Boo to You

    I guess it's been a month now since Halloween passed, maybe I'll get caught up with long ago events someday.  We had a great Halloween week and weekend.  Edi was Dorothy, Amelia was Glinda the Good Witch, and John Mac was a Munchkin from the Land of Oz.  He was suppose to be the Lion, but he did not like the costume, the furry part around his head was going to stay on due to all his tugging, so I had to improvise.  On Wednesday night before Halloween we went to my cousin's church for their Trunk-or-Treat festivities.  On Thursday Amelia had a party at school and Friday the kids didn't have school so we decided to make it a pizza and Movie night.  The girls helped me make homemade pizzas, they really enjoyed picking out their toppings and watching it cook.  On Saturday we had our church Truck-or-Treat and that night we went Trick-or-Treating in the town where I work and Amelia goes to Preschool.  Our area wasn't trick-or-treating until Sunday night and I was not going to get the kids all dressed up again when I already had them dressed for our Trunk-or-Treat.  We were able to visit a lot of family while Trick-or-Treating and that is always nice.  Hope everyone had a great Halloween.

                                                                                                 

Mischief Abounds

    Last week John Mac started climbing out of his crib and usually he is loud and knocks on the door calling, "Mommy, Mommy" until I go get him.  Well, Saturday afternoon after his nap was a different story.  I thought he was asleep until I started hearing noise coming from his room that could not be made by things in his crib.  So I went in his room and found him on the changing table with all kinds of things opened and pulled apart.  He had pulled all the wipes out of the box, gotten out lots of Q-Tips, opened a pack of Go Fish cards that Amelia had left in his room, opened a zip lock bag with various baby items, and was taste testing the hand sanitizer.  Luckily he did not get the baby powder.  I ran and got the camera before I got him down.  He also had his sleeper half unzipped.  It was a PJ kind of day.  He was so proud of himself.  He must have pushed his firetruck up to the desk, pulled out the drawer, and climbed on up.  Too Funny!

    Then today Amelia had moved one of the kitchen chairs over the counter to help me make lunch.  Well, before we got started I went to change shirts and when I came back about 3 minutes later he had gotten a hold of the huge tub of peanut butter on the counter(it's so big it won't fit in the cabinet), opened it, and then used the gigantic spoon(spoon rest) to dip out his yummy treat.  I immediately started laughing, I could not scold him because it was just too darn cute! 

First Day of School 2010

   


      Well Wednesday was the first day of school for Edi and Amelia.  Edi started 4th grade and Amelia started her 2nd year of Preschool(4 year old Class).  They were both very excited and I have to admit that I was too.  They both love their teachers and I know it's going to be a great year of growing and learning for them.  With a new school year comes a new schedule for me, my schedule changes about 5 times a year.  It changes in August when school starts, it changes in January when Tax Season starts, it changes in April when Tax Season ends, and it changes again in June when school gets out.  It's a good thing because it keeps me on my toes, but it always takes me a few weeks to get my ducks in a row and get used to it.  This year Amelia goes to school 5 days a week from 8:30am-12:00pm.  Her preschool is about 17 minutes away from our house and Edi's bus does not pick her up until 8:28am and if I took her through carpool they can't unload and go into the school until 8:25am.  I either have to take Edi to a friend's house down the road from us in the mornings to catch the bus, so I can get Amelia to school on time or take Amelia to school first and then take Edi to school(which makes for a lot of driving).  I'm trying to work 1 day a week right now, mornings at the museum where I keep the books and do payroll and the afternoon at the tax office.  I had to find new childcare for John Mac since Leslie is now in college.  Leslie kept John Mac at our house this year during tax season and then continued to help me through the summer.  We love her!  This past tax season Amelia started going to Mrs. Jennifer's In-Home Daycare after preschool when I worked, so I called Mrs. Jennifer and she had room for John Mac and Amelia, so Friday was his first day and her first day starting back there since May.  They both did great, but John Mac didn't take a nap at all and he's still taking 2 naps a day most days.  I was worried about him because he is such a clingy little boy, he cried in the nursery at church for a solid hour last Sunday, it was heart breaking. I hope when he goes back this coming Thursday he will do just as good, but hopefully with a nap.

Who's Into Everything???

Well, I'll give you one good guess...............................................................................
That's right, it's John Mac!

Not long after we first brought him home I realized that boys really are different from girls even as early as a few weeks old.  He was always so content and happy, so loving and sweet.  Not to say that the girls were not loving and sweet, but it seemed different.  My girls were high maintenance from the start, but not John Mac.  The girls would be curious and test their limits, but oh my, nothing could have prepared me for the curiousness and mischief of our little man.  He's so technical and wants to know how everything works.  He is into everything; the cabinets, the outlets, the drawers, the toilets, the computers, telephones, and remotes. Every door in every room has to stay closed around here.  Never did I put a safety latch on all the cabinets with the girls, we used rubber bands here and there, but once we told them a few times "No" they got the idea.  Well, not JM; he knows what the word means, but he's not apt to consider it very often.  He looks at you with that sweet precious face and just smiles.  He has started hitting too and when you say, "no hitting, be gentle"  he tunes up to cry.  Even if you just say, "be gentle".  It's really funny.
     Well, yesterday I was in the kitchen starting lunch and I turned around to find him sitting at the kitchen table in one of the big chairs, I thought, how cute and went to grab the camera.  I took a few pictures and when I took the camera back to put it away and then headed back to the kitchen, guess what I found; he was sitting on the table.  I could not believe it.  Once he learned how to do it, he did it over and over again, no matter how many times I said No, or he got his head stuck between the chair and table, and even once the chair turned over backwards with him in it.  He didn't care, I even popped his leg a time or two and still nothing.  I was gone most of the day today and the babysitter was here for part of the day and Daniel was here for the rest.  Daniel said he did it while he was here and then he did it twice while I was home.  I've never seen latches that hold chairs to the table, maybe I will have to invent something!
     Tuesday night while I was cleaning up the supper dishes, Daniel started the bath for Amelia and John Mac.  He got Amelia in and then had to go to the other room for a minute, he closed the bathroom door so John Mac couldn't get in.  Well, I heard JM knocking on the bathroom door and I thought Daniel had forgotten that they were getting a bath together, so I opened the door and he told me he was coming to put him in.  Well, I got back to the kitchen and before Daniel could get to the bathroom Amelia was yelling that JM had gotten in all by himself with his clothes on, too funny!  It couldn't have been more that 10-15 seconds.
      I wish I had pictures of all the things he's gotten into, but here are a few fun pictures to enjoy!

Angels, Relays, Recitals, Programs, Awards, Picnics, and More...........

     I cannot believe that it's been so long since I last posted anything.  We have been so busy since the beginning of May that I've hardly had time to breathe.  I'm going to try and recap the last 6 -8 weeks in this one post, so hold on tight, there will be a lot of pictures!

ANGELS AMONG US
   In late April we participated in Angels Among Us which is an event held at Duke University Hospital and all the money raised goes towards the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke.  There is a 5K Run and a Family Fun Walk.  You can visit this link to an older Blog Post about our reason for participating in Angels Among Us.  Go Team Jogging for Julie!

RELAY FOR LIFE EVENTS
   We participated in 2 Relay for Life Events, one in May and one in June.
   The one in May was about 1 1/2 hours away from our home and it was for a new friend of mine named Brooke.  Her husband works with Daniel.  She is 30 years old, has a 3 year old, and has just begun her 3rd year of cancer. The cancer is called Adrenocortical Carcinoma (ACC).  She is an amazing person with a great, positive attitude and a remarkably strong faith.  You can visit this link to learn more about Brooke and her story.  
   The one in June was for our Church Team.  We Relay for a lot of different people we know and this year I had t-shirts made for the kids that list the people they know that have cancer now, in the past, or have passed on due to cancer.  I hope that it will help them put a face to this terrible disease.

RECITALS
     Edi plays the piano and the violin.  In April she had her piano recital put on by the Academy where she takes.  We also went out to eat with my parents that night.  In May her piano teacher put on a recital just for her students.  Also, in May she had a violin concert at her school where she takes once a week during school.

PROGRAMS
     Amelia has had several programs and fun things that happened at Preschool over the past several weeks.  The first was when her class put on a circus performance for us over in the Town Hall Meeting Room.  Everyone dressed up and they put on an entire Circus.  I only got one picture because I videoed the whole thing.  I may try to post some video from it later.  Also, they had a Mother's Day breakfast the Friday before Mother's Day.  On the night of the last day of school they put on a Luau Performance and Graduation.  She is moving up to the 4 year old class next year.

AWARDS DAY
     Edi had Awards Day at school.  She was in 3rd grade this year which in NC means you start getting A, B, C.... grades and you take the EOGs(End Of Grade Tests).  She made A/B Honor Roll all year, She was a STAR student(good conduct) all year, Met her AR(Accelerated Reader) Goal all year, Passed the National Physical Fitness test,  and raised the most money in her entire school(K-5, 700+ students)  for Jump Rope for Heart and for the 4th year in a row.  She has been the top money raiser all 4 years in school.  She received these awards during the 3rd Grade Awards Program.  Then they went back to the classroom for class awards.  She was 4th in her class for Accelerated Math and read 3,742 minutes this year in Accelerated Reading.  Then they had an ice cream social. The flowers are the plants we planted for her teachers, we also did 5 pots for Amelia's teachers.

CAS PICNIC
      In May we joined other adoptive families and soon to be adoptive families from of agency(Christian Adoption Services) for a picnic and fun at Dan Nicholas Park in Salisbury, NC.  It was a great day and fun to see old and new faces.

RANDOM FUN OVER THE LAST SEVERAL WEEKS



AT HOME IN THE KIDDIE POOL

PIANO MAN

CHURCH FLOOR WRITING
     We are building and adding on to our church and before we put the carpet down everyone was able to write their names and such on the floors. 

MY OTHER KARATE GIRL
     Now that Amelia is 4 she can take Karate with Edi and Daniel.  Here's some pictures from her first class.

 


EVEN BOYS LIKE BABY DOLLS
      I know he will want to kill me someday because of these pictures, but they are just too cute!