Calvin is a soccer lover

Mom, this is how I'm going to kick it!

Calvin started his first sport, soccer, last week. Daddy is coaching and Calvin loves having him there! He did great listening to daddy. During his first practice Skip didn't even remember him being on the field, which is saying something that he listened and followed directions!! His first game was Saturday and tried really hard to score a goal. Sadly, I didn't get to see his first game because Emerald played at the same time as him. She's playing again this year and still pretty excited. Skip is in his first role as head coach and has 11 little 4 & 5 year olds to coach into super status--good luck. It is fun watching their excitement at practice. Zac is even getting into this soccer thing, wanting to "I play soccer, too" and "whyyyyyyy" when told he can't play yet.

Just because

Um, Em, not sure what I think about that look toward Keegan



So, if you wondered why Steph, Tami, & I needed a Girl's Night Out........no doubt! This was just one moment captured. Add to that a one year old, the screaming 2 year old that missed half the pics, and the 2 teenagers who weren't around.........yeah, we deserved it!

Love you Steph & Tami, so happy we finally found a place to hang out together. Haven't gone to shoot pool in years, but had fun doing it.

Hangin' with the Lindsay's

It was a girl's night out--well deserved by us all

Summer fun, eatin' some popsicles

Going shirtless was the best option

We 3 mommies = these 7 + 3 more, 10 kids!! No wonder we needed a night out :)

My dear friend, Stephanie, was in town from Jersey with her 3 munchkins. We drove down to visit them. Sadly, I was so busy playing with her youngest, sweet Reagan (just turned one), that I didn't even snag a pic of her. I love each and every chance I get to spend with Steph & her family. Love her mom, her sister, her kiddos, all of them! Just wish they lived closer....

One year older

We have a first grader! How, oh how did that happen? I was tucking her in last night and telling her I remembered them placing a tiny little baby in our arms. I blinked, and she's off to her first full day of school. She gets to stay all day, she gets to eat lunch there. She gets to walk to the pick up area all alone (no brothers). Emerald couldn't be more excited. She came down early, all dressed, hair fixed (she has to do it herself), all ready for her first day of school. We love our little first grader and are excited to see how much she will learn and grow as one more year is added to her life story.

Calvin is usually our morning person, but he was grumpy this morning. He didn't want to get up at all. Then, we mentioned getting to spend the day with Miss Lindsey, and that brought him out of bed in a hurry. He's been asking all summer when school would start. He remained a little grumpy through picture time, through breakfast, but was happy to hop out of the van when we got to school. He is in his second year of preschool, same teacher, same class. It's a pretty easy transition for him. I am excited to watch his growth this year, too. I can imagine that by the end of this year he will be picking up books to read on his own, doing basic math, and much more. That is just the kind of kid he is. He loves to learn, loves to read, and wants to be about 4 years older than he is!

Zachary wasn't too thrilled with all this chaos. He wants to go to "tool" also. He is a bit confused to not get to stay at school with his siblings. Just a few short months with him at home, and then we will most likely transition him into the preschool, also. He "graduates" out of Infant/Toddler services at age 3. His name was brought up for a Sept. transition meeting between I/T, Spring Hill school, and us. He will be evaluated on his current skills, look at his history, and be observed in a play setting. We all assume he will qualify for the development preschool, as he is still lacking in some physical , gross motor, skills, and a little behind in verbal. If he does, he'll be in school starting in January.

How did my kiddos get so old? It is fun watching them grow up, but just not too fast.

Summer 2011 happenings

We've been painting....

and painting.....

and a lot more painting......

and when we decide to babysit for a friend, we just make Emerald watch the 11 month old, and we keep on painting! :)

We are finally home long enough to really try to get some of our house painted. We are taking on the entire lower level all at once. I'm still not sold on our dining room color choice, while it is slowly growing on me, the kids have deemed it Mac & Cheese & tomato. Hmmmm....it's not exactly what I was going for, but we are going to finish everything else before we make the final decision.

It seems like every day we have something going on, guess that's what summer is all about. I hurt my back pretty bad in the first week of summer, and have been battling with it all summer. I'm down to just one chiro appt a week now, but have been there as much as 4 times in a week at the beginning. He told me he was fearful I'd be one of his few clients he was thinking he might have to refer on for surgery from my initial visit. It was a badly injured disk, and in his first few moments, I was unable to stand remotely straight, had no reflexes at all in my right leg, and was rating it a 9 out of 10 on the pain scale. This girl doesn't complain about pain....at all! Even during contractions they had to ask if it was hurting me, and I wouldn't say yes. This back pain hurt worse than the first 24 hours after my C-section. It was B.A.D!!!! I'm finally feeling somewhat better. For about 2 weeks all I could do was lay on the floor. It knocked out a lot of trips for us this summer, including visits to the pool, the movies, the grocery store, wanting to be on a boat, go camping, nothing. I didn't want to do anything. No pain meds I took even touched the pain at all! I feel so thankful to finally be nearing the end of a long road. My hip is now killing me, and the chiro says it is due to my compensation from injuring my back so badly. There are ligament & tendon issues that are trying to resolve themselves. He has done some deep tissue massages that make me want to scream and jump thru the roof. It hurts. I am thankful that I didn't have to have surgery. When I'd fit that & recovery into my schedule who knows. I'm grateful that I have been able to work it out thru chiropractic work and a little physical therapy.

We've also had a lot of play dates this summer. I'm making some great new friendships with my fellow moms and feeling wonderful about this! We've had an impromptu party at our house that made me downright giddy. On any given day in the Pankewich household you will find anywhere from our 3 up to 9 kids in the house, all usually within the 1-7 year old age range. Today it was 6 kids, the other day it was 4, Friday it was 7. Always something new and fun. The kids love it and have been having so much fun.

We have had to say goodbye to some neighbor friends, but thankful they aren't moving too far away.

I know I haven't been posting as many blogs this summer, but frankly, I've been too busy enjoying the journey to stop and document it all. It is fun to hang out with the kids. It's fun to get to know our friends better. It's not so fun, but necessary to recover from this major back pain. It's just been a super crazy busy summer. One that I love and wouldn't trade for anything.

Some oldies

This is Emerald when she was about 20 months old sitting on a deer at the farm

Didn't plan to take the same pose, but Em at age 6 on the same deer at the farm. Funny how she's wearing orange in both.

Em & Cal w/ Keegan & Gavin visiting in Arkansas. Was my Calvinator really that little once upon a time?

Yep, that's Calvin wearing the same wings Zac had on. He's about the same age, possibly even wearing the same outfit. Those big sisters will do whatever they want to their little brothers!

Thought it was fun to show off a few oldies as I was going thru some old pics yesterday.

More summer fun

Why yes, I finally got all 3 to look at the camera, and smile!

Heading to the movie, Cars 2, Zac's first movie.

Z and his car & blankie

Brothers

Another fun thing to keep us cool this summer, seeing some movies. We took Z to see his favorite thing on earth, Cars! He did great and his eyes were huge the entire time.

The joys of being a younger brother w/ an older sister

When you have an older sister, they teach you stuff. They put you in doll beds, they make you their real life baby doll, and they like to play dress up with you. In this case, Zac got to learn how to fly like a bug. It was so precious watching them flutter thru the room. Zac is a little parrot and will repeat anything, with a 5 second delay, and will do practically anything you want of him (well most days). Cal is in on the game about half the time, but he doesn't get pushed around nearly as much. On this day he had no desire to be a bug.

These are the things you do on day 16 of heat advisory outside and when you mom has hurt her back & doesn't feel like doing anything else.

Fourth of July part 4

And........by the end of the weekend everyone was tired, and cranky, falling asleep on the couch (Calvin), and in Skip's lap (Z). I think we wore them out! We did finally get a decent family pic, though.

Fourth of July part 3

I'm amazed I could get 6 kids to sit still, let alone all look at the camera at the same time. Your standards on photo quality are lowered w/ each child under the age of 4 you add!