Meet-and-greets for the new year

Yeah, I know, I've been a slacker. Not sure exactly why but finding time for blogging can be a challenge.
Could be the four monkeys.
Or maybe my husband.
Or maybe the house.
Or maybe getting ready for school.
Or maybe going to the beach for a long weekend.
Ok, ok, I will stop, you get the picture.

Tomorrow is a big day around here. School is starting. At least for the three older monkeys. I am a bit sad as I love the laid back summer. The sunshine and water. I love having the kids home and I won't deny that I love not having to worry about homework and lunches and rushing around.
So today was meet-and-greet at one school and an ice cream social at the other.
Connor is getting all ready to head off to first grade. (sniff, sniff. hold on, I need a tissue.) A full day, a loooong day, with out my second born monkey.
We met his teacher and she seems great. Connor knew her a little because her class was "book buddies" with his class last year.

Katelyn is heading off to third grade. We just made the meet-and-greet with her new teacher and I couldn't be any more impressed with our first impression. Katelyn said many times today that she is so excited and her teacher seems so nice!

Maggie will be heading back for one more year of pre-school at the farm. She had me facebook her teacher and asked if she could bring popsicles for her friends on the first day. Her wonderful teacher said yes and Maggie is so thrilled. She cracked me up when she said, "What kind can I bring because some of the kids are allergic to people?" Well Mag's, I am pretty sure they won't be people popsicles!

But this guy.... I get a few more years with him! He's not going any where, thank goodness, cause I will be lost when they are all in school!

Stay tuned for "First day of school pictures" hopefully tomorrow night!

My favorite animal show

I have mentioned on here before that our local library puts on animal shows a couple times a year and my children just love to go to them.
Last week Maggie decided to put on an animal show of her own and it was adorable.
She had all kinds of animals.

I loved watching my third born monkey showing me and telling me all about her monkey. Look at the funny face she is making.

This is the "incubator" that holds all the baby animals that need to be warm.

Katelyn thought it was really yucky when one of the animals had an accident in the cage.

But Katelyn did like it when Maggie let the parrot sit on her shoulder.

Connor came over really close to show me the poisonous frog. Phew, thank goodness he didn't touch it!

This was, by far, my most favorite animal show yet!

Seriously, 18 months, already?

Ben is one and a half, 18 months, 78 weeks, 547 days and I can't believe it! Time is going by so fast. Life is so busy, but a wonderful kind of busy.

My baby is no longer a baby and I am struggling to admit that. I like living in the land of denial.

Ben is doing so well though. He has had his share of struggles but is overcoming them.

Medically he is doing so much better. He is off his flovent inhaler and hasn't had wheezing in quite a while. I can not even tell you the last time I used the stethascope. He is still on the singulair which has helped his asthma tremondously!

He still struggles with reflux and, I think, will always have a problem with it. He is on nexium which is great to help heal the damage that was done.

As for eating he is doing much better. Dr. R, Ben's gastro doctor, was thrilled with a two pound weight gain! We lowered his appitite enhancer but unfortunately saw negitive effects right away so we had to put that back up again.

Let's move on to the fun stuff though!

Ben loves going for walks and looking around at everything going on. Mostly dogs and kids.

Ben is such a love! He is a cuddler and I just adore that time with him.

You can see his "bluey" which he is OBSESSED with. It is a blue pillowcase that he loves and looks for many times a day. He can't sleep with out it so it's a good thing we have three!

Up until just last week he had just eight teeth, four on top and four on bottom. Last week however, he popped through two more and is working on some big giant molars on the bottom right now.

He loves, LOVES, balls, books, and animals! Seriously the kid probably says ball over a hundred times a day.

Farm animals are his favorite but any animals will do. Especially dogs! And Dog books with balls, oh man, it doesn't get better then that!

He is such a happy guy most of the time. Smiling and busy. Unless he is grumpy and then you better watch out!

His hands and feet are growing but I still find them totally adorable!

He has two little freckles that have popped up some time in the last 18 months. One is on his left pinky toe and the other is, ahem, hidden by his diaper.

He says a few words like Mama, Daaaaddddyyyy, ball, book, cat, out, off, on, up, Nana, Pa, YaYa (Katelyn), and cup. Cup is a new favorite too. Filled with yummy, cold milk. Oh, and when he has a cup of cold milk he has to have "bluey" and watch "boooo" (Zobomafoo).

It has been a great 18 months and has gone by so fast! I am hoping the next 18 months are just as great but go by slower. Not that it will happen...

Our new bikers

I am just

AMAZED

SHOCKED


BLOWN AWAY



PROUD



of these two new "two wheels, no training wheels" bike riders!

Maggie got a "new" bike from a friend the other day and didn't want to put training wheels on. She had great balance right away and just took a little time to gain some confidence. Connor had absolutely NO interest in riding a two wheeler until he saw his little sister doing and and could not be out done. Both of them learned so quickly and were definitely ready for this big step in life! I am so proud of them but even more important they are so proud of themselves!

Park fun!

Going to the park....

Hanging out with old friends....


Being silly and sharing....

Having snacks and watermelon...

Climbing on structures....

Swinging on swings....

All make for a wonderful summer afternoon!

Now only if I can figure out how to do this and take lots of pictures I would be even happier!

Wordless Wednesday Maggie Bike

Emily Grace

Remember Emily Grace? She is my adorable niece that was born a little over a year ago and gave me the scare of my life the first time I visited her at the hospital.
Well, she has made up for giving me heart failure by being so stinken adorable! And now she is one. The kids and I went over the other night for a birthday party to celebrate.

Look at this little girl. Is she not one of the most adorable little ones you have ever seen???

She didn't care much about the gifts and was thoroughly enjoying sitting on these two. She preferred sitting on them to opening them.

Her favorites for the night were the pink "eyeball pig" she is holding and the baby doll that she is kissing!

Happy Birthday Emily Grace!

Not Me Monday

MckMama is back with her Not Me Monday blog carnival! Yay! Go check it out!

As for me...

It was not me that snuck my own bottle of water and a bottle of soda for Katelyn into the movies yesterday when we went to see Ramona and Beezus. I would never do that just to save a ton of money. It wouldn't bother me in the least to spend $4.50 on a bottle of water.

It was not me that didn't take the container of red sprinkles away from Ben yesterday when he got his hands on them. It was not me that totally assumed there was no way he could open them and make a big mess. It also was not me that then had to clean up the very big mess that he made with them.

This morning when I took a shower it was not me that used some of the foaming baby body wash because I forgot to grab a new bar of soap before climbing into the shower.

And it definitely was not me that allowed a not-quite-18month old to play with markers today just so I could have a few minutes on the computer.

If my not-quite-18month old was to use markers I would make sure he was sitting in a chair and not on the table.

If my not-quite-18month old was using markers I would only allow him to use 1 at a time.

If my not-quite-18month old was to use markers I would help him with them so that he didn't accidentally get them all over his body.

But if my not-quite-18month old did happen to get said markers all over his body I wouldn't have to worry because I would definitely had made sure they were washable markers.

Nope, not me, I would be much more responsible with my not-quite-18month old around markers.

Balloon rally

Last week we went to a balloon festival with my sister Jen and her three girls.

The kids had a wonderful time going through the maze.


Hanging out with their cousins was great.

Going on a couple of rides was so much fun.

Walking hand in hand, the youngest from Jen's family and the youngest from ours...

Sharing a fresh squeezed lemonaide and the WORLDS LARGEST FRIED DOUGH EVER so messy but yummy....

Sitting in the grass having some ice cream for desert.

Beyond thrilled to be given his first ice cream cone that he got to hold all by himself.

We all had a fabulous and bonding day!

Katelyn had a great idea! Make-your-own pizzas for dinner! The kids had a great time making them. I cooked them on the grill because it was way too hot to use the oven.

Finally came time to eat'em, and that is just what the kids did. They loved them! Make-your-own pizza will be a regular dinner in our house now.