Playing at the Park and Misc Pictures

This first picture Kylie asked Megan to take so she could email it to her kindergarten teacher so her teacher would see her webkinz ~


I promise I had nothing to do with this :) Beth and Jack LOVE playing that one or the other of them is a dog and the dog crate is a very popular prop. This particular day, they were both dogs and had two baby dogs (Megan and Kylie's webkinz). Beth figured out how to close the top part of the door from the inside of the crate. They were so thrilled to actually be closed in the crate! Yet another proof that no matter how much money you spend on toys, the simple things that weren't meant to be toys at all are what they end up loving!


One night last week both Rob and I were actually home at the same time, so we loaded the younger kids into the stroller and put the dog on his leash and set off for the playground. Rob, Meg, Kylie and Simon did sprints up the sidewalks on the way there. Beth tried to get me to do sprints while pushing the double stroller with 50 lbs of children in it. I declined for some strange reason.

They all made a beeline for the slides first.

Megan gave Jack piggyback rides down the slide ~


But Jack did quite a bit of sliding on his own. He must have pushed off at the top of the slide very firmly as he would shoot down the slide, sort of missing the whole middle part of it. He seemed to enjoy it though!


This picture was taken just after Megan slid down the slide into Kylie, who was standing at the bottom. I'm thinking it was on purpose :)


Jack on the jungle gym ~


Beth didn't slide for very long. She decided the swings looked more appealing.


Rob agreed with her ~


The other three kids followed suit ~


Beth and Jack loved how high I pushed them - they got to swing higher then usual due to the type of swing ~


I tried to get a good picture of all four together, but Jack banged into Beth's head when he slid down the slide after her, so it was less of a success than I hoped it would be ~


Simon smelled the crumbs in the animal cracker container and tried to get each one, resulting in a few very funny moments :) ~


Brittney came over to hang out on Saturday. We haven't gotten to see her much at all except Sundays since school started and we've missed her! I got a shot of Megan doing her hair while Brittney and the kids watch Taylor Swift music videos on youtube ~


After dinner tonight I let the kids eat popsicles outside. It was bath night anyway :) They came running in after a few minutes and asked me to bring the camera outside as they had found a caterpillar that was spinning a chrysalis on our fence.




I love that my kids notice things like that! Another thing I love is that hardly a day goes by without one or several of them picking flowers for me, either in the backyard or on the way home from school :)

In other news, I finished my third quarter at Capella. I got a 100% in the class :) I had a rough night the last night when I turned my 15 page paper in and the computer told me it was late. I thought all assignments were due at 11:59pm, however apparently the final day of class ends at 5pm. I had never turned in a paper the day it was due - I always try to turn them in at least 24 hours early in case there is a problem (such as a technical issue). I turned that paper in just after 8pm. At first I thought it was just a technical problem, such as the computer defaulting to 5pm and the time hadn't been changed or something like that. I checked my other classes and discovered that all my final assignments had be due at 5pm. My teacher, whom I love, told me that she was going to accept the assignment and didn't even dock it for being late. Since I had done all the other assignments early and had a 100 in the class, she had no problem believing that I had made an honest mistake. It made me so grateful for every night that I didn't feel like doing my assignment, but got up and did it to the best of my ability anyway! That was really hard for me during this class especially as the final paper was worth 60% of my grade, so by the time I got down to the last few weeks, I could have gotten 0's on my weekly assignments and still gotten an A as long as I did well on my final paper. I still have a 4.0 GPA and am going to try to keep it that way! I'm so grateful for a husband and family who support me! They make it so much easier :)

My friend Crysta (who I stayed with in the hospital) had her babies last week. She was 28 weeks and 2 days. Both girls are doing well, but are obviously still in the hospital as they are less than 3 lbs. Everything went as well as it could considering how early they were born :)

Another of my friends just lost her baby this morning when they discovered that her pregnancy was ectopic. My heart breaks for her. It makes me hold my little ones tighter and not mind as much when there are tiny cut up pieces of paper all over the playroom floor because Megan decided to make a cup filled with "magic", which apparently translates to "the tiniest pieces of paper she can cut".

Rob is working his second job tonight, so I'm missing him. Meg, Kylie and Jack are asleep, but when I went to investigate a noise in the playroom, I discovered Beth had snuck downstairs, quietly built a little castle out of blocks, and was happily playing by herself. She followed me back into the dining room, spotted the camera on the desk, and after taking several pictures of me, requested that I take a few of her in her Dora nightgown ~

Bedtime, Pockets, and Kindergarten Drama

When I uploaded the pictures from the camera to the computer, the following were included ~




That's my Megan! :)

Megan and Kylie have been sleeping together in Megan's room most nights. We told them as long as they are asleep by nine, that's fine with us. Usually Megan reads to Kylie after they've gone to bed, which is wonderful as it fulfills both their reading assignments for the week! They are currently reading one of the Boxcar Children books.

Apparently they both fell asleep while reading last night because this is what I found when I checked on them ~


Just for good measure, I took pictures of Beth and Jack in Jack's room as well ~




This morning Jack picked his jean shorts to wear and was thrilled to find pockets in them! He walked around for quite a while with his hands in his pockets. Such a cutie!




Kylie apparently is quite popular with the boys at school. She says most of her friends are boys and according to conversations I've overheard between her and Megan, several boys "love" her. One, a boy named Judah, kissed her the other day. The only thing I know about Judah, besides his crush on Kylie, is that he has a mohawk. Another boy in her class, Chauncy (no, Knowltons, I am not making that name up) told the teacher and the teacher instructed Judah not to kiss in school any more. As I was listening to Megs and Kylie talk about it, my little five year old blase-ly states "He tolded me he felled in love with me, but I didn't falled in love with him." *sigh* I've been told it only gets worse with age ;)

Book Club list for this year

I have a book club that I attend every month which I love :) We go by the school year, so our first meeting of the year is in August. We each bring suggestions for books to read that year and then vote on which books to include. Some of the books we've read have ended up being my all time favorites and almost all of the books have been really good :) Here is this year's list for those who are looking for new books ~

Fever by Laurie Anderson
The Lilac Bus by Maeve Binchy
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
Fiction Class by Susan Breen
These is my Words by Nancy Turner
The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Sisters of Valor by Rosalie Turner

Books that were suggested but didn't make the list include ~
Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
Leepike Ridge by ND Wilson
The Return Journey by Maeve Binchy
Same Kind of Different as Me
Four Girls from Berlin
The Constant Princess
The Shack
Treasure Island
Glimpses Into the Life of Marjorie Hinckley
Sarah's Key
The Piano Tuner
Unaccustomed Earth

Disclaimer - I have not read most of these books, so I can't recommend them personally yet.

Quote at the bottom of the page of abebooks.com where I bought the books I don't have yet for this year's book club ~
I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library. - Jorge Luis Borges

Raindrops on Roses and Rainboots on Children

Cowgirl Kylie - Kylie has developed a fascination with cowgirls and spends hours dressing up as one and developing stories around being one. Her favorite songs to listen to (besides Taylor Swift of course!) are by a children's group that I used to listen to as a child called Riders in the Sky.


We had a busy day yesterday (we've been getting back into the swing of things after a bout with a stomach bug that kept us inside for a while, fortunately only Jack and Beth caught it). I felt like I had a very successful day though! After getting Meg and Kylie off to school and Rob off to work, I paid bills, then got Beth and Jack up and ready and we headed off to a dr's appt for me (just a check up). Beth and Jack behaved incredibly well at the dr's office and got stickers and lollipops from the nurses. After the dr, we headed off to Academy to buy a swim cap for me (which I have decided doesn't really help anyway and really hurts to put on and take off, so I'm glad I got it on clearance). When we walked out of the store there was a tow truck in the parking lot trying to load a pick up truck onto it's bed. The kids were enthralled and we stood and watched for about twenty minutes. As we stood there discussing how the big truck pulled the little one up, I kept having flashbacks to when I was young and both Mom and Dad would always be sure to point out things like that to us and take the time to watch them. Thank you Mom and Dad for all those moments!!!

When we had watched for twenty minutes and the tow truck guy wasn't any closer to loading the pick up then he had been when we started, we left for the car wash. I filled up the car, then we had the great adventure of going through the car wash. Beth liked it more than Jack, who was a bit apprehensive. Then we stopped at the health food store and found individual packages with Daddy's favorite cookies in them (all natural coconut macaroons). Since they had been so good, we picked up lunch at Sonic and went and ate lunch with Rob. Following lunch, we did our weekly grocery shopping (very odd to only have two kids! They both fit in the little car at the front of the cart and we didn't have to take turns) then came home.

While I was unpacking groceries, Jack and Beth discovered puddles in the backyard. It had rained for about five days straight, creating widespread flooding in Dallas and enormous puddles in our backyard. They both put on rainboots (we couldn't find Beth's so she used Meg's) and headed out to splash in them.










It was raining again (it had been misting) by the time we went to pick up Megs and Kylie from school, so we brought umbrellas, which was lots of fun. When we got home, Meg, of course, needed to go play in the mud. She did her homework, then changed into play clothes and took off her socks (I've learned from experience that Megan NEEDS play clothes I don't care about).

She started off slowly . . .


But progressed fairly quickly . . .


She yelled and screamed with joy as she frolicked (not a word I've ever used I think, but appropriate) in the muddy water. I thought at first that she had cut a huge gash in her leg or something because of the noises originating from the back yard, but she was just letting loose.






She had a lot of fun :) The shower water ran dark brown for quite a while as she washed off and I know the clothes she wore will never be the same, but who cares? :) I think life would be a better place if more of us jumped in puddles occasionally :)

Update

Sorry it has been a while since I last updated this. Molly called me out on it, so I dedicate this entry to her :)

First a few pictures from a couple of weeks ago that I hadn't posted yet ~

Doing homework - Beth and Jack love to help!


Megan saw someone do this and decided she had to figure out how, so she did ~


Last week was a bit busy. On Monday afternoon my mother arrived for a visit. We were very excited to get to spend some time with her, the kids especially! Tuesday afternoon I got a phone call saying that my friend Crysta was in the hospital because she was having contractions (she was 25 weeks pregnant with twins - she is now 26 wks). They told her she needed to stay overnight, and since she and her husband have two small children, I offered to stay with her so her husband could be home with the kids and try to keep their schedule as normal as possible. Mom was totally supportive and was glad she was there to help Rob put the kids to bed and get Meg and Kylie off to school in the morning. I ended up spending Tues, Wed, and Thr nights at the hospital. All I did at home was spend time with the kids and do school work. My mom took care of everything else and did a wonderful job! She even managed to get the top of a quilt for Megan sewn together! Jack and Beth helped . . .


I spent Sunday night in the hospital too (Crysta will be staying there for another six weeks), so I didn't get many pictures of Nona's visit. Nona loved spending time with the kids and says that by the end, Beth was actually talking to her (Beth tends to be a bit reticent, to the point that she only talks to a handful of people), and that she had some good conversations with Rob too, which she had never really had the chance to do before since she would spend most of her time with me and the kids. I knew Mom wouldn't mind though as she does the best job of anyone I've ever met of giving selfless service!

Her last night here was Monday night. I took a picture of her with the four kids ~


Then Christy and Mom and I went out to dinner at Mimi's Cafe, a tradition we have.

First though, we took some pictures for our family calendar.

Christy with her cat Sassy ~


Christy and I (we have the same birthday, so we needed a picture of the two of us for that day) ~


And since we were taking pictures anyway, we took one of the three of us ~