Waitin' for Daddy

Just hanging around waiting for Daddy to come home from work. Somewhere I have a picture like this with Patrick and Molly too - I will try to find it to post.

Bzzzzzzz!

Take a look at what Patrick found in our tree in the front yard! It's huge! We always thought there were a lot of wasps around that tree but never saw this.

He loves it!

The first day went well. Patrick told me first grade is AWESOME! They got to have music class and he told me they get to have PE too. He is so excited! I hope we can keep this momentum going once the expectations start kicking in more.

Mondays and Wednesdays he will have music. Tuesdays and Fridays he will have PE. Thursdays are early release days - and they alternate between music and PE. Wednesdays are library days. Lots of good stuff to keep my little guy busy.

I emailed the PTSA and will be joining. The first meeting is next Wed. I offered to build a web site to post the meetings minutes and upcoming events (right now they just post them on the bulletin board across from the office). They want to talk about it more at the meeting next week.

Now I need to find something to sign me and Benjamin up for - so he can become more social before I go back to work and have to put him in daycare. I think I will look at the Y or the city website, or find a play group.

First Day of First Grade!

I can't believe my baby is in first grade! Patrick got up at 7:30 and was dressed by 7:45 (with a lot of help from me - hope we can work on that so he will do it all on his own). Our routine will be that he gets up at 7:30 and gets completely dressed and takes his medication before Curious George comes on at 8. Then he can eat breakfast and watch tv. After Curious George is over, he brushes his teeth and does his hair (he did that well this morning).

We got to school with plenty of time to spare even though we had to go back home to get his lunch. We were about 1/2 way to school when I remembered. His teacher (Ms. Allen) is standing in the doorway in one of the pictures below. There are 22 kids in his class (I think). 6 of the kids he knew from PM Kindergarten last year and 1 he knew from Pre-K the year before.

My plan was to get Benjamin down for his naps at 12:30 - that way he could sleep for at least 2 hours and then have a snack before picking big brother up at 3:25. Today didn't work out that way. I was so thrilled with my new found freedom that I ended up going shopping and didn't get Benjamin to bed until after 1. I hope I won't have to wake him up, but I probably will since I had to wake him up early this morning.

Cross your fingers for a good day at school!

Open House at School

Last night was open house at Patrick's school. We got to meet the teacher, find his desk, and put his supplies away. I picked out clothes for Patrick to wear so he looked nice - and he told me "That's not what I planned". We wanted to wear his nice nice clothes and his tie. Ok little man - you're the boss! : )

Excitement!

Here's a video of the boys having a great time. Benjamin loved it so much that after they were done he climbed up on it and his foot was on the gas and it took off. Luckily he didn't fall off - he was stopped by hitting the lawn mower. I about had a heart attack but he wondered what all the fuss was about. The dang thing doesn't have a way to turn it OFF without unplugging the battery.

Toys, toys EVERYWHERE!

Not anymore!

You ever feel like you are picking up the same things like 400-thousand times per day?! That's how it is at my house. First of all, we have WAY TOO MANY toys. Way too much everything actually. Too much clutter everywhere. Well it drives me crazy and I just get exhausted trying to deal with it everyday. Just how many bouncy balls do we need, really? For years I have been organizing them into their own separate "bouncy ball bin", but come on - WHY? Why do we need all of these? Just so I can pick them up over and over and over again?! I can have all the toys picked up and the family room looking half way decent 10 minutes before Roger gets home from work but when he walks thru the door it looks like a bomb just went off again.

There are so many areas that need tackling and yesterday I decided to do something about it. To me it made sense to start with the toys because maybe after I dealt with that it would give me some free time to do the other areas. I dumped every single cubby, container, bin, box, and loose toy I could find (except a few) and put them into a super HUGE black plastic yard waste bag. It is huge. I think this bag could substitute for Santa's big black bag and provide toys for every child around the world! My plan was to someday (when Patrick is not around) take it outside and get 3 bins and for every one we put in the keep pile, put 3 in the give away pile. Then of course there would be the throw out pile for broken things. You see this done on those organizational shows. Why don't they ever show up at my house? I would be so embarrassed to be on tv though. Anyway... now that all the stuff is in the bag - I just want to take it to the dump. Terrible Mom? Maybe! Argggh. I don't know - probably.

I think want to do this with the rest of the house too. Just simplify... cut down... make things easier. I remember before I had children I said I would never buy that many toys... I wanted my kids to have a few special things they cherished and actually played with. Hmmm - guess I got WAY out of control. We all have way too much. Too many choices in the grocery store (check out the cereal aisle!), too many pictures. Ok I have like a gazillion digital pictures that I have never printed out - there are so many I can never decide which ones to print and which ones to delete (delete?, could I really do that?!! It freaks me out to even think about it). But just think - if we didn't have all this junk, how much easier life would be. I could actually maybe be out there enjoying my life instead of being overwhelmed by all this madness.

Gotta go, so much more to do!

Our Little (big) Boy - Benjamin

Benjamin is changing into a little boy... and losing his baby-ness. Whah! ; ( He grabbed his brothers old shirt and was walking down the hall trying to put it on. He was so proud. He also just loves his shoes... such a big boy.

Water Fun (not so fun!)

Ok - here is a picture of some of our friends kids enjoying a hot summer day. So cute!

I thought this was a really great idea (since it is 84 degrees today) so I got out our big rubbermaid tub and put hot water in it from the bathtub, then took it outside to fill it the rest of the way up with the hose. Well first I had to go to the front yard and disconnect the sprinkler and hose so I could bring it to the backyard. I had to drag it thru the house because our gate to our backyard is broken and doesn't open from the front. Then I realized the nozzle for the faucet is not on it. (Roger takes it off because Patrick gets in trouble with water.) Of course I don't know where he put it so it's off to the garage to find the pliers. All the while the dog is running loose, Patrick isn't listening to me, and Benjamin is crying. I finally get the pliers, dog, and kids outside and turn the faucet on to fill up the tub. While Patrick is holding the hose in the tub, I get Benjamin out of his clothes and put him in. He is SCREAMING!

So I take him out and put him down but I don't want to walk over and use the pliers to turn off the faucet and leave him unattended so I am telling Patrick to hold the hose and he isn't paying attention and is spraying me... so I am soaked and screaming at him and he drops the hose and takes off. Of course the hose is spraying me like crazy. I finally drag Benjamin over there and get it turned off and I am so much hotter than I was before I started. I thought this was supposed to cool everyone off. Well that's it! No more water, no more hose, no more tub. Guess who then found their way into the water??!

Ladybugs Galore

Have you ever seen a bag of ladybugs for sale at the store? Yikes - they are kinda creapy with their legs sticking out thru the mesh bag. Patrick insisted we get these for our yard. 1500 of them!

Frog

We lost the frog two more times... the last time being the final time. Hope she will stay around and visit us in our backyard. We ended up catching two more yesterday and they are bigger so we don't think they will escape. So far so good.

Pacific Chorus Frog

When I picked Patrick up from summer school, I took him and Benjamin over to the playground for a bit to play. Patrick told me he and his school friends found a frog during recess. He took me over to a swampy area in the field to show me and we found one! He didn't want to touch it so Mom had to. Ughhh - actually the little fellow is so darn cute - I didn't mind too much. We managed to get it into a water bottle I had in my car for the drive home.

Of course we had to rush out after Benjamin had lunch so we could buy supplies for our new found friend. We got home, got the frog in the cage and when I went to look at him to see exactly what he looked like (because I was trying to figure out what kind of a frog it was on the internet) he was GONE! Gone! What?! How does a little froggie just disappear? I kept asking Patrick if he let it out or opened the cage. He insisted he did not. Well after an hour of no frog - I started going through all the junk on the kitchen table... piece by piece... bit by bit... and by golly I found the little fella in a plastic bag on Patrick's new green folder for school. Wheeew! So now the little guy is back in his cage. Actually, we think it is a girl. Apparently the males have a brown neck and females have a white neck. This gal is no larger than a nickel - actually maybe more like a dime size. Cute little thing. The picture I posted here is from the internet, as the ones I took didn't turn out as well.

Now let's hope we can keep her alive!

Rockaway Beach, OR

A day at the beach

Ice Cold Lemonade, Anyone?

We had a nice hot Saturday (88 degrees) awhile ago and Patrick decided it was the perfect day for a lemonade stand. We bought a 12 pack of pink Minute Maid Lemonade in cans for $3. Patrick sold every single can for 50 cents each (he even made $1 in tips). He made a grand total of $7 - we bought another 12 pack and he got to pocket $4! Quite our little salesman!

Beach Day

Patrick had "beach day" at school so the kids got to dress up like they were going to the beach. It ended up being a HOT day so it was perfect.

Patrick

Patrick is 6 now. He attends half day Kindergarten. He has been busy with swimming on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and roller hockey on Saturday evenings. He just graduated to the next level (B2) in swimming. He is doing really well with his crawl strokes and side breathing. He is getting better and better at being able to skate in his roller blades. He has a great time.

Yesterday we had Mothers Day Tea in his class at school. He even wore a tie for the occassion. He didn't eat any of the goodies, but did a great job pouring everyone the pink lemonade we brought.

Patrick recently bought a guitar. He even sounds pretty good.

Benjamin

Benjamin is just about 14 months old. He is our "bug". I had to pass down the "bug" from Julie Bug - and it really seems to fit him. He can be an ornry little bugger - but also a little love bug.

He is taking his time to walk - he likes to cruise around holding on to things. He loves going outside, taking a bath, opening/closing doors. He waves bye bye, babbles in his own special language -usually sounds that start with 'buh'. He just loves his big brother and calls him Bubba. He also loves going to the mail box to mail letters.

One of his favorite activities is to take everything out of the drawer below the oven and get in it. He grins and thinks he's so smart.