totally different parts of town and I didn't know if the sirens were going off near them), while also trying to talk with my mom to figure out where the tornado is. I kept getting cut off mid conversation, but last I heard there was a funnel cloud near the high school. Which just a year ago there was a funnel cloud there and it hovered above several of my friends' houses before going away. Caroline's house was in this same pathway. 

 

 To distract myself, I took the picture of Matt and me above, and I also took this one of all the old people concerned about wine. I only say "old" because it was weird being just about the youngest one there, but also the most worried. Apparently, these folks have lived through enough tornadoes to not care about anything other than where the wine is. But whatever...

After 30 or so minutes of standing in this basement waiting on this tornado, my feet were so swollen that I could not even get my dang shoes on. But the sirens stopped and we got word that everybody was okay, and that there was only a funnel cloud. Since we knew our kids were safe and happily playing with their friends, we continued with our date. We walked through the house and went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants before picking up the kids. And when we got back to Caroline's,  I apologized to her and her husband for having to deal with 9 kids all 6 and under during something like a tornado. Still thinking about the path of the funnel cloud near the high school, I asked Aaron, Caroline's husband, if he knew anything about that funnel cloud. He then told me when he went outside to look it was right above their house.

Ahhh... I'm so glad I didn't know this during the time the sirens were sounding. I would've been a complete wreck had I known the location of that near-tornado. But needless to say, mother's intuition never fails! I'm just so thankful for two responsible friends who had my babies, and the angels looking over that house and the people in it.

I'm hoping for a rather uneventful date night next month!!!