Stage Fright

Emily had a small line in our church's primary program today. We have been practicing in primary for the last 4 weeks on all the songs and parts for all the kids, but for the first 2 weeks Emily would not come within 2 feet of the microphone. I was almost willing to give up on her speaking as a lost cause when her teacher convinced me to get Emily to pray for courage. Well, I must admit I did not really think that would work, but was willing to try it since nothing I had done had worked either. So we included that in our prayers every night.

Last week in practise she got up there and mumbled her part very nicely into the mic, then fell on me(I was sitting net to the stand to prompt little kids) and gave me a big hug before galloping down the stand to jump on her 60 year old teacher and give her a giant hug. Emily is a good solid 55 pounds, but luckily her teacher said she saw the twinkle in Emily's eye as she charged and knew something major was headed her way so she did not get knocked over.

Today was the program and there was an audience watching her so I was worried about her freezing at the mic, but she did a wonderful job-minus the bear hugs though. She was justifiably very proud!

Super Swimmers

So the girls started swimming lessons at the begining of the month. They are in seperate classes but bith at the same time which is very nice for me! Emily is doing very well and has enjoyed her lessons since day one, although she did remark the other day, Mom why do we have lessons every day? "Every day" is of course a loosly used word usually meaning often. But in thsi case every week.

So anyway...Sydney was excited the frist day but as soon as she and Emily split up, it was a,ll over. There were tears, there was sobbing in a ball on the floor, and snuffling into my neck. You name it. Finally I sat on the floor and got her to put her feet in the pool, to kick a tiny bit, and to get sipped in the water. She ended the lesson with a jump into the arms of coach/lifegaurd and I thought we were problem free. The next week she went just with Karl since I could not make it and never even got her toes wet. It was a pretty frustrating thing for everyone which was a big shock to me since she loved going to the pool this summer.

So the following friday she mentioned to me she wanted us to go and buy some playdough. I jumped on that and ran with it! I offered her the chance to get playdough if she cooperated in class and did evrything the teacher asked in swim lessons.

The next day she walked into class, sat on the edge of the pool and beamed at the teacher. No fear there! The teacher looked at me a little puzzled and could not figure out what happened and I explained the playdough request. Sydney was a perfect angel in class! And of course she got her playdough. This week, after another fantastic performance in swim class, Emily hoped out of the pool and said"Ok Mom, let's go to walmart and buy some toys!" Poor thing was a little bummed when I did not immediately follow through on that suggestions. Luckily, a trip into the YMCA Child Watch seemed to go over just as well!

Emily is doing quite well, she can swim a little on her side now without a floaty, but does quite well with a floaty. She still has issues jumping into the pool and getting her head under water though, but hopefully we can work through those.

Sydney seems ok with wetting her head and blows bubbles beautifully. She also is doing a great job kicking and working her arms, but it will probably take a few more sets of lessons before she is a "swimmer"

AHHHHHH

Today in the car on the way home from the store & swimming lessons, Emily uttered the worst words possible! "I'm bored." Where did she learn that awful word? What are they teaching her in school? I asked her if she knew what it meant, and of course she didn't but she still said it. I told her that if she said that to me, I would tell her to go and find something to do.

Let's hear it for the neighbors

Can I just say how much I love having kids nearby to play with. Some days my kiddos disappear after school/before dinner-after homework of course, and then go for more after dinner right up until bedtime. We have a few houses on this street with kids Emily's & Sydney's ages. The biggest challenge is getting them home. We have been working with Emily to not get quite so dramatic at the anguish of leaving her friends.

I want to invent kid pager that can be worn on their shorts/legs/wrist so it is easier to get them to come home-maybe one with an alarm clock feature, or if I could page it and set it off that would be nice.

Thankfully we have very kind neighbors (with a trampolene no less) who don't mind the invasion. Even if Emily invites herself over for dinner (Yikes. Never thought to discuss that in the never ending Manners 101)

5 year olds planning marriage

So at dinner the other day, Emily is lecturing Sydney about her behavior and stopped her saying she wasn't the mom, so she did not get to dool out punishment to her little sister. She asked me if she would be a mom when she had a baby. Then asked if she could have a baby when she is 16. Right now 16 is the magic number-maybe because I told her she can learn to drive then. So I suggested she wait until she is a little older, and after she is married before she had a baby. She immediately asked if she could marry Daddy. That lead to a whole different conversation about mommies and daddies and how there is only one of each, not two and her response was that it is nice to share. So, I had to explain that we don't share husbands! Then she asked is she could marry Mr. Chris, the neighbor's daddy. Nope, not him either. So then I told her she could marry someone her age, so she thought about that for a little while and chose one of her little friends. It was too funny!

The Breakfast Thief

So, school started two weeks ago, and after the first week of school, I got an automated phone calling informing me that my child's cafeteria balance was low. Now I was surprised when I got the call as I had been sending both girls with their lunches. I had seen the breakfast menu and was not excited to have the girls eating all that, so I feed them at home & sent lunches.

Now Sydney on the first day had misplaced her lunch box, so she had lunch then, but I could not figure out the call since that was usppossed to be "free". So I questioned Emily. (I had stolen chocolate milk in Kindergarten and wondered if that was genetic.) She assurred me she was not taking anything extra, so I decided to deal with the issue on Monday. I dropped off Emily, and questioned Sydney's teacher about her eating lunches there-had she gotten food at lunch-oh no. She brought her lunch, they knew that. But somehow, they mentioned breakfast. It turns out the preschool class all go together to breakfast, and my little monkey had been eating two breakfast every morning and run up a small bill. She assured me that she was hungry for more breakfast, and she was eating her lunch that I packed, so we compromised. I send in a yogurt and she eats with her class every morning and now we are all happy!

First Two days of School

So it is finally here, Emily goes to kindergarten. She seems to have a really great teacher, and is enjoying her classes. Yesterday was a little crazy, but by the end of the day she was still smiling! yesterday both girls were anxious about going in their rooms, but today, Emily barely even said goodbye as she trotted into her room.

Sydney also attends preschool in the same building which is extremely convenient for me! Today-her second day, she was all smiles as she met up with her class in the lobby and gave me a kiss goodbye, but not another backward glance.

I have been having fun running errands and going to the gym, but the girls miss YMCA time, so maybe I will try and toss in an afternoon class here and there.

I put up the pictures from yesterday & this morning! And just for the record they both asked for pig tails. Neither set survived the day

Office improvements

I forgot to mention my good friend Veronica helped me do a little office taming, and we have gotten the room better organzied. What made the world of difference was when Karl installed all the shelving in the office closet. We had eliminated some of the shelves from the girls room, and already had some shorter racks possibly from the last house, I don't remember now. So we ran 3 more shelves in the closet for storing my craft stuff, office supplies, fabric and such. It is so nice ot have everything easy to see, but I still need to go through each bin and cull the lot! I have a lot of hobbies, and seem to collect stuff that goes nicely with each one. I love the friendly local pickup vans though that siwng by crting off your donations. I think I got rid of 50 lbs of clothing the other weekend! It was very liberating.

Of course right after I took a picture of the closet, Sydney immediately wanted me to take her picture, so here she is in all her pigtailed glory.

Bathroom observation

So as most people can attest shower curtains usually have 12 holes for hooks to hang them. When you buy special decorative shower curtain hooks they come most often in packs of 12 as well. For some weird reason the girls shower curtain only has 11 holes. The decorative hook set the (same) company made for it comes with 12 hooks. I can't figure out why on earth they would want to do that.

Karl is currently installing a motion sensitive light switch in the girls bathroom. We are hoping that this will help keep the light on as they are notorious about leaving it on. We have been working with them on turning it off, but have not seen much progress so far, which is funny since Emily used to be such a good little light police.

Kitchen Updates

The before picture of cabinets. The white bookcase is in the background.


The before picture of the wall unit. Doors were not attached.


Emily dancing. Note the TV screen characters doing the same thing she is J

After picture of the large units

Wall Unit after picture

So here they are, finally with 90% of the work done in the kitchen, the exception of crown moulding & baseboards, we are looking pretty good now! We have not filled they up yet, but as soon as we get the chance, we will! The kids love the easy access to cereal and their plates & bowls and things. I finally got knobs on most of the doors, but not the drawers; those are much trickier! I put a few before & after shots of the large units and the wall units above the desk.

The old bookcase looks fantastic in the girl’s room and does a great job at holding all their books. The small bookcase got dragged into the playroom to try and organize their games and their workbooks.

School starts tomorrow and I am excited and nervous. The list for school supplies was really long and quite pricey, and I think I got all the things they need. I better sharpen Emily's pencils in her pencil box-school specified must be hard plastic-and make sure she is good to go. I have to go back & get erasers for her. I accidentally donated the pack I bought for her to the school. grr.

I also got a few shots of Emily dancing to her favorite kids dance show. She was embarrassed I was taking pictures, but it really was the cutest thing in the world! She has memorized most of the words & actions and dances along for most songs. I love it.

I have no idea why these images are coming in all on their side, but they are full size images. Maybe that is the problem.