An adventure in camping

I'm not even going to try to play catch-up from December. Christmas happened. It was fun. ;-)

I will take a moment and backdate a post for Connor's 3rd birthday. From this point on, however, we move forward.

And we start with our camping trip! Let me preface by saying: I had no intention of going camping. James had the week off and decided to go camping to get himself out of the house while the rest of us were busy with work/school. With a forecast of 40 degrees overnight and my only-seen-snow-once children, I wasn't keen on the idea. But late Wednesday night, James convinced me, so Thursday I threw things together last minute before and after work, and ushered the kids out the door as soon as they got home from school.

They had no idea where we were going and I was a little concerned they'd hate the idea once we were there. Turns out, they loved it! We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, because you pretty much have to when you go camping. Due to last minute planning, we lacked graham crackers and chocolate, but the kids loved the marshmallows and didn't know enough to care.

Our camp site backed right up to a lake and a small pier, so James took them all fishing. They didn't catch anything. First of all, the line was only in the water for a few minutes each. Second of all, the lake hadn't been stocked in awhile, so pickings were thin. A few smaller fish nibbled at the bait and made the bobber dance around, but nothing caught.

The one thing I insisted on: If I'm taking the kids camping for the first time, I need a camera to take decent pictures. I've been surviving on a camera phone only for the last several months and, in the process, have taken a fraction of the pictures I'm used to. I had been shopping around for a camera for the last few weeks anyway, so I took advantage of the trip, found a store with my pick in stock (all the way across town, but conveniently along the way) and splurged a little.

Oh yeah, bathroom selfie!!!

 I had fun toying with some of the options, especially the color selection one:

It was cold the next morning. Well, 40 degrees, which may not seem cold to some, but when a person lacks certain types of clothing, it's freaking cold. Especially when the fire won't start the next morning. Poor Connor, despite having clothes layered over his fleece pajamas and being bundled in his jacket and mine, still shivered for the first hour unless being held. The girls handled it okay, content in their jackets, and it warmed up several degrees within an hour or so.

We didn't stay long in the morning. With the Easter crowd on its way in and Connor giving me constant heart attacks by wandered toward the little pier, we packed up early. James instructed the girls in taking down the tent, while I played a last minute game of peek-a-boo with Connor and Megan. Then, it was back on the road, where we managed to avoid the same traffic that made the trip take twice as long on the way up.

Connor screamed as we buckled him in the car, irate that we were leaving when all he wanted to do was run wild. He continued to scream for 30 minutes until he cried himself to sleep in the car. The only thing that soothed him, upon seeing our house in front of him when he awoke, was a slice of cold pizza (leftover from our one night James wasn't home for dinner).

What did Fall bring?

So, now it has been three months since my last update. Of course, 99% of my regular readers are on Facebook and get regular updates there, but I do want to eventually want to print off this blog as a family history book of sorts. So... here goes.

What has happened since September 10th? A whole lot of everything and a dash of not much. ;-) School and work took up most of our time the last few months, but that's been a good thing. I'm enjoying my 2nd year of teaching preschool. Megan is rocking it at kindergarten. Cadence is excelling in 1st grade. Connor's charming everyone in his class. James is working his butt off as he always does.

We did lose Aunt Robyn earlier than we expected to. She was supposed to be here until late winter, but felt strongly impressed to return home. So, she quickly packed up and headed home to surprise Nana with her early return. The girls were sad to see her go and even Connor noticed her absence the first day. Naturally, all three kids got sick immediately after she left and James and I had to swap taking days off, instead of just leaving them home with their aunt.

Shortly after that: Halloween! We had a busy time of it. The ward Halloween party, costumes at school, school trunk or treat and, of course, Halloween night itself. Connor was ecstatic to be Wolverine. Megan happily braided her long hair for Elsa. Cadence did not care that nobody recognized her costume, because she was Kitty Cheshire, gosh dang it, from Ever After High. James and I did not wear OUR costumes, though we did attend a party earlier in the month dressed as a mobster and his wife. We looked amazing, but sadly did not get pictures. I did, however, don the school-appropriate Halloween shirt I got for work and owl-dressed-as-witch earrings.

Not long after that, James and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. It was a quiet affair. We took the entire family out to dinner. We originally intended to celebrate at a steakhouse, but after poor service (as in 20 minutes of sitting at the table with nobody even getting us drinks), we ditched it for Ihop. Next year... we'll do something more. :-)

And, of course, after our anniversary, we celebrate Megan's birthday. She's 6! Holy cow! I adore this girl. She's the snuggliest little brat around and she is all attitude. There are days I don't know what to do with the amount of sass she can put out, but then she grins and all is forgiven.

And then the bigger brat turned 7. In a year, we'll be planning her baptism. When did I get old enough for that? She's the biggest goofball I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.

As cute as they are, however, James and I finally put the foot down with their messy hair. For months we warned them if they didn't take care of it, they couldn't have the long hair. Finally, we carried through. Both girls were extremely upset as we drove to the salon and argued with me over just how short I was going to cut their hair. I gave each stylist my thoughts on length and texture and stepped back to let them work their magic.

For Thanksgiving week, all 5 of us had the week off to spend at home and together. We took advantage of a group deal at the nearby Wildlife park that shuttled us through the exhibit with bins of food to lure the animals to us. The kids got to feed camels, zebras, buffalo, llamas, and a variety of exotic deer. Heck, just walking up to the wagon had deer tame enough the kids could wander up and pet them. There were also pony rides involved. We skipped the petting zoo itself, since the kids were getting restless.

Over Thanksgiving week, James and I also tackled to house projects. I had repainted the atrocious main bathroom a year ago, or part of it. The main bathroom has the toilet/tub room and the vanity area is separate. So, we got another shade of blue for the vanity portion of the main bathroom and went to town. It looks amazing! The main part of the house and the master bedroom had been painted before we bought the place, but the rest of the rooms had old paint jobs and it was obvious. A little color made a world of difference. We plan to get the lumber to frame in the mirror at some point to finish the refresh.

Next on our to-do list: Cadence's room. This room had what I thought were grease spots, but ended up being a bad touch-up job with paint a shade or two darker than the rest of the wall. When I began picking up paint chips for Cadence to choose from, I went for subtler tones. She snagged the bright green. Initially, I balked at the idea, but then I envisioned it paired with bright pinks and teals and got excited about it. The more we painted, the more I loved it. It's a great color to transition to her tween years and beyond. And, for my vibrant, creative girl, the color is pretty much perfect. Now we just have to find fantastic decor items to match!

So... that's been our fall season. Winter is upon us (at least according to the calendar, it's still 70+ degrees around here). Our tree is up, our stockings were up but the hooks didn't stay on the wall, the presents are slowly beginning to pile up as they come in and I get them wrapped. We're in the final stages of preparing for my work's Christmas program. The girls have their penny gifts for their own Christmas parties. James has one more week of work before he's off for two weeks, just like the rest of us. Plus, Grandma will be in town, so we'll have lots of fun. :-)

We already attended our ward Christmas party (I'll add pictures later). Connor pointed to Santa and seemed like he might actually go to the big guy this year, but he got about three steps into the room before he changed his mind and ran away crying. Next year, Santa. ;-)

Hey, look, I'm back!

The problem with using my phone as my main camera source (since my nice camera finally bit the dust), is I don't take as many pictures and I don't upload them to my computer as frequently, so I don't think to post.

Anyway, a month in updates using the pictures from my phone:

We'll start with my work! I had my first day back on August 10th. I walked into my new classroom and it was filled with junk. There were boxes and stacks of school supplies, unusable furniture, etc. I honestly spent the first day feeling rather hopeless as I attempted to get things sorted and arranged and set up and went home feeling very deflated. However, by the end of the third day, things had mostly come together and I am so far pleased with the results. I've been back at work for 3 weeks now and it's been an experience. There's some growing pains with a new class and a new director, but we're starting to hit a groove.

Just before school started, we took advantage of James getting some extra hours at work, my first paycheck finally coming in and a night of "I really don't want to cook" and treated our family out to dinner. It was an extremely enjoyable evening. We beat the rush, get to smash peanuts, feast on yeasty rolls with cinnamon butter, and, oh yeah, we ordered food too.

Then, it was nose back to the grindstone and the first day of school (still no pictures of Connor at school, I put my phone away as soon as I get there, since having it out while I'm "in ratio" can get me fired). James got to drop the girls off (and sent me pictures) so I could focus on getting out the door and getting to my first day of school on time. Cadence's teacher called me later that day to tell me how awesome she was (apparently something she does for all her students).

There is a funny story in there about meet-the-teacher the Friday before school started. I parked 2 blocks from the school, loaded the boxes of school supplies in Connor's stroller, grabbed the kids, eyed the storm clouds overhead and decided to chance it. Yeah... we weren't 50 ft from the car when the heavens opened and we were drenched. For some reason, I thought it would let up soon, so we trudged forward. We were that poor family dripping puddles as we shivered our way down the air-conditioned halls. I stopped at the 1st grade bathroom to try to wring out the worst of it, but we still left puddles in both classrooms. (Naturally, it only sprinkled for the rest of the day, the only real downpour was when we were walking).

On our first Friday off, Connor and I got to go to the zoo with other moms and tots from our ward. We'd let our membership lapse last spring, so it was a nice treat. Connor was fascinated by the elephants and the snakes. It was also our first time seeing the gorilla exhibit. I took the picture below and posted it before I took a closer look and realized Connor has the same smirk as the gorilla. Ha!

The past week has been a week of milestones. Not only did I turn 30, but both girls lost a tooth AND got their ears pierced. The ear piercing was a spur of the moment decision. Until recently, when presented with the idea, both girls would refuse to do it, but over the past month, they've been pestering me relentlessly. So... we did it. Cadence wasn't expecting it to hurt as bad as it did and actually cried afterward, which terrified Megan. Then Megan, now expecting the worst, was pleasantly surprised by how little it actually did hurt and uttered only a quick, cute: "Ouch!"

Connor cried the most, though. He didn't get a lollipop.

Top tooth gone!

First tooth!

This month...

There's a reason for my silence. The biggest one being: We didn't have a computer for the last 3 weeks. Out of nowhere, our laptop up and died. It would turn on and immediately freeze when you asked it to do something. Since the fan was off kilter for a few weeks leading up to the death, I can assume something overheated. In the end, it was easier to purchase a new computer.

We have had a pleasant enough summer during the computer-free weeks and the weeks before.

(Unfortunately, pictures are slow in coming. Most of them were on the other laptop and I haven't been able to move them over yet. So, text only updates this time around!)

Starting the same day as my last post:

The girls enjoyed a dance camp offered by a local church. They had a blast, despite the summer heat. There was even a short performance at the church's block party. I do have video to share of that adorableness (Cadence has the red sleeves in the front and Megan has the crazy hair right next to her).

Shortly after that, we enjoyed a few more pool days, library storytimes, and even a reptile exhibit where the kids all got to pet an alligator and some snakes and even pick up and play with tortoises!

Fourth of July was a ton of fun. We went to a barbecue put on by a church family, then left early so I could take the girls to the city sponsored firework show. We had to park in a separate parking lot and hop on a school bus acting as a shuttle to get us to the stadium, then find a spot in the already crowded bleachers. It was the girls' first time seeing a real firework show and they were properly impressed. Though, with the 30 minute delay in starting, they were ready to leave before the grand finale (which was fine with me, it put us near the front of the shuttle line to get home quickly!)

This past week, the girls got to attend a VBS (Vacation Bible School). I wasn't sure what to expect when I signed them up, but I knew they'd enjoy the chance to get out of the house. The quality of the program blew my socks off and the girls had a blast attending. There were daily performances, with special effects and everything. I got to attend the parents night on the last day and see the final "episode" of the superhero saga that unfolded all week. Already, both girls want to return next summer.

We officially registered both girls for the upcoming school year. I have a work conference this week and then I'm back to work 2 weeks after that. We're about to get caught up in the hectic back-to-school prep that's only going to be made more hectic by my work back-to-school prep. Wish us luck and sanity! :-)

School End/Summer Beginning

So, some of this happened a little before my Broadway post, but most of it happened after. ;-) Naturally, with the end of the school year, we have end of the year graduations/ceremonies. The first one was mine and Megan's. I don't have a lot of pictures easily accessible (I need to get them from Robyn). The overall thing was a success. It was short, sweet and simple with lots of chuckles from moments of 4/5 year olds being 4/5 year olds (like one of my students who smiled for the picture then walked away without his certificate, or another student who refused to smile when everyone was taking the group pictures).

It was bittersweet saying goodbye to my students. It still hasn't quite sunk in that I'll likely never see those students again. I may have been exasperated with the majority of them by the end of the school year, but I will miss each of them, cheeky grins and all. At least Megan will get to keep tabs on Ms. Kim (and vice versa) since I'm friends with her on Facebook.

The chaos of everyone trying to get the class pictures while we all posed. You can see me fixing the hat of one of the students. Those hats would NOT stay on!

Starting to leave. You can't actually see Megan in this one. She must have been one of the first ones to dash off stage!

Megan at her farewell party. Mrs. Kim spoiled her kiddos!

A peek at the party going on in my classroom.

A week later, it was Cadence's turn! James (who had the previous week off and was able to attend Megan's ceremony with little fuss) was able to get the morning off to attend. Cadence earned 3 of the 4 "general" awards (she only missed out on perfect attendance, darn flu!) and earned a special award from the art teacher (was anyone really surprised by that?). As the kindergarteners stood up and sang their collection of songs, I couldn't resist poking Megan and telling her "you get to do that next year!" and watch her big grin. I was able to attend Cadence's end of the year party later that same afternoon and watch her interact with her teacher and friends. She seemed so tall, though...

Sitting on stage between her two best kindergarten friends (so glad she was next to them for this picture!)

Showing off her awards: Kinder completion, good behavior, reading, and art!

Her very last day of school. Look how OLD she looks!

At last, school is out and we have just over 2 months of freedom (Unfortunately, I got my marching orders for August 10th). My phone's calendar is filled with all sorts of free options (reptiles at the library next week!). First and foremost, of course, is figuring out our personal pool schedule. To help decide which pool to use and when, we explored the neighborhood pool right around the corner from our house (one of the reasons we bought the house was being walking distance from the HOA pool). Tomorrow, Connor and I are going to test the waters (haha) of the activity pool our HOA also gives us access to.

I also signed the girls up for a free dance camp this week, hosted by one of the local churches. They had their first day today, while Connor and I scampered off to toddler time at the library. And, of course, we can't forget Beau who needs to be kept busy as well. We have a favorite dog park that gives him a TON of room to run off all that 2-year-old energy. Plus, Connor gets his fill of being licked by every dog he can get his hands on when other dogs come to play too.

The pool is Cadence-approved

Connor and his dog taking a break in the shade at the dog park.

The dog adores the dog park. He recognizes the word and knows the route by heart. If you make a wrong turn he gets very distraught. He's so in love with the park, the two times he's rushed past us out of the car, he's gone straight to the gate and waited. It's always a treat to watch him take off as soon as we open the gate and I finally remembered to get it on video. He starts running and doesn't stop for usually a full 5 minutes (at which point he finds the biggest puddle to cool his feet in before taking off again).

Broadway Review

Our stake just finished a broadway review. It was spearheaded by the music director of our ward, so I decided to venture out to the tryouts/information meeting and quietly signed up and snuck back out. Between James's work schedule and having young children, I hadn't been able to participate in anything like this in some time, so I was excited to be able to make it work and be a part of the night! It was so much fun and I had a blast at all the rehearsals and especially the performance.

Anyway, there were requests for video. I only have the poor quality of a camera phone, but you can hear the singing and you can get an idea of how cheesy the Mary Poppins medley was. Included is a bonus video of "Seize the Day" done by the young men from my ward, who were so enthusiastic with their performance that it was definitely a highlight of the evening. (At some point, I may get the chance to upload the closing "Oklahoma" group number, but my computer needs a rest from trying to upload these videos all morning!)

(I, of course, will listen to this and hear every single note I missed, but overall they were solid performances despite the nerves and an unwelcome frog in my throat at one point, so enjoy!)

(I'm in black, 3rd from the right)

(On the left, singing first)

(Yeah, I'm pretty much the only adult there)

(I love our Young Men!)

GoNoodle Fun!

Cadence brought home a flyer from school telling us about GoNoodle, a website they use in their classroom to get some activity going on days they may not be able to do so otherwise (for example, those rainy days that are so plentiful in Houston). So, we tried it out today and their enthusiasm simply had to be recorded for memory sake.

Even Beau got into it, a bit. ;-)

Work and School :-)

We are in our final weeks of school here and things are getting busy! Preschool and kindergarten graduation are right around the corner, but this week we had Cadence's first school field trip and the preschool's end of the year Hawaiian celebration going on. (For my poor schedule, that's on top of getting mothers day gifts finished and home on time after just finishing my final round of preschool assessments to send home with parents).

The Hawaiian party was a huge hit with the kids, though, mostly because it included a giant bounce house. Plus, all the teachers were able to get into the dressing up (more so than our superhero day, which was still fun, but not quite as crazy as Dr Suess day) and we just got to watch the kids having fun nonstop.

Megan posing in her Hawaiian gear

Selfies are hard to do with my phone, but I managed. Both of us dressed up.

I realized I've been working for awhile and never really posted pictures of where I work. This is my classroom. I'm pretty proud of it. I didn't have a lot to work with given what I walked in to, but I think it's worked out pretty well (the previous teacher did the tissue paper flower and tree)

And Cadence's field trip! This was the first real thing I missed because I started working and that was a bit hard to cope with. Of course, if Aunt Robyn hadn't been here, I wouldn't have been able to go even if I wasn't working (no siblings allowed). At the very least, I will be able to make an appearance at field day and Cadence's kindergarten award ceremony/performance. Other parents did post a few pictures, so I do have something to memorialize her big day. The first thing she said as she climbed into the car was how awesome it was to ride the bus. "No seatbelts!"

Cadence is peeking out from the slide. You can barely see her.

She's wearing the tan sweater, just right of center.

Counting down to the start of summer here! 3 weeks (+1 day) for me and the youngest two. 4 weeks (+2) for Cadence. I know the preschool is practicing graduation songs and our morning group prayers often include patience for the teachers as we deal with restless kiddos and our own "it's almost over!" feelings.

I am officially hired back for next year. It was never really a question, but having it confirmed is always nice. I've even been told I'll be moving into a bigger classroom, so I'll get to start from scratch next year (kind of exciting!) instead of walking into an already decorated one. Megan's officially enrolled in kindergarten. Cadence is officially signed up for the GT (advanced academics) for 1st grade. Connor is all set to start full-time preschool in an actual classroom next year. And, I'm browsing summer class options to keep the kids busy so cabin fever doesn't set in (so far it looks like a literature class for Megan and a science/lego class for Cadence).

Easter Weekend and then some (a.k.a. LOTS of pictures)

It's been one of those fun weekends. A little hectic, a little crazy, but lots of little moments worth smiling about. We all got Friday together unexpectedly. I have Friday off of work as a rule, Cadence had Friday off for Good Friday, and at the last minute, James ended up being home as well. Not that it changed much. I still spent the morning at the vet clinic to get Beau's shots up to date and to get his heartworm/flea medication that is so important in this swamp-like environment.

So, not a lot worth mentioning got done during Friday, but we did end the day building a "fort" in the girls' room. They were so overjoyed with the whole thing, they asked me to rebuild it for bedtime Saturday night and played in it so hard Sunday morning they pull it and the curtains down. Oops.

Of course, one of the best things about this weekend was getting to sit down and watch General Conference. We revisited our success with encouraging the girls to listen for specific words during the conference talks. Cadence made it through almost the entire Saturday morning session without much fidgeting and lots of treats in her belly.

Before General Conference, however, James and I took the girls out for a very special treat. Cadence has gotten so competent with the BB gun she got for her birthday, James felt she was ready to be introduced to firing our .22 rifle. We left Connor at home with Aunt Robyn and the four of us trekked down to a local range bright and early to see how the girls did. They both did really well, despite being asked to try to aim 100 yards away. Of course, what excited them most were the peacocks roaming around the yard.

Between Conference sessions on Saturday, we hurried to Bass Pro Shop for their Easter activity. It was a lot busier this time around, since we went the day before Easter instead of the week before, but the kids still had fun. The Easter egg hunt was way more organized this year, requiring them to find 5 different colors from 5 different areas. James waited in the Easter bunny line while I supervised the kids at the arts and craft table. When it came time to meet the Easter bunny, Megan and Cadence ran forward, but Connor had a death grip on my shirt. So, to have him in the picture, I had to join.

After the afternoon session and dinner, James went to the priesthood session, leaving the dirty work of dying Easter eggs to me and the kids. Connor was enthusiastic and wanted to touch everything. Megan and Cadence were excited to pick out the face stickers that came with our dye kit to make silly faces on all the eggs. Then they all went to bed without much of a fuss (a welcome break to the hassle bedtime has become in recent weeks).

 Sunday morning brought the return of the Easter Bunny. The girls were ecstatic to discover "Ever After High" dolls by their baskets, which they had been considering saving their allowance for. This year, the Easter bunny hid the eggs inside and actually hid them. The last couple years, the eggs have been merely tossed around. The girls had fun searching and even Connor was tempted away from his basket of candy to find the blue and green ones the Easter Bunny left in plain view for him.

 The aftermath (once they'd abandoned the baskets for the cinnamon roll muffins I'd made for breakfast. Yeah, that's right, more sugar).

And, last but not least, a few pictures that my non-Facebook followers might have missed out on. Both of them were taken by Robyn. The picture of Cadence may end up framed on my wall, but we'll see. We're taking the kids to a park in their Easter clothes (pictured further below) to see if we can't update my picture wall that way. Still, I think we'll be hard pressed to out-cute this particular picture of Cadence (even with the plastic bag and hose in the picture).