Baby Picaso

At least it was the walls that we can repaint & not the carpet!!!!

Them Bones!

We made it 6 years with out a child breaking a bone until this week. Charlie was at his end of the year baseball team party at the park on Tuesday night when he fell off his scooter and hurt himself. He got back up after a few minutes and was out playing with his friends for hours.

The next morning he could barely hold up his left arm and was cradling it with his right arm. He told me it hurt to bad to go to water day at summer rec and that is when I knew it was serious. I got him to the doctor yesterday morning and sure enough, he had broken his left radius up near his wrist.

We went back today and he got on his permanent cast. He wears this one for 3 weeks and then we go back and get it checked out. He may then get to wear a short arm cast for another week and at that point we are hoping it is all healed.

Charlie has been such a trooper about this and not letting it slow him down. Today after the Dr he went back to summer rec and was out playing dodge ball with all his friends. I have loved watching how happy he is and how something like this doesn't even take away his smile!

We Made it the first week of Summer Vacation!

I don't know why I feel a little guilty but it sure was nice to get the kids in bed tonight and to sit down and take a deep breath. We had a fun but busy week. Wednesday I took the kids into Folsom to see Shrek III then they had friends over in the afternoon to plays. Yesterday I spent all morning cleaning then the kids & I went to my parents to swim and play in the backyard. My dad had made the kids a couple of tire swings and Charlie & Annie loved trying them out. Today Charlie had a friend over for a few hours and I tried to get caught up on all the stuff I didn't do around here this week.

I am so excited that the kids start Summer Rec on Monday. Charlie will go from 8:45 to 12 Monday - Thursday and Annie goes 9-11:45 Monday - Wednesday. Then 4 of the next 6 weeks there are field trips on Friday. Summer Rec is here in RM at the local parks and most of the neighborhood kids are signed up to do it. Each week has a theme and there are water days, sports, and arts and crafts they do. At the end of the 6 weeks they have an art show for the parents to come see all the kids projects.

I am looking forward to having the routine of getting up and moving so I don't have to come up with activities for all day everyday and we aren't fighting the boredom of being home all the time, not to mention the TV monster sitting in our living room that draws the kids in. Plus I am looking forward to having some time alone with Audrey. She & I often don't get that right now and she is heading straight for the twos and I think she needs some mom time.

Today Audrey was dead set she was going to climb onto the kitchen counters and get into the cupboards - I am not exactly sure what she was looking for but she kept gravitating to the cupboards that hold all the art stuff I keep up so the kids don't get it everywhere (paint, scissors, etc). Every time I turned around today she had a chair pulled up to the counters and had her little but up in the air. And every time I got her down and told her no she cried like she has the most horrible life. Really this went on for hours today.

Anyway, enough about today, we have our last baseball game this weekend. Charlie is so excited to get his trophy & Annie doesn't understand why she doesn't get one too. She is such a cutie, she loved going to the practices and games and riding her scooter around. She also loved going to the snack bar - although she liked it best when I would just give her a dollar or two and let her go up to the counter herself.

It will be nice to have our weekends back at least for the next 9 weeks (we are on the count down to College football!).

Summer Vacation - Day 4 & 5

So my goal of wearing out the kids seems to be working. Monday I watched a friends two little kids (5 & 2) for the day and my kids had a blast. They were outside playing almost all day, between the trampoline, kiddie pools and slip and slide they were in the water for most of the day. Then in the later afternoon we went to the park for an hour then Karate for Charlie. Both older kids could barely keep their eyes open on the five minute drive home! All the kids were asleep by 7:30 and it is now 7:20 in the morning and everyone is still asleep.

Today we are off to Folsom to go to a movie (they have a free family movie every Tuesday and Wednesday morning at the Theater) and then to run a few errands. We have our last baseball practice this evening so that will be fun too!

Summer Vacation - Day 1

So I am not sure my kids get summer vacation and what the whole deal is yet. Charlie woke up this morning and asked me what time he went to school for first grade. I tried explaining that he has three months off school but he still seems confused. I may have to make a calendar for him so he realizes he has a while.

We had a great first day of Summer Vacation. I took the kids into town to see Kung Fu Panda. It was cute and we had a a great time. Charlie laughed so hard and seemed to love being at the theater. Annie barely weighed enough to keep her chair down. I kind of had to lean my leg on the edge of her chair to keep it from tipping up. Audrey was great and fell a sleep about 20 minutes into the movie and slept the rest of the time. (I kind of planned for that though!)

After the movie I took the kids to Old Navy & Babies r us. I got Audrey a potty chair. I don't think she is ready and/or interested in using it but I figured it was time to just have one out and around for her. Annie potty trained so easily at 2 that I am hoping with two big siblings Audrey is easy!

I also got Annie a few new outfits today. She is giving me a run for my sanity each morning arguing about her clothes. John says I should just let her pick her own outfits and not care what she wears but if you could see her each morning you would understand my dilemma. Yesterday I was helping out a field day so John let her dress herself instead of having her put on the shorts and shirt I left out for her. She showed up at field day wearing a brown and pink flowered skirt with a yellow tank top - inside out, a rainbow sweater with a hood - again inside out, RED socks and pink shoes, oh and I forgot to mention her hair was crazy because she wouldn't let John brush it. SO today she picked out two dresses she said she would wear and two shirts and shorts. UP to this point this summer she wouldn't wear any shorts because she said they are baby pants. Hopefully the outfits we got will tide her over for a little bit and keep the fights to a minimum the next few days.

After shopping we went to Annie's recital practice. It was cute but chaotic. All Audrey wanted to do was get on the stage with the girls. Afterwards we went to Sam's to get some groceries and pizza for dinner. Now everyone is home and all the kids are worn out and sleeping like babies.

It was a great first day of vacation. My goal is to wear them out each day so they fall into bed exhausted! Tomorrow we have a baseball game and Annie is going to a birthday party. John is flying down to SD for the day to go to the memorial services for Marc Edmonds, his bosses son who recently passed away.

It really is an incredible story, Marc was thirty and lived a great life having Muscular Dystrophy. John has become close with Ed and his family over the years. He has even spent a few weeks caring for Marc. John told me that the hardest & most rewarding week of his life was the week of the flood of the San Diego office, hard because he was dealing with the flood situation but the most rewarding because he was also taking care of Marc that week and he said it was a very humbling experience for him.

I hope that we have a great summer - Hopefully our great day today was just a precursor of what is to come!

All I need to know in life I learned in kindergaten!

1st & last day of Kindergarten!

"ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN" by Robert Fulghum

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.
These are the things I learned:

* Share everything.
* Play fair.
* Don't hit people.
* Put things back where you found them.
* Clean up your own mess.
* Don't take things that aren't yours.
* Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
* Wash your hands before you eat.
* Flush.
* Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
* Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
* Take a nap every afternoon.
* When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
* Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
* Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
* And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

"ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN" by Robert Fulghum