preschool

i had so much fun teaching preschool the past 4 weeks. so much more fun than i had with addie's group. that was a stressful and crazy time. i think it's a combination of things that has made this time around more fun. first of all, i am not pregnant, nor do i have a nursing baby. cha ching! there are only 4 kids compared to 7. i am actually getting a break when it's not my turn to teach, and not having to babysit and or/help. and i am, (i know i shouldn't say this!) getting a better grasp on life. it's still stressful (hello almost 18-year-old daughter!) but it's manageable. having matt home and finished with school has made all the difference in the world. also, it's really nice to have my youngest be 2-years-old. i mean, it's not nice that she's kind of a bratty 2-year-old, (that slapped me in the face in front of my friends yesterday) but it's nice to not have a bratty 2-year-old and a baby too. i guess i am just enjoying a slightly easier season of life right now. because i'm happy! (thank you, pharrell!)

we were late on our preschool valentines because of 1st - snow, and 2nd - peritonsillar abscess. nothing holds us back though, and we had our preschool valentines 2 weeks late. dat's da way we roll. i love this odd little duck all dressed up in her valentines best.

salt letter tracing. and also our youngest preschooler. every assignment i passed out, she'd say "where's mine?" and she'd sit right down and get to work.

we melted heart crayons but they didn't look as cute as the pinterest version.

 

nailed it.

next time we'll try just melting bright colors and see if we get prettier, non-charcoal looking crayons.

trying to pound some letters into these kids heads! they are such younger siblings!

 

S is for seuss!

everybody loves a good old fashioned goldfish graph!

they are really good kids.

we celebrated dr. seuss's birthday a few weeks late too. and you can't celebrate the good dr without making oobleck! the kids loved it, all except for ry, who wouldn't even touch it. and don't mind the stripping 2-year-old. she loved the oobleck too.

my attempt at cat in the hat pizza. the kids were impressed.

cat hat with oreo's and lifesaver gummies.

T is for teeth!

i had this guy on the fridge, but he's losing some of his marshmallow teeth to the 2-year-old.

 a little glue never hurt anybody.

i soaked these eggs in pepsi and let the kids brush them first with just water, which did an ok job, and then with toothpaste, which got them totally white again.

the kids loved it, except for poor curtis who's egg slipped out of his hand and cracked.

 he was almost done too.

apple smiles!

nursery rhyme day was a lot of fun.

 we did our first science experiment.

we took hard boiled humpty dumpty eggs, put them in bags with different kinds of padding, made our predictions for whether we thought they'd crack or not, and dropped them off our second step.

since there were 6 eggs, 4 preschoolers, and one bonus preschooler, i got to drop an egg too. 

(thanks for the super cute picture of me, frankie!) 

fyi - all of the eggs but the one in the sand broke. frankie predicted every egg would survive (eternal optimist), curtis and sam predicted every egg would break, and ry was the only one to switch it up a little, though he only once said the egg wouldn't break. it was a fun activity. :)

U is for Umbrella Parade!

cuties.

after our parade, it was a nice'ish day, so i let them stay outside and run. we latch on to any semblance of outside warmth lately!

 

and now i'm free from my preschool teaching duties until it really is laney's turn.

because frankie is getting into pre-k next year, i can feel it in my bones!

Eleven

(For eleven pics. Creative stuff)

This is how we do 54 degrees in SOMD. we were outside playing with sidewalk chalk, she disappears and comes out in her leotard with beach towels, sunblock, and shades. It did feel nice and warm. Not that nice, but nice none the less. 

Delaney busy being two. 

Chris likes to watch Brain Games. He was totally doing the experiment and looking 'through' his finger, so I sniped him. He loves when I do that. In his defense, I detest when the kids do it to me. But that's mostly because I think they send it to their friends and make fun. I just post it to my blog and make fun. But that's what moms are supposed to do. Not what kids are supposed to do. 

Another round of "take my picture," with Addie. She cray-cray. 

Delaney busy being two. Again. This one is kind of adorable though. She gets a dejected look on her face and sort of slumps her shoulders. It's pretty cute in an annoying kind of way. 

Christian picked out a fun little Hex bug for Frankie. She and laney loved playing with it on the table whilst putting together a Dr Suess put in order puzzle. 

Delaney and I cruised Frankie up to the preschool bus like this today. Stay classy. 

I'm looking at you on this one, max. I'm looking at you. 

The big kids mailed the little kids postcards from New York. They loved getting them and held them close for a long time. 

Chicfila had a buy a milkshake get a chicken sandwich free one day, so we took the fam. It's sad that we stay on our technology even when we're all together. I have been guilty too. We are works in progress. 

After bath iPad time. For the record, their iPad time has been severly limited lately. All the girls, even two-year-old laney have been cruising YouTube without parental supervision. Laney knows how to go to YouTube and she goes straight to the history to replay videos she's liked in the past. Then she clicks around on the suggestions. Not the best idea. 

And one cute thing laney did today. I got her out of bed this morning and as I was changing her diaper she pointed at me and said "you're the best mommy I've ever seen." It was so precious!

Ok, one more cute thing. When I dropped Frankie off with Alecia this morning I said "are you ready for preschool, Frankie?" And laney said "I am! I am!" She is soooo ready!

Ok, one more cute thing. Knocking on a neighbors door, she stood in front of their welcome mat and said each letter as she stepped in front of it. She's a genius. 

That's all. 

3.24.14

The frog woke up to a special treat of donuts from grandpa. 

We do candles as many times as we can around here. One year, we relit the candles on Addie's pancakes so many times, that she finally got so excited that she accidentally burned herself. Poor baby!

Sistahs!

Alecia hosted a fun birthday lunch for Christina that I took no pictures of. Except this cute one with grandpa and his flock. They even went to him after they broke something. There's just something very approachable and special about grandpas. (:

Frankie's dinner of choice was chicfila, two years running! "Take a picture of me, mommy." We ran into the callihans and (separately) the missionaries there. It's a happening place!

After dinner we had our FHE/bingo fun. The little kids table. Delaney was into it for about a minute and a half before she threw her card and left. She's so two. 

The big kids table. Christian is wearing a dinosaur hat, fyi. 

And the mc's prizes. (:

Love him!

I just got started taking everyone's pictures after they got a bingo and claimed their prize. And I've got to use all the pics, right?!

Then it was dinosaur cake time! She'd talked about several different themes for her party, but finally settled on dinosaurs. I thought it was a little odd and tried to talk her into something else, Frozen, Mr Peabody (which also would have been a little odd), princesses, but she stuck to her dinosaur theme. Dino's it is!

She also requested all blue candles. Whatever makes the birthday girl happy!

Addie standing by to help. Always at the ready!

She got one toy from us, one from grandpa, and two from her siblings. When you have a party that's the way we roll. 

Then Laura gave her this awesome, HANDMADE, triceratops - which happens to be her favorite dinosaur. 

She named her Abby, and Abby has quickly become an old favorite. 

T'was a good 4th birthday. (:

checking in

just a quick pop in, since i can't quite wrap my brain around catching up on blogging. life just keeps moving whether i blog or not, so there's lots to catch up on. refreshingly, we haven't been all that busy lately, which begs the question why i haven't blogged in for-ev-ah. i do better when i'm busy, i've got that 'get 'er done' kinda attitude and i do usually get 'er done. anywho, quick update.

these three have been busy busy trip planning (granpda ray came to town!). they've got some fun things coming up soon! matt has been home a lot more since finishing school and it.is.wonderful. words can't describe how wonderful. he's a good guy. he puts up with all (at least most) of my weird ideas and spur of the moment decisions to go to the movies. he rarely questions me and supports all of my ideas. (i'll open a preschool! i'll start an afterschool program at the girls school! i'll be a doula!) he likes to stay active and for a 45 year old, he's looking pretty good!

for fhe granpda set up a bingo game complete with prizes - always a favorite. lexi picked a set of bandanas, she's a blood, not a crip. ;) little miss is busy finding her way on the cusp of legal adulthood. she got in to the winter/spring session of byu-i, so we won't be rexburg bound till january. what oh what will we do to keep her occupied till then? no seriously, what? she's doing well in school, loves her little yo kool job, and spends all together too much time with her friends. i wanted my kids to enjoy high school and i can say that in that particular endeavor, i have been successful with this one.

the boy is doing well too. we had a disappointing setback when he didn't make the school baseball team. i must say that i don't understand it and that our childrens disappointments hurt way worse than our own. thankfully our next door neighbor is big in little league and he knows what a good player chris is. he is very encouraging, always willing to help, and gives rides to and from practice, what more could we ask, right? we are waiting to hear back if he got into the dental or carpentering programs at school. he is working (sort of) on an eagle project, and finishing up yearbook and assorted school stuff. on friday night he went to see see divergent with me and i thought how very cool it was that my 16-year-old son came to a movie with me on a friday night. i love this only son of mine.

ps - his bingo prize was a luxurious bottle of strawberry bubble bath. ooh la la!

addiekins. 

5 is a rowdy, boundary pushing, loud, obnoxious, potty talking kind of age over here. fun and sweet too though. she was really pushing to "flip" school on frankie's birthday, and i resisted, but the next day, after we'd had a late night of bingo playing and cake eating, i let her stay home. she's a handful! she always wants to be busy - doing art, playdough, watching tv, playing, she likes to stay busy and her busy means making messes. oh, i do try to not let that dissuade me from allowing her to do things, and i am also trying to teach them that what they get out, they pick up. she's cute and inquisitive and also really fun.

frankie frog just had a birthday, shout hooray! she is getting more mature and so smart! she's a rough and tumble big sister, often trapping little laney to administer her sisterly brand of justice. she loves preschool (most days), likes ballet (most days), and is gaga for daddy (all days). we went to the lego dance at les and she wouldn't even dance with me. she chose to just stand there and cry while daddy danced with addie. super fun for mom! she (and addie) have been having lots of 'nightmares' lately and needing to sleep in mom and dad's room. she's also a super light sleeper. i try to be so quiet in the morning, but without fail, she wakes up.

and the caboose.
this is what our drives home from church look like. sleeeeepy girl! she's doing naps and bed pretty easily, although we picked up the bad habit from cousin quinn of requesting a bottle of milk every time. we don't actually have any bottles, but i have been giving her milk in a sippy cup. not the best, but also not the worst right? this chic sure is two! she throws lots of fits, full on head thrown back, body on the floor, screaming fits. thankfully a time out usually resets her course and we're good to go. for a little while at least. she almost never comes when first called and almost always waits until the count of 3 or later to obey. she's super sweet when she's sweet, but when she's not, she's really not!

i am swimming, swimming. trying to stay optimistic through some difficult mom times. 

lifey life.

Happy birthday, sweet frog

Our little Frankie is 4!

From start to finish, her day was full of friends, food, and fun!

Happiness is seeing your babies happy!

Shrove Tuesday

It is c-c-cold. We've had two snow days and tomorrow is a 2 hour delay. Snow days are fun, in moderation. This year they have not been doled out in moderation. 

Darlaina took this pic and a) it's beautiful and b) that's Matt and Frankie playing by the gazebo. (:

Snow days = lots of messes

And lots of cooooollllldddd. I'm done being cold. 

Tonight I made some pioneer woman pancake puff muffins. They were a fun twist on traditional pancakes and everybody liked them. Even miss cool hair. 

Even miss "I eat my bacon with my feet." It's the way we roll. 

Even miss "I'm bored but I don't want to play in my basement playground or with any of my toys."

School is calling their names.