Special lunch

98% of the time we eat lunch at home or we pack a lunch to take with us. I wanted to enjoy a special lunch with just Cole before school gets out. Cole and I made a trip to Paradise Bakery just to enjoy a lunch together. Here's him digging into his fruit. I wanted to take a picture of him with chocolate all over after eating his gooy chocolate chip cookie, but he wouldn't let me. Can't blame him.

It has been really fun getting some one on one time with him while Makaila is in school. When the school year first started I wondered if it would be difficult keeping him busy while Makaila is in school, but we haven't had too much trouble!

Buddy Fun Day

Last week Makaila's school had Buddy Fun Day. The kindergarteners get paired with a 5th or 6th grade "buddy" and then they have a partner from their class to go around and do all the games together. Here are Makaila and her best school friend Abby and their "buddy". Tug of rope appeared to be a favorite station. Cole, my helper, made sure to test out the snow cones. I am so thankful that I have been able to be a part of her school activities like this.

Today's quote

While eating a bowl of Rice Crispies, Makaila says, "I can hear some crack, snappling and popping."

Ahhh...

After this long weekend for Memorial Day, Cole is very excited that Makaila is almost out of school. When we talk about school being done, he says then Makaila will be "home with me".

Flip flops

Cole found an old hat of Makaila's and her last year's flip flops in a pile of give-away stuff we had. He really liked wearing flip flops.

So, to keep him from leaving the house in the pink butter fly ones, we gave him his own flip flops. And he hardly takes them off. Here's him out back and also going to church. The best part is that he can't say "f's" so he calls them his "whip whops".

Playing basketball

This one is for Grandpa T

Last three weeks

We are in the last 3 weeks of Kindergarten. Home stretch. End of the year math tests. Last library check out. Push to make 50 book reports to get the big prize. And as the mom of a child ending kindergarden how do I feel? Mixed feelings actually. Hard to believe my eldest is 6 and will be in 1st grade (for some unknown reason, 1st grade is much bigger than kinder. They are more seasoned.). Sad to see the newness of Kindergarden and elementry fade. Sad she won't be getting her fill with social interaction at school. Sad I will have to be a good planner of activies to avoid the kids driving me crazy with bordem. Sad I will lose my alone time in my house while Cole naps 4-5 days/week!

But, happy I won't have to pack a lunch at night for the next 3 months. Happy we won't have to be in the car at 7:50 every morning. Happy I won't have to make sure Cole is down for nap by 12:30 so I can make sure he's up for 3:00 pick up. Happy Makaila will wear some clothes that aren't navy, red or white. Happy the kids will get to play together more freely. Happy for play dates. Happy for swimming and spray parks and ice cream. Happy for summer.

Mother's Day 09

It is nice to be a mother on Mother's Day. Here is the fam (well, Chad is taking the picture) on our way to Panera. This is the second year I requested it for my Mother's Day lunch. Then, I got a few (FOUR!) hours of alone time to do some shopping. The kids gave me some money to replace my recently broken sunglasses, so they were okay with me going to shop for sunglasses. Of course I also got something necessary for each of them, but it's hard not to do that when you have kids.

Earlier this week we were driving around in the car when there was a Mother's Day message on the radio. The person said, "you are the best mother". Cole goes, "You are the best mother. And Daddy is the best daddy. And Makaila is the best Makaila." I'll try to remember these moments when my kids are fighting viciously or when they just become teenages and act like they don't like us.

Dentist Visit

Monday was Cole's first trip to the dentist. He did great! Makaila had the first appointment of the day, we left and took her to school and then we came back for Cole's appointment. Cole loved all the toys in the waiting room and after we were there a bit they turned on a video. When it was time leave, Cole wanted to "stay there" while I took Makaila to school. He didn't understand that it didn't work out that way. We had an hour to kill before coming back for his appointment and he just kept wanting to "go to the dentist". I think it was in part because Makaila told him all about how he'd get a new toothbrush and a tatoo and a token for the toy machines. Yeah, he was pumped.

The first picture is him being excited that it is finally his turn. One is when they took his blood pressure. The other two are him in the dentist chair. Notice Froggy came along? One big improvement over big sister's first trip - No cavities!

Makaila's b-day part2

Turning 6 is so much more fun when it is spread out over a week. After getting presents in CA, Makaila slowly opened her presents from Nana and Grandpa, us and her cousins. Then she also got a night of her meal choice and donuts brought to school (the picture of her standing up for her class to sing to her). Last on the agenda was an afternoon of Chick Fila with brother and 3 friends and then the girls went to paint pottery. It was a great way to celebrate Makaila turning 6.

Makaila's b-day part1

Makaila's actual birthday was the day we traveled back from California. At our really big family Spaghetti Factory dinner we celebrated her birthday. She got her own princess cake and lots of presents. In fact, her summer wardrobe is pretty much complete thanks to my Mom, Aunt Cheryl, Aunt Linda and Grandma Maxine. Then she got to enjoy being the birthday girl all day coming home on the plane with her birthday sticker and the birthday crown. She wore her new necklace and played her new leapster game.

Cool!

Chad was in the garage filling the fluids of his car and the garage door to the house was open. Cole came around the corner from the dining room and saw the hood of the car was open. He runs through the kitchen and laundry room as fast as his legs could take him yelling, "COOL!"

Like Daddy?

Why am I posting a picture of my son's foot? Do you see all the pen marks on it?

From time to time my husband comes home with writing on his hand. The kids see this while he's eating dinner and they think it is so interesting. They always ask him why he has writing on his hand. His typical answer is that he didn't have any paper and he needed to write something down.

The other evening at bed time I noticed Cole had this writing all over his right foot. He response was, "I didn't have any paper." Can't exactly punish a kid for acting like his father.

Skater girl and drummer boy

Here is the crew as we ventured down our street last night. We were talking about a friend who plays the drums and Cole remembered he had a drum. Makaila keeps wanting to practice skating every day after school and she wanted to try them outside. So last night after dinner, we went out as a family up and down our street with one of us holding hands with skater girl and being led by the drummer boy.

Cars

While we were in CA, cole was given some new cars. He got the blue Dynaco Lightning McQueen, a mini Lightning McQueen and mini Doc. He also got 2 Thomas trains that run on batteries. Let me tell you, the kid won't put them down. He runs them on the train track, runs them on the bathroom floor, runs them on the coffee table, runs them on his race track, and here is a picture with him and 2 of the cars in the kitchen. Daddy had issues with these cars on the airplane because all Cole wanted to do was play with them. . . but all he kept doing is dropping them into the row behind us.

Roller Skakes

We gave Makaila new roller skates for her birthday. They are old school 4 wheels and lace up. Hannah Montana actually, but that was all they had. We weren't sure what she would think of them. She's never tried skating before, or talked about wanting to try it. But I'd say they were a hit. She has worn them all afternoon/evening for the past 3 days. The first day of using them she got brave and decided to try a loop around the house. That meant going on the wood floor in the kitchen. It sounded like she made it 3 feet in and then her legs were going like crazy until there was the plop of her falling. She yells from the next room, "I'm all right!" Then she comes back into the carpeted front room and says, "maybe I'm not ready for that yet.

Hopefully you don't think I'm a terrible mother for putting on a video that she falls at the end, but she was cracking me up with this song she was making up while skating.

Spikes

This is Cole fresh from getting his haircut to have spikes again. We did this before the big weekend to CA so Grammy could see his spikes. In this totally posed picture he had pulled his socks way up and was walking around the house pretending to talk on this phone.

This morning he was pulling at his hair. He told me he was making spikes so Grammy could see (we're home from the trip now). He told me he was doing this in his bed too.

Night light

So, my husband is still a little mad at me for purchasing this, but I'm blogging about it anyways. This is a nightlight. Not an ordinary nightlight. It has a timer and clock. It can be set for when it is time for sleeping (the blue moon) and time for waking up (the yellow sun). Cole has been having a little trouble the past few months staying in bed as long as we'd like.

Truthfully, we think he doesn't need quite as much sleep as his sister at this age, but we still feel it is important to stay in your bed (or at least bedroom) until 7:00. He moved into a big boy bed a little younger than Makaila did and she was quicker at learning to read numbers. So we taught her to look at her clock and that isn't an option yet for Cole. He has been waking up whenever Makaila goes to the bathroom in the middle of the night because he sees a light on.

The first week he wasn't quite getting it because in the day it is not on at all and at night time the blue moon in on. Whenever he woke up he would see the light and come tell us the son is up. Finally we started saying you can get up when the YELLOW sun is on. Now he gets it. He comes running into our room, "The sun is on, it's wake up time!" Of course he's so excited he's kind of yelling this. Sometimes we have to go in his room and see it.

My husband thinks this is ridiculous because it cost $35 + shipping of a whopping $8 more dollar. Yes, you got that right, $43 for a nightlight. But I say, an hour more of sleep is priceless.

Grandma turns 90

My Grandma turned 90 this weekend. We had a big surprise for her with all 3 children + spouses, 7 grandchildren + spouses and 8 great-grandchildren getting together for the weekend. This is pretty good considering we live in 5 different states and Dad was coming from Guatemala. We bowled, ate, talked, took pictures and did all but the bowling again. It was so much fun to have all the cousins together for the first time in 13 years.

Boys will be boys Part2

I love watching my son play. Something is just so great about this age. And there are just somethings that boys do that little girls would never do.

Take yesterday for an example. He took out every ball he has in his room (a good 15 or so) and they were all over the place. He was taking them one by one, getting a running start and throwing them into his closet door to see how they bounced off. There were many ooohs and ahhs when some of them bounced really well. A girl wouldn't think of that game on her own.

Then we were at the park. We met a friend and they both brought little soccer balls. After tiring of actually playing soccer (shooting into the little goal we brought and yelling "goooooaaaaalll!"), they were throwing them through some monkey bar rings. They added another guy playing with them with his football. They didn't talk at all, but everyone knew the game and they all took turns throwing. They would even get each others balls and bring them back. Then another boy came to the park. The four little boys (ages 2-3 1/2) started playing football. No, really. Okay, there wasn't any plays or tackling, but they were tossing the ball around to each other. The two oldest of the group were more skilled at tossing and throwing. But Cole's friend would give him turns to throw. Whenever their was a stray throw, they all ran after it. Again there wasn't any fighting and there wasn't any talking. But the boys were red-faced and having a blast.

Today I was in Cole's "house" in his room. He was Larry the mailman (yes, we actually know the name of our mailman) delivering me mail and picking up my letters to send. Of course he had to take a break from delivering mail to fix my house. He got out his tools and sawed, hammered and screwed the door so it was all fixed.

He also has just discovered many vehicles he has had for a while. But suddenly he loves his Tanka dump truck and his blue tow truck. He drives them all around the house and loves putting things in them.

I also think it is amazing that where girls may have a automatic interest in Princesses, boys gravitate to things like Spiderman. The only Spiderman thing Cole has is some slippers, yet he loves to play he is Spiderman and point him out whenever we're out shopping. How do they just know to like superheros?