Water Fun + Great Lighting = Awesome Pictures

Just in case you didn't know...

this is why you don't give a two year old a bowl of popcorn and let him take it in his room.

Cause when he gets bored of eating it....

He jumps up and down on the bed and uses the popcorn as confetti.

Just wanted to share. Just in case you didn't know that already.

He really doesn't like them at all.....

I feel so sorry for my kids. Their Grandpa just can't stand them! The poor little things.


I mean my gosh! What it must feel like to not be so loved? My heart just goes out to them.



And for those of you that don't know me, this is sarcasm.

Just wanted to make that clear.

Sisters

We have had a very busy week here in our crazy house. We spent 6 days traveling, and then had guests for Memorial Day Weekend. My younger sister Kristin was heading into town for her 10 year high school reunion.

(The crazy nut, who lives in California, hopped on a plane early Saturday morning, arrived here Saturday afternoon, went to her reunion Saturday night, and then flew home Sunday afternoon. I don't know about you, but I'm tired just typing that.)

And since it is a feat of great proportions to get any two of his girls together at one time, let alone the possibility of having all three together, my Dad decided to drive down for the long weekend to hang out.

(We had plans for my older sister to come hang out as well, but she ended up having to work and couldn't make it.)

The visit was short, but a lot of fun. The kids were over joyed to see Grandpa. (or as Eli says, "PA") I don't think Eli remembered his Aunt Kristi at all, but Hannah was very happy to see her. We talked, ate at Cracker Barrel, bought a few books, and then it was time for Kristi to head home.

Mom gave Dad strict instructions that pictures were to be taken. So we lined up and smiled. Neither of us had a stitch of makeup on our faces, and our hair was not done, but we smiled since no one crosses our Mother unless you've preplanned a disappearance to another country.
OH! Note! Kristi is pregnant. She would be very upset if I failed to mention that!

We so cute! Love you Sis! Thank you for visiting. Hopefully I'll get to see you in December!

Trip to North Carolina

On Saturday the kids and I headed to the airport for our trip to North Carolina. I had planned this trip a couple of months in advanced and was so excited about visiting our best friends the Um Family.......that is up until the night before the trip.

That's when the realization started to hit me.

I was going to be on an airplane with my two children....all...by...myself!

It was at that moment that I started to question my sanity. Little late don't you think?

Well, I am proud to report that both children were INCREDIBLE on the trip there, during the trip, and on the trip home.

They really made me eat my words and thoughts. I couldn't have asked for them to behave any better than they did. Hannah really stepped up to the plate and helped me in anyway she could. Even carrying her bag on her back and pulling Eli's bag behind her without one complaint. She waited patiently for my attention because she realized I had to work hard to keep Eli calm and entertained. I am so proud of her I can't even express it in words. She really showed me what a wonderful child she really is.

And Eli. Well, Eli had his moments, but the boy is two, and full of energy. He did very well with listening, following directions, and actually letting me hold his hand while we walked through the airport. He did try to ride the baggage carousel, but I think I'd do the same if I thought I could get away with it.

The trip was overall uneventful. We really just hung out with our best buds Kevin, Chanara, Tristen and Alyssa. It was nice to just relax and have other adults to talk to all the time, plus the added bonus of other children to keep my children entertained. And it was nice to say, "Kevin, can you get Eli off the fireplace?", "Kevin, can you jump on the trampoline with Eli?", "Kevin, will you please give the kids a bath?". Those moments were the best. I know I abused him, but Ben has been traveling so much lately that I have had nothing but kid duty 24/7 and sometimes that wears on you. So I love you Kevin and all you did for me!!

And it was wonderful to hang out with Chanara again. She is the person who knows me best in this world next to my Mom and Ben. She cooked all my favorite foods without me even having to ask, and she made sure I had Sunkist for my morning pick me up. And I love just sitting on the couch with her playing Sing Star cause she won't make fun of me no matter how tone deaf I am. I guess this trip was really for me cause I really miss my Sister from another Mother.

And that is our trip in a nut shell. I don't have pictures because I decided it wouldn't be a bright idea to carry the camera along with me on the flights. I felt that would have put me over the edge with all of the other items I had to keep up with. (You know, the two children and all.) But here are a few pictures from the trip home.

Hannah passed out in the car on the way home from the airport. She was exhausted from all of her late night partying with TT.
And this is Eli asleep on the last flight home. He passed out before the plane took off, slept the entire flight, and finally I had to wake him up because everyone else was off the plane!

And this is a video of Boo Boo (Kevin) jumping with the little kids on the trampoline. He's such a trooper.

Eli's New Back Pack

During the school year, Eli was using a very tiny, small, Winne the pooh back pack that he didn't really like. The teachers didn't like it either. And, well, my friends didn't like. I've looked for a new one occasionally, but hadn't really seen one that I loved.

I mentioned my dilemma to my friend Amy a couple of months ago, and she offered an old Thomas the train bag that Xander used. I turned it down saying I would find one eventually.

Well, last Friday while at Amy's house, Amy decided she had had about enough of the ugly, small, Winnie the pooh bag. (And since she was watching Eli that day I couldn't really say much.) So she took all of his stuff out of the small bag and placed it into the Thomas the Train bag.

And Eli fell in love.
He wears it all the time. I've never been able to get him to wear a back pack.

He has me put it on his back in the house just to walk to the car in our driveway.

Guess I'll have to start listening to Amy more often.

Hope that doesn't go to her head!

Hannah's Pre-K Journal

Let me start this entry off by saying that I LOVED Hannah's pre-kindergarten teacher. She and the aid were the perfect match for Hannah. And when I say match, I mean they were more stubborn and determined than Hannah. That is always a good thing when dealing with Hannah. Hannah's teachers really worked with me in helping to improve Hannah's behavior and I appreciate all that they have done for Hannah and our family this year preparing us for Kindergarten.

Ok, now with that said.

I wasn't impressed with the journal.

Oh, I guess you're asking "What journal?". Let's back up.

At the beginning of the year we were asked to send in a composition notebook decorated with pictures of Hannah. It was one of our first homework assignments.
She and I had great fun picking out which pictures we wanted and gluing them on. The book would serve as her journal for the year. They wrote/drew/traced in the book nearly everyday. Here is the very first page done on 8/24.

The children drew in the book and the teachers did their best to translate what the child said the picture was. Here Hannah drew her, me, Eli, and Hunter, and said that she "was getting a picture for mommy." I love this part of the journal. Learning how Hannah's mind works.

Cause let's face it, we all wonder from time to time what is going on in that head of hers.

HEY! I can say that. I made her.

Anyway, the early pages of the journal are mostly Hannah practicing writing her name. See, I taught her to write her name in all capital letters, and she had to learn to write it correctly.

My bad.

Here is a page from October.

Her name looks pretty good there.

This page is from November. They've added the last name.

The red pin is what Hannah traced over and the name with just the pencil is what she wrote all on her own.

This page is from January.

I think her name is definitely getting worse, but they've added some letters and numbers.

This page didn't have a date on it, but here they've added some words.

This page is from February.

Lots of words to copy, and Hannah is giving a definite effort to write.

This is from March.

I love the caption for the story. She has such a funny imagination.


I'm not sure the date on this page.

This page is from April.

Lots of tracing words.


This page didn't have a date but it was from last week.

And this was in the back of the journal from Hannah's teachers.

Very sweet that they took the time to write to each child, and paste a picture. That will mean a lot to Hannah in years to come.

And they also took some pictures of the kids during the year and posted those pictures on the last few pages with notes explaining what was going on.

Again, very sweet and thoughtful.

Now, my point in showing you so many pages is this.

Are you ready?

I don't see that much of an improvement in Hannah's writing.

Sorry, it had to be said.

Now, many people I have mentioned this to say that preschool is about getting the kids ready for kindergarten. Well, I agree, but I'm wondering if so much time was spent on her behavior, manners, explaining school, etc. that maybe, possibly, she wasn't challenged enough.

I don't know for sure. I'm not a teacher. And Hannah is my first child, so this is my first time experiencing preschool as a parent.

Don't judge. I guess I just expected more.

Ok, with that terrible reveal off my back I will say again that I loved her teachers and all the efforts they made to help improve Hannah's behavior, self control, and listening skills. These are things that we will continue to work on, and hope that she gets another strong willed, determined teacher for kindergarten.

Eli's Scrap Book From School

Eli's last day of school, or Mommy's Day Out, was May 6th. I was very sad to see this end because I have seen such great improvements in him since he started attending Mrs. Alicia's class. And I am very sad that she won't be moving up with him next year, but I guess I'll have to get used to that feeling!

Mrs. Alicia was wonderful with Eli. She realized he needed some special attention while at the same time always pushing him to follow directions and "fit in" with the other kids.

She gave me a scrap book of Eli's artwork that included pictures of the class's various activities throughout the year. The book was a wonderful gift for each parent, but I can't help but laugh at all the pictures of Eli. He is so funny in every picture. You can really tell he just doesn't fit into a typical two year old's mold.

The pictures explain it best.

This is the first page.
The picture is a bit blurry, but I love the hand prints. Mrs. Alicia loved to get the kids elbow deep in paint.

This is page two.

Very cute picture of Eli napping. I was very impressed that Mrs. Alicia was able to get Eli to nap on a mat.

I LOVE this spider! So creative to use his hand print.

Here is the Halloween class picture. Eli is the fourth from the left. He's the one staring at the skeleton sitting next to him....not looking at the camera.

This is another great hand print idea. I really would loved to have been a fly on the wall to see how she was able to get each feather to be a different color. I bet it was a lot of fun. (That's sarcasm.)

This is the Thanksgiving class picture. It is really hard to see, but Eli is the child sitting second from the right. The one that is screaming because they put a feather hat on his head. Yep, that one.

Here is a close up. Do you see him screaming? Do you see the little girl to his right looking at him like he's nuts?

And here is the Christmas class picture where Eli is all the way to the right. Yep, that's right, the one picking his nose.

He did much better for the "Who Dat" picture. He's in the back on the left. No smile but at least he's not screaming and doesn't have a finger in a hole.

Finally, a decent picture. Eli is on the far left. Sitting still. Looking at them camera. AW! Success.

And this the last page of the scrap book. I thought this was very sweet and thoughtful.

Thank you Mrs. Alicia for everything you did for Eli and me this year! We appreciate all the help and guidance!! I know Eli will miss you.

Where did May go???

Ok, I let the blogging REALLY go this time. I'm sorry. I have no excuse...except..well, you know. Two small kids, a very hard working husband, a dog, two cats, a water turtle, school, and I, um, well, LIFE!

I guess that about covers it.

Anyway, I am not sure where May went. I logged in to see what the last thing I posted was about (that should have clued me in to how long it had been), and I realized my last post was in APRIL!!!

Goodness.

Guess I've let all five of you down. :-)

Smile, it's funny.

The problem is that not only am I not sure where May went, but I also can't remember what we did in May. I'm pretty sure today is May 19th, and we went to the Wiggle Room this morning.

Other than that, I couldn't tell you.

So here is a review of the pictures I have from this month so far.

Here is Hannah ready for "Cap Day" at school.
And Yes, It is a Duke hat.

Here is Hannah attempting to sleep with Eli. Eli didn't think it was a great idea.

This is Eli helping me study for my Anatomy and Physiology final. He's so thoughtful.

And that's all I have.

Crazy right?!?

I can't make any promises, but I'll try to do better.

Please forgive me!