And So It Begins...

Audrey's first day of kindergarten was Wednesday. Needless to say she was very, very excited. Now, she has been attending pre-school, pre-K, etc. for the past couple of years, but that doesn't really compare to kindergarten, does it? I mean we're talking kindergarten here... this is the big-time. Full day classes, eating lunch in the school cafeteria, her very own locker.

So, we drove Audrey to school Wednesday morning and went in with her since parents were allowed to stay with their children for a little while. First was announcements in the auditorium (more on this in a bit), then off to the classroom for our good-byes. Now, there were a couple of kids who were clinging to their parents legs holding on for dear life not wanting them to leave. Then there was Audrey... no tears... not even really looking at us, except maybe for a quick glance or two with an expression that seemed to ask when we were leaving. Little Miss Independent. All grown up (at least in her eyes) and ready to take on the world. 1 day down, 13 years and counting until college. And So It Begins...

(On a side note, we are now gladly taking donations for Audrey's [or Henry's for that matter] college fund.)

As I mentioned above the first order of business Wednesday morning was to head to the auditorium for announcements. There was the obligatory "let's be safe dropping off/picking up children" spiel, the kindergarten teacher (Mrs. Breedlove) introducing herself and then her covering some of the many fun things the kids will be doing this year. The final announcement was one that I wasn't quite expecting (at least not on Wednesday morning... the morning of the FIRST day... of kindergarten!).

A PTO rep stood up to introduce herself and explain about the PTO at the school and about the many wonderful things they have done for the school. OK, fine, so far so good. Then, of course, she started talking about fundraisers. Not unexpected, it is the PTO after all and fundraisers are their main source of income. However, she continued on and began talking about the first fundraiser of the year - what the kids would be selling, all the fun prizes the kids can earn, etc. And guess when it starts?

Let me pause for a moment and say that I am not naive. I knew that there would be a fundraiser or three before the school year was done. It's part of sending your kid to school. I get it.

Anyway, back to my previous question... guess when this fundraiser starts? To my (and probably every other parent's) delight it was starting that very same day. Woo Hoo!!! (note the hint of sarcasm) Audrey came home from school very excited about the fundraiser. The "Candy Man" visited her class to tell the kids even more about the fundraiser... or as Audrey says the "fun"raiser. (Two different sets of ears hearing two different things with vastly different meanings and connotations. Amazing!) And we'll get to do this at least a couple more times before the school year is over. And So It Begins...

Update

The week started out really great with a trip up north and a day at American Girl Place. It was Grandma Karin's special treat for Audrey's 5th birthday. We ate at the cafe and Audrey got a new doll and lots of fun stuff to go with her. We all had a lot of fun! They boys didn't think they would be nearly as exciting about American Girl, so Grandpa, Jason, and Henry went to All Aboard Cafe instead. It is a restaurant with a train theme where a train delivers your order. I guess Henry got a big kick out of that!!

Jason has this week off as one of his layoff weeks so we are trying to get some stuff done around the house. Jason is painting the living room and I am trying to keep the kids out of the way! Today the kids and I went over to a friends house and had arts and crafts day with kids from preschool. Every Wednesday during the summer someone hosts and plans a craft project for all the kids. Today there was about 12 kids from the age of 9 mos. to 5 1/2. Kinda crazy, but fun.

Tonight I harvested a head of broccoli from my garden box and my first cherry tomato. So far the garden boxes are doing great and haven't been very much work. Audrey also started swimming lessons this week. She goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4:00. The weather has been a little too cool for swimming, but the pool is heated so it isn't cold until they get out of the water. I have been enjoying the cooler weather and the fact that we haven't had to run the A/C. We are just trying to settle into a summer routine. I might put some stuff in a friends garage sale on Saturday so I better get back to sorting and pricing :(

Kindergarten Screening

This morning we went to Kindergarten Screening at Hollis School. We have decided to send Audrey to Hollis instead of the primary school in our district and after today I am feeling like we made the right decision. It just feels so much more like small town school where everybody knows everybody. Anyway, Audrey did great and the teacher said she was definitely ready for Kindergarten (but we already knew that). The teacher is a nice grandmother type named Mrs. Breedlove :)

Pictures

Here are some pictures taken of the kids a week or so ago. They are on my facebook page but thought I would put them on the blog for those of you who don't do facebook. I thought they turned out great. My friend and neighbor Karianne took them. She is starting a photography business and is using us as practice. She is going to take some family pics later on. We may also try to get some more pictures of Audrey and the kids together, because there weren't as many of those that we loved.

I'm feeling crazy lately. I just can't seem to get my act together. Tonight I am trying to catch up on loads and loads of laundry so the kids will have clean clothes this week. I was going to sew some stuff that I cut out this morning but the cat has been hanging out on the ironing board and it needed washed before anything could be ironed. Darned cat!! I am feeling done with pets. They just create more work for me! I am really wanting to get stuff done around the house, like painting and redecorating, but we can't even seem to find the time to keep the house clean, let alone do home improvement projects. Audrey had a birthday party this evening for a girl from school. It was a Halloween in May party. They bobbed for apples, played pin the spider on the web, and had a haunted house in the attic. Every kid got a big bag of Halloween stuff to take home. The mom must have bought a bunch of stuff when it was on clearance after Halloween. Ingenious really. The family birthday party for Audrey and Henry is on Saturday and I still need to figure out the rest of the food and get the house somewhat cleaned up. Well, I better go put in another load.

Happy Birthday Audrey!!

I can't believe Audrey is 5 today! She had a great day. We had a Hello Kitty party for nine 5-year-old girls at our house this afternoon. It was a little crazy but I think they all had fun. They played a couple of games, did the limbo, and danced. After the party was over Audrey played with her new toys and then went on a bike ride on her new bike. She told me that it was a perfect day for a princess. Tomorrow I will try to post pictures of the festivities.

Wildlife Prarie Park

We spent 4 hours today at the Wildlife Prairie Park. We had an outing for the bear buddy program that we volunteer for with our church. We had a good time and the weather was perfect. It looked like it was going to storm for awhile but the rain held off. It wasn't too warm or sunny and there was a nice breeze. Henry's favorite part was riding the little train through the park. He didn't want to get off! Audrey liked looking at the animals. She even petted a snake! I remembered to bring my camera this time and when I took it out to take pictures the battery was dead! The back of my neck is sun burnt and Audrey's arms are a little pink, but Henry is looking terrificly tan!

We had a crazy weekend! Jason worked 40 hours from Friday thru Sunday. There was some database problems that had to be worked on and he pretty much just came home to sleep and then was back at work again before we even got up in the morning. The kids were missing him and I have been about ready to loose my mind. This morning I dropped Audrey off at church for choir school and Sunday school and then came home to finish getting ready so Henry and I could go back for the late service. I was locking the front door and Henry fell on the concrete front porch steps and skinned his nose up and got his pants all muddy. I screamed as I watched him do it, but couldn't get to him in time. He was pretty freaked out. By the time I got him inside, cleaned up, changed and calmed down we were super late for church. Henry was still in a pretty foul mood, so we ended up just going to pick up Audrey and then headed to the grocery store because we were almost out of toilet paper, diapers, and bread. I did get about 6 loads of laundry done over the last couple of day (and we have a washer and dryer that is supposed to hold about double what a super capacity washer and dryer do!) I don't know why we seem to have so much laundry lately. Well, it is after 10 and Jason just got home and I still need finish Audrey's party invitations so she can take them to school tomorrow. Tomorrow I have Mommy Moments in the morning and a baby shower that I have to bring food for in the evening. Jason promised that I would be able to make it to the shower even if he had to work from home. It's a good thing because as of this morning I'm in charge of the shower because the original hostess is sick! I hope the rest of this week goes a little smoother!

Easter Pictures

Thanks Grandma Karin for sending these (and remembering to take them)! Henry always smiles this cheesy fake smile when he knows someone is taking a picture of him. What a little ham!

Easter

I don't have any Easter pictures to post. We went to Jason's parents on Friday afternoon. His sister was in from Colorado and we had a good time visiting, coloring Easter eggs, and eating. On Saturday night we went to Jason's Auntie Debbie's house and played cards with GAB and GURay who were also in town. It was a fun weekend, but I didn't take any pictures. In fact I forgot to take my camera at all. Hopefully somebody took one of the kids in their Easter duds and I can get a copy. I always seem to be so scatter-brained! Not much else has been going on. Just more of the same. I got 2 more bags done and am starting aprons. I also need to get busy with making decorations for our church's mother/daughter/friend tea. I volunteered to make paper flowers for the centerpieces of 12 tables!! I have also been working on the Hello Kitty invitations for Audrey's friends birthday party. I cut them out with my Cricut, but still need to assemble all the little parts of them. I can't believe how fast her birthday is coming up. May is always such a super busy month for us, so I should try to get some things done now so I'm not so stressed at the last minute. In May we have 2 birthday parties, the mother/daughter tea, book club at my house and lots of end-of-the-school year activities at school and church! Tomorrow morning Karianne is coming over with Tristan and the baby for a little visit. That should be fun and I'm sure Henry will be happy to have a playmate. I should get to bed. Tomorrow I think I will take some pictures of the kids and post them just because it has been so long since I have put any up and they are so stinkin' cute :)

I'm up WAY too late watching the snow fall. I have to admit that I'm not nearly as enthusiastic about snow when it is April and Easter is only a week away! Early yesterday morning my neighbor (and friend) Karianne called and said that she might be in labor and wanted to know if I could come stay with her little boy while they went to the hospital. She said she was pretty sure that it was false labor, but the Dr wanted her to come in anyway. I went over in my pjs and tried to sleep, but didn't have much luck. At 7 Sylvain (Karianne's husband) came home and said that the baby was born at 3 am. It was a very fast delivery and not false labor after all! She had a little boy who is named Lucas. Well, that was my excitement for the weekend. Audrey is on spring break this week so I will get to relax and not worry about getting anywhere at a certain time. It will be kinda nice. I hope Audrey and Henry get along. Lately they are either best friends or screaming at the top of their lungs at each other. They fight a lot, but when I try to split them up and have them play separately , they get upset and still want to be together!?!

X-Rays

Last week Henry fell down on the bottom stair and limped a little. I didn't think much about it because he didn't seem to be in pain. Well, he was still limping on Tuesday so I called the doctors office and they wanted to see him. Well, the doctor couldn't find anything so she ordered x-rays. They took a bunch and Henry was such a good boy through the whole thing. He laid really still and didn't start to object until the very end. Well, the results came back normal on all the x-rays also, and today he is not limping as much. I'm just supposed to watch him and take him back in if he isn't better in another week. Someone in our family has had emergency medial care every month this year. January it was me with the flu ambulance ride thing, February Jason went to prompt care with chest pains and had a EKG and chest x-ray (the tests turned out fine and they never found out why he was having pain), and in March Henry had x-rays. I hope Audrey doesn't have some emergency in April.

I have been super busy the last couple of weeks. I have been sewing like crazy to try to get some stuff made up to sell. I made a bag about a month back and started carrying it and everyone wants one. I took a couple to a consignment store back home in Charleston and I have 3 people waiting on one and another place willing to sell them. So far I have made 4 of this style bag
Today I made a pillowcase dress for Audrey. This one I cut shorter to be a shirt. It was pretty fast and easy to make. I have another one cut out for a dress and I think I am going to embroider something on it. Audrey loves to model!

We have all been sick AGAIN! This time with an awful cold that keeps holding on. Audrey ended up with an ear infection, which is pretty unusual for her. This is the first one she has had since she was a baby. Henry didn't have one as of Friday afternoon, when we were at the doctors office, but he has been acting pretty cranky and didn't sleep all that well last night so I'm not completely convinced that one isn't on the way. At least the weather has been great the last few days. We all went on a nice walk last night after supper. Audrey rode her scooter (most of the way) and Henry rode in his little push car. We stopped and talked to a few neighbors along the way. Everyone is so ready for spring! Yesterday was the first time that Audrey had been to preschool in a week! With our colds and the time change I wasn't about to drag everyone out of bed. This is my last year to have that option. For the next 16 years someone will have to be up for school and there won't be a choice. Wow, I just thought about that, 16 years!!! I can't believe Audrey will start school this year. We have decided to go ahead and send her to public school. With the economy the way it is I don't feel super comfortable with a big financial commitment like private school. I have been reassured by several people that the primary school she will go to is a good one and we know 4 or 5 kids that will be starting kindergarten there too, so that makes me feel a little better. Registration is at the end of April. Jason found out last week that he will have to take 4 weeks of rolling layoff this year. I don't think it will be too bad because he pretty much gets to pick the weeks and he can spread them out so it isn't as much of a financial strain. So that combined with his 2 weeks of vacation, he will be off 6 weeks this year. Maybe we can get some stuff done around the house while he is off.

Audrey's 1st Solo

Our church had a variety show last night. It was put on my the children's choirs to benefit an orphanage in Liberia. All the children's choirs sang and then there were solo acts. Audrey said that she wanted to sing a solo. We had worked on a song for a few weeks. She sang "Come and go with Me To My Fathers House". She did so awesome. She was right on key, remembered all the words and even held the last notes out long! She smiled the whole time. I think she is a natural performer. She also loved the cheering and wild applause! She said "Mama, they loved me!" She was the youngest performer. I was so proud! I did get it on video, but still haven't looked into how to post it so here are a couple of pictures. My mom and dad came to watch her and then we celebrated my birthday a day early today by going out to eat.

A Mouse in the House

We have been having a mouse issue lately. I have woken Jason up in the middle of the night a couple of times over the last couple of weeks because I hear "scritching" as I call it. I don't know why I use scritching, it just seems like the right word to me. Well, we must have Houdini mice because they weren't being tricked by the traps we set for them. In fact I think the traps just provided them with a midnight snack during their scavenging quests. After seeing a mouse run around the living room in the middle of the afternoon we decided that we had to do something else. Yes, we have a cat. I had to go find her, wake her up and practically throw her upstairs in the living room. She didn't seem to even sense that there was a mouse around and hid under the dining room table while the rest of use ran around and squealed. So, we decided to put out glue traps. I know, they are awful, but so is watching a mouse run around your house. Well, the next morning Audrey is yelling for me saying "mama guess what we caught, two of them". I didn't come down to watch but I guess Audrey was very interested it the 2 mice stuck to 1 glue trap squealing. It took Jason 10 minutes to work up the nerve to pick up the glue trap, but Audrey took a flashlight and examined them. She told me all about how cute they were and how their tiny feet were pink, and they made cute little squeaks. I am glad I didn't witness it! I was upstairs getting Henry dressed and I heard Audrey yelling out the back door frantically "Dada don't throw them in the garbage!!" He told a little fib and told her he was going to let them run across the street to the golf course. I think we are going to try to look for some other kind of traps. The glue traps are a little too traumatic for us I think. Today on the way to school Audrey and Henry were pretending to be rats. They were clawing and making gnawing noises!

I haven't posted anything for awhile so thought I would give a quick update. We didn't have any big plans on Valentines Day. We met my parents, Sara and Sean in Champaign and had lunch at Olive Garden and then went to Sara's for cake and ice cream to celebrate my moms birthday that was on the 11th. We stayed there until late afternoon. I started a pilates class at the rec center down the street. I am pretty humiliated by my lack of strength. We do a lot of exercises on the balance ball and it is a lot harder than I imagined. There are quite a few senior citizens in the class and the instructor is over 60. Its pretty bad when you feel like your muscles are jelly and you can't sit up one more time, and you look over at the tiny 80 year old looking man and he doesn't seem to be having any trouble! What else has been going on? The back window of our car was broken out and they had to order a new one from New Jersey so Jason has been driving around with plastic over the back window and has worked from home a couple of times this week. Monday a couple of my friends came over to scrapbook while the kids played. We didn't really get anything done because there were 6 kids (5 boys and Audrey) under the age of 5 running around making messes and wanting things. The house was a disaster and my nerves were fried by the end of the day but everyone had fun! Next time I think we should get a babysitter though. Henry isn't feeling good again. I took him to the dr this morning because I was sure he had another ear infection. He woke up early this morning screaming and pulling on his ear. He said his cheek hurt. When I brought him in to the dr he said that his ears were fine and that his throat was a little red and his glands were a little swollen and that it looked like he was just coming down with another virus. Just goes to show you what I know. I was sure it was his ears and last time when he really did have an ear infection I had no idea it was his ears, I took him in because he was coughing a lot. I wish they would just give me one of those scope things they use to look in his ears and teach me how to use it so I wouldn't be guessing and running to the dr office all the time.

We are managing to stay busy, but not healthy. Everyone has had a cold here lately. Henry ended up with the croup and an ear infection last week and this week I am all stuffed up. It seems like this winter I end up getting EVERYTHING that the kids get. I have been sewing a little because Jason was bugging me to know when I was going to use some of the fabric that I keep buying. I am somewhat of a fabric and paper collector. Today Audrey and I went on a field trip with her school to see Rainbow Fish. It was pretty cute but kinda stressful. Imagine a giant theater fill with 800+ preschool and grade school kids! I really don't know how teachers do it!!! I am watching Airforce 1 land at the Peoria airport about a mile from our house (0n TV of course). The president is in town today and giving a speech at a Caterpillar plant. I was going to go out on the front porch and see if I could see them fly over, but I guess I missed it. Audrey was annoyed that we were watching it on TV instead of PBS cartoons. She is less than impressed that the president is in town. She does know who he is though. The other day there was a picture of him on the yahoo homepage and Audrey pointed to it and said "That's Barack Obama. He's the president of the United States." I just kinda looked at her in amazement. She said she learned it at school. If we aren't careful people might think she comes from a family of Democrats.

Home "improvement"???? projects

Well in typical Melissa fashion, what started earlier this week as a quick project that should have only taken a couple of hours, has turned into a HUGE, drawn out pain in the butt! There is this little area at the end of the entry hall that was closed off and previously used as a pantry or storage closet. It had become really jammed full of stuff, because when people were coming over we just kinda threw stuff in there. It really needed cleaned out and organized. Well when I took everything out I decided that I wanted to make it into a little entry way area instead of a closet. There is even a little window in there. I took off the bi-fold door and started to take down the shelves that were screwed into the wall. Well, the crazy person who had hung the shelves had over-tightened most of the screws and stripped the heads. I couldn't get them off. Jason worked on them when he got home and then we patched all the holes. I found a place for the extra junk that was in that closet and made plans in my head for a curtains, and a bench with matching cushion. Today, Jason painted while Audrey and I went fabric shopping. I was trying to think of some ingenious cheap bench that was narrow enough to fit and Jason was finishing up painting the trim and baseboard when the unthinkable happened. Jason tipped over the gallon bucket of white paint and spilled a large amount onto the hallway carpet. Now I'm not especially in love with this carpet, but it goes all through the hall, in all of the living room, up the stairs and in the upstairs hall. If we replaced it we would have to replace ALL of these areas, and that really isn't an option right now. I was really trying hard not to loose it and scream or cry. After scooping up as much as we could with paper towels and a dust pan, and ruining a little carpet spot cleaner, I got online and googled "how to get paint out of carpet". We then began using dawn dish soap and water. Then Jason worked on it for quite a while with our big rug cleaner. It is much improved, but isn't completely gone. I don't know if other people will really notice it or if I just do because I know it is there. Anyway, it is now day 5 of the project and we aren't even close to finishing. Oh, and I invited people over for dinner after church tomorrow!!!

Snowman

Last week Marilyn from Audrey's school came over to sled in the golf course. All the kids near us play on the 4th hole that is right in front of our house. There is a partial snow fort there and a couple of sled tracks. Well, we decided to build a snowman. It turned out that I mostly built the snowman. It has been a long time since I have built a snowman and I had forgotten how much work it is! The snow was perfect for it and we had a HUGE carrot that we had been saving for just this occasion. Here are a couple of pictures. He is still there and Henry talks about him every time we leave the house.

Having a Ball

Audrey went to a bowling birthday party on Sunday afternoon for a little friend from school. This was Audrey's first time bowling as it was most of the kids there. It was hysterical! They were all proud and excited if they knocked down any pins at all, and the bumpers were up! Sometimes the ball making it to the end of the lane was an accomplishment!

Matching outfits

Great Auntie Barbara (AKA GAB) made these coordinating sweaters for the kids for Christmas. She even sent matching turtlenecks and pants for them. Henry was really funny about his sweater. When I first tried it on him I just put it over his pjs. I started to take it off and he was screaming. I thought he was getting made because his arm was stuck or something, but it turns out that he was screaming because he didn't want to take the sweater off. I put his arms back in and he happily wore it around the house over his footie pajamas for almost an hour! Thanks so much GAB! Sorry it has taken me so long to get the pictures up. Audrey loves to pose for the camera and Henry loves Audrey's Barbie castle (much to Jason's dismay). He really did get lots of "boy" toys for Christmas.

Some Christmas pictures

Making cookies for Santa with her Webkinz dog

Grandma Kay with the kids on Christmas Eve after Church

Looking under the tree on Christmas Morning


Henry the Airplane Pilot

More Webkinz

YUCK!!

Wow it really has been awhile. I have a good excuse this time. Last week I wrote that Henry got sick all over the living room, just once. Well he got sick just once, but that started a round of the stomach flu at our house that took it's toll on some of us more than others. Friday night I started to feel a little nauseous and started to have diarrhea and threw up a couple of times. I got out of bed at about 12:30 to get sick again and couldn't stop heaving and started to black out. Jason ended up calling an ambulance because I was confused and laying on the bathroom floor. I had my first ever ambulance ride and ER visit covered in diarrhea. I still am not really sure why they have to send 5 young decent looking guys to respond to a call of a girl laying in her own poo on the bathroom floor, but it was pretty horrible! Jason stayed home with the kids, who miraculously slept through the whole EMT thing. The ER was really busy and there wasn't a free room so I got to lay on the stretcher in the hallway while a nurse tried 4 times to get an IV started. I was feeling pretty crappy, both figuratively and literally, but wasn't really scared until the nurses started getting nervous about my blood pressure being 90/40. I guess it was because I was so dehydrated. Well after a shot of zofran, 4 IV bags of fluids, and 7 hours later, I was feeling better and got to go home. Audrey ended up throwing up and running a fever on Saturday and Jason had a slight fever and diarrhea for a day too! Jason's dad and brother came and picked up the kids on Sunday morning so we could have some time to recover. They have been there all week because the weather has been really bad. We are going to go pick them up tomorrow. So that has been our exciting week. Hopefully we are done with illness for the winter.

So I am having a hard time getting back into the swing of things. We got a new camera and there are Christmas pictures on it that I haven't gotten the time or energy to upload. Audrey started school up again on Tuesday. I had to first drag myself out of bed and then both of the kids. We were all in slow motion. Henry had a doctors appointment on Tuesday at 12:30 so we went straight there from school. He just had a follow up for the ear infection that he had before Christmas. His ears are fine and he weighed in at 32 lbs! We had a long wait at the dr office and didn't get home until close to 2. Then the kids had to have lunch before naps. As soon as Jason got home from work I had to drive to a neighboring town, in the freezing rain, to deliver supper to a family from church who have a new baby. I didn't get home until around 7. It was a long day. I wasn't feeling very good this morning and Jason worked from home so that he could take Audrey to school and pick her up. It is really awesome that is able to work from home sometimes! Just after he left to go get her Henry projectile vomited all over the floor and love seat. It was pretty horrible. This was the first time that he had ever thrown up and it freaked him out. So today there was laundry to do and a lot of clean-up. We still haven't quite got the smell out of the living room. He didn't act sick before or after and has been fine the rest of the day so I'm not sure what it was all about. Hopefully it was a one time thing. Well I better try to get to bed a little earlier tonight. I'm glad tomorrow is Friday!