My Favorite Moments

*Thanks to everyone for the great mommy advice about Halle. I know she'll be fine, and even today was a really good day for her. I knew I'd just need to give it more time. I guess I just need to accept that I have a long road of school drama ahead of me. Thanks for letting me get all melodramatic for a minute! :)

*Since I had the "brilliant" idea to take Aidan's binky away a few weeks ago, he has been very sporadic with his naps. It's a battle every day to get him to take one and MOST days I lose. The few naps he has had in the last few weeks have been falling asleep in the car or when he actually stops for 5 minutes in the afternoon and crashes in random places. I find him asleep all over the house. It's also brought on the tantrums. Every day at 4 o'clock on the dot, he comes unglued and we experience something only imaginable in your worst nightmares. It's so fun...NOT!




*We've been loving this great weather that we've had the last few weeks. We've been taking lots of walks and picnics to the park. I couple times I've even gotten out and played with them on the playground, rather than just sitting and watching them. My good friend, Lisa, inspired me to do this. She's been having some health challenges lately, and recently posted on her blog about how excited she was to finally have enough energy to get out and actually play with her kids at the park for a little bit. It made me feel pretty guilty that in my perfectly capable physical state, I don't get out and play more with my kids more. It was really fun and my kids loved it. We had a great time that day.












*We went to the farmers market last Saturday. I've been wanting to go all summer and it was the first Saturday in a LONG time that we didn't have places to be. The kids loved walking around getting all the free samples (the same reason they love going to Costco). I picked up a big box of peaches, a bag of yummy Gala apples, some sweet corn from our friend Nate working the Schmidts corn stand, and some squash and zucchini. I love fresh produce (I also love the word "produce"). I just wish it would last longer. I did manage to get all the peaches canned though. My first attempt at canning was a success. I felt so momish as I was doing it. I remember so clearly watching my mom can peaches when I was little. Good memories!



*Halle has been talking about the circus at school the past few days and she's seen a few commercials for the upcoming circus that is currently in town. I really don't have much of a desire to take my kids this year (I know, what an unfun mom) so instead we went and watched the elephant parade at the gateway. It was literally about 5 minutes long, but it was still fun for the kids to see the clowns, the silly cars & motorcycles and of course the elephants! Tucker took his lunch break and joined us. We had a great time and hopefully they'll forget about the actual circus that we AREN'T going to!








*And last but not least, after living in this house for almost 6 years, we're finally getting around to doing some major home improvement projects. Several of my friends and family have recently done some home remodeling and its really motivated me to start doing some of our own. We'll be gutting 2 bathrooms, finishing our laundry and storage rooms, putting in new flooring and counter tops in the kitchen, and knocking out walls. It might take us a whole year to finish all of it, but I'm excited to get started on it this weekend. Its been on my wish list for 5 whole years!

I think that's enough smattering for one day! TTFN!

I think we've finally gotten ourselves into the groove of school/homework/and still making time to play. Getting ourselves up and out the door by 8 o'clock isn't as awful as I thought it was going to be. Halle's been really good about getting herself up as soon as her alarm goes off and, surprisingly, we haven't had very many grumpy mornings.

But I have been a little worried about my Halle lately. I was really nervous about sending her to Kindergarten every day when she didn't know ANYONE in her class. I kept telling myself not to worry, cause she's a fun and happy girl and she'd make new friends quick. Well we are about 3 weeks into school and she still hasn't made any REAL good friends yet. It doesn't help that there are only 6 other girls in her class and 15 boys. It also doesn't help that she sits at a table of all boys every day.

I don't think that she's been too worried or upset about it, but me being a protective mother wants her to have fun and enjoy being at school. Last year in preschool she had LOTS of REALLY good friends who she played with all the time, even outside of school. Each day I ask her how her day was and who she played with. She usually says, "I just played by myself!" When I ask her why, she tells me that the other kids didn't want to play with her. (maybe she doesn't even ask them, I don't know!) I had a little talk with her the other night as I was tucking her in bed. She said that she misses me when she's at school cause she's always alone. I had to fight the tears back. I just want to be there with her and help her find a new friend so she's not just standing there all alone watching the other kids play.

Today she told me that she missed recess. I first thought, uh-oh, she got in trouble! But then she went on to tell me that she went to the bathroom and then just looked in the mirror and thought how much she missed me. Then she got her jacket on and went outside just as they were blowing the whistle to come in. Okay, this kind of made me laugh at first (looking in a mirror for 15 whole minutes???) but then I thought maybe she did that cause she didn't have any friends to play with. Sad.

I know she's only there for 3 hours each day, but that's a long time to a 5 year old without a good friend to talk to. She doesn't complain about going to school, she's never once said she didn't want to go. Maybe I just need to give it more time. Watching your kids grow up isn't always easy!

On Friday we had a mini birthday celebration for Avery. We went down town and had a picnic lunch with Tucker. I went to a cute little bakery called So Cupcake and picked up a dozen of their mini cupcakes. They were almost too cute to eat. Oh, but they were so yummy. I had a little candle for Avery to blow out but it was a little to windy so we just pretended. I had some cute pink balloons for her and a darling birthday hat that I borrowed from Kecia. She opened a present (the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Piggy Bank) that we couldn't get out of the box fast enough. I was SO mad when I went to take pictures and my camera battery was dead...I swear that's the story of my life. Tucker took a few with his phone so it wasn't a total loss.








Her "real" birthday party took place Sunday evening at my mom and dad's house. We had planned to celebrate on Friday night, but we had a few conflicts come up and Tucker's parent's were out of town until Sunday, so we moved it. My mom made a great dinner for everyone and then we opened presents and had cake and ice cream. Tucker's mom came through again with another cute cake. They were out of town all week, but she didn't leave without making Avery's cake first. I almost had a panic attack thinking I'd have to make my first ever birthday cake. Thanks, Judy!

The party was a success. She ate cake, cautiously. She watched Halle and Aidan open her presents. She got tired of the attention. Thus ended the par-tay! Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate.

(This time I made sure the camera battery was charged...many cute pictures were taken!)

On Friday night, our neighbors had an end of summer backyard concert/social. They are good friends, with the very talented singer/song writer Nancy Hanson. She came and sang for our small crowd and it was so entertaining. We had yummy desserts and watched the kids dance and sing along. I've been a long time fan of hers and it was a treat to be in a more casual audience. Halle was at a birthday/slumber party so she missed out!




On Saturday night Tucker and I went to the Colors reunion concert. We've kind of been groupies of this band for the last 10 years or so. Tucker made a documentary about them and has done lots of work with them over the years. We have lots of fun memories from our dating and first married years of these guys. It was fun to reminisce...good times! (We missed you, Brooke & Jaden).


Yesterday I took Avery in for her one year check up. Poor girl had to get 4 shots (one in each arm and each leg). It was so sad. She bounced back pretty quick and was fine the rest of the day. Her weigh in surprised me...only 19 pounds. How is that possible? She's mobile now so I guess that explains it. But those chubby thighs are quite deceiving!


Today was crazy hat day at school and Halle was really excited to participate. We went to Kecia's house yesterday and Halle found a very suitable hat to borrow. Not so much crazy, but she sure looked cute!