First Day of School 2012

After a long and crazy summer, the 21st of August arrived and brought with it the first day of school.  The kids have enjoyed the lazy days of this last summer while playing with friends, riding bikes, and doing fun summer activities.  Zach was a little less than enthusiastic that school came so fast, but Hailey was more excited to get back to it.

It was exciting to go over the Friday before school started and look at the lists to find out which teachers the kids would have.  For us, it was the year of the "O" teachers - Hailey got Miss Oliekan and Zach got Mrs. O'Neill.

We have friends whose son had Miss Oliekan last year and had nothing to say but great things about her, so we were excited to know a bit about her.  On back to school night, she was wearing a pink shirt (Hailey's favorite color) and Hailey decided she was going to be a great teacher.  We also found out that there are quite a few girls and boys from the ward or other classes that Hailey knew, so she was going to have a bunch of friends right off the bat.  Last year she didn't know a single person in her kindergarten class, so this was a change for her.

We didn't know much about Mrs. O'Neill, but at back to school night, she gave out bags of microwave popcorn to the kids and if you know anything about Zach, you know that he loves popcorn, so she won major points in his book from that act alone.  Another fun thing she did is let them pick out their nametag and put it on whatever desk they wanted - so they were able to choose their own desk.  We found out that there are 3-4 kids from the ward and numerous others from previous classes in Zach's class this year, so he was excited about that too!

This is another year with something new for us because Hailey moves from kindergarten to 1st grade and hence is in school all day long.  Seems like the last few years have provided her with new opportunities each time with preschool, kindergarten, and now all day long in 1st grade.  She has been so much fun to watch and she has loved every bit about school from preschool on up.  She was a little bit nervous about 1st grade because her brother kept telling her how hard the math was going to be, but on the first day she came home and let us know that they had done a few math worksheets in class and not only were the very easy, but she finished them in school and didn't have to bring any home to work on.  So those worries were quickly put to rest!

Here are our first day of school pictures of our new 1st grader:

She chose this outfit from all of her new school clothes and just loved the ruffles on the shirt, so that was the one she thought would look the best on the first day.  She was also so excited to wear her new tennis shoes. We've had them for over 3 months and it has been a very long wait for her!

Here are our first day of school pictures of our new 4th grader:

He was also very picky about his first day of school outfit.  Of course he chose a sports related one (although we had plenty of nice polos to choose from)!  But I didn't think it looked too bad, so I didn't object.  He was also excited to wear his new tennis shoes that we've had just as long as Hailey's.  His old shoes are literally falling apart and we've just been babying them along to last the last few weeks before school started.

Love this one - although they were sad to have summer end, by the time the first day rolled around, they were excited to get off and going.

Tate did not want to be left out of the picture taking, even though he wasn't going to school.  He was so excited, he even closed his eyes for the picture! I thought the smile was so cute, so I had to include it.

We took another of him and although it's not much better, you can see his his eyes a bit better.

Here are our three big kids - a 4th grader, 1st grader, and 2 year old.  They are growing oh so fast, but I love each of them so much and are so proud of them all!

Later that afternoon, Zach and Hailey came home from school full of fun things to tell about their first days.  They both had such a good time, they couldn't wait for the next day to go back.  Looks to be another great year at school!

"I Be 'Casso!"

Translation:  "I Be Picasso!"

Now why would he say that?  Because of this:  

Yes, that is crayon all over his onesie!  I ran upstairs for a minute the other day while all of the kids were coloring and asked Zach and Hailey to watch Tate.  Apparently to them, that meant watch him color all over his shirt!  Guess we need to work on our babysitting skills a bit more.

I love that Tate enjoys coloring and wants to do it so often, we just need to concentrate that artistic ability onto paper or coloring books instead of clothing!  Thank goodness it came out in the wash - all I can say is those stain sticks are amazing!

A Few Random Pictures ...

I have a few pictures I wanted to make sure and post. 

This first one is of Hailey and her Aunt Kylie.  LIke I mentioned in an earlier post, Hailey and Kylie have a special earring bond and when we met Kylie at the mall to get Hailey's ears pierced, I totally forgot to get a picture of the two of them together.  So when Kylie, Jedd, and Libby were down for Nana's birthday, I had to snap a quick picture of them together.  Don't mind half of Tate's arm to the side, he was sure he was in the picture too!  Hailey sure loves her Aunt Kylie!

This second one is of the kids at Nana and Papa's house for the final summer get together.  It's been a great summer full of fun activities and they were all sad that it was the last time.  But Nana had fun school bags for them to fill with school supplies to celebrate the upcoming school year.  Even Tate and Libby (who wasn't quite in the mood to hold still for a picture) got one.  Afterwards we headed to the store where each of the kids got to pick out a special school shirt (or in most cases 2 shirts) for school.  They each loved the ones they got and they were so grateful to Nana and Papa for the special school things!

We love you Nana and Papa!

Nana's Birthday Party

Guess what Nana had a birthday! So we invited her down on her special day and planned some fun things to do.  The kids wanted to make it special, so we tried to think of some things that would make her smile.  First of all, we had some surprises outside.

There was a special parking sign...

 ... and some signs for the kids to hold.  Here's Tate's:

Hailey's:

And Zach's:

It's a little blurry, so here's a close-up:

The kids thought it was so fun to direct them into the driveway to park and to hold up their signs.  Nana was a good sport and I think she thought they were funny.  This one was my favorite (yes somehow 60 = 16, how cool is that?):

 

We also decorated the house with a Happy Birthday sign, balloons, and streamers.  The kids would not let me get away with anything less than we do for their birthdays - they were really worried that she would have a fun birthday.

We had cake and ice cream where we sang to her and she had to blow out a candle - we didn't do 60 because Zach said he was afraid we'd light the house on fire (I know it sounds funny, but it is a real concern since we did actually have a kitchen fire not too long ago - long story).

We also gave her a fun present.  She wanted some money to busy some things she wanted, so we found an idea on pinterest about putting a dollar bill in each balloon then giving her a big box filled with the balloons.  I don't know if she or the kids had more fun throwing the balloons in the air and around the room.  The popping was a lot of fun for most of the kids, although I don't think Libby enjoyed it too much - sorry about that Libs!

The best part was when Nana put on her birthday crown and all the kids put on party hats - we took a quick picture while everyone was looking.  Unfortunately, Jedd, Kylie, and Libby weren't there yet when we took this.  We had plans to do another when they got there, but Libby wanted nothing to do with the party hat, so we never got around to it.

I didn't get as many pictures as I was planning to, so it's a little sparse, but we think Nana had a fun time and that's all that mattered to us.  Happy Birthday Nana - WE LOVE YOU!

Pierced Ears! Look Mom, No Clips!

Well it's official - we now have a daughter with 2 more holes in her head. Yes, after a year plus of telling her she had to wait until she was 8, her very consistent parents caved and let her pierce her ears at the ripe old age of 6 1/2.  How and why you ask?  Well, I'd like to tell you we had this lofty and worthwhile purpose behind it being done early, but honestly it came down to the fact that we just got tired of hearing about it and being begged to have it done every 5 seconds.  Yes, she wore us down, sad but true.  For anyone who actually knows Hailey, this will not come as a surprise.  One thing we can say about her is that she is persistent if nothing else.  Actually, it was really hard coming up with excuses when really, there was no sure fire reason why we had chosen the age of 8, other than the fact that we wanted her to be old enough to be responsible and to take care of them herself.  And besides, once her cousin got hers done for her birthday in June, it was really only a matter of time. 

We did however, make sure we got something out of the deal.  We decided that we needed to combat some of the "not so desirable" behavioral issues we were experiencing at the time, so we used a sticker chart for her to earn her pierced ears.  She had to earn 60 stickers for 60 days in order to get them done.  She had to show us she was old enough to get her ears pierced by being old enough to act and behave appropriately.  And even though we had a bit of a rocky start, she figured it out very quickly and the 60 days passed a lot faster than I thought  they would.  

So on July 28th, we headed off to the mall to get them done.  Aunt Kylie met us there because Hailey wanted her to be the one to take her - she and her Aunt Kylie have this special earring bond.  It's hard to explain, but I think it all started back with a pair of earrings Kylie wore that Hailey fell in love with.  That led to Hailey buying Aunt Kylie fun, dangly earrings for her birthday (since her over-conservative mother would never wear any of those fun earrings).  And eventually to the plan of Aunt Kylie taking her to get her ears pierced.  The only reason I was there was to drive her and hand over my credit card to pay.  Honestly, I was lucky she let me come at all - there were times when I was informed that I wasn't going to be going with them.  That thought was probably my penance for having denied her getting her ears pierced for so long.

So here she is at the store, sitting in the chair, all ready for the piercing.  She was a little bit nervous, but in all, I was really proud of how brave she was.  I was worried she would back out at the last minute, but she never swayed from her goal.

The lady at the store asked me if I thought she was nervous and wouldn't want to do the second ear once the first was done.  I told her I wasn't sure, so she had me hold a wallet with butterflies on it for her to concentrate on and count while she did it.  Hailey was hilarious, her counting went something like this:  "One, two, three, four, ow, five, six, seven, ow - oh we're done?"  Yep, other than the two ow's, I never would have known anything had happened.  And boy oh boy was she excited.

She was so happy, she walked around with a perma-grin for hours.  She was so happy, I was almost sad that we didn't let her do it earlier - but don't tell her that!  :)

We had a bit of a drive back home, so I handed her my little mirror to see her ears in the car and she looked and looked and looked at her newly pierced ears all the way home.  I chuckled every time I looked in the rear view mirror and saw her staring at her ears.

One funny note that I have to make sure I include:  When we got home, she told her dad that piercing her ears was a lot easier than she thought it would be.  I had been telling her about the piercing gun and how it would push the earring through her ear (apparently they have changed the piercing method and now instead of a gun looking thing, it's a little boxy thing that squeezes together, a lot less intimidating).  So when her Dad asked her why it was easier than she thought, she explained that she thought they lined her up against a wall and used a rifle to shoot a hole in her ear.  We both about fell over laughing - how on earth she got that out of what I had explained I'll never know, but the imagination of a 6 year old is something you can never predict.  But I will say this, she was extremely brave and courageous going into it with that idea of how it was going to work.  She must have have wanted pierced ears pretty badly if she was willing to let them shoot a rifle at her.

So now that she has her ears pierced, she's now looking forward to the 6 week date when she can take these first ones out and switch them for ones of her choice.  She's already got some picked out to wear that first day.  All I can say is that her first choice are dangly feather earrings - some that Aunt Kylie bought her as a gift.  That ought to look quite interesting!

Best Husband Ever!

I thought I should let you all know that I have the best husband ever!  I was having a really rough day not too long ago.  It seemed like I couldn't accomplish anything whether home or work related and with grumpy, sick kids who couldn't seem to get along, it seemed like everyone was yelling at me.

My poor husband happened to come home for lunch that day and walked into the middle of the disaster.  As soon as he walked in the door, I burst into tears, more from the relief of having him there than anything else. I had been secretly hoping he would come home, but didn't want to actually ask him to do so.  But home he came and even having him there for a short time was a major relief.  He took charge of feeding the kids and let me have a few minutes to myself to collect my sanity and accomplish a thing or two.

As he went off to work, I felt so much better and relieved,  Even though he was only home a short time, things were actually manageable again.  But his coming home wasn't the only surprise I got, when he walked in the door later that evening, he had something else for me ...

A beautiful bouquet of roses!  Although he'd texted me a few times that afternoon and I assured him that things were much better, he still thought enough to stop by the store on the way home to pick me up some flowers.  It was such a wonderful surprise and made my evening go so much better!

I am so grateful for a wonderful, thoughtful husband who always knows exactly what I need and when I need it.  Whether it's coming home on a rough day or bringing me flowers, he always knows what to do for me.  I have the best husband ever!

Swimming Lessons - Part 2

After a very fun and exciting first set of swimming lessons, I decided to sign the kids up for another this summer.  They easily passed Level 1, so we moved them up to Level 2.  They had a great time and loved swimming time every day for two weeks.

Here they are with their group.

It was so fun to watch them getting instructions and following them.

They did a lot of swimming on their stomachs and backs in this level - here's Hailey just finishing a practice swim and Zach still swimming on his back.

And here is Hailey getting ready to swim on her back - love that she was looking at me when I took the picture!

I tried to take a few pictures of them as they were getting out one day - they were so excited, they just couldn't hold still, so the pictures are a litle blurry, but oh so cute!

They really love those goggles!  Thank goodness they have lasted through 2 swimming sessions - love the Dollar Store!

Tate and I had fun hanging out in the viewing area watching the kids - he loved climbing up and sitting in the chair all by himself - he's getting to be such a big boy!

I couldn't help but put this picture on here too - this is what he did when I said, smile and say cheese!  Too funny!

Yep, definitely another successful swimming session.  Zach passed with flying colors and will be moving to Level 3 next, Hailey needs to stay in Level 2 to work a bit more on swimming on her front and back, but she passed everything else.  We are really proud of both of them and how well they are doing at swimming!