Seriously

I just showed up an hour early for lunch with Miss E. Wrong time. Seriously??? If I could get half my *!#$ together, I MIGHT actually be a productive human being. Aaargh!

Love Rocks

Miss A is so full of love these days. So many times per day telling me she loves me. We have started the "who-loves-who-more" thing lately. She gets a kick out of that. She's so sweet with her comments, telling me I'm the best mom ever, that she loves me to the moon (that's our thing-I love it) :), or that I'm her best friend.
Today she was singing a little tune on the way to school. I wasn't paying too much attention. I sing alot, for some reason. Well, not really singing. Just saying regular conversation or phrases to the tune of a song or jingle or nursery rhyme. I'm sure a strange thing to a fly on the wall. I don't know when this started, or how. But it's what I do.

For example:
(to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)

"It's time to get you in the tub,
in the tub, in the tub-
It's time to get you in the tub,
so take off all your clothes..."

OR

(to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell)

"It's time to go to bed,
It's time to go to bed-
Brush your teeth then choose a book,
It's time to go to bed."

OK-not all of my songs start with "It's time to", but you get the drift.

ANYway...back to My Miss A. She was singing a little tune in the backseat, and I finally tuned in. And here for your listening (or reading, whatever) pleasure:

(to the tune of "We Will Rock You". Yes, by Queen)

I. Just. Love. You. Mama! Mama!
You're. The. Best. Best. Mama! Mama!
I love you to the moon and I love you everywhere
I love you all the time and I. See. You! (had eye contact in the rear-view mirror there)
I. Do. Love. You. Mama! Mama!

Not only was it so sweet!! (and just what the Dr. ordered for me!) But to fill in her own words and carry the tune right along?? Wow!
I hope you can get something out of this. I can hear it exactly how she did it in my head. And I teared up while driving. Wish I had it recorded! I may have to ask for an encore. :)

The Retreat '08

So, so, so much fun! We all had a GREAT big time. Miss E and cousin G (sort of-the child of my cousin, what does that make her to my E?) ran the whole time. Gathering golf balls from the course off the back yard...and snail shells...and sticks, which became (for Miss A) magic wands, pencils, drumsticks, and many more things I didn't catch.

We shopped a few little shops downtown which was plenty for me this year. I just love to look anyway, and that's not exactly relaxing in these wall to wall specialty shops with two very busy sets of inquisitive hands!

Got to play a couple of games, so got a little bit of fix for now. Sorry, Mr. C, my hand of Go Fish with you at Thanksgiving was just a teaser! :)
I would try to explain the games...but I can't even begin to. The hit this year was "Soggy Weiners". Yes, you read it right. Hilarious, and enlightening...to say the least!
The ornament exchange did not disappoint either-one sobbing 6 yr. old and one near brawl between the most senior participant (83 yr. old Grandma!) and the most umm...(let me be delicate here because she reads my blog..) passionate participant. Ha!

And lots of good conversation and good times. At one point a couple of us noticed a generational division-after dinner, somehow, several in my generation got caught up in a "birth stories" discussion. There were three new babies, and one expecting mama, and two non-mamas. These two were extrememly grossed out, but entertained. :)
Then there was the group at the table next to us, discussing signs of aging and extra skin...and then the group of 5 squealing screeching girls, ages 4-7, making hay of the beautiful guest bedroom (stress!).

And the occassional bits and pieces of converstaions I would catch, which I'm sure had very meaningful and poignant moments, but the parts I remember having something to do with dirty dancing, loaded rum cakes, farting a blue streak...and naked sleepers!

Ahh...the memories.

I laughed till I cried, my sides hurt, and my cheeks ached. I had an amazing visit with some amazing women. Made memories that I'll never forget, and was able to share it with my most cherished possesions. Thank you ladies!

Thanks, Aunt D for the pretty pic. (That's me in the middle-I now it's a rare sight!)
I'll have a slide show soon.
Can't wait for next year!

Full of Love

The girls were playing with stickers and Ally made a story. I asked her what it was about and this is what I got:

"Well, today is a beautiful day. I just looove today. And I love my Uncle Eddie and my Uncle Shawn. And it is very nice to meet you. And it is very cool, and so are you. I am veeerrry important. And I love Daddy too. And I love Grammy, and Nana and Pops too. We are going to Nana and Pops' house, and it is great. It is a wonderful day. I think everyone is going to be excited! I love Grandmama and Granddaddy and everybody too. The sun is very purple, and it is cool. It is verrry cool and I love everything and it is very beautiful, and waaaait a minute! The end!"

She'll do this every now and then when "reading" a book, or card, etc. Just starts talking jibberish. But she is super serious about it, and will not stop or pause until she's good and ready! I'm sure I didn't get half of this right. I tried to run back here mid-story to catch some of it.
Funny!

What If?

...overheard today from Miss E to Miss A:

"What if you were a tiny ant and someone squished you? How would you feel?"

She also broke down in sobs one day last week when I smushed a spider hanging from my visor in the car. Eek!
Her exact words: "That is what's wrong with our world, Mama! Too many people kill our innocent insects instead of letting them live in their natural habitat!"

I told her,
1. A spider is an arachnid, not an insect. (correction not appreciated at the time)
2. My car is not the spider's natural habitat.
3. Next time I would let her hold it until we could stop and set it free.

Yah, right.

Week in Review

Hey, at least I'm bloggin', right?? Here's a quickee to catch up some.
Mon, Nov. 3-Miss A and I started off with a quick conference with E's teacher. All good reports. I was told she is quiet in class (at this point I made sure she was talking about MY kiddo) and a hard worker. That she's way above level with reading and will soon be tested for the accelerated math program. And that she will be starting soon in a writing enrichment class. Good to hear. I bugged the teach a bit more about how I can stay informed on what they're covering in class. Still not clear on that one, but we shall see. Would it be too much to ask for a copy of weekly lesson plans? :)
Moving on.
We left there and dropped some things off at the library then went to meet our friends at a favorite park. Ms. J read a book about Elmer the Elephant then the kids did an Elmer craft. We had fun with it, then hit the hills! Ha! This park has a fun hill to climb and hike. It has become a tradition now to run the hills for the kids. If the moms were smart (or not so lazy...) we would join them! :)
Once we wrangled the kids back in we played a round of red light/green light, using the Spanish color names, then a round of duck duck goose. There's a pick in my slideshow of Miss A chasing a little Miss J...this was part of our duck duck goose game. :) Miss J "goosed" my little A, then headed for the hills! Hee-we're still learning this one. We ended with a game of freeze tag then had more play time at the park. Miss A and I picked up a drink and a snack and surprised Miss E by picking her up at school. We hit a different park from there and hung out some. It was a beautiful afternoon.
Wed, Nov. 5-this was an early release day for Miss E so I let her choose somewhere to go after school. She choose Radijazz and off we went! We pretty much had the place to ourselves. It was fun. I think this was the first time Miss A got into the jumping into the volcano since she was a little bitty thing. She loved it! The girls also did the tunnels over and over and ran hard. We did some grocery shopping at Walmart afterwards with promises of a milkshake if they made it there awake. We made it-Whew! Little A is a terror lately to get to bed if she gets the slightest nap!
Fri, Nov. 7-Lil' J and his Mommy picked us up to head to another favorite spot. Another beautiful day! We are completely spoiled right now with this gorgeous weather! Miss A found courage today to climb to the top of the net/wall thingy. She was so proud!
Sat, Nov. 8-Miss E was all about making and icing cookies today. She found a decorating set in the pantry from long ago, so we HAd to use it! I pulled out my fancy tools I got from their Uncle Shawn last Cmas and we went to town! Made a BIG mess, used LOTS of frosting, and had a blast with it!
Another busy week ahead-I'll TRY to keep up. I still haven't posted anything on Halloween! Sigh.

Enjoy the show!

MTM

No pic today, but we went with a "G" food or green food theme. :) We had grapes, goldfish and one green gumdrop. Then some honeydew, kiwi and avocado.
Of course Miss E ate it up. She has been a great eater from birth and will always try new things (though nothing new in today's tin for her)
Miss A actually ate one bite of kiwi! Yay! AND a couple bites of honeydew! I was SO proud of her. She has been a TERRIBLE eater from birth. I remember taking weeks off at a time from baby food because she wouldn't even open up for the stuff. She's big on textures. Doesn't like to try different or new things. I finally have coaxed her to "take a lick" on new foods. This is how we got the kiwi in. Hey, baby steps, right!?

New IQs

I haven't added any of these in a while, though we always have plenty of them...

Miss E piped up from a quiet breakfast early this morning:

"Hmm...I wonder if McCain is still in the lead...?"

What??

And Miss A when I guess I said or did something too loudly after bedtime last night:

"Mama, if I hear one more word....!"

:)

SeaWorld, Round 1

I absolutely cannot imagine doing this park (or any for that matter) with two small children in one day. It would completely stress me out! Nana and Pops gave Miss A (and the rest of us an early gift) a SeaWorld season pass for her bday last weekend. We drove down last Sunday to check it out.
We had tons of fun, and didn't even scratch the surface of things to do and see at the park. We only saw two shows, and a few rides, with the coral reef aquarium, the penguins and dolphins in between. It was so, so nice to be able to take our time and know that we didn't have to rush because we only had one day.
And actually, that would have to be our quote of the day, courtesy Miss E:
"I can't believe we can come back whenever we want!!"
Enjoy the show!

Miss A's Big Day!

If I don't blog this soon, I'll forget it all together, and it's already pretty much a blur! I don't know exactly why I was such a mess...at least not specifically.
The morning started out well enough. We all had French Toast and strawberries for breakfast. I did have a fleeting question of, "should I be sitting here right now enjoying a leisurely breakfast when I have x,y,z and a-g that I should be doing??"!
HA!
That question was quickly answered!!!

While Jason got busy with mowing, etc. I began tying up loose ends around the house and with party things. Putting together prize buckets, situating the different game activities and paraphernalia, doing one last vacuum and floor sweep, etc.
WHAT among these things took so much of my time, I do not know! It must have been just everything put together.
Jason had to go to Lowe's after weed eater string, and then the corner store for gas.
Finally we were ready to put together stuff in the backyard. We had the ticket booth to secure, games to set up, and the flag pennant entrance and strings of balloons to tie up. Thank goodness we'd done the animals the day before!
Halfway through putting up the "tent" (a plastic tablecloth stapled to the top of the playscape and angled down to the fence), the wind picked up pretty good, and we realized it was not going to work. The thin plastic ripped right out of the staples and pretty much went flying. I made a frantic call to Grammy, who was basically killing time before the party. She grabbed a white sheet at Walmart and headed this way. We got it up in no time, it was going to work fine, we strung the balloons on there, and she set to work on rolling pigs in a blanket, popping popcorn, and setting up nacho stuff. At this time, I already had the girls frosting cupcakes (seriously!) and adding the cut apart marshmallows to make a popcorn effect on top.

I jumped in the shower about 20 min. before party time and had wet hair when our
first guests arrived. Lovely.

Anyway, the kids got busy checking out the back yard. We had a "knock-over-the-cups" game, a homemade juggler bean bag toss, a clown standee for the kids to put their face through for a cute photo-opp (also homemade!), scarf juggling, a "ducks-in-the-pond" game, face painting, and a balloon animal making station. Not to mention the playscape and trampoline!

Ahhh, but I would be remiss if I failed to mention my masterpiece, the piece de resistance....the obstacle course.
This was my baby. The event I was most proud of. I had borrowed lots of props from a very good friend, and had the neatest stuff set up.

It all began with the first child pulling on a pair of oversized clown pants and suspenders, and filling them with a few balloons. Add a red nose and clown wig, and they were to run to the fence and back, then switch to the burlap sack and hop back to the fence again. After that, they grab the sparkly cane and top hat and walk across the little buckets in a row (to be a tight rope). Then jump through the "Rings of Fire!" (hula hoops on stands) and crawl through the tunnel. Next, up the ladder and down the slide and we all meet up on the parachute for a fun game.
Sounds great, right??

WRONG!

ONE kiddo was willing to try all this stuff and actually made his way through the activities. Then he sat on the parachute for TEN minutes waiting for the next big thing......

It never came.

The rest of the kiddos were completely confused, and the birthday girl was just plain over it!
I will say that most of the kids warmed up and did at least one or two parts of the course once they caught on. :-)

And we went to cupcakes next so all was well.

I guess it's a good party when you end up with one in the pool (wink!)

And...I managed to remember the big "Pie-in-the-face!" finale when there were a whopping 4 friends left at the party. Oh well, live and learn!
Enjoy the show!

Check

Well, at least it's off the list. And if I don't blog this in a hurry, it won't get done at all. So....I give you:


Pumpkin Pictures!

They're not great, they're barely good. They're full of squinty eyes and forced smiles. But they're here. :)


Some faves:





And some runner-ups:

She just couldn't resist...



And, after 15 minutes straight of me barking "look this way!, look at the camera, MY camera, look here, look at me!", this is one of my faves. :)

You Know it's Bad When....

your six yr. old tells you....

"Mom, I don't think I need to have any candy at all today."

Aww! Poor Miss E is all messed up with "the allergies", as she calls it. Or, "the algees" as little sis says.
The poor girl has circles under her eyes, a stuffy/runny/sneezy nose, and is just not her normal spunky self. What a bummer way to spend a three day weekend.
Please let this pass quickly!

B is for Blog

Okay, okay! Since I have now seen several posts on friend's blogs about things I have planned...I guess I should get my rear in gear and blog myself!

Where to begin??

We had lots of fun with our letter B events the last few weeks.
I think it all started with our Bubbles! Bubbles! playdate at a really cool park. We used traditional and non-traditional bubble tools, with traditional and non-traditional bubble solutions. We had the usual bubble wands, etc. but we also had fly swatters and colanders! We tried some colored bubble mix (didn't work so well!) and some other home-made mixes. We had tons of fun with the bubbles, but the most fun was had in the drained out creek bed! Poor Miss A-slid down one side like a champ, but had THE hardest time climbing up the other side! I had to slide down in my flip flops and practically shove her from behind! She finally made it and joined the band of pirates (I think it was pirates-these kiddos had lots of pretend plays going on) at the top.





Oh-this may be my favorite shot. Our friendly neighborhood "Momarazzi"!


And did I mention there were donkeys?? Such a fun place!




I put together a neat park playdate where we made binoculars with TP holders. The kiddos painted them their color of choice, then played while they dried. During this time I hid all sorts of things from home I had hauled over that start with the letter B! I had a baby in a tree...a bear in a bush...a balloon tied to a sign...a bow on a branch, and much more! The kids were SO cute running from place to place, searching then finding 'B' items with their precious binoculars! It was so much fun to watch. Here are a few pics I got.






Miss A seriously passed out like this. I unwound the binoculars from her neck, but she held on to that balloon for her entire nap. Crazy!


Miss A played host to her cooking group a few weeks ago. And keeping with the letter B theme, we made Bran muffins!
Oh, I'm sorry-I cannot blog this without stressing how annoying I was about the letter B. Any word that started with the letter B, I preceded with the buh-buh sound. And I promise you, you have NO IDEA how many words you might say in a one hour stretch that start with the letter B!
Let's see....while we were mixing the ingredients for our buh-buh-bran muffins, we could already smell the buh-buh-bread from the buh-buh-bread machine. We passed around the buh-buh-bowl so each child could participate as much as possible. We took turns, letting the first kiddo add the buh-buh-buttermilk, and the next measure the buh-buh-brown sugar. Then came the buh-buh-buh-bran flakes and the buh-buh-buh-baking powder.
Oh, did I mention this event was on my buh-buh-buh-birthday?
Annoyed yet?? :)
The moms were quick to join in, and I think (hope?) that we all had fun with our letter B day. I was so bu-buh---(sorry!) busy helping to mix and measure that this is the first picture I got!

Hey-I think they were a hit!

And finally...BONES!! Yes-Miss E hosted her age Science group last week and we brought bones! Well, they were covered in fur and feathers...
This is getting worse, right!?
We discussed nocturnal animals...animals of the night...and then dissected owl pellets! I had NO idea how much these girls would get into this! Literally! Miss E and a couple of the others were digging in with their hands! I was so excited to get these. I don't know when I did this for the first time, but I have never forgotten it. Such a super cool hands-on learning experience. I highly recommend it!





BTW, the aforementioned (and pictured) moms also have pics of these events on their blogs. And they're MUCH better than mine. Check 'em out!

M-T-M

Muffin Tin Mondays!

I saw this idea on a blog about a month ago, then again on a friend's blog. Very cute, and a great fun way to try new foods. I do mine as our after school snack to let Miss E get involved too.
This week I don't think there was an official theme. I saw this orange theme from a comment on the original blog, and decided to steal it!



From left; baby carrots, sweet potato veggie chips, veggie chips, baby carrots, orange sunkist jelly beans, tangelo, tangelo, jelly beans, orange bell pepper, cheddar cheese, bell pepper, cheese.

Both girls tried (at least licked) each item. Miss E liked the bell pepper, Miss A ate one thinking it was a carrot and was not pleasantly surprised...! Miss E ate most of her tangelo. She's always been sort of hot and cold on oranges and the like. Miss A licked it, made a sour pickle face, and didn't try it again. Baby steps...

Last week's theme was shapes, so we stuck with circles/spheres. A great opportunity to discuss three dimensional shapes, and why grapes are not circles, but spheres!
We had grapes, circle cookie cut cheese, circle cut apples, mini rice cakes, and melon balls (cantaloupe).

And...for some reason I can't load the photos, so I leave it at that.

And Fun Was Had By All!

Last weekend we all drove in to help Daddy install a much needed fence at Nana and Pops' new house! The girls were very excited to go back for their second visit, seeing how the first visit yielded lots and lots of frogs, a pesky armadillo, and a jack rabbit!
We did find a frog. Named her Jesse. But the poor frog was quickly overshadowed by a new friend. An adorable little box turtle! Named Sparkles. I have one picture of Sparkles-taken after Super Daddy found her. My camera battery died so I took most pics with my parents' camera. More to come soon.
The girls had SO much fun watching their daddy work. They wanted to help with everything! Miss E was especially neat to observe-she was asking questions and genuinely interested in what her daddy was doing.
We enjoyed the visit and had LOTS of fun. Lots of laughs-sometimes we didn't even know what we were laughing about! Gotta love those pregnancy induced laugh-till-you-cry moments!
Again, we had so much fun and can't wait to go back. Our next visit will be for the arrival of baby C! Yay!

Serious Business

My Gmom sent me this pic from my sis' shower last weekend. Miss E, hard at work on one of the games-the "answer the Nursery Rhyme question" game.
There were 20 questions. The winner answered 14 correctly.
Miss E was a close second with 12 correct!

Magic in the Morning

Miss A was up a little too early today, so I went to snuggle with her, and possibly help her fall back to slumber. At the very least, I wanted to keep her quiet so not to wake Miss E or Daddy, on his only day off.
As we lay there, it was evident she was very much ready to wake up. She kept talking to me, asking to play and read books. And I would shush her, over and over. Finally she lay still for a moment or two and I heard a soft whisper come from the quiet. I was pretty sure I heard her clearly, but asked again, just to be sure.
Yes, what I heard was correct.

Her early morning thoughts:

"I want to be an armadillo when I grow up."* LOL!

I giggled and snuggled her tighter. What a goofy girl.

Shortly after, we heard Miss E waking in her room across the hall. Was she talking to herself?
Oh, no. I recognize it now.

And I tuned in just in time to catch the last line:

"Please don't take...my sun-shine awaaayy...."

Ahh...what a way to start the day. :)



*Explanatory post to follow soon....

Miss A's First Day

Although she had been up at school with me for over a week, Miss A was still very excited for her first official day. She was VERY excited to take her "pack-pack". And just HAD to bring her 'very-old-but-new-to-her' Cabbage Patch doll, (re-named because I had NO idea what her name was) Penny.
She was all grins as I took the traditional first day pics!



Sorry. I know this is WAY too bright, but it's the only pic I got. I had moms and kids already showing up in my room!


Although she is excited, I have mixed feeling this year. Last year I taught music and saw her every day. And I did not teach on a day that she didn't attend, so I didn't miss much with her at all.
This year, I have my own class. In a different building. And I teach on a day that she does not attend, so I don't even have that little "I might catch a glimpse of her on the playground" hope to hold on to.
I really think, that if I did not have to work right now, that I wouldn't even have her in preschool. Our 'little-playgroup-that-could' has grown so much and is doing so much more towards the homeschool preschool agenda, that I'm not at all concerned with her getting a "preschool education". And I know that this is really for the social aspect and exposure to structure for my kiddos anyway.
When I started Miss E in preschool (way back when!) it was just one day a week, and I didn't have a playgroup, or any friends really, that we were hanging with. We had just moved to Leander and I looked into preschool as an outreach to find some social time, I think.
So when it was time for Miss A to attend, I think it was more habit-plus the fact that a job opened up for me...it just made sense.
Not making as much sense this year, so far.
I'm enjoying my class-still sorting out the "rowdys" and establishing our routing, but we're having fun. And A does have a really neat teacher.
But I still hate that I'm missing the better part of 3 days each week with her. I'll settle into it, I'm sure.
In the meantime, Miss E is enjoying 1st grade, except for the "bunch of handwriting practice we have to do every day" part. :)
We had her Open House last night and it was about as informative as I should have expected. I sure hope when I go back to teaching that I remember what it feels like to be a parent left in the dark.
I think I'll set a conference w/the teacher next week for some one-on-one and try to get some questions answered. Sigh.
More later!

Jackson Pollock

"When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It's only after a sort of "get acquainted" period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own."

I came across this quote and fell in love with it. And his work holds true. Miss A and I attended a Jackson Pollock playdate last Friday. She had fun-she didn't get into it as much as some of the boys....I'm sensing some anger issue brewing with a couple of those. LOL! Just kidding, Mommas. It was neat to see the kids really enjoy making art out of a mess!

Here are some pics I got. Oh-how smart do I need to be to realize I shouldn't have stood behind the paper/in front of the arteest?? I left there with my own personal body art! Some on my neck...some on my arm...my shirt...Ha! :)

Boys 'N Girls

After our playdate today, Miss A and I headed for Sonic. I figured I would treat her to a special lunch since this is actually her first free day w/just me. She has been SUCH a trooper during the last few busy, busy weeks.
Anyway-her lunch of choice: Grilled cheese and a vanilla shake. On the way she realizes that buddy Lil' J's van is right in front of us-and they also pull in for some lunch. She asks that we park next to them, and then asks me, "Is J going to get a boy cheese?"
It took me a minute, but I got it. She pronounces the sandwhich "gIRl cheese". Get it? BOY cheese? Ha!

And the other day, I was in her room, straightening up, and realized she had been very quiet for some time. Afraid that she was asleep, I called out to her and asked what she was doing. Her answer:

"Just counting my toes!" ????

One more quicky (sorry, I've been such a bad blogger lately. I went through this at the beginning of the school year last year too).
Miss E got a special package in the mail from her Aunt M and Uncle S. It had a brand new Hannah Montanna pen, some special pencils and erasers, and a new pair of scissors. She took off with the pen and said she was going to her room to make a list of very important things. Little did I know it was for me!
Here's my list of very important things (her words)to do every day:

1. Be Fashionable!
2. Be Punctual!
3. Be like a Princess and shop for fashion!

Okaaaaay!

And my last thought, very random....my title to this post reminds me of an interesting nursery rhyme from one of our books.

Boys and girls come out to play,
The moon doth shine as bright as day.
Leave your supper and leave your sleep,
And join your playfellows in the street.

Huh?

Sweetness

We're driving up to church in silence this morning. And all of a sudden I hear:

"Mama, you're a genius!"

Me: Thanks, A! Why do you think that?
A: Because I like you. And you're my special Mama.

I melted!

First Days

Our first day went smoothly. E was easy to get up and excited to get to school. After she got dressed, she told me, "I'm sorry, Mama, I know you didn't want me to grow up, but I'm officially a First Grader!" Cute!
After getting over the disappointment of not riding the bus, she sucked it up and we all loaded in the car to take her to school. Miss A was still half asleep. Probably hadn't said one word-was just going through the motions, and barely that.
When we got to the school parked, E hops out of the car and says, "OK, I know where my class is, I can go by myself!"
Um, NO!
I told her we were walking her to class, and taking a few pictures, PERIOD! What's the deal?? :)
She unloaded the rest of her supplies and got to work on an assignment of writing a sentence about something she did over the summer, then drawing a picture to go along with it.
She chose to write about Chalk Bluff, and later told me she drew a picture of her (70something year old) Granddad swinging from the rope that hung from the bluff! ??? This never happened!! How funny.
After school she said her day was "Great. But we only did 2 crafts, and just listened to a lot, lot, lot, lot of rules." Ha!

Here are the few pics I snapped...seeing how I wasn't allowed to linger...!





Miss A somehow made it home from my workday awake...barely. She had just dozed off as we turned the corner to our street, but I made her wake up when we got out of the car.
She did surprisingly well for most of the evening. She brought ALL of the kitchen stuff in the family room and fed me most of it!


Around 6:30 she asked to watch one of her DVDs from the library, so I set it up to start. After 5 or 6 minutes I realized it was stuck on the menu, just playing the little theme song over and over again, so I went over and pushed the 'start' button.
She. Flipped. Out.
Big time.
She started crying, telling me she wanted to hear the song (from the menu). And kept crying. And crying. After about 15 minutes I finally went to try to comfort her, knowing she was just exhausted and not making any sense. I held her and offered a snack, some juice, water...even offered to restart the "movie" (menu!). Nothing helped. She kept crying. For another 15 minutes! I tried plain asking her to tell me what she wanted..."I don't want ANYFING!" was all I got.
So I just held her, and eventually the cries slowed and slowed, and the breathing settled...and she was sound asleep!
I carried her to bed just after 7. Let's hope she sleeps through the night!

Well, we made it through day 1. Anyone got a count on how many to go?? :)

Silence

I put the girls to bed at 8:30 and didn't hear one peep. That never happens! Miss E, of course, was anxious to get to sleep, knowing that tomorrow is her "First Day of 1st Grade!!"
Miss A, I was just sure, was going to fight the early-ish bedtime. She'd been staying up later than that lately, but, she would get all wound up right before bedtime due to some late night Daddy time. Today, we had Daddy all day. It was a very relaxing day. We played board games and hide-and-seek (I had the winning hiding spot!), read books and had our traditional day before school fried fish and shrimp dinner. E's choice, of course! She also chose her first day outfit. I gave in. I defeatedly hung up MY choice-an adorable, hot pink one-piece shorts/jumper type suit, and laid out HER choice, some cute jean shorts and a new Hannah Montana shirt. Oh well, chose my battles, right?

No exciting news here...I just hadn't gotten around to posting any of our "countdown" days like I had planned. Thought I'd check in and wish all our of first grade friends a happy first day!
I'm off to bed-it's gonna be an early morning! And a long week. Miss A and I will be at the preschool every day this week. This will be a big adjustment for her too. She is excited, though. She told me today she hopes they have a hamster in her room, and she hopes her teacher can do a forward roll! I'll update on our findings! :)
Have a great week, everyone!! Happy School Year!

In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle!

We had a blast today at a new place called Jungle Java! It's a neat indoor play place, kind of like a McD's playscape on steroids. There were tunnels and bridges, over sized punching bags that swung over walkways, slides, a little zip line, big rubber "rollers" to slide through, vertically or horizontally....and much more! The girls had a blast and I mostly sat and visited w/other Moms! We were there for almost 3 hours. How fun!

Here's Miss E just hangin' around on a big swinging medicine ball.


And this is right before I got smacked with the punching bag...!


And the zip line!