First and Last Day of 1st Grade!

I can't believe 1st grade is over! I spent a couple months adjusting/mourning Brighton being gone all day and just when I got used to it it was over!
Things gained in 1st grade:
   New friends: Best friends were Jordan, Sophia B and Aracely
   Great teacher: Mrs. "T" (Jill Tittsworth)
   Reading Skills: Went from barely reading to fluently reading 2nd and 3rd grade chapter books!
   Independence
   A new house!

Things lost in 1st grade:
   FIVE coats and jackets
   FOUR teeth
   THREE lunchboxes
   TWO pairs of shoes
   ONE house
  first                                                                             last

 

Mother's Day Pictures

I have a little tradition that I like to take pictures with my kids every Mother's Day. It's not often that we do one-on-one pictures with the kids, and I hope they'll be special to all of us when we're all old and stuff. So here are this year's pictures!

 And this picture of Piper is just too cute not to post. :)

Cereal Paradise and other Shenanigans

If these last two months or so have taught me anything about parenting, it's that it's best to laugh- whenever possible! Deacon has been up to many "shenanigans."   I think he's feeling uprooted by the move and feeling a bit left out because there are so many girls in the neighborhood and he's kind of the "odd boy out." So he's acting out both to torment the girls and to get my attention.
The first picture is what Deacon so aptly named "Cereal Paradise" which was when he took a full bag of strawberry mini-wheats and dumped them onto the trampoline. Why?... The better question is "why not?" I suppose. I can't get inside this kid's head.
A lot of the shenanigans happening around our house have involved nudity (which I can't post pictures of!) The younger two kids just won't stay clothed! Usually Piper gets in the water table or the sandbox completely naked.
The "incident" that took me a while to laugh about was "chocolate or poo?"  We gambled and lost during the last episode of that game Aaron and I like to play. I had JUST sat down upstairs to check email when Deacon came upstairs (naked) with a popsicle stick covered in something brown. The question "chocolate or poo" was quickly answered when he shoved it in Aaron's nose and told him to smell it. (Ew. That reminds me of when my brother used to make me "smell his finger." Serious EW.) Anyway, it was brought to me and upon going in the backyard we saw several Deacon patties on our mini trampoline we had at the time. Deacon who is FOUR decided to drop a few out there and then both kids jumped in it and played with it with popsicle sticks. WHY??!!  That was a doozy to clean up and involved both kids getting outdoor hose-showers.   Although it doesn't compare to my friend who told me today that her 3-year-old pooped his pants and put it in the DRYER and turned it on! I hope nothing ever compares to that one. :)
 Yesterday I started popping some corn with my air popper and then went to the bathroom while it was popping. When I was interrupted by Brighton screaming (why am I not allowed to pee uninterrupted?) I ran out and Deacon had taken the lid thing off and the popcorn was FLYING around the kitchen. He was screaming with such utter delight I couldn't help but laugh.
I know there have been about 50 other Deacon shenanigans but I can't think of them right now. ;) He's such a stinker but so sweet at the same time it's hard to stay mad!

Deacon at Four

 The day Deacon turned four, April 3rd, 2014 was actually the day we moved into our new house! So we didn't tell him it was his birthday. :) We waited a couple days and told him Saturday was his birthday and even though we were still moving in, my mom and dad were here so we took him to Red Robin for dinner and had a little party. Then the next weekend, we had his "friend party" which was pirate themed. And what do you do when you have 50-million moving boxes and Aaron for a dad? You make a ginormous pirate fort and a pirate ship out of boxes. It was pretty epic if I do say so myself.

For his birthday presents he really didn't need anything, so I got him a soccer ball and "made" him a sandbox in a long tupperware bin. I saw the brilliant idea on pinterest to make "moon sand" with sand, cornstarch and water. I spent like $50 on sand and cornstarch and mixed it all up in this huge container. It was super cool...until the next day when the moisture was gone and it was powdery sand that got EVERYWHERE and the kids couldn't leave it in the box and threw it at each other and tracked cornstarch through the brand spankin' new house. That was super smart. 

So here's Deacon at 4:

Super lovey. He will just snuggle with me and give me hugs and kisses unlike any of my other kids.

Super smart. He really started sounding words out before his 3rd birthday but is getting pretty good at reading short words now. 

Super funny. He likes to crack people up and will walk into the middle of a group of women and just say something really grown-up sounding just to make people laugh. He always does this crooked kind of smile and wink.

Super talkative! When we're in the car it's NEVER quiet. He always wants to play either 20 questions or some game he's making up on the spot. Usually Mario Brothers where we have to chose characters and then he basically tells me what to say. It goes something like this. 

D:" Who are you going to be?"

 Me: "Princess peach." 

D: "No you have to be toad. What color do you want to be?"

 Me: "Red". 

D: "No you're purple toad and you're in love with me.  Whoa, look at that cloud. (Now you're like 'let's go jump in it!')  

Me: "Let's go jump in it."

This can go on for an hour.  To be totally honest, I'm usually totally thinking about something else or listening to the radio and just mindlessly repeating what he's telling me to say. Sometimes it makes me lose my mind just a little. I should add it's constantly interrupted by Piper yelling "Piper's turn! I spy something black!" Then I have to alternate between guessing things for Piper and being purple Toad (and listening to Glenn Beck.) I'm digressing. Oh another car game Deacon likes is assigning numbers to inanimate objects and making me guess math equations. That one goes as follows:

D: "What's flower plus magnet?"

Me: "Uh, what is flower and magnet?"

D: "Flower is 5 and magnet is 37."

Me: "Uh, 43, wait, 42.... do an easier one."

D: "OK what's car plus polar bear?"

Piper "I something black!"

Me: "Is it the car? What's car and polar bear?...."

Again, this one can go on for a long time and also makes me slightly mental. Again I'm digressing. Basically Deacon is just a super sweet, smart, funny kid who I want to squeeze at every moment! (except when he poops on the trampoline which is a post to follow.)

Losing teeth!

Kids go through such a funny awkward phase when they're losing teeth! Little tiny hillbillies! And then they look even more awkward when those grown up teeth start growing in that teeny mouth. I think it's the first weird-looking phase we go through in life but it's adorable too!
Brighton's first lost tooth was a bit traumatic- it was clear back this summer and it was so loose and I really wanted to pull it out.... that backfired and I had to vow never to do it again.

So now every tooth is super jiggly for at least a week until it finally gives up and falls out on it's own.  Now she's lost four or five and both of her front teeth are missing!

Catching Up- Birthdays!

Brighton turned 7 in January and Piper turned 2 a couple weeks ago! Bright said a while ago that she wanted a big pile of pancakes with a candle on it for her birthday, so I made it happen! She loved it! Her birthday was still during Christmas break- so we had all day to make her feel special!  We didn't throw her a party because we did a big carnival party for her this summer. But that afternoon we wanted to take the kids somewhere fun, so we let her invite two neighbor girls, Anila and Lilly to come to "Jabbers" with us, which is just a big play place. As they were in there, I realized Brighton is almost too big for places like that! :(  She still loves make-believe roll playing type games so this place is fun because it has a big life-size "doll house" with dress ups and a grocery store that they can play in. She loves that stuff but her friends didn't so much, which made me realize she's on the verge of outgrowing it. Super sad. Then she wanted to go to Olive Garden. I felt pretty ambitious taking my 3 kids plus two others to a place like that, but they did great and it was really fun! Then we came home and opened presents. Her cake was Minnie Mouse Bow-tique, which just meant that we took her Minnie Mouse bowtique set and put it all over the cake. That's how I roll.

Some things about Brighton at 7:   She still loves art. She got an easel and paints and markers for her birthday and loves them!

Here's her favorite quote: "I don't want boys to be in love with me, but when they are I want them to be even more in love with me." She thinks every boy in the world is in love with her. Or as she says "In loved with me"  Yes we can all be frightened for the future.

She's very sweet to Piper and a big help to me taking care of her.

She can still have a bit of a temper!

Her favorite foods are cowboy spuds, french dip sandwiches and glazed doughnuts. (I took krispy kremes to her class the day they went back to school after Christmas break.)

She has an intense fear of sweat right now- other people's, especially foot sweat.

She loves attention!

She is stubborn and has a hard time doing ANYTHING unless its her idea.

Now onto Piper!

Her birthday was a Sunday and we're kind of in the middle of moving to our new house, so we didn't do much, but it was perfect for a 2 year old who really has no idea what's happening anyway. :) I made her an  Elmo cake out of Jello no-bake cheesecake, raspberries, oranges and mini oreos. She just wanted to blow out the candle over and over, so eventually I was just letting her blow out the lighter over and over. She got princess shoes, a Minnie mouse shirt, a princess klip klop castle and my big splurge, her Minnie Mouse ride-on. She loved everything! (And Brighton wrapped up the pony she got for Christmas and gave that to her.

About Piper at 2:

There are SO many Piper-isms right now. She's the most particular baby/toddler I've ever had! She wants what she wants, when she wants it! The best word for her is "persnickety!" Whether it's certain shoes, a certain cup or wanting to be on my lap, she wants it!

Phrases:

"hold you!"  "milt (milk)" "babo (bottle)"  She says c and K like a T so it's "drint and mommy loot (look)!"  "Piper's turn!" "Piper do it!" She wants to do everything herself!  She's basically a parrot and will say anything we say, which is pretty funny. 

She loves oranges, peas, cereal, hot dogs and macaroni and cheese.

She has a temper!

Her best friend is Matthew. I've never seen such young kids love each other so much!- especially after hating each other so much. She used to SCREAM when she even looked at him. He's my friend Abby's little 2 year old and she sees him at the gym nursery, church and twice a week when we babysit each other's kids, so they're like brother and sister. They're ADORABLE together. And Abby is like an aunt to her. She LOVES Abby- sometimes more than me. She always says "Abby's house!"

She just wants to follow the big kids around and do everything they do.

She loves "Frozen"!  She says Mo-nan instead of snowman.

I love this little stinker pot! Even though she tries my patience like crazy, she's super sweet too and gives big loves and kisses. If I'm not listening to her, she'll grab my face with both hands and say "listen mommy". :) She's a crack up.

Wii addict!

I am having major issues with Deacon and his Wii. Before Thanksgiving he started getting into simple things like the Wii sword fighting games and other physical games like that. Then at Thanksgiving I bought Super Mario Brothers, more for me than anyone. Haha. Well Deacon was instantly in love and wants to play it morning until night. Before the Wii it was my tablet, so I know he just likes games and screens which is probably common in boys but now it's too out of control. Today I turned the Wii off and tried to get him to play with toys but he is really struggling and I struggle to know what to do with him. So today I let him paint, then finger paint.

 Then I let him get in the bathtub with water and a huge bowl of "Orbeez". Probably not the best thing for home maintenance to have bits of squishy gel balls going down the drain, but it kept him off the Wii for an hour. After I finished cleaning up the Orbeez out of the bath tub I walked in the TV room to find him like this. That is a serious problem!

Part of the problem, is it's just so nice to have him out of the way so I can get stuff done, but then he also wants help every 5 minutes...  I spent a ton of money getting him a marble set for Christmas, thinking it would occupy his time, but unless I'm right there with him, he won't play it. I need to spend more time playing with him, which I do a lot. But as soon as I step away and have to get housework done, or cook dinner, all he wants is the Wii. It makes me feel like a terrible mother!  Brighton was so good about entertaining herself all day!  Any suggestions of what other boys like to do that don't involve screens would be highly appreciated!