It's been HOW LONG???

Apparently time has flown. Brendan graduated from first grade and has made it through most of the second grade with amazing ease. He'll be turning 8 in two weeks and he is an interesting mix of sweet little boy and obnoxious, icky, big kid. Ashton has grown from a little snuggle bunny into a ferocious monster of an almost-three-year-old. When we picked him up from Sunday School today the tween helper couldn't wait to tell us that "He ATTACKED 3 kids". Great. We've created a monster!

But on to what's really been going on. One word. PINTEREST. Here are some recent projects that were Pinterest-inspired.

This is a Scrabble tile crossword with all of our names and some warm fuzzy words

Brendan's Valentines for his classmates (this is just a sample-there were 25 of them) made out of matchboxes, scrapbook paper, stickers and heart shaped brads.

This is what we made Robin for Valentine's Day- a giant Rice "Kisspie" treat!

This is a Lego table for B's school auction fundraiser. Made from a thrift store table with a lot of paint and paper "Lego" creations made by the kids. The black is a "road" for toy cars and the Lego side flips over to make a solid white table top. It sold in the auction for $400!

Ashton & I made this for Easter- it's a canvas with acrylic paint.

HOW did I survive all those long years without Pinterest?

B's First Week of First Grade

So, last week was B's first week of school. First grade, which was quite an accomplishment given that his Kindergarten teacher told us mid-year that he probably wouldn't be "graduating" from K... He's not gonna be our straight A, spelling bee champion child. Not that he's stupid by any means- he's extremely bright, has a huge vocabulary and he knows how to use it, he just has better things to do than sit around learning to read and write.... BORING!

We were hoping for a great start to the year- I made up a schedule for maximum efficiency, had the new school clothes all lined up in the closet ready to be mixed & matched (pretty easy when they have a semi uniform dress-code), early bedtime eased into, lunch menu planned out, homework and reading time scheduled, etc. I was so confident that this was going to be a stellar year and the beginning of a stellar school career for B.

Well, the week was going pretty well until we got to school. The first day. We parked in the only teeny tiny spot left in the parking lot so our happy little family could walk in together and experience the bittersweet goodbyes. B, in all his excitement to get his backpack out of the car, swung the door open a bit too far and oops! Door ding in the car next to us. Only he kinda didn't mention it to us. So we said goodbye, got a sweet hug and kiss in front of the whole class and went on our happy way oblivious to destruction we had left behind. Until I got a call from the police about an "incident" in the parking lot. Holy cow, I was wracking my brain trying to remember if I had run over someone in my quest to get to school on time! The kind officer explained that a parent was claiming we had dinged the door on her (of COURSE!) brand new truck with our rear passenger door. B admitted that "Maybe the door banged when I was getting my backpack out" so I called the other mom who turned out to be super nice (like the kind of person I could actually be friends with if my son hadn't dinged her door) and arranged to take care of it. We're still awaiting the estimate so we can figure out how many years of allowance B owes us. And he's hopefully learned a few lessons about being careful and telling us when he damages someone's property, even if it is an accident.

Days 2 and 3 went without incidents. The report each day was something like this:

- The teacher is mean and yells a lot (if you knew the teacher you would laugh at this).
- Recess happens at least 5 or 6 times a day (?)
- His new favorite pastime is chasing girls.
- He's made lots of friends but he doesn't know any of their names.
- He hasn't learned anything. Nothing. See my note above about him almost flunking Kindergarten.....
- That's about it.

Day 4 began with a meltdown before school. B can tie his own shoes but he likes me to do it because I can get them super tight. And you know shoes need to be tied super tight for maximum speed when chasing girls. We were running a bit late so I told him he needed to tie his own shoes. That turned out to be the wrong thing to say because he then proved to me that he had indeed learned something recently. I'm not sure if it was at school or from someone who lives in this house whose name I will not mention (but it rhymes with BADDY). Yes, he learned a four letter word. A bad one. Probably the worst one. And he used it correctly as in "YOU KNOW I CAN'T TIE MY F-ING SHOES TIGHT ENOUGH!" Ok, I guess that's not really a 4 letter word but you get the point.

I was hoping that day 5 would be an uneventful ending to the week but no, I got a call from the school nurse. On one of the 5 or 6 daily recesses, B and another boy crashed into eachother while chasing girls and B ended up with a big ole shiner. He was OK- no concussion thank goodness, but now he thinks part of his "eyebrow bone" is missing. Too bad we can't have the other mom pay to fix the ding in his head!

It's gonna be a loooooong year.

Snuggle Bunny

Yesterday I had all kinds of stuff planned- meeting with my fellow Discussion Group Leaders for MOPS, lunch with a dear friend and B's last t-ball game. Until sweet little A woke up with a fever. All the thoughts started racing through my head. You know the ones. "What if I cancel everything and then he feels better in an hour?" "Should I call the Dr.?" "If I call the Dr. and make an appointment, A will be just fine by the time we get there and then all the nice ladies at Dr. S's office will think I'm on of THOSE parents, not to mention the $45 we'll be out for our stupid co-pay." (Although seeing my secret crush, Dr. S, is always worth that $45... ;) ) "What if he has West Nile Virus and I'm NOT taking him to the Dr.?"..... "I'm a terrible parent." "Do I add a degree when I take his temp. under his arm or not?"

Finally, the rational part of me decided we needed to stay home and see how things went. I called everyone and cancelled everything and then I sat. All day. With a very warm little boy snuggled up on my chest. At first I drove myself crazy thinking of everything I *should* be doing. The dishes and laundry were calling my name and the family room floor was yelling my name. But every time I moved, A would whimper and snuggle in even closer. So I sat. And began to relax. And decided that there was no where else on earth I'd rather be. It won't be long before mommy can't fix all the owies with a kiss, or make a feverish baby all better by holding him close. But right now I can. And that's all that matters.

Today, well, A woke up feeling 110% better and ready to take on the world (or at least the house) and the snuggles are a thing of the past. It's back to laundry, dishes, vacuuming and rescuing A from all the crazy situations he gets himself into. Would it be too much to ask for just one more day of snuggling?

Here goes!

Well, I figured it's about time I get into this blogging thing. It seems like I'm always a few years behind in the technology department. Flat screen/hd/plasma tv? Laptop computer? DVR? Tivo? Tweeting? Um... nope, nope, nope, nope and nope. But I do have a (barely) functioning computer and some crazies in my house to provide some great material so here goes!