Preschool Graduation and Kindergarten Registration

Seth is a preschool graduate. He'll be a high school graduate before we know it.

His preschool had a cute little program, where they showed off all their skills. They sang some songs, named the continents of the world, counted to 100 by 5's, and dazzled us with their knowledge of the letter sounds and their ability to read simple words. It was great. Seth has come a long way in these last two years, and we are really happy with the learning he accomplished here.

Each child got an award. The awards are individualized. Meaning that they don't fit a child into the award category...they fit the award to the child's special skills. When Hannah was in, she got the Most Creative award. Which was very apt. What is Hannah if not creative? Well...Seth's award was Most General Knowledge. I choose to think that means, "Your kid knows a lot of cool facts," and not "Your kid is a know-it-all." When she gave him the award, she said that whenever they would start a new subject during "Science Box," Seth would already know a lot about it. That's my boy.

This year he was joined in class by his buddy, Alex, and his girlfriend, Katelyn. Girlfriend meaning a friend who happens to be a girl of course. Because they are just 5 years old now, you know... (They totally claim they are going to get married, but their daddys don't like to hear about it..)

After the graduation program was a water party. The kids had a blast eating popcorn and playing on the bounce houses. I did get Seth to pause a moment, and take a picture with his teacher. She will be retiring soon, so I don't think MaKaty or Cru will get to have her as a teacher. Sad. Sad.

And finally, a little funny...

In April we attended Kindergarten Round-up and Kindergarten Registration. During the "Round-up" they asked the kids to draw a picture of themselves, write their name, and how old they were.

So here you are...self portraiture at it's finest... Seth held it up to one of the Kindergarten teachers and says. "This is me...with my spiky hair, and this is the hole in my head!" At the time he was sporting the nice shiny bald spot following the scalping incident...but really, we could substitute that for any number of his head wounds...

Life is good.

J-9: QGASROTABO

That means nothing to the lot of you...that title. But I know what it means. And so does one other person. My friend Janine. She and I met in high school. We have been friends ever since. But due to the fact that she joined the marines and has spent an exciting 10 or so years being a pilot, etc...we haven't seen each other a whole lot. We got married only a couple of months apart, and Rick and I were lucky to get to go out to Virginia for their wedding. She married the coolest guy...Ron. I have a lot of respect for Ron. Not a lot of people could keep up with Janine. She's a wild one! I hadn't seen Janine since Hannah was just a baby...so when her family was doing a family reunion nearby, I knew we had to meet up.

We met for lunch at a little podunk restaurant and had what ended up being a private room in the back. Which was good, since we had a whole lot of us. We are a family of six now...which is still a little weird, and then Janine, Ron, and Brian, Janine's brother. We spent the lunch hour trying to talk and eat at the same time. There was just so much to catch up on! We started about 15 million conversations, and I don't know if we ever finished a single one. Someday soon, I hope to be in a position to take off and Rick and I spend a weekend with them. Sans kids.

Thanks Janine and Ron for taking the time to meet up with us. It was fun!

Love, Alpha.

School Stuff

During Hannah's last couple of weeks of school, they had a lot of dress-up days. Here are a few pictures...

Hawaii Day:

Dress like a Pirate Day: Hannah was saying "Arrrrrgh" in this picture:

I think she was the cutest pink pirate EVER!

Crazy Sock Day: She wore four pairs of socks, and the Wellies. And it was 95 degrees outside. Crazy nut.

Backwards Day:

And here are a couple of shots from Hannah's End of First Grade Program. She was a tad bit excited to see us...can you tell?

And with her teacher. She was an amazing teacher, and I am so glad that Hannah was in her class. She helped Hannah have opportunities that she wouldn't have otherwise had. She gave her individualized Math, Spelling, and Reading, even if it meant Hannah had to go to the older grades rooms to get stuff on her level. We are so proud of Hannah's effort in school, and her enthusiasm for learning. She came home on the last day of school heartbroken because she was going to miss her teacher, and because she wanted to learn some more. She said that they didn't even learn anything on the last day...they only partied, and she had been hoping to learn. Funny girl. But I'll take it. I just hope her excitement for learning continues!

'Nuf said.

Seven Year Old

We have a 7 year old. It seems crazy. We are too young to have a seven year old, aren't we?

Hannah Banana is truly growing up. So scary. So fun. So humbling.

She is such a good girl. Hannah has quite a few loves. Reading. Encyclopedias. Owls. Crafts. Horses. Art. Pizza. Science.

Her birthday celebrations included a little of everything. The people who love her, know her well, and brought her such fun presents. Like books, a bead kit, an owl and a horse Pet Shop toy, a gift certificate to Brushfire (a kiln place), a science experiment in a bottle, a human skeleton puzzle, porcelain dolls, sidewalk chalk, a glitter ball, a space encyclopedia, a subscription to National Geographics Explorer, and more.

On her birthday, the first graders were doing a Teddy Bear Day. I forgot to put her teddy bear in her backpack. I felt terrible. I just knew that her whole day was going to be ruined because they were doing activities all day including their bear. So at lunch time I took her bear to her school. We got to sit with her for a few minutes at lunch and see her in her element. She didn't seem too torn up over the bear, and so the day was saved. In the evening, she wanted to go on a date with her dad. So they headed to Pirate Island Pizza. Just the two of them. They had a great time, and Hannah seemed like she had a good day.

Her aunt Kare Bear made the coolest pink princess castle cake for her birthday party. Hannah was in awe! I wish I could have had a picture of her face when she saw the cake. Priceless. I hope Karen realizes that she has revealed the secret of her cake supremacy, and now the expectations are going to be higher. No more standard sheet cakes after these last few creations!

For the party with my family, I decided to try a technique I saw in a magazine where you melt starburst candies and roll out the mixture onto wax paper. Then you cut out your designs and lay it out on the cake. It looks a little ghetto, but it tasted yummy...and Hannah liked it.

Enjoying the splash pad at party number 847.

Happy Birthday Banana-bean. We love you to the moon, and back again.

Seth Turns Five

This was a big birthday for Seth. He is now old enough for Kindergarten. He was almost as excited to get his Kindergarten shots as he was to have a birthday. Really, he was! It was cute. The festivities started a couple of weeks early, when he got presents from his cousins who were down for Cru's blessing. Seth loved his pirate legos and monster truck. He and Jaxon posed for this lovely shot... On Seth's actual birthday, he opened presents in the morning...including a light saber, a super soaker, a Wallace and Gromit movie, etc. He wanted to go ride bikes with his buddies on his birthday, so we called Frank and Alex to see if they could come. The park we went to has a ton of trails throughout, with perfect little hills. They had a blast. We had macaroni and cheese for lunch and pizza for dinner, in honor of Seth's birthday. After dinner, Seth wanted to go to the community center pool. With me. Just me. No one else was allowed. We had such a good time! It was so fun to ride down the hydrotube with him and feel his little heart pounding. He did endless tricks for me in the pool, and as we were leaving he gave me a big hug and told me thank you for bringing him. Be still my heart. It's so refreshing to get one on one time with the kids. I wish we had taken a picture before we left. Oh well.

Rick's family threw him a party that Sunday. Karen worked really hard on an awesome pirate cake. Seth loved it. The scruff was made of chocolate shavings. So cool. He got some cleats...which he was SO SO SO excited about. He even ended up getting two pair. Soccer season can't get here soon enough!

The next day we did a party with my family. Here is the cake for Seth. A power ranger cake. He thought it was so cool. Thanks to Marcie for the cool cake toppers.

Seth has been wanting a sky ball. I know it just looks like a big bouncy ball, but it really is cool! Grandma came through for him, and I think the face says it all!

Happy Birthday, big guy!

MaKaty's Birthday

So we had four birthdays, a baby blessing, and mother's day in a 16 day period. Add that to end of school year programs, graduations, a new baby, and life in general, and you have one busy time. Quite frankly, I am surprised I lived through it. There were times...

Rather than blog each event, I thought I'd do it one kid at a time, and cover all the little mini-celebrations over this crazy time.

So we start with Katy.

MaKaty has really come into her own in the last few months. Her language has just exploded and she is now speaking in 5-6 word sentences. She has become obsessed with dramatic play. She likes to dress-up. Some of her favorite dress-up items are long necklaces, fancy shoes, Seth's underwear, and hats. She loves babies, and pretends to feed them, diaper them, clothe (and de-clothe) them, and put them to bed. She impresses Hannah and Seth by learning to say new words and understanding more and more of what is going on around her. They are endlessly impressed. She has become especially interested in cows, for some reason. We will be driving, and she will suddenly scream, "Cows! I see cows!" in the cutest excited voice you ever heard. Or she will see pictures of cows and start jumping up and down. Who would have thought such a thing would strike her fancy. She loves to be outside, and especially loves slides and swings at the park. She amazes us by being able to scale just about any obstacle on a playground. Climbing walls, ladders, etc. She has also become incredibly independent. Add that to the existing stubbornness, and you have one tough cookie. We don't call her McCranky for nothing! But she is s sweet, smart, sassy, silly, spunky little lady, and we wouldn't change her for anything. Most days.

Helping to make her own birthday cake. Mmmmmm, chocolate!

The night before her birthday, I started the task of putting together her one and only birthday present from us...a kitchen set. I knew it was supposed to be a project, but seriously...every single piece had to be cut out of the plastic and then put together. It wasn't hard...just time consuming. Thankfully, Rick came home from young men's and helped me. It only took 3 hours...instead of what could have been four or five!

Complete!

And first thing in the morning, she came down the stairs and found her kitchen. For the rest of the day, she kept saying, "Katy's kitchen? Katy's kitchen!!!" So. So. So. So. Cute.

I decided at the last minute to try and make a cow cake for MaKaty. So I googled "cow cakes" and found a surprisingly large number of people who had made cow cakes recently. Who knew? I thought this one might be the easiest...and while it was rather easy...I'm not sure how much it resembles a cow. But Kate seemed to like it. She kept going up to the fridge and saying, "My cow cake! I wanna see it!"

In restrospect, it might have looked more cow-like if it had horns...oh well...

It tasted good:

Where three of the four kids have birthdays within 8 days, we try to do something on their actual birthday that is just for them. So for Katy, we headed out to find some cows to look at. More closely than from the car. She was actually a little nervous when we found these. They were very interested in us, and kept coming up to the fence. She was happy to watch from a safe distance. Then suddenly she looked at me and said, "Mommy, cow's stinky!" So true, Katy, so true.

Rick's family had a party for Hannah and Katy together, and Katy got some stuffed animals, clothes, and books. Her books were the favorite. She also got new crayons and a bubble blower. Which is a huge hit, by the way, Chrissy and Lele. She got some baby accessories in a little backpack. She also got a new baby doll that cries and talks. She promptly named it Chloe. I can only assume it's after her cousin Chloe. She also got a little cow figure that she adores. It's name is Horse. Don't ask me what goes on in her head...I'm afraid to find out! When it was time to celebrate with my side of the family, my sister had bought a bunch of cake toppers. (we were celebrating 4 kids in one party...my 3 plus Bentley). I made four round cakes and decorated one for each kid. Here was Katy's. Winnie the Pooh. She has no idea who Winnie the Pooh is, but she loved the swinging Roo.

We went to a splash park, and I think it's fair to say that Katy enjoyed herself, despite the 100+ heat.

She got to open even more presents. Her reactions were great. Every new item was greeted with a huge smile and squeal of excitement. She got a miniature baby doll, which she loves, as long as it is naked. Don't ask me why. She also got a set of farm animals...it included two cows. And a stuffed cow that she sleeps with every night now. She calls it her "Star Cow" because it has a star on one hoof.

Thank you to everyone who made the birthday girl feel special. She got to celebrate for two weeks straight! We love you, Katy girl!

In Katy's Fairy Tale...and other idiosyncrasies of late...

I don't know if anyone else will find these things as funny as I did when I came across them in my daily travels...but here you go anyway...

In MaKaty's fairy tale...the fairy princesses travel in cow-drawn carriages.

She had buckled herself in...and apparently exhausted herself trying to get back out. Can you tell what is funny about this picture? At least our little vampires are concerned about their dental health...

Not sure whose idea this was, but I about died when I opened the fridge and saw this...

Tubby Takes a Bath

Cru enjoys his baths much more now that he can be sitting in the water. I have yet to put him in the actual bathtub. Check out those rolls!

And why is he smiling in this picture? Because he had just peed on the couch. Oh yeah, baby.

Every Once in a While...

Every once in a while we see a photo of our kids that perfectly captures their personality. Today...I took one of Kate.
So I thought I'd pair it with a few Katy-isms of late and blog it.
The girl has an obsession with cows. More on that later. But the other day we had this conversation as I was putting Katy and Cru in the car.


Me: "We love our Cru, don't we Kate?"
Katy: "Yeah."
Me: "And we love our Katy, don't we?"
Katy: "Yeah. And we yuv (love) Nana (Hannah)?"
Me: "Yeah."
Katy: "We yuv Seth?"
Me. "Yes, we love Seth."
Katy: "We yuv Daddy?"
Me. "Yes, Daddy, too."
Katy: "We yuv cows?"
Me: (laughing) "Yes, you love cows, don't you?"
Katy: "Yeah, and cows stinky!"


Oh yeah...from loving the baby to stinky cows in about 30 seconds.


Then we were doing a puzzle. I pointed out the gorilla and she gave me a funny look. A minute later I asked her to find the gorilla and put it in the puzzle. She picked up the gorilla, looked at me pointedly and said, "Mommy, say MONKEY." I guess I got told.


And finally, today we were talking and I guess I called her Katy. She shook her head and said, "I not Katy. Call me Kate."


Seriously...it's like turning two suddenly gave her license to be OLD!

The Kite Festival

Better late than never, right?

So these pictures are from a month ago. Life has been so crazy since then that I just never got around to posting them. I like the kite festival. It's one of those events that teaches your kids a great life lesson: dealing with disappointment. The schools hype your kid up to do their reading and earn a kite. They read for three months to earn it, and then you go to the festival and it's either too hot, too windy, or too windless to really enjoy it. Last year Hannah's kite went up once and was sacrificed to the intense wind immediately. The year before it was so hot that we could barely stand it. This year she had to run her little tushy off just to keep it in the air.

But the kids like it. So it's all good.

Except in the case of Katy and the cow train. Let's just say she was NOT a fan.

The festival also serves the purpose of getting Seth signed up for soccer. One of the vendors at the festival is the soccer club we sign Seth up with (and Hannah if we could get her to do it again...but alas, THIS is all the soccer we got out of her) Seth was so excited to be given a new soccer ball for signing up. He had to try it out immediately!

Hannah was determined to get her kite up, despite the day of miniscule breeze. But she did manage to keep her kite in the air. There she is in the pink shorts at the right...and her kite is the only one in the sky.

I love this picture because Katy is in the foreground watching Hannah. Hannah is directly in front of her.

Perhaps we'll get rain next year.

Life is good.

Blessed

Mr. Cru was blessed on the 3rd of May. It was a really nice day. He was his normal sweet happy self, and the blessing itself was beautiful. We feel so blessed to have little Cru. He is such a happy addition to our home and our family. We also feel blessed to have had family and friends around us on this day. Rick's brother and family even came from up north. After the meeting, we had a little luncheon in the clubhouse. Thanks to everyone who brought salads and stuff, and for all who jumped in and helped. It was fun just to visit and see everyone together. Cru is lucky to have so many people in his life who love and support him. I'm also so lucky to have a good husband who was able to give the blessing. He's such a good daddy. Goodness, I'm sappy today.

Anywho...it was such a nice day that I didn't even take pictures. I missed the whole thing. At first I was a little sad, but then I remembered that I had enjoyed the whole experience without worrying about being behind a lens. I stuffed Mr. Chunky Buns back into his blessing outfit the next Sunday just for pictures. I had to get some pictures of him in the outfit. And I swear that there is a picture of Rick wearing it that looks so similar, but I have yet to find it. It was the outfit Rick was blessed in. It was the outfit Seth was blessed in. It barely fit Cru. In fact, I had to move some buttons just to squeeze the little dude into it. But I was sentimental and wanted him to wear it. Doesn't he just look so cute? The blanket was crocheted by my Grandma Fay. All of my kids have been wrapped in it on their blessing day. It is especially meaningful, since she never got to meet my last two kids. With Cru's middle name (Oliver) being after her husband, my grandfather whom I never met; and with the blessing day being just 3 days before the 2nd anniversary of my Grandma Betty's passing on, it left me thinking a lot about family, and the huge blessing I have to know that those who have passed on are still with us. I am so thankful for that.

And one last thing...doesn't this last one look like he's saying "nudge nudge, wink wink"?

A thought...on Mother's Day

A couple of weeks ago, a fellow scrapbooker named Emilie Ahern had a post on her blog about putting pictures of yourself on the blog. I, for one, try not to. Partly because I assume people would rather see the kids, and partly because I don't really love the way I look right now. But this post really got me.

In essence, Emilie was saying that her friend, Aleida, who has since passed on, had these words of wisdom phrased as a question:

"Have you ever seen a photograph of your own mother and thought to yourself how fat she looked? Or how she wasn't wearing make-up? Or wasn't dressed in a glamorous outfit?"

For me, the answer was a resounding NO. I would have loved to see more pictures of my own mother with me. And still love seeing pictures that capture her personality and beauty.

So here I am, doing my part, posting a picture of me that Rick took the other day, upon the request of Hannah. No make-up, and no glamorous outfit. But I am OK with that. And it doesn't hurt to have the cutie baby boy in the picture with me.

Happy Mother's Day.

Halloween in May???

Sometime in September of last year, Hannah requested that her next birthday party be Halloween in May. At first I tried to shut her down...but then I thought about it. What a cool idea! I bought a bunch of stuff on after Halloween clearance, and we just waited for May to arrive.

It was a bit crazy. I didn't anticipate the possibility that ALL (but one) of the kids invited would come. We had 19 kids there! Phew! It was LOUD! The kids got to dress up, and they got candy. A recipe for disaster!

First we decorated our Trick-or-Treat bags. Then we played "Pin the bow-tie on Jack Skellington." Hannah drew the Jack for me. Next we had a little Halloween "feeling" activity. I had a bunch of stuff hidden under a blanket. Yucky stuff. Some of the kids were too scared to touch it

Fake fur=werewolf

Tortilla with a little oil on it= skin

Wet spaghetti noodles= guts

Dried apricots= tongues

Peeled grapes= eyeballs

They were so funny when I revealed what everything really was. Then there were quite a few who wanted to touch after all.

Then they went trick or treating to the different doors around the room. Once they filled their bags, they settled in to chow.

Hannah and Seth blew their candles out at the same time. But for some reason it took Hannah a lot longer to get hers out!

The Jack Skellington cake was remarkably easy to do, and the kids seemed to think it was cool. And then there were the eyeballs. Once again, there were lots of kids who simply refused. (They are made out of frozen pudding and gummy lifesavers with raisinettes in the middle).

Present time! Seth got lots of cool stuff. Legoes, transformers, Iron Man, and a big dinosaur. He was thrilled!

Hannah got lots of cool stuff, too. Some art stuff, a webkinz, another stuffed toy, a my little pony, a handdecorated jewelry box and jewelry, and a cool space book. She got a little hung up on that one...
Watch out for Bennett's hook! I believe we had three pirates and a pirate princess in attendance.

We finished things up with a rousing game of Duck, Duck, Ghost.

The goodie bags had a lot of random little things, but the favorite by far were the glow-in-the-dark vampire teeth. I couldn't resist snapping pictures of all the kiddos with their evil teeth.

But I think this one is my favorite! It looks like Katelyn is eyeing her sisters throat. So funny!

Sweet. No kids parties for a year! Well, Cru-ey in March, but I doubt he will have terribly specific requests. Who knows what they will come up with next year. But I tell you one thing...I will not do a combined party again! Too many kids! Too much echo!

Two Months

Cruzer is two months old today. He is such a good boy. Seriously, for two months I have kept waiting for him to get harder. It doesn't seem like he's going to do it. He may just be the mellowest, sweetest baby I have ever seen. Thank goodness.

He has learned to smile rather well, as you can see. He started smiling about 5 weeks, and now, at almost 9 weeks, he is a pro! I love seeing that Hannah, Seth, and MaKaty can all get him to smile in their own way.

He is starting to "talk". He goos and coos when he is smiling, and I just can't look away.

He was blessed on the 3rd of May. We had so many people come and support us. It was a beautiful day, and I will get around to blogging it eventually. We just have so much going on right now, I can't keep up with it all.

I hesitate to even blog this, because I swear I will jinx it, but he is sleeping through the night. I have never had a baby sleep this well this early, so I'm fully expecting it to change soon. But in the last two weeks, the worst night he had was one where he slept two five hour stretches. Most of the last week he has done either 7 or 8 hour stretches. I am loving it.

Some of the other things I love about Cru at two months:

• that smile
• those cheeks
• how he kicks in excitement when he sees me
• his fuzz hair
• those fat rolls in his legs and arms
• the way he watches his siblings with interest
• his little sleep sighs
• the way he uses his eyebrows for expression
• his cute little pathetic cry
• his patience with the chaos of this family

We love you, little Cru-Man!

TWO

ZERO

ONE
TWO

Yep, she's two. Unbelievable.

We love you MaKaty McSquishy McCranky McSweetie.

More pictures to come.

This also means that two years ago, we said goodbye to someone special. We miss you, Grandma Betty!