Love Day 2013

For the past year, Sister has asked for a slumber party. She has gone to several this year for birthday party's, and each time my heart hurts for Big G a little. He always asks why he can't go and wants to know when he can have a sleepover. Out of the blue, Lila askes when her friends were coming over for Valentine's Day. When I asked her what she meant, she said, "We always have friends over for Valentine's Day." Now that her friends are in school and daytime playdates with all the kids are harder to do, I decided that this would be a fun time to do her sleepover. She chose a few girlfriends, who have all spent the night together before, so I knew it was a good mix. NEXT, she looked at Graham and said, " Who are you going to invite?" UH-OH! I thought. However, I decided that he could invite the brothers of one of the girls. This group of friends have been spent the night together several times so it wasn't their first rodeo. Although I almost got a little excited and invited the whole world, I decided I better not interfere with a good mix. This just means I will have to have other sleepovers to invite everyone else they had on their lists. I went easy with pizza for dinner, but I had to add in the heartshaped jello. :) Most of the girls could have cared less, but E and L had multiple servings. I also found these really cute heart-shaped chocolate covered pretzels. I went fancy and made the cupcakes out of the box and used the sprinkles from the can. BUT, they were a hit and the kids went on and on about how good they were. Also on the menu was chocolate covered strawberries and of course, heart shaped ice. The girls wanted me to take it out and just give them regular water. Heart shaped Kool-aide ice=FAIL! How my heart hurt! I had the boys serve the girls. It didn't quite go as envisioned in my head, but sweet none the less. I seriously can't believe they all went to sleep after the amounts of sweets they consumed. I guess the dance party helped shake some of it out of them. Let me tell you, these kids got moves. My ipod has quite the ancient songs on it, so I was downloading request like crazy. Eliza sang her heart out to Taylor Swift. The rest of the girls belted out one awesome performance to Call Me Maybe. BUT the hit song of the night went to Gangham Style. The dance awards for that song went to Eliza and Oliver. Boy do they have some moves! These two loves birds were just adorable: I think there may a future.... One of my favorites. The gorgeous brown eyed girls dancing to Brown Eyed Girl: Crazy mustache boys: Big G: This captures the mood for the evening: Even GT got in on the love! The girls were crazy about him! After the Dance Party, it was teeth brushing and pajama time. They all curled up on the couch to watch a movie. Cutest thing I've ever seen: Lights out by 10, and eyes closed shortly after! What a fun night! I'm ready to do it again! :)

School Days

To piggyback my last post, I'm going to continue to brag on my girl. Yes, every old crow thinks hers is the blackest. So, just a heads up... This is a totally one of THOSE post, so by golly, I will say what I want and pretend that it isn't open for the world to read. :) It was this time last year that I was having major anxiety over where to send Big Sis to school. Was I going to attempt homeschooling with a new born and 2 other preschoolers? Could I persuade Michael to pay for private school, and which one? Thinking of sending my tee tiny new 5 year old off to the big bad world of school hurt my heart a little. We decided on a small private Classical education school. Once she started school, I immediately felt we had made the right decision for her. After our first parent teacher conference I was even more convinced. One of my biggest fears for Lila was that I would put her into a classroom with 25 kids and she would just fly under the radar because she is so shy and quiet (in school and church settings). Her teacher told us that she was VERY quiet and she would like to see and hear her express more of her ideas. Although Lila was reading a bit before she entered Kindergarten and had pretty nice handwriting, since starting school she quickly took off in excelling in these areas. At school they are reading a Ukranian poem called The Mitten. She came home from school and read me this: I learned that the 2 Russian words she addresses, babushka and deiadoshka, mean Grandfathers and Grandmothers. Several nights we have caught her reading The Adventures of Little Bear with her flashlight after bedtime. She gets in the car from school and picks up a book to read. We have even started just letting her read to the boys at night! We might be just a little lazy! :) She desperately wants Big G to learn to read and tries her hardest to teach him. She walks in the door from schools and starts on art projects, like this butterfly. Notice she did the colors of the rainbow in order. She drew it, colored it, then cut it out. She begged me all day for a hole punch and string so that she could make it into a mask. I love that the word of God is being poured into her ALL day everyday at school, Yes, she comes home reciting the New Testament Books, poems, the Presidents, etc. but it is so much more than that. Just this morning on the way to school, she was singing "The Old Rugged Cross." I saw her eyes swell up with tears and afterwards she told me it made her eyes want to cry. I asked her what the song was about and she said "It's about Jesus Dying on the cross." I knew that she was emotional over the TRUE meaning of the song. WOW! What a precious moment!

I have to admit, I love pulling this out of her folder each week! So proud of my girl and how much she loves school. This morning she informed me that she " just loooves spelling test!"  When I asked her why? She said because she got to go ln her own office and get out a pencil and her PINK eraser! Other note highlights of this past week were, " Lila received a special award for being kind to her friends" and " She is such a delightful child!"  This makes this momma's heart so happy! 

At the last minute, a friend invited us over to watch the super bowl. So after nap we quickly got the kids dressed. As I was brushing Sisters hair, she asked where we were going. I told her to The Super Bowl. She waited a few moments and then sweetly asked me, " Does everyone get a turn?" Confused, I answer with "What??" She asks again if when we go there if everyone got a turn. "A turn doing what?" I ask.
"Do we each get a turn bowling when we go Super Bowl?!?". I totally cracked up laughing and told her I must write this down. She on the other hand didn't find it so funny. I saw tears swell up in her eyes and her tongue move on her lip ( she does this when she is upset or nervous). I felt horrible! I realized I had hurt her feelings by laughing at her. This is the first time that she has expressed me hurting her feelings over something like this. It was hard for me to explain to her that I thought what she said was cute and funny when she was 100% serious in her question. :(. I'm confident one day though that she will look back and find this funny!

100 Days Smarter

Lila comes home most days saying that she is _____ days smarter! So, when I received the email stating that we were to create a t-shirt using 100 items, I did a quick Pinterest search, but only came up with the same thing over and over. I took a minute to think about Lila and what her interests are. I quickly remembered her saying about being smarter each day. So, what did I come up with...SMARTIES! My original thought was to spell out 100 days smarter with the individual smarties, but we actually needed more that 100 to be able to read it. Lila suggested we pin the whole bag on the shirt. I was fine with it, but I knew it was going to be REALLY heavy and I was concerned she wouldn't wear it (or it would tear.) I was so excited about this project and even a little giddy. That all lasted until about number 18 smartie and then I was over it. HA! It really wasn't too bad once I quit being so picky about the exact placement and just put them on there. The bags of smarties took up the whole shirt. It was very heavy, but Lila's teacher said that she wore the shirt the whole day, even during rest time for a bit! HA! For the 100th day she also had to take in a collection of 100 items and cut and paste 100 words out of a magazine. For her collection she chose to take her "Sheshells." This makes me happy because this girl LOVES the beach. I'm so thankful for Lila's school and for how much she loves it. She is doing great and I couldn't be more proud!

Back in the spring when Lila graduated from preschool, they asked her what she wanted to be  when she grows up  She told her teacher and the director over and ever that she just wanted to stay home with mommy! When ever I asked her she said the same thing. Do you want to be a doctor? A nurse? a teacher?  a princess? A gymnast? "Nope! I want to stay home with you!" So up there on the stage that is just what they announced, "Lila just wants to stay home with her mommy for now." 
Well folks, I think that may have changed.
She is thoroughly enjoying school and she loves to be a little bossy. She was excited to show me how she has been teaching Graham to write his name. She drew the dots for him to trace and put a star above the letters that he did well on! That part totally made me giggle. I guess we will see If she follows in PopPop and Grandmothers and aunt Kimmys footsteps! 

I forget how literal two year olds are. The other day I referred to superdads truck as a car. Little g was not happy about that. "MOMMY, daddy's twuck is not a car, daddy's twuck is a TWUCK!" ( for those of you who know him, knows he only has one octave) 
Then today while doing a craft he says, " When I'm done, I'll be finished.  Right mommy, when I'm done I'll be finished!" Man, I love this little guy! Does anyone have a 3 ft tall bottle that will hold a 27 lb blonde headed cutie? Why can't they just stay little?!? He has been so so fun at this age.   He drives me bonkers and most mornings I feel like I need anxiety medicine by 9 AM, but he is also the sweetest thing who has such a loving heart. I love nothing more than when he comes running down the hallway and flies up into my arms or when he gives me the biggest hug and says, " lay right here mommy. I want you to lay with me." 
Yes, he is super loud, but I will give him this.... He is so persistent and is bound and determined to get what he wants. I'm just glad he tries to figure out whatever it is he is trying to do. Some of my favorite sayings of his is when he doesn't want to do something he says " I'm just fine! I'm just fine mommy. I'll be okaaayyy!" and I absolutely love when he talks to GT. He is his "little buddy!" He loves and kisses on him constantly. I can't complain about that!