First Firsts

Did you miss me?  I know it has been forever.  I can not make any guarantees about how long I will be back or how often I will blog . . . but this week we had our first firsts.  We had Dawson's First Day of 8th Grade . . .

Sophia's First Day of 2nd Grade

And Gracies First Day of Soccer

Next week we will have Gracie's first day of PreK and Brandon's return from his first summer camp job to prepare for his first day of his sophomore year in college!  Time goes by so fast!

Ode to Betty Lou

When I was younger, I used to write corny yet sincere emotion poetry.  When my grandfather retired, I wrote a poem about how each day he would eat at the table, with his beautiful wife Mable.  When dealing with my grandma's death, I wrote about her habit, of smoking like a carrot eating rabbit.  I don't think in all those years I ever wrote a poem for my amazing mother!  So for this Mother's Day, I am going to see if the old brain still has that corny creativity left.

I often wonder what the world would do,
Without my amazing mom, Betty Lou.
Where do I even start,
To describe such a kind and generous heart.

Birthdays and all holidays she does celebrate,
With 'prizes' that are always first rate.
She puts such thought and care,
In every gift, even Christmas underwear.

She is always there to lend a hand,
PTA, Girl Scouts, Clean City, and across the land.
She taught me about a servant heart,
And in your home is where you must start.

Growing up I wasn't an easy child,
Kind of crazy, maybe a little wild.
But her kindness and patience saw me through,
And showed me exactly what a MOM should do.

She loves us all through thick and thin,
Even when we were late and sneaking in.
She loved me when I put her to the test,
And proved once again as a MOM she is the best!

We miss her when we are apart,

But we see her face with each day start.
Because as I look into the mirror,
More and more each day her face seems to appear.

It really isn't so bad,
To look like the best MOM ever had!
And there is no one else on earth,
That I would want to have given me birth.

And though we tease and joke around,
I hope she knows she is the best to be found.
She has given love and so much more to all,
She deserves her own Hall of Fame wall.

And now as I am older I understand why,
That as she reads this she will cry.
I hope she knows I love her most,
And forever about her, I will boast.

Each day I hope and pray,
That as my children talk of me someday,
They love and respect me too,
As much as I do you, Betty Lou!!!

The Three S's of Sophia

SOCCER

 SOFTBALL

 SWIMMING

Sophia is a girl who likes to keep busy.  We are currently in softball and soccer.  And when given the chance we love us some swimming.

My kids say the darndest things

Jeff and I were laughing this morning at some of the things the girls have been saying which just crack us up.  So I thought I would share.  These are just in random order.  Enjoy!

This morning I had a meeting while Sophia was still getting ready for school.  She asked who the meeting was with.  I said my coworkers in India.  She said "so you are pretty much like Outsourced then?"

We have been watching American Idol this season.  The kids have enjoyed watching it with us.  Steven Tyler is a topic of conversation frequently.  This is something you might hear in our house at the beginning of every episode:
Grace: Oh man, why is that one guy wearing a girl shirt again?
Sophia: Because he is Steven Tyler and he can!
(I said that once . . . once . . . Steven was wearing something crazy and I told Jeff I guess if you are Steven Tyler you can wear whatever you want.  And ever since then Sophia says that to everything about Steven Tyler)

Last week during the results episode of AI, Hulk Hogan made an appearance.  Gracie now believes that the 'strong man with the white hair and beard" should come out all the time and hit 'that mean guy' (who is Ryan).  She thinks Ryan is mean because he 'tells people to get off the show'.

Gracie also is a Casey fan and was almost in tears last week when he got kicked off.  And she thinks James is "a really really wierd crazy guy".

I had watched some of Grace's dress and my 'delicate' shirts together.  They were laying out on the bed waiting to get hung up.  Grace was showing Jeff some of her dresses and talking about how pretty they were.  Anytime she picked up one of my shirts, she would look at it and say 'lame' and toss it off the bed.  I guess my fashonista daughter does not agree with my clothing choices.

Last week as we were driving in the car our annoying door ajar light started beeping at us.  Gracie said 'dang it all to heck'.  I said 'Gracie Beth!'  Sophia responded with "Mom, we only say what we hear!".  I am not sure when we would have used that phrase but I could see at some point that I might have made that up.  Such a memory.
There are more but that is all I can think of off the top for now.

Day 5 - The Zoo, The Rain, and The Cold

Before Spring Break even started I had asked the kiddos what was one place they would for sure like to go over Spring Break. They all said the zoo because it had been so long since they had been and Brandon and Amanda got to go and it wasn't fair. :-)

I kept putting the zoo off during the week waiting for the temps to go back up and the rain and yuck to go away . . . but it was not to be. Friday ended up being the yuckiest day all week. But I had promised the zoo, and by golly the zoo we were going to do! So we bundled up, got us some ponchos, and visited the animals that were out and about on a cold and rainy day.

Gracie 'yuved' the zebras. They were her favorite. We watched them pick on the other antelope type animal in their habitat for quite some time. This is Dawson being . . . well Dawson. He is pointing to the baby tapir.

Isn't he a cutie??? Some lady was standing there talking to him/her the whole time. Calling it by a name and baby trying to get the tapir to come to her. It was cute.

The flamigos were very chatty and active while we were there. The girls were cracking up at them. This would be where Dawson got camera happy (similar to Brandon and his elephant stalking). Dawson took picture after picture of the flamingo.

This lovely goats name is Maddie. She was a hoot. She was really attracted to Sophia's bright yellow pancho and didn't care much for Gracie. She tried to actually head butt Gracie at one point and was put in goat time out by the zoo keeper. One of the goats did take a bite right out of Sophia's pancho.

Had to ride the merry go round.

Dawson and Sophia being ??? . . . well, really . . . just themselves!

And the final photo in the Jungle Gym playground area.

We did not get to see any monkeys or giraffes . . . but we did manage to still have a good time with those animals that were just as brave and crazy as we were to be out at the zoo on a cold rainy day.

He's a Big Boy Now!

Okay so Dawson would probably kill me if he knew I was using that as a title to a blog about him . . . but oh well. Dawson recently finally got to upgrade his room from young boy to teen boy. His room was a pirate room due to his love of the Pirates of the Caribean movies. His wall had a really cool treasure map mural that one of our friends spent quite a few days working on. It was amazing. I hated to cover it up but little boys grow into big boys. Here is a picture of the mural: And here is the big boys room now . . .

On the unpictured wall is his shelves with his trophies and a poster that has a little boy picking his bootie and it says Picky Picky on it. Gracie laughs everytime she sees it.

Day 2,3,and 4 Spring Break 2011

Day 2 of Spring Break was such a treat . . . NOT! That was visit the dentist day. Sophia used to throw a huge fit whenever she had to have dental work done. It was so bad she would have to go to the pediatric dentist each time to be knocked out. On this day however, she walked in and had her filling done with no problem. Not her little sister though. Gracie has now reached the freak out age. She had a filling done about 6 months ago and did awesome. Not on this day. After 30 minutes of begging, pleading, bribing, threatening . . . she would not do it. It is a small cavity and would have only taken just a bit to fix, but we will be visiting the pediatric dentist next week for Gracie. Oh joy! So because during the fits and tantrums I pretty much took everything away from Gracie. We spent the rest of SB Day 2 at home.

Day 3 we headed out after lunch to Gnomeo and Juliet at the theater. It was a cute movie, and we all enjoyed it. Then due to the torture of the dentist on Day 2, I figured I could endure the torture of Chuck E Cheese for my kiddos on Day 3.Day 4 found us having issues with the washing machine (grrr)but Super Papa to the rescue and it was fixed. After the washing machine was on its way again, we headed to the Fun and Party Zone for some jumping fun (and time to just slap wear yourself out!).

Dawson had soccer practice that evening so the girls and I wasted some time . . . shopping. I think I might have done an oops and found someplace where my anit-shopper LOVES to shop. We stopped at Justice because they had some nice one piece suits in the window. Sophia is very very very very picky about swimwear. She likes a one piece and she likes board shorts with it. She wore her last one until the bottom literally wore out. So we had to buy her one quickly. It is a really cute two piece tankini with shorts. However, it was not a suit she liked. SOOOOO, anyway, I stopped at Justice when we saw the suits in the window. Girlfriend found her a suit and shorts . . . as well as this cute outfit, and this nice outfit, and I like this and this Mom! Really?? Now the thing is when Sophia finds clothes she likes and they are 40% off, we buy them because it doesn't happen often. However my apprentice-princess-mini-me-shopaholic was not about to leave a store with cute clothes without something of her own. The store did not have her size but diva found her a 'sundress' (long tank shirt) that fits perfectly and is 'beautiful' too. Yes, Daddy better keep him a good job to keep us girls properly clothed. Day 5 of spring break involved temps in the 40's, rain, wind . . . oh, and the zoo! That's right we rolled into the zoo in the stinkin cold rainy weather. Stay tuned tomorrow for pics of that!