100 Days of School

I had very little notice for the 100th day of school and 100th day of school projects this year.  That means I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off on the 99th day.  We stamped 100 things on shirts, easy peasy lemon squeezie as Caden would say.  Next year, these shirts will fit perfectly! LOL.  Oh well.  They didn't care.

One of these days, I'll be blamed!

One day, Allie is going to blame me for dressing her, but I haven't chosen her clothes since she was two. It's all her style!

Bad, Bad Mommy

Get that boy some new jammies!

Monday Monday

This morning was weird, but I liked it.  Instead of being woken up way too early by kids and a dog, I got to wake up by myself at almost 7.  Caden came in shortly after.  I took Gracie out and got Caden breakfast.  At 7:15, I got Allie up.  She was actually awoke with her DS in her bed, but she was in her bed, not up and bothering her sister because her sister doesn't sleep in the same room anymore.  Awesome.  I roused Jaelyn after Allie and finally rolled her out of bed around 7:20.  She slept until 8 yesterday and I bet she would have done that today if I hadn't had to get her up.  We started Jaelyn on a new medicine on Thursday for her ADHD and other things.  A side effect is sleepiness.  She should adjust to it in a week or so, but for now, I'm enjoying having a well rested Jaelyn because a well rested Jaelyn is a happier Jaelyn.

Allie has a doctor's appointment today to check in on her ADHD medicine.  Then I need to stop at the grocery store and the library before coming home to fold a mountain of clean laundry.  It's Monday!

Happy 7th Birthday

We were three weeks late, but finally celebrated Caden's birthday last weekend.  We rented the indoor pool at the gym and invited Caden's whole class.  We had a good turn-out, about 17 kids including ours.  Caden had a ball playing and splashing with all of his friends.

I was amazed to see all these six and seven years old kids climb to the top of the high dive and jump off as if it were no big deal.  Some of them were truly crazy with their jumps.

This is Sam, Caden's best friend.  Sam lives two cul-de-sacs down from us and the kids play together several days a week.  I wish we lived a little closer.  It's been great for him to have a friend so close.

This is Rachel...love letter Rachel.  She's cute, no?  The silly sun messed up my picture, but you get the idea of their friendship.

I don't know how the kids managed to stay in the water as long as they did.  Last time we swam, the water was like bath water, this time, it was C-O-L-D.  You can practically see Jaelyn's teeth chattering in this picture.  We swam for an hour, had pizza and cake and then swam for another thirty minutes.

Seventeen kids polished off 5 large Pizza Hut pizzas, half a sheet cake, and a box of mini ice cream sandwiches.  These are growing kids.

We brought all the presents home to open.  Caden scored on cool new things.

It was a great party.  I missed the family trip to Wolfe Lodge that Caden normally chooses over a friend party, but he made some great memories with his friends!   

A First Love Letter

I like this girl!  No seriously, I love her.  I spend a couple hours a week in Caden's class and R is just as sweet as can be.  These are the best snippets from the book she made him.

Jaelyn Loves Her

Jaelyn Loves Her

Allie's Room Reveal

TGIF

What a week!  What a month!  What a year!  Ha and it's only January.  Dan's in a class this week.  He leaves early and gets home later, not really late, but every minute counts when someone is screaming at me, right?  I feel worn down this week.  I'm sure the gray skies, rain and low temperatures haven't helped.  I'm not going to share details, but we've found help for us in the form of a psychologist here and a psychiatrist in Springfield.  It's not going to be an easy road, but we are taking the real first steps.  We've taken these steps before, but this time, I feel like I have people actually hearing what I'm saying.

We are also full swing into hillbilly karate or hardcore martial arts depending on which teacher is there.  It's a different person every night (which was 3 this week).  Caden is so serious and loving it.  Allie is semi-serious.  She's learning, but she's having fun too.  Jaelyn is all about the big smile and the fun.  I think Caden will have his black belt before she makes it to yellow.  Oh well, it's an activity and Dan takes them which gives me an hour to clean the kitchen and prep for bedtime craziness. 

I've also shuffled my volunteer hours at school because a teacher changed her schedule so I'm at school 3 days instead of 2 and some how I went from 6 hours to 8.  I'm a sucker when a teacher excitedly says "so you can stay till 1:30 now?"  I do love the teachers and I enjoy helping most days.  I had problems with two third graders yesterday that reminded me of why I never want to teach again.  I was able to go to the teacher and say "they won't cooperate" and she got to deal with them.  It was awesome.

Yesterday was filled between being at school and shopping and making 100 days of school projects.  I think they turned out very well.  That'll become it's own post later maybe.  100 days down, 80 to go and they can't go fast enough as far as the kids are concerned.

Currently, I'm listening to a little puppy barking because she wants out of her crate.  She was spayed yesterday and is on strict no running, no jumping, no excitement orders till tonight.  The anesthesia is out of her system this morning and all she wants to do is jump and play.

My big project of the day is to do some major furniture rearranging.  The plan moving here was to put the girls in their own rooms.  That hit a snag when we saw the size of one huge bedroom.  There's been more fighting and fussing lately and I overheard Allie telling her teacher she wished she had her own room (benefit of volunteering - easedropping on your children)...so she's getting it.  Her room is going to be our guest room, which is really tiny, but with some creativity, I think I can make it work.  Jaelyn is still going to have to share her room, but only with the guest room furniture so she'll have a room to herself 99% of the year.

Tomorrow is Caden's birthday party, finally.  One year, I'm going to plan it before the holidays so it'll happen ON his birthday.  Out of 25 kids, 10 RSVPed.  We might have a lot of pizza, cake and goodie bags left over, but it'll be fun no matter how many kids come.  We are renting the indoor pool for a splashing good time.
That's what's going on at my three ring circus.  Stay tuned for Caden's birthday party, hi first love letter (received, not sent) and our 100 day of school projects.  I'm getting there....slowly but surely.

The Mae Mae

Gracie is getting big.  She weighs about 20 pounds now.  She's getting tall.  She can stand at our gate with her armpits resting on the top.  She can reach anything on the table or the counter.  She swiped a tortilla one night when I was cooking.  She's a sly one, that Gracie Mae.

The other night I found this in her bed.

The girls don't really need to memorize 9x12, do they?  The stack of flash cards had been in the middle of the dining room table.  Anything and everything is fair game from now on.

I found a puppy obedience class that starts tomorrow night.  I'm thinking Gracie and I need to take a night class!

We found one of Gracie's baby molar yesterday.  She's lost several baby teeth, but this is the first one we found.  Jaelyn wrote the tooth fairy a note and we left Gracie's tooth by her crate.  The kids were so excited that the tooth fairy took her tooth and left her a new ball.  We have the best, if slightly forgetful, tooth fairy!

Moose Poop and The Jae-Byrd

It's here and Jaelyn earned the right to open it after a day of complete cooperation.  The Queen of Brussels Sprouts outdid herself.  She found Jaelyn a "Moose Nugget Necklace" and "Flowering Moose Nuggets."  I can't wait for spring so we can plant the seeds and see what grows from Moose Manure.  The best part is where she bought them.  Where else but an Alaskan Walmart would you buy moose poop art???

Out and About

I cannot remember the name of this place to save my life...something mill spring - help me Dan.  Last weekend, we had to get out of the house.  Dan decided we should check out this place on base.  It's on the other side of Happy Hollow for those folks that have been there with us.  The spring feeds a creek that runs into the creek that flows through Happy Hollow - make sense?

We walked on a short trail to the spring.  It'll be a beautiful spot in the spring and summer to picnic and play at.  I'm not sure if you can swim in the spring or not, but I know we can at Happy Hollow.

Gracie loved playing in the last little bit of snow on the bridge.

She wanted to go in the water so badly!  She managed to get her front legs in, but that's about it.

The highlight of the outing was collecting "seaweed" and "cooking" it for lunch.

Maybe Playing Part Two

Maybe Play...Maybe Not

Gracie's Toys

Gracie has a lot of toys, but not a lot of toys that she loves.  Well, when we go on our walks, she's always biting at something.  For weeks, she's tried to attack what looked like a dirty rag or maybe mop or sock on the side of the road.  At some point the thing got turned and we could tell it was a well, loved dog's chew toy...one of those long skinny animals with no stuffing in them.  Dan and I were out the other day and I stopped on the way home and had him pick it up.  He thought I was crazy.  Then, I washed it in my washer for 2 hours on the sanitize cycle because ewwww it was gross. You should have seen Gracie when I presented her with her "new" toy.  She loves it.  She slings it around.  It's pretty sad to look at.  It's ears, foot and tail have all been chewed off and it has holes in the stomach.  She doesn't care and neither do I.  As far as we're concerned it ranks right up there with empty water bottles as prized play toys!

My Tip

I must have done a good job with dinner because Jaelyn gave me a dollar tip!  LOL.

Jaelyn and I made her favorite chicken (coated in ritz veggie crackers - not healthy at all) and then we had pina colada smoothies for dessert (so yummy with V8 Splash Pina Colada juice, vanilla yogurt and crushed pineapple).

She's actually had a pretty good day...so good in fact that she has earned the right to open her moose poop package from Alaska.  For all those not in the know, I promise to share, but yes, her royal highness mailed my little princess a moose poop necklace and moose poop flower seeds.  It's hilarious and totally awesome!

Finally Snow...Trying a Second Time

So apparently, it does snow in Missouri.  Four days ago, I contemplated wearing flip flops.  Then two days ago, the kids were playing outside in t-shirts and light jackets.  That night, a front blew through and brought an inch of snow.  Awesome, but it wasn't enough.  I'm not a huge fan of snow, but if we have to have snow, I want 6-8 inches so that schools are closed and the kids can really play.  As it was, we had enough snow to try out our new sleds, but the snow quickly blew away so the kids were landing in leaves.  They had a blast sledding down the hill.  I even gave it a whirl, but bumps are hard on 38 year old butts that are sitting on what basically amounts to a trash can lid! 

Jaelyn refuses to wear anything warm or heavy.  She really needs to live in South Florida where she can be in shorts and flip flops all the time.  After a few slides, she went inside and dug her snow pants out because she was FREEZING.  She put 2 pairs of socks over her gloves.  Hilarious and very resourceful.  Still no hat or scarf, but it was progress and kept her warm.

We've continued to have temperatures in the 20s and the wind has been horrible.  No more snow though and I don't see any in the 10 day forecast.

Hats Off to Jenn

A friend has started a little campaign for another friend.  Want to be a part of blessing her day?  If so, go and buy the cutest hat you can find and send me an email for a mailing address.  You can also check out this facebook page for more information.

Military Kids and Their Sacrifices

I started reading a new book with my book club in Jaelyn's class today. The main characters are twin 11 year old military brats and they've just made their fifth move. I asked the kids how many times they've moved. The average had moved 3-4 times. The most was 5. I then shared Jaelyn's moves: Russia, Georgia, Virginia, Germany, Florida, Maryland and now Missouri. Crazy. The girls are 8 and 9 and they've lived in 7 places. Caden is 7 and has lived in 4 places. I've always been happy with our nomadic lives but now that the kids are older and we are older, I've hit the point where I am ready to build roots and stay in one place a while.

* I should clarify that I don't want it to be here :p.