First day of school

Both kids have returned to school. I'm not sure who was more excited, me or them? Londynn is now in 1st grade and Boston just started his 2nd year of preschool. The years are flying by.

A Birthday to remember

At least that's what I told my kids. They better remember this birthday party because I don't know when their next one will be. With Londynn's and Boston's birthdays 2 weeks apart my sister had a great idea of combining the two and having a backyard carnival. While I knew it would be a lot of work it sounded like a fun idea. I'm not going to lie, it was kinda fun planning it. Took a lot of time but still fun. I was able to borrow a couple of the big games from my sisters friend and then I threw together the others. In all we had 7 games. Duck pond, go fish, ball toss, bean bag throw, plinko, spin the wheel and face painting/tattoos.

I love this picture of Boston. Makes me laugh every time I see it.

Austin, Will, Lincoln, Luke, Boston and Hogan

Ian

I had to talk Londynn into dressing up as a clown so we could get a picture. She agreed as long as she didn't have to wear the nose.

Londynn and Kate

Hogan

Birthday Girl!! I can't believe she's 7.

Overall it was a great party. We were threatened with rain after we played games and had had dinner so the party was moved indoors for singing and presents. It was complete chaos for 2 hours and there was no way I could have pulled it off without the help from my family, but I think the kids had a blast. We loaded them full of sugar and cheap toys and sent them home.

Looooong December

Londynn has the WHOLE month of December off from school. To keep myself from going crazy we came up with a sticker/reward chart. Good behavior and doing jobs around the house earns them stickers. Bad behavior and not listening makes them lose stickers. When they have earned so many stickers they get to pick a fun activity to do. So far they LOVE it.

The first reward up was making play dough. Who knew making play dough was so easy. The kids loved help make it and best of all they each got to choose what colors they wanted.


I asked Boston to smile for the camera and this is the look I get.




Such a simple activity that has provided hours of entertainment for the last couple of days.

He's off

Well my not so little guy started preschool this week. To say he was excited was an understatement. I was a little sad because I wasn't able to go inside and drop him off because I had to get Londynn to school. I pulled up and dropped him off and the kid didn't even look back. I can't believe he's already in school. He was definitely ready for something. He's been asking to go to school since Londynn started preschool. I'm excited to see how he grows this year and I also can't complain of the 2 1/2 hours of free time I have 2 times a week.



This was my attempt to get a picture of them together. Londynn would having nothing to do with it.

The unthinkable

I did what I thought I would never do yesterday. Londynn has afternoon Kindergarten. We are well within walking distance from the school but being the lazy mom that I am I always drive her to school. Picking her up from school however is a different story. I forget how crazy pick up can be and all the cars so I have been choosing to walk to school to pick Londynn up. She knows to wait for me at the flag pole that way she is easy to find. Yesterday I thought I would I have her start to walk home and I would meet her. On the way to school I showed her where I would be waiting. If I was where I said I would be I would be able to see her walk from the flag pole to me. I thought this would be a great idea because then she could get the feel to start walking on her own and also make my walk a little less long in the scorching afternoon heat.

The afternoon rolled around and I was dragging. I told myself I would just lay down for a little bit knowing that I would never be able to fully fall asleep because Boston is still around and needs me (he usually comes in my room multiple times while I am trying to rest). Just to make sure I wouldn't be asleep when school got out I set my alarm. Well before I knew it I was waking up and it was 3:35, school gets out at 3:25. I jump out of bed and realize that Boston had also gone to his bed to take a nap. I hurry and wake him up and run out the door thinking that I was late but still would okay. As I came to the place where I had told Londynn to meet me, Londynn was no where in site and the last of the school kids were just crossing the crosswalk. My heart sunk. The nice crosswalk lady asked me if I had a little girl I was picking up. She informed me that Londynn had come to the crosswalk and didn't know where to go to from there. She was in tears. She had sent her to the office to call me. At this time I could see her walking towards the office so I called her name. She heard me and turned around and I don't think I have ever seen that girl run so fast. I was heartbroken.

Needless to say I think I learned my lesson about taking naps/resting while my kids are gone at school. It took a lot of convincing and promises to get Londynn to go to school today and I honestly can't blame her. I traumatized the poor child. Here's to hoping that today is a better day.

It finally arrived

The first day of kindergarten that is. I feel like I have been waiting for this day for a long time. Londynn has a September birthday so she missed the August deadline. I feel like she has been ready for school for awhile. She needed something to keep her busy and quite frankly I needed it to. Everyone always talks about how they cried after sending there first child off to kindergarten. Maybe I was to preoccupied with getting packed up to head to our family reunion after she got out of school for this to really hit me. Either way she was so excited and I was happy for her that I'm happy to admit no tears were shed. She is LOVING school.

Growing up

My little girl has done a lot of growing up these last couple weeks. It started about 1 week ago when she lost her first tooth. She was SO excited. She was able to pull the tooth out herself with a little help from her aunt Kelsey. She was fully aware of the fact that the tooth fair was going to make an appearance that night.

At around 11:30 that night Londynn comes walking into our room excited to tell us that the tooth fair had come and had left her $2. I understand the excitement and didn't mind being woken up; however, the events that continued to happen after that left me less than thrilled. We told londynn that we were happy for her and to take her money and return to bed, which she did. Five minutes later she was back in our room saying that she thinks she heard the tooth fairy in her closet and wanted us to come and check it out. Sure why not it's only 11:30 and we're half awake. Jared gets up to check things out and returns to bed. A couple minutes later Londynn has returned, this time she says she's seen a little orange light and that it's the tooth fairy. She's to scared to return to bed. By this time Jared and I are furious. Londynn is being the drama queen that she is and won't stay in bed, Jared and I are tired and just want to go back to bed. We finally ended up taking her $2 away and threatening her with her life (okay not really but we definitely were not happy) if she didn't return to bed. I'm happy to report that she stayed in bed from then on. I think the next time a tooth is lost we will have to inform the tooth fairy to make an appearance while she is at school.

Her next growing up moment happened last night and today. Our little princess graduated from preschool. I really didn't know what to expect having my oldest child graduate and I was surprised when I found myself shedding a few tears after I picked her up from her last day today. I think she also felt that sadness because once we returned home she also broke into tears saying that she already missed her teachers and didn't want to go to kindergarten she wanted to go back to preschool.

Preschool for Londynn did amazing things. I can't believe how much she's grown and learned over the course of the year. Not a day went by that she wasn't asking if she had school that day and wanted to know what she would be learning at school. One thing about my little girl that didn't change was her fear of being center of attention or being on stage. My little girl definitely has a strong will. I could offer her the world and if she didn't want to do something, she simply would not do it. No convincing could change her mind.

Last night was her graduation. We invited grandma and grandma to come even though we knew that the chance of her getting on stage and participating was slim. We showed up and there was a chair on stage with her name on it. She was the only child not up there. Being her mom there is still a part of me that is saddened when I can't get her to participate but over the last couple years I think I've come to accept this as being part of londynn (and quite honestly I have no where to talk because she gets this from me).

Another school year over and a new chapter beginning. It sure is fun watching my kids grow up even if it makes me cry.