First Day of Kindergarten!





Max was really excited to start school...right up until the day before school started.  He said to me, "I thought I was supposed to have long vacation?" 

Once he realized that he was going to be in school the next day and be there all day long, he got extremely nervous.  "I don't think I can do this."  "What if I get lost at school?"  "What if I don't know anybody?"  After reassuring him that everything would be fine, he calmed down a little. 

That night we had my wonderful Dad come over to help alleviate some of Max's fears.  He gave Max a 'school year' blessing, and later that night Max was laying in bed when the panic set in, again.  "Mom, I can't feel it working yet."  He knew that asking our Heavenly Father for help would make him feel better and laying there he realized he was still extremely nervous.  Max and I then discussed what we had asked Heavenly Father for in the blessing and that He would help Max...then Max said, "Yep, I can do this!"

He got up the next morning and was ready to go! He was super excited and he was even ready early!  For those of you that know Max you understand that being early was a huge feat in itself! ;)

Kaysie was making sure her Big Brother has everything he needs for school

After dropping Max off Kaysie cried for a good 20 minutes.  After the tears stopped she whined about needing Max until Sesame Street started, then she was okay for a little while.  We sure missed him while he was gone.  Charlie made a comment that my day must have been easier, just having one kid at home.  I don't think that was the case.  Max and Kaysie are close, he helps me with everything during the day...including the entertainment for his 2 year old sister! I really missed him, and I missed him even more when I realized it was a lot harder to get things done with Kaysie following me everywhere!  He is a great kid and an incredible Big Brother.  In fact when I told Kaysie that the two of us would get to be together all day she wailed, "NO!" Sure made me feel good. ;)

The End of the first day...Max and his great friend Easton

Thank goodness for great friends!  I know Max's extremely long day was made easier because he had great friends by his side.

Kaysie was so happy to see Max, she ran to him and gave him the biggest hug!



Max did great!  He loved his first day of school,  and his teacher was "awesome." ("but not as awesome as you mom!") 

I wanted to make his day a little better for him....I remember teaching little kiddos that weren't quite used to going to school all day, after lunch there would always be a few meltdowns...I thought by making Max something neat for lunch it would make him feel special and revive his spirits for the afternoon.  My awesome cousin-in-law found some great ideas for me, and here are my attempts.....

This was part of his lunch the first day...it's two Ferbs, from Phineas and Ferb

Day 2...Phineas





US OPEN 2011



Congressional Club House
Bethesda, Maryland

The stands



One of Max's favorites...Sergio Garcia!



Sergio



The man in front in the white shirt and hat is Padraig Harrington and the guy in the black is Adam Scott



Justin Rose



My brother-Devin and Charlie



Devin and My Dad, Joel



Rory McIlroy, he was the BIG WINNER!



Rory





This is how they mow the greens!

A Little Sight Seeing....

The Guys had a great time , they left on a Tuesday and came home Saturday night.  They were able to watch the Pros during a practice round on Wednesday, here is where they were able to take pictures.  Thursday was a day full of sight seeing, they were completely drained from all of the things they tried to pack in...they even hit the Smithsonian after the sight seeing!  Friday they went into the actual tournament.  There were so many people there to watch...apparently it was amazing (I'll take their word for it).  No phones were allowed on the course at all and cameras were only allowed during the practice rounds.  With all the people around, no phones and these three being golf fanatics it wasn't long before they got separated and Dad was lost for a few hours!  He claims he wasn't lost...he ditched Charlie and Devin. 

There are even more pictures of their trip, but they are of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum...I'll need Charlie to tell me what all his pictures are of before I can share them.

Talking with my kids

Here are a couple conversations I never want to forget.....

Me:  We should give Papa John some of the pictures we took today.
Max: Yeah, but not all of them I want to keep some.
Me:  We'll make some copies of the pictures for him.
Max: Okay....but have Uncle Jake make the copies.
Me: Huh?
Max:  Yeah, I heard he's a good copier guy.  :)

(My brother-in-law; Jacob, is a salesman that specializes in copier sales)


Charlie put Kaysie to bed the other night and after he checked on her one last time, convinced she was almost asleep, he came to bed.  A few hours passed and at about 11:30 I heard footsteps on the stairs.  I figured it was Max creeping up to tell me he had a bad dream and I told him to go back to bed.  He didn't say anything and I didn't hear anything else, so I assumed he went back to bed.  A little while later I heard more steps on the stairs.  I got up to see what he was doing and as I rounded the corner I was surprised at who was standing outside my doorway....it was Kaysie.  She looked up at me and said, "Max sleeping, shh."  That little turkey had snuck down the stairs and tried to get Max up. 


Max:  Can I have an apple?
Me:  We don't have any apples, do you want a plum?
Max:  What's a plum?
Me:  Well, it's kind of like an apple, but softer.
Max:  Soft, you say?
"Soft, you say????  Who talks like that?  My son is an 80 year old man trapped in a 5-year-old body!

T-ball

Max's first year of T-ball was one we most likely won't ever forget.  It started off with a lot of prodding, Max hasn't ever watched baseball so he was really uneasy about playing.  If it doesn't have anything to do with super heroes or golf, he really isn't that interested.  

Once he was signed up and had a mitt, he was excited...but after he finished up the first practice I thought we'd never see him on the ball field again!  Max has played golf since he could stand up, so his ability to hit a ball is pretty amazing.  It was during this first practice that the coach was giving the kids time to hit and attempt ;) catching.  When Max got up to hit, he smoked it off the tee.  The kids in the outfield were up too close when he hit and the ball came down and hit one of his friends in the leg.  She was hurt and started to cry and Max felt so bad that he started to cry.  I didn't think a lot about it again until we headed to the field for practice number two.  As we got ready to go Max really didn't want to go, he started to get a little anxious.  When we pulled up to the field he was in full on tears and eventually threw up because he was so upset.  We worked through this problem...we had a lot of building confidence work to do.  While trying to get Max back on the field my brother suggested that we have him watch a few baseball movies.  That did the trick!  He was back in the game, with all the "movie moves!"  During one particular game Max walked out of the dugout, rubbed his cleats in the dirt and walked up to the batters box and hit his shoes with the bat. :)

Max had a hard time staying in his own area in the field, so his coach was always following him and putting him back where he needed to be. If we couldn't find Max, we'd just look for his coach and there was Max. During one game in particular we were watching this little dance between Max and his coach when we saw his coach kneeling next to him, talking to him and pointing.  After the game we asked Max what it was they were talking about.  He said, my coach told me "Max. Stay. Right. Here."

Here are a few classic quotes from my son during his games....glad his head was always in the game!

To his coach, during the game:  See my Papa?  That's my papa, right there (pointing).  We're going to the movie Thor after this.  He's taking me to the movie Thor as soon as we're done.

To his coach, during the game:  I'd rather be golfing.

I am so glad Max had great coaches, I know Max gave them a run for their money!  I appreciate the time they spent with these little guys, I know it wasn't easy!

June's already gone?!

The month of June came and went like a blur.  Max finished up his first season of T-ball, Kaysie turned 2, Charlie went to Washington D.C. to watch the US Open, and lucky me - I got my gallbladder taken out.  Before I get to the important posts about T-ball and the US Open trip I really want to tell you how my husband went from Dad to Super Dad.

The week Charlie was gone was the week my gallbladder decided it didn't like me anymore.  My amazing Mom came to the rescue! She took me to the doctors and then took us to her house to recover.  I am weak sauce when it comes to pain meds, so my Mom and sister; Lauren, completely took care of my kiddos for the rest of the week.  I can't thank them enough....my kids didn't want to leave!  To tell you how weak sauce I am with meds....Charlie called to check on me- at this point he didn't even know that I had gone to the doctor- and within a few minutes of our conversation he said, "Honey, where are the kids?"  He knew within a few seconds that I was out of it!  I am so grateful for my incredible family!  What would I have done with my poor kids??!!!

Okay here is the Super Dad part.....
I went in for surgery the next Wednesday and my amazing husband took a few days off of work to take care of me and our kids.  My husband has always been a great dad, but my jaw dropped this week when he was playing Mom and Dad.  Once again I was hopped up on pain meds and wasn't even functional until Sunday, so Charlie was on his own!  (My incredible parents and siblings were always there to help out) While Charlie was in charge my kids did some amazing things with their dad.  One thing that I will always remember was watching our kids Slip-n-Slide.  They aren't great at it on their own, so Charlie pulled them down the slide and then back up, over and over again.  It wasn't just the amazingly fun things that Charlie did with the kids that impressed me so much, it was the ordinary things-the things I don't think I have ever seen him do before that really got me. 

From the time Charlie woke up in the morning to the time he went to bed at night, he was with the kids.  He fed them, dressed them, played with them, fed them again, put them down for naps, played again, fed them again, played some more, bathed them, and finally put them to bed.  All while doing this he kept the house clean too! I was shocked when he continually loaded and unloaded the dishwasher! (I didn't know he knew how that worked;) After a few days of nonstop "mom work" Charlie noticed that after he had gotten the kids down for their naps he'd fall asleep wherever he happened to stop.  He jokingly asked me if I was drugging him...I have always told him that the life of a mom is exhausting.  We have always had the argument over whose job is actually harder, mine or his....I think he is finally seeing it from my side. 

I am so grateful to my husband for taking such great care of our kiddos...I'm not going to lie, I was seriously nervous to leave it all in his hands for so many days. (I have seen the state of our kids after he babysits for an hour ;)  When Charlie went back to work on Tuesday our kids were completely devastated.  Kaysie wanted her Daddy and continued to ask when he'd be home all day.  She still doesn't want me to put her to bed, she wants Daddy.

A couple funny notes from this experience.  Kaysie asked me at least a thousand times a day, "see ouwie, please? See ouwie?" Then I'd show her and she'd say, "Ouch, hurt. Yeah? Hurt, Yeah?" 
One morning I was feeling a little better and I was rinsing off Max's breakfast bowl and he says, "Mom, you are the best dishwasher, ever!"  Max was always trying to make me feel better...I love my kids!

Not only was my husband great, but we had some amazing friends and family help out too.  We got some delicious meals brought to our home that were eaten quickly and completely appreciated.  Thank you!

I'm a slacker!

I have been horrible about blogging lately...but I really feel I have some good reasons for my slacking. 

As this year began I realized that my teaching degree/license was quickly closing in on it's expiration date.  Teachers have to renew their license every 5 years...I am not currently teaching so the expiration date really crept up on me.  To keep the license up to date, teachers need to take 5 college credit hours.  Lucky me, I was a student at Northwest for a couple months! I only took 2 classes, both online-but for those mother's who work or go to school-I have the utmost respect for you.  Like I said I only took 2 classes and they only lasted 2 months, but it was a struggle (trying to take care of kids, the house, laundry and be a good student) I got it done, my new license came in the mail yesterday! WOO HOO! I just need to remember to keep up on my credits...I have till 2016. ;)

Once my classes were done I really wanted to change up my house.  Kaysie seemed to be outgrowing her tiny room by the minute.  I thought I could get Max to move to one of the big rooms downstairs and then move Kaysie into Max's old room.  In order to get Max to the 'really far away' and sometimes 'scary' basement I had to step up my game.  I had to make it the coolest place he'd ever seen....here's what I came up with.


BEFORE



I can't find the pictures of the rest of his old room :(



AFTER



Here is the main wall.  I painted the city (buildings, bridge, etc), but Spider-man and the Hulk are stickers. 



I still need to finish the Bat Signal...we are changing it to the Max Signal.  My Dad-(Max's super hero answer man)- and Max designed Max's own Super Hero Emblem that will go in the signal

There are Super Hero comic books that are framed beside the big poster.  The really neat thing about these comic books is that they were my Dad's.  He let us take a few from his precious collection to add to Max's room.  Thanks Papa!



These are Max's super hero masks



  



BEFORE 



AFTER

(still not done, I have a little more to finish)

I'm not entirely done with this wall...there are a few things I'd like to add to the netting and I need to find some more pillows for her bed

I still need to change out her light...and I can't seem to find the right drapes for the window 



You can't see them very well in this picture, but there are gems, 'sparkles' that go from Cinderella, up and over the window and down to her castle




 

The fun thing about this Cinderella sticker is that I wasn't loving it being just flat on the wall so I added some material and jewels to her dress and I love how it turned out!

hey are both enjoying their new rooms.  Max moved right into his room in the 'scarey basement' and never looked back.  He didn't want anyone down there with him to help him get used to it. I get kicked out as soon as our bedtime story is over!