A Six Kid Weekend

It really is a miracle when I am able to get all six of our kids together. I think the last time that happened was Christmas Eve. AND, it only seems to be for one day at a time. Oh well, I cherish that one day regardless. It's always my kids that make it so hard. Tyler is working, Travis and Trevor live 100 miles away, and Trevor always seems to have baseball games every weekend (and I don't want him to miss those).

When we have all six kids together, Wade and I try and think of something fun to do. We decided on a Wii Bowling tournament. Tyler and Trevor made it better and rearranged our living room into a bowling alley. We had so much fun laughing at and cheering for each other. Tyler took the big prize of bragging rights and false hillbilly teeth.

I have been wanting a family portrait of our blended family for quite some time and I was finally able to make it happen this weekend. Again, I had a small window to get it done in, but we did it. Saturday morning at 8am we met our photographer, Jolynne, at the Mission Inn in downtown Riverside.

She was fantastic and made us feel as at ease as possible. Besides Rylee and Emma, none of us are spontaneous, loose people and so we needed a lot of direction. Haha. The architecture of the building is gorgeous and Jolynne found all the best spots for us.

I have my fancy moments, but for the most part, I am not a fancy girl. I wanted this portrait to portray us for who we are and not just "that one day we got dressed up" so, I asked everyone to just wear something they normally wear as long as it was solid and not have crazy writing all over it. Tyler took that to mean, "please wear your neon Seattle Seahawks socks".  Hahahaha

I can't wait to get the pics back and be able to share them.


The reason we had to shoot at 8am was because my Travis was going to his girlfriends Prom that evening and we had to get him back to Torrance as early as possible.

I have yet to be able to participate in a Prom with my kids because they've always been so far away. Tuesday will most likely be my only opportunity. Travis is the best though and sent me a couple pictures. Travis and Shelby are just the cutest couple and I love them.

He said he had a great time and even DANCED! I'm glad he got to go to a Prom. It is something every kid should be able to experience.

Wade and I have 13 more days until our vacation and I am finally starting to get excited. We booked this last October so it didn't really seem real until recently. We've made our lists (I *love* lists) and are counting down! Woo Hoo!!

That's it for me. Have a great day!

SUMMER!!!!!

Well, it's officially summer at Lenton House. And doesn't Wade look so happy? He still has 18 days until his summer vacation starts. The girls finished up school last friday and yesterday was their first day home.

It went pretty well. Rylee and I went through the list of $1 movies at our local movie theater. Rolled our eyes at all the baby movies and put two thumbs up for the ones we want to see. The Lego Movie is at the top of that list. Great, now I'm singing "Everything is awesome!" in my head.

The girls played in their rooms, messed up said rooms, and hung out in the loft reading and playing video games.

Tuesday on the other hand was handed her summer geometry homework and informed that she will be attending a summer class at school that she was invited to. Not the happiest of summer campers was she. Haha. She got over it because she knows me well enough to know *OPTIONAL is MANDATORY* in my house.

Emma and Rylee are learning this lesson this summer as well. Rylee is switching to a new high school next year where the incoming freshmen have no summer homework. Oh the horror! Wade and I decided that she would have to read a book of our choosing. She didn't much care for that so her and I compromised on three books that she would read from an author that she currently loves. Score! Emma's school encourages the kids to keep up with math during the summer online. I just made that mandatory. It's time for this super smart girl to learn that super smart girls learn year round. I did however, make her a cute chart to keep track of the days she needed to do math just to make her feel better about it.

Our Spring/Summer Garden is coming along nicely.

We've already pulled three zucchini's off the plants and another two are just about ready. There are a ton of green tomatoes so, I'm excited for those to get red. I have two jalapeño's that are about ready to pick and the sunflowers are almost going to flower. Here's my current prized zucchini. It was huge and it was delicious!!

And that's about it for now. If you need me, you can find me out by the pool with the girls!