Library Fun

Baby girl and I went to the library today- this is our normal Monday event. Even though the library here is brand new and super fun, neither of the big boys like to go if they don't have to, so it has become something that Evelyn and I do together every Monday morning before we pick up Jacob from school. Owen just finished the series by Lemony Snickett A Series of Unfortunate Events (13 books total!!) and I was desperately searching for something new for him- luckily for me, the librarians are very sweet and were able to load me up with a stack of books for him to try.  Choosing books for an 8 year old boy is TOUGH. First, it's tough to find a book at that age level that is actually meant for boys. Then, my boy doesn't want a book with an animal protagonist, he doesn't like sports, he doesn't like dragons or mystical creatures... See why I was needing a librarian's help??

My library is also equipped with a number of self checkout stations, which are a wonderful timesaver. Of course, I was checking myself out one book at a time, then placing, one book at a time, each book back into my canvas bag.  After completing checkout, I noticed my bag was considerably lighter... Baby girl had been "helping." As I checked a book out and placed it into the bag, she would remove that book and slide it down the "Returns" slot at the front desk... But she was so proud of herself. It's tough to do anything but laugh. :)

Evelyn, on her way to "return" a book

Easter Pics

Yes, I know that Easter is very over... and I know that I haven't posted in quite a while. A thousand apologies.

Our Easter was incredibly low-key. The boys each had egg hunts and parties at their respective schools, so I really felt no pressure to do anything too special here.  The kids woke up Easter morning to find their baskets had been filled in the night, we dyed eggs, and had ham for dinner.  That's it!

It is difficult for me to be so far from my family during a holiday... maybe that's why we don't have a large celebration. But perhaps, for my children being so far from family, a big celebration is what they need. 

Something to keep in mind for the next holiday?

The field full of eggs at J's school

J's class' Easter party feast!

After O's egg hunt and party at his school, his original Easter basket finally bit the dust.  I took him to the store to replace his basket and instead of picking a ready-made one, he chose a plain one and decided to embellish it himself. Love that crafty kid!

O's eggs (left snail, right alien)

J's egg on the left, mine on the right

We call this one "Mr. Cool Guy". He's my favorite. :)

The next post won't take so long to arrive.... I promise.

-Kerry

He reads!

This kid is amazing! He read both of these books on his own at 5 years old!! That is a whole year ahead of when his big brother began reading... not that I am comparing or anything. :)

4.10.12

Tuesday is my new favorite day of the week.  Why? Well, it may have something to do with the kids having no school on Monday this week...

We had "leftover" Snow Days this year, so the school district decided to give those days back to the kids as "freebies" and they got to enjoy a long Easter weekend having off Friday and Monday.  Pretty strange for this Alaskan-born-and-bred lady to celebrate a Snow Day with 85 degree weather, let-me-tell-you-what.

Those extra days the kids had off from school made me grateful all over again that I chose to be a stay-at-home mom... My husband was not given those 2 days off work, and unless they work for the school district, I'm sure many other parents had the same situation.  Not to get all sappy sentimental here, but there are times that I feel so lucky to be home with my kids. YES, they drive me batty, YES they are wild monkeys and I am no longer taking them to a store (or other public place), but my family doesn't have to play the "Who stays home from work?" game when things like this come up. It is worth the loss of extra income, it is worth the days without adult interaction, it is worth being pigeon-holed into a stereotype of a 1950's era housewife to know that when my kids get sick, I am here. When they are hungry and grumpy after school and just need some "down time", I am here.  When they don't have school that day... guess what? No problem, because I am here.

And I LOVE being here. But boy oh boy... when they go back to school on Tuesday after having Monday off... Well, I love that too.

***

Ok, enough on that mushy gushy stuff.

So, this morning, while getting the boys ready for school, I see a note shoved down into O's backpack (he's a boy... he's 8... this is his organizational style).  It announces that HIS school has been chosen to greet Mrs. Perry, the Texas governor's wife, as she arrives at the Art Museum to make a speech. Today. Tuesday.

Good thing he didn't need anything special for it!

He was so excited when he left this morning. "Oh that's right Mom, I'm going to meet the First Lady today!"  He was awed by the importance and significance of such a monumental moment in his short 8 years of life.  I was proud that I had raised such a patriotic child. 

I wish I could have been there to see it.  The paper described the kids wearing their school shirts and waving American flags as Mrs. Perry enters.... *tear*

This was the reaction I got from him this afternoon:

"It was hot and we had to wait for one whole HOUR. Then, she just said, 'blah blah blah Main Street' or something and she left.  Oh, and they showed us a picture of her and it was a young lady, but when she got there she looked really old."

And so goes my child's first dalliance into politics.

Oh well.

Mrs. Perry during the speech, post flag-waving. I think she look pretty good, don't you??

 

 

**If you're interested in the story of the First Lady of TX's visit, here's the link** http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2012/apr/10/texas-first-lady-confers-award-on-san-angelo-in/

4.5.12

Oh boy. You know those moments when you have done something awful, something horrible, something completely regrettable... and the worst part is, you knew better. Yes, I am talking about taking the kids shoe shopping today.

{cringe}

See?? I'm still completely traumatized!

In my defense, I only had the two youngest with me (yeah, I really did think that only having TWO would make a difference... HA!). 

The minute we walked in the doors, J says "I have a belly ache." Now, you and I know that he really just has to poop, and what I also know is that he will not, under any circumstances, do this in an unfamiliar toilet. The best thing to do at this point is just soldier through the shoe store and get home ASAP.

Meanwhile, baby girl (who is fully mobile, like running) takes off headlong into "Women's 10 1/2-11" and proceeds to bring me every glittery, sequined, shiny giant ladies' shoe that is at toddler level. C'mon, sweet girl, mommy's feet may be big, but really??

Okay. So, Jacob's feet get measured, he needs a whole size up from last time (seriously! I need to stop feeding these kids or something! Or maybe I can get them to take up smoking??) and I desperately try to grab and shove onto his feet anything, anything at all that looks remotely like anything he would wear- think light-up flashers and cartoon characters...

Oh but wait! Where's the baby?? Ohhhhhhhhh.... there she is!! She's sitting so sweetly next to a giant pile of bracelets and earrings that she has removed from the standing kiosk... oh and that's super, she's also removed the price stickers and is eating them. Oh, and look, she not only got all the merchandise off of the rack, she's also helpfully removed all the hooks that the shiny, glittery jewelry was hanging on.

Awesome!

I rip the tags off of J's new shoes, hand them to the cashier to ring up and attempt to scoop up all the merchandise that my sweet, precocious daughter has ever so helpfully rearranged for the store, and I whip out my debit card to pay for J's shoes and I tell the cashier that I have a 20% off coupon, but I have forgotten it in the car and could she please please please just give us the discount without me having to run back outside for the coupon (you know, so we can just get the heck out of the store, right?).

Ah, no.

And the whole reason that we came shopping for new shoes TODAY is because of that stupid coupon that expires TODAY. So, I pick up E, I have J come outside the doors of the store and stand right there, young man, DO NOT MOVE.  I run to the car (don't worry, only 20 ft or so from the door), carrying E, grab the coupon, look down and realize that she is no longer wearing her own shoes, but some glittery monstrosity in Women's Size 10 1/2 and that the employees of this store probably are thinking that I have used all this commotion as some bizarre and elaborate scheme to shoplift said pair of shoes...

I run back to the store, see J standing right by the doors, just as I left him EXCEPT he has in his hands strings and strings of shoelaces. What?? Uh yeah. In my haste to get to the car for the coupon, I didn't see that he'd been holding packets of shoelaces in his hands, you know, from the display by the register. He chose to pass the time waiting for my return by unravelling all the laces from their packaging. 

Seriously?? Who are these kids??

I paid, they allowed us to leave- me mumbling apologies and trying to avoid looking anyone in the eyes.

Oh, and yes, J used the bathroom as soon as we got home, and feels much better now, thank you.

I know, I know, they are just being kids... nothing was malicious or mean, but I can see now that my kids are at that dangerous age... too much impulse and not enough impulse control.

Looks like we have something to work on!

For now though, baby is napping, boys are playing outside (nicely! together!), I've got my sewing machine rocking and Janis Joplin cranked up.

Mommy's "happy place"

I just love happy endings, don't you?

~Kerry

4.3.12

Since I posted last... Brian returned from Washington DC (personal invite from the president, you know... no, not really) just in time to save me from going absolutely insane being the sole caretaker to these 3 wild animals who call me "Mom".  I seriously don't know what I would do if he ever deploys and leaves us for an extended period of time. We have been so lucky to not have to deal with that... but like any military family, we know that it's always a possibility.

Poor man. He would probably return from deployment to a houseful of feral children and a wife who is muttering to herself in the corner. Still in her bathrobe. Drinking coffee from 2 weeks ago. Yep, I can see it now....

Ok, ok back to the here and now.

Last week I volunteered in O's classroom- helping the kids sew superhero capes from fabric they had brought to school. Very simple design- each cape consists of an outer layer of fabric and then a liner. They also had cut out decorations that they will (at a later date) attach to the cape.  Anyway, both J and E joined me in the classroom (which was a HUGE hit for the kids) and I sewed with the kids. It was a wonderful idea that the teacher had - to have the kids be involved in the making of their capes as much as possible, having them do all the pinning and then supervised sewing with the machine. Unfortunately, I don't think the teacher anticipated just how time consuming this project would be... I was in the classroom for an hour and a half... and I was able to help complete TWO capes.  At the end of the day, I asked O's teacher if I could help her out by taking the capes home to sew them... and she happily agreed.  So, I spent last night sewing together 18 super hero capes- it took me two hours to do all of them (much better than how it went in the class room!) and I LOVED seeing all the combinations that the kids came up with! It was fun trying to guess whose cape was whose, based on what I know about these kids. 

And now, here is the handsome 2nd grader modeling his own cape... You can't see it in this picture, but the liner is RED. :)

This is his "crime-fighting" face

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today's naptime project:

After E went down for nap today, J and I started tearing up the wooden deck. We have a large, wonderful concrete patio, and this wooden deck seems to have been built to add onto that. BUT- it's all warped and yucky, plus it just doesn't work for our family... It's just such a weird space! So, up it goes! 

Working hard!

Happy Tuesday!
~ Kerry

4.1.2012

Lesson from my daughter: Life is too short to not wear your party dress as an "every day" dress. Especially if you wear it while eating watermelon on a porch swing on a sunny Sunday.