School Happenings and Other Random Things

I took Emily to get her first real live smoothie. Meaning, I didn't make it home. I actually bought her a smoothie from a place that sells wheat grass and such.

She liked it, but proclaims that mine are better. I had a coupon and we still spent $7.50 (I had a gift card). It's a good thing she prefers mine as we won't be back.

I remember a time when I was single. Stopping at Jamba Juice for a smoothie and/or pretzel was a weekly occurrence. So were car washes, the deluxe ones. And trips to the beauty salon every 6 weeks. Eating out every week and going to the movies. Gym memberships and shopping sprees at Ann Taylor. Oh and don't even get me started on how often I got a mani and pedi. My single life was a good one, that's for dang sure.

But there is a time for everything in our lives. That was then, this is now and now is pretty dang incredible too. We choose to live way below our means. Gina's Beauty Parlor is open 24/7 if any of us need a trim. David washes my car, and gives me "the works" version every time. I make smoothies for the family. Shopping sprees are now at Old Navy or Target, and always with a coupon. Movies are few and far between and the gym is my bike with a child seat on the back. Oh and my toes, I paint them. That's just how we roll.

We scale back when we can, so we can afford the things we really want for our family. Which for us is usually a great trip somewhere. Did I mention we are headed to Disneyland in 7 days. A few days at Disney and then off to a beach house we rented. So, so excited.

But I digress...I used to get excited by a clearance rack at Ann Taylor. Now, I get enjoyment when I tell Noah to get dressed to go get the kids from school. Oh, he tries so hard. It's a 50/50 shot he'll get it right, yet, he always gets it wrong.
Outfit totally doesn't match.

His polo is on backwards.

He's rocking it though and I could care less. There would have been a time with Emily that I would've never gone out of the house with her outfit like this. Then, Ben came along and he wanted to wear costumes all the time. I let him. With Noah, I'm just happy the kid isn't naked.

Emily's friend got her a "best friends" necklace. How cute are they?

ADORABLE! I love that Emily has made a great friend at school.

It's the little things in life that make me happy, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

An Artist Is Born

Noah is turning into quite an artist. He is obsessed with coloring, writing, marking on anything he can. This includes paper, toys, the walls, himself. It would be funny if it wasn't so annoying. Thank God for the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. Seriously, that is the best invention ever. Takes marker off the wall, but doesn't hurt your paint. I don't know how it does that.

This weekend, Noah put purple marker all over his face and told David that he looked pretty now. He looked like a clown.

I decided to try to channel Noah's "talent" onto our dry erase board.

I told him to smile at me, probably not a good idea.

The problem was he wrote over and erased our grocery list and David's to do list.

It was time to break out the big guns. Out from under the bed came Emily's easel. I think this is the solution to our problems.

Oh, he is really thrilled now.

And when I went to take a shower, I came out and found him here.

Our lists will have to go on paper for awhile, until this phase passes...

Ben's Journal

The other day I was going through the afternoon ritual, unloading backpacks, unpacking lunches, getting homework together for the kids to do after they get 30 minutes of free time.

I came across a green notebook in Ben's backpack. It was his journal from school. It's suppose to stay in their seat sack, but on occasion, he accidentally packs up something he shouldn't. I flipped through it and it made my day. Here are some of the highlights.

This says:  "My family is cool.  They love me.  My sister's name is Emily.  I like Emily."  He misspelled Emily's name, but come to think of it, I've never taught him how to spell her name.  The little girl that sits across from him is Emily also, but spelled Emilee.  I asked him where Noah was and he said he didn't have time to draw him.

This was after we had the kids watch a Dateline about Stranger Danger approaching kids in an ice cream truck.  At least he retained what he learned!

This says:  "Something I don't like is my patch."  Ben is still patching his good eye 3 hours a day.  I love the drawing of the patch. 

This says:  "I went to Wet N Wild.  It was fun."  That's him going down the Boa Constrictor, his favorite slide.

This says:  "My brother is 3 years old.  He is bad."  The picture is of Noah throwing a ball through a window and me freaking out.  Noah of course saying "it was not me".  That's never happened...yet.  Well, breaking the window has never happened.  I freak out every day.

This says:  I remember I dressed up as superman.  I was flying.  It was cool."  I love the drawing and that he's always wearing glasses in his pictures.

This says:  "me and my family were camping.  We were cooking marshmellows.  We were sleeping in a tent."  I love the drawings and how when he draws his profile, it really just looks like he's cyclops.

Oh how we love this kid!

Around Our House

This weekend was the weekend of bikes.

We tried to teach Ben to ride his bike without training wheels...again. It's hard to go on long bike rides with training wheels. He just can't go as fast as the rest of us. He's doing pretty good. I think he just needs the confidance.

He gets unstable and turns. See next video when he almost hits the neighbors truck.

Poor David is wiped out after all of this.

I also got Noah a child seat for my bike. He loves, loves, loves it.

I bought vampire teeth for the kids.

We dog sat for our friends. This is after David walked her and Rocko for 45 minutes.

My Mom is still in Phoenix, so I took Noah on a bike ride this morning.

I think he likes it. He has great teeth. It's a harder workout with 30 extra pounds in my trunk, so it's a win/win.

David and I are watching 24. Yeah, we are about 10 years behind the times. It's actually funny to see the flip phones and they are texting on this ancient looking device with an antennae. We are only on Season 1, but we are enjoying it.

Did you know 3 weeks from today, my feet will be in the Pacific Ocean. Yep, beach house on Seal Beach for fall break with our friends.

Life is good.

Benefits of Nudity

I've let it be known that Noah prefers to be naked. The UPS guy isn't even phased anymore when I open the door and he sees my sons penis. We just laugh and he goes on about his day. We don't even notice that he's naked anymore. My Mom saw him in clothes the other day and was like "what's different about noah?" Did he shave his mustache, cut his hair...no, he has clothes on!

He wore a pull up and clothes most of Friday and went pee in his pull up twice. We don't have accidents when he's naked. So, I'm going to let the nudity continue until he gets potty training down.

But, I finally stumbled upon the greatest benefit of Noah being naked. Laundry. I did a few loads. Noah's is the first row, then Ben's and Emilys.
Noah had a pair of pajamas, 1 shirt and 2 1/2 socks! That's it.

Maybe his nudity is him just doing his part in helping the environment...and his mother.

Friday

I've been trying to get the CVS ad done all morning. It's already noon and I haven't started. I was wondering where my day went and then I remembered why it takes so long to get anything done.

I stopped to play Buzz about 10 times and Woody keeps taking my calculator.

I think life is pretty great that I have a job that allows Woody to steal my calculator and me to say in my best drunk on tea Buzz voice "I am Ms. Nesbit" all morning. Okay, playtime is over.

Volunteering

I've been helping in the kids classes on Thursday. It's fun. My Mom watches Noah for me and I get a little time to be with the other kids and see what's going on in their class.

My Mom had to go down to Phoenix for a few days. That means I don't have a babysitter for Noah. I e-mailed Ben and Emily's teachers and they both preferred that I bring Noah instead of not come at all. Let me just say that speaks volumes for how much help they could really use.

In Ben's class, I help during centers. It's a little loud and kids are moving around. I thought Noah would just sit at the playdoh center and not bother the other kids. Well, he clung to me just like a little monkey. He was finally comfortable and went to check out a book that another kid had left out after his free choice activity. That's Ben sitting in the striped shirt.

Then, we went to Emily's class. She was in specials (music, P.E, computers, library) at the time, so the class was empty. I do filing in her class of all the papers they worked on all week so they can take them home on Friday. Noah sat in a chair and read a book.

And when he got restless, I gave him my phone. He took his picture.

Emily's class came in and I can't even count how any "oh, he's so cute" I heard. We finished up, gave Em a kiss and left. He put in a hard days work.

We listened to some music and jammed out on the car ride home. He was raising the roof.

And that's my Thursday morning.

Our Saturday

We love weekends. The slower pace, sleeping in, David's waffles on Sunday mornings. It's all wonderful. Today I took the time to post a bunch of stuff on Craigslist. I went through some Halloween costumes and came across this one that my nephew Greg wore when he was visiting last year.

I liked it this way better.

Today, Emily's friend from Kindergarten who moved to Phoenix 3 years ago came to visit for a few hours. I'm so happy that they've stayed in touch through e-mails, letters and Skype.

We aso had a major breakthrough. Ben likes tacos! This kid eats the same meats every night with very little variation. Honestly, he'd rather have a caesar salad instead of a hamburger. Seriously, he's weird. In any case, he tried a bite of my taco the other night and loved it. So we had taco leftovers tonight and David had to give him a lesson on how to eat a taco.

Without his Dad's help, he just got a nose full of sour cream.

I'm making him a tostada next time.

Around Our House

Last week, I helped in the kids' classrooms. It's my new thing every Thursday. I'll be there tomorrow. The best part is seeing them interact with their peers. I went in Ben's class first to give the teacher the snack he was supposed to bring. On the way out, this poster board of the Star Student of the week caught my eye.

Yep, that's all about Ben. He wrote everything by himself on his information sheet.

Ben is very much the same kid in class as he is at home. He does good and tries his hardest. He's quiet but helpful.

Emily is a different kid from how she is at home. She calm, quiet and so well behaved that I almost forgot she was in the class. They had a really cute bulletin board up outside the classroom and you had to try to guess who the kid was. I looked at several before I came across Emily's and knew it was her. Well, I wouldn't have known from the drawing.

The fill in the blanks were a dead giveaway.

Yeah, I knew that was my girl right away.

Noah and I have fallen into a nice little rhythm without the kids. We hang out and watch way too much Toy Story. He's a little obsessed and I can't really blame him. I love all 3 movies as much as he does. He insisted on bringing Woody and Buzz grocery shopping this morning. Sorry about the horrible photo, but it was senior day (10% off) and they were hot on my heels. I had to move while taking the photo.

And that's what fills my days...

Slumber Party

We did it. We had our first slumber party. I limited it to 3 girls plus Emily, 4 total. I think it was the perfect number. It was actually so easy. I much prefer this to the big Peter Piper Pizza parties with 20 guests and a bill of $200!

We had pizza for dinner.

Em wanted to open gifts next. She got lots of great stuff and a Ken doll!

It rained all day, but luckily the weather cleared up and we went swimming which is what she wanted to do. Plus, it tires them out!

After the pool, we had cake and ice cream.

Then the girls watched Ramona and Beezus. For about 27 minutes. Then, they got up and played Barbies and stuff.

Ben got to sleep with me and David slept with Noah. Ben's room is the darkest and I thought it best to have all the girls in there. I was hoping they'd sleep in later than 5:00.

It worked like a charm. They were asleep a little past 11 and up at 7:30. David made them all waffles, bacon and sausage.

It was a fun night and so simple. I think Emily had a great birthday and she felt super special. Mission accomplished!