End of Year Festivities

So as the school year wound down for the boys, they both had their Field Days at school.  Easton's was first.  It was postponed from its initial date because it was so darn cold.  It was much better on the Monday they ended up having it:






Then Mrs. H came over and asked me if I had many pictures from her class from the year. I told her I had a few but they'd mostly be of Easton and his friends. She said that was fine and then said another mom told her I was good with the camera and computers and stuff (huh?) and would I pretty please help her out by making montages for all her students as an end-of-year gift?! Not the same montage for all the kids but each kid's was different with their own pics plus some "classroom" pics. Ack! And to kick it off, she needed me to take a bunch of photos of all the kids at Field Day to make sure she had enough for the montages. Lovely. What did I get myself into?

So, I guess to feel like she was then helping me with my new tasks, she held Autumn for a few mintues:




But Mrs. H then moved on and Easton took over:


Not really. It was while Dalton was at school and Easton loved having his cute little sister to show off and wanted her to be able to participate as well. He got the girls running the station to let Miss Miss run the obstacle course after all the 1-2 graders had their turn.


My friend "R" who is "Z"'s mom also kept Autumn entertained for a bit with her soon-to-be-kindergartener "A". They shared a Gogurt with my little miss as well:

Then I had to rush off and pick up Dalton and Em from school so I couldn't stay. But I got the pics we needed.

Dalton had his Field Day the Friday of that same week:










I thought these two would be the first ones "out" of this bean bag toss game (Dalton can be a bit spazzy at those kinds of things) but they were actually the last ones standing!



On Wednesday of that same busy week, Dalton's class had an art show. They'd studied various artists throughout the year and had a showcase of their works so Autumn and I went to check it out.

This is Dalton's version of a "Monet" with green lilypads done in soft watercolors:


This is his still life. I wish she had posted a picture of what they were looking at to do their drawings because none of the kids' looked very recognizable.


This is Dalton's "Melting Clock" a la Salvador Dali--the crazy dude who painted what he saw in his dreams from aliens sending him signals through his moustache. Weirdo.


This is Dalton's Michelangelo. They tried doing their art like Michelangelo did the Sistine Chapel so they taped their papers under a table and laid down on their backs...but they used markers. Not paints. They also did bible stories for their Michelangelos like he did for the chapel in Rome. So Dalton's is of Jesus and Zaccheus. See the short dude in the tree?


And finally, we have Dalton's daVinci. They had to pose for and draw a partner. Of course, Dalton and Emery chose one another:


However, apparently Em was none-too-pleased with Dalton's depiction of her nose and "told" on him to their teacher that "Dalton made me look like a pig!!!" :) I asked Dalton about it and he said, "Yeah, she was a little mad but she still played with me."


My poor little artiste!

This past Monday, the 21st, was Dalton's very last day of Pre-K:


It was a little sad picking him up from his last day, especially because we won't see a lot of those friends anymore and I always enjoyed chatting with them in the halls at pick up time. Dalton and Emery had no emotion over it at all. :)


Baby Autumn was born on Easton's first day of Pre-K. And now baby cousin Carson was born on Dalton's last day of Pre-K:




The day after their last day, the Pre-Kers had their continuation ceremony. Dalton was looking sharp:


He's just so cute and excited as I left him with his classmates before I went to find a seat in the chapel:


They lined up in order of height so my little shorty was, like, 3rd from the end:


They posed with their teacher on the way in. We're sad she's retired now and Autumn won't have her like the boys did.


They sang a cute little song about living up to God's plans for them:


I couldn't figure out the order in which they were calling the kids for their certificates so I missed pictures or video of Dalton getting his. But here he is walking out with it, if that counts:


My little kindergartner:


We had cookies and punch at their reception:




And Dalton posed with the assistant teacher who will now be the main teacher, Mrs. L:


We threw in a couple of family shots for good measure:


I hate how gigantic I look in this one:


The next day, Wednesday, D's school had a picnic for the younger grades. In years past it has been a zoo day but no one had their act together in time this year so we checked it to the park. It was still fun, but not a great turn out.


But as I was pushing Autumn, Dalton, Emery and Cooper for a long time on the swings, Dalton still declared it the "second best day ever!"


Autumn and Coop:


Finally Friday rolled around which was Easton's last day of 1st grade!


His school does a continuation ceremony for everyone, which I actually rather like. Apparently, even with his "S" last name, Easton is still last alphabetically in his class of 21. So I do have video of him being called for his certificate but I won't post it. It's really not that exciting. :)

After the ceremony, we headed to his classroom for a final class party which was luau themed. I made the cupcakes. All 48 of them.


Poor Jason wasn't even going to come to the party so he could get to work after the continuation ceremony but decided to stop by. However, I put him to work when Mrs. H realized that 4 of the kids have two families and would therefore need two copies of the montages I made. So Jason had to transfer and copy all of those which took a lot longer than you'd think:


Easton and his best friend "K":


His other good pal (who I personally prefer) "Z":


Easton with Mrs. H:
 

He should technically be in her class again for 2nd grade but we'll see. Easton and K are not the best mix and those two have to be separated quite a bit. If they decide it's too much to keep them in the same homeroom together, I fear that Easton will be the one that has to leave. :( We'll see in August, I guess. However, after I made all her montages, she should keep me and E if she's not keeping both! Ha!

One reason Mrs. H couldn't tackle her montage idea was that she'd also planned a bunch of other things for the kids like bookmarks and a laminated poem with their little picture and then she made each kid their own word clouds which were super cool, even if a few of the attributes from the various classmates contradict themselves (quiet/talkative, crazy/normal). And "small" isn't always considered a positive attribute when you're 7, no matter how true it may be. :)

The mom in charge of the luau had to get back to work so I volunteered to clean up and K's mom helped me. Our children tore apart the reading corner with their crazy games while we cleaned but it wasn't too bad. Z's mom stuck around as well and then we all headed to the park to let the kids work out some of their excess energy and sugar from the party:

"Z" and "K" really aren't friends with one another despite being in the same homeroom the last two years. But they're both friends with Easton so they had an okay time together...a few issues like Z only wanted to play Zombies and the other boys didn't. Z loves animals and nature so Easton had the idea to play "zoo" but even that compromise wasn't good enough but whatcha gonna do??? Three really can be a crowd and it's probably best if we see those families separately. Which we have standing playdates already set up with Z's family for the summer. K's parents both work so it's harder to get together with them...plus while I love their family, K is not the nicest to Easton a lot of the time. He's great when his parents or I am around, but I hear stories from Easton and from other parents that it is not the healthiest of relationships and I wish Easton didn't cling to K quite so much. But I am glad he's made so many friends at this new school. We are looking forward to next year already with both the boys in the same building and everything!


Here's to summer!!!!

A Day in the Life: 24 Hours with Me

You may be wondering what I do anymore since I don't seem to have the desire to do much blogging lately.  It's been a long, long time since I've done a "Day in the Life" kind of post.  Plus, I really do love my job and appreciate every moment, even on our routine days I'd love to have a record of one of them.  So here's Wednesday May 9 - Thursday a.m.

6:30 cell phone alarm goes off, I get right up, head downstairs, get dressed, put in contacts, hair in ponytail

6:35 tip toe back upstairs to get my earbuds

6:36 head out the garage for my walking/running

6:38 smack myself for forgetting my sunglasses again

6:59 have to stop to tie my shoe.  This has never happened to me mid-run before.  Secretly glad for the quick break. :)

7:09 arrive back home, still sounds fairly quiet upstairs

7:10 my phone battery lets me know its dangerously low, guess I forgot to plug it in last night seeing as how I fell asleep during The Voice without having washed my face or read my Bible

7:11 make myself a glass of ice water with lemon.  Accidentally spill in a few more chia seeds than I had planned on adding.  Make a cup of OJ with Benefiber and Miralax for E, chocolate milk for Autumn, half a cup of milk for Dalton.

7:14 preheat the oven, prepare a can of refrigerator biscuits for breakfast

7:16 cut the Box Top off the can, E's school needs every little bit of money it can get!

7:20 stick the biscuits in, Easton comes downstairs already dressed.  Sweet! I can hear J get in the shower.

7:22 run upstairs for my phone charger, find Dalton standing at the top of the stairs with his shirt buttons misaligned.  Doesn't matter because I can see stains on the clean shirt so we head to the boys room for something else to wear.

7:25 peek outside to see if the neighbors are getting in their car yet

7:28 send the boys outside to watch for the neighbors


7:30 boys alert me that they're in their car, run across the street real quick with the boys to let Emery choose which flowers to bring the teachers for Teacher Appreication week.  I bought a bouquet yesterday (because we were supposed to bring a flower for each teacher to D's preschool and I said Em could have some of ours since I had the bouquet anyway).

7:33 back inside after giving Emery the yellow stems, Dalton chose the green flowers, of course


7:34 biscuits are done, hear Autumn making waking up noises

7:35 Dalton heads up to get Autumn, Jason meets him there, I get a few stems together for Easton's 2 female teachers with a quick note of appreciation

7:38 Autumn comes down to say good morning, Jason shouts down to ask if there is a load of whites in the dryer.  There's not.  Make mental note to wash my man some socks today.

7:41 throw together Easton's lunch (today was Vanilla yogurt, string cheese, a cup of diced pears, Goldfish, and a lemonade) while calling out helpful reminders like for Dalton to hit the potty before school

7:44 Easton's lunch and water into his backpack, make Dalton a biscuit with Nutella on it for the car

7:50 bid adieu to Dalton who heads to get in J's car

7:51 Jason and Dalton leave for school and work

7:52 help Easton get batteries into his little camera

7:55 make Easton a scrambled egg and put honey on a biscuit for him

7:59 Easton sits to eat


8:02 serve Autumn half a biscuit with Nutella


8:03 sit to have my biscuit with honey and a side of raspberries, Easton eats a few raspberries with me. Yay!

8:08 Easton needs another biscuit


8:10 I need another biscuit, Autumn needs her other half

8:16 head to car


8:19 pull out of the garage

8:25 pull up to Easton's school

8:27 car line is taking an insane amount of time, give up and just have E climb out from where we are, he needs to be inside by 8:30!


8:31 park at Target, we need gummy worms for Easton, Z Bars which they don't sell at Walmart, look at jammies for Autumn and baby clothes for Jessica's should-be-here-any-day baby, head over to the toy section

8:49 speed over to the potty, head back to toys, Autumn plans on receiving Barbies and a La La Loopsy for her birthday, we hit up the dollar spot before checking out

9:12 drop our purchases off in the car

9:13 head next door to Sunflower Market, I need more Butterbur, Autumn walks on the planter wall

9:15 discover they are out of Butterbur

9:17 wander through the rest of the store seeing if anything else speaks to us, nothing does till we get to the bulk candy where I'm eyeing some caramels to make me feel better about the Butterbur.  The dispenser won't work.  Walk out of the store empty-handed feeling all deflated. 

9:21 cross the street before the sketchy-looking dude stopping passerby can talk to us, he calls out anyway, I pretend I can't hear him the first time but the second time I just don't have the heart.  He asks if I know when Mother's Day is.  Bless his heart.  I filled him in and we were on our merry way.

9:23 pull out of the Target lot

9:31 arrive in the garage

9:33 arrive in the house with Autumn and all our stuff

9:34 put on some water for hot chocolate

9:35 set Autumn up in front of Bubble Guppies


9:37 check in on the computer for a bit with my hot chocolate, (I gave up all caffiene back in September to try everything possible to help my headaches), "Checking in" involves a peek at Facebook, my email, Pinterest, People.com, my February '05 moms group...

9:58 Autumn's show is over, we head up for a shower

10:00 Autumn is crying on the stairs, I think she is just being dramatic that I went upstairs without her but it turns out she hurt her lip.  :(  Oops.  Feel bad.

10:02 we hop in the shower, it's a shaving day so it takes a smidge longer

10:11 I get out but Autumn stays in the bath part


10:12 discover my right contact is floating painfully much higher than where it should be on my eyeball, must fix

10:13 commence post-shower routines: clarifying, swabbing, deodorizing, moisturizing, sunscreening...

10:17 get dressed

10:19 brush teeth (yes, for the first time today--eew!)

10:21 get hair out of my face, resolve to see if I can squeeze in a haircut this weekend, blah! throw a little paint on the barn (what Jason calls putting on make-up)

10:25 get Autumn out of the tub

10:26 Autumn bends over to pick up her dropped panties and runs into the wall, have a sad time with Mommy cuddles for a bit




10:28 moving on again down to her room, she chooses the watermelon dress she's been eyeing for a few days but it had been too cold.  Discover the dress is a smidge too short but she won't agree to taking it off.  Dig through a box of clothes for the white bike shorts from last summer to stick on under her dress


10:31 Autumn reads her Kristi Yamaguchi piggy ice skating book while I get to work on her hair, must work out all the tangles from regular ol' curly girl bedhead plus the pizza and free ice cream left in there from last night and then get it into simple 'do for the day


10:37 done!


10:39 read and respond to a text from Emery's dad asking if she can stay at our house for 15-20 minutes while he picks up his sister in law from the airport, he's already left so we don't have much choice anyway, do we? :)

10:40 tidy up the kitchen a smidge, take my daily meds (minus Butterburr--grrr!) and send Autumn to the potty

10:42 Autumn calls for T.P.  We can't keep it out or the cat shreds it all over the house.  So we always have to bring it to Autumn.


10:48 in the car after Autumn has washed her hands, got her shoes, put them on the wrong feet, gathered up her Strawberry Shortcakes and gets buckled in before we can pull out

10:54 park at Dalton's school


10:55 drop off Mrs. M's retirement party gift (the other teachers requested we all give paint brushes as she will be painting murals in her retirement), chat with the other parents while waiting for Emery and Dalton to be sent out

11:07 back in the car and ready to pull out


11:09 a ladybug flies into our car, the big kids are excited, Autumn is nervous, she hates all bugs, even ladybugs and butterflies


11:13 pull into Easton's school parking lot, we head inside to drop off the gummy worms he was wanting for the desert habitat he is working on, we talk to the administrative assistant who knew Dalton by name already!  Yay!  Dalton introduced her to his "girlfriend". :)  We walk by the 1-2 classes where Easton is in math.  He is sitting in the seat closest to the door and we try to get his attention without being too distracting.  We're not distracting enough because he never sees us so we head on our way.

11:22 leave the parking lot

11:29 arrive home, Em's dad is still not home, I restrain myself from punching her as she is screaming "GET OUT!!!!" at the top of her lungs, she annoys me and my children further whilst she is here "playing"...she is being a vet but is pressing too hard on Dalton's tummy and won't stop when he asks, she took Autumn's sunglasses and told Autumn she needed to share when A started to cry, she opened some bubbles when Dalton told her not to.  Ugh.  Dalton said he was going upstairs and she was all, "DALTON! Aren't you going to PLAY with me?" and he said, "Well, not if you're going to be mean".  Good for him. 



11:55 I put in a load of whites so J will have clean socks tomorrow, I peek out my laundry room window and see Greg's car is now in the driveway--huh, wonder how long he's been home and why didn't he come get her?

11:59 we all take Em home, Greg said he just pulled in.  We come inside to say hi to Em's mom who is recovering from surgery and meet her sister who flew in today to help out for a few days.

12:15 we're back home, I start lunch

12:23 J calls to check in and I continue with lunch prep

12:32 I tell J I have to go so we can eat

12:36 we sit down to lunch: a PB banana smoothie for me, peanut butter and nutella sandwich for the kids with veggie straws, carrots, fruit leather and water.  Dalton tells me his head doesn't feel good but it's not a headache.  Autumn then says the same.  This annoys Dalton.

12:37 Autumn spills her water down her front, I put her top in the dryer


1:04 Dalton asks to be excused, Autumn asks for more carrots.  Dalton then cleans up all his own stuff: puts his water bottle back in the fridge, throws away his fruit leather wrapper, dumps the crumbs from his plate into the trash and then sets his plate near the sink, then he pushed in his chair and folded his washcloth/napkin into fourths and hung it on the back of his chair till dinnertime.

1:05 Autumn asks to be excused after eating one of the "more carrots" I got her.

1:07 Autumn needs T.P. again

1:08 clean up the lunch plates a bit and some other random dishes in the sink

1:09 head to the garage for a root beer

1:10 turn the TV to the proper channel for the kids to play the Wii

1:13 give up on waiting for Dalton to finish his #2 and come upload these pics from my memory card

1:16 Dalton is finally ready for some bathroom assistance

1:19 Dalton tries to start on the Wii, I sit down at my computer for some quiet time (see my notes with what I've been doing all morning?)


1:25 Autumn wanders into the kitchen asking for string cheese, she's not a big eater so I give it to her even though we just had lunch

1:33 Dalton is having troubles getting the Wii going even though it's been, like, 12 minutes, I clean the game for him and tell him what to try next

1:38 squeeze behind the TV to unplug the Wii to reset it

1:40 the Wii is working, actual quiet timing begins, Autumn is not playing the Wii, she is wandering around topless with a dolly in one arm and a bucket full of Nerf darts in the other

1:47 Autumn asks for "a fresh milk".  She is allowed only 2 sippies full of milk a day so this was her second

2:02 Autumn needs assistance in the bathroom after a twosie, I come back to my 'puter

2:36 Autumn needs TP again, guess she didn't do the #1 with the #2 when she was in there half an hour ago

2:45 I'm done typing up the morning here on my blog, I tell Dalton his hour of Wii time is up, Autumn comes downstairs with her Minnie Mouse costume

2:46 help Autumn with her costume, pour Dalton some milk, help Autumn take her costume off again, put on Doc McStuffins for the little two to have with their milk before we have to go get Easton in a few

3:19 turn the TV off and put shoes on, we head to the car

3:21 pull out of the garage

3:26 arrive in the car line, Autumn and Dalton are having a hilarious discussion about what can and cannot fly: like snakes

3:33 Easton joins us in the car, Dalton (as usual) is the first to talk (and talk and talk) and begins filling Easton in on the day, eventually I learn a little about his day and when I asked what his teachers thought of the flowers he said she wasn't mean to him today

3:42 pull in to Blockbuster lot to return a Wii game we'd rented a few weeks ago

3:48 we're home!




3:49 I lay out clean laundry on the back of the couch, move the load of whites to the dryer, the kids are amusing themselves with Easton's camera and having a grand old time



3:58 done with the laundry tasks

4:04 start the dishwasher

4:05 stick ice packs from E's lunch box back into the freezer, refresh his water bottle and stick that in the freezer for tomorrow

4:07 Easton and Autumn have Goldfish for a snack (Easton never ate his from lunch)

4:09 wipe kitchen counters

4:10 sweep the main level's floors since I never get to them on Mondays anymore


4:20 take out the kitchen trash

4:22 mop the main level's floors--er, I mean use the Swiffer Wet Jet but with my homemade cleaner

4:33 use the Dust Buster on a few rogue crumbs and fur balls that turned up while mopping

4:34 clean out the vent registers from the bathroom and kitchen


4:40 realize that the kids are still playing so well together having such a happy time that if I joined them I'd probably only screw up the dynamics of their fun game so I decide to clean the toilets instead which is my usual Wednesday task

4:41 we don't have any toilet cleaner (I use a lot of homemade stuff for other cleaning but I'm sticking with store bought for toilets for now), decide to put the pool noodles we bought from Target this morning in Autumn's and Dalton's bed to take the place of the rolled up towels we have in there to keep them from falling out.  Straighten up my own bed.






4:55 put the kitchen chairs back where they belong

4:58 sit down with another glass of water with lime, check out the lady's blog where tonight's dinner is coming from, read the school announcements from E's school and teachers, watch this "inspirational" video about some dude's transformation thanks to Diamond Dallas Page's Yoga that Jennifer posted

5:10 Autumn needs help upstairs putting the dolly changing table on the dolly pack and play

5:11 J calls to say he's on his way

5:18 preheat the over, re-start the dryer

5:20 put away Autumn's pile of clean clothes, pick up all her dress up clothes she left strewn on her floor

5:25 get the fries ready to go in the oven

(That's ice crystals...not tons of salt.)

5:27 tidy up a bit, put away the clean stuff that goes in the boys' drawers, put a few things in my basement garage sale pile, stick the fries in the oven

5:30 Autumn needs help again, this time it is putting her dolly highchair on the table in the boys' room, put a misplaced baby toy in the basement pile

5:35 Autumn needs help again to put her dolly in the backpack carrier, start on our dinner sandwiches, I use crescent rolls a lot for ham or cheese or chocolate chips but haven't done them for French dip, so I got the idea here, I make them regular roast beef and provolone for me and Jason, Easton gets just ham (melted cheese makes him gag), Dalton gets ham and cheese, Autumn gets just cheese



5:53 empty the dishwasher

5:58 Jason's home!

6:11 we sit down to dinner

6:38 kids go to basement to play, J cleans up after dinner, I take more laundry upstairs

6:40 big commotion in the basement, all 3 kids crying, Jason deals with it, Easton's earning himself an early bedtime

6:45 pick up the living room with the kids

6:50 Autumn and Dalton take a bath in their bathroom, Easton has a quick shower in our bathroom, pajamas, teeth brushing

7:10 we all gather on mine and Jason's bed for our prayers

7:13 Easton reads us a Spiderman book for our bedtime story

7:15 I take Dalton to bed

7:20 Jason takes E to the basement to practice piano, I take Autumn to bed, she requests I sing "Part of Your World" and a song about a baby and a robot while we rock, then she wants to get in her bed and she tells me "Sweet dreams, Mommy!"

7:27 I "comfortize" which means putting on my p.j.'s, taking out my contacts...

7:31 I turn on Glee that I started the night before and play Solitaire on my phone because I can't stand to give 100% of my attention to that show anymore

7:43 Easton and Jason are back, Glee gets paused, I snuggle with E for a few

7:45 I take Easton to bed, this is, like, a half an hour early than he usually goes to bed

7:50 J leaves so I can finish Glee, he can't stand to be in the same room as the show

8:20 J's back, we watch the Voice finale even though one of J's Facebook friends already spoiled who won for us

9:01 Jason goes to get me a juice box, I get the cat out of Autumn's room

9:23 Jason and I pray together...well, J prays, I agree ;), then he leaves to go practice guitar for playing at church this Sunday, I turn on Bones

9:52 I am still very thirsty after my juice box so I pause Bones and come downstairs for water

9:54 brush my teeth and wash my face

9:59 read my devotional and Bible (in 1 Kings right now) and some more prayers

10:21 I turn out the lights and turn Bones back on

11:00 I have to get more water from the sink (so thirsty tonight!) and then I turn on a Friends re-run and probably fell right asleep

5:40 a.m. one of the kids wakes me with a sneeze, 3 more follow, I can tell it's Easton

6:00 Easton comes out of his room to go potty, I go talk to him while he's washing his hands to remind him he can't wake Dalton up and he needs to stay quiet till 7:00 and that he should probably try to go back to sleep, I don't think he slept but he did a great job staying quiet for the whole hour, I laid in bed and started a Jack Reacher book on my phone till it was time to start another day

The End.