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Caroline

The End of School and the Start of School

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I kind of forgot all about our poor, little blog this summer.  Now it’s catch-up time yet again.

The new school year has started and I haven’t even posted about the end of the last year.  Here we go.

During kindergarten Caroline got this piggy hat at the dentist.  The day before picture day.  She was determined to wear it to school for her picture:

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I did not allow that to happen.

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Last day of second grade for Brooke:

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Last day of kindergarten for Caroline:

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Caroline’s class had a graduation performance that we got to see.  Caroline with her cute teacher:

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Our future kindergarten graduate:

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Before we knew it, school was starting again!  The Saturday before school started Brooke got in a panic because we hadn’t been shopping for new clothes.  I took her to Target and she fell in love with this shirt because “it will give me ideas about science experiments to do.”

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A couple of days before school started I had a little chat with Brooke.  Last year she complained that she never got to decide what to do; I always dictated every moment of her days telling her when to do homework and when to do chores and when to go to bed.  Over the summer I started giving Brooke piano lessons so that’s one more thing to add into our day.  I told Brooke I wanted her to feel like she has control over her day so she can decide when to do certain things.  I asked her when she wanted to practice the piano.  We talked about how she could do it before school but that would mean she would have to practice before playing in the morning.  She decided she liked that idea.  Then I said that now we needed to figure out a good time to do homework.  She sighed, looked up at me with somber eyes and said, “You’re really serious about this, aren’t you.”

I’m pleased to report she practiced the piano before school every day last week.  Homework starts this week, so we’ll see if she works that into her routine just as seamlessly.

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As summer was wrapping up Caroline would occasionally express concern about having to go to school ALL day because “I’ll have to be quiet and listen for SO LONG!”  Funny how my kid who is so good at being quiet and listening would be nervous about that when guaranteed the kids who NEED to be worried about listening aren’t.

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Last year I used to pick up Caroline at lunch time after kindergarten.  This year we talked about how Caroline would now finish at the same time as Brooke so we arranged a place at the school where they could meet up to scooter home together.  Brooke usually speeds home as quickly as possible and is always the first kid I see coming home.  Some of the other kids on our street don’t straggle home until a full thirty minutes after Brooke has made it here.  Just as I expected, Brooke did not like the idea of having to wait for Caroline.  I proposed that they wait for each other by the crossing guard before crossing the street.  Brooke said, “How about this.  I’ll just meet up with Caroline at home.”

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Spencer and Madison and I walked/scootered/strollered to school with the big girls:

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While the girls are away, Spencer will secretly play with their forbidden Legos:

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I think Brooke and Caroline have had a good start to the year.  They seem to like their teachers though Brooke has said, “I can’t really understand my French teacher so I just stopped listening to him.”  Granted, her teacher speaks French with a different accent than her other French teachers have had (I think he’s from New Guinea as opposed to France) so there is good reason she’s having a harder time understanding him…but I hope she learns to tune him back in soon…

Spencer, Madison, and I are enjoying ourselves as well.  I almost look forward to grocery shopping now that I only have to take half my kids.  Poor Spencer has lost all his playmates, though.  The neighborhood boys he plays with are all older and in school so he’s stuck at home all day with boring old me.  Luckily he starts joy school next week.  I hope that will be a good diversion for him.

Budding Artists

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Here’s another installment of work featuring my resident artists.

Spencer has gotten into coloring lately.  He’s pretty meticulous:

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He really only draws cars.  I love the sirens on the top of his police cars:

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Caroline went ca-ca-ca-razy writing her name on one of her school papers:

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I loved this page she did.  It says she likes Disneyland…but….the picture shows her grumbling, “I do not like this.” She told me that was the log ride (which, incidentally, is a Lagoon ride), but in any case, she is convinced it’s the worst ride ever.

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Brooke drew this cute, underwater scene on our driveway:

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I can’t exactly remember what this was.  Apparently some scheme to make a quick buck:

P1000052Brooke lost a tooth and constructed a pirate ship.  Deep inside the boat was a treasure chest which she put her tooth in and which the tooth fairy could then put the money in.  I appreciated the skull and crossbones were replaced with a tooth, toothbrush, and toothpaste.  I also loved the note attached to it, “Dear Tooth Fairy, I once saw you. You were so beautiful.” (She’s referring to this.)

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We also have this Lego scene:

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I was gone, so Brooke took a picture of it with Dallas’s phone.  Instead of texting the photo to me, she inadvertently sent it to Dallas’s boss with the caption, “Look what I did!”  Dallas’s boss responded with, “Looks nice, Dallas.”  Ha!  I giggle every time I imagine Dallas’s boss opening that text and wondering why Dallas felt the need to seek his validation in his Lego creation.

One day Brooke decided to design a dress:

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She loved that dress.  She made it right before Easter and referred to it as her Easter dress.  Sure enough, when Sunday rolled around, she quickly got dressed for church…in this.  Luckily we convinced her to wear a shirt under it, and she put on tights which was fortunate because the back tended to gape open if she moved just so.

Brooke wrote me the cutest note:

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Brooke got a journal and wrote in it furiously for the first week or two that she had it.  One day I noticed this gem.  I love the unexpected plot twist at the end.
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Cliffhanger

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This past week has been unfortunate.

Every single one of us has gotten sick.

Everyone got sick on a different day.  Of course.

But always in the middle of the night.  OF COURSE.

Why is that?  Why do kids always have to barf in the middle of the night?  Isn’t the horrible stench, the chunky texture, the yucky feeling, and the gag-inducing sound bad enough?  Why do we all have to be jarred from our slumber on top of that?

The first night was Caroline.  Poor Caroline had a fever for four days.  We shut ourselves in the house and didn’t go anywhere.  Finally, on the fifth day, she was fever free.  I was giddy with the thought that we’d actually be able to leave the house soon.  That very night she barfed.

The next night she barfed again.  As I was going to bed after helping her, I got sick.

Madison woke up with a horrible diaper so I assumed the sickness had gotten to her.

The next night Brooke got sick.

The next night Dallas got sick.

The next night Spencer got sick.

The next night I went to bed knowing we had all gotten the bug so I would FINALLY be able to sleep through the night!

Until Spencer woke me up.  He was sick again.

The next morning Caroline brought Madison to me.  (I was still in bed.)  A few moments of cuddling with her revealed she stank to high heaven.  It was then that I actually looked at her and saw she had dry, crusty barf caked all over her.  Oops.  Poor baby had gotten sick in the night and slept in her own barf.  Sad face.

The next night I REALLY went to bed knowing we had all gotten the bug so I would FINALLY, FINALLY be able to sleep through the night!

And then Madison barfed again.

I am giving up hope that I will ever sleep again.

Is this sounding like we’re all trapped in a horror film?  How’s this for the ending —-

The next night is….

TONIGHT.

DUM DA DUM DUM DUMMMMMM!

Easter Egg Hunt

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I reeeeally hate to be that blogger who posts about holidays that happened months ago…but…here we are.  I found Easter pictures and there are several cute ones with Dallas’s family that I have to share.

Kathryn invited us over for dinner and an egg hunt.  The kids loved searching for eggs.

 

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Dallas and his mom:

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Dallas, his mom, and his two sisters:

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Tracy Aviary and Liberty Park

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We had just about the funnest day ever the other day.  Dallas had to take a week off of work in order to use up all his paid vacation days before he lost them so we dedicated one of those days to visiting Tracy Aviary and Liberty Park.

The Aviary was a lot bigger and had more exotic birds than I was expecting.  We got there right as a show was beginning.  They were introducing us to several different types of birds and the birds would fly right over our heads.

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Madison loved it:

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There were fun things to climb on:

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There were little bird houses throughout that featured different birds.  Spencer had to keep an eye on them:

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We got to see how we measure up:

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Brooke with a peacock:

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My highlight was meeting this little bird:

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He was just roaming around the area. If you approached him he’d run away from you like any other normal bird.  However, if you ran AWAY from him he’d start chasing you.  So imagine you’re a little kid, who likes to run, and all of a sudden you notice this somewhat large bird is chasing you.  So you run faster.  Which makes the bird run faster and the only way to get him to stop is for you to stop running.  But try explaining that to the kid who is running all around faster and faster and screaming because the bird is about to attack her and she won’t stop running for anything because her life depends on her needing to keep running when actually, she needs to STOP running!  It’s all very confusing to the child and hilarious to the parents.

And maybe it will be hilarious to you, too?  We took video:

This is Brooke very carefully WALKING because the chasing bird of doom was near:

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We forgot our stroller (GAH!) so little missy had her dreams come true as she was able to wander around as she pleased:

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While the Aviary was fun, it was also hot which got the kids complaining right away.  Spencer found a shady bench, hung his hat up, and took a little rest:

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We found some rare species of owls hanging out in a tree:

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The never-before-seen Caroline Piggy Owl.  You can almost hear her hooting:

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We found a picture that you can stick your faces through, and it was perfect!  Three spots for three faces!  Except one of the face holes was too tall for Caroline to reach so you might notice she’s hanging on for dear life as her feet dangle below:

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The kids were positively DYING of heat and hunger and thirst so we headed out of the Aviary and into Liberty Park with our picnic lunches.  We found a nice, shady tree and ate and drank:

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We were right next to this huge hill that the kids weren’t too hot or tired to run up and down a billion times. Go figure.

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Dallas took Caroline and Spencer to the bathroom.  Brooke saw them coming back so she hid behind a tree to scare them. They caught on and hid behind a tree to scare HER.  It was an amusing game of stalemate that lasted several minutes before Brooke made the move and ran out to get them.

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They had paddle boats and canoes that you could ride.  Dallas decided to take the big kids out:

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Caroline was pretty convinced she was going to die:

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They had a fun water play area that was just opening for the day.  The kids loved splashing there.  We just may have to go back sometime when we’re actually wearing swimming suits:

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And that ends our very fun day. We actually wanted to stay longer and play at the park playground but Madison was more than ready for her nap so we had to head home.  Hopefully we can make it back again soon and finish exploring the park.

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