Busy Summer Days

That had to be the longest bloggin break I've ever taken! Not on purpose, we're just so busy I rarely have time to gather my thoughts in paragraph form. I do, however, gather my thoughts in sentence form and update my facebook status daily!

We have been so busy though. The fist week of summer was spent going to waterparks mostly and swimming a lot. The second week of summer was spent in dance camp. The girls had a BLAST! It was at the church and taught by a youth in our church who has been taking dance all her life and is very talented and loves kids. They were so adorable! Lexi enjoyed wearing her hair in a bun every day and on the last day they got to dress up in recital costumes and perform for us all the things they learned throughout the week. It was just precious. Ashton did SO good! Well, they both did, but Ashton just surprised me b/c I thought she would be too shy to do it, but she was a little stage ham!

Lexi is continuing in gymnastics this summer. And this week has been Adventure Week at our church. Adventure Week is like vacation Bible school on steroids! I am serving my 2nd year as the coordinator of Adventure Week. Why, I do not know. It's very stressful. I think this will be my last year to do this job. We had over 280 kids the first night and about 260 tonight, even in inclement weather. And over 120 volunteers. It's fun, but very stressful.

In a few weeks, Cary will be going on a mission trip to Peru. And I'm hoping to go to Texas for 2 weeks. That plan is not final, but I'm hoping! And before we know it, school will be back in full swing. So far, we haven't had any relaxation time to enjoy summer yet. But hopefully after Adventure Week is over with, that will all change. I need some beach and disney days!

I Know This for Sure...

We've had a ROCKIN school year! Last year, I remember blogging about my hefty decision of whether or not to put Lexi in public school or keep her at the private school where she and Ashton had been attending pre-k, mainly for convenience and because I thought she wasn't ready to leave the nest. Boy was I wrong! I was the one not ready, she did JUST FINE! And I'm so glad my fears of releasing her didn't stand in the way of her getting some of the best life experiences ever! The Pre-k did start that kindergarten program, and guess what? I think it was in February or March...they dissolved the program and all those kids had to go to other schools. I'm so thankful, knowing what I know now, that I didn't put her in that school because she would have been so behind entering kindergarten in the public school mid year like that. They were rockin and rollin and doing things most kids don't learn till 1st grade by mid year. So she probably would have had a very difficult adjustment. She is leaving this school year doing so many new things. She has made the best little friends, all from wonderful families. I just could not be happier with our free public education! I don't think it's any secret that I'm a huge advocate of public schools. I attended them. I taught at them. And one day, I hope to go back to them as a teacher or administrator. I think they're wonderful! I get very offended when people talk down about public schools and I can't stand to hear a person say, "I would never send my kids to public schools." It's highly offensive to me because I'm so passionate about them. I know God will use my passion for public schools for His glory. I know not every family wants their children to attend a public school, but it has definitely been the best place for Lexi. It has been what was right for our family.


But I wanted to chronicle some of the amazing things Lexi has learned this year because I'm so proud of her:

She can READ! Today, she read 5 books to me. And I'm not talking those little 5 pager books, I'm talking REAL children's books with lots of pages. And needed help on very few words.



She can count to...well...the other day I stopped her at 500! Because it was kinda annoying! In the car! Really annoying actually! But WOW, 500??? This time last year she was only counting to 20!



She can add and subtract single digits...sometimes using her fingers, but mostly in her head.



She can identify pennies, quarters, nickels, and dimes.



She can sorta read a clock, but mainly just on the hour and half past the hour.



She can write a 3-5 sentence story with proper capitalization, punctuation, and phonetic spelling. The spelling is at least close enough that I can make out what she meant. And I have saved stories from the beginning of the year till the end of the year and what an amazing amount of progress she has made in this skill!



She can read cursive! She can't write it, but she can read it. I don't know how. I don't think they learned that in school!



She knows all sorts of interesting facts about dinosaurs, butterflies and other insects, outer space, weather, George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, and all sorts of other people, animals, and holidays!



She has learned some of those intangible skills like working quickly and staying focused to complete an assignment in a timely manner (this is HUGE!) At the beginning of the year, she wasn't completing her work and was just too slow and was bringing home so many unfinished assignments but slowly her teacher worked her magic on her and now Lexi can stay focused and complete things quickly and accurately. One of those skills that helps you be very successful in school!



She has learned how to study and memorize things and has shown such self discipline and determination in accomplishing personal goals. She was so determined to complete her 300 words to win a pizza party and wouldn't get up from the table each night until she learned those words. She got all 300 too!!! (And they weren't site words! They were HARD!)

She learned all her site words and made a 100 on EVERY SINGLE SPELLING TEST all year long!

She learned how to make friends and how to survive....THE PLAYGROUND...this is a very big deal. There are bullies out there. Lots of them. And those kid bullies grow up to be adult bullies! It's so great to learn this survival skill as a child!

She learned how to tie her shoes!

She learned how to ride her bike with no training wheels. Well, she didn't learn that at school.

She learned how to be much more assertive with other adults and ask for help when needed or ask questions. She was so shy before kindergarten. Now she will actually talk to waiters and waitresses at restaurants. I know this may not seem like a big deal to you, but for Lexi it's a big deal!

She learned how to take care of herself! She goes through the lunch line and buys her lunch, she cleans up after herself at lunch. She packs her own backpack to come home and remembers to tell me what I need to sign or look at in her backpack each night. She remembers to wear her belt every day and how to get dressed quickly in the morning to be ON TIME! She is learning to be responsible.

I'm sure there's more. I'm blown away at all she has learned! She blew that kindergarten testing out of the water. I am SOOOO proud of my girl! I'm thankful for a wonderful teacher, a wonderful school, wonderful friends, and all the wonderful new experiences she has gained. I can't wait to see what 1st Grade holds!!!

Missy the Navigator

Cary and I both have these high tech phones that we thoroughly enjoy and don't know how we ever lived without them. Our phones have voice activated searches along with voice activated navigation systems. So for example, I can search for the closest Starbucks by hitting a button and saying "Starbucks" into my phone. It calculates my GPS and then gives me a map and driving directions that I can either read or "SHE" will read them to me as I drive along, just like any regular navigation system. It's a nifty feature, except for one thing..."SHE" has a bit of an attitude, especially when we don't exactly follow her route. And "SHE" can get a little testy. It's quite entertaining. Sometimes I take a wrong turn just to make "HER" mad. Heeeheeeeheeee. Today, Ashton asked, "What's HER name?" And I was like, "Who are you talking about?" And she said, "Her, the lady talking on your phone." And it occured to me that we haven't given "HER" a name. But tonight as we were listening to "her" get agitated with us yet again, Cary said, "Oh hush up Missy!" And that's when it occured to me that her name should be Missy. Missy is kind of a sassy name and she is a sassy kinda voice! So here is a conversation that took place tonight between Me, Cary, and "Missy":

Picture us driving in a part of town we've never been in before...

Me: Honey, I think you should turn right at that light, I just really think that's the direction you need to head in.

Cary: Well, let's see what Missy has to say....pause....Missy says we should go left, not right.

Me: (At this point, he's getting the raised eye brow, slow head turn from me b/c how dare he not trust my sense of direction!) Well, are you going to listen to the woman who has never walked on this planet, or ME who just drove us here and feels like we should go back in sorta the direction we came in?

Cary: Missy gets her cues from satellites.

Me: FINE! Listen to Missy. But she's WRONG! I think you should turn around now.

A few minutes later....

Cary: Missy froze up. pause. Missy says we are off track and should take a U-Turn at this light and go back the other direction.

Me: That's what I tried to tell you 10 minutes ago! Now turn that thing off and listen to your wife!

Cary: But you don't have a satellite.

Me: No, but I have a BRAIN!!!!!

Lexi & Ashton isms

Tonight after dinner, we sat outside and enjoyed the nice weather while the girls played and ate ice cream. I said to Ashton (who suits up for soccer each Saturday but refuses to enter the field unless attached like glue to Daddy's leg) "So, Ashy, are you going to actually PLAY at your soccer game tomorrow?" And she replied, "Nope." And I said, "Why not?" And she said, "It's scary." I asked, "What's so scary about it?" And she said...no lie..."My team." Cary and I had a good laugh. They are all boys, so I guess that's why they're so scary!

At Lexi's school, apparently they've been talking a lot about safety. Today Lexi said, "You should always THINK before you leave." I was a little puzzled. Later on at the park, Daddy was pretending to "dig a hole to China" and Lexi said, "Daddy, you should really THINK before you do that."

Kids are SO funny!

Oh and just for a quick brag, Lexi got her DIBELS test results back. She BLEW that test right out of the water. On her letter naming, she was expected to name 40 letters correctly in one minute, she got 70! On the Phoneme Segmentation (they say cat and the child has to say all the sounds they hear in the word) and get as many as they can in one minute. She was supposed to get at least 35, she got 57! And on the nonsense words where they have to correctly sound out unfamiliar nonsense words like baf, ral, jup (made up words) she was supposed to get at least 25 and she got 65 in one minute. I'm soooo proud of her! But we worked really hard to get this far! Trust me...LOTS of homework! She also said her third 100 words today. They had 300 words to say for a contest, some were site words, but really most were not site words. There were some tough words like yesterday, because, round, might, once..those are hard! She has said all 300 now so she gets her pizza party. I'm so proud of her! 1st grade here we come!!!!

Field Day & Her Royal Highness

Lexi and Daddy are both at Field Day today. I hope to have plenty of exciting pictures to post later today! She got to wear her swimsuit under her uniform and her aqua socks so she was feeling like big stuff today. And Ashton was highly jealous! Which means I'll be taking Ash to the waterpark this afternoon so that she feels like she had as exciting of a day as sister. But for now, I'm just home cleaning house and meeting the demands of my 4 yr old queen! "Mommy, I don't like this show, I want new show. Mommy, I thirsty. No, not that kind of drink. I want BIG drink. Mommy, I cold. Mommy, I hungee. I don't like this snack. I want new snack. Mommy, you don't cut it right. I cut it myself. Mommy, I go waterpark NOW!" AAAAAGH!!!! Lord, help me when her vocabulary catches up to her will! I don't have the slightest clue where she gets royal nature from! No clue! Couldn't be from me, I mean, I would never...!

4 Generation Mother Daughter Tea Party

My sweet husband gave me a wonderful Mother's Day gift, a beautiful tea party to enjoy with my mother, grandmother, and 2 beautiful girls! It was so magical! He had the music playing, the decorations were all so beautiful, the food was delicious, he even bought hats for us all to wear. He did all of this himself. I didn't do a thing! I didn't even tell him where to find table cloths or tea pots. He rummaged through the house and found everything and did all the shopping and everything. What a man! And he's not even gay! I told him if this whole pastor thing doesn't work out, he can go into the catering business.

The Menu: Cucumber sandwhiches made with fresh cucumbers from our garden, chicken salad sandwhiches, cookies, mixed nuts, cheese and crackers, chocolate candies, and three different assortments of tea, all of which were his own creation. He used regular tea bags and flavored them with things we had like apple/banana juice and juice from the cherry jar and such. They were all so yummy! This was my grandmother's first tea party, and she's 87 yrs old. It was such a special treat for us all. Thank you Cary for such a wonderful Mother's Day treat! Now I have to get busy planning something equally fabulous for Father's Day!

The girls wore their princess clothes.

FOUR generations of fabulousness!

The flowers in the pink tissue paper were made by Ashton at school yesterday. They were made from her hand prints.

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Wow! Two blog posts in one day...what is happening to me? Lots of people have asked what I decided to do about my Teacher Appreciation gifts so I will share:

For Lexi's teacher, who is an older lady and loves coffee, I got her a Starbucks gift card, along with a bag of Starbucks coffee, and a personalized coffee tumbler. I made the insert for the tumbler on photoshop and it had her name on it with a sweet teacher poem and it was on a cute blue printed background with blingy embellishments, turned out very cute. The poem read, "You've probably tied a million shoes, dried a million tears, given a million hugs throughout your teaching years. In my child's life the role you've played has been a priceless part. And you must know the special place you hold in my child's heart." And then under the poem it had "To the BEST teacher in the world, Mrs. F...Love Lexi." It was really really cute. I tied it all up in cellophane wrapping and put some cute ribbons at the top. I'm also taking her lunch from this very yummy cafe here in town that just as very unique, gourmet-ish food. She'll love that!

For Ashton's teacher, who is a country girl and has young children and she is the SWEETEST thing on Earth, oh we just LOVE her...I got her a tub of unpopped popcorn from Blockbuster and put inside the tub sodas and a variety of movie popcorn and a Blockbuster gift card. I tied it all up in cellophane wrapping and put cute ribbons on top. And I'm taking breakfast to her school in the morning for all the teachers. It's a small staff, only 7 of them, so that was easily doable. I bought some yummy pretty muffins at Target today, cut up fruit and put it on a platter with cheese cubes, orange juice, and bottles of water and voila! Less than $20 bucks but the thought goes a long way with teachers!

I had bigger and better ideas involving painting pottery and personalizing it, but the funds just weren't there this month with Mother's Day gifts and still recovering from 4 family member birthdays last month! But I think they will appreciate the thought, no matter what it is and I do secretly think they will both LOVE their gifts! Don't forget to thank your teachers. They work so hard for little pay and little to no appreciation! We love our teachers and I think it's important for our kids to see us show that appreciation because it instills in them that we honor and respect those in authority and that we as parents are partnered with their teachers in a supportive role. Don't ever let your children hear you say something negative about their teacher, it totally undermines them in their role. And that's my soapbox for today!!!

I'm smiling...really :-)

I'm a miserable excuse for a blogger lately, aren't I? I guess facebook has kind of taken the place of my online verbal diarrhea. So if you're not on facebook, you should get on it! So we can be "friends". And then you'll know way more about me and my family than you ever wanted to know!

What's been going on here? Not much honestly. A whole lotta single mommin' it! We rarely see Daddy these days. Even when he's home, he stays outside watering the grass and pulling weeds for hours upon end. We haven't had rain in weeks, but you'd never know it because there are actually mushrooms growing in my yard. :-) I'm smiling. Really. Maybe I should find an outside addiction. It would probably get me out of cleaning house, doing laundry, and wiping bottoms too! Come to think of it, my husband is a genius. See, still smiling... :-) (I bet he won't be smiling when the water bill comes!)

Lexi has an obsession with flipping, twisting, rolling, and sliding on anything and everything she can, including the kitchen counter tops. I'm still smiling! :-) I'm thinking one day a week of gymnastics is really not enough. When we go to the park, she finds bars that are NOT meant to be flipped over (like the uneven bars at gymnastics) and she flips over them anyways. She says she does it at school too, probably giving her teacher a near heart attack every day. Yesterday, I caught her standing on her head on one of my dining room chairs, legs STRAIGHT UP in the air. Still smiling. :-) And later using my kitchen island as a vault! Smiling smiling smiling.

Ashton is just doing what she's best at...being Ashton. If she were any higher maintenance...I'd have to charge her a daily maintenance fee. She's a puzzle to us. So shy at soccer that she won't even step foot out of on the soccer field without being wrapped around one of our legs. But yet take her to her friend's house or a swimming pool or the jumping place or the water park...she knows NO fear and meets NO strangers and is just as big as sister! I don't get it. At school and church, she has to be surgically removed from our legs, but yet in other settings as soon as we hit the door, man she's GONE, out there making friends, talking to everyone, and doing her thing. I'm not sure I'll ever understand. But I'm smiling! :-)

All this smiling is making my face hurt. Must go finish chores (and keep smiling.)