Happy Thanksgiving

Just a few things we’re thankful for:

A God who loves us unconditionally, family near and far, friends, memories, cameras, Cinderella, jobs, our house, clothes, food, fabulous teachers, shoes, books, coffee, computers, birds, oceans, mountains, rain, sun, snow, dolphins, music, modern medicine, cars, girl scouts, Disneyland, chairs, light, blankets, lady bugs, former and current members of the armed services, cinnamon rolls, gymnastics, bikes, chocolate, the moon, stars….

Armen…I know I need to correct her, but it’s just too cute.  Happy Thanksgiving!  Hugs and Kisses to you all!

Pre-K Pumpkin Patch

I should start out this post with a little background.  The day before I went with Emerson’s school to the pumpkin patch, she fell and hurt her arm.  She was at Hannah’s soccer practice and apparently, was trying to stand on the soccer ball and fell off.  No one knows exactly what happened because she was off playing on a different field when it happened.  When she fell off, we’re thinking she tried to brace herself with her hands and hurt her wrist bracing for the fall.  She left soccer practice crying and when they got home she started crying again.  The rest of the night she was favoring her arm and wasn’t using it.  Rather than taking her to the walk in to have it looked at, we decided to wait and see how she was the next day.  Well…at 11 she woke up crying saying that her arm still hurt.  I sat up with her for 45 minutes trying to get her to calm down enough to take some Tylenol.  We got the Tylenol in her and we sat up for a little longer until we both started to doze off.  I purposely didn’t ask her about her arm in the morning.  I wanted to wait and see if she brought it up first.  Sure enough, not 10 minutes after getting up she was in tears again.  She couldn’t get herself dressed and she just wasn’t using her arm.  I talked with Tom and decided that we better get her in and have it looked at.  The soonest they could see her was 4 in the afternoon.  I took her to the pumpkin patch because I knew she would be disappointed if we didn’t go.  Looking back now, I’m really glad we did, because this was our only trip to the pumpkin patch for this year. 

I can’t believe how big she is getting.  It pains me!She tried to pick up her pumpkin with her hurt arm.  That didn’t go so well for her.  Poor thing. She quickly decided that this was not her pumpkin and had to keep looking.Her perfect pumpkin!I told her to go over to the corn stalks and give me her scared face and this is what I got.And then we needed a nice one. She’s such a poser!The teachers got to put the pumpkins in the pumpkin launcher.  The kids thought that was pretty darn cool, except for the fact that it was loud.After the tour of the farm the kids got to play in the play area.  She was doing great until she fell trying to climb into the tube slide.  She slipped and hit her arm which caused big tears.  We got this picture just before it happened.  We sat on the hay bales for a while and then got this picture with the sunflowers in the background. 

So, her arm?  Well, we left the pumpkin patch, picked up Hannah and dropped her off at Tom’s office and went to the Dr.  We were at the Dr’s office for 2.5 hours only to leave there with x-rays and a referral to an orthopedic specialist.  Her doctor couldn’t find any fractures in her arm and was at a loss.  She was sure from the way Emerson was reacting to her examinations that she was going to find a fracture on the x-rays.  She tried a brace and a sling but neither of them provided Emerson with any comfort.  So we left and decided to wait and call the specialist if it got worse.  Thankfully, it didn’t.  Within a few days she was back to using it as if nothing had happened.  Crazy girl!

Fun Run

Hannah’s school had their annual Fun Run at the beginning of October.  The school had to pull out a couple of pieces of playground equipment over the summer so the PTA dedicated all the proceeds from the Fun Run for new play equipment.  Apparently the swings are a very dangerous thing to have at a school (insert eye rolling here).

One of the incentives for the kids were little foot charms for their backpacks.  If the kids ran a specific set of laps they would earn a charm.  For Hannah’s grade, I thought it was 10 laps and that’s what I had been telling Hannah every night the week before the run.  So, come run day that’s exactly what she did.  She ran 2.5 miles in 30 minutes.  Tom and I were so proud of her for not giving up.  She and one other girl both ran 10 laps and were the top girl lap runners in her class.  Only one girl in the 3rd grade ran 11 laps.  I was so proud of her and I felt really bad when I found out that 3rd graders only needed to run 8 laps. So proud of this girl and so thankful that her class ran early in the morning so they weren’t running in the heat of the afternoon.  I’m not certain she would have ran so hard if it had been any warmer. Not to be out done by her big sister and all of the other big kids, Emerson decided she wanted to run as well.  Her and her friend Jayden (Jayden has a big brother in Hannah’s grade) did their fair share of running.  Emerson ran 5 laps.  Not being a runner, I was totally impressed with how much my girls enjoy running.  Maybe they can teach me to love running. :)Not sure what’s going on here but…  but they make me laugh!  Here they are cheering the kids on from the water table. They were great cheerleaders for the bigger kids.I told them they could hand water out to the runners and boy did they think that was the greatest thing ever.  I mean, seriously, who wouldn’t want to take water from this girl??

It was a successful day for our school, we raised just over $10,700.  Thank you to everyone who donated to Hannah.  We appreciate it and hopefully, next year, when Emerson is there as well (sniff, sniff), there will be some new playground equipment. :)

Allie has Allergies

Emerson informed me on our way to pick Hannah up that she had learned a new song at school today.  Gotta love Pre-K songs.  I love how she actually had to sneeze before starting her song and how her little voice goes up on the aaahhh-chooo.  I could listen to her sing this all day long.

 

Emerson’s new song.

 

Yes, I realize that I gave the video the wrong title.  It’s Allie, not Annie.  :)

McKenna

Hannah has been saving for McKenna since the beginning of the year when she was released as American Girl’s doll of the year. I’m not exactly sure what it is about McKenna but boy oh boy does Hannah love her.  I promised Hannah that as soon as she had enough money for her that I’d take her to the Alderwood mall.  So…the day after her birthday we made the special trip down.  I wish I could explain to you her excitement as we drove to the store and as she picked out her doll. It was priceless!  I’m pretty sure the girl had watery eyes. As hard as it was for Emerson to watch her sister pick out all things McKenna, she did a great job in not complaining too much. 

She did such a good job that Mom & Dad broke down and bought a new outfit for Nina…her “bitsy” baby.  It’s amazing the amount of money one could spend in that store if they’re not careful. :)

8

Hannah woke up on her birthday with a sore throat but thankfully no fever.  A little apple cider and Tylenol and an “8” pancake seemed to help. :)Emerson and I took Hannah a special “it’s your birthday” lunch.  She requested Taco Bell – easy enough.  Here she is with her BFF who tried to get her to eat a zucchini brownie.  I told her that she shouldn’t have said the zucchini part and Hannah would have eaten it and not known any different.  I surprised Hannah with some fabulous cupcakes from Simply Sweet.  By far they are the yummiest cupcakes around.  SO good! Hannah wasn’t feeling well enough to go out to her birthday dinner.  You know she’s not well when she turns down eating out.  She opted to have a quiet dinner at home with cupcakes.Oh, I can’t believe how grown up you’ve gotten! 

Happy Birthday to our sweet, funny, and loving 8 year old!

Pre-K

As much as I didn’t want her to go…Emerson started Pre-K this year.  Not that I didn’t think she was ready because boy was she ever ready, but I wasn’t ready to share her with someone else for 2.5 hours  of the day.  She’s been counting down the days for weeks now telling anyone who would listen all about her starting school.  So exciting!

First day of Pre-K lunch…peanut butter & honey sandwich, mandarin oranges, string cheese and fruit gushers.  I’m pretty sure that’s a lunch of champions. Don’t tell her that her sign said “preschooler” because she’ll be upset – she’s in Pre-K not Preschool…that’s for 3 year olds. She’s such a nut!Oh ya baby!First task in class – find your name tag. Second - find your seat and start coloring.  I think this is the point in which she said I could leave.  I secretly wished she was the one who was crying not wanting her mom to leave. :) No such luck for me. I had to take one last picture of her on the carpet with her class before leaving.  I’m certain she thought I had already left but they were all so cute!

If ever there was a girl who was ready for school, it’s this girl.

She had a fabulous first day and couldn’t wait to tell me all about it.  Although, she forgot everything they did because she “just had so much fun”.

Hannah is 8

Hannah turned 8.  I’m still in denial about this.  We had a little family party for her and it was by far my favorite theme…candy!  We didn’t do a great job of pre-planning for this party but my sister and I pulled it off.  I’ve decided that September is incredibly busy for our family and that next year we’ll plan it in July. :)

The only request Hannah had for her party was for an ice cream cake.  Easy enough!Becky and I had to beg to have a candy table.  Yes, beg.  What 8 year old doesn’t love candy and want a candy table?  I’m thinking it’s a must at every party from here on out.  So fun!Becky made these tins.  She’s been wanting to use them all summer long. :)  Love them!Our happy birthday girl!

So one downside of me not blogging…I haven’t been taking many pictures.  I’m a little disappointed at my lack of pictures but I have a few and that’s better than none.  Hannah had a “more than wonderful” birthday.  She got some really cute clothes and managed to get the rest of the money she needed to get…McKenna! She’s been saving for McKenna since January, doing extra chores and making good choices with her money.  Stay tuned for that special post. :)

Just curious…

Who is viewing this blog from Kentucky?  I’m pretty sure it’s not our Ohio family because I can usually see Ohio listed, but now I’ve got Kentucky?  Fess up…who is it?  :)

We’re going to try this ONE more time…

So, I’m back.  I’m not even sure if anyone even looks at this blog anymore but I have to do this for myself.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used the blog as reference in the past few months.  Today I used it to figure out which side of the mountain we were on for Thanksgiving last year.  So, here I am doing my best to make time for our family memories. I’ve decided to go forward from September.  Going back to April completely overwhelms me so I’ll go back a month and go from there.  We shall see.

Hannah’s First Day of 3rd Grade – September 5, 2012

At the end of last school year, Hannah was assigned to Ms. Monica’s 3rd grade class.  The 3rd grade team at Hillcrest is amazing and we would have been lucky to have any of the 4 teachers.  But…if I had to pick one teacher for Hannah, I would have picked Mrs. Moe.  I would have requested her but she was set to teach a 3/4 split.  With Hannah already being a young 3rd grader, I just wasn’t comfortable with her being in with kids two years older than her.  Flash forward to 3 days before school starts, we received a letter in the mail that Hannah would no longer be in Ms. Monica’s class, but was moved to Mrs. Moe’s 3rd grade class.  No split for Mrs. Moe, and Hannah was in her class.  Woo-Hoo!!  Not going to lie, I was a lot nervous about how Hannah would take this change so close to the start of the year, but she took it like a trooper.  The only downside to the change, was that Hannah and her BFF, Mimi, were going to FINALLY get to be in the same class (they haven’t been together in class since Kindergarten) and now they were going to be separated once more.  I assured Hannah that she would still see her, just like in 1st and 2nd grades.  Other than that one minor detail, Hannah was super excited for the change. 

We are so excited for this year.  After a less than wonderful 2nd grade experience, we are ready for a really great year.

March 31, 2012 - Sweater Trees

I got an email from a friend at work  who told me about a nearby park where all the trees had been adorned with sweaters.  Trees with sweaters??  As soon as I saw her pictures I knew I knew that I needed to take the girls down to take a look.  It was one of the craziest thing I’ve seen and the girls got a kick out of it.  All those colorful trees made me so happy! 

How can you not hug a tree that’s wearing a colorful sweater?!?  Emerson loved it so much she gave it a little smooch.

I’m thinking that trees really should have sweaters…so pretty!