Grandparents Day!

Grandparents Day!  A long standing tradition at our local elementary school.  I guess that makes sense since half of the school is being raised by their grandparents (not so far from the truth, sadly).  Not my kids, though.  In fact, their grandparents are nowhere near. 

Last year I skipped out on the monumental talent show/assembly that is the highlight of the celebration.  "Why should I go," I thought, "I'm not their grandparent."  But, with two kids in the program this year, one of whom is extremely sentimental (Cael), I packed up the younger two and we went.  NEVER AGAIN!

2 wiggly (and bored) kids. 2 HOURS LONG. Only 2 minutes worth of appearances from the children of my womb.  Like I said....."NEVER AGAIN".  I'm surprised the students themselves didn't mutiny.

Anyway.

One good thing that came out of it......Little red's artistry.  Introducing.....

Grandma G.

 

Grandpa G.

 

Grandma H.

Grandpa H.

Now, while his renditions are not exactly spot on, he did a pretty good job of capturing the essence of it all.  he he he......

 

School Daze...I mean days...2012

I used to wonder why I would always hear mothers exclaim in exasperation, "I can't WAIT for school to start." Then I became a mother.

Now I get it.

I'm always happy when summer comes around and more than thankful for a reprieve from "structure" and schedules. I usually carry this on through June and even most of the way through July. Then August hits and I am DYING to say "goodbye freedom" and "hello order".

This year was no exception.

 I must say, however, that having TWO kids in full time school made the commencement of this year even more exciting. (squeal)

I'd like to say we went all out. You know, school shopped until we dropped, made a fancy shmancy dinner to welcome in the school year, gorged our pantry with lots of sack lunch goodies, and even woke up early on the first day to create a culinary masterpiece of wholesome breakfast goodness to get the brain going.

But...we didn't.

Instead we dug through buckets of hand-me-down clothes and found some pants that were in "first day of school shape" (otherwise known as hole-less and stain-less), ordered a few shirts from Target.com (which haven't arrived yet)and pulled dinner together at the last minute with very little thought.  But...we DID go to Burger King for $.50 ice cream cones to "celebrate" the end of summer, I DID get up and make oatmeal for breakfast and I DID put a little extra something in their otherwise boring lunches....a string cheese.  Yeah...I'm the BEST mom. 

Don't be too jealous, though. I made up for my greatness rather quickly. 

Gabe spent most of the morning in tears because I INSISTED on doing a bit of painful "doctoring" that just "couldn't be put off a moment longer".  Yeah.....poor kid.  I should have waited.  Sigh....

I may not make "mom of the year" but the kids got out the door to school on time, with excitement in their eyes and smiles on their faces.  Yeay for school!

"Aw MOM...we're gonna be late."

Gabe- 4th Grade

Cael 1st Grade

 It kills me to know that I could have had three in school this year.  However, we decide to keep Isaac at home until next year (bummer). He didn't turn 5 until early August and my "mommy feelings" tell me he's just not ready yet.  Even bigger sigh...... For now he will stay at home and help me entertain Kian.

There are HUGE benefits in that.

Happy School days everyone.  Enjoy it while it lasts.
 

UPDATE: Cael-ism

Cael:  "Mom, when I get done with my job I am going to read my scriptures on the couch until it's movie time."



Me:  "That's a good idea, Cael."



Cael:  "Yeah, I'm going to read them so I can feel the Spirit touch me."



 UPDATE:  Fast Forward a few hours from previous conversation.



I found Cael sitting on the couch with his scriptures lying on his lap.  After a few minutes he hops down and informs me,  "Mom, I DO feel the spirit.  I feel something hot sitting right here (as he puts his hand on his heart) on my shoulder."



It's moments like these that make me realize that not EVERYTHING I say gets ignored.  Makes the LONG hours doing my job TOTALLY worth it.  :)

LIVES to draw!

The kids have been on a real drawing frenzy lately.  Especially little Red (Cael).  He draws picture after picture after picture.  ALL DAY LONG!

He's a total natural.  He grabs a piece of paper and pencil, stares off into space for a few seconds and then he's off.  He doesn't pause until his picture is complete.  He didn't inherit that from either of his parents.  We are both artfully challenged.



At any given time of the day he can be found here...

Drawing this:

and this

or these









There's plenty more where those came from too.



It amazes me.



Here's another.

 

He's such a character!

Sweet things to hold on to...

A blast from the past...

Gabe (2 years old) worked on this dance routine for months!
He loved to dance. He STILL loves to dance.

Cael at 11 months
(the picture quality on our old camera was horrible)
But...his little head bob was hilarious.

Issac on his first birthday.
(same camera...same poor quality picture)
We still laugh and laugh at this video. He was so silly!

Kian at 3-4 months. HILARIOUS! DON'T SKIP THIS ONE!

Taken today:

I can't believe ALL of my boys have worn this outfit.

It's amazing!

Cael "funnies"

Cael is definitely our comic.

He has such a sense of humor (when he's not screaming at someone) and says some really funny things.

11/3/08
I was putting Cael down for a nap. He crawled into be and pulled up his blankets.

Cael: "I love my bed."

Me: "You love you bed?"

Cael (with a smile of absolute contentedness): "Yeah."

Then rubbing pillowcase, "Mommy, feel it." (as if I would fall in love with it too if only I touched it)

1/1/09
Gabe came in and woke me up at about 6:30AM this morning telling me that Cael had thrown up on his blanket. I went out into my mom's living room to investigate (we were on vacation). Sure enough, he had.

Me: "Oh, Cael. Did you throw up?"

Cael (very casually): "Yeah, I went eugh, eugh, eugh and then in all came out."
(now, I have no idea how you would begin to spell out retching noises but use your imagination)

I just had to giggle.

Me (smelling something other than throw up): "Oh, are you poopy to?"

Cael (very matter of factly): "YES."

Me: "Okay. Well let's change you. I'll go get a diaper."

Cael (over his shoulder...again, very casaully): "And wipes"

Now, this conversation may not seem very significant or even funny to some of you (other than the retching noise bit) but it amazes me that he can be so casual about throwing up.

In fact, if he hadn't inherited my red hair (and come out of my womb) I would wonder if he was my kid at all.