I need 2 more weeks.......

Wow!  Where has the time gone?  Along mid-November I was feeling totally in control--gifts ordered and divvied out to the grandparents, Christmas cards ordered, teacher gifts almost complete, and a plan to have everything wrapped and tucked away by Dec. 1. 

Surprise!  Nothings wrapped and I'm still finishing projects.  It's crazy!  I'm pretty sure that I didn't take into consideration how challenging the girls' schedules would be--school programs, extra-curricular activities, holiday related activities, etc.  Somehow it seems they all have to take place between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Trying to take a deep breath and enjoy the spirit of the holiday as we head into the last week of school before Christmas break!

A little photo recap of the end of November:

Cutest Pilgrim ever!

The majority of the girls chose "Pocahontas" as their Indian name :-)

Little Miss M doing the goodbye song with her teacher, Miss Jessica.

Annual Thanksgiving picture with cousin CJ.

Making our list and checking it twice, and then adding some more!

First pic of the season with Santa.

From the back of the bus.......

On the way to school the other day we were talking about school, college, jobs, and what you want to do when you grow up.  G said that she wants to go to college and be a teacher.  K said she wanted to have magic ice powers like Elsa. 

G tried to tell her that was not going to be a good choice and what did she really want to be.....her answer, "Okay, okay, I'll be a fairy!"

Love that girl!!!!  Hope she can keep that sense of innocence with her for a long time!

There was a little parrot

So, I'm pretty sure that my kids don't listen to me when I'm talking.  That's why I have to tell them three times to quit jumping on the furniture, and sometimes that is still not enough.  But then there are times when I am amazed, and not even aware, that I've said or did something that sticks with them.

This past week the Littles and I were picking G up from school.  G gets into the car and this is the conversation between her and Little Miss M:

M: G, what you did in school today?
G:  I had a spelling test and a social studies test today.
M: Den? (that's "then" translated to toddler speak)
G:  I went to computer and bible.
M: Den?
G: I had lunch and recess.
M: Den?

And this conversation went on much longer than I've detailed here.  I just want to say, "thank you G for having patience with her"!  

And I'm amazed by this because........it's pretty close to word-for-word what I ask/say when I pick the Littles up from school each day.  It's also proof (and hope) that something is getting thru and staying in there :-)

Within earshot......

Overheard from the family room:
K:  "What's it smell like?"
Little Miss M: "It smells like butt."
Then lots of giggles from both of them.

Little Miss M demonstrating her "crab dance":
I say out loud, "I wonder where she learned that," thinking that it must be on a TV show that they watch and K responds, "she learned it in China."

These two are keeping me on my toes!

Is 5:30pm too early for bed???

It is starting to catch up with me---the back to back activities on Monday and Tuesday----by the time Thursday afternoon rolls around and there are no more scheduled activities, I feel like it is the weekend and I am in slacker mode.  Suffice to say that on Monday and Tuesday my creative juices are starting to wane when it comes to ideas to make our "while we are waiting" time fun.  Dinner has to be planned out and executed before we arrive home, if the kids are going to get anything healthy--thank you crockpot!

Thankfully, the kids are doing well and enjoying school and the activities.  K had Umbrella Day--you can't see her face but she's under the Dora umbrella.

 G and Little Miss M are also doing great!  Little Miss M would love to go to prek more than two mornings a week but this Momma is not ready to let her go yet!  Knowing they are enjoying school and the extra-curricular activities keeps me chugging along, "I can do it, I can do it, I can do it!"



K's soccer has finished for the season (that's one thing off of the list for now).  Here she is with her BFF.  These girls have been friends since they went to Toddlin' Time and now they are in Kindergarten and soccer together.

Love their "girly" socks and soccer balls.

Pictures from the State Fair.  Fun day for everyone--especially since Little Miss M was big enough to ride so many rides this year.

It sure has gotten crazy around here.....

It sure has gotten crazy around here.  When I was putting pen to paper and laying everyone's schedules out for the fall, it all worked so nicely in theory.  Reality is a different beast all together!

Monday starts off with me taking K to kindergarten at 8:45am while R stays home and works with G on her school work and entertains M (thank goodness she is content to play by herself sometimes!).  I return from drop-off and he departs for work by 10:30am.  At 11:45am I load the car with G and M and we go pickup K from kindergarten.  We then rush back home where we have 45 minutes to scarf down a delicious, nutritious lunch (insert sarcasm here!) and then we're back in the car again on our way to G's private flute lesson, followed by band practice.  While this is all taking place, I am desparately trying to convince K and M that it is "rest time" in the car.  G rejoins our merry troop and then we set off for the ballet studio for one of her weekly classes.  Providing no one dawdles after ballet class, we make it home by 6:00pm and I rush to get another nutritious meal (insert more sarcasm!) into my children and then rush them upstairs for bath and bedtime by 8:00pm (that's the goal but more frequently, it's 8:30pm).

We wake-up on Tuesday and start a slight variation of the routine again.  By the time Friday rolls around, I am giddy with exhaustion.  The question is, when is to much, too much?  Between school and extra curricular activities it seems we are on the go all the time.  I now realize why my mom let us only do one activity after school!

So glad we had the opportunity to spend a week at the beach last month even though in now seems like a distant memory..........

and this was supposed to be the easy one.......

Everyone knows it's going to be hard to send the first child off to preschool, but the third?  It should have been a piece of cake to drop her off at her class and head out into my two and half hours of "me" time, but when she got to the classroom door and held out her hand and said, "I'm going to miss you Mommy!", it was all I could do to hold it together until I could get to the car :-(  I was so out-of-sorts about the drop-off, and stalking my phone in case the school called me to come get her, that I didn't really enjoy my "me" time at all!

But on a positive note, she had a great first day of preschool!  She was excited and couldn't wait to show me what she had worked on when I picked her up. 

We'll see what happens on Thursday!

Tiaras anyone?

August has brought us some pretty interesting days and in some respects, I am glad it is coming to a close.

My sweet K had to have some dental surgery--a root canal and then insertion of six stainless steel crowns.  Because of the amount of work that needed to be done, we chose to put her under general anesthesia.  This momma was a mess!  My rational mind knew that she couldn't sit still for that length of a procedure and that she was already a little scared about going to the dentist, but there is no telling the heart to be rational as you watch them put your child under.  G had to have a similar dental procedure when she was five and you would think I would be a veteran at this, but no, it was like doing it for the first time. No matter how much you try to convince your child that it's not going to be a big deal, it's a big deal!

Thankfully, the procedure went smoothly, was over pretty quick, and K bounced back pretty quickly from the anesthesia.  Other than her teeth being sore for a couple of days, she hasn't really mentioned it at all.  Now, little Miss M on the other hand, is fascinated by K's crowns.  She asks frequently if she can see K's "tiaras".  That's a hoot!  I'm sure the dentist could the sell the idea of getting crowns much easier to little girls if he would just call them tiaras!

We came, we saw, we conquered......

Okay, we'll maybe we didn't actually conquer Walt Disney World, but we definitely tried to visit and see everything there.  (Which is actually impossible if you've ever been there.)  We did a five day trip and maybe covered half of what they have to offer.

There were parts of WDW that will have to wait for another trip--Downtown Disney, Typhoon Lagoon, the mini-golf park, Wide World of Sports complex, Animal Kingdom.  This trip was primarily focused on the Magic Kingdom.  We did spend a day in Epcot and a day in Hollywood Studios but at their current ages, the girls were most interested in what the Magic Kingdom had to offer--Minnie Mouse and the princesses.

Our last trip to Disney was five years ago--G was five years-old-and we went at the end of October.  Note to self-remember October for the next trip!  I couldn't believe how hot and humid it was for only being May.  The heat zapped my crew!  By 2:00pm in the afternoon, everyone was wiped out--including me.  So thankful that we stayed on a Disney property and were able to take advantage of the pool in the afternoons.

The upgrades in technology over the past five years were also phenomenal.  Last time we had paper tickets and this time everything (room key, park tickets, fast passes, meal plans, etc.) was linked to our "magic bands."  Good and bad at the same time--good because it was all in one place and we didn't have to worry about keeping up with wallets, tickets, paper, etc., but bad because one day we left the park and went thru a Taco Bell drive-thru only to discover that we didn't have any money and they didn't accept "magic bands."  Funny now, but a bit embarrassing as we had to pull out of the drive-thru empty-handed!

All-in-all a great trip!  The kids are still talking about it, reliving it thru their autograph books, and talking about when we return (probably in another five years, unless we hit the lottery!).

First day when we were still all "fresh"!

Some afternoon "down-time" at the pool.

Breakfast with the princesses!

Note to self--if you ever wonder why it looks like someone has been rummaging in your stroller while you were gone, it's this little guy!

Finally got to meet her Minnie, that was one happy girl!

A little retail therapy while the big girls were riding Tower of Terror with R.

"Ready, set, go!" for the Toy Story Mania Ride.

Loved meeting Princess Tiana.  By far, one of the prettiest princesses at Disney.

"Bye-bye Disney!  We'll see you next time!"

Blogger guilt..........

Blogger guilt........I'll admit that I haven't been too active on here lately, but didn't realize it had been almost two months!  I could say, "wow, where has the time gone?", but I know where it's gone.  In those two months, we've celebrated Easter and Mother's Day, the oldest got Invisalign, the youngest has undergone more allergy testing, we've attended school programs, gone to class picnics and field trips, completed a season of Lil' Kickers soccer, graduated from Preschool and moved up to 5th grade, and we've continued weekly dance and flute lessons. And just to make it interesting, throw in a trip to Disney at the end of all that.  In other words, we've been slam busy with life and instead of writing about it, I've been living it.  So no apologies from this guilty blogger!

A Disney post will follow shortly---too many cute pics to include here.  Here are some pics to bring this up-to-date:

Easter morning.

Who knew you could find the Easter Bunny at McDonalds?

Art show at school

K and her BFF's.

G getting her Invisalign.  You can't see them because they are "invisible"--hahaha

One of our multiple trips to the pediatric dermatologist.  Thank goodness for electronic devices!

A trip to the Science Museum.

Little Miss M on the playground.

K at her class picnic.

Here's my soccer girl.  Only girl on her team and only player with a pink princess ball.

G at her end-of-year awards program at school.

Seriously, could this kid's smile get any bigger?  She had just won a tablet for collecting the most boxtops/labels for education.

K and her BFF at their graduation party.

I can't believe she's going to be a kindergartner in the fall!