We can't believe it's coming to a close!  What a busy summer in the Pierzchalski household.  The kids spent the majority of the last two months submerged in water--they've been fish in the pool every day, except for around 4pm when they often hear the sweet songs of the ice-cream truck somewhere in the neighborhood slowly making it's way to our house where the driver is gauranteed to make an easy 20 bucks and spoil dinner!  We've had some nice weekends hanging out at Borderland Park, which even though it's practically a few steps from our door, we hadn't yet had the chance to visit.  What a great place for the kids (big and small!), tons of trails for hiking and biking (we're not quite there with biking with all 4 yet...), and ponds for fishing (they kids have been getting lots of practice casting from the rock wall in front of our house), and of course the girls love the "castle". 

On the 4th of July, we got to celebrate by watching the fireworks from the beach on Massapoag lake.  Uncle Sean and cousings Falyn and Ryan watched with us too!  We've let the kids pick a lot of the activities the past few weeks.  We had a "kids pick" Saturday and they all got to pick something fun to do. Aidan wanted to go to a local small airplane show where he got to sit in a brand new plane, wanting to buy it, but we were short about 600k that day!  Keeley has been wanting to get her ears pierced and we happened to be heading towards the mall, so we let her take the plunge. Two quick shots in the ear and it's done! Sadly it makes her seem a bit older now (which she loves and we hate).  Our animal lover Kaelin convinced us to buy her a pet.  We got out easy with a guinea pig.  We went to three different stores to find the perfect female, which Kaelin named "Love", "because I love her and she loves me" she says.  Ainsely, being too small to actually pick something for the whole family to do, decided she just wanted to spend the rest of the night dancing to Hannah Montana (yes, we said Hannah Montana...). She goes crazy over "Rockstar" (which she says nearly perfectly) and "Best of Both Worlds".  She'll grab the egg beater from the kitchen for her microphone and when the drums play she plays air drums.  Her stage is our table ottoman and she is the craziest baby dancer we've ever seen shaking her hips. We have no doubt that she'll be some kind of performer some day!   Kaelin also had the idea of us having a family awards ceremony, so Mommy had trophies for all the kids made and they each got to choose their award, Kaelin wanted to be the "best horse girl", Aidan "the best car racer", Keeley "the best singer/dancer/performer" and we chose "sweetest baby" for Ainsley.

Ainsely has been such a little character this summer.  The words coming out of her mouth are hysterical and not your typical baby words.  She's begun to speak using more than one word (the cutest being "hey guys!").  She's starting to learn her colors too -- geen (green), pik (pink), boo (blue), lello (yellow), yuck (black or brown), purple (perfectly!), and owng (or something like that....for orange).  She knows how to manipulate us and is great at it!  She loves saying something is hers "mia" or "mine!".  She can now say "Aidan" perfectly and it's so funny with the two of them get to arguing how she uses his name and screams it over and over "AIDAN!".  Keeley is "Kee-ee", and Kaelin is "Kay-in" although their old nicknames of Kiki and Coco are coming back too.  She loves to be the center of attention, unfortunately this is at the dinner table too, where she is often the first one to start the trouble whether it's squishing mashed potatoes through her teeth to make the other kids laugh or slurping spaghetti, or leaning over to steal the other kids foods although she still has plenty of her own.  We've had some trouble at the table with seating (everyone wanting to sit near the baby!), and now have to have assigned seating at all times...As much as she is a little rascal, she's an angel too!  So loving she is!  Ainsley also loves to clean (of course, with three other before her we realize this is just a novelty and will wear off as quickly as it's appeared).  She's very into what she wears each day and will always start off with a dress pulled down from her closet, she often goes into the girls' room and tries to grab their dresses too. By the end of the day she ends up changed about 5 times (thanks Auntie Kelly :-)  Ainsley has accumlated three "stinky blankies" over the past 6 months (pink, green, and blue). She used to have one favorite blankie (like Aidan), but has found and latched on to three and drags them around at bedtime. 

Aidan and Kaelin started school this week and can not stop talking about how much fun they are having and learning about the three Bee's....Be Kind, Be Gentle, Be Safe. We've enrolled them at a Montessori School and they attend three hours a day. Aidan hasn't been in any real group setting with other kids/friends since we left daycare at UCLA when he was almost a year old. He's really looking forward to meeting some of his own friends.  Kaelin's been such an eager learner this summer, really loves to count--to 100 now without skipping a beat. She's amazing to us because we've always felt badly that we haven't spent as much time with her as with Keeley doing "schoolwork", but she's picked it all up and then some!!   She suprises us with writing words on her own and constantly asking how to spell things. Kaelin has grown-up quite a bit this summer and is such a little lady, she's been the first with the "may I's" and "thank-you's" and manners, setting a real example for the rest of the gang. Aidan's been working on his manners too and always has a funny twist on them "Mommy, may I be full?" (instead of "may I be excused" when he's clearin his plate, we think it's too funny to correct him!).   Kaelin had the most fun this summer exploring outdoors and finding new creatures big and small whether it be worms, frogs, insects, baby birds, dragonflies - she took them in!  And, Aidan certainly didn't have a lack of "projects" to help Daddy with around the house.

Keeley starts kindergarten next week.  Big girl, big bus, big tears (Mommy's not Keeley's who has been looking forward to riding the bus for the past two years after seeing other kids being picked up in the neighborhood). She took a few fun art classes this summer and really enjoyed those.  She wroter her first fan letter two weeks ago, not even sure how she knew about fan letters, but she wanted to write one to Hannah Montana. She started it out writing "You live in California, I used to live in California"...it's really cute. Keeley has been showing some of Daddy's engineering skills and has begun to collect (clean) garbage and make anything and everything out of it. She gets mad if she sees something in the trash that can be recycled into an art project (buildings, pinata's, books, you name it).   She kept busy this summer with piano and voice lessons.  She's a huge clothes horse and will spend a great deal of time picking out just the right girly clothes each morning, and is very critical of what others wear "Mommy, you're not wearing that out are you?"  or "Why do you always wear that same shirt when you go out someplace nice?" (to which I respond, because I spend all my free time buying clothes for you and not me!!).   Our one regret about declining acceptance to the Charter School for her....uniforms!!

On a sad note, Aunt Sandy passed away two weeks ago and Daddy visited Wisconsin to be with the family.  She and Bernie attended our wedding and Sandy always kept up with our little ones. Kaelin had been wanting to call her when she was ill, but we never were able to make the call and Kaelin was upset about it.

Funny question from Keeley recently--Mommy, does anyone have God's telephone number? I actually forget how I responded, but am still wondering what she would have said to him if she called him...I'll have to ask her soon. 

We've had a lot of family time the past few weeks spent with cousins coming over and family cookouts.   Now we are gearing up for a busy fall with school, soccer games, and all the other activities (like our annual apple & pear picking). Hopefully these posts won't be so few and far between...