My Girls...

10 year olds are very frustrating to me lately, especially when it comes to food. A few days this week we have gone to the pool after VBS in which I packed a picnic lunch for the kids. The first day I packed GG a salami and pepperoni sandwich. She got mad and said she hated that kind of sandwich. I told her I was sorry but I thought that is what I saw her make herself for lunch the day before. She proceeded to tell me she had a salami with mustard sandwich and she likes those better. Well after that horrid episode of hatred towards the sandwich I made her I decided to ask what she wanted for lunch. Knowing that we were going to the pool and I was going to be packing another picnic lunch. Guess what? She never answered my question. The other two kids told me what they wanted but her NOTHING. Not. A. Single. Word. We get to the school and off they go inside. I do my school supply shopping while I only have one child in tow and completely forget about my earlier question until I get home and start making those blasted lunches. UGH...she never answered my question. I think to myself well the other day when she hated the sandwich I made she said she liked the salami and mustard sandwich so that is what I made her. Fast forward to opening up the picnic lunch. She says, "What kind of sandwich did you make me." I reply with, "Well since you never answered me when I asked you what you wanted I made you the salami and mustard sandwich because you said you liked it." Here comes the tears and the whining about how she hates salami and muster sandwiches and she wanted a salami and pepperoni sandwich like I made her the other day. WHAT? Didn't she spend that whole time complaining about eating said sandwich. I just don't understand 10 year olds. When we are home we never have a problem because she makes her own food it is just when I pack picnics.

Onto my baby girl Peanut. This girl has just taken off in the pool this week. We have gone swimming 4 times since Friday which is pretty normal in a weeks time. She has started to really go under the water and hold her breath for pretty long periods of time. Today she was even jumping off the side of the pool into the water, would go under and swim to me. I was really impressed with how well she was doing! A few times when I picked her up and was taking her back to the side she would say let go. So I did and she swam the rest of the way. She is also learning how to back float this week. She does good until she starts to get freaked out, then she starts sinking. I just think she is too funny when she holds her breath goes under water and kicks her legs underneath her and moves her arms all crazy. I was teaching her today to kick behind her. I had her hold on to the side of the pool and kick her feet to splash the water and she was doing it. Then she was holding on kicking and then stuck her head in the water. I think next year she is really going to take off! I might get her some swim lessons this school year as part of her gym class! Other than that her swim suit got a big rip in the bottom today so after her nap we are headed out to find her a new one!

She's HOME!!!

Today we picked up GG from camp! Boy have I missed her dearly! I really love that girl and it makes me realize how much of a help she is to me when she is gone. She had a wonderful time at camp and was so excited to have gotten two packages in the mail plus the letters she got from friends and family. I guess I need to start saving up again for next year because she really wants to go back...

Waiting and wondering...

I am sitting here almost 10pm wondering if my 10 year old is going to call me wanting to come home from her friend's birthday party sleepover. You see this is the first time she has done this. She has had sleepovers before but with only one friend. There are 5 girls at this party. She is prepped to call me if she feels uncomfortable or just wants to come home. We have a code question she is to call and ask, which indicates "COME AND GET ME!" How it works is about an hour later I call and tell them mom I need to come and get her because of a family emergency. I just don't know if it is 10pm now and she hasn't called am I going to be getting a call?!?! I really hope not because this girl is TIRED. Ok, I'm going to call her. She's not answering. Hmmm Not sure I'm ready for this independence! ****update she called this morning at 7:30am because she was the first one awake and didn't know what to do. I told her to go back to bed ;) I pick her up in an hour and a half!****

In other news, I just have to share the coolest thing! Jeff went fishing with a buddy Thursday after work until Friday evening. It was a short trip but he was 3 1/2 hours away so I was single parenting it. Thursday night as I was putting the kids to bed Monkey said his arm hurt. He had a scab that had obviously become infected. There was a red circle that was hot and puffy around the scab and one little line that was starting to spread the infection. I called my friend and asked what she would do. I really didn't feel like calling the doctor who would tell me to take him to the ER with all four kids in tow. She told me to use grapefruit seed extract with a little water and rub it on the infection. I also gave him a cup of water with two drops of the grapefruit seed extract. The next morning his arm was completely better! I haven't checked it today but I'm sure it is still fine. That stuff works as a natural antibiotic. If you don't have any in your house I highly HIGHLY recommend getting some. It has saved me on many trips to the doctor. When I think the kids are coming down with something I give them some drops in their drink. Many visits to the doctor have been avoided in the past year from our use of this vitamin/supplement! How cool is it that God gave us so many wonderful things that naturally heal our bodies. Our bodies are so amazing!

A day for the record!

It was absolutely gorgeous outside today and tomorrow is suppose to be the same great weather! I packed a picnic lunch for the kids and we ate at the park and played for a little over an hour with some friends. Then down for a quick nap and then to get the kids from school. Then it was a quick dinner and off to drop Monkey off at his baseball game and GG at soccer practice. Then we headed over to the game. I let the little kids play at the park while we wait for the game to start. As I was getting the kids ready to head over I noticed something was up with Peanut's shorts. I asked her to come here because I wanted to see what it was she told me she pooped in her pants. I looked and she sure did. SO GROSS. This kid has been potty trained since she was 18 months old and I can't even tell you the last time she has had an accident. I was not happy. I had to take her home, clean her up and get GG from practice so we could get back to the game to see Monkey pitch. He was on the schedule to pitch the 3rd inning. We only missed seeing the very first pitch he threw out. He got the first batter out. Then the second batter out. The third batter hit a ground ball right to Monkey he scooped it up and threw it to first getting the 3rd guy out! I was so proud of him. I was so nervous he would be one of those kids that walked a bunch of batters but he didn't! YAY. Then the second time he was up to bat (I wasn't there for the first) they switched pitchers right when he got up because that pitcher had walked 4 guys. They put in their best pitcher and he struck Monkey out. But he did get a few good swings in there!!! I'm just so proud of him for trying. When I went to pick GG up at practice her coach walked over and told me how she had picked up a hot pepper off the ground and ended up touching her face which caused it to sting. I will NEVER understand what would possess my 10 year old to pick up some random food item off the ground. REALLY? When do they out grow that nastiness??? Well that was pretty much all our excitement for the day.

Want to brag on my kids...

The kids got their reports cards from school on Friday. They all did an excellent job! Monkey had straight As again, looks like he could have a straight A 3rd grade year! GG was right behind him with all As and one B+ so close! Red doesn't get letter grades he gets O for outstanding and S for satisfactory and N for needs improvement. He had all Os and S/S+s :) But we can't forget about little Peanut. She doesn't get a report card in preschool but today I sat down with her so she could write her name on her valentine's cards for school. Her fine motor skills are amazing! I should take a picture of her name and post it on here! It will have to wait until tomorrow because I'm upstairs and the camera and cards are downstairs, yea I'm being lazy. ***update*** so I don't think I will post her name on here! If you are friends with me on facebook you can see it there, sorry. We took the kids to Toys R Us and let them pick out some toys. The boys each got two G.I. Joe guys. GG walked around the store for about 20 minutes not really having anything catch her eye. Jeff and I talked and then asked her if she wanted to go on a date with either me or Jeff instead. She looked at me and said what will we do. I said we could go see Never Say Never. She gave me the most disguised look. I suggested Gnomeo and Juilet to which she agreed. She is so funny also while we were at the store Jeff came up to me and attacked me. It ended with a kiss between us. Completely disguised and embarrassed she said, "could you please never kiss in public again!" Nothing I could say would change her mind that it was inappropriate of us...haha. Sorry kiddo but if I feel like kissing her dad I will do it anywhere I want just get used to it!!! But now I know how to embarrass her if I really wanted too...

Want to scream but I know I shouldn't...

I pick the kids up from school today and GlamorGirl is bawling. I ask her what is wrong and she starts crying even harder and tells me she lost her necklace and watch she got for her birthday. UGH. Seriously! I go to grab my phone to call someone but I didn't bring it with me, go figure. She is upset the whole ride home. I'm not the happiest as she lost two of the presents from me and her dad. One being a really nice watch. You know the kind that you have to take into the store to get adjusted with the links. Well I am happy to report that as soon as I got home I called my mom-in-law and asked her what I should do. She suggests calling the school office. They were closed so I called the operator. She went into the office and FOUND both the necklace and watch!!! I have a little girl who went from being super sad to have lost the gifts from us to being the happiest girl that they were found. What a great life lesson that is how we are before we have a personal relationship with Christ. We are so lost and sad/miserable without the relationship with Christ. When we find that personal relationship with Christ it brings so much joy and happiness into our lives. I hope each and everyone who reads this has that relationship and if not I hope this spurs you on to looking deeper into what I'm talking about.

My oldest is 10 today!

I totally didn't expect to be so emotional today. I woke her up with a big ole Happy Birthday and a snap of the camera! This is how she woke up on her 10th birthday...

She got ready for school in her new birthday dress and birthday tiara!
Doesn't she look super cute?!

When she got to school one of the girls made a comment about why she was wearing the tiara. She got embarrassed and took it off.
Ugh! She was so excited to wear it to school she even asked me where it was this morning.
I didn't push it and let her put it in her locker.
At lunch I watched her come into the lunch room and sit down with her lunch.
She started to unpack it and realized I didn't give her anything to eat.
She comes up to me and asks where her food is!
I took her I ordered her a pizza.
The smile and excitement on her face made it all worth it.
After I finished helping with lunch I headed up stairs to decorate her class room.
At the end of the period the teacher had her to go the library.
I passed out noise makers to her classmates.
As she came up to class her teacher scolded her for being late, nice little added bonus!
Then we got her GOOD!
I didn't realize that there was another girl with her and since I was looking through the camera.
You can hear me mess up on the video, oops.

I didn't record us singing "Happy Birthday" as I was chocking up.
My baby girl is 10!
As soon as she stepped all the way in the room and we started singing, she spotted her daddy.
She ran over and gave him the biggest hug!
This was half of her ice cream sandwich I made her :)
Tonight we will be going out to eat at the restaurant of her choice.
Happy Birthday to my beautiful daughter!
I love you so much.
Love, Mom

Miracle on 34th Street

Last night we went to take the kids to see the play Miracle on 34th Street. My mom-in-law got free tickets and invited us to go with them. She got there super early and was the first person in line. When we got there we line jumped so we could sit with them. There is no assigned seating. Because we were the first in we got some really great seats. Though there wasn't really any bad seats in the place. Before the show started the kids were approached by the stage manager and asked if they wanted to be apart of the show. GG and Monkey were in the front row and they both said yes! Then he came back to the second row and asked Red who said yes but at the last second he got scared and opted out. It was really cool. They had Santa on the chair and a few kids in the play sat on his lap first and then it was Monkey's turn. Santa asked him his name. If he was in school. What his favorite subject was. If he had any brothers or sisters. If he helped out around the house. And finally what he wanted for Christmas. It was really cute and some of his answers were pretty funny and interesting. Like his favorite subject is Reading! I have struggled for so long to get that boy to read. It was funny the answer he gave for helping out around the house too. He does the dishes and the laundry...haha. He unloads the dishes with his sister and he puts his own clothes away after they have been washed and folded. Then it was GG's turn. Santa had a hard time with her name. One because it is unique and two because she talked SO quite. He had to repeat everything she said so that the audience could hear her answers! He asked her the same questions and the same two answers I thought were funny for her too! Her favorite subject she said was HISTORY! This was news to me. She has always LOVED reading and grammar. What she helps out with around the house was funny too. She takes out the garbage and rakes leaves!?! They did such a great job. People came up to me and them telling them how well they did. One lady even said that GG could be on the stage next year as one of the cast members! That made her night :) We had such a great time. The only thing I wish I would of done is gotten a cup of water for Peanut. About the last 30 minutes so was SOOOO thirsty. I was having a hard time keeping her quite. Other than that she did great and really enjoyed the signing parts of it but the acting parts didn't hold her interest that well. It was really a neat play and I'm so glad we went to see it. The guy who played Santa was amazing. My sister-in-law took some pictures afterward with the kids and Santa so I will try and get them from her to show you.

My Girls!

I finally have learned how to get the pictures off the new camera onto the computer! I know it took me long enough :) GG had a friend over for a play date and this is the sight I saw and HAD to take pictures of them they were too cute.




Next is my youngest on her first day of GYMNASTICS!!! She was so excited to be a BIG kid :)



And just for a little look back this is MY GG in the same outfit when she was in gymnastics!

My *smart* little Girl

As a mother you always think your child(ren) are pretty smart and talented and all that other stuff. You know you are bias when it comes to your children period! At least I know this fact about myself ;) Yesterday I was at school doing my lunch duty like I do every Monday. While I was at school I had a conversation about GG being double promoted. Meaning she would skip 4th grade. I know my daughter is smart she gets straight A's on her report card and most of them are A+'s to boot. Her last year IOWA test scores also tell of how smart she is. I just never thought about pushing her ahead. I know she gets bored sometimes at school but sometimes life is just boring. Well I had a nice talk with her teacher after school. She has about 5 kids in her class that could easily skip to 5th grade GG being one of them. She told me that GG would have no problems keeping up academically and socially as some of the others might. She said it is completely up to us as her parents. Like I said I never even thought about that being an option. So J and I talked and it was so great to know he was on the same page as me and keeping her where she is because that would mean she would have one less year to be home with us and one less year to be a kid. I think there are 2 kids skipping next year but like I always say, I'm not their parent. I think this is the best thing for GG and I think she was happy to know that she was going into 4th next year and not 5th. I feel there is no need to rush her childhood...maybe when Peanut is that age...just kidding.

GlamorGirl is writing a story and it is incredibly good writing. I won't write out the whole story as it has about 4 chapters but I will give you a little peek into her head and writing skills.

"Hey! Wait up" Johny called to Peter. Peter stopped. It was no use in trying to get away from 5-year old Johny now. Usually if Peter saw Johny coming and Johny didn't see him, he would run around the corner and hide. Or he would petal as fast as he can to get away before Johny spotted him. By this time Johny had caught up.

This is only a fraction of the story she has written! It has your interested piqued doesn't it?! Maybe one day her story will be a children's book...

What to title?!

At nap time today I laid with Peanut and stayed in the room until I thought she was asleep. As I left the room I thought I will be able to blog about how much better today went with nap time. Even if it still took her 45 minutes to fall asleep. I came back in the room 25 minutes later to her having taken off both her socks, her sitting up reading a book and books all over the room. UGH. I was mad. We had to be leaving in 15 minutes for a doctor appointment and she wasn't going to be getting a nap in that amount of time. I let her come out of the room but she had to sit in the time out chair. I thought she would fall asleep on the way to school to get the kids but she didn't she ended up falling asleep again at 4pm. This time instead of letting her sleep I woke her up as soon as we got home and told her she is going to bed at 7pm. She said, "ok" it is now 7:45 and she is still not sleeping. And so the battle continues and I will win!!!

Other than that issue the older kids don't have school tomorrow so they are going with me to my Bible study. The two oldest are joining a homeschool group during the time of the study. GG is really excited about it but Monkey is not. He doesn't like change and I think it is funny since he is the one who wanted to be homeschooled first! We shall see how it goes tomorrow. Silly kid that is all I have to say :)

Also my sister in law and two nephews are in town. They got in last night and Isaac went to Cubbies with Red and they had a blast together. Well apparently, Red had to poop at Cubbies but he didn't want his leader to go get us and said he wanted to wipe himself. Yeah, he doesn't really know how to do that yet. I guess he did a pretty good job so I told him today that I will start working with him to master wiping his own bottom. Which means I will only have one child that needs bathroom help. That seems a bit weird to think about but exciting at the same time!

Last Year of Single Digits for GG

I know I say this EVERY year but I just can't get over how old my oldest is getting! She is 9 years old today. 9 people. That means the last year of her being in the single digits. Oh I don't know if I will be able to handle next year, oy. Since we are living in a different place and our mail still goes to the other place we told her she will have to wait til Monday to get any cards that were sent to her. But we still decorated her door with streamers and homemade cards from each of us! She has already opened her presents this morning. We got her two preemie outfits for her Baby Alive doll to wear and a snuggie for kids. She loves to read and this way she can have a blanket on and still read. She wants to go to Jason's Deli for lunch so that is what we will do after church. She helped make her birthday cake yesterday I just need to frost it today. If you are wanting the recipe for the Apple Pudding Cake it is in the post below, I will let you know how it tastes but it sounds really yummy! I am going to go enjoy my 9 year old's day today!!!

Modesty and my almost 9 year old.

A few weeks ago I noticed that my almost 9 year old daughter had started doing these goofy poses with her body where she kind of sticks out her butt. I was not liking this so last night I took her out just the two of us to have a talk about modesty. Things I brought with were a Bible, a People Magazine, and a necklace. I started the conversation talking about some of the things I noticed her doing and that is why I felt it was important to have this talk. I gave her the definition of modesty from the dictionary which states; Modesty: behavior, manner or appearance intended to avoid impropriety or indecency. I then expounded on this definition with the definition of impropriety and indecency. I talked to her about what modesty looks like in each of the three areas stated above and how it pertains to her as a girl. Then I had her open the Bible to 1 Timothy 2:9-10 which says, “I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.” I’m sure there are other verses that talk about this subject but I choose to go with just this one. We then talked about what this verse says and how to live it out. Then I gave her the People and told her to find 5 people dressed modestly and circle them and find 5 that were not dressed modestly and cross them out. She had so much fun doing this she went way above finding 5 of each. Then we kind of went through the rest and talked about why some of the clothing was not modest. Then I briefly touched on only her husband seeing her naked body didn’t want to go too far into THAT subject just yet. Then I pulled out a mother and daughter matching necklaces and asked her if she was willing to commit to being modest in all these areas. When she did I gave her the necklace to wear. She was so excited. This necklace will be a reminder to her that in all things to be modest. I also told her that she was my daughter but above all things she was God’s daughter and now she knows what her heavenly father says about this subject. When we got home I told her to go take a shower. Before our talk she would forget her towel in another room and walk through the house naked to get it. Last night she made sure she had her towel with her and then wrapped it around her to come ask me a question before she showered. I praised her for being modest. I know she understands the concept so I pray she is able to be successful at continuing to be a modest girl in all areas. I just pray for her so much in this area because she is a really cute and loving girl and I don’t want to squash that but I do want to protect her from any bad people that might take her the wrong way, you know. But for now we are working on modesty mostly in appearance and behavior but manners too.

First Day of July!

I love July for many reasons. The first two being that J and Monkey's birthdays are this month. Others would be the fest, the fourth of July fireworks, and parade. It is also the month J and I started dating in 1996! Plus it is warm outside. I love being warm and not cold. :) Only a few more months and we will be on vacay!

Well last night I took Monkey into the doctor's office because he had a fever and complaining of his eyes hurting. When I looked at them they were blood shot and pink. GREAT. I know that pink eye is highly contagious so I wanted to take him and hopefully get him some meds to kill it. BUT. It is viral not bacterial so that means they can't give him anything. Ugh. I am hoping and praying that the other 3 don't get this virus because seriously the fest starts today and, and it is only 3 days away from the 4th! I want to take them to the parade and the fireworks. I felt so bad for my boy last night he so didn't want to be at the doctor's office he just wanted to be home and in bed.

Before all that happened we let June go out with a bang. Though we didn't do what was planned for the day a trip to Great America, couldn't get a sitter for the two little ones. Oh well. We went to the store to look for summer dresses for the girls and I for our trip in September. Then to the pet store. Which in turn set the kids on the I want a dog tangent. GG was trying to bargain with us saying that if she took care of the fish for a month and it didn't die could we get a dog. It was pretty funny. Today J showed her how to care for the fish, cleaning the tank and all. We'll see how long that lasts. I think if I have to remind her more than 5 times this month to feed the fish she didn't adequately take care of it. We haven't set the ground rules yet. Then we went to Chuck E Cheese for some play. We cashed in our all tickets totaling 3772. We have saved them for about a year. The kids got some pretty cool things. GG got this invisible ink pen. The boys got a rocket. We were going to do the fire pit but the doctor visit thwarted those plans. I'm excited to see what July has in store for us!

My Girl

It has been so nice to have my girl home again. Our normal sitter Jess came over yesterday morning to go with us to get GG from camp. Then we went over to her best friends house to pick her up and drop Red off so he could have a play date with his friend! Once all that happened we were on our way to get her from camp. We got there a little earlier than expected which actually worked out pretty good. We grabbed her stuff and loaded it into the van and the kids played at the park. I went to find her and she was still in the mess hall eating breakfast. As I was standing outside with a guy from our church his daughter and GG come up to the window and wave to us. That was the first time I got to see her. I was so happy. About two seconds she started crying. They weren't letting the kids out of the mess hall for another 10 minutes and she just wanted to get a hug from me. So I lost it and shed some tears. As soon as they let them out she ran to me and I gave her the BIGGEST hug ever. Then I called Monkey and the rest of them over and once she saw her friend it was girl screams to the max. Too cute. We watched her end program got to see part of the DVD of the week and heard some of the songs they sang throughout the week. Her counselors told me she got about 20 pieces of mail that week! A big thank you to everyone who sent her mail and you know who are you she LOVED it! Of course, we sent her a package too. She was pretty bummed about loosing her black bag. It had some of the contents of the package she got from us, candy, her watch, second camera, hair brush, sunscreen, and bug spray. Well the boys are at a play date and Peanut is sleeping so I am going to go have a tea party with GG she just told me it is ready. I'm off...

Total Randomness

Today was a first for me and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. First let me tell you what that first is...I dropped off my oldest baby girl at camp for the week. I will not get to talk to her on the phone for a week. I am excited for her to be getting this experience. She is beyond excited about being there, she kept asking when we were going to leave. I am sad that I will not get to see all the cool things she is doing and get to talk to her throughout the week. I am nervous about putting her into someone else's care. Though there was only 7 girls in her cabin with 2 counselors so there was 3 empty beds. I just worry about stupid stuff but not really that stupid...you know things like ticks, will someone check her head every night? Make sure she brushes her hair and teeth everyday, changes her clothes and especially her underwear? She is growing up but she is still my little girl and she is some what on her own. I am excited for her before there are 6 girls from our church at the camp and 3 counselors from our church too. She knows plenty of people if she gets scared or homesick. 2 of the girls from our church are in her cabin this week and I hope and pray that she becomes better friends with them and that she also makes new friends too. But let me tell you this camp has some of the coolest things for her to do. They have a zipline, a huge swing that 3 people get harnest onto and then pulled up about 100 feet and then let go (the parents where able to ride this swing but by the time we got her registered and stuff we missed it by about 3 people), next year I am so going on it!!! There is also a climbing wall, petting zoo, trails, crafts, a canteen, and swimming. She is going to have a blast and I can't wait to hear all about it. If you want to send her mail email me and I will give you the address. The letters have to get out by Thursday or she won't get them by the time she leaves on Saturday :) I also want to go up and help next year while she is at camp and J is planning on helping the week Monkey goes. I think he might have a harder time being away though he will get to see the camp 2 times before next year, we'll see.

The kids made J cards for Father's Day. I asked them questions about daddy and they answered them. I printed them off and they drew pictures on the paper. He loved it. The other gift was that I cleaned the van while he was in Canada. I took everything out and vacuumed it. It looks nice. He hates a dirty vehicle so this was a great and inexpensive gift I just had to use some electricity to vacuum it!

I have my procedure done in 4 days and I am really kind of calm and at peace with it though we'll see how I am doing on Wednesday. I have already decided that I am taking a sleeping pill that night so that I get sleep!

Oh and today I was sitting in Sunday School and my phone started vibrating. I look and the number said 000 0212 something. I showed J the number and he shrugged his shoulders and then I showed the girl on the other side of me who is a missionary and she said that is was an international number. It finally clicked that it was my mom calling from GERMANY. She had called on Tuesday and my phone didn't even ring and I got her message about 3 hours after she called, weird. Well I didn't get it in time and I was so bummed. When we came home I jumped on the computer was going to update my status but show that my mom left me a instant message. I responded to her and left without updating the status. Well on the way to camp she called and I got to talk to her and my grandma! The kids were excited to get to talk to them too. I put them on speaker phone :) One last thought, last week the kids had one grandpa in Canada, a grandma in Germany, and another grandma 2 states away on a mission trip. If you got to the end of this random post congrats you win...hmmm nothing sorry! But thanks for reading to the end :)

Miss America

Last night I took the two older kids to church for Sparks-a-rama practice. They compete on Saturday!!! On the way the kids were really chatty. I was telling them about the new organic fruits and veggies we are going to have delivered to our house. GG tells me that if you take too much stuff like medicine that it could kill you. So we have a conversation about medicine intake and so on. Then she says, "Did you know that Miss America almost died a couple of times?" I thought where did she hear this? but said, "No I didn't." She then tells me about Miss America's fake heart and if you stand close enough to her that you can hear it ticking. At this point I am so completely confused thinking who is telling her this stuff. I asked her where she heard it and she says, "From Miss America." I think for a second and ask her if she is talking about Noah's mom who's name is America. She wasn't sure. I ask if she is talking about her Sunday School teacher and she says, yes. The funny part is she has no idea about the whole Miss America beauty contests! I didn't know that they called her by her first name! I thought this is one for the blog ;)

A Good Lesson in Money

Friday the kids have their piano lessons at their school. Then J picks them up when he gets off of work and it works out nicely. Especially since I have my Bible study and Mom's Day Out afterward. I don't get home until about 1:30 and Peanut falls asleep in the van on the way home. Since she is stimulated with the other kids for about 4 hours she is tired. Before the lessons started I would have to wake her up to be able to get to school on time to get them. But I digress. This last Friday I gave GG's teacher an envelope with the money for the lessons and she gave it to her right before she went to piano. Some how between her classroom, locker and sanctuary she lost the envelope. I had put her piano teachers name on it so I was hopeful that someone might turn it in. She said she went back up to her locker to look for it and it was no where to be fine. J called me on the way home and asked me to call the teacher to see if she had found it. She didn't. When they got home she immediately went into her room and got money out to give to her teacher since she had lost it. She was so upset with herself for having lost it. This morning I went in and asked the teacher if someone had brought it back to the class...they hadn't. So I went to the office to see if someone turned it in there...nope. Well I guess we are out the money. Then about 10 minutes later her piano teacher calls to say that she got the money. Someone had given the envelope to her dad who teaches at the school. I was so happy. And when I picked GG up from school today I told her the money was found she was the happiest little girl. This week I am leaving the money in the office for her I just can't handle the stress of losing it again. When is a good age for kids to have big responsibilities like that? I really thought she was ready for it but I guess not.

Presenting...

This morning I went into the school with the kids which I normally just drop them off and park by the preschool and take Red inside. But today was GG big Italy presentation. She was so excited and was trying to hide it from her classmates, too cute. She had many visual aids for her presentation which is why I helped her. She had the poster board, focaccia bread (we call it pizza bread), Italian style pop, a shirt from Italy, a book, and money. I really hope she did a great job and I'm sure she did. Well I was helping her Monkey went to his class and Red followed him. When I went down the hall to get Red for school he was sitting at Monkey's desk reading a book. The teacher had told the kids it was D.E.A.R. time (Drop Everything And Read) so Red followed suit and was reading! The teacher let him take the book home for the night which made his day. It was just too cute to see him sitting at his brother's desk reading like the big kids.

Peanut and I did all the usual errands came home ate lunch and grandma came over to watch her while I went to the doctor. Guess what? He wants to take more blood from me. OY. He wants to have all the information needed to give me a correct diagonistic which I can understand and I'm thankful for but I'm so done. I'm hoping that this will be the end for me and then I can start to feel better. Well I just got online looking at flights for the two Disney trips I'm taking and I am so excited. I found some really cheap tickets too and also have a coupon for 5% off...score. I love that Mouse :)

Stick a fork in ME...

I'm DONE! The party last night was a huge hit and so much fun but oh so tiring. I was asleep before 10:30 and that is highly on like me. Anyway, her party theme was a "pretend" sleepover so no one actually slept at our house. I got the idea from a friend from church. Basically you do all the sleepover type activities then you send the girls home to sleep in their own beds. GG had 9 friends come so there was a total of 10 little girls...oh the level of noise was UNreal. I will boil the night down for you. They all got to our house about 4pm right after school was over. They came in and started to changed into their jammies. I laid out two sleeping bags in the living room and they all brought their pillows. I gave them a few blankets and put on Sleeping Beauty. I left to go get the pizzas and crazy bread. I left my helpers in charge while I was gone. There were 3 of them here so I knew it was under control. I got back with the food and the girls got a plate of food and took it back into the living room for a picnic dinner while watching the movie.
Once everyone was done eating we got down to girly business. Three of the girls did hair and me and my friend did nails. The hair took longer to do, of course! While we were waiting for all the girls to get beautified they played the hand clapping games. That is when the noise level went through the roof. As the last girl was getting done they started doing pyramids...too funny.

And here is a picture of the girls hair all done up pretty!

J came home with the other three kids and we did cake and ice cream followed by gift opening. Before we were even done opening gifts moms were starting to come to pick up the girls. I heard a few of them say that they didn't want to leave=succeesful birthday party.

This morning we got up and cleaned up from last night as I was too worn out to do it then and started getting ready for the family coming over to celebrate GG's 8 years on this big ole earth. I made lunch today instead of ordering we had baked mostacholi, ceasar salad, rolls, and pretzel salad (grandma made that!). Then we opened presents and had cake and ice cream. Everyone left around 2pm and we left for a friend's birthday party around 3pm. Like I said stick a fork in ME...I'm so done!

This little girl made out like a bandit. She got from her friends party; a gift card to Toys R Us, gift card to Walgreens, gift card to Limited 2, and a gift card to Culvers, she got a High School Musical water bottle, blanket, and bucket set, Hannah Montana shirt, friendship bracelet kit, HM key chain and coin purse, pajamas with matching socks, polly pocket horse ranch set, webkinz and webkinz outfit, puppy in my pocket (never heard of these before), gumball machine, note cards, finger nail polish set, gum, tic tacs, money to buy a webkinz, and a purse with American girl doll soap, lotion and glitter perfume. See she got spoiled! It was complete chaos opening the gifts that I have to watch her video to find out who gave her what so that she can write thank you cards! Then today she got from her family party; 3 shirts, a dress, shirt and leggin set, 1200 stickers, stickers and tatoo set, American Girl doll book, 5 books in the series that she is addicted too from our Family Christain Bookstore, a precious moments 8 year old figurine, bubble gum tape, two mini webkinz (so excited about them), and what she calls her favorite gift....(from her mom and dad)

A NEW BIKE!!!

Dear Birthday Girl,
Your daddy and I have enjoyed these last 8 years with you. We are so blessed to have you in our lives. We thank God for you daily. I really hope you had fun at your birthday parties. I want you to know how special you are to us and what a joy you have been to us. We love you so much sweet little girl...never stop being you. You are so loved!