First day of School

Since the kids insisted on pizza for dinner tonight I got up early and made them a big ole breakfast for their first day. We had fresh squeezed orange juice, scrambled eggs, bacon and bananas. They fly out of bed this morning to get ready. There was SO much excitement in the air for the first day of school. Look at their faces!

They totally stood backwards on this picture but we were running late so I just snapped it!
My 5th grader
My 4th grader
My 1st grader
My student...
They had a wonderful first day of school. Two came home with no homework and my oldest only had one subject she got done in 20 minutes!!! Ah the routine that school brings ;)

Anticipation

It is the night before school starts and these kids are bouncing off the walls. All summer we have had a pretty good time with very minimal complaining about being bored, until today. They had orientation last night where they got to drop off their school supplies, meet their teachers and see who was in their class this year. Which lends to today with them being BORED. They want to start school NOW. I knew today was going to be hard for them so I tried to have things to do. So we went to our chiropractor appointment and then took the kids to get their pictures taken, yeah not so exciting but still something to do right?! I will talk more about the pictures in a second. When we got home I decided that we should do something that the kids have been wanting to do for months. They wanted to go to the park that Jeff and I played tennis at a few years ago. We drive by it all the time but never stop. After lunch we hopped on our bikes and we took a bike ride to that park. It is about a 20 minute bike ride. I let them play for about an hour or so and then we headed home. Peanut needed to get a nap she is still napping. The kids are outside playing now too.

For the past few years I have been taking the kids to JC Penney's for school pictures because they are so much more affordable then the actual school pictures that go in the yearbooks. I got 13 sheets for 3.99 each. Well Peanut was hilarious today when getting her picture taken. She kept striking a pose. She would put her hand on her hip and just make the most spunky sassy pose ever. It was too funny. And of course, the photographer was trying to pose her, to which she said, "I'm going to do it like this." We were laughing so hard at her. That's my girl ;)

3 weeks

I am giving myself three weeks to get in shape. I talked to my hubs about how I was feeling out of shape and yucky. He told me to start working out. I told him I needed some sort of motivation and then proceeded to tell him to start calling me fat/chubby. Not a good idea. It did not motivate me AT. ALL. After the 5th time he called me that it started to hurt my feeling, so he stopped. I know I'm such a girl. I asked him to call me that to help motivate me and then when he does what I ask I don't like it. Something in me snapped today and I decided that I am going to do this working out thing and getting into shape. I think it had to do with the fact that I was thinking about how I'm homeschooling Peanut and I need to have some form of gym for her. Well if she needs to be active and move um yeah so do I. Anyway, we even took a picture tonight before we started working out to document what we looked like before. I really hope that after the first 90 days I can see a difference in that picture! I really hope that after the first week I will feel better and have more energy like I did last time I was serious about working out...right before we left for the Bahama cruise. The only funny thing is that summer is almost over and I'm getting into swim suit shape now. Whatevs! I'm also thinking that once school starts once a week walking the track at school and letting Peanut play at the park where I can see her. Or she can walk with me. I'm just really excited to see what the next 3 weeks bring. I can't believe that is all the summer break we have left. In three weeks a lot of things will be changing. I'm so thankful to God for change!

Field Trip

I got the pleasure of going on Monkey's field trip to the Museum of Science and Industry in downtown Chicago. One thing I love about his teacher is she always allows as many chaperons as parents who want to go. Most of the parents had two kids their kid and one more. One dad just had his kid. I like going on field trips for two reasons, I love spending that time with my one kid and their friends and two I always wanted my parents to go on field trip growing up, my dad went on one. It was the best one ever!!! I know that if I go on all of them it doesn't really make it special but I stay home and I don't want them to feel like I did as a kid. Also my oldest had a field trip that she told me not to come on and she explained her reasons. I didn't go because of her wishes and other factors. Back on topic...I really LOVE this museum out of all the ones downtown I think this is the most educational with hands on stuff to do. Our group consisted of 3 moms, one dad and the teacher and a total of 8 boys. We took them to the coal mine. I haven't been to that exhibit in years and I have to tell you it is WAY better than I remember it. We did the storm exhibit with the tsunami and tornado that was pretty cool. Went to the hatchery with the baby chicks. We did the water room which was a big hit. We got to see everything the boys wanted to see and do. It was just a really fun day. I also got to see my boy interact with the kids in his class. He is a very independent little boy and I am just so proud of him for being his own person. I love that boy with all my heart and I was so glad I was able to spend the whole day with him. I owe a HUGE thank you to my wonderful sister-in-law who came over and had some very special quality time with my little Peanut. The other three kids were pretty jealous that she got Auntie Liz all to herself and they have no idea that David spent most of the day with them. It would only add insult to injury ;)

A note to see the Teacher!

It doesn't put fear in me now that I am a parent but it sure was upsetting to Monkey when I had to go see his teacher. I went to the cafeteria like I do every Wednesday and say hi to the two older kids before I pick up the two younger ones from school. Today Monkey was almost in tears as he told me his teacher wanted to see me TODAY! I reassured him I would go talk to her before I got the kids as I had about 10 minutes, he was relieved. It is actually a pretty funny story why I had to go see her, when I called to tell Jeff what happened he just laughed! You want to know? Okay, I'll tell you! Monkey's class gets packets of past work sent home, about every 6 weeks, so we can see his progress and then we sign it. The last one he got sent home his dad and him got in a conversation about cursive. So Jeff used the packet to show Monkey the correct way to sign your name in cursive. However, since he took his time and did it the right way it looked more like a 3rd or 4th grader signed Monkey's packet. The teacher questioned Monkey about it and he told her what happened. She didn't believe him. She showed him the other packets that his dad has signed and the handwriting didn't match. Poor kid was terrified. She told me he stood there completely wide eyed because she didn't believe him! I had to go in and confirm that in fact his dad signed his packet! The sad part about this incident is that there have been some kids in his class that don't want to get in trouble for their school work that they forge their parents signatures. I totally don't blame her for questioning the signature!

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...

A Day off

The kids don't have school tomorrow and I am so excited. I was going to take them down town to a Museum but when I got thinking about it more it didn't make sense to get up early and drive an hour and then drive an hour home just to eat dinner and head back out that way. So we are going to go over to Chuck E Cheese with some friends from school. The best part of this outing is that I was organizing my drawer as it was getting very messy and I found a $20 gift card to there and a $10 visa gift card! Total score. I wasn't going to feed the kids there but since I have those cards I think I will get them a pizza and maybe get myself the salad bar!!! I am just so excited to have a long week :)

Thanksgiving Program

There are so many different directions this post could go. This was my 5th one and I will have 2 more to attend. The kids put a lot of work into this program and it is quite cute. I just wish the parents weren't so rude. If you want to stand and get a picture of your child go to the back don't stand up right in front of people who are sitting and pleasantly trying to watch the program. I had to kindly tell two different people to sit. Both of them left instead. Ok this is really not the direction I wanted this post to go so changing directions, it just really bugs me. I dropped off all the kids in the classes they needed to go. Peanut was having a Thanksgiving party in her class so she got to go to school, she doesn't normally go on Fridays. I think went to talk to the teachers of my older two kids. I wanted to know if they were planning on taking their classes to see the program or if I should come get Monkey and GG. Both teachers were taking the kids so I just needed to grab Peanut. As I was talking to Monkey's teacher she was telling me about how great of a kid he was. How he is very focused with his work, very smart and friendly to all the kids. I had no plans on talking to her about him but she brought it up. I was so proud of him. He really is a very sweet kid. The kids got their first quarter report cards the other day. Monkey had straight A's. GG had all A's and one B. She was pretty bummed about the B but they both made high honors! We don't talk about grades with all the kids we do it individually. However, they usually tell each other what they got. Monkey didn't rub it in GG's face that he did better than her which is a first for him one two levels. First getting better grades and two not teasing her with it. His grades this quarter were a great confidence boost for him but it didn't go to his head. I am so proud of both of my kids on their grades. Red got a report card too but they don't give our letters it is either O for outstanding S for satisfactory, or I for needs improvement. He had mostly O's and some S+ and a S- for his writing ability he writes really sloppy most of the time. But he is working on it and hopefully next quarter it will be an O :) Well that was all over the place!

The First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for all 4 kiddos. Here is a group shot...
I took more pictures of them individually put I'm really not in the mood to upload them so this one will have to suffice. We got to school at 8am got Peanut settled in to her class with many pictures of her at school and with her teachers. Before we left her we prayed together for the school year, it would of been better if Dad could of been with us but he was at work. After all the hugs and kisses to Peanut we headed to the opposite side of the school. The older kids gave each other a hug and kiss and went to class. I walked with Red to his class and got him settled in and pictures taken. I then went to Monkey's class and did the same thing. Lastly I went to GlamorGirl's class to take pictures and she was so embarrassed. Most of the parents in her class didn't walk their kids to class so she was one of a few whose parents came and...I TOOK PICTURES, oh the horror of it all! I was out of the school by 8:30. Not bad for dropping 4 kids off. Then I hurried to get as many errands done as I could while I was kid free. I went to the chiropractor, two grocery stores, put the groceries away and uploaded school pictures to facebook (because you know that is IMPORTANT...haha) and then it was time to run to get the two littles. I got Red first because he gets done first and then we walked to get Peanut. She was so sweet when I picked her up. She looked at me and said, "Mom where's Monkey and GG?" I told her they stay at school longer and she was ok with that. During Peanuts nap. Red did his homework and worked at the computer while I made dinner for tonight! The kids wanted Chipotle Burritos and so I got recipes online. I made the marinade, salsa and cut up the peppers and onion for the fajita part. That took me the whole afternoon...a lot of chopping but it was SO worth it. Tonight the kids ate a TON. They each had two helpings. They aren't saying they are hungry tonight. I must admit it was a really good meal. Tomorrow morning I'm making pancakes (was suppose to make them this morning but didn't get up in time...ooops) with strawberry and blueberry toppings and I even bought whip cream too. I love being able to really start cooking again from scratch this summer has been too busy!

Up in the Air

So since Peanut has been born we have talked about putting her in school so that she is 2 years apart from Red. I have a good friend that really wants me to keep her back a year so our girls will be the same grade. She says that they won't be as good of friends if she is a year older in school. They are only 2 months apart in age. If I move her ahead it will be her and two little boys at church if I keep her back there will be her with 2 boys and 6 girls. Then I start thinking about my Monkey and how he is one of the youngest kids in his class. I wanted to hold him back so he could be the oldest in his class but J said has the same birthday and was the youngest and he turned out fine. Now seeing Monkey as one of the smallest kids in his class I'm wondering if we did the right thing. It also doesn't help that at least two boys age wise should be in the grade above but their parents held them back so they could be the oldest. He isn't really struggling academically he gets As and Bs for the most part, though he did get one C the last quarter of 2nd grade. The only way to fix his situation is to put him in public school and hold him back because no one there would know him or homeschool him a year and when he tests in he tests for the lower grade and then he can blame me ;) He is my issue what do I do with Peanut??? Her birthday is 6 weeks after Monkey's making her even younger than him in school. Though she is a girl and the youngest of 4. I just don't want to make the same mistake with her but I also don't want her to feel left out at church. I also don't know if I want Red and her 3 years apart in school. I didn't like the idea of having the boys 3 years apart which is another reason I wanted to hold Monkey back so that he and Red would only be 2 years apart. I guess in the grand scheme of things it really isn't a big deal they just get out of our house a year earlier, which kind of makes me sad. Oh I think we should of held him back :( I hate second guessing myself and having all this guilt. I really didn't sleep well last night thinking about this. What are your thoughts? What would you do with Peanut? How about Monkey?

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...

Unexpected Computer time

The two oldest are doing crafts and are content. Red is sleeping and Peanut isn't. She needs to be sleeping but she is fighting it. I thought I would come sit in the room so she stayed in bed and will fall asleep. Since I am trapped until she gives up and goes to sleep I thought I would update my bloggy blog!

I truly can't believe how fast summer is flying by. Yesterday ended the last day of VBS at the kids' school. I wish I could say it was a great time by right before the picnic started Red fell and cut his face. All the moms there said I should have him checked out so I took him to the ER and they put dermabond on it. It is basically glue stitches. I felt so bad for the little guy he gets hurt and then he doesn't get to play with his friends because I took him to the ER. He was a trooper. I just had to stop typing to answer the phone and it was the hospital calling to see how he was doing today. What customer service! Anyways, our summer from here on out is jam packed with stuff with a few open days here or there but before we know it we will be saying hi to THE Mouse! Then two days after we get back school starts. I am a little torn about school starting this year. The kids aren't they are super excited and have really great teachers this coming year but I always miss them so much when they are gone. Plus, Peanut is going to be so sad not to have them here. Red is going 4 half days and 1 full day so I can do my women's Bible study. We have really had a great summer with NO television. I am really starting to think that is the devil...not really but close to it. They have been happier and kinder little people with out it. Well she FINALLY fell asleep after laying down for 20 minutes. She is going to give me a run for my money ;)

This is the kids in 2006 visiting the Mouse!

Report cards are in!

I received GG and Monkey's report cards and the scores from their Iowa testing. So beware there is going to be some major proud mama bragging!!! I'll start with Monkey...he got one B+ and 7 A's. For all 4 quarters he only got 2 B's and the rest were A's. I would say that is a pretty successful 1st grade year. He did really good on his Iowa testing too. On the sheet of the Iowa scores there is a column that has the grade equivalent for their score in that area. He scored in 1st grade for two areas (which is what he is in) and 2nd grade is 7 areas, 3rd grade is 4 areas! I am so proud of him. He is the youngest in his grade and a boy which some people would say are two strikes against him but from his scores you can tell that he is doing great!

On to GG...this girl never ceases to amaze me. Her report card had nothing but A's and out of the 36 she had 20 A+'s. She isn't even home yet to know her grades either. Now on to her Iowa scores they are unreal, just to let you know. I'll do the same thing I did with Monkey's. She is at 3rd grade for 1 area, 4th grade for 2 areas, 5th grade for 8 areas, and 6th grade for 2 areas. She was in 2nd grade when she tested and she scored mostly 3 grades or more above!!! She is one smart little cookie I'm telling you. And not only is she smart but her teacher told me several times that she would help the kids in class that were struggling with different concepts. I am just so proud of both of my kids and their grades. But most of all for who they are and who they are turning into.

Just for Peanut and Red if you are reading this I love you too. You just aren't in school yet so I have no grades to report for you :)

***Must UPDATE!*** So over the last couple of weeks we have gained a new nonresident living in our house. She is J's younger sister who just graduated High School. Since she has moved in changed her address to ours we also received her report card in the mail along with our kids. She got all A's as well for the last quarter and had a very impressive report card the whole year to boot. We are so proud of her too! And yes, she was the anonymous comment!!! GO LIZ :)

Oh the LAST day of school!!!

I can't even begin to tell you how exciting it is to NOT have to wake up tomorrow with an alarm! It makes homeschooling really appealing. Well this morning didn't exactly start the way I was hoping it would. I wanted to get to school right at 8:15 when the doors open so that I could get pictures of the kids with their teachers. We got out to the van on time and everyone buckled in and the van wouldn't start. THE. VAN. WASN'T. STARTING. Then I remembered that last night GG was reading a book in the van and had her light on and didn't turn it off. It must of drained the battery. I called J to see if he could come home and take the kids to school and then come back and jump the van. I didn't want them being late. I tried the van again when I called him just to make sure and nothing happened again. So we waited. About 5 minutes later our neighbor came out and said if we could get the van out of the garage then he would jump it for us. The 3 older kids and I started pushing and nothing was moving. I tried getting it out of park and it wouldn't move. I thought if I turn the key half way I might be able to get it in Neutral. Then...it started for me. I was so happy though we were now running later than I wanted to be. The kids still got to school on time and I even managed to get quick pictures with their teachers. Did I mention that today is beautiful? The little kids and I came home and I finished up the laundry that was started yesterday and I took them to the park until the big kids got out of school. Then started the water works with my oldest. She really loved her teacher this year and she is going to get to have her again next year because she is moving up to 3rd grade. She cried last year and the year before. She is a very deep emotion person. After GG gave her teacher the last hug of the day her teacher told me that if I wanted she would take her home. I quickly said, "I'd miss her too much." Her teacher than told me what a great kid she is and how she has a heart of gold. She is always helping and caring about other people first, it really made my day to hear that. I know that but sometimes it's hard to focus on that when you are in the thick of things with life. I truly am blessed. For lunch we met J at Subway to celebrate the last day of school! Oh yeah, a funny thing that happened today was I told the kids when they had their friends sign their yearbooks to get their phone numbers so that they could do play dates during the summer. When I picked up Monkey under his teachers name was her phone number. He had asked her for it and she gave it! I had told her what I told the kids about the play dates and she said that she would love to have a play date with Monkey. I could bring him to school and she would take him to McDonalds to play and then she even told him that too. I really love this school and how much the teachers really love and care about the students. Red's teacher next year is having him come in a pick his seat and locker like the other two got to do as well. Another cool thing that is so unique to our school is that since it is preschool through High School the kids have the option of buying a yearbook. This year our whole family made it in, they used the Christmas picture from our house! It worked out cool because 3 of our kids go to the school and J, his brother and sister are alumni. The plan for this afternoon/evening is to get a list of fun activities that the kids want to do this summer so that we have a check list of fun. This is when we are going to introduce our summer schedule, rules and chores.

Race for Education

The school the kids go to has a Race once a year to raise money for improvements to the school. They have gotten new buses and computers and many other needed updates. Today Red had his run and I was so impressed with my little guy. He ran 10 laps in an hour that is 2 1/2 miles. He is hoping to get a trophy for running the most laps. They do that for the older grades so we'll see if they will give him one and if not I will go out a buy one. For being so good about running I took him from school instead of leaving him for the rest of the day and we went out to eat at his choice, Mc Donalds. I also got to walk/run 2 1/2 miles today and it felt great to be outside and moving. I will update this post with the older two kids running results tomorrow! I plan on giving them some money for lunch time to get an ice cream.

Update**
The older two ran the Race for Education today. Monkey ran 15 laps that is one short of 4 miles and GG ran 13 laps. They did such a great job! I am so proud of them all for enduring the heat and running.

Back to School

This morning went rather smooth which I was very happy about. We got to school right when the doors opened and GG passed out her birthday invitations. She invited A LOT of girls this year. I'll come back to that later. At noon I got a phone call from school saying that they couldn't find Red's lunch. I had just gotten Peanut down for her nap and really didn't want to have to take him another lunch. When we got to school and during the handing out of invitations one of the preschool teachers (and one of Red's favorite) was taking her boy to class. Her son is in the same class with Monkey and they go to the same church as us. She offered to walk him to class which worked out great because I was meeting J at the preschool to drop off all the toys we purged from the house. They just started another class in the preschool and we figured they could use those toys and also they got out of our house. Anyway, his lunch was in the van and I brought it in when I went down with the van. When his teacher called about him not having a lunch she told me that he told her that he had left it in the van which he did but he didn't know that I brought it in. Making a short story even longer I called back after about 5 minutes and they had found it. I was so happy.
It was nice having the kids at school so I could run errands with just Peanut but man was she out of sorts. She kept walking around the house looking for her playmates. I felt so bad for her but she was so excited to see them this afternoon. Hope she will get used to them being gone fast.
Ok about the party... we are having it at our house and I'm actually really excited about it. We haven't done a house party since her third birthday. The theme is a "pretend" sleepover, I got the idea from a mom at church. The girls are bringing their pj's and a pillow. We're going to have pizza and cake and do hair and nails, you know what you do at a normal sleepover except that they will all go home at 7:30pm. That is my favorite part. I have enlisted a few high schoolers to help and another mom and have banished J and the other three from the party! Don't want Peanut or Red walking around with the fear of them burning their hands on the curling irons and such or nail polish spilling or just annoying the girls. Of course, if Monkey was here he would totally leave the girls alone NOT! He is only a grade below them and it just wouldn't be good so away they go. I can't believe she is going to be 8 years old, do you know what that means??? She is going to be out of a car seat, FOREVER. I will only have 3 kids in car seats it is a huge milestone for me her. Next she will be able to sit in the front seat. Make her stop growing so fast.

Resolved for now

The money has been returned to GG and an apology given. However the bullying stuff hasn't been even talked about. I am trying to figure out where to go from here. I don't want my daughter to stop playing with this little girl completely as it is obvious she needs a good friend. However I don't want this friendship to be one of do this or I'm telling on you. Apparently yesterday at school she told another one of her friends that she couldn't play with Rachel because she stole her money. And in a way it was a great starter for a converstaion about how this Rachel needs grace, mercy and love. How GG could show her those and be her friend but that if she is going to bully her into doing something then she needs to speak up and tell her to stop. Then tell the teacher what is going on. Also about how telling the other girl was wrong and she shouldn't have done that. Her teacher talked to her about it today as well so hopefully she learned that lesson! If anything major happens I'm sure I'll be blogging about it.

So tonight is the concert and my stomach is so sore from COUGHING! I tried to get a nap today but Peanut fell asleep on the way home from Bible study and only slept 30 minutes once we got home. I'm praying that I will be non grumpy at the end of the concert!!! But I'm also really looking forward to spending some time with my hubby even if I'm still sickly.

Saddened

I have to say that this morning has to be the worst day ever as a parent. It all started yesterday after school when I picked the kids up. GG came to the van crying. I asked her what was wrong and she proceeded to tell me this. *I have changed the name of the girl*

GG: Rachel stole my money.
Me: What money?
GG: The money that Monkey gave me.
Me to Monkey: Where did you get money from?
Monkey: My friend
Me: Ok so what happened?
GG: Rachel asked if she could put her snack in my lunch box because she had a paper bag for lunch. So I let her. When I was in the bathroom she went into my locker to get her snack and she took my dollar too.
Me: Why didn't you say anything to her or the teacher?
GG: I didn't know she took it until after school when I went to get something out of the vending machine and it was gone. Mom she took it. I know she took it because at lunch there was this little first grader getting something out of the vending machine and her dollar wasn't going in so Rachel helped her. The little first grader got a bag of chips that cost 40 cents and Rachel gave her a dime and kept the 50 cents.

I get home and call her teacher to tell her I will be coming in to school tomorrow to talk to her about it. Then J comes home I tell him what happened. The first thing we talked to the kids about was not taking money from other kids. If Monkey wouldn't have taken the two dollars from that boy then this wouldn't have happened. We explained to the kids that the money their friends bring to school is really their mom and dad's money and not their friends to be giving away. We asked Monkey if he asked for the money and he said no the friend just gave it to him. Which is nice but still not appropriate for first grade. As we were talking to GG on the way to church it came out that this Rachel is bullying her into doing what she wants to do. For instant at recess if GG wants to play at the playground and Rachel wants to jump rope she will say jump rope with me or I'm going to tell the teacher on you. This just breaks my heart. This girl was in GG class last year and we had problems with her doing these same type of things which the teacher was made aware of and it was handled. She has changed her angel this year though. It is very frustrating.

This morning we go in and the teacher didn't get my message so I have to explain everything that GG told me. Then GG came in and the teacher asked her questions and she answered them honestly. Then her teacher said something about talking to Rachel's mom when she got there and GG started to change her story. She said, "I didn't see her take my money so maybe she didn't" Where as yesterday she was sure of it. I could see the fear come across her face that her friend was going to be in trouble for stealing money from her and the first grader. Which this morning came out that GG show her take the 50 cents and that Rachel was bragging about taking the money from the girl. GG started crying because Rachel is friends with her best friend Crafty which is Rachel's only other friend, wonder why? She told me that Rachel wasn't going to let her play with Crafty if she gets in trouble. Both me and her teacher told her that Rachel needs to have consequences if she did steal her money and that GG was doing the right thing. I walked out of the school today wanting to bring GG home with me but I know she needs to be at school. She is a strong girl. Her teacher told me that GG gets along with everyone in the class and she has lots of friends. Her teacher was very great this morning and so kind and caring with GG. I really appreciated that.

On a lighter note: I was sitting on the couch typing this post and I noticed Peanut having the I'm pooping face. I grabbed her pulled her diaper off and put her on the potty where she pooped and peed! It was too cute I had to take pictures. I have not decided to start potty training her but I would like to get as much of her poop in the potty as possible so it doesn't stink up the house! Here are the pictures I took of her being a big girl :)

Isn't she cute?! She started peeing when I took this picture :)

Friday Field Trip!

Yesterday I went on a field trip with Monkey's class to the Apple Farm. I was told I would have 4 students, I thought easy I have 4 kids. Well I get to school and I had 5 kids and all boys. Wow. I was the only mom with all boys so that was kind of interesting. Because the one mom who had 4 had her son and another boy and then two girls. Her son kept coming to my group to be with Monkey. Another mom had 3 girls and one boy and her boy kept coming to my group as well. I had with me between 5 and 7 boys! My 5 boys were very well behaved and several of them kept holding my hand, it was cute. Here's Monkey ready to go on the bus.
The first thing we did at the field trip was eat lunch. We left school at 9:15 and we got there at 11:30 so the kids were hungry :)

We got to see a movie about apples and honey and the importance of bees with both of them. Then we took a hayride to the apples. Our tractor driver was an alumni of the kids' school, so that was pretty cool.

Then we picked 5 apples each. Now I have 10 apples and they are nice a BIG! After we got our apples we had a snack of apple cider doughnuts and apple cider.

Then the kids got feed for the petting zoo. They had a blast feeding the chickens, goats and other animals.

Then they played at this huge play area with a firetruck, car, boat and different little houses. It was a bit tough to keep track of the 5 boys I had. Here are my 5 boys...

Here is Monkey's 1st grade class all together! 18 students.
It was a great day, beautiful weather and a very fun time. I'm so glad I got to go on this field trip. I'm so blessed. I must mention that my friend Melissa watched Peanut all day for me. She has 4 boys and her youngest will be one in December and she has a set of twins so she did great with the two babies!

Just for my record!

Today J was study for Monkey's first science test and J asked him "what gives our hair color". Monkey's answer was too funny not to get down. Ready? He said, "pig oink (pause) oink pig". The correct answer would be pigment! It was really cute and we got a good chuckle :)

Secondly, every night before bed I have the three older kids get their clothes out for the next day. It helps with getting all 4 and myself out the door in the morning on time. Red being 3 and still learning got out a pair of underwear and 3 shirts! We have a little work to do with him...haha.

Peanut's birthday party was a hit yesterday and I have tons of pictures on the camera and a lot of them I haven't even looked at yet, my mom took them for me! I hope to put some of them on here soon.