Break is over.

Gabryle with 1 of his Thomas the Train sets. 

Christmas is over and New Years Day has passed. School resumed today for the girls, and we are back into our normal daily routine. I kinda of wish I had till Monday to sleep in more and not be up at 6:30 but oh well. The girls were glad to be back at school this morning. Kylie on the way to the bus stop told me of how she and Miranda will play at recess and sit and talk all the way to school on the bus today.

Gabryle ate breakfast after I got back and the first thing after that he wanted to do is play with his big Thomas train set Gamma and Tim got him for Christmas this year. I put it together, he started it up and had fun watching Molly get run into by the train since she was sitting on the edge of the track. It just grazed it her but she sure did jump and give Gabryle a good laugh. After a little bit he then put that track up and then pulled out his other Thomas track sets and we hooked them all together.

He seems glad to have his normal days with just me and him at home back. He helped tape up some boxes for the Salvation Army and then helped me get them in the car. We drove them over and dropped them off and came back home and now he is just relaxing. I'm sure the last half of the school year will be just as busy as the first, and the girls will enjoy every minute of it. I think Kenzie is looking forward to the spring when she can sign up again for t-ball and play again this summer. I'm not sure if Kylie will want to play yet, but I think she might enjoy it. I do know if she can find a summer cheerleader camp she would love that!

Till next time!!

Pumpkins!!!!

Gabryle with the girls pumpkins

 The girls got to take their school field trips to the pumpkin patch today and had a lot of fun. They were there at different times so they didn't get to hang out but I think they still enjoyed it.

Mackenzie's class, along with the other five second grade classes went from 8:30 to 11:00. They got to go on the hayrides, the little animal petting area and of course the pumpkin area. She was not thrilled with the hayride apparently though. All the way walking from the bus stop I heard "Mom it's not a hayride if they do not put the hay on the trailer. It's just a trailer ride then. Not a hayride! If you want it to be a hayride they should have put the hay on the trailer." (thank you captain obvious!) Besides that she had a good time. She said she picked out a nice sized pumpkin that will be great for either carving or painting, and is almost perfect.

 Kylie's class went from 11:00-2:00 and got to eat lunch at the patch also. She did all the other things that Mackenzie's class did. She liked the bouncy house and went through the maze that they had. She loved how they had a big round bale of hay and built it into a slide. I think that was her favorite thing today that she got to do. When she picked out her pumpkin she found the smallest one she could find. I asked her why she did that and she said because she is the smallest kid in kindergarten, so she wanted to find the smallest pumpkin she could find. I think it's rather cute. She plans as of right now to just paint her pumpkin.

We'll go soon and get Gabryle his own pumpkin and then get the kids yearly pumpkin pictures taken that I do every year for them during this time of the year. When I get those done I will post them for you!!! Hope you enjoy they pictures I posted!!!

Till Next Time!!!!

Look Mom I can pick up Mackenzie's!!

Mackenzie and Kylie's pumpkins.

Fingernails!!!!!!

Mackenzie and Kylie have lately gotten very into having their fingernails painted. The past week we have painted their nails almost every other day. Yes lots of nail polish remover is used but it's been fun doing their nails for them.
Yesterday Kenzie came up and asked me if I could do each nail two different colors, so I looked online to see the best way to do it. Luckily all you have to do is go to pinterest and you have lots of suggestions on what to do. I used the suggestion on there to cut tape into the angle or design you want to use. This evening after dinner I did the girls nails with the two tone they wanted. Kenzie picked orange and blue and Kylie picked gold and blue. Both of the colors have a little sparkle in them and I really like them. I found at Wal-Mart called Sinful Colors and its inexpensive, great colors, and dries fairly quickly. The last part is always a plus when doing the girls nails, especially Mackenzie. She may be the oldest but gets a little more antsy than Kylie.
I put the base color down, which was the lighter color of the two and let it completely dry. After it was completely dry I cut strips of tape into the length I needed for Mackenzie's fingernails and then continued to paint the blue color on. After about 30 to 45 seconds I peeled off the tape and then after it completely dried applied a clear top coat. Mackenzie absolutely loves it! Kylie had me do her fingers just in the blue and then did the gold and blue on her toes, which turned out pretty well also. I didn't do the tape on hers and just eyeballed the blue on her toes. Some of her toes are so tiny its just easier to eyeball it!!
I've posted pictures below of the girls nails. Hope you enjoy!!

Till Next Time!!!!

Kylie's Toenails

Kylie's Fingernails

Mackenzie's Fingernails

Mackenzie's Fingernails

Gabryle patiently waiting for us to finish the nails

All three kiddo's

Bows for Shirts

We finally got our school shirts in that we ordered at the beginning of the year. This year they are a bright orange and actually pretty neat looking. It's my favorite so far since Mackenzie has been in school. The girls seem to like them and for once Kylie seems a little more excited to be able to wear her shirt. It might be because they will actually get to take field trips this year in kindergarten, with their first one being next week.

Her biggest concern though is they don't have enough hair bows that match the orange shirts. I have made one orange one for the girls but as she pointed out if they both wear their shirt on the same day, and both want to wear a hair bow, one will be without a matching one. She asked for some more orange hair bows. If I had known when I was making hair bows that the shirts were orange, i would have made more orange ones instead of Red and white, which are the school colors. So last night I got to work and made a few more hair bows that will match the shirts.

 Both of the girls really like the puffy orange one to go with their shirts. If i had known that would be their favorite one I would have made two of those instead of the two others. I guess a trip to Hobby Lobby might be in the works in the next week or so.
I also made the yellow and blue one just because. Mackenzie wears a lot of blue and a lot of yellow so it will be a good one for her to wear with her outfits.

Till next time!!!!

Ribbons and Hair Bows!

Kylie lately has been wanting some hair bows and ribbons so I took the extra ribbon I have lying around the house and took to it to making some hair bows. no I am not a pro at it, but I think they turned out pretty well and the important thing is that the girls love them.

A few of the hair bows on their bow holder. 

 So far I have made them 3 different types of hair bows. I've done the curled ribbon bows, flower bows and then what I call layered puff bows. No I don't know the technical names of them but I can make them. Mackenzie seems to like the curled ribbon ones the best. She pulls her hair up in a pony tail and then puts one in to cover the hair band. I'm not to big on the style of them but I'm not making them for me.

Kylie loves the puffy ones I have made. She especially loves the pink and purple one I made today. I have a feeling she will for sure wear it to school tomorrow with something that is pink and purple. She sure has enough clothes those colors!

Mackenzie loves how I have done the colors of OSU on a few of them since she currently is a big fan of OSU. I'm surprised that they have not asked yet for me to do some more in their school colors which are Red and White. I should do some anyway that way they can wear on game days and spirit days!

When I get some more made I'll try and remember to post the pictures on here so you can see what I have done. Enjoy the pictures I posted below!!

Till Next Time!!

Mackenzie's Orange Hair Bow 

The flower hair bow I made. 

The first puffy hair bow I made. 

Kylie's Pink and Purple Puffy Hair Bow I made. 

ENROLLMENT!!!

Fourteen more days and summer is officially over for the girls. Today Kenzie and I went up to the school and filled out all the enrollment forms for the girls to start school and now are waiting to see which teachers they get. Kenzie is beyond thrilled that she should find out within the week who she will get. Kylie said she doesn't care as long as she is nice. All we have left now is getting the few school supplies that we need to provide for each of the girls.

Kylie is thrilled since she will get to ride the bus this year with Kenzie. She also can't wait to see her friends that she hasn't seen this summer. I think she is most looking forward to trying to learn how to read. She is going to be a little bookworm just like Mackenzie I think. I hope she does!

Hard to believe Kenzie will be a second grader this year. She is hoping that she actually gets to start science this year along with learning how to write in cursive. She has been very engrossed about wanting to learn as much as she can about science. This summer she has read many books and is looking forward to being in the AR reading program again this year. Every day the past few days she keeps coming up and asking "Will second grade be harder than first grade?" I keep telling her it might and she seems very satisfied with that.




The girls are also still collecting their box tops for the school.  Over the summer we have collected 100 between the two of them, and will continue to  collect them through out the school year. I think it's one of their favorite things to do, is to turn in those sheets. If anyone has any they have collected and don't have a school to donate them to let me know and we would gladly get them to a school that participates in the program!

SCHOOL'S OUT!!!

The last day of school has arrived and the girls left this morning excited about the fun day they will have today.  I'm always amazed at the end of the year how much they have learned through the past school year.

Kylie learned this year to write all of her letters and numbers up to 20 and started to read a little with little beginner readers. Most of the pages had 3 or 4 words on them, but hey, you have to start somewhere don't you! She learned more about shapes, colors and even picked up a little bit on some of the math Mackenzie learned this year. She can write her name and a few small words that she knows and has become very fixed on making sure she writes "pretty". Her teachers on the first day of school weighed and measured each student and then did again yesterday and recorded it so we would have it. On the first day of school she was 40.5" tall. Yesterday she was 43" tall. She grows slow. Her weight the first day was 35 pounds and yesterday it was 38 pounds. Can't wait to see what all she can soak up next year in kindergarten!

Mackenzie this year really got into learning how to do new things. Her math skills have gotten a lot better and now does well when they do their 100 problems in 5 minute tests. (Yes they have to finish all 100 problems in 5 minutes at the end of first grade going into second grade.) She has learned how to take a word and put the phonics symbols on the correct letters to show what is a long vowel, short vowel, and all that fun stuff. She now is a great little reader and loves to read whenever she can. She read around 70 books this year during the school year and tested on almost all of them, which resulted in her receiving the AR reading award and of course the State Education Reading Award, which you have to read over 25 books to receive. She also made the principals honor roll which is a great thing! She's very proud of it and so are we of course!! She is hoping next year they get to start learning science in second grade, as she has gotten to be very interested in the subject.

They'll have a good summer I'm sure this year. They'll enjoy having some time off and be ready soon to start back next August. Enjoy the pictures below of the first and last day of school I took.

Till Next Time!!!

First day of school 2011-2012 school
year (August 11, 2011)

First day of school 2011/2012
school year. (August 11, 2011)

Last day of school 2011-2012
school year (May 17, 2012)

Last day of School 2011-2012 school year (May 17, 2012)

Busy day today

Today has been full with school activities, but it has been fun! This morning Kylie's class had "Muffins with Mom" to celebrate Mother's Day coming up Sunday. It was a lot of fun. I got to the school and went to the playground to pick up Kylie and we then went and had our muffins, cookies apples and punch. They also gave us our gift that they made. Kylie made a key chain with her picture and the school year on it for me and a handful of Hershey Kisses. They also made a book like they did for Dad's for Fathers Day. (Pictures are below!) Kylie even wrote on her page that she wouldn't trade me for a monkey, which says a lot with how much she LOVES her monkey!!

Kenzie had a great time at track and field day today also. The weather was nice and not too hot and a nice breeze blew the entire time. Kenzie ran in the 800 meter race and also participated in the long jump. In the 800 meter race she placed 3rd place out of 6 girls and in the long jump placed 4th out of 8 girls. Not bad at all. We are very proud of how she did today.  there are pictures below and as soon as I can get it posted, I will post a short video of Kenzie running in her race.

Till Next Time!!!

Dreams

Kids can have the strangest dreams. My kids I believe might have the most strangest dreams I have heard of however.

I was standing in the kitchen this morning and Kylie came up to; me and told me she had a weird strange dream. I asked what it was about and this was her dream in her words:

"There were princess and zombies came The zombies went to the princesses and kissed the princesses!!! The princesses then turned into zombies themselves!!! Then I woke up!!"

Still can not figure out why she is fascinated with Zombies, but oh well. Who knows why she likes them.  I asked Kenzie if she remembered her dream last night but she said she couldn't remember. Kenzie can have some odd dreams also that is for sure! Kenzie is one of these kids that will sit and talk in her sleep.  Mackenzie talking at night has actually caused Kylie to wake up a few times in the middle of the nights. It's not that often but it has happened before!!!

Till Next Time!!!!!

Stranger Drill

As Kylie, Gabryle and I were waiting in the line of cars to pick up Mackenzie, Kylie told me that they had to sit behind Mrs. Pearson's desk in the dark with the doors locked. This thoroughly confused me, which sometimes is not hard to do, but I was real confused on this one. It's not often you hear of a class going and hiding behind the teachers desk in the dark with the doors locked for practice. Kylie made sure to let me know she did not like how it was dark, but she stayed quiet like she was supposed too. (She isn't big about being in the dark. At night if she uses the bathroom in the middle of the night she will leave the bathroom light on after using it purposely so she will have a little light in her room.)

We finally made our way through the line of parents picking up their children and got Mackenzie. As I pulled out of the parking lot I asked if they had to lock their doors with the lights off and sit in the floor. She quickly replied yeah its a stranger drill. They have had them since she started school in pre-k (2 years ago). This is the first I had ever heard of them. 

Each class has a certain area in their classroom  that they students and teacher go sit and wait quietly in after locking the door, pull the shades down, and turn the light off. They then wait till the all clear is given and they can get up. Now that I think about it, every classroom that Mackenzie has been in, pre-k, kindergarten and first grade, all have had an area in it where the class can sit and not be seen by the window in the door. The teachers have all purposely laid out the desks, centers and shelves to where they have a safe place to sit in the classroom where they can not be seen. 

I think its sad that they have to do that now in school, but at the same time I am glad that they have a plan set in case something does happen. So now along with Tornado and Fire drills, they have Stranger drills. Mackenzie told me that is exactly what they call them too. I know when I was in elementary school I don't remember ever once having to have one of those drills. Yes we had tornado and fire drills, but that was it as far as I can remember. It is sad they have to do that. Maybe eventually schools won't have to do that.....

Till Next Time!!

WORMS!!

Girls and I spent a few hours this afternoon out where we have our roses and now other flowers planted. We finished pulling the grass and weeds out of the "garden" and after all of the rain we have had this past week, all the worms are up at the top of the soil. Mackenzie actually picked one of the worms up today, and Little Miss Kylie actually touched two or three of them today. She wouldn't pick it up, but touching it was a big step for her still.

I have never seen that many worms in the soil in an area. Our garden is not big by any means, but its decent, especially since I'm not a big gardener. It's a decent size for a beginning gardener. I transplanted the pansies I had in a pot to the area we have ready. Come to find out the flowers were not even covered in dirt! No wonder they were starting to look kind of puny in the pot they were planted in! We planted all six of the pansy plants in the ground and then planted some zinnia seeds. I love zinnia's. The ones we planted will be all different colors.

We also planted and started our salsa garden kit. We planted the cayenne peppers, beefsteak tomatoes and cilantro seeds in the bucket that was provided and when it comes time we will transplant them like it says to on the instructions. I hope they go well. I would love to try and make my own salsa. I'll post some pictures real soon!!

Till Next Time!!!

Big House Plans

Driving home today after picking the girls up from school Kenzie said that all of our family should live in one house. I glanced back at her and asked her how big she thinks that house should be if she wants ALL of her cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents and Great-Grandparents to live in. Her response was, big. I got to adding it up, and if we had all of their immediate Aunts, Uncles, cousins, Grandparents and of course us live in one house we would need at least 18 bedrooms. That would be a big house. I told her that and her response, "We'd need a lot of bathrooms then also!"   (Good to know she has her priorities down!)

So this evening she drew a few pictures of BIG houses and made sure to add at least 18 windows to the front to make sure it had 18 bedrooms. We also decided that it would need at least 3 living room/den areas, 2 kitchens, an extremely large dining room, a game room, and lots of room!! Kylie even drew a couple pictures of what she thinks the outside of that house would look like, and in all of them, the color was pink. No surprise there! It was fun looking at their drawings. I however would add to all of their ideas a large wrap around porch on the ground level, assuming it is a multi-level home, and where it stays around 60-70 degrees year round.

I got to adding it up while they were drawing their houses, and it really doesn't seem like they have that large of an extended family, but they kind of do. There is 1 Great-Grandmother, 2 Grandmothers, 3 Grandfathers, 3 Uncles, 4 Aunts, and 4 Cousins. What I love most is all the cousins, and our three are so close in age. Kenzie being the oldest and a cousin in Indy being the youngest, at least for the moment being the youngest. It's great they have such a large extended family!! Maybe one day we will build that big humongous house the girls would like to have so all the family could live together!!

Till Next Time!!!

Mommy's old!!!!

Some things the kids say just crack me up. Yesterday as I was driving the kids to school for some reason Kylie asked if we would have any more babies. I have a feeling she asked due to one of her friends in another pre-k class just had a new baby born in their family. I quickly assured her that we won't have anymore babies because I can't have any more kids. She asked why, and instead of getting into the details of it replied "I just can't." Yet of course this answer did not suffice and she asked why again. I replied the same thing I said earlier and then Kenzie pops off "Cause Mom is too Old to have any more babies!" I just looked at her and quickly assured Kenzie that I am not to old to have any more children, but just can't. The rest of the way to school we went back and forth on whether or not I am old. Kenzie knew how old I was and quickly assured me that I would be turning 29 this year and 30 next year. I had no idea she remembered how old I was!  Jerrod thought it was pretty funny when I told him about it later. 

They also were excited yesterday since Jerrod finally found him a truck he likes. It will be nice having a second vehicle again. It's been way over a year since we had two vehicles. Having just one over the past year has worked out fairly well for us. Jerrod and I had it worked out when we would switch the car so I could pick the girls up and then picking him up from work. Now we won't have to do that anymore so It'll be nice. Plus it will be a lot easier once t-ball starts up again this summer for Kenzie and if Kylie if she decides to play. Now don't get me wrong, have just 1 car was not bad at all or an inconvenient. It will just be that much easier getting some things done now that we have the truck! 

Till Next Time!!

School Parties

Kylie's gift for Jerrod and me.

Well Valentines Day has come and gone and the kids seemed to have a good day yesterday. The girls had their class parties and we fixed special homemade pizza last night for dinner. Each of the girls showed me all of their Valentines they received from friends and were thrilled with the package we ordered from the school for each of them.
I helped with Kylie's class party and it was pretty fun. Kylie was thrilled I was able to come and made sure to let her friends know that Gabryle was her little brother. The kids ate their kids meals from Sonic and all the while they were eating Gabryle went around the classroom with a hand broom and dustpan cleaning up messes that he found. (I honestly think the classroom floor was cleaner by the time we left than when we first got there.) After the kids ate their food they got to decorate a cupcake. Kylie seemed very detailed in decorating hers. When I left she was still strategically placing the sprinkles on the top of the cupcake. I asked Kylie after school if she enjoyed her cupcake after school and her response was "I didn't eat it because I was making it for you and you left before I could finish it." Made me feel a little bad about leaving when I did, but told her we would make some cupcakes this weekend and she can make me one all by herself and she was happy with that idea.

Intently decorating her cupcake.

Mackenzie said her class party was really fun. A lot of parents went to the party and she was thrilled to get a package with some of the Valentines treats. We got her a set of spirit beads, a smencil, a jelly flashing ring, a bracelet and a gorilla sucker. (Kylie had the same things in her bag). As we were leaving the school when school was out Mackenzie informed me that she and Matt switched her smencil for his whistle bracelet because the scent of the pencil is his favorite, and he didn't want his whistle. She also informed me that none of the boys in class liked her Justin Bieber valentine cards. I assured her that it is okay that they didn't like it as long as they were what she wanted to give everyone, which she agreed they were what she wanted to pass out.
 The kids had a good day and now await the next holiday or birthday, which ultimately will be Kylie's birthday in April which she has decided to be a red solo cup party.

Till Next Time!!