1st Day of Kindergarten

Abbie has been looking forward to Kindergarten since the day preschool ended in the spring. (Savannah is already asking when she can go.) The night before school started we asked her if she wanted a blessing. She had no concept of why she would need one. She has been so excited that nervousness didn't enter her brain. She met her teacher and saw her classroom last week. Since then every few hours she would say, "I wish Kindergarten was today."

Day one didn't start off as smoothly as we would have liked. The line to get into the parking lot stretched to the street. I had hoped to park and bring her in but only after we were trapped inside did we learn that the parking lot was beyond capacity. I asked her what she thought and she seemed fine so I just dropped her off. I called my neighbor who had come much earlier. She told me Abbie got a little lost and was crying. Abbie told me later she went straight to the classroom (which is where I would have taken her) and it was empty. That was when she cried. Thankfully someone led her to the multi-purpose room where all the students meet to line up. After that she cheered right up and the day went perfectly. She sang the newly learned Hokie Pokie all afternoon, talked about what she learned, recess, and lunch and was thrilled to be headed back today.

Today we went in and everything went much more smoothly. I think this is going to be just fine.

Gray Family 5.0

Arriving March 10th, 2012

Picky Eaters

I like to cook. I think I have significantly improved in this area since getting married and becoming a full-time mother/housekeeper/chef/chauffeur/laundress/maid etc. I get recipes from Cooks Illustrated, Simply Recipes, Pioneer Woman, and  Food Network (but even there I am careful about the chefs I choose). I don't like food that comes out of boxes, cans, or the freezer section (except frozen peas and canned tomatoes.) This week I even made homemade goat cheese eggplant ravioli. Homemade. RAVIOLI. I sauted. I blended. I rolled out dough. It was a masterpiece. I need to share this recipe sometime because it was insanely good.

Please understand. I am not trying to brag. I am trying to set up my problem. Let's just say it isn't caused by an over exposure to Hamburger Helper.

My kids hate my food. They like calzones, pizza, spaghetti, Kraft Mac and Cheese and frozen ravioli. Umm. Yup, that is it. Every other food is a battle. Battle. I have complained about this before but tonight hit a new low. It actually began last night. I made Corn Chowder. Homemade, from scratch. I will actually admit that I would make some improvements to this recipe if I make it again but it was still pretty darn good.

My daughters thought I was trying to poison them. They each took the required one bite and then had to eat the goldfish off of the top of the soup.  This still took enough time that some fish were soggy and HAD to be replaced so the world could keep turning. And then they filled up on bread.

Tonight it was homemade mac and cheese. I did add some ham and peas but I (naively) thought they could just push these items aside if they weren't seduced by the fact they were covered in cheese! No going. Abbie started crying the minute the food touched the plate. When I told her she had to eat 30 bites the world started to end. (It is pasta and cheese. Seriously?) So she took the next 45 minutes scraping the cheese of of each piece of macaroni before she ate it, and was able to pronounce it not too bad if you did that.

Savannah?

Savannah, just threw-up all over herself after bite two. (Trust me when I say that she is perfectly healthy.)

I have won some battles in this picky eater war.  (They actually liked the ravioli.) But tonight was not one of them.

I love the mountains...

One of the number one things I like about where I live is that it takes me fifteen minutes at most to go from urban to mountain wilderness. (And we live on the far side from the mountains.) Nothing, and I mean nothing, improves my mood like going up a canyon and escaping the insanity that life can, on occasion, offer.  With temperatures reaching in the upper 90s this week, and it being the last week of summer before school starts, we decided to make an escape.

We went up to one of our favorite spots and the girls ran wild. Abbie found her secret spot behind the trees and Savannah found a seat between two trees that was perfect for her little bum. Later she discovered she could wade across the stream (sans socks) and spent the last half hour getting soaked  and muddy.  I could have looked at the trees for hours if the girls weren't running from one adventure to another. But instead I painted rocks with them and explored their secret hideouts. It was a good day.

My mom says she can see my dad's blood pressure drop as he drives up the canyon. I think I am the same way. The world looks better up here.  

Random Thoughts Thursday

This week we have been recovering from a week of play with cousins. I am not nearly as much fun as cousins are. Needless to say there has been some serious withdrawal symptoms for all.

I just submitted my grades for summer semester! Yippee!

Last week I found out that Abbie's school is "highly recommending" all day Kindergarten. This is the opposite of the recommendation they gave in June. I have almost come to terms with the change. I think the reality is I really am going to miss that kiddo while she is at school and I don't like it one little bit so there!

I spent almost all day Monday and Tuesday cleaning my house (see recovering above), so yesterday I took a break from cleaning. You would never know about the effort put in on the previous days.

My expectations about the house that were rising of their own free will, are being properly deflated. I wish this issue wasn't such a roller-coaster for me.

Abbie and Savannah just went to a Fancy Nancy birthday party yesterday. They got kid make-up in their goodie bags. I have never seen Savannah so excited. She loved being at a big girl party and getting beautiful girl stuff. Blast!

Abbie was playing Super Why on the computer where you match words with similar definitions. What do you call these words? Cinnamons.

I need new family pictures...ideas?

Random Thoughts Thursday

We've had family in town for the last week. We have hiked (even Savannah for the entire two miles), played, had a little ladies lemonade party, and gone to Lagoon. It has been non-stop fun.

It has been non-stop.

Today we have a day of cleaning, packing rest before it is off to the family reunion.

I probably should start cleaning and packing, but I'm messing around on the computer. I have my priorities you know.

We've had four house showings over the last few days. I keep telling myself not to get my hopes up but they seem to be rising of their own accord.

Last night I gave my students some helps reviewing for their final. Rather than give reviews I try to teach them ways to study from their own notes. I had hoped that this 10 minute overview would be sufficient, and we could all leave very, very early. Unfortunately, about half the class wanted to create review outlines from their notes together, with supervision. It is my overachieving past back to haunt me.

We planted a garden in May and have weeded and watered it faithfully. Almost everything has died. We have one tomato plant and the beans that seem to be thriving. It takes real talent to kill zucchini. Many have tried. We have succeeded.

Timing

This morning while the girls were in the bathtub I worked on finishing up my Sunday School lesson. I was (and still am) trying to burn a DVD that could be played on a regular DVD player and becoming much more aware of my technological ineptitude. By the time I was mostly done, I needed to jump in the shower, and the girls had been in the tub for a long time.

 I asked the girls if they would like to stay in the tub or get out while I showered. They are both old enough and comfortable enough in the water that I don't worry about stepping away for a few minutes. Thankfully, they wanted to stay in the tub, thus leaving the mess in one location.

I hurried and jumped in the shower, and just had shampoo in my hair when I heard the yelling.

"Mom, mom, mom, come quick!!!"

My mind raced to all of the commercials that have warned of drowning kids and water safty that have aired this summer and I turned off the water. The yelling was louder, but thankfully I heard two voices.

"What is it?"

"Savannah has to go to the bathroom, NOW!"

Time, tide, and three-year-olds needing the potty, wait for no man.

Thankfully the shampoo didn't drip.

Random Thoughts Thursday

This morning I got out of the shower at 8:00. Two minutes later the phone rang. "We have a realtor in the neighborhood who would like to come over and look at your property right now, is that okay?" I am grateful for two things. 1 - We had a showing yesterday so the house was still mostly clean. 2 - They were willing to wait 30 minutes. (Update: The people who went through this morning made mean comments about our carpet, which is only a year and a half old. Seriously? People if you want a $300,000 house, you will need to spend at least $280,000 in this market. And that is way more than where we have our house is listed.)

I am very grateful for gracious people.

Anyone have any good solutions when your mind is racing at 2:00 in the morning?

Bicycles and summer are the epitome of happiness in our home.

I cleaned my house yesterday. I cleaned my house this morning. Why is there already a pile of toys downstairs?

All the cousins in the 4th of July neighborhood parade.
Andrew's expression was too good not to post.

My girls didn't throw water balloons. They didn't throw candy either.
They ate  almost the entire bags they were supposed to throw to the kids on the sides.

The pictures really have nothing to do with anything in the post, but I've been wanting to post them for awhile. And for random thoughts, I can post random pictures too, right?

I'm reading The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. It tells a fictional story about the Biblical character of Dinah, Jacob's only daughter in the houseful of boys. The first third of the story is about Rachel, Leah, Bilhah, and Zipah Jacob's wives. The author posits that all four women were sisters which, as you can imagine, only adds to the drama of polygamous life With romance and subsequent birth of thirteen children as part of the story, some might find it risque but at about halfway through, I'm enjoying it.

We have cousins driving into town today and the girls are thrilled!

Disappointing

Savannah's life is a little difficult right now, and I'm afraid it is going to get harder before it gets easier. Her best friend and sister is about to start kindergarten. The built in playmate she has had from day one is about to be gone for the best part of the day.

Let me expound her woes.

The other day, Savannah decided that she was going to go to preschool, because Abbie is going to Kindergarten. She took her backpack (that hasn't left her back since she inherited it two days ago from her sister) and told me we needed to go. I told her  (as I have every time this subject has come up) that we are going to do a home preschool with her friend, Rylee, once Abbie is in school. She seemed to understand. After some insisting on her part, I decided that we could do some preschool activities on our visit to grandma's house. She was thrilled. She made sure everyone in her vast array of daily contacts, knew that she was going to preschool. Despite the fact that I kept reminding her that this was a mom-and-daughter preschool, she was in total shock when I pulled out the worksheets and told her we were going to do them together. She was broken-hearted. Her world had ended. Mom is not nearly as cool as real preschool.

And then there was today.

They have just build a fountain/splash pad at the mall near our house that the 90+ degree temperatures are begging us to use. When I told the girls we could go over this morning they were both thrilled! Once again it was a constant stream of "splash park" out of Savannah's mouth. Until we got to the fountain. An interesting feature of splash parks is that water actually splashes. In peoples faces. You would think weeks of running through the sprinklers would prepare a child for this phenomenon. You (and I) would be wrong.

She wanted nothing to do with water, or wetness, or the park for the first twenty minutes. Thankfully she finally made attempts to get wet and soon, amazingly, was enjoying herself. She started collecting a big pile of rocks from the gravel near the fountain and putting the by the holes.  I didn't realize when it changed to by the nozzle hole to in the nozzle hole. That is, until one of the sprayers stopped working.

 
My reaction didn't improve her day.

Summer Vacation

The perfect summer vacation if you live where we live means escaping the 90 + degree weather and having fun with your kids. This weekend was perfect. We went up to the lake and hiked, boated, and did nothing, just like you should on any vacation. And we did it all in the mid-70s.

 Life was good. Abbie's goofy side exploded on this trip. She started this hip shaking dance every time she asked for something, she wanted to try everything including four-wheeling with uncles (always an adventure) and tubing behind the boat with mom and dad. She loved it all.

 Savannah had to deal with days without naps, which is hard when you are barely three, but she loved being in the middle of everything. When we went to the beach she could have been left alone and not noticed she was so caught up in playing with the rocks and water. (No sand, the water is too high this year.) When we hiked she didn't want to actually hike, but once on someone's shoulders she was in complete control of her situation.

We go to the lake a lot and always have a great time, but this year it just seemed that everything went as perfect as it could have gone. (I know this isn't great writing or anything exciting but I did want to remember it.)

Two Wheels

Abbie has been asking us to take the training wheels off her bike for the last month. Savannah just got a two-wheeler bike with training wheels so this weekend seemed like a good time for them to develop new biking skills. Once we told Abbie the plan she couldn't stop asking us when exactly the trainers were coming off.

That is, until they were actually off.

I don't think she had realized that the job of training wheels is to steady the bike. Immediately the tears began, begging for the return of safety, security, and comfort. Unfortunately, we are mean parents and said no.

We went to a parking lot across the way and the torture began. It is still unclear who was being tortured, Abbie as she was screaming at Russ to not let go of the bike, or Russ who was running around the parking lot bent in a 90 degree angle as he was holding onto the bike. This went on for quite some time.

 Finally we had the idea to have Abbie count the number of times she was peddling. This helped her focus on something other than the whether or not someone was holding onto the bike and she was off. She rode across almost the entire parking lot with her first try! We are still working on starting and stopping one her own but at least now she doesn't hate us and is very, very proud of herself.

Where was Savannah in the mist of all the drama? She was perfectly content circling the parking lot happy as a clam "practicing' her bike over and over again!

Happy Birthday Savannah!

Today is Savannah's third birthday. As requested daily for the last six weeks, we gave her a princess party. Personally I think three is a little young for a massive party but when your only sister and hero  had a party six weeks ago there really isn't an escape, so we kept it simple and the girls had a ball. We decorated crowns, made beaded necklaces, pinned a crown on a princess and played a freeze dance game. While Savannah enjoyed the party to the fullest, the highlight of the day was the new big-girl bike. She now has a bike like her sister and she couldn't be more proud. She immediately wanted to stop the whole show and go for a bike ride.  Later on the bike ride could not stop talking about needing to practice and be a better biker. Clearly this biking thing is in the genes.

Savannah is full of imagination. Whether she is dressing up as a princess, or caring for one of the many baby/stuffed animals that inhabit our house she gets completely in the zone. She insists you eat any "food" she makes and gets very upset if you talk at all loudly when her babies are sleeping. Savannah is also my cuddle bug. She is always willing to let me hold, snuggle, or cuddle her as the case may be. This year she has learned her capital letters, and some of her numbers. She is a great sister to Abbie and is always looking for a good time playing together. I love you baby girl!