100 Days

Tuesday was the 100th day of school. Abby's 1st grade had to wear something with 100 of something on it and then they were going to go to each classroom for a fashion show.
I had the brilliant idea (it was at the time) of using some buttons from Abby's great grandmothers. 50 from my grandma and 50 from Perry's grandma. After I sorted through all the buttons from both grandmas I placed them on the shirt before sewing, to try to make some kind of pattern.

Then I took tons of pictures so I knew where to put the buttons once I took them off the shirt.
I placed them on the table just as they had been on the shirt. My cat thought they were there for her to shove off the table with her paw.
Some of these buttons are very pretty.

I sewed the first 10 buttons on and I was pretty much done. The thought had crossed my mind as to how much of an idiot I am. I am not a sewer. (that looks like sewer, as in the pipes that your poo goes in, but it's not. HA) I am not a sew-er.
But I already had sew holes in the shirt and Abby did need something for 100 day, so I pressed on. One button at a time. 70, 60, 50... 20 more to go. Those last 20 were at the bottom and were just clipped on. No sewing.
I worked at it for a little while for 3 days. Finally I sat down and finished the thing. It weighed quite a bit, and the bottom buttons that hung off the shirt were kind of noisy but Abby loved it.

Yup, there's 100 on there.
Those 100 days went so fast. Soon it will be summer vacation, then possibly home school next year. If that's the case, then on our 100th day of home school, we will count 100 M&M's and eat them of course. 25 for her. 75 for me.

4th and 1st

School started today.

Phoebe is now in 4th grade and thinks it is the coolest thing because she has a locker, and that she is upstairs.



Abby started 1st grade and loves it. I cried having to leave her there all day.
I celebrated pacified my new alone time by geocaching with a friend.

Spring? Whatever.

School was canceled today because of a snow/ice storm. I think we will end up with about 7-10 inches when it's all over. This is what I see when I look out my windows. Lots of snow. Again. I saw a lot of grass yesterday before this started. Robins were coming back from their stay in the South for the winter. They were chirping so cheerily outside my window every morning. I heard no chirps this morning. Last night there was tons of lightening and thunder. Strange thing to happen when it's snowing.

I will take no offense if you are sick of my snow posts as I am of the snow.

Snow Day

After the foot of snow we got yesterday, school was canceled today.
That didn't stop Abigail from getting up and out.
While Perry cleared the driveway,
Abby started building a snowman.
The snow wasn't packy enough to make a snowman, so she just made a snowblob.
Then she took shelter under a big pine tree.

Then off for a venture to the backyard.
It's deep.

Finally, enough was enough.
Where is Phoebe during all this?
Both ways are great ways to spend your day off from school.

Happenings

15 days til Christmas. Ya think we would have our tree up?
Heck, we don't even have a tree yet that we can put up.
I did decorate my fireplace mantle. Big whoop.
I am getting to the very end of my gift shopping.
Not looking forward to the wrapping of gifts.
All us girls in the family are suffering from sore throats. I think mine is strep. I'll survive.
We had a 2-3 inches of snow tonight.
Of course it came between the hours of 2:00 to 5:00.
5:15 is the time we had to leave for the girl's Christmas program at school.
Yes, my kids have sore throats, but the show must go on!
I wanted to tell Phoebe to break a leg on her performance, but I think she's had enough broken legs to last her a lifetime.
Real nice having the girls tramp through the 2 inches of snow in their fancy dancy little shoes, with the wind and snow blowing their perfect hair-do's that I spent some time on.
Eh, no big deal, they survived. Or should I say I survived. It's no big deal to them.
Phoebe was the angel Gabriel. She did a great job. "Greetings you who are highly favored" (her first line) Her next lines were way to long, and I don't know them. Read Luke 1:28-37 if you want to know the rest of her lines. :o)
Abby sang some songs and did some reading from the bible. She did a great job too.
And how can a school program be complete without a kid peeing on stage?
No, not one of my kids. Poor kid. I felt bad. Still do.
So I came home and shoveled. Of course it only snows when Perry is out of town.
I have had night sweats lately. How gross are those!? Oh the pleasures of late womanhood.
All I want for Christmas is pajamas made out of Sham-Wow material.
Go along with me here...here's my commercial.

Tired of those nasty night sweats waking you up at all hours of the night?
Sick of changing pajamas and undies, and sheets at 3 a.m.?
Do you finally want a full nights sleep?
Then you need the new Sham-Wow pajamas!
Made from the same material that sops up gallons of water with one quick swipe.
Now you can sleep in peace and comfort knowing that when those nasty night sweats come, you will stay warm and dry.
No more waking up just as every pore of your body is spewing out buckets of sweat, and whatever other body fluids.
The Sham-Wow pajamas will soak up that sweat the instant it leaves your body.
Say goodbye to restless nights, sweat soaked everything, and start enjoying the rest and dryness that the Sham-Wow pajamas will give.
Buy them for yourself, or for that special woman that lay next to you at night. (because you know, that if these night sweats occur when you're in bed she will roll over to your side to avoid the wet sheets on her side)
Just $19.99. But wait! Act now and receive 2 pair of Sham-Wow pajamas for the one low price of $19.99. But wait! Call in the next 5 minutes and we will throw in this portable mini fan for those hell fire hot flashes. Call now!

I need to start sewing now. I could make millions!

Anyway, that's what's happening around here.
Goodnight. I hope.

Why I cried yesterday

I am one who cries easily. I cry at weddings, funerals, births of babies, testimonies, good news, bad news...I'm just a crier.
Yesterday was no exception.
It was Grandparents day at school and the students had a breakfast for them, then showed off their talents. Parents got to come and watch the performances. This is where I cry.
First set of tears...the kindergartners went up and sang a few songs. I cried because Abby was up there.
Then I cried because I was thinking that she is my baby and I will never have a kindergartner up on stage again.
I cried because they did so good.
OK, more grades get up and perform. I'm doing well in the not crying department.
Then the 2nd grade gets up and sings The National Anthem. More tears.
Finally the 3rd and 4th graders wind this show up. Phoebe is in the 3rd grade, so there's no drying up anytime soon. They sang a song, and I did fine. Then they played their recorders (flutes) and I lost it.
For months I listened to Phoebe practice her recorder. She went from horrible to pretty darn good. I wondered how the class was going to sound all together.
They were AWESOME! I was so proud of all of them and my tears were proof. I'm such a sap.


video taken with iPhone

I did fine the rest of the day, until I talked to my sister. We were talking about birthday's which turned to my 50th birthday coming up. I started getting teary. She then said, "well how do you think I feel?" (she is 60) We laughed, bringing tears, because I didn't want to cry anymore.

I know I'm a crier, and I know my hormones are whacked, but good grief!

Oh, and my hips are crying today because we went to a coffee shop this morning and I had this cinnamon roll. It was huge, as now are my hips. This went along with caramel apple cider. Warm heaven.

School's In

First day of school today.


A 3rd grader


My baby in Kindergarten.

They did fine. Me? ...about 3 tears.

2010 Graduate

My baby graduated from preschool yesterday.

I only got teary a little.
There was a sweet little ceremony, with a breakfast picnic that followed.
We let Phoebe decide if she wanted to come to her sisters graduation, or go on her field trip at school. She chose her sisters graduation. I was pleased with her choice.
Afterward she had a few preschool friends over to swim.
Phoebe also had a friend over that she went to preschool with. This friend is the big sister of one of Abby's friends.
The backyard was filled with happy little girl screeches.

Time to enjoy her summer until kindergarten. So far so good.

School vs Home

Tonight we had to go to Phoebe's school for a parent/teacher conference.
Phoebe is doing well in school and her teacher told us she had a hard time trying to find something to tell us about where Phoebe could improve. All she could think of was that Phoebe could improve in speaking out in class instead of being prompted to.

Hmmm. Why does that child not exist at home?

Here is the conversation I heard last night.
the setting
Phoebe and Abby were playing.
Abby has to go to the bathroom.
A short time later..

Abby: "Phoebe come in the bathroom..quick"
Phoebe: "Cool! Go get the camera"
Me: " You are NOT taking a picture of poop" (mom's just know what's going on even though they are nowhere near the situation)
Phoebe: "But it's cool poop!"

Ya, she is not the girl the teacher sees at school.

The teacher

Abby goes to the same preschool that Phoebe went to. Today Phoebe did not have school, so she got to go to school with Abby and read the story to the children, and then come back at the end of the morning and teach them their Weekly Reader.
She loved it, and now wants to be a teacher when she grows up.




Abby taking direction from her big sister.Then the teacher had Phoebe file the Weekly Readers into their cubbies. She said that was the best! Abigail thought it was pretty special that her sister helped at school today.

and now those two are fighting and they have no need for each other

Intervention

After some intervention from someone who knows better than I do, I took her advice and looked at Abby's preschool pictures with new eyes. Have a look. If you listen past my talking, you can hear Abby singing 'Georgie Girl' in the background. "Hey there Georgie Girl".... You now have that song in your head. Unless you're too young to remember it.

Trying to video pictures off a computer, makes them look blurry. The photos really are very sharp.

Update on my rant from previous post

The verdict is in about Abby and the added hat that I did not want in her preschool picture.

If you have no idea what I am talking about see post below.

I am not happy with any of Abby's pictures.
Yes, she was adorable in most of the shots. A few not so good. Bad posture, goofy smile...

They took the photos outdoors, which made for a nice backdrop.
However.... there must have been some wind, because pieces of her hair were in weird places on her head. A strand here, a strand there. Real noticeable and out of place and it is the first thing your eyes are drawn to. Arrrgh!

The full body shot I did like seemed like it was mostly background and a little of Abby. Just seems like you would focus on the child more than the bushes and brick wall of the school and the grass. Am I wrong? Help me out here all you photographers.

And then there was the hat.
Very cute I must say, very very cute, but IT'S NOT WHAT I WANTED! another scream!
Not to mention a strand of straw sticking straight up on the top of the hat. Could this photographer not see this? After seeing Abby's beautiful green eyes first, (wait a minute...she has blue eyes! They changed her eye color to match her shirt! good grief!) I was immediately drawn to the little sprig of straw on the top of the hat. Grrrr, the more I type the madder I get.
It did cover up the blowing hair though.

Perry thought the hat was a dumb idea too, so I will just take her somewhere else, in the same clothes and get them taken. For a lot less money too. My goodness these are expensive. Or are they expensive just because I'm not happy with them? Probably so. If they were just what we wanted, then I probably would pay the high price for them.

So that's that. She get's no business from us except maybe an e-mail at how disappointed we were.

A small rant and other stuff

I have a tiny need to rant.

Today was picture day at Abby's preschool.

I dressed her, and had her hair the way I wanted her to look. I imagine most parents do that.

She gets out of school and I ask her about her day.

I get to the part about how picture taking day went.

I ask her how they had her pose and if they had any flowers or any other decor around her.
She told me they had her sit on a rock and had some flowers around her.
I was OK with that.

Then she tells me they had her put on a hat.

WHAT! If I wanted her to wear a hat in her picture, I would have put one on her!

I asked if all the pictures were with a hat on and she said maybe 1 or 2 she did not have a hat.

There better be good non hat pictures.

I have nothing against hats, I just don't want her preschool picture with a hat.

My rant is over, and after reading that it kind of sounds silly.

On another note about preschool, Abby made a new friend.

She seems to play with this same girl every time she is in school, and they are already talking about play dates.
She has seen her big sister go on her playdates and she is so thrilled to be able to be going on her own.

She has another friend at school, but it seems like they are drifting apart.
Phoebe and this girls big sister went to preschool together and hit it off great. They were always together and had playdates all the time. So naturally her mom and I thought that our 2 little ones would be the same way when they hit preschool.

Not so. They are friends, and play together at times, but they seem to each have their "best" friend that they go to all the time. And that's OK. It's just another part of her growing up. (sniff)
She is finding out who she's comfortable with, and has the most fun with. As much as I would love to pick out her friends for her for life, and steer her away from the bad seeds, I have to let her find out these things for herself. I can guide her, and hope and pray she makes the right choices.

Boy oh boy, it's just preschool... seems like I have a lifetime of school stuff to deal with yet. Am I ready for the first girlfriend fight? The teasing? 1st loves, 1st heartaches, and all that stuff that goes along with boys? Heavens no! God be with me!


Actually Phoebe had a slight dilemma the other day. I had to chuckle, but I didn't let her see it.

I pick her up from school and ask her how her day went.

Here's the conversation:

Me: How was your day?

Phoebe: (big sigh) Ohhhh, it was OK.

Me: What does that mean?

Phoebe: Oh, some of the girls are fighting over who is going to play with me at recess.

Me: (silently chuckling) Really? What's going on?

Phoebe: Well, A. wants me to swing, and N. wants me to play on the bars, and N. wants to do such and such.... and I like to play on the bars, and I don't know what to do.

I gave her some suggestions on how to include everybody involved and she said they were good ideas and if they didn't like the ideas, then she was going to just play on the bars because that's what she likes to do.

So yesterday when she was going to put all of this in to play, it rained all day and they did not get to go out for recess. We'll see what today brings.

So that's my life as a mom lately. Such fun.

Another First

Abigail started preschool today. She was so excited that she jumped right out of bed and volunteered to brush her teeth without me reminding her.

Her smile shows the excitement of how she was feeling about this day.

And it didn't quit even when we got to school.
She wanted me gone, so the teacher could start the class. I was not missed. :o(
I was close to tears but I held it in. A lot of it was from thinking back when Phoebe started preschool at the same place, and Abby was just a toddler hanging by my side. A few of those same toddlers are now in preschool with Abby.

She made new friends, knew an old friend, and is eager to go back on Friday. sniff.

2nd Grade... Here she comes!

Phoebe was so excited to start school today. She said she didn't sleep much at all. I know...she woke me up at 5 a.m.

See how she's grown since 1st grade! She was eye level with the doorknob and now she's mouth level.

Her teacher is so nice and Phoebe is ready to learn all that is thrown at her.

Preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade I cried. Today, 2nd grade, no tears from me at all. I'm such a big girl! Have a great year Pheebs. I miss you.