Friday, October 24, 2014

Five on Friday

  • Zoe texted me a picture of a burn on her arm on Monday and told me she’d gotten it from a flame thrower while at work. I had to laugh (she’s working for a catering company) because I figured her flame thrower was probably a small torch used to make stuff like crème brulee. She insisted it was a flame thrower though and then I began to doubt myself and started to wonder exactly what a flame thrower looked like. That evening I googled both flame thrower and cooking torch images and really had to laugh about the whole thing!
  • While we were out playing earlier this week, Dakota picked up a piece of mulch that was lying on the play equipment and asked me “where this come from?” She said it very clearly and I was thrilled that she came up with such a great question! Her speech has been slowly progressing but I’m seeing it come together more rapidly now.
  • I was telling my mother-in-law that I thought Dakota was going to be pretty sad next year when Harper was in school all day and I started to get a little choked up about it. It was then that I realized that I too was going to be pretty sad when he goes to kindergarten. I don’t know when I became such a baby about things but I feel like everything chokes me up when it comes to my kids these days! It’s little things like this that make me wonder if I really could homeschool…
  • I’m pretty sure that the neighbors are going to call the cops on me if I don’t stop slowing down in front of their house as I drive by. The two little kids insist that I slow down so they can look at the Halloween decorations but I’m thinking we’d better stop before people get suspicious of us!
  • A nearby shopping center had a trick or treat event tonight and we decided to go again this year. It’s pretty crowded but the kids sure enjoy going store to store asking for candy. Dakota was a little afraid of some of the costumes but she did pretty good…but, it was light out and most of the kids out were probably 10 and under. I’m pretty sure she’s going to be too afraid to trick or treat around our neighborhood. Harper absolutely loved walking around and seeing all the costumes and he wasn’t the least bit afraid. Landon came with us too and even though he wasn’t dressed up a few people still gave him some candy. He was good about the whole thing though and it was a nice night out. (I really need to figure out why all of my pictures are overexposed! It’s driving me crazy!)
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Thursday, October 23, 2014

A Chilly October Morning

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Our typical stay at home Thursday routine was disrupted by too much bickering. The two kids just weren’t in the mood to play nicely so at 10am I gathered up our stuff and we all headed for the park.

It was nice out, but chilly with a strong wind. I was glad I brought the kids’ heavy coats because they would have frozen without them.

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We didn’t play long before Dakota went and crawled in the stroller and declared it time to go home. She didn’t care for that cold wind and complained her hands were cold. Harper, on the other hand, didn’t mind the wind and was happy to ignore his frozen fingers. (Strangely, this is usually the other way around.)

As we were leaving, we took the wrong path (on purpose) and ended up in a field with some bleachers to climb. Dakota forgot she was cold and Harper loved jumping off the top bench.

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As we started home, Dakota asked if we could see “the skeleton”. “The skeleton” is just a plastic one that a neighbor has out in their yard right now for Halloween. Every time we drive by both kids beg me to go slowly so they can have a look…and, of course, I do. I hope that if they see it enough now, maybe they won’t be afraid next weekend when we have to walk by lots of scary things. We’ll see how this pans out.

We went through a few neighborhoods and saw lots of different decorations, and they were delighted by all of it. Pumpkins, ghosts, bats, scarecrows and skeletons are equally “scary” or “neat” right now. Dakota asks me “so nice” about every single thing she sees. She’s just gotta be sure they’re all nice even if they don’t look that way.

When we got home I grabbed our two little pumpkins off the front porch and gave them some paint to decorate them. I have to admit that they weren’t really all that into it. I don’t know if it was just the mood of the day or what, but they were done in like 5 minutes.

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While they painted I got their lunch ready and as soon as Dakota saw it she asked if we could “eat eat” outside. I thought it’d be a little too cold for it, but she was adamant and I decided to give it a try. We ate out there on Tuesday and it was really nice, and it ended up being really nice today too. It’ll be our last day though because after lunch, as they played on the swing set, I cleared the deck and prepped the gazebo for winter. No more eating out there till spring. Sad smile

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Monday, October 20, 2014

Oh, Monday

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What a day. It started out normal enough but got interesting as soon as I made a turn onto the road out front and my entire drink spilled all over me. We were running a bit late out of here and I was in a hurry and didn’t push my drink down into the cup holder far enough…turned a corner and splash, all over my pants. It went underneath me and the entire backside of my right leg was soaked. Hooray.

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So, I made a quick turn back into my neighborhood, ran in the house and grabbed another pair of pants and then we were off again. I decided I’d just have to change after I got Harper to school since we were so late. Somehow we managed to pull up to his school just as the last person was pulling away so I didn’t have to get out in my wet pants to walk him into school. It was a little miracle of sorts.

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Dakota has Rolly Pollies on Mondays but there’s about an hour between dropping Harper off and her class so we went to Mema’s house to hang out for a bit. When we last had dinner over there Mema had raked up a big pile of leaves for the kids and it’s all Dakota wanted to do this morning. I tried to talk her out of it because it was chilly and the grass was damp, but she just wouldn’t take no for an answer…

After all the work raking up those leaves she only jumped in them maybe 4 times and then she was done with it. I guess it’s just not the same as jumping in it with her brothers.

It was such a gorgeous fall day here. It started out cold, but by this afternoon the weather was a beautiful 70 degrees. I thought I’d better get the two little ones out while it was nice so we took a walk to look at Halloween decorations and then ended up at the park.

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Dakota is such a momma’s girl these days. She doesn’t want anything to do with her daddy and is always telling me she’s “mad at dada” and “dada’s yucky”. I’m not sure what he did to piss her off, but it’s been going on for a few weeks now! (She says the same thing about Umpa and the guy who runs her class at Rolly Pollies. I think it’s just a general dislike for men thing, but I have no idea why.) So, while I pushed her in the swing at the park, Tony and Harper played follow the leader on the tennis court.

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Harper is all about making up his own games these days. He gets lots of ideas from the games he plays on the iPad or Wii and his imagination is huge. He thinks of all kinds of cool things for us to do and he just loves to direct the way we play…but, don’t try to give any input because it will likely be shot right down. Apparently he has enough ideas for all of us.

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Harper and Dakota were best buddies on the walk home and they even held hands most of the way. They’re just too cute for their own good sometimes.

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Sunday, October 19, 2014

Popping Corn

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Remember this picture from our trip to the farm last week? Well, see how that sign says “Popcorn Field”? Well, I never would have believed it myself, but that really is a field of popcorn!

The farmer told us we could each pick an ear of popcorn to take home with us. He said all we had to do was pull off the husk, put the cob in a paper sack and put it in the microwave for 3 minutes and we’d have popcorn. I thought that guy must have lost his mind, but lo and behold, it’s true! (Don’t try this with any old corn cob you find, it has to be a specific type to work!)

Watch our videos below to see!

I knew Landon would be amazed by this coolness, so I saved a cob to pop when he got home from school. I didn’t record it all again but I wish I had because the look of sheer amazement on his face was too funny!

38 (Scrapbook Page)

I decided to make a scrapbook page about myself this year. I seldom scrapbook about myself so I figured why not? I’m always too worried about making pages for the kids before they’re too grown and here I am turning into an old lady in the meantime!

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It’s nothing too fancy, but I did include a few notes to myself in those little envelopes. Notes that I know will be read one day when I need them.

Picking our Pumpkins

We made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch today. Nothing fancy this time around as it was cold and we’ve done the pumpkin patch thing a few times already. We just drove up to a nearby farm and let the kids pick a few pumpkins and then went to lunch.

It was around 50 degrees when we got out there but it was quite windy making the temperature feel much lower. Landon thought it wasn’t too bad out though and refused to wear a sweatshirt…but, you’ll see that he’s looking a little cold in the second photo below. :)

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There he is a little closer up…nope, he doesn’t look chilly at all…

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Saturday, October 18, 2014

Flu Shots For All

I’m almost too tired to post tonight, but I know I’ve been neglectful, so I’m just going to make myself write something…hopefully you’ll understand what I’m writing! ;)

This past Friday was a teacher workday, so my kids were out. Normally, I’d try to plan something fun to do, but not this time. Nope, I scheduled flu shots for all of them. Cruel, huh? It’s hard finding a time that I can get all the kids anywhere at the same time without it being a weekend, so I had to do it and this was the lucky day…

That morning, once Harper and Dakota were both up, I explained to them that we were going to the doctor to get “something” that would keep them from getting a “really bad sick”. I explained that they could get a shot, or, if they were cooperative, they could get a squirt of medicine up their nose. I told them that the squirt up their nose wouldn’t hurt but they had to let the nurse do her job and not pull away or cry. They both seemed to understand what I was telling them and they both chose the flu mist over the shot. Duh.

Well, we went about our morning which happened to include a trip to Rolly Pollies. Harper had missed one of his classes so he had a make-up class to do anyways, so he went with us. He loved going and I think Dakota loved him being there. I sure loved watching the two of them buddy up and work together!

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After art class we drove home to get Landon and then headed to the doctor’s office. Dakota kept asking me about going to the doctor and she said “Go doctor, no cry, no shot?” “Up nose, no shot?” and I kept reassuring her that everything would be okay. She was doing her best to understand, the little cutie.

When we got called back, Landon went first. He chose the shot because he hates the flu mist. The two little’s watched him and not a peep came out of them. Next, it was Harper’s turn. He was prepared when the nurse came at him with the mist, but he got the biggest surprise when she pushed the liquid up his nose. His eyes got as big as saucers and he yanked back as she went to do the other nostril. He started crying and saying he didn’t like it and just looking at us all like we were freaking crazy for doing this! The nurse was able to quickly do the other nostril and while Harper tried to figure out what the hell had just happened, the nurse moved on to Dakota.

I was holding Dakota and she had a skeptical look on her face, especially considering Harper’s reaction. But, the nurse went quickly and Dakota never even flinched. The kid acted like nothing had happened at all. I had been worrying all week about how I was going to get Dakota to cooperate and I did all that worrying for nothing! She took it like a pro! She even gave Harper a look like she couldn’t figure out what he was so upset about!

On the way home I told the kids that they’d been awesome and I was so proud of all of them. After I said that Harper quietly said “Well, I wasn’t so awesome” and it damn near broke my heart! I told him that it didn’t matter if he got upset a little about it, and that he’d still done a great job. I told him that he could choose the shot next year if he wanted or he could try the mist again and he informed me that he wouldn’t be going back at all. Smile

I was so grateful when it was over! I’d worried so much about the kids getting this done that it was a huge weight lifted from my shoulders once it was over.

Tony and I ran out tonight and got our shots as well and now the only one left is Zoe…but, she’s an adult now and will have to take care of it herself. It’s still weird to say things like that, but the more I say it, the easier it gets, I think.

And, speaking of Zoe, she and Brandon showed up here last night for an hour and a half or so. They’d eaten at Genghis Grill and wanted to stop by, so they showed up at the door around 9pm. Brandon showed us his new car and they came in to chat for awhile. It was nice seeing them and I loved having them here even if it was short.

Monday, October 13, 2014

Preschool Trip to the Farm

This morning Harper and I headed out to a farm with his preschool class. The farm we went to was about 45 minutes away, and as we left rain started to fall. I decided we were just going to stick it out and go, and we did.

While we waited for everyone to show up, Harper watched the chickens and bunnies do whatever it is that chickens and bunnies do.

He really liked the bunnies and was happy to feed them straw.

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Once everyone got there we got a lesson on bee’s. They brought us in out of the rain for that part, which was nice! The kids learned a lot about bee’s and I learned a few things as well:

  1. The head honcho bee is the queen.
  2. Most bees around the hive are female, and they are called worker bees.
  3. Male bees are called drones and don’t serve much purpose beyond helping make baby bees.
  4. Beekeepers use a smoker to lull the bees to sleep, or at least make them go to the bottom of the hive while the keeper gets the honey.
  5. Bee’s communicate in a few ways to let their “sister” know where to find pollen.
  6. Bee’s are cool.

Here’s a picture of Harper watching bee’s in an active hive. We even got to see the queen!

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After our bee lesson, we went out in the rain to feed the animals. We were able to feed the goats and cows, and Harper enjoyed feeding both. We weren’t allowed to feed the pigs as we were told they may mistake our fingers for food and, since they have top and bottom teeth, it might hurt to get bit by one of them.

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Next up was a walk through a field of popping corn. The farmer told us we could pick our own ear to bring home to make popcorn with and it might have been the highlight of the day for Harper. He just loved walking through the tall stalks and choosing just the right ear.

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Once we had our perfect ear of corn we took a walk through the corn maze. It was seriously muddy but luckily the walk was very short. Once we made it out of the maze, we all loaded up on the hay ride. It was a pretty crazy ride through some rough terrain, including going through a river, but it was pretty fun. The kids loved the bumping and we parents couldn’t help but laugh at how rough the whole thing was. Going through the river was pretty cool and unique to this farms hayride.

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Our final stop for the morning was to choose our pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. It was raining pretty good and Harper tripped over pumpkin vines three times while we were in the patch. He was pretty muddy when we got to our car, but he did get 2 perfect pumpkins!

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It rained and rained the entire time we were at the farm this morning, but Harper and I had a great time. I loved spending the morning with him and he told me he’d had a fun time on the farm too, so it was a morning well spent.

It’s hard to believe I’ll be doing this with Dakota next year…

Sunday, October 12, 2014

A Day of Chores

Today was a day full of getting things done. 

  • Three loads of laundry
  • Vacuuming upstairs and middle floor
  • Cleaning bathrooms
  • Weeding through Harper’s clothes. Put away summer stuff, pulled out winter stuff. I was happy to find that he still fits lots of shirts from last year! He’s got a full wardrobe with new and old stuff. I did Dakota’s room yesterday and she’s going to need a few more things to make it through the winter. Landon could use a few more shirts also.
  • Tony worked on the garden area outside, fixed a door on our computer desk, put up a new coffee mug rod, made a delicious baked potato soup and probably lots of other stuff I don’t know about since I was busy.
  • Landon cut the grass in the front yard and then the neighbor asked him to cut his grass too. So, he was pretty busy with that for awhile.
  • The two little kids played the day away. We all took turns keeping them occupied while we got things done and it worked out just fine.

This morning, before getting busy with all the chores, Tony and I did a little art with the kids. We made popsicle stick scarecrows and they’re adorable!

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Harper’s finished product:

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Dakota’s finished product:

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Adorable, right? :)

Harper and I are off to the farm tomorrow while Tony takes Dakota to Rolly Pollies. Tomorrow night we are going to a local pizza place for dinner in support of our preschool. Another busy day ahead…

Friday, October 10, 2014

Five on Friday

  • I have an annoying cold sore on my lip.
  • Harper and I were supposed to go on a fieldtrip to a farm today, but it was cancelled last minute and rescheduled for Monday. It’s a good thing he’s only four and doesn’t realize when things like this happen or he’d have been pretty bummed.
  • After dropping Harper off for preschool, Tony and I took Dakota to her Rolly Polly art class. I tried to let Tony take the reigns with her because I always get to do it, but it was tough! The only way I could let him do it was to actually leave the room, which I did! I knew he could help her, I’m just so used to doing it. After art, she wanted to play, so we stayed for open gym. She had a great time running around and man did she take a good nap today!
  • Tomorrow night Tony and I are going to Fogo de Chao for dinner. We’ve never been but I’ve only heard really good things about it so I’m excited to check it out. I’m am equally excited about having a dinner in which no one will climb on or under the table or bounce their fork violently off their plate.
  • If it’s not raining in the morning we plan to take the kids to a family fun day at a near by park. We went a few years ago and had a great time, so fingers crossed the rain holds off!

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

38

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Yesterday was my 38th birthday. Thirty freaking eight. Damn that sounds old.

Anyway, after the adventure of the night before, it started out being a very sleepy day. It didn’t last long though because I have kids and when you have kids it doesn’t matter if you are sleep deprived. All that matters is that they get up and are happy and fed and loved and played with and it doesn’t matter one bit that your head is pounding and you barely got 6 hours of sleep.

But, I didn’t come here for a pity party.

The dog was in serious need of grooming so I’d scheduled her appointment for 8:30am. So, after seeing Landon off, the two little’s and I drove the dog to the groomer. Ginger absolutely HATES going to the groomer and she’s just a nervous wreck every time. It’s kind of awful, so I’ve been waiting as long as possible between appointments. As we were leaving, Dakota broke down into a sobbing mess because she didn’t want to leave Ginger. I had to console her the entire ride home, poor thing. We came home and did art and played toys and had a great morning, and around 10:15 the groomer called to let me know Ginger was ready.

So, we hopped back in the van to go get her. Dakota and Harper were so happy to see her! The groomer informed me that he’d done his best to clip her nails but that she’d given him quite a fight. I looked at her nails and figured he’d done the best he could (this is an ongoing problem) and we headed home. You can probably imagine the immense joy I felt when I got home, opened the back door to get the kids and dog out and found little bloody dog prints all over the back of my van. Sheer elation. I mean, there was blood everywhere. The dog made sure to imprint every inch of the van floor with her gore. It was insane. So, instead of going back inside to play and enjoy our beautiful day, I was stuck outside cleaning dog blood out of my van. How’s that for a happy birthday to you? The dog must hate me is all I can guess. (It appeared that the groomer had failed to inform me of the nick in her paw from when he was trimming her nails back. It wasn’t bleeding when I picked her up, but it must have started bleeding again after she walked on the gravel outside. And, in case you’re wondering, she’s fine. I guess dog paws just bleed a lot if they’re nicked?)

Our afternoon went fine despite Dakota deciding that she didn’t want to take a nap. I put her in her bed about 1:10 and at 2pm I could still hear her talking away. I feel like an hour is long enough (too long really) to try to go to sleep so after that long I let my kids get up. She came downstairs and I told her she had to have quiet time, so she and Harper played iPad together. It worked out just fine and they were quiet…and I got to sit on my butt for a few minutes.

Tony came home early and suggested that we go out to eat to celebrate. I had to take Landon to get his allergy shots anyways, so we decided we’d just eat in Columbia near the doctor’s office. (It’s literally in the same parking lot as the mall, so lots of choices!) Tony took the two little kids to play in the mall play area while Landon and I took care of his shots. We met at the play area and then walked to Uno’s for dinner. Remember now, Dakota didn’t have a nap, so she was just a little on the crazy side the entire time. She wasn’t crying but she was bouncing off the walls. She just couldn’t settle down because she was overly tired AND she was starving which is just not the best cocktail for a 2 year old. When dinner came she did sit down and eat really well, but as soon as she was done she was back to being crazy. At some point Harper jumped on her crazy train and they were both playing under the table. Tony and I decided we didn’t care and just let them do whatever the hell they wanted just so we could cram our dinner down our throat and go home. (At some point Tony looked at me and said “So, we’re those parents now. The one’s who just don’t care.” And, I’m pretty sure I just shrugged while I downed my Dr. Pepper.)

We made it home to find that Mema had come by to bring a gift and a cake to celebrate. We lit the cake up and sang Happy Birthday and opened a couple gifts and then quickly got the two little kids in the tub and to bed.

I thought after getting the kiddo’s to bed I’d watch a TV show or something but I ended up chatting with my sister on the phone for a bit and then Landon had a boatload of homework and needed a ton of help, so I ended up sitting with him until 10pm working on the Bill of Rights. Fun stuff right there, let me tell you.

So, it wasn’t the most FUN birthday ever, but it certainly wasn’t dull. And, despite the crazy stuff, these people love me and they do their best to show me and really, that’s all I need.

Happy Birthday to me…

BEEP…BEEP… BEEP…

To say that my birthday didn’t go as planned would be a major understatement. Some things went better than planned while others went differently than planned. So, in other words, life happened and it just so happened to be my birthday.

All the excitement started the night before with an annoying “beep”. Tony and I had just turned out the light when I heard a loud beep that I recognized as one of the fire alarms. I told him I thought it was one of the two we have upstairs but he thought it was one downstairs, so he headed down to have a look. It didn’t go off again for awhile so we ended up waiting and waiting. When it finally went off again Tony thought it was the one he was standing near, so he changed the battery and we went to bed…only to hear that beep again. So, we got up, waited for the beep again, changed another battery and went to bed…and heard the beep again. Repeat this scenario two more times and imagine us pulling our hair out. (It’s about 11:30pm by this time.)

While we were trying to figure out the alarm problem, the dog was going crazy because of the loud beeping. I decided I’d better let her outside again because she was pacing around the door (and found a puddle of dog pee as I stepped in it) and as soon as I opened the door, she took off. Now, I let Ginger in the front yard to do her business every night and she never goes anywhere. She walks around and sniffs each blade of grass and pees a half dozen times, but never in the history of ever has she taken off running. Well, I wasn’t’ exactly ready to run down the street after her in my pj’s so I ran upstairs to get more clothes on and then took off after her. It’s 11:45pm or so and I walking down the middle of the street looking for her when I see her slowly walking towards me. She doesn’t hear me calling her (she’s practically deaf now) so I walk over to pick her up and she nearly jumps out of her skin, poor thing. I get her back to the house and she is a panting, shaking mess. I sat with her awhile until she calmed down and that’s when Tony and I determined that one of our alarms was broken and that’s why even fresh batteries weren’t making it stop the annoying beeping.

We yanked that damned alarm down and finally got in bed around midnight. Six o’clock came faster than I ever remember, but somehow we were able to drag our butts out of bed and get on with the day. My birth day…but that’s another post.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Five on Friday

  • I just didn’t have any blogging mojo this week. I’m hoping that will change because I really hate missing so many days…
  • My sweet husband helped a guy at work with his personal computer (not his work machine) and the guy paid him $100 for fixing it. Instead of taking the money and buying whatever he wanted, he gave me $60 of it and took me out to spend it. Then, when our bill was more than the $60 he had in cash, he used our bank card to pay and then gave me the cash for whatever else. I love that guy.
  • Dakota has sort of jumped back on the potty training wagon. I bought her some undies with Lalaloopsy on them and that was what it took to get her back on the pot. I’m hoping it sticks this time!
  • Harper completed his first homework assignment this week for preschool. He had to do an “Aa” worksheet. He did such a great job, too. He sure has grown up a lot this year it seems. He’s eager to try writing and just recently has taken a little more interest in drawing/coloring; something he hated last year. My little guy is growing up…
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  • Landon isn’t doing too bad in school at the moment. He’s got mostly good grades, but he’s struggling (HARD) with French and has some serious work to do in Social Studies, but I think with some determination, he can get those grades up. So, if you have any determination, please send it his way. He’s gonna need it.

Now I’m off to watch some TV with my husband…it’s become our Friday night date. :)

April Fools Pranks

The two little kids made me laugh yesterday morning.  I was upstairs getting things ready for school when I heard them talking about how ...