Monday, October 31, 2011

Halloween Fun


Well Halloween this year was a good one for the kiddo's. Mackenzie was a "bad" vampire, Kylie was Ariel, and Gabryle was a cowboy. I think Gabryle ended up getting the most people liking his outfit out of the three kiddo's. Mackenzie and Kylie wore their costumes to school and each had a party in their class. Kylie's was a pizza party and got to eat lunch in her classroom. She had cheese pizza and ate it all gone she said.
Around 12:30 Gabryle and I headed up to the school and helped get Mackenzie's room ready for their class party. She was so thrilled to see Gabryle and I when she and her class came back from their special class of the day. She helped me pass out the drinks that I brought and then went with her class to do what her teacher needed them too do. Gabryle had a blast up at the school. He sat quietly at the reading table that was in the room and took sips out of his capri-sun he had. He would get up a few times, push his chair in, walk to another adult then turn around and pull his chair out and sit back down. When he saw Kenzie he squealed and went and stood by her. Kenzie helped pull a chair up for him and they sat together eating the goodies that were provided. By the end of the party, Gabryle had Kenzie over in the bean bag reading center trying to get her to read him a book. It was cute!
After school at five we went and did the mall's trick-or-treating that they do every year. Once Gabryle figured out that you show the bucket to the people, they give  you candy he was grinning from ear to ear. He was really enjoying himself I think. We finished there, came home ate dinner, and then headed to a neighborhood closer to the school. Boy did they hit the jackpot! Gabryle loved going up and getting candy from people. Some would mention how cute he was and he would just grin at them.
All in all the kids really had fun today! Each girl had fun at their school parties, plus they got the "BOO BAG" we bought for them. They also had a good time trick-or-treating and I would say they got at least a good 5 pounds of candy this year. Next year will most likely be even more fun since Gabryle has the whole thing figured out I believe.

Till Next Time!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Carving Pumpkins

Kylie getting the insides
of her pumpkin out.
One of the kids favorite parts of the Halloween time is the carving of the pumpkins. This year Gabryle watched and was just all curious as to why Kenzie and Kylie were sticking their hands inside the pumpkin and pulling stuff out of it.
Mackenzie getting the
insides of her pumpkin out.
We drew the designs on the pumpkins a few days ago so I would know how each pumpkin was to be carved. Mackenzie decided to have hers with a funky mouth so we did bunches of "ups and downs" for her mouth. Kylie's wanted hers to be the maddest of all three pumpkins. On Gabryle's we just all three put our own ideas into the pumpkin and came up with what it is now.
Now the girls can not wait till Monday! Kylie will  get to go trick-or-treating at school along with having her Halloween Party and Pizza Party. Mackenzie's class will have a Halloween party also, which Gabryle and I will go and help at. They also don't know but we ordered each of them a "boo bag" from the PE department at school. For a fundraiser they were selling treat bags that will be distributed during class Monday. They each will get a bag that has candy, vampire teeth, tattoos, and a few other little treats in it. Then Monday evening we will go to the Mall's trick-or-treat event and trick-or-treat at the stores there then head over to a neighborhood or two for trick-or-treating. Kylie's teacher sent a note home that if any of her students stop by her house for trick-or-treating they will get a special trick from her teacher and her family so we plan on stopping by her house. Busy this year for Halloween but it will be fun!!!
the final product!


Till Next Time!!!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

CrAzY dAy!

Mackenzie ready for
Crazy Day
Kylie  ready for
Crazy Day

This week at school for the girls it is Red Ribbon Week. Each day they have different themes that the kids can dress up too and the girls were thrilled about today, crazy hair/crazy clothes day. We painted the girls nails yesterday, and then today they wore their shirts inside out, and Mackenzie wore two different flip flops. Kylie wore crazy socks  and that was the end of it for her.

Kenzie decided we should do her hair crazy also, so I put it in 3 loose buns. One on each side and one in the back. She was just going to go to school without doing anything to her hair but since I got the braids too tight, they didn't mess up in the middle of the night so we figured something else out. She also tried wearing her pants inside out but since she could not button or unbutton them she decided not to do that. She even tried wearing a pair of shorts over her pants but didn't like the way it felt. Kylie's hair we just did 2 of the loose buns since her hair is not as long or thick as Kenzie's.

Each day they even do a competition to see which class dressed the best to the theme of the day. Yesterday was beach day, and Kylie's class won for the best dressed in the beach theme. Her class also won the Rid Ribbon door or wall poster contest. They made a large ribbon and each child signed their own name to be drug free. I'm not sure what Kenzie's classes poster looks like since I don't pass her class to pick either of the girls up from school. Hopefully I'll see it Monday when I go to help with Kenzie's classes' Halloween Party.

Tomorrow is Nerd Day. Not sure yet how we will dress if they want to for it but I'm sure we will find something interesting to wear along with it. Thursday is '80's attire, and then Friday is show your Spirit Day. Kenzie already plans on wearing jeans, her school shirt and maybe trying to find a way to add more spirit. I bet Kylie will wear her school shirt also if I can convince her that is still looks really cute on her even if it is big on her. I'll try to post more pictures as I get them!

Till Next Time!!!!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Working on an Afghan

Afghan I'm working on
 A while ago I taught myself how to knit. I will be the first to tell you I am not the greatest at it, but I try which is pretty good. I work at it when I have the time, which lately is when the girls are at school and Gabryle is napping, or at night after the kids go to bed.

Right now I am working on a small afghan. I'm halfway through with it so far and have already had Mackenzie ask if I can make her one when I get done making the one I am doing right now. I've almost gone through two fourteen ounce balls of yarn and will do at least one more. (the ball in the corner of the couch is what I have left of the second ball.) I'll also add some claret colored fringe to the ends when I am through with the beige color. I've found it actually pretty relaxing to sit and knit for a while. Occasionally I'll work on it while the kids are off playing in the bedrooms, but not all the time.  

I know it doesn't look like much at the moment, but when I have it completed soon I'll make sure and post some pictures for all to see.


Saturday, October 22, 2011

Where's the tooth fairies home?

The girls with their pumpkins
 from the pumpkin patches.
Some conversations between the girls can be quite entertaining and some they have you just sit there and look at them and wonder where their train of thought comes from. Today's conversations have been based around the tooth fairy due to Kenzie loosing 2 teeth in 1 week. Between the tooth fairy and report card (she gets 1 dollar for every "A"), she has gotten six dollars in a week. She kept five and gave one to Kylie just so she would have a dollar to have in her piggy bank.

Today the girls and I went with Gabryle of course to Walmart so they could spend their money on something that they wanted. I didn't realize it would take an hour to pick out something. Kenzie finally picked out a craft activity kit and Kylie bought herself a new set of markers.

A little later we took Jerrod lunch up and as we were leaving the parking lot of the strip center Kylie asked where the tooth fairy lives. I told her that she lives in Tooth Fairy Land, and yet again she asked where does the tooth fairy live. Mackenzie then took over and said that she lives somewhere else that we can not find. Only fairies can find where tooth fairies live (Apparently there are multiple tooth fairies). Kylie being Kylie asked a third time where do tooth fairies live. Mackenzie finally pointed up towards the sky and said up there. Kylie sat for a moment then asked, they live on top of the car? Cool! The girls both laughed and Kenzie finally told her that they live up in Heaven with God. That finally got the conversation to end on where the tooth fairy lives.

Hopefully we won't have the conversation about the tooth fairy again today. At least if they do maybe it will be while Daddy is home for his dinner break tonight.

Till Next Time!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Pumpkin Patch

You can always tell when fall has arrived when the girls get their annual field trip to one of the local pumpkin patches. Mackenzie's class, along with the other 4 first grade classes actually get to go to the patch, and then Kylie's class along with the other 3 pre-k classes get to walk across the street to the open field the school owns to visit their pumpkin patch. The local farm that does it actually brings enough pumpkins, plus a few extra to the school and then they let the kids pick out the pumpkin that they want.
Mackenzie ready for pumpkin patch
Kylie said she had fun when she got to go to the pumpkin patch on Monday. They had lots of pumpkins that were big and some were clean and some were dirty. They got to run around the patch till they found the one they wanted, then got to roll the pumpkins to the spot where they were to wait for everyone else to finish and sit on it. Why sit on it I have no idea, but Kylie's is large enough for her to sit on that is for sure! When I picked her up her teacher had it in a bag for me to carry and as we were waiting for Kenzie she told me that the way she picked her pumpkin was to find the biggest dirtiest pumpkin she could find. We got it home and I looked at it and it's not that dirty, and then she showed me what she meant. She found one with the biggest spot on it where it had been laying on the ground in the big patch growing.
Mackenzie had a blast while she was out there. She said the pumpkins were bigger this year and the bounce house was even bigger. She had lunch with her friends and picked her pumpkin and got to ride on the hay ride.  Her favorite part of the day though was picking out her pumpkin. Hers that she found was a little taller and slimmer than Kylie's but still a pretty decent sized pumpkin.
We will take our annual fall pumpkin pictures later and I'll try and remember to post them. All we need now is to find Gabryle a little pumpkin and we'll have a nice fall decoration for the porch!

Till Next Time!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Mackenzie..

I have a big order to fill coming up in December. Mackenzie's birthday will of course be in December and she asked me if I can make her birthday cake this year, which I will gladly do for her. I enjoy doing the kids their cakes, and it saves money in the long run when I make them at home. I just find decorating the cakes is fun and you can be as creative with it as you can.
She told me today while we were out in a store looking around that she wants her cake to be round. It also needs to be two or three levels, with a real big cake on bottom and a medium cake and perhaps a small cake, but the big and medium cake for sure, with the medium cake on top of the big cake. (duh). She didn't say what type of cake or what to decorate it as yet, but for sure we know it must be circles. She has liked polka dots for a while now so that is not a big shocker there.
As we were driving home from the city she started giving us ideas of what she would like for her birthday, and then Kylie suggested she should have a Horse party as much as Mackenzie Loves horses! I think she finally decided that she would like a horse party, which would be neat to do. Jerrod had a great idea if we do that, to do the cake in green, like grass, and then put some miniature horses around the cake, which would work really well and look really cute too! She also wants this year to actually do a party that her classmates can come to also, so we'll work on that also. Not sure what all we will do yet but we still have plenty of time to figure that out!
Tomorrow she wants to look at cake ideas online so I bet we can look and find some ideas once she nails down what her party theme will be. We will have fun no matter what she decides to do.

Till Next Time!!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Adventures of Potty Training...Part 1.....

Now that Gabryle is 2 we plan on getting him started on potty training. The girls were fairly simple, with Kylie being the easiest of the older 2. When I stopped working a few years ago, the first day I stayed home with them, she started using the potty. If only it were that easy every time!
Gabryle for a while has been afraid of the potty. Maybe not afraid but perhaps intimidated. If you tried to sit him down on either his potty seat, or the large toilet with a training seat on it, he would cry and he could not get up off of it fast enough! To him, the potty chair was a way to get up to the sink in the bathroom to turn the water on so he can play in the water and get his hair all wet.
Today we had a break-through though. I took him into the bathroom just to see if he would sit on it and he would! He sat and grinned about sitting on the potty. Yes he had his diaper on, but hey, he sat on the potty!! He then ran and grabbed a pair of underwear we bought a while ago for when he is ready for them so I put them on and since then he has me go with him every 5-10 minutes to go sit on the potty. I'm all for it, so I make sure we go as soon as he comes and starts pulling me towards the bathroom. I know it won't happen all of a sudden, but if he has started wanting to try then I'm all for it! The sooner he is potty trained the sooner we can get him out of diapers completely!!
I will update in a week or so on his progress!
Till Next Time!!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Fire Safety

This last week at school, Kylie's class learned about fire safety. They had the local fire department come and talk to the kids and also a volunteer fire department that helps with a lot of the wildfires that happen around our area. Every day since Monday Kylie runs up to me and makes sure I know that if we have a fire we get out of the house and call 911, and you dial a 9 a 1 and a 1. Her favorite part of the week was on Thursday with the fire safety learning.
The Chickasaw Nation Forestry and Wild land Fire Management department came and brought Smokey the Bear to talk to the kids. As Gabryle and I got to the school and walked in, Smokey was leaving with the volunteer fire fighters and he just pointed and grinned to make sure I saw what he was seeing. Smokey waved at Gabryle and he waved back. We then walked in the school and got Kylie and she started telling me how Smokey the Bear came to see her class but she did not give him a hug cause he was a little weird. We ran into her teacher while waiting on Kenzie to get out and she stopped and we chatted for a minute and let me know that Kylie would bring a bag home with some goodies that Smokey left for them.
Yesterday Kylie and I sat after school with her backpack and went through the goodies. There were multiple coloring books, informational leaflets for the parents, pencil, an eraser and 2 DVDs. Each child received the same things. I was surprised to see 2 DVDs in the bag. One was about how to keep your house a little safer out doors from fires starting, and the other was a little five minute animated short about how to prevent fires. Kylie just stayed glued to the TV and computer when we watched them and told me everything about it when we were through watching it. After we watched the animated one on the computer we looked at some of the additional information it had on the disk and have decided later this evening we will print some of the coloring sheets off.
We'll end up watching the DVDs a few times between now and who knows when. She loves watching it for some reason, but at least its educational.

Till Next Time!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

School Breakfast

Yesterday, Wednesday, as I took the girls to school they convinced me to go in and sit with them while they ate breakfast. They usually always eat breakfast at school, which is pretty convenient for us, and they enjoy getting to eat breakfast with all the other kids that eat breakfast there. plus Kylie wanted me to help her get the class snack bucket to her class and to help keep up with it while she ate.
We went in and went to the cafeteria. Kylie handed me the snack bucket and she and Kenzie ran up and got in line to get their food, making sure to tell the lunch lady who takes down the names of students eating that her Mommy got to come in with them today, then we went and sat down. Kenzie picked the pop tarts and Kylie picked the frosted flakes and toast. One thing they have told me is a popular thing to do is when you eat frosted flakes, you do not use white milk, you use chocolate milk. Yeah I know it sounds not that appetizing, but as I looked up and down the table we were at, there were multiple kids eating it that way, including Kylie. She offered me to try it but I declined. I believe that is one concoction I believe I will leave to the kids to eat. Kylie was glad I was there and had me help her open her milk and even let me open her cereal just to make sure it was opened right. (she can open her milk part of the way. She just has trouble with the last part of opening a milk carton) Kenzie explained to me that she always helps Kylie with her breakfast when she needs it and sometimes they both get different things so they can share. Today however I doubt that will happen as the school is serving biscuits and gravy and it is the girls favorite meal of the week. Every Thursday they serve biscuits and gravy, and from what I have been told it is the best!
As the girls ate and we chatted I looked around and there were about five or six other parents there eating or just sitting with their kid(s). One of the other adults there at breakfast, I see and have chatted with waiting for the girls to get out of school, and she helps her daughter get her grand kids to and from school every day. She has two grand kids, one in pre-k (not Kylie's class but the one next door to hers) and one is in 1st or 2nd. I can't remember which one. I was surprised though to see her doing everything for the two boys. She went through the breakfast line and got their trays, opened everything for them, feed the youngest of the two and dumped the trays for them. To me that is a little over board on helping your children out. I can understand helping to open the cereal or milk carton, but to also feed them, get their trays and dump the trays is a little much.
When Kylie was through after eating half of the cereal and chocolate milk mixture and half of her toast, she was so happy to show me how you dump your breakfast or lunch tray and then sit back down till the bell rings to go to class. when the bell rang we headed down the hall. Kenzie told me by as we got close to Kylie's classroom and I waved to her, as she didn't want kisses. Kylie took the snack bucket as we got to her class and told me bye love you and went on in. I hollered bye and love you back at her and she looked at me and smiled then went and started getting her things unpacked and whatnot. I headed out the door and Kenzie made sure she walked slow enough she could tell me bye one more time.
Now the girls want me to come and eat lunch with them one day. I believe I will wait and see if they will be doing the Thanksgiving feast for the families again this year and go that day. It'll will also mean I get to sit through 2 lunch periods. As Kylie and the pre-k kids finishes their lunch every day, Mackenzie and the other first graders are heading in the cafeteria to start eating. They tell me every day they make sure to spot each other and wave to each other before Kylie heads out to recess.
The next time I go in with them for breakfast I might just have to make it on a biscuits and gravy day to see if the girls are right about the schools being the best they have had.

Till Next Time!!

Monday, October 3, 2011

Party Weekend!!!

This weekend Mackenzie got to go to her first Slumber Birthday Party for one of her friends. She got home from School on Friday and finished packing her bag, signed her friends birthday card and was ready to go. It didn't start till 6:30 so we had three hours left till it started. I believe the time just went extremely slow for her. She asked almost every 10 minutes if it was time to go, or checked the clock to see the time. 6:15 finally came and we left to head to her friends house. We got there the same time one of the other girls and her mother showed up and we all went in together. I stayed and chatted for a few minutes, then told Mackenzie bye and Kylie Gabryle and I left. As we started towards the car, Gabryle started crying and yelling and pointing at the house. He fought to get his buckles in his car seat buckled and soon we were leaving. He pointed behind us out the back window and cried till we were halfway home. He did not like leaving his sister at someones house. I finally got him settled down by saying we were going to Wal-Mart and so we went and looked around for a little bit then went home and watched a movie.
We later picked Jerrod up from work and he took us to Braums and we got a little deal of ice cream for Gabryle and Kylie and let them stay up late and we had our own little party. The next morning, Saturday, I picked up Mackenzie around 8:30 and headed home. She had a great time at the party! They had a pillow fight, ate pizza and cake, watched Hannah Montana and stayed up late. Her friends mom told me that the girls stayed up till around 1 and then Kenzie was up along with a few of the other girls around 7. We have heard lots about the party since then and we're glad she had such a great time. After a long week for her she deserved having a good time with her friends just having fun.
Saturday we stayed at home and got things ready for Gabryle's birthday party, then Sunday had his party! Hard to believe he is 2 now. Seems like it has just flown by! He seemed to have a great time at his party. We grilled some hot dogs since that is one of his favorite foods and ate lunch. After letting lunch settle we let Gabryle open his presents. He had a blast opening presents!! We got him a few of the Toy Story Characters and a pair of boots which he Loved! Jerrod also got him a Tonka Dump truck, one of the good metal ones, not a cheap plastic one. He also got a lot of outdoor toys that he has had a  blast with!
We then had some cake and then sat around talking while the kids played in the bedrooms and a little in the living room. Everyone started leaving around 230, 300 and then we relaxed the rest of the day. we tried getting Gabryle to sit still to take a nap but he wouldn't. We ate our dinner and then around 7 Gabryle started getting extremely cranky. Jerrod picked him up and laid down on the sofa with him and Gabryle was out fast! He was passed out asleep before 7:30 and stayed asleep till he came in our room around 3 this morning before falling back asleep beside me in our bed.
All in all it was a good weekend for us! Mackenzie had a great end to a bad week, and we all got to celebrate Gabryle turning 2.

Till Next Time!!