End of school year

Becca loves reading and has really taken off with it. She earned a free ticket to the Nashville Sounds baseball game so we all went to enjoy the game and asked some friends to come along. The kids rode to the game with our friends and back home...we really have good friends that were willing to tote our kids along.

Becca was really looking forward to the end of school. She did have a great year and learned a lot. It's amazing how quickly they learn at this age. She can now read on a 2nd to 3rd grade level, ride a bike without training wheels, add and subtract, and other things. She wrote something about first grade and said she looked forward to making new friends...something I couldn't imagine her saying just a couple of years ago because she seemed so shy. A week before school was out, I went with her class to the Nasvhille zoo. Because it takes about an hour to drive there and an hour to drive back, plus waiting on buses, etc. the kids only have about an hour an a half to see the zoo. I only had to keep up with Becca and one other little girl. It wasn't terribly hot and we had a good time.

Double billed bird? Looking in a meerkat habitat

Our church had an awards ceremony for Awana, children's choir and mission friends. This was really neat for the kids and for us parents. I didn't get to see a graduation, awards ceremony or anything for the end of the year for Becca. Awana usually runs during the school year (August through May); our church did not start until January however so we only had half a year. In Sparks, which is K-2, the kids typically do 1 book per year. There were only a few who finished their book, including Becca. We were very proud of her, she memorized many bible verses, books of the New Testament, and many other activities. She was also involved in choir who sung 3 songs and Mission Friends. Barrett was involved in Puggles in Awana and Mission Friends.

Becca is not shy in the right surroundings. The pastor asked a few kids to help sing the Awana songs and lead the pledges. Becca thought the microphone was for her so he had to move on down the line so she didn't "hog" it. Barrett has his moments but rarely is shy. The teachers asked if the parents wanted to bring their younger ones on stage. I started to get up and he just ran up on stage, looked around, waved and yelled "hi" at the audience.

Easter

We had a big event planned at church the Saturday before Easter. Because I am the nursery coordinator, I am also in charge of many children's events too. My committee helped me plan a great event. The downside to being in charge is it's difficult to enjoy the actual event with your kids because you're making sure things are going smoothly. But, we had a great time. There are always ways to make things better but the kids had fun and that was the most important thing. Luckily, the rain held off so we could get the egg hunt done outside.

We had pictures with live bunnies, snacks, crafts, the Easter story, and the egg hunt. At our registration table, we had bags of different color jelly beans where each color coincided with an element of the salvation story. Our ministry team thought of that idea to give everyone who came one which I thought was great. Some of the pictures, you can't see the bunnies but some of them, the bunnies decided to poke their head out of the box. Some ladies made wonderful cookies and someone else tore up all the tissue paper for our craft. We borrowed a cattle ring and filled it with hay. Because it wasn't very big, we had to do the hunt in shifts but everyone had a good time. Some teenagers went in between shifts to re-fill the hay.

Photo area Listening to the story Craft area

After church on Easter, we went to the club for their annual lunch buffett and egg hunt. The food was delicious as always. However, the rain did not hold off for Sunday. So, instead of hunting eggs outside, the Easter bunny walked around with a huge bag of eggs for the kids to fill their buckets.

Then the kids got to pick out an Easter basket to take home. The rain let up enough so we could get some family pictures outside of the pro shop.

Our life...condensed

The month of January and part of February, our house was full of sickness. My husband and Becca took turns being sick. Darren had the flu, Becca had scarletina, Darren had a nasty congestion and then Becca had a stomach bug that lasted for days. Luckily, Barrett not I got anything. How that happened, I'll never know. I just know I was very vigilant about washing everyone's hands and trying not to get terribly close to those highly contagious for fear of me getting it, or worse, Barrett.

We had quite a few snow days in January and February. It was so nice to sleep in and I was glad when they had a day off. However, I was afraid we were going to end up going to school into June, but they decided to tack on 30 minutes to the end of the school day and take away the rest of our half days but at least we get out before Memorial Day. We didn't get to do as much sledding as we'd like, partly because Becca or Darren was sick some of those days.

April brought about Spring Break and Darren's mom came out to visit. We were trying to get the last of the house straightened up and it's never easy getting the kids out of the house. We were running a little behind anyway and we had to drive an hour to get to the airport. My mother-in-law called to tell me the plane came in early and they got their baggage quickly; so I was no longer going to be 5-10 minutes but more like 30 minutes. I'm hurrying as quickly as possible and I was getting off the interstate into the airport ramp going about 40. Then, I saw it, a cop sitting there and as soon as I passed, she pulled right behind me. Great; I knew I was going fast because I was already late but I'm not sure if I knew exactly what the speed limit was which was 25. Becca from the back seat tells her that we're late to pick up grandma. After taking what seemed like forever, she comes back to the car and lets me know she's letting me off with a warning. My mother-in-law was waiting outside with her luggage and she was very nice. Barrett warmed up to her immediately but he ended up with a nasty cough as a result of his allergies. So, he wanted mommy a little more but we still had a great visit. We went to the park and the jump zone and just had a good time sleeping in and having fun.

And now, here we are, almost the end of school and the end of kindergarten. Time has really flown and I know time will never completely slow down but I hope it will slow down just slightly enough to be able to do a few things I want to do, including keeping up with this blog. We're pretty busy this summer so there will be a lot to report on so stay tuned....

December cont.

For Barrett's birthday, we invited several of his little friends, plus our good friends who are like family. All of his friends have a sibling so we had a housefull but it was fun. Being that many of them were around 2, I didn't plan too many activities. I had a craft planned in case playing got boring, but they kept themselves pretty entertained. Birthday express had a cute 2-year-old farm theme and the cow and 2 balloons that came with them were pretty cute too. I love that I can just give our cake lady the invitation and she'll copy it. Darren grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and we had a good time.

Waiting for the guests to arrive Notice in the upper right hand corner, Barrett got his fingers in it Because we were leaving for OK the next day, we had our Christmas that night. I really debated whether or not to have birthday and Christmas in the same day. But, for one, I didn't know when else we could do it; two, I figured he won't remember doing them both in one day. I will definitely try and separate them most of the time, or maybe start doing a half birthday in the summer, we'll see.

December

How many times have I said this, but time really does fly. There are not enough hours in the day or days in the week to accomplish everything you want or need. So, I'm just now getting around to birthdays and Christmas.

The first weekend of December, we had our first annual Breakfast in Bethlehem event at our church. I stole the idea from a church in OK and our kids and parents loved it. We had snowman donuts from Krispy Kreme, told the Christmas story, and made clay pot nativities. Not everything went smoothly from my standpoint (I forgot my bible and Christmas story, some of the craft didn't go as planned, etc), but from everyone else's viewpoint, things went great. The craft was so neat, I don't know if we can find as good a one for next year. I guess I have all year to find one. I could always steal another idea. :) We got them the day before so some were melting The next weekend was Becca's birthday. Her actual birthday was on a Friday so we let her pick 1 friend to something with. She chose her friend Dominic and to go to McDonalds. The next day, we had her party at the Roller Dome. In the back, they have a ball pit and things to climb on so it's a great place for all ages. She really like Fancy Nancy (it's a book series for kids) so a our cake lady made us a great cake.

Love the 3 dimension Trying to skate Some of the guests The next day we went to a friend's birthday party and it started snowing. They actually closed the place early; it was a little slick driving home. So, we got our first snow and sledding in early. We took Becca's best friend with us. By the time we got there, the place we normally sled was well worn by others so we went to another hill. This was also Barrett's first time sledding.

Becca's first school program

You know, going to your child's school programs really is fun. You get to ooh and aah and truly marvel at how great your child is...or maybe sometimes how embarrassing your child can be at times. In kindergarten, they are supposed to learn so many nursery rhymes so they've been learning and doing art projects as well. A few weeks ago, they had the kindergarten classes (all 4) sing the songs and a few children act each out. Becca was a horse in Humpty Dumpty. There were probably 12-14 songs and the kids did a great job. My child is very comfortable at church because she is there all the time and knows a lot of people. So, when she's in front of the church, she doesn't mind raising her hand and talking or doing anything else. I guess she hasn't reached that level of comfort at school just yet. I think she's pretty comfortable in her classroom but with all the classes, in front of a lot of parents she doesn't know I guess was intimidating to her. At the end of the program, all the kids took turns walking by the microphone and saying their names. There are about 100-125 kids and only 3 or 4 didn't say their name...my child being one of them. She walked up close, paused and then kept walking with her finger in her mouth. You never really know what she's going to do; I guess she's more shy than I realized.

Becca has had a loose tooth but I never felt it was ready to pull. Last week, she came home with something around her neck; I thought a dentist had come visit her school. She then gave me a great big smile and showed me her tooth was missing! She told her teacher her tooth was really loose and she pulled it. Becca said it didn't even hurt. It's funny how excited I get for little milestones. I think I was almost as excited as she was and wanted to tell everyone. Darren and I were discussing the whole tooth fairy thing and trying to decide if we should give her $5 since it was her first tooth. However, he felt like she would expect that with every tooth and I agreed, so she got $2.

Rest of October

Darren's parents came the week after fall break. Becca was in school all day but that gave grandma a chance to spend some time with just Barrett. Unlike Becca who took a little time to warm up, Barrett warmed up instantly to them. He went right into grandma's arms without hesitation and spent to rest of the week getting her attention...of which he loves to be the center of. We had a nice visit; it was nice having another set of hands around the house and Darren's dad helped us do a few small projects that needed to be done around the house: light fixture in living room, Becca's toybox, kids bathroom sink all needed fixing...I think there were a few more but I don't remember. They finished the week at Becca's school at her fall festival. I had to work at Becca's class at the lollipop tree the first half hour but they enjoyed walking around playing games, etc. The guys went home after a little bit to do the cooking and we continued to play games. Barrett was getting fussy so we decided to go get them a bite to eat. They were supposed to have hot dogs and chili but when we got there...about an hour to hour and a half into it, they were out of hot dogs. After some convincing, Barrett decided the chili wasn't half bad.

The next week was final preparation for trunk or treat at our church. I was mainly in charge of putting it together. I spent the week running around gathering items, getting help, etc. Our pastor was making calls trying to generate more trunks as well. A couple of sweet ladies offered to come and help on Friday morning. They were helping me separate candy into buckets, make welcome bags for visitors, etc. My friend called me about an hour after I dropped Barrett off to tell me he had thrown up. Now tell me, why do kids get sick in the middle of the night or at the most inopportune times?? My husband was the only one at work so he couldn't leave. My wonderful, wonderful, friend called back and said in case it was one of those fluke things, she'd throw his clothes in the wash, give him one her son's shirts to wear and let me know if it happened again. Okay, that was on thing off my mind for the moment. Luckily, Barrett didn't throw up again who know why but I'm glad my friend was willing to keep him. I started around 9 or 9:30 and didn't stop until 7:30 that evening, except to go home, get Becca off the bus, get all the kids costumes, the brownies I made and everything else I needed to get things prepped. On the way to pick up Barrett, I remembered I hadn't put down numbers for the cake walk, so I stopped by Dollar General on my way and picked up some masking tape. I had a little over an hour to get the rest of the games set up and ready; we were working right up to the time people were standing around waiting for us but we did it. We had ours on Friday night to coincide with the downtown businesses who pass out candy on Halloween or the last business day before Halloweeen, so we catch a lot of foot traffic. There were some things that went smoothly and some things we could have done differently but the kids had fun and didn't really know the difference so I saw all in all it was a success.

Saturday, it was nice to sleep in, relax and not do much. Our town did Halloween on Saturday, so we invited some friends over to come and trick or treat with us. I didn't realize I didn't have a picture with just Becca and Barrett...maybe I should have them get dressed up again to take their pictures. I got Barrett's costume at the kids consignment sale. It was homemade and the tail really made the costume...there were several strangers who asked if they could take a picture and people were commenting on it all night. It was pretty cute with the tail dragging on the ground. I definitely got my $7 worth, plus it was warm which was a bonus. Becca was Jessie from Toy Story. I had already gotten Barrett's costume by the time Becca figured out what she was going to be. Next year, I need to find out what Becca wants and try and coordinate Barrett's costume. Lightning's Pit Crew, Mario, Jessie and my little stinker I know it's a little blurry but you get the effect