A Fun Day

We worked in the yard all morning and into the afternoon on Saturday. With the new baby and all we haven't been able to do much yard work or any clean up work for that matter. The last time the lawn was mowed was 2 months ago when my nephew mowed it as a surprise for us. We were very tired and hot when the work was completed. The yard and patio looked so great that we BBQ some chicken and then Tom filled up a little kiddie pool we had. It was a huge surprise for the kids. When they saw the pool they started jumping around and wanted to get in immediately, but we made everyone wait until after dinner. Tom had also gone to the grocery store before dinner and bought some ice cream which is a staple in this family. He made the gang milkshakes to drink out on the patio while playing in the pool. A big game of Simon Says was played and Julia was the grand champion. Of course, we had to play many more times to see if there might be anymore grand champions, but they didn't seem to do as well as the first time. Tom had to go through a lot of instructions before he got any of them the first time, but the times after he got them on the first try. Anyway, it was a fun filled day and Julia just kept signing swim over and over of course with the word now signed with emphasis. She can be very demanding. :) The Hay House had a fun family work day. Here are some pictures of the action.

Matthew looking cute and having fun in the backyard.

Henry kicking back and having his usual 6 ouncer.

The Simon Says game. Who will be out first? Uh Oh where's Thomas is he out? :)

Julia, the Hay House Simon Says grand champion.

Signing Time -

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Happy Birthday from the new Signing Time! Series 2. We can't wait untill ours show up at the house. You can pre-order the new series at Signing Time! Also don't forget to vote for Rachel for the Mannington's stand on a better world contest.

School's Here!!!!

Today is the first day of school and gang was ready to go very early. I made them a hot breakfast (I'm not so great at this particular task), and they were very shocked at finding eggs on their plates instead of bowls of cold cereal. I will probably be getting to cold cereal in a few days. :) They dressed in their brand new clothes and shoes and waited for the 1st day pictures out front. Of course, Matthew didn't go to school today, but he wanted to be in the picture. Macie is in 3rd grade and has Mrs. Flannegan, Thomas is in 2nd and his teacher is Mrs. Wallin, Julia is still in Miss Bonnie's SDC pre-school class. She got to ride the bus today, but the bus was late so I'm not sure when she actually got to school. The bus was supposed to pick her up at 8:03, but didn't come until 8:30. Hopefully it will be on time tomorrow. I was very happy to send them off this year. What with getting the new baby in June, this has been a very tiring summer, and the kids needed to get out of here and go have some fun. Here's to another school year!!!!!!

Macie showing off her new third grade apparel. She loves her new haircut and new High School Musical messenger bag.

Thomas and his new duds with a spiderman backpack. Looking good my man!!!!

Julia is all smiles. She can't wait until she sees Miss Bonnie. She picked out her new outfit all by herself. She even got new High School Musical shoes with Troy Bolton on them.

Dancing and Smokey the Bear and Rides oh my!

Well Friday we watched the High School Musical 2 movie, and everyone here at the Hay House had a great time. We loved all the singing and dancing. They also watched it on Sat and Sun nights. Julia loved Troy and Gabriella, Thomas loved the part where Troy sings Bet On It, Macie loved Sharpay singing Fabulous. Then on Saturday, Julia danced with her ballet class at the State Fair. She was terrific and loved being on stage. The whole gang had a fun time riding the rides and walking around. We stayed longer than we thought, but when you're having fun you just gotta go with it. Grandma and Pa, Auntie and Uncle came to see Julia and to hang out with us and have fun. Auntie and Uncle treated the kids to pony rides and Grandma and Pa treated us all to ice cream. We also had hand squeezed lemonade. Yummmers. Auntie and Uncle took the kids around the Smokey the Bear exhibit and the kids learned all about smoke alarms. They each got a free handkerchief for going through the exhibit.

Julia the dancing bunny

Julia, Matthew, Pa, Smokey, Henry, Macie and Thomas enjoying the Fair

The rides were fun, Matthew loved the pony ride, Julia was so happy to ride a pink elephant, Thomas dug the ponies, and Macie went for wild spinning rides.

The Fair was fun and we were all very tired when we got home. Now we can't wait until school starts on Tuesday.

Bye Bye Couch

Well, it finally happened. Our niece, Ali, has moved out on her own, and she has taken our living room couch and chair with her. Well, we did give it to her. She earned it two years ago when she babysat for us all season of the Music Circus. We paid her in couch and chair. I really didn't think it would stay with us for this long, but now the day came and went and we have no couch or chair. I didn't think I really used it all that much. It is (was) in the living room and we rarely go in there or so I thought. It wasn't 2 hours after we waved good-bye and signed (Julia) I Love You to the couch that the mail came and into the living room I went to sit and read the mail. Oops, I guess I have to go read it in the rocker in my room. I hope we at least have a new one by Christmas. This couch and chair were the first items we bought together after we got married. The couch

The kids found old favorites and a bunch of junk under the couch.

Bye Bye old friend. :)

Vote for Rachel Coleman

Hey everyone the creator of the Hay Family favorite DVD's Signing Time! has been nominated for Mannington's Stand on a Better World award. Please vote for her. She could win $10,000 for the charity of her choice which of course is the Signing Time! Foundation. To vote for Rachel use the link http://www.standonabetterworld.com/vote/detail/rcoleman.html You can only vote once so make sure to vote for Rachel Coleman. To check out the Signing Time! Foundation go to http://www.signingtimefoundation.org/ . Go Rachel !!!!!!

We can't wait!!!!!

The Hay kids are soooooo excited that High School Musical 2 is due out on Friday. We get to find out who their teachers are for next year on Friday also, but that doesn't even compare to the excitement over High School Musical 2. Yesterday the Music CD to High School Musical 2 came out and of course we were at the Wal-Mart buying it. We listened to it on the way home, and they somehow knew the words to some of the songs. Disney sure knows how to do the PR. They have "music videos" of some of the songs on their channel and have been showing them for a few weeks now. The CD came with a bonus DVD of some of the rehearsals for the new dances. We have watched that 2 times and have listened to the CD a number of times. I guess we will be ready for Friday night. Julia's favorite character is Gabriella, Macie loves Sharpay (I'm not sure why maybe all the fancy clothes and glitz), Thomas likes Troy and Chad. Matthew loves dancing to the music. So, we wait around here for Friday.

Donner Lake Picnic

We had a great day Saturday. We went to Donner Lake for Tom's company picnic. Of course, I had to pack as if we were going for more than just one day. We looked like 2 pack mules walking into the beach. Tom's company has been having this picnic every summer for the last 3 years. They provided us with food and drinks, games, hats, leis and fun. The kids wanted in the water so badly, but Donner is always so cold I wasn't sure they needed to get in. They were sure. So, they swam and played in the sand. We all took a break to eat the roasted pig, prime rib and the summer picnic mainstay hotdogs. The kids loved the fruit salad and dessert. Tom and I think that next year we will go up earlier in the week and camp for a few days at the Donner Memorial State Park Campground. My only requirement for camping is showers and yes, Donner has showers. We are looking forward to a family vacation.

Macie and Thomas were on a swim team this year so they wanted to show off their swimming abilities and swam out to a buoy. They had tons of fun swimming a little bit out on their own.Julia had a great time sitting on the beach eating all the candy she got from the pinata.

Matthew was very cold at the end of the day. He was shivering.

Henry hung out in his stroller most of the day. He also hung out in the front pack with me.All in all it was a great day. On the way home no one fell asleep. We couldn't believe it someone usually falls asleep. They were full of excitement from the day. When we got home everyone had showers due to the sand in hair and all over bodies. Then we served up sandwiches and the gang went to bed and were fast asleep. What a day!!

Fun at the Music Circus

Yesterday Tom and I took the three older kids to the Music Circus to see Annie. Wow! did we have a good time. It took us awhile to get there though. In the morning I had to do the therapy thing. Matthew and Julia had their physical therapy appts. and then Matthew had speech. I had "worked" a full day before the babysitter arrived at 1:00p.m. to take care of Matthew and Henry. Anyway we left and got to the theatre and Macie and Thomas started saying they couldn't see. Of course, the play hadn't even started. Once it started they could see beautifully. Julia was the one that had a hard time. She got scared of the dark in the theatre and she couldn't seem to get past how mean Miss Hannigan was. She kept signing home and go to me. I bribed her with candy at intermission, but then she threw in the potty sign and I had to take her out. While in the hallway, we had to wait through 3 songs before intermission, we saw a lot of the cast go by us and they waved at her. We even saw Annie herself walk by. That really perked Julia up and she was happy to stay through the rest of the show. Although she virtually beat me up during the second act. Julia decided that sitting still wasn't necessary so she was all over me. After the show we went to Spaghetti Factory for dinner and we even got to sit in the Trolley Car. It was fun eating dinner without having to worry about little babies. Grandma treated us to the show. She was going to go with us, but she ended up being out of town. We called her and told her how much fun we had.

Signing Time -

Rachel in action. Can't wait to get series 2.

More Signing Time!

We are so excited. Our favorite company Two Little Hands Productions is coming out with new DVD's. How loud can we shout for joy here at the Hay House? Rachel Coleman, Leah and Alex are at it again with a new series of shows. You can pre-order them at http://www.signingtime.com/ .
She is great. We can't wait until the videos show up at our house. (of course, we pre-ordered).

Bowling

The prodigy and his sister

Yesterday I took the 3 older children to a friend's birthday party. It was a bowling party, and they just love bowling. My 7 year old did really well. I'm not sure if we have a prodigy here or not. He got 5 spares in a row and bowled some mighty impressive numbers. The girls loved it, but what they loved more was the arcade and the winning of tickets to win small prizes. I left the smaller 2 at home with daddy. Daddy had a great time with a 2 yr. old and an 8 week old. Needless to say we had pizza for dinner. After the party we went to Grandma's to watch the GMA interview with the High School musical cast. The kids loved it, they even learned a new dance. Then we went onto Babies R Us to get diapers, diaper genie refills and door knob covers to keep the 2 year old Houdini out of rooms he doesn't belong in. We had a great day, but everyone was very tired.

New baby 2 months old

The 2 year old climbing prodigy. I should be happy, he was attempting to do the dishes.

What a Day

This is a picture of the gang when the new baby was born in June.


With 5 kids it can get very crazy around here. I can barely get the laundry done. I have a 2 year old who is a live wire. He makes a mess and then while I'm cleaning it up he is into another one. He flooded the bathroom twice and got into the fireplace and threw ashes all over the livingroom. I know, we should have cleaned out the ashes from the fireplace long ago, but as I said it gets crazy around here. The craziest times are when I am feeding the new baby. It all seems to break loose when he is being fed. Can I ask, When does school start? :) I have three that go to school and they are chomping at the bit to go. We have already bought the first day of school outfit and are just waiting.
My husband and I have decided that alot of the messes that are created around here are our own fault. While I am busy I still should be better at supervision. It is all about supervision. When the children are properly supervised things run smoothly. When the supervision is lacking, well, we get days like yesterday. In my defense I am out numbered. :)
Heres to a great day today!

First Post

I can't believe I am finally posting. I have now created 2 blogs trying to post information. So here goes.

My husband and I have been married 15 years and we have 5 children. This blog will be about the ups and downs of the Hay House.

I'm very excited to be blogging. The kids are all in bed now and that is great. The 2 year old just got a new bed so I'm not sure if "in bed" is accurate. We often find him on the floor next to the door. He has been aclimber and escape artist. He is the 4th child and none of the others have been like this. Time for bed. We have an 8 week old so I need to get some sleep. We'll see if my blogging abilities work. Here goes nothing.