Spaaaaah! Day....

You know when you're bored and you have a new patio to try out?  Why not make it a spa?  The "bigs" (Brooke, Adrienne and Sydney) were the "little's" (Sam, Erin, Alix and Kaitlyn) "maids".  They gave the girls a foot soak, foot massage, pedicure, massage, did their make-up, and then found my facial mask...  And picked a cucumber from the garden....  

This is how I found the girls when I went out back to check on them...

 Brooke

 Sam - do you like how she's wearing her "heels"?

 Alix

 Erin

I love their imaginations.  And next time, they can be MY maids...

Quote of the Day...

Erin and Alix had their friend Kaitlyn over and she found this picture of me...

Kaitlyn - "Wow, Sister Bishop!  Is this you on Halloween?"

Ha. Ha. No...

Road Runners...

Erin and Alix joined a running team this summer.  It was really fun watching them make and meet some really big goals.  The biggest was that they both ran 60 miles (60!!!!) from the middle of April to July 10th.  They did this to earn the Gold Foot award and each got an ipod shuffle as a reward from their coaches.  And did I mention they were the "littles" on the team?  Youngest girls on the team (along with two other 7-8 year olds)

Brooke and Sam weren't on the team, but competed at the track meets with the girls...

All the girls did the "ball throw"  Alix was great at this and usually placed in the top six.  Brooke also excelled and placed every single meet.

 Brooke is our throwing specialist.  She got first place in shot put 5 out of 6 weeks.  And this was the first time she'd ever tried it.  

 All the girls did long jump as well.  Erin usually placed in this event and jumped 8 feet 2.5 inches.  Not bad when you're only 4 feet tall!  

 Brooke

 Alix

 Erin also really excelled at the mile.  I chose this picture because it shows how little she is compared to other girls that ran the mile.  She the little one in the middle.  She started running the mile at 12 minutes and finished running it in 7:40.  That's faster than I can run!  Alix started her mile at 12:46 and her fasted was 9:06. They worked really hard.

 Alix

 Erin

 Sam doing standing long jump (she only competed at 2 meets)

 3 of the 4 "littles" and best friends.

 Ethan came to cheer at their last track meet when he was 6 days old...

 The team

Alix running the 400

 Erin running the mile

Sam running the 100

 Sam doing ball throw

PR's for the season...

Alix - ball throw - 45', long jump - 7' 9", 400 - 1:46, mile - 9:06

Erin - ball throw - 36', long jump - 8' 2.5", 400 - 1:40, mile - 7:40

Brooke - ball throw - 69' 9", shot put -  19' 2", long jump - 7' 8", turbo javelin - 48'

Sam - cuteness all around...

They Say...

That money can't buy happiness.  I disagree.  The $2 I spent on Ethan's suit (I love garage sales!!) has brought me much joy and happiness....  

Movin' On Up...

To kindergarten.  I figured I'd better post about Sam's preschool graduation before I post about her first day of kindergarten... (told you I was far behind on posting...)  

Sam is our first to do preschool and she's been attending a developmental preschool at the same elementary school the girls go to.  It was so amazing!  Her teachers are the most amazing ladies.  There were 3-4 teachers for 8-14 kids.  Sam really thrived and I'm happy and sad to see her move on...

Sam - A little bored waiting for her turn

Sam and Miss Trish - the most amazing teacher ever!

Introducing...

Ethan Thomas Bishop.

Born at 10:15 on July 18th.  20" long.  7 lb. 13 oz.

His mom forgot how much time really goes into sitting on the couch with a newborn and hasn't blogged about him nearly as soon as she should have...  And she's tired, so this is mostly pictures.  I'll do it right later... (I have SO MUCH catching up to do...)

Tom in OR holding Ethan for the first time

Our big boy.  Bigger than any of the girls by a pound and a half.  

That man is the proud father of a SON!

Me holding Ethan for the first time in our room

 Meeting the littles

 It was a family affair getting him dressed and ready to go home

 Going home.  2 days old.

 My favorite onesie from his aunt Trina... 

 1 week old 

 Ethan is the sweetest little man and the girls are so in love.  Brooke is amazing with him and all the girls are a huge help.  It's totally different having a baby when your youngest is five.  Last time we did this, our oldest was five.  And we had 2 three year olds...  I'll tell a little about his birth one of these days, but felt bad I hadn't posted any pictures of him for the extended family that's far away.  So here you go - and now, I'm off to bed...

Independence Day

We love holidays around here.  And traditions as well.  One of our favorites is making our annual 4th of July shirts.  This year's might just be my favorite ones ever.  I got 20 of the baseball shirts at a garage sale for $5 (weirdly enough, they "fit" everyone from a 10 year old, down to 4 year old Sam... Brooke was a lot too tall though...)  and we cut the sleeves and tie-dyed the bottom half, then the girls got to paint the top.  

 One of my favorite pictures ever.  We call these girls the triplets...

 Bike/roller blade parade

 We had our annual 4th of July party at our house.  10 families (with an average of 4 kids each...) came over and played.  We set up the street with a bunch of rubbermaid totes and fill them with water for the water fight.  Alix turned one of them into her personal hot tub while waiting for people to come.

 Start of the water fight....  Easing the littles in...  

 Erin loading up

 No mercy for the pregnant lady...

 I LOVE this picture of Brooke and Tom.  Refilling the water cannons

 Start of the silly string fight...

 After dinner we always play bump/lightening/speed (whatever you grew up calling it...)  This year it was fun because a lot of the girls (we have mostly girls in our group...) played basketball this year and were good enough to have a chance at getting their dads out.  And a few did.  Highlight of their day, I tell you!  And I won one of the rounds.  Kind of amazing.  And fun...

 Some of the kids set up a firework viewing station in the neighbor's driveway.  We'll assume they didn't mind, since they didn't come out and yell at us...

 The annual Hobo Fire.  Another fun, weird tradition.  The kids collect all the cardboard fireworks garbage and then light it on fire in the middle of the street and then sit around it.  Like hobos apparently...

 I told the girls to take in all the blankets from the driveway at the end of the night and this is how we found Alix a few minutes later... It's a good day when you fall asleep the second you sit down...