End of the Year Festivities

The end of the year for Cat's class has been quite a whirlwind! There have been big things going on at the school or with her class for the last 4 Fridays. If the goal is to wear parents out and get them ready to be finished with school for the year,I think it's working.

Two weeks ago was Cat's Pre-K beach trip. I love that we live within 30 minutes of several beaches. (Anyone want to come visit??) She rode the bus with her class, which she was super stoked about, and I met her at the huge playground near the beach. After play time and a snack, she got on the bus again and we all went to a beach to look for sea things. And boy, did we see sea things! (Sorry. Couldn't resist.) We found a few large horseshoe crabs, a big jellyfish, whelk egg sacs, sea weed, a live crab and several other crab parts, fish parts, and of course sea shells. Then Cat helped construct a class sand castle before we went to the picnic area for lunch. We had a great time and the weather was awesome. Plus, no siblings were allowed, and I honestly enjoyed having a few hours of one-on-one time with Cat. (Thanks so much for taking care of the little ones, Christina!!)


Then, last Friday was Cat's "Moving Up" ceremony--the first of many commencement ceremonies in her lifetime, complete with a 10-minute rendition of "Pomp and Circumstance." She was one of the 3 kids in her class who had a speaking part, and she was very excited about the whole event.

Then they sang a couple of songs before the kids were awarded their "diplomas" (as one parent referred to them).

When the ceremony was finished, there was a reception and slide show in the cafeteria. It was a great celebration of the year they've had together in Pre-K. And I can hardly believe that when school gets out next week, I will be the parent of a Kindergartener!!

The End-of-Year Dance

The (little) Man of the House

Jack turned 2 last week! I can hardly believe it. He's such a fun kid and we feel so blessed to have him in our family. This was a pretty low-key birthday, but a memorable one nonetheless.

Saturday night he opened presents, ate a dinner of pizza ("pee-zuh! pee-zuh!"), and had a train cake. I kept trying to get a picture of him with the cake, but when ever Ben would put the cake close enough to get a good picture, he would try to grab it, so we would have to move it farther away, then it would start all over. Jack wasn't happy about this cycle. So... this is the picture I got.


A few funny things Jack does now:

*Open his sandwiches and eat the insides. The other day I gave him a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. He opened the piece of bread, scraped as much of the peanut butter off as he could, then I threw away over half of a piece of bread.


*Lounge in the bouncy seat and enjoy Eliza's paci. You're never too old for that, right?
*Sleep with trains.
*Line up objects and call them trains ("Choo-choo! Choo-choo!")
*Request train songs when we are singing to him before naptime and bedtime.
*While sitting at the table, he throws random pieces of food on the floor. If we get him out of his seat before we've cleaned up the floor, he proceeds to clean the floor himself... by eating the food he threw down before.
*Say "Mon! Mon!" (Come on! Come on!), take us by the hand, and lead us to the thing he wants to do--usually the TV or the door to go outside.

Happy Birthday, Big Guy!

Happy Mother's Day

Tonight we had a special Mother's Day dinner. We asked our moms about their favorite recipes, and recipes they remember the previous generation using, and put a meal together around those recipes. Together, Ben and I made BBQ ribs, corn on the cob, mac & cheese (that was my choice--I love my mac & cheese!), cucumber salad, and Sally Lunn Bread. Then we made a yummy apple pie for dessert (my first time doing the whole thing from scratch, and it was great, and very pretty.) We took the opportunity to talk some about our mothers and why mothers are special. A snippet of our conversation:

Me: What do you think the best thing about Moms is?
Cat: Cause they're so awesome. And also cause they make the best food.

(This is the night we brought Eliza home from the hospital, and it's the only picture I have that is of just me and the 3 kids. Sad!)

Happy Mother's Day!

School is Fun!

Cat has had some fun activities at school lately. Two weeks ago was Field Day. Cat participated in the balloon popping relay race (not pictured), the potato relay race:


the tug-of-war:

and the 50-yard dash:

I missed the first activity (balloon popping) and when I got there a couple of parents said to me, "Cat is so fast!" I hadn't thought much about it, but maybe she is? She is one of the youngest kids in her class, since she doesn't turn 5 until July, yet they did 3 heats to determine who should represent their class in the 50-yard dash, and she won all of them. Then she won the race against the girl from the other class. Now I'm wondering how we can foster this little gift she has. Any suggestions?

Then, last week, Cat's school had a Spring Fling day, complete with bounce houses, a dunking booth, picnic lunch, face painting, a hayride, snow cones, bubble time, and more. Here are the kiddos during Spring Fling.

Eliza stayed in the Baby Bjorn the whole time. She was such a trooper! Cat loved every minute of her busy fun-filled day. Jack's loved his snow cone, and had a fit every time I tried to drink some of the juice out of it to reduce the amount of liquid I knew would inevitably end up on his shirt. He still managed to have a completely blue shirt from the neck down, and when I changed his clothes, his stomach was all blue too! (No picture of that--sorry.)

Another Percy, Please.

Jack got an early birthday present this weekend: a small Thomas the Tank Engine train set with a Thomas and a Percy train. He LOVES it, especially the trains. Cat loves the trains too. Unfortunately, this makes for a lot of fighting in our house. They wanted them in the car on the way to school this morning, but before we got in the car, Jack was holding both trains. I took the Percy train away from Jack when I (hoped) he would be distracted by the fact that I was putting his shorts on him, again. He wasn't distracted. He was distraught. This was our ride to school:

Jack (crying): "Percy! Percy!"
Me: "If you gave Jack the Percy train, it would make him happy.
Cat: "Well, I'm happy now."
Me: "You know how you always feel good when you help other people feel good? Won't it make you feel good if you give that train to Jack?"
Cat: "I feel good now."
Jack (still crying): "Percy! Percy!"
Me: "Maybe you could trade."

Cat reluctantly gives Jack the Percy train, only to have him hold on to both trains with fists of iron. I didn't see it, but I'm pretty sure she wrenched the Thomas train out of his fingers.

Cat (trying to convince Jack that he got the raw end of the deal): "Jack, don't you love Thomas?"

Jack is now crying because for a split second he had two trains, and now he only has one. Cat gives him the Percy train.

Me: "That was nice of you to let him have both trains."
Cat: "Only for a minute."

Cat takes the Percy train and holds it for the last 60 seconds of the drive. Jack is livid. When we pull into the school, Cat gives the Percy train back to Jack, so that he has both trains again. When I get him out of the car, I take both trains away because the risk of him dropping or losing one or both of them is just too great. Jack is inconsolable for the next 5 minutes.

Jack (still crying, as all 4 of us walk to Cat's classroom): "Percy! Percy!"

I think we need another Percy.

2 months old!

Eliza has grown so much already! She is doing a better job of holding her head up, she is smiling at us more and more, and she's starting to get on a regular schedule.


The day after she turned 2 months, she received her baby blessing at Church. We loved that so much family was able to come spend the day with us and participate in this special ordinance for Eliza. Here is my side of the family:

And here is Ben's side of the family:

Eliza on her big day:

And, of course, a cake! You should have one for every special occasion in your life, right? (And any excuse I have to make a fun cake, I'll take it! One of these days, I'll learn the proper way to frost the cake. But that's okay. I'm still enjoying it in the meantime.)

Sleep

Jack has been threatening to climb out of his crib for a while now, so we weren't surprised when he finally did it about 4 weeks ago. But this kid still really needs his nap, but doesn't always want to take his nap. I've learned to time it just right so that he'll still sleep most days, but on the days when he won't lay down in his crib, this is what we have to do:

We put the crib mattress on the floor and close him in his room. This usually works. But on the days when he still won't sleep, this is what happens during dinner:


I love this one with the burrito still in his hand:

While we're on the subject of sleep, I just thought Eliza looked so cute sleeping the other night that I had to take a picture:

And, unfortunately, I don't have a picture of Cat sleeping... But I'll tell you that she has decided she doesn't need a nap anymore (I beg to differ.) A few weeks ago when she was home during the day (was it a Saturday? Not sure), I needed to get some things done while the two little ones were napping, so I told her to have a quiet time in her room. She hates this. Really hates this. She was determined not to entertain herself quietly, and got so bored, that she decided a nap was preferable to the extreme boredom. She made herself a pallet in her doorway, and fell asleep half in her bedroom, half in the hall. I told myself that I should take a picture, but I waited too long, and then she woke up. It looked pretty funny.