A great start to 1st grade

On Friday, we had our first morning assembly for October and we honored the students of the month.  We are so excited that Jillian has had a fantastic start to 1st grade.  She adores her teacher.  She even abandons me after school so she can go "help" Mrs. Sides.  During the month of October, instead of honoring the troops on our red shirt Fridays, we are wearing pink to honor the fight against breast cancer!  Jillian wore her pink too! 

 

 

Yay for Jillian!!

 

We really are so lucky to live so close to all of our family.  My parents can come celebrate at school for all the special occasions!!

 

Bryan's mom came too and Jillian felt so special with all of the grandparent love!!

 

We are so proud of our girl!  And once again, I feel so blessed that I get to be with her at her school and see her during the day.  I can't believe that Roc will be here next year!!

 

 

1st surgery

Well, a loooooong time ago, Rocco and another little boy in the neighborhood were playing and ran right into each other.  Rocco's teeth landed on the other kid's skull.  It was pretty traumatic and the dentist said the two front teeth were dead but as long as they were not changing colors, they could stay in.  Every dentist appt., they evaluate those two teeth and see how they are doing.  Well, an infection has now set in on top of the teeth and the only way to cure the infection is to take out the teeth.  Sigh...... 

 

I took a picture of his sweet smile that will never be the same little boy smile again.  Seriously, I am an emotional mess!!!

 

 

The surgery went off without a hitch!  He took a loooong nap afterwards and really is feeling pretty good!  Here he was last night with his new toothless grin!!!

 

I was all worried about sneaking in to the kids' room to put the money underneath the pillow.  Uhhhh, that was dumb because the kid was halfway down the bed.  Ha!!  I safely put the coins under the pillow!

 

Here he is this morning and ready for show and tell.  He is bringing his teeth, the new fancy teeth holder, the coins and two bracelets that hold his keys.  Whew!! 

 

Rocco also had to make an "All About Me" Flag for his PreK class and I think he did a really good job!!

 

The girls never like it when the Roc gets all of my attention and were begging for me to take their picture too this morning!  Yes, they still eat frozen waffles for breakfast!  Ha!!

Grandparents' Day 2013

I know this is so late but I am just STRUGGLING.  1st grade is kicking my butt and life in general is really busy with all three kids and I am really struggling to find time to blog. 

 

BUT Jillian's school hosted a really nice grandparents' breakfast and she was so excited to have them come to school.

 

 

But it was on a Thursday so Mom kept the little 2 at home and Dad got to go with Jillian up to school.  Jillian adores her Poppy.

 

Rocco's and Hadleigh's little school hosted a grandparents' lunch the next day.  Hadleigh threw a big kink in our plans (more to follow) so Mom went and enjoyed lunch with Rocco. 

 

They had a really cute photo booth and Rocco picked the accessories for the photo shoot.  Ha!!!

 

So Thursday night, Hadleigh came home with some spots on her face.  Well, first let me say that she is on antibiotics AGAIN for ear infections.  Mom and Dad said they had played outside in the yard and Dad thought they were bug bites.  My instincts definitely said they were not bug bites.

 

As the night progressed, I swear as I was watching her skin, there were more and more angry red spots growing down her arms. 

 

Then as we got ready for bath, I realized that the rash was all down her back, all over her legs, on her belly, basically everywhere and it was getting worse and worse.  Then I noticed that she was starting to swell up and I FREAKED OUT and called Call-A-Nurse and she said she was likely having an allergic reaction and to watch her breathing.  I basically had one foot out the door to the emergency room. 

 

This was me watching her and making sure she was breathing.  You can really see how swollen she was.  Poor baby!!!  She was definitely having a Hitch moment!!  Ahhhh!

 

So we went to doc as soon as we got up in the morning and Hadleigh was indeed having a severe allergic reaction to the antibiotics she was taking for her ear infection.  She is now labeled "allergic to the "cef" family of drugs." 

 

It was a very scary episode!!  I am so glad she is OK!! 

Officially a Soccer Mom

Today was the opening day for soccer season.  Jillian and Rocco's games were both at 12:00 (of course) so Mommy was back and forth and back again.  I was so proud of both of them.  It was HOT.  Scorching hot!  Both of them had great attitudes and did well.

 

Jillian was surprisingly serious and focused.  She was very aggressive and fell many times trying to get the ball.  

 

 

This is her "serious" face.

 

Bryan was giving his pre-game pep talk.  Where's Rocco you might ask?

 

Um, yea, the other team did not have enough players so Rocco got traded.  He was really confused for the first part of the game.  Like really confused!  Ha!!!

 

But he finally got the hang of it and scored his first goooooooooooooal!!!!  He wasn't excited at all!!!!

 

Jillian may or may not have had a blond moment and may or may not have scored for the other team.  Ha!!  But she still had a good time!!  Look at that smile!!

1st day of 1st grade

Remember me??  I have been very busy learning how to be a 1st grade teacher.  This is serious business.  There is so much I have to be prepared for - phonics, reading, spelling, writing, math, science, and the list goes on.  Yes, I was responsible for these things in kinder but it is so much more in 1st.  This is me this morning in my new home away from home. 

 

 

In kinder, my theme was penguins.  In 1st my theme is superheroes.  This is my new hallway bulletin board.  I am sure you will have no doubts that this one is the best in the whole school!!! 

 

 

My superhero word wall....

 

Cubbies with superhero name plates and cabinets covered with useful information.  This year I looped and every single parent signed the permission slip so I have my exact class from last year.  Isn't that fun?  Today was so EASY because I knew them and they knew me!

 

Let me backtrack for a moment.  Last Monday was the littles' first day.

Rocco in PreK.  Hadleigh in the 2 year old class.

 

 

Rocco was very happy with his new class.

 

Here is Jillian this morning ready for 1st grade.

 

This is Mrs. Sides.  Her new teacher.  Seriously, Mrs. Sides is the best, most dedicated teacher I have ever met.  She worked with Jillian all summer at the library and Jillian's reading level has improved 2 steps.  Who does that over the summer?  Jillian loves her.  I love her and I am trying to copy her every move!!

 

 

We are excited for what the new years has in store for us!  I will try to get back to blogging about it!! 

 

 

Summer Projects

I just spent the last hour going through the 336 emails I had waiting for me on my school email.  Awwww!  I am treasuring these last days of my summer!!!  I go back Thursday, August 15th so I have a little more time. 

 

I love yarn wreaths.  I think they are so classy and pretty.  I made one back in January and I thought I would try it again.  This time I wanted a nautical-themed wreath.  This was my inspirational wreath.....

 

 

I looked everywhere but I could NOT find any navy felt.  Sooooo, I focused on the tans and beiges and I think it still came out looking pretty....

With my new wreath looking so pretty, I started looking at my door.  It is so faded and ugly.  There are tons of scuff marks on the bottom of the door where kids kick it open or hold it open.  Gross!!  It really needed an update.  Then I started looking at our shutters.  They looked even WORSE than our door.  The shutters had faded into a very ugly shade of green and were covered in grime.

 

So I started looking at paint samples.  I could go with the same family of green OR I could kick it up a notch and go with a brown.  I picked the color in the middle called chocolate therapy.  I thought the name was a sign from above!!!

 

Summer always asks me when I have time to do all of these projects and the answer is simple.  I stay up very late.  I started painting the shutters at 9:00 and did not finish the first coat until 10:30.  We have had like 10 days in a row with 100 degrees plus.  It was so hot even at 10:30 at night that I was ringing out my shirt.

 

Here is my new door!!!  It took 3-4 coats but I think it looks very nice!!

 

From the outside....

 

Here is the front of the house with the newly-painted shutters (I should have gotten a better picture but we had not cleaned up yet.)  But the actual house looks great!!!

My Great Ideas (Insert Sarcasm)

So this has been a summer of little trips.  We have just had so much going on with Bryan changing jobs and different camps that we have tried to do some fun things close to us. 

 

I have read several articles about beautiful things to see in TX and we decided to check one off the list.  We packed our family and grandparents and cousins into two cars and headed out.

 

We basically headed north, west of Austin and found ourselves in the middle of BFE.  No cell service.  That's BFE these days.  This was our destination.

 

 

I had read that this was a beautiful place to swim and picnic and have a wonderful time.  This was the plan until we saw this sign. 

 

Can you read the little sign?  Is says "No Swimming Today"  "High Amounts of Bacteria in Water"

What?

There goes our fun day!!

 

But we had come this far so we thought we would go check it out anyways.......

 

 

We saw another sign.  I really didn't pay as much attention to this sign as I needed to.  It clearly says "STEEP."  Let me remind you who is on this trip - a 13, 7, 6, 4, and two 2 year olds.  Ha ha!!  Again, me and my good ideas.....

 

Let me also remind you that Hadleigh has trouble on flat ground much less a STEEP trail.  So me and Bryan and Bill took turns carrying her down and then up this trail.  (even KK had some serious troubles with the huge steps, rocks, etc so we had to carry him too) Again, me and my good ideas......

 

An easy part of the trail.....

 

Hadleigh is enjoying this "adventure" a lot!!  Ha!!

 

After our long climb down, we were greatly rewarded with one of God's interesting creations.  Hamilton Pool is a really a outdoor grotto.  A long time ago the ceiling of a cave collapsed and resulted in this natural pool.

 

It was beautiful and peaceful.

 

You could walk the entire way around the pool and my bigger adventurers took off to go all the way around.

 

The gorgeous waterfall.

 

It was not one of my most thought out, bestest, awesomeist trips as we had to climb UP after we saw the pool but there is definitely a funny story to tell.  Our picnic afterwards did not go well as we were swarmed by ants, our stop at DQ was not the best as the air conditioning was broke.  But we all have something to laugh about.....