And the summer begins....

Summer vacation has begun and we are adjusting to the change of schedule and routines.

We are playing a lot more board games as a family

The kids are working with legos - I'm thinking it is a "boy" thing to make torture chambers with your legos - I never made "torture chambers" for my Barbies when I was a kid (ha)

We are having some "fun" sibling interactions (this series of pics cracks me up, if you can think of them as a "flip" book, you can see the interaction....)

Still left on our summer vacation agenda are:

• camping
• day at the coast
• sleepovers with friends
• choir camp (Avery)
• potentially a sleepover camp (Tobias) 

6 months later....

Can it really have been 6 months since our last update from the Smith clan?!?! Seems crazy that the time has flow by so quickly. I need to check in with this blog more frequently and keep it updated - yikes!

In the past 6 months, here are some highlights (in no particular order):

• we have gone to "Middle School Orientation" (ARGHHH!!!)
• Tobias attended a 3 day/2 night Outdoor School 
• Avery decided he didn't want to play the cello any more this year (I'm hopeful he will return to it next year).
• We have dealt with some of the ups & downs of parenting tweens and learning plenty along the way
• Watched several movies - in our theater mainly, now that we are spoiled its hard to justify the expense and hassle of GOING to a movie theater (sad, I know)
• Began playing various strategy board games - Heroscape, Summoner's Wars, Carcassonne, Talisman, etc. 
• Enjoyed our park across the street with nerf gun wars and soon to be watergun fights, I'm sure.
• Mike and I have both sustained back injuries of various degrees of severity
• We now have an 11 year old in the house....so odd! And soon to be 10 year to take us fully into double-digit children (so wrong, but seems I don't get a vote)
• attended multiple choir concerts to support Avery's interest in singing - including the Iris Fest here in Keizer and other events around town.
• Tobias has been working on various scooter/skateboard moves - perfecting them with only the slightest of bumps and bruises.
• Hanging out with grandparents and keeping in touch with family farther away via skype (from time to time, this is a new venture that we are working on )
• Here are some recent snapshots - not related to the highlights above, but just to prove the kids are alive and well :)

So - that is all that is coming off the top of my head at this moment. I know there has been more. I'm hopeful to keep up a little more with this a summer starts. Kids are out in a week and a half!