First Days of School

The kids started school this week. We are back to the grind, waking up at 6:30 and trying to get into bed by 8:30. Neal gave the kids some beautiful blessings on Sunday night. I've taken this same picture in this same spot every year. Always in pjs.

Audrey started school on Monday at her new school. She was so excited! Seventh grade at this school will be very different from what her peers at the middle school are experiencing. We are really feeling blessed that Audrey gets to have this great new adventure!

Parker and Miles started on Tuesday. Parker goes to the Intermediate School now. It is for fifth and sixth graders. He'll start riding the bus home next week. Three kids with three dismissal times all within 25 minutes of each other would be possible if the schools were close together. But they're not!

Miles is a big first grader now! He has a wonderful teacher and is already making some new friends. Neal walked him in to class the first day and snapped these photos at his desk. Sweet little dude! We are excited for a new year, new teachers and friends. I feel so blessed to live in a country where my kids are given an education! What a miracle that is.

Play Day

The annual Fourth Grade Play Day was held a couple of weeks ago. Our school's fourth graders competed against some other schools at the high school field.

Audrey had three events: Buddy Walk, 60 M dash, and Tug-of-War. She got second place in all three! Three red ribbons to bring home. She and her friend, Sarah, did the buddy walk together.

In the Paper!

Audrey's DI Team was featured in the local paper today! She was so excited to herself in print! Here's a link to the article.

First Game

I was so sad that I had to miss Miles' first tee-ball game last weekend! He has been counting down the days and wearing his Angels uniform not only to all of his own practices, but to Parker's games, too.

Neal said he had three great hits and loved every minute of it. I can't wait to see him in action next time!

Go Angels!

pierced!

Audrey decided that she wanted to have her ears pierced for her tenth birthday. But she was a little nervous about it. We told her we could go whenever she was ready, and yesterday, she was! She polled her friends about the best place to go for the job (and made sure they said it didn't hurt), picked out cute little aquarmarine studs (her birthstone), held on to Daddy's hand, and didn't flinch a bit! 

I think it looks so cute.

tough guy

Miles fell down while we were in Arizona, and his arms were stuck behind his back, so he caught the fall with his nose. Poor guy, he's had to endure about 10 people a day asking what happened to his nose!

stats

Parker's fall baseball season ended last night with a double-header. It was a fun season, he had a great team of boys and coaches who were not only super nice, but also great pitchers, which makes a HUGE difference! Here were his stats for the season, he is very proud of himself and is on his way to the majors, at least in his mind.

8 games
20 at-bats
13 hits
7 RBIs
.650 batting average

His favorite position is pitcher (the boy who stands next to the coach who is pitching and gets a lot of ground balls). He made an awesome catch last night and immediately his team mates surrounded him with hugs and high fives, in the middle of the inning.

I love little league.

Season Opener

Parker is really loving baseball this season. He's had a hit at every at-bat so far. Woohoo! Go Mets!

Q&A

Here is Miles Jefferson, on our rainy walk the other night. He has been cracking me up lately, so full of questions and ideas. He's so fun. Below are some questions he's asked in the past few days, most of them at bedtime when I have my eyes closed and he's wiggling himself into relaxation mode. Kind of reminds us of this other little person.

Mama, how many sisters do you have? What are their names?
How many brothers? You have THREE brothers? What's Guggle's real name?
Who is Bramma's mommy? Who is her daddy? Did he die from cancer?
Is there air on Saturn?
Is there air on the moon?
Is there air in Phoenix? (It might as well be a different planet, for all he knows.)

When can we go skydiving?
If I'm an astronaut when I grow up, can I still be a dentist?
When can we see Toy Story 3 again?
When can I get some Buzz gloves so I can be Buzz for Halloween?
Mama, when did you get married?
What did Daddy look like when you got married?

It goes on and on. I love it.

summer reading

and freckle multiplication.

last day

Today was finally our last day of school, we had a full day of school all week, which I thought was rather torturous. But, at the end of the day, my kids had majorly mixed feelings about leaving their classes and teachers. I think it surprised even them.

Here is Audrey with her angel teacher, Mrs. Smith. She was incredible, went above and beyond our expectations, I hope Parker has her in third grade! Poor Audrey had been crying, sweet girl.

Parker receiving his awards from the principal. Great job, dude! I can't believe they're in second and fourth grades now!

Good thing I still have one little one left. Him and his buzz cut.

Recital

Here are the kids with their wonderful piano teacher, Ms. Ruby. I love her for lots of reasons, one of them is that her hair is just the same color as my Grandma B's was. And the video below. I played duets with both of the kids, per Ms. Ruby's request.

i shed a few tears.

Miles had his last day of Museum School today in Fort Worth. I like to refer to it as "pre-preschool" since it's only 2 hours a week. The curriculum is nature-based and the campus is at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, which is awesome.

As I was hugging his teachers goodbye, they kept telling me what a special boy he is and when I said, "I know," I almost lost it. I don't know if I can handle this whole idea of the baby growing up.

Sorry for the lousy picture via my Blackberry.

back in the saddle

I just love to see my Audrey girl on a horse. She is never happier.

cute dude

Parker's other tooth came out. About an hour after it got caught on the trampoline net while he was jumping. Um, ouch.

Love this face!

new glasses

What's Up With Audrey?

Audrey is growing up so, so fast, we are having a bit of a hard time believing that she will be nine in just a couple of weeks! She is busy as always, and if she isn't, she makes herself so. Some of the things she's been up to lately:

• Audrey loves Twiggy, her bird. I would say "our bird" but Twiggy and Audrey both know that Twiggy is really only for her. Ever since Twiggy's little wifey bird passed away in January, he has been even more attached to Audrey. She put his cage in her room and has him on her shoulder about 75% of the time she's at home. He's a funny little bird, has lots of personality, and adores his Audrey!
• Audrey is in her 3rd year of piano lessons and plays about as well as I did after, oh, I don't know, eight years of lessons! She really improves every week, it's a pleasure to watch her learn!
• Her favorite book series of late is The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series, a fantasy/historical/adventure series about animals and spirits and things like that. She even reads it at lunchtime.
  
  
• Audrey is working toward her Faith in God award at church, thanks mostly to her fabulous Activity Days leaders. She is attentive and reverent in Primary (I love being in there; I can check up on all three of my kids!), and we're so proud of her growing faith.
• Audrey recently took an oil painting class (need to post her painting!). She had so much fun, and really wants to go to the oil painting day camp being offered over Spring Break.
• I spoke to Audrey's horseback riding instructor today, she will be resuming weekly lessons after daylight savings time begins in a couple of weeks! She is thrilled.
• Audrey loves to send texts and emails to her Pa. She'll sneak away with my Blackberry and before I know it, she has sent him a long, detailed email about whatever is going on with her that day. It's really sweet.

We love our Audrey girl, she is precious and such a blessing in our family!

What's Up With Miles?

Here is Miles at his sports class at the gym. He loves guitar shirts.

Miles is doing great. He's three and a half and loving life. He stays home with me every day, and we have lots of morning down time and afternoon naps (hooray, he still takes naps!). But he has his own activities going on as well, he keeps busy.

On Mondays, we go to Fort Worth so he can attend Museum School, which is like pre-preschool. It's two hours with two fabulous teachers and the campus is at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. We spend some time there before school starts, then he learns about animals and nature for a couple of hours while I explore Fort Worth.

On Tuesday mornings in February, he is attending a "Sporties for Shorties" class at the local gym/community center. They focus on a different sport each week for a month. He is having so much fun, we might sign up for March, too!

Miles is learning how to sound out letters and is on his way to learning to read. He loves to draw volcanos and color in pictures of kitty cats that look like his beloved gray cat, Kiki.

He is really into all things music. It all started with the Imagination Movers (a Disney show) last year, but has, thankfully, evolved into a love for the Beatles. His favorite Beatles are John and Ringo and he loves to watch both Help! and A Hard Day's Night. Favorite Beatles songs: You've Got to Hide Your Love Away and A Hard Day's Night. Every so often, we need to go to the local music shop for piano books. The first time Miles walked in there and saw walls of guitars and dozens of drum sets, you would have thought it was Disneyland. He was SO excited, we stayed for almost an hour. He carries his red guitar everywhere and really has the rock star positioning and moves down. It is adorable.

Miles is still such a loving little boy. We cuddle a lot and never tire of it. He calls me Beebee instead of Mama and has such a tender way about him. He misses his cousins, always asking when we can go to Sundance again and how long until we see Sadie next.

Here's a video of Miles singing I Wanna Be Your Man. He learned the words from watching Ringo Starr on Jimmy Fallon over and over. Please note that Miles says "I wanna be your mother baby, I wanna be your man!" He doesn't know what a lover is.

What's Up With Parker?

Just feel the need to update the blog about what's happening in the kids' lives, so here's the latest goings-on in the life of Parker.

Here he is being a drummer in the First Grade Play this past week. He was so excited because he got just the part he wanted. Which didn't involve any speaking, just banging out a rhythm on these great drums.

Parker scored two baskets at his basketball game on Saturday, his first two of the season! He's having fun playing on the Hawks this year, and coach-pitch baseball starts soon!

Parker started taking piano lessons with Audrey on Tuesday evenings. He's learning quickly and trying to get his left-handed brain to work with traditional piano instructional methods. It's been interesting having a left-handed child. I crack up every time I watch him practice handwriting. And oh boy does he need practice! (He must get his messy writing from his daddy.) We really love our kids' piano teacher, she is marvelously sweet and the picture of patience.

Parker and Audrey have both been participating in Destination Imagination this year. It's a sort of team academic/creative problem solving challenge which started in October. It's winding down to a close, which we are all grateful for. I've been Parker's team's manager and boy howdy, it's time consuming. Parker has done a great job, though. There is strictly NO adult interference allowed, and the kids have to build a weight-bearing structure from only newspaper and tape, write and perform a skit about their structure, and create their own costumes. As a team. Of 6 six-year olds.

Parker has been reading the first book in the Percy Jackson series, The Lightning Thief, and is super excited to see the movie, which we hope isn't too scary.

We recently instituted a more formal allowance program with our kids. It's chore-based, but they can earn extra money by trying new foods (like Neal's spicy Thai curry the other night) and doing extra jobs. Parker will do just about anything for money. Except zucchini. He will not do zucchini.

In his other spare time, Parker has been mastering the guitar on Beatles' Rock Band and is ever so close to beating Super Mario Brothers on the Wii, with Neal's help. Parker is still the picture-perfect child, if you ask me. We're crazy about him and are so grateful he is the person he is. What a great kid!

fourth place!

Audrey got fourth place in the school spelling bee on Tuesday. She was so nervous beforehand, but during the bee, she seemed very confident and calm. She is a natural speller, always has been. It's fun to try to stump her! Of course, I had to motion to her to stop mouthing the spelling of the other kids' words during their turns. Classic. :)

Yay, Audrey! Can't wait for next year.