Back Home!

The kids seemed to have a wonderful time these last two weeks.  We are so glad they are home, but know that the visit with grandparents and break for the parents was good for everyone.  They were with my mom for a week, and then with my dad for another week.  They spent the week at my mom's swimming in the pool, playing at the park, and visiting with cousins.  At my dad's they went to VBS in the evenings and did some swimming there, too.  My dad brought them back this weekend with a stopover in Birmingham to check out a children's museum that they all loved.  We all went to the zoo yesterday (minus Lance who was playing in a golf tournament) and Lance and I had to go to a shindig last night, so all of the kids got to play together for one more night with Paw Paw and Tia watching them.  Today we are having a lazy day and the kid's seem to be having fun getting reacquainted with their toys and such.  Tomorrow art camp starts and at some point today I have to find the motivation to go get stuff to make lunches, shirts for their tie dye activity, and to wash clothes for the week, but for now I'm using the rain and catch-up time with the kiddos as an excuse to procrastinate  :). 

The zoo yesterday included a visit with "dinosaurs."  The kids were not scared at all this time and loved it!  It is so hard to imagine what it would really be like if dinosaurs were still alive - but these are realistic enough for me to know that it wouldn't be good! 

The birds were pretty friendly this time, too, and Katie really enjoyed feeding them!  They landed on my arm and head immediately when I walked in so the nectar I was going to let the kids feed them was gobbled up pretty fast.  That ended up being a good thing, since when I handed it to Tyler and a bird immediately came to eat it from his hand he screeched and dropped it all!  It actually was very strange to have birds landing on you and pecking at your hair and ears!

Tyler's favorite part may have been stomping in puddles.  It was rainy most of the time, but once the sun finally did come out we were grateful that the rain had kept it pretty cool and comfortable for June, and the animals seemed more active.  That elephant in the background eventually got into the water and was playing chase with a bird! 

It's hard to believe that we only have five weeks until school starts back.  It was my plan during the school year to try and get a jump on buying uniforms and whatnot, but I noticed that stores are already fully stocked with back to school gear so I think I am going to be with the masses, again, searching for the very few plain, collared dresses in "girl" colors that they seem to sell out of immediately.  I was holding off in case we decided to move since the other county doesn't wear uniforms, but we are pretty much decided that we are staying put for now - still have a ton of stuff to do on our house to get it ready and can't seem to pull the trigger on anything where we want to be, which tells me that we haven't found exactly what we are looking for just yet!  The kids really, really want to stay at their current school, and I am becoming more and more disillusioned with common core (which both counties have), so we may stay here indefinitely and put the kids in private school, anyway.  Too much up in the air - so we are going to just put all house and school stuff on the back burner and just concentrate on enjoying the rest of the summer and getting ready for first grade! 

The Beach!

Well, it has been a while since I have updated here, but there is a good reason!  We were on vacation - woohoo!!!  We just got back from a wonderful beach trip with Lance's family, and in fact the kids are still on vacation spending some time with my mom and then my dad.  I sure do miss those kiddos, but they are having a lot of fun with the grandparents, and have even gotten to see their cousins while there.  We enjoyed some beautiful weather at the beach and did lots of playing in the sand, ocean and pool - and ate some great food, too!  It was certainly a fantastic way to kick off the summer, which seems to be flying by.  The kids start 1st grade (!!!) at the beginning of August so by the time they get back there will only be 5 day camp weeks and then school will start.  We don't have much else planned for the summer - Lance has a golf tournament, and we hope to do some sort of anniversary trip, but mostly we are just going to hang at the pool, and the kids will get to go back to camp - which they loved before we left.

This was field trip day for Katie - she did a dance camp and got to visit the Ballet.  He was in a sports camp.  For the rest of the summer, they will be in the same camps - art, science, sports, and wet and wild!

The kids stayed pretty true to their favorite things to do at the beach - sand for Tyler and waves for Katie - but Tyler was much more adventurous this year and played in the water quite a bit, and Katie was helping with sandcastles more than usual!  Beach trips are so much easier now that they can play independently more, and it doesn't hurt that they made some friends to play with, too!  

Their Uncle Matthew spoiled them rotten the whole time (and the kids were in heaven getting to spend time with him all the way from "Yew Nork") - they at ice cream, played in the sand, he got them some beach toys (for some reason Katie thought beach stores were the greatest thing ever - the fun ball he got for them that bounces on the waves, though, was definitely used more by the adults), and he even coerced them into doing the bungee at Baytowne.  Tyler said he "kinda liked it and was kinda scared,"  Katie loved it and said next time she "is going to do lots of flips."  

The week ended with a fabulous meal and lots of great memories!  It also made me really wish we lived at the beach, but once the kids come back home I'm sure I'll remember why this place is pretty cool, too  :)!  

Memorial Day Weekend

What a fabulous weekend!  We lucked out on weather - no rain and "warm enough" for swimming.  Friday night we went out for pizza, and Saturday was spent at the pool followed by grilling out burgers (I didn't say we had a fabulously healthy eating weekend  :)).  On Sunday we went to a pool party, and the kids thought it was great that a dj was out there leading games of limbo, tug of war, hula hoop and dance contests, and giving out prizes for pool games. 

Tyler's dance moves were a hit with everyone there (he spent most of the time dancing) and he even incorporated them during the hula hoop competition!  Katie was practicing swimming and enjoying the pool, she may not know how to swim yet, but she certainly is fish-like with her love of being in the water.  In the evening we went up to the official "beach bash" and visited with friends and enjoyed the band, while the kids ran around the course and played until the fantastic fireworks show began (Tyler thought it was cool, but way too loud and Katie said they were awesome). 

Today we went to the pool, again!  They had a slide out today, and the kids played hard.  Katie coerced Lance to throw her in the pool about one hundred times, and Tyler was content to "chillax."  Someone he respects obviously said that around him recently, because he has been, in his words, "just chillaxing" a lot this weekend.

This evening we went to a friend's house for a barbecue.  They live on the river, and some of our friends have older children so the kids were in heaven playing in the river with big kids while we enjoyed hanging out for a bit.  We have school tomorrow (this is the last week) so we headed home fairly early (still late for them), and called it a night.  They are already asleep (even though bedtime is 8:00 it is usually well past then before they are asleep) and had to have been exhausted!  It was a big weekend, and super fun.  It is times like these that I really wish I could enjoy the summer with the kiddos.  I know every day wouldn't be nearly as idyllic, but these last few days have been pretty near perfect and ones that I hope can be repeated in the months to come! 

My kids...

My kids are pretty funny.  They really crack me up these days.  Tyler and I had a 30 minute conversation today about whether or not he can be a pirate when he grows up, and the conclusion was that he can search for treasure, but not steal.  It took a long, long time to get to that point!  Katie's funny moment of the day was coming in to our room at 6:00 AM in her bathing suit, asking me how many times she had to count to 100 before it would be time to go (to the pool that opened today), and ultimately deciding it would be a better idea to "count in my mind."  The pool didn't open until 10:00! We had a great day at the pool on opening day!  Tomorrow is a beach bash and fireworks that should be fun, and hopefully Lance can be with us tomorrow so we can get more swimming practice in.  They both wanted to work on swimming without floaties, but I am not entirely comfortable two on one with no floaties just yet!  I did let them use the kickboards and ring with no floaties when my friend was there with her little boy as a bit of back-up, but they both still have a long way to go before they are proficient swimmers! 

We opted not to go to the celebration of life service for Katie's classmate.  I was on the fence, anyway, and gave them the option and they chose not to go.  Tyler asked to pray about it, and we had some good discussions, but I think they will be fine not going.  I think it would have been good if we had gone to the service, as it would provide some closure and an opportunity to say goodbye and support the family, but I also don't think it is the worst thing in the world to let them process it on their own terms and for me to make sure I am ready and willing to answer any questions they may have but let them dictate how they want to handle this grieving process.  It is such a heartbreaking situation, and I, for sure, have spent the last few days since the devastating news holding on to the kiddos a little tighter, hugging longer, and giving in to reading one more book a bit more often! I am so grateful for the opportunity to spend a day like today with my kids!   

Field Day

Yesterday was Field Day, and Tyler said it was "one of the best days ever."  It was unlike any field day that I remember, since there was no competition and included bounce houses, bubbles, and dancing instead of relays and tug-of-war, but the kids thought it was great.

The weekend was busy, but fun.  Katie, especially, had a great time.  She scored (and her team won) in her first soccer game, she then had a gymnastics recital where she got a medal and some flowers from So-So and Ray Ray (she wanted to take both the flowers and medal onto the field with her for her second game), then had another game, and then her soccer party where she got a trophy that she wanted to sleep with (she likes trophies and shiny things a lot).  She was giddy the whole day, and then was worn out when she got home!  She went upstairs to put her trophies in a special place (she wanted to put her flowers in "her" room that she still doesn't sleep in but we talked her in to a vase downstairs), and never came down.  I went up to check on her and found her cuddled up in my bed - that is so unlike her that you know she had to be exhausted!  She really enjoyed soccer this year and of course, still loves gymnastics.  We'll probably try to figure out how to do some kind of gymnastics this school year and soccer again in the Spring - but we are taking the summer off, for sure!

Tyler had his end of soccer season party, too and also got a trophy.  He took his to school to show his friends - he was so proud.  On Thursday, he got to go with me to a work event and meet the head football coach at Alabama, the gymnastics coach, and a dean from the school of Engineering (his favorite).  He was so well-behaved, and was one of the only kids there (and the only one in the VIP reception where he got to meet Saban), and I was very proud of how well he did, and how much fun he had even though it wasn't very kid-centric.  Sweet boy said that he wished Katie could have gone too, because he wanted her to have as much fun as him!  That lei has been around his neck (even at school) for the last two weeks and somehow made it with us to the event.  I don't know what the fascination is, but it looks festive so I'm not making a big deal out of it!

On a Monday...

We had a great weekend!  Friday was Book Character day for the kids at school and they had a lot of fun with that. Katie's Fancy Nancy outfit that she picked out when the day was originally scheduled (cancelled because of a "snow" day) was too small, so we decided on a ballerina from an easy reader book that she loves.  Tyler found a book specifically to go with his construction worker costume that he wanted to wear! 

We went to a yummy waterfront dinner Friday night, had soccer games Saturday (Katie scored a goal and Tyler's team won), actually made progress on getting the house in order by cleaning out the closet (literally 12 full bags of stuff donated to Goodwill), and then enjoyed a wonderful brunch Mother's Day morning with the in-town family followed by all of us spending time in the freshly mowed backyard  kicking soccer balls, and learning to bat. 

I should have had a clue that the fabulous weekend was taking a downward turn when we got a speeding ticket on the way home from brunch (in an area where the speed limit changes abruptly).  This evening took the cake, though.  After a typical Monday at work, and another day of trying to figure out how to pick the kids up with Lance having to show houses, and me trying to sneak out early - Katie tells me that her head itches really bad.  I reluctantly beckoned her out of her bunk bed to check out her hair and yep, lice.  Lance want to the store to get all that we needed, and then the next two hours were spent getting rid of those suckers.  I so hope they are all gone, but we will probably do another treatment tomorrow just in case.  Tyler was luckily fine, and with the time it took we were able to wash all of her bed stuff and stuffed animals, etc.  She told me that a little girl in her class was sent home today because of it (but she didn't tell her teacher that her head itched, too, because her teacher was "grumpy today"), and I let the teacher know that she had them, too, so hopefully they will check the other kids tomorrow to make sure the spread stops! I really hate those things, but this was much milder than the Disney experience last year, so hopefully we've got it under control!  

Feels like Summer!

We have enjoyed some beautiful days since the rain and storms, and we have been taking full advantage.  Lance and I played golf and tennis this weekend, the kids went to an outdoor birthday party, and every evening we have grilled out, played on the swingset and in the sprinklers and answered crazy questions from Tyler (why are lice and fleas at the bottom of the food chain if they have no predators - didn't think of monkeys in our explanation).  Poor Lance has tried to enjoy our family time each evening, only to be interrupted by almost constant work calls.  I love that business is picking up, I just hate that everyone seems to wait until the hours of 6:00-9:00 to need something "desperately."  He is considering hiring an assistant (there is just a lot of paperwork and details that need tending to in his job that are becoming difficult for him to take care of), and sadly we aren't in a position yet where I can become that assistant and give up the steady income of the family!  Especially since I am now considering private school for the kids sooner than later.  I am really disappointed in how common core is affecting the classroom environment, from the assignments and curriculum, to what interests and passions are being neglected in exchange for an emphasis on teaching to the tests.  Private schools do not use common core curriculum, and if the assignments (math in particular) continue in this vein, I know I am getting to want to get the kids as far away from it as possible.  I hate that my little boy who naturally does calculations, and is constantly adding and subtracting for fun, is now labeled bad at math and I fear it will only get worse.  I just have a suspicion that the common core academic environment is not one in which he will thrive, and I know that I will get incredibly frustrated that Tyler's particular brand of "smart" can easily be overlooked in a classroom whose primary goal is to ace the test. 

Since we opted to play this afternoon, instead of work on homework I guess I can't complain too much, though  :)!