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Tuesday was Avery’s last First Day of Preschool. She started the Frog class at Protestant Preschool. She is the only one of our girls who didn’t have Mrs. Stamper as her 4 year old teacher…but she does have me for music (and has for 2 years!). I can’t believe that this time next year, she’ll be in Kindergarten. She really loves school!
We’ve been trying to catch Avery singing for a while. She has a CD player in her room and she is known for playing her music really, really loud (like her dad!). She’ll find something to pretend is her microphone and belt out all kinds of songs. Bailey was able to get a little bit on video before she realized it tonight. This is a song we did in our VBS…I’m amazed that she remembered some of the motions. She is really doing more dancing than singing. Unfortunately, Bailey didn’t know you can’t turn video upright like you can photos, so you have to turn your head sideways to see it…and you may feel like you’re on a rollercoaster! But, I think you’ll enjoy it! Oh, and ignore the room…this is what it looks like when she’s been home with Daddy all day!
I took these pictures of the girls today before they left for their last day of school. I am putting the first day pictue first so you can see how much they grew this year.
Here’s Julia:
They had their 10 inches cut off their hair right afte school started, so even though Julia’s hair is up, that is the biggest change! Plus, she got contacts!
Here’s Bailey:
Here’s Madi:
They had braided their hair when they got out of the shower the night before, so their hair looked wavy and sort of like a lion! I think they grew a lot this year…in many ways! I just want everything to slow way down so we can enjoy our summer!
***Disclaimer: I am bragging about my kids in this blog! Since it is my blog, I feel entitled to do so! 
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We spent most of our days yesterday and today at the elementary school for Bailey and Madi’s Award’s Days and the parties they had. We are so proud of all of the girls…they all had a wonderful year. You know that the schools and teachers are doing something right when the children get upset with you for making them miss a day because you want to stay at the beach an extra day. When we went to the beach in March, we stayed until Monday afternoon and that was the only day Julia missed. She was so upset not just because it cost her perfect attendance, but she also missed being in the band, Beta Club and Student Advisory Council pictures in the yearbook. How was I supposed to know they were taking all those photos that day?! Also, last week after the recitals, I offered to let Bailey and Madi go to school late and they passed!
I’m very thankful for the wonderful teachers we have had this year, and all throughout their school years. There is one teacher, that has stood out…Mrs. Tracy Edmundson has taught all three girls. She was Julia’s first teacher in Goldsboro…when we went for Open House, Thayer was out of town so I had all three girls in a new school pushing Avery (5 months) in a stroller through very crowded hallways. After meeting Madi’s Kindergarten teacher and Bailey’s first grade teacher, we realized they had put Julia in a second grade class instead of third. She was so upset…so we went to the office and they assigned her to Mrs. Edmundson. We went to her room (by this point Open House was almost over) and Mrs. Edmundson welcomed her so graciously…when I know she was really thinking, “oh no, not another student already!” She had put a little gift on each students’ desk, and had an extra one ready so Julia never felt left out. That year, Julia had migraine headaches and passed out in class twice…once she actually had a mini-seizure. Mrs. Edmundson was so kind through it all.
Then, Bailey had Mrs. Edmundson two years later and excelled! She tested well enough to enter the Academically and Intellectually Gifted program as a result of Mrs. Edmundson’s stong emphasis on math. And now, Madi has finished her third grade year with Mrs. E. We never thought Madi was as strong a student as her sisters. She much prefers art, music and talking! But, due to Mrs. Edmundson’s belief in her, she scored two 4s on her EOGs and was 5th in her class in Accelerated Reading…she used to hate to read!! We have to wait 4 more years to see if Avery will get to have Mrs. Edmundson too. Here are all three girls with Mrs. E.
Here are a few pictures of Bailey and Madi getting their awards. We were surprised today that Madi was given a “Special Effort Award” for PE. They were so kind to do that for her. She always tried, even though there was no way she could ever achieve any of the goals for the National/Presidential Fitness Awards. Here is Bailey getting the National Fitness Award. She also received the Citizenship Award and got the Honor Roll medal. She missed being on the Principal’s List by one B last nine weeks, and one B this nine weeks. She also was on the Battle of the Books team that won 2nd place in our county.
Here is Madi getting her Honor Roll medal, and she also won a Citizenship Award.
My mom and dad are visiting with us this weekend and they brought my nephew with them. We have enjoyed having them here and I love hearing giggles all over the house. The weather has been so nice today that we were able to do a lot outside. I also enjoyed one of my favorite spring/summer activities: cooking out. I hear a lot of people call it “barbequing” now, but if you don’t put barbeque sauce on anything and you are only having hamburgers and hotdogs, is it still a barbeque?
Here are a few pictures my mom took. My camera is on its way to somewhere in NJ to be repaired. I’m sure my brother and sister-in-law will kill us, but being with four girls will wear off on little boys after a while. Matthan was very interested in Avery strolling her dolls today, and the last picture shows what happened…at least I did go find a boy babydoll! (And yes, those shows on the trampoline were Avery’s water shoes that happen to be pink…I didn’t want to get dog poo on his shoes and that’s a major possibility in our back yard!)
Avery and I do not have school today so after the other three girls got gone, I started making a list of what I need to do today. A few cleaning tasks, some laundry (always!), a little shopping (I’ve already done the big shopping cart overflowing shopping), and I’ll need to start cooking a few things. The girls get out of school at 12:50 and Thayer’s parents will be here shortly after, so needless to say, this blog post is going to be very short!
I hope you and your have a wonderful Thanksgiving and don’t be so busy “doing” Thanksgiving that you forget why we have it! I didn’t mention in my “What are you Thankful For?” post that I am very thankful for my many friends that aren’t part of our church. I have been so blessed through the years to have wonderful friends all over the country.
I’m looking forward to all the wonderful food and desserts (yes, there will be chocolate!) and spending time with our families. And, I will finish decorating for Christmas after Thursday’s meal.
I started a tradition with the girls when they were in preschool that they still ask me to do, even in middle school. Each year at Thanksgiving, we make candy turkeys and pilgrim hats for them to share with their friends. The turkeys are made from an oreo cookie, a caramel, a Hershey Kiss, candy corn and chocolate frosting. The pilgrim hats are a fudge stripe cookie and a chocolate covered marshmallow with a yellow frosting buckle. At first, Julia didn’t want to carry anything because she thought the turkeys would be embarrassing but she did think the hats would work. However, she doesn’t really like the chocolate covered marshmallows (go figure, the queen of chocolate), so we had the idea to use an orea with a peanut butter cup upside down with the frosting buckle. Everyone helped and we finally made about 40 turkeys and 30 pilgrim hats. They looked so cute and by not having to melt chocolate to cover marshmallows, it was much quicker and neater!
Bailey did not want to carry any because her class is having a feast with NC products tomorrow. They study NC in the fourth grade. Her item to carry is mashed potatos for 30 people. Avery isn’t carrying any because she is also having a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Feast with her class (as she did today). Each child is to bring their favorite food (no matter what it is) to share with their friends. She is also carrying mashed potatos, but I only had to carry enough for 10 preschoolers today and 10 more tomorrow. Fortunately, I discovered Steam and Mash potatos. You microwave a special bag of frozen potatos (Ore Ida brand, I think) for 10 minutes. Then, you mash, add milk and butter and they are done! That, I can handle! And, it saved me from making about double the number of turkeys we made!
Our car started making horrible noises two Sundays ago as I was bringing Bailey and the Boyette girls back to our house after their Praise Team practice. It is a 5 speed so I knew the problem was either the transmission (the car is only 5 years old) or the clutch because of the type noises it was making as I changed gears. Our Life Group was here when we got home, so Thayer couldn’t go check it out until they were gone. It was nearly driving him crazy to know something was wrong with the car but he couldn’t get out there to find out what. Well, the last 10 days were super busy and no day seemed right to try to take the car in to the Toyota place so we’ve been sharing the van. We had actually been sharing the car for two months for the most part. When gas soared, it just made sense to car pool and our gas bill dropped nearly $100 the month after we started. But, the van was available when we both needed transportation. This morning, I told him it was time to go ahead and take the car in. Avery and I left for school while he was finishing his coffee. Since I am ususally either with him when he leaves or the last one to leave in the morning, I distinctly remember telling him to check all three doors before he left (I’ll come back to that later!).
About 9:30, I got a message a school to call him when I had a break which was not until 9:50. When I called him, he told me that the car gave out about one mile from our house. It wouldn’t allow him to put it into any gear. Fortunately, he was sitting in a parking lot and not in any danger. I asked him when the tow truck would be there. “I’m not calling a tow truck. I called Vernon and he is trying to find someone to with a tow strap so he can come pull me to the Toyota place.” What??? I reminded him that our insurance (that we pay for every month for this very reason!!) remimburses us up to $100 if you have to have a tow. We had AAA for four or five years up until this year!! He informed me that he wasn’t calling me to get help, just to tell me what was going on. What??? So, by this point he had been sitting there close to an hour. Needless to say, I whipped out the phone book and called a tow service. The charge was $75. I gave them the credit card number and got him picked up. What a stubborn, goof-ball. I guess men just can’t admit that sometimes they can’t handle every situation they get into.
We just found out that the transmission is totally shot. A fact that would normally throw me over the edge, but since the car is under warranty (Praise God!!!) for about 100,000 miles, we don’t have to pay. And, the Toyota place actually should pay the tow fee (and they did give him a number for a tow company when he called them right after he broke down, but he wouldn’t call it!). But, they don’t guarantee the new transmission unless they also replace the clutch and the clutch plate. The labor would be free but those parts are just over $200. Of course, the clutch is not under warranty. Anyway, they are giving him a car to drive until his is ready.
By the way, the front door was left unlocked all day…
Men, gotta love ‘em!
We went to Florence, SC, today for my nephew’s 2nd birthday. I can’t believe he is already turning two. We went for many years with the girls asking my brother and his wife for a cousin. It all started when Julia was in the 4 year old preschool class. She had to list her family on a tree and there was a leaf for cousins. She promptly called them and told them she wanted a cousin. Then, Bailey and Madi went through the same thing when they got to the family unit in the 4 year old class. And finally, when Madi was 1st grade, we got one! Since Thayer is an only child and I only have 1 brother, he is the only reason we are an aunt and uncle. (We are hoping for another one!!!)
The menu consisted of Matthan’s favorite foods: pizza, corn on the cob, applesauce and suckers. We also had the best cake I’ve had in a long time shaped like his favorite thing right now: a garbage truck. Yes, he is obsessed with garbage trucks so Vanessa was able to find someone who made a cake that looked like a 3-D garbage truck. It even had the little man hanging on the side ready to load up the next trash can! Most of his gifts were transportation related, if not actual garbage trucks! He knows all the names of the trucks and I loved hearing him talk. He has a great vocabulary for a 2 year old. Its so funny to see the difference between boys and girls. Our girls had a great time visiting with family and playing with Matthan’s toys. Since we never had toy trucks or tools, they seemed very interested in them. Vanessa’s mom bought the girls the Hannah Montana Scene-It game, so we had to play that once. We had a great day celebrating a very special little boy and spending time with our family.
Uncle “Air”, Matthan and the girls with his garbage truck cake
Vanessa and Matthan open more trucks!
We’ve been thinking that this would be a fast week due to having Tuesday off. I guess it has and it hasn’t been. We have had the normal amount of stuff to do: piano, dance, soccer (but it was cancelled tonight due to rain), school, homework, students on Wednesday night and a birthday party tonight. But, we’ve also had Bailey’s field trip to the NC Zoo hanging over our heads all week. I don’t think they did anything all week except talk about the trip. We’ve heard all about the bus they will be taking, all about what they can and can’t carry, what the weather will be down to the hour almost, what they will be seeing at each exact time of day, what time they need to be at school (which is wayyyyyy tooooo early, 5:30 am!), how they need to pack each snack and lunch….on and on until we almost decided to leave her at school over night tonight. I’m glad she is so excited, but I only hope the trip is as much fun as she has made it out to be. She won’t be home until 7:30 tomorrow night and thankfully, she will be exhausted and go straight to bed. Otherwise, we’d be up all night hearing about the trip. I guess that will wait until Saturday morning, when we are all trapped in the van with her for almost 3 hours while we drive to Florence for my nephew’s birthday. Julia did the exact same thing two years ago and I’m sure we’ll do it again next year for Madi.
In Avery news, the cough continues and it is a little worrisome to me. Our neighbor’s 7th grade son has been sick this week and his doctor told his mom to bring him in because so many kids have been diagnosed with whooping cough. So, we’ll probably be going back to the doctor tomorrow. hmmmm, I think I predicted that one!
