School Year End Fun- Field day and Preschool Graduation

Isn't this rainbow of children cute?

It was field day for the three middles(every class gets it's own color) and Ellie happened to match.

Field day is a whole day spent outside playing all sorts of fun games.  Nothing could be better on a warm-June-almost-the-end-of-school-day.

And it was also Preschool Graduation Day.

Songs.

Hugs.

And Done.

Simple. 

Then out to the field to meet up with the rest of the students.

Look who we found!

Happy Field Day to All!

My Traditional Before and After School Shots

2013/14 School Year

These kiddos make me so proud.  This year we had Cayden in preschool, Gracie in Kindergarten, Emma(a big dog on campus) as a third grader, and Ellie as a 5th grader.  All their teachers were super at managing thier little quirks, gifts, and inconsistencies.

Cayden was by far the one that got into the most trouble.  At least one day a week he'd come home with a frowny face on his take-home sheet.  But he kept trying to be good and to remember the rules and to help clean up and to be nice and share with his classmates.  We will be pounding the books this summer to help him get ready for Kindergarten in the fall.

Graice, our kindergartener, was stupendous to watch develope, just like all kindergarteners are.  I think it is just magical how you send them off in Sept and a few weeks later they are recognizing all their letters and are starting to read little words and then by the end of the year they come to you saying things like, "I don't even have to wait for anybody to read to me now, I can do it myself."  I love that little bit of freedom they earn.  She was a bit quiet in class but she made some good friends.

Emma was and probably will always be my little forgetful daughter.  Seriously, everyday I would wait for her to have some initiative to pull out her homework, get it done, and move on.  But nope.  She'd finish one part and go off somewhere and I would track her down to remind her that there was still Spelling or Math to do(Reading was the easy one).   She did good in class mastering the skills.  She had an old school teacher that spent some time teaching cursive.  Emma was one of the classmates that worked hard on learning it.  She is so proud of her new skill, especially since Ellie doesn't know how to write in cursive.  She has some good friends she has made along the years, but she is often the girl that feels picked on.  We try all we can to help her brush off these teasings, but any little thing is taken as an offense of the highest degree.  How do I help her work on that?

Ellie had a great year.  Its neat to see her confident and driven, but we are beginning to see signs of tween-ness coming on.  You can always tell when she is feeling a bit stressed.  Those little frustration tears come out so easily.  Its too cute(but of course I never laugh because it is a serious matter to her).  She had a good time in band and basketball and softball.  At the end of the year it got a little crazy with all three and more going on at once, but we managed.

 First day

Last day

First day

Last day

First day

Last day

First day

Last day

Check out how the teeth are doing;)

 First day

Last day

Christmas Piano Concert

The girls had such a good time performing for a nursing home for their Christmas concert.  

They each did so well.

 Gracie has just started having little five minute lessons before the other girls and she is loving it.  It is the cutest thing to see her sitting at the piano plunking out simple Christmastime melodies.

Not everybody enjoyed the concert.  

It put a few of the spectators asleep.

We love our Miss Loraine.  She is the best.  So fun.  She remembers ALL my kids birthdays and brings them little treats on holidays.  And she has a pretty adorable doggie.

Thank you Miss Loraine for another great piano year.

December Days

We had the sweetest time visiting a friend in this nursing home, but this little lady could not get enough of Emma.  And Emma was so adorable.  She happily gave her hug after hug.(we all know what a great hugger she is).

It made me so happy to see my daughter unafraid, confident, and so kind.

Do you OnGuard?

(essential oil from DoTerra)

We are nearly always cursed with catching some terrific bug while visiting AZ.  SO, for this upcoming holiday trip I decided we needed to try something to keep us heathy,

and it might have even worked!

Thanks, to my sister-in-law Katy.

New hair do.

@abellasbraids on instagram

My little snow nymph.

 Holiday gooey rolls.

Then off to AZ for another wonderful Christmas vacation.

I think my instagram descrpition reads, "Why would anybody be crazy enough to do this every year?"

And we are.  Crazy to see our family.  We miss them so.

Write it Down, so It's not Forgotten

A day I wanted remembered.

Everyone had a really nice day, except.....I made my kindergartener cry.

It was Friday and the girls were buying hot lunch(pizza day) and so no need to pack lunches.  Only I forgot that they would still need their morning snack.  Gracie came home in a huff.  "Mom, I had to sit at my desk alone while everyone else got to eat their snack!" she hollered at me.  I could see little tears starting to form and I imagine there were a lot more tears earlier that day during snack time.  I felt really bad, but not bad enough to take all the blame.  I made her a deal(deals are mine and Gracie's thing), if she reminded me about her snacks on Fridays, I would remember to pack them.

Ellie had a friend invite her horseback riding.  She still loves those horses.  Maybe, just maybe, we can let her do a little riding this year.  She will have to earn half the money for the weekly lessons and that would mean working at least three hours a week at the warehouse cleaning or filing.  I think she is up for it.

Emma was annoyed that Ellie had somewhere to go after school and she did not, but I made her favorite meal(baked mac and cheese) for dinner and her favorite babysitter came over that evening.

Cayden cried like a banshie when Adam and I were trying to leave for our date.  He kept yelling, "I hate Jessica(our really, really nice babysitter)!"  Which is ridiculous, he loves her, and has told us so many times.  He just doesn't like to see Adam leave without him.  It breaks his poot little heart.

Adam and I had a really nice date.  We hadn't narrowed down any plans before leaving.  I had a meal to drop off for a gal in my church that needed it and then we had rough idea about dinner and maybe a movie.  But I think we are kinda over "going to the movies".  All that money to sit and stare at a screen when really we should be spending out time talking, informing each other about our thoughts and worries and just general news. There is not a lot of time for that in our busy lives.  But after dropping off my meal, Adam got a call about a family in need and it was off to the grocery store for us daters for some neccesities for them.  He serves as the bishop of our congregation and one of his main responsbilities is to look after the welfare of those in his charge.

*More on how service in done in our chruch here in this link. 

So we flirted in the grocery isles, snuck in a kiss in the parking lot after checkout and headed over to deliver our goods to the family.  After a short visit we were ready for dinner.  The closest place was the Waterbury mall, but after getting out of the truck we just weren't feeling the vibe of the place-especially since Adam couldn't get his toolboxes to lock and the base music of the parking lot was making the earth quake.  We jumped back in an headed to our little hometome, stopped at the warehouse-cause we always have to stop and the warehouse for something- and dropped into the "Tavern" to have a great meal.  I am never driving to eat out again, the food was that good.  We had to wait a bit for a table, but we used that time to stroll down main street just talking about how much we have grown to love this town.  We've spent nine happy years here and plan on spending quite a few more.

Our Doggie Days

I don't know where to start with this post.  

It's not my usual "my life is so fun" post.

This about a mistake I made.

I let "my emotions/my wants/my do what everybody else is doing" get the best of me.

I have a few theories to why I wanted to get my kids a dog. Some are deep and others are shallow.

1.  They have been asking for years and they are getting better at arguing.

2.  I have two little boys and dogs are a boys best friend and my boys need some rough and tumble friends.

3.  I see "busy" families(with two working parents) managing their dogs and I don't like feeling that my kids are missing out just because our family is larger than most.

4.  Since buying the company earlier this year, I have felt the need to create our permanent life here.  To  secure our traditions and fulfill some dreams.  No more putting stuff off.  A dog was always in the "plans" but it was supposed to be in the next house.  And since our "next house" got pushed down the list a bit to after "paying off our business" I figured a dog could fit in this house just as well as any other.

5.  When your baby is almost two years old, some women start feeling the need for another baby.  I wasn't going to let that happen to me again and hoped a puppy would push those potential "I want a newborn" feelings away.

Anyhow, with all these things going on in my mind I somehow convinced Adam that we should do it.  He was against it, firmly, but he listened to my wants and the kids' and made us jot all the consequences and the initial expenses(adoption fee, crate and food, and fence) up on our blackboard.  He showed the girls how their entire summer earnings would be spent on the dog and tried to convince them with other enticing purchases that they could make.  When he saw that they coudl not be swayed he agreed.

And the next day, the girls and I picked out Penny at an adoption event.

Can I tell you what an angel this little dog was?

I had no idea dogs could be this good.

Right away she was loving and playful and patient.

But the poor girl was still a doggie, and she was a lot of work.  Work I am OK with.  I have 5 kids, I can clean up after living creatures-no problem.  The real hang up for me was, that while people warn you that adding a dog is like adding a family member, these specific types of family members have a whole new set of demands.

You can't take them everywhere with you like a kids, but you can't leave them home alone for too long either.  You always have to hold onto them when you do take them out, and its best to take them for a walk at least once a day.

They are potty trained but it happens outside, rain, shine, or snow.  This concept was really causing me anxiety as I knew our kids were not going to be at all helpful with this when it was too cold outside.

And don't forget the dog sitting we would need on our vacations!

I was feeling completely trapped as I imagined how our life was now chained to this (cute)four legged creature.  How could I have sacrificed so much of my freedom(since 5 kids leaves me almost no freedom already)?

On the second school day afternoon after a very long day, when I was corraling the homework and piano and keeping the baby from escaping the backyard and chopping up dinner ingredients, I found little Penny in the basement with the smitherings of a nerf football and I had my second official panic attack(the first was when we found out we were pregnant with #2 a bit too early after #1), tears and all. With a quick call to the shelter we had an appointment to take her back the next evening.

Thankfully my kids took it so well. We had been talking about how much work she was and how worried it was making Mom.  Emma summed it up the best that night at bedtime, "Mom, dogs are a lot more work than they are cute and cuddly."

We hope the very best for our Penny, the kids still talk about her with love.  Adam was a bit dissapointed in our flaky-ness especially since he had really started to like her.  But overall, I am grateful for the experience.  We all learned a great lesson that will stick with us.