The End

The 2011-12 school year is OVER!!!  I am so happy!!  I was very ready at the end to have this year over with!!!! 

I just completed my 5th year teaching.  Even 5 years later, people ask ALL THE TIME why did I leave the law.  They say.....you went through so many years of school, you took the bar exam, you made so much money, you earned bonuses, you got to travel, blah, blah, blah.

But in my 5 years of being an attorney, I never got a note like this.  In 5 years of being an attorney, I really never got a thank you from anybody. 

This note from a wonderful mom and dad of one of my students is just one of the great perks I get from being a teacher!!!!

And of course, summer vacation isn't a bad perk either!!!  Speaking of, let me get started!!!!

Toe

I had this grand ole post about our weekend, a spectacular visit to Walter's fire station (where Rocco enjoyed hours of climbing on fire trucks and wearing firemen clothes), swimming fun, celebrating Memorial Day, getting ready for Disney, yada, yada, yada.

But the end of school bug has bit and I cannot get together a cute blog post. 

Monday night, I realized we had 5 days until our Disney dream vacation and I started packing like a mad woman.  Well, like the true clutz that I am, I had gobs of clothes in my hands and I was going up the stairs and I missed a step.  Fell down steps, lots of cursing from pain and ice applied. 

School nurse says "Yes it is broken.  No, can't do anything."  Sooooooo great!!!!

Shanna just emailed and says she has a vague recollection of me doing this before.  Shanna, as always, has an astounding memory and yes, when I was pregnant with Hadleigh I walked into a door and broke a different toe.   

These are said stairs.  Use with caution!!  I am trying to warn her that they are dangerous and cause injuries.  She did not seem to care. 

Walking, Yes Indeed

This has been such a fantastic week!!! 

Hadleigh-boo has taken her first steps on her own and

she has taken off like a rocket.

On Wednesday, she had physical therapy with Ms. Shaunda (who we love, love, love).

Hadleigh had never taken steps on her own for us but for some reason,

she knew it was time to show off for Shaunda and she just started walking everywhere.

AND not just 2 or 3 steps but 5 or 6 steps at a time.

Then Thursday she is walking across the entire room!!!  20 steps at least!!!!

Such a rock star!!! 

Here is a mediocre video of her walking for a Cheeze-It! 

My kids will do anything for Cheeze-Its!!

We are so proud of our girl!!!!!

Spreading Joy

I don't know if you can tell but lately I have been trying very hard to be joyful.  That sounds crazy doesn't it???  But I get bogged down in Mommy-mode so easily that I sound like a drill sargeant.  Put your shoes on, brush your teeth, we need to do this, we are going to be late, blah, blah, blah. 

Same thing at school - Mrs. P, the drill sargeant.  No talking, hands to yourself, blah, blah, blah.

So I told myself that for the month of May, I really needed to work on being joyful at home and at school. 

Which is why I did this!!!!! 

Yep!!  That's me in our school carnival's dunk tank!!!!!  Isn't that hysterical!!!!!

I was thinking that kindergartners did not have a good enough arm or aim for me to be that worried about getting all wet.  BUT I WAS WRONG!!!!!  Those little devils were good!!!!!  I stopped counting after being dunked at least 12 times. 

The line to dunk Mrs. Pearce was very loooooooooooooooooooong!!!  Ha ha!!

Several of the students got me multiple times.  This one girl dunked me three times.  I told her she needed to sign up for the MLB.  She had an excellent arm!!!

I really did have fun!  I may even sign up for next year!!  The joy is working.  I feel better!!  BUT that doesn't mean I am not counting down the seconds until the last day of school.  4 1/2 days left!!!!!!

End of the Year Program

Last night, the kids had their end of the year program at their MDO.  They looked adorable. 

 Jillian looks so grown-up lately.  Scary!!!  She is totally ready to be in kindergarten at Mommy's school!!!  The question is "Is Wiederstein ready for Jillian?"

Ever since Rocco came to the Talent Show on Friday at my school and saw some very cool boys dressed up like rock stars for their performance, he talks about it every day.  He talks about wanting a microphone and wearing cool clothes and fixing his hair.  Last night, he begged Bryan to fix his hair like the rock stars at school.  This is what Bryan came up with.....

First, the kids came out with their classes.  PreK on top, 3s in the middle and 2s on the bottom row.

They sang the most precious songs.  I loved seeing them perform.  And I love that we sent them to such a small little school.  They received such personal loving attention.  (So sad that I have to split my attention between my 23 kids in my class.)

 Sorry for the blurry picture.  Rocco was all over the stage during the songs.

 After the songs, the PreK class went back to the classroom and got dressed up in their caps and gowns. 

 Jillian was LESS than thrilled about her cap and gown.  She is trying to take it off and I had to yell from the crowd for her to keep it on.  Such a winning moment!!!

 Here she is with Ms. Michelle receiving her diploma!!

So proud of this girl!!!!!

Very awesome!!!!!

The Return of My Dancing Roots

So today was the Talent Show for our school.  This is really the only day that I get emotional.  To have the courage to get up in front of the whole school and sing or dance is very impressive from a five year old or six year old.  It makes me tear up watching them.

Well, this year, my fellow teachers wanted to do a flash mob.  Not just any flash mob but the flash mob that Oprah did with the Black Eyed Peas!!!!!  It is very involved with some real dance moves.  Well, we have some teachers that can dance and dance well and convinced me to join them.  Why oh why?? 

Please watch and laugh your heads off!!!!! 

I am not headed for America's Best Dance Crew that is for sure!!!!

But I had fun!!!

p.s.  this video is very loud so you may need to turn down the volume to protect your ears

Long Tall Sally

 Hadleigh-boo is 15 months old!!! 

We went for her check up yesterday and this was the verdict
Weight - 23 lbs 4 oz (50th percentile)
Height -  32 3/4 ins (98th percentile)
Head - 49 cm (over 100th percentile)

She is seriously the longest baby ever!  Everyone comments about how tall she is.  Maybe she will be a basketball player or volleyball or maybe a supermodel!!!!  Bryan and I both have tall people in our family (not us obviously) and the tall genes seem to have all landed on this girl.

She is moving, moving, moving but not walking.  She crawls everywhere and climbs the stairs (and climbs anything else she is not supposed to).  She is still in physical therapy and progressing every visit.  I think she will be walking in the next month or two for sure!!!! 

She only has two or three clear words - mama, dada and mo (more).  Sometimes she may say something that you think is a word but then she doesn't say it again so you wonder if she really said it?????

After her 7th ear infection in 6 months, we are heading to the ENT.  Probably tubes and I am hoping it will help with her hearing and/or speech progression. 

She still sleeps perfectly.  She still has the sweetest temperament but can get fiesty at times.  She is following her brother's footsteps and loves all berries.  She loves veggies and cheese and can feed herself. 

Here is her photo shoot!!!!  Seriously look how long her legs are. 

 My favorite thing right now are those curls on the side.  They are so delicious!!!!  Bryan calls her RD for Ronald McDonald. 

 I told you that she loves to climb!!!  This was the end of the photo shoot before she fell off and hurt herself!!!

Here is a comparison shot.  This is Jillian at 15 months.  She had absolutely zero curls. 

I had to use this picture to compare Rocco's curls.  He definitely had the RD curls on the side!!!!

I think Hadleigh looks a lot like her brother right now!!!

Rocco at 15 months!! 

MY DAY

If there is ever a day in the year that belongs to me it is this one.  Today is Mother's Day AND my birthday. 

BUT when your husband has to work and you have three kids 5 and under that need attention, making it YOUR day is pretty difficult.  BUT I had a very nice day.  We had lunch with my whole family including grandmas and aunts and mommies and (unbeknownst to us) Spagetti Warehouse had free lunch for the mommies.  What a nice surprise!!! 

This is me and the kids after church.



This is Jillian's art project for me (I don't know why it turned to the side - not patient enough to fix it).  It says I like it when my mommy 1.  paints my nails  2.  takes me to the zoo  3.  makes me pancakes and cinammon rolls  4.  calls me Supergirl

Rocco's Hand Flowers

Hadleigh's note to Mommy

Fish - Its what's for dinner!!

I am not usually one to blog about food but last night's dinner is such a winner with my kids (and Bryan and I) that I wanted to share with you.

First of all, I should preface this to say that I don't know where my kids get their good eating habits?  As a child, my Mom says I was awful.  I was very picky.  I cried for hours if my foods touched each other.  I refused to eat my vegtables.  I ate peanut butter and jelly every day of elementary school.  I guess they get their good eating genes from Bryan (the human garbage disposal).

Anyways, Do your kids eat fish?  My kids love fish and will beg for it at times. 

This is what we had last night.

Halibut - drizzed with canola oil and sprinkled with lemon and pepper.  Baked at 450 for 25 minutes.

DONE!!!

For the adults, I served it with cucumber salad (I am so into compari tomatos -so so so good) and rice.

For the kids, I served with strawberries and corn. 

I cannot stress how the kids BEG for this meal. 

And they eat every last bite.

And it takes me about 30 minutes to prepare this meal.

SCORE!!!



I am moving to the country.....

gonna eat a lot of peaches!!!!

On Sunday, we went to some of Mom and Dad's friend's house (Dad has known Betty since 3rd grade!!!) because their peach trees were FULL!!!!  We had so much fun!! 

Rocco found a siamese twin!!!

Even Hadleigh got in on the action!!

We just need to wait a couple of days for the peaches to ripen and then it will be peaches with cereal, peaches for lunch, peach cobbler, peach ice cream, peach sherbert, peach gumbo, peach kabobs, peach soups. etc.

Anticipation

We are down to a month!  One month to Disney!!  It is going to be so much fun!! 

I can hardly wait to tell the kids.  They are gonna flip!!!

Mom, Summer and I have been very busy planning, planning, planning.  When you are going with 12 people and 5 of them are age 6 and under, it kind of feels like you are planning a military invasion. 

Plane is booked and resort is booked (we are staying at Port Orleans because it is a DW resort and on the shuttle line with a great pool but not as pricey as the resorts on monorail). 

We have characters meals booked GALORE!!  With the age of our kids, I think this will be awesome!  Waiting in long lines to meet the characters with our children does not appeal to me.

The MOST important thing that we scheduled is the princess breakfast at Cinderella's castle in Magic Kingdom.  Seriously, Jillian (and quite frankly Rocco too) are going to die and go to heaven.  All the princesses will be there.  I cannot wait till this moment like in the photo below.  Melt my heart!!!!

The first night we get there we are going to Mickey's Backyard Bar-b-q at the Fort Wilderness Lodge.  It only plays Saturday night!  There is a band and a show and of course, the characters in their western finest!!

We have another breakfast with the cast of Pooh and the cast of Jake and the neverland pirates.  Rocco is going to LOVE that!!!

We of course have ordered tons of cute clothes off of Etsy.  These shirts we are all wearing to the Animal Kingdom.  Well the boys are wearing the boy version.  :-)

These are not the exact dresses and shirts I ordered but you get the idea. 

The only trouble I am having is deciding which strollers I am taking.  Yes, I said strollers.  There is a lot of walking at Disney and obviously Hadleigh needs to ride but bottom line Rocco does too and furthermore Jillian is only 5 and I am not carrying her either.  So do I have a double (my side by side or my front to back) and a single umbrella stoller?  Do I take three single umbrella strollers?  I know you can rent but at $30 a day I cannot justify that.  And our resort is very spread out and we will likely need our strollers there too.  What to do?  Any Disney advice??