Pirate Preschool

When my kids are 3 years old I always participate in neighborhood preschool groups. The kids love it, it's free, we keep the groups small and I think it gets them ready for "real" preschool when they are 4. I really have loved doing it for each one of the kids. This has been Spencer's year!

I had the kids over here this week for my turn and I realized that I have one more turn at our house and then I will be done...not just for the year...but forever! It's moments like this when I reflect on how they are growing up and these "stages" will pass quickly by since I had them all so close together. Anyways, this year has been fun because I chose all the boy themes...I have never wanted the "boy themes" before! We did dinosaurs, trains...So, today we had letter "X"...which is totally the hardest letter...except we made it "X" marks the spot day...PIRATES!

We had a treasure hunt, made Pirate hats and played "Who's got the gabloon?"...it was great times! Oh, and Audree has afternoon kindergarten, so she loves to participate in our preschool when it's at our house! I think I will love to look back on these memories of their little preschool groups and I feel so blessed to have such great neighbors to do this with!

Crazy Saturdays...

I remember when we used to sit around our house with a bunch of little babies and wonder what to do on a Saturday...that isn't a problem anymore!! The kids are growing up and getting so busy with all their activities and I have to admit that I sort of LOVE it!! It's so fun to watch them all do their thing...I'm just a proud mama! So, this Saturday was no exception...

Jake needed to go help his Dad at Lake Powell(not as fun as it sounds...it was freezing cold...no boating or swimming on this one!). They had to do some maintenance on the houseboat so that we can go have a blast this summer! Thanks guys, we can hardly wait for July! So, it was me and the kiddos running around to everything this weekend...no help from the daddy!

We started the day at Karlee's cheerleading try-outs! She is trying out for next year's team...she did GREAT! She landed a standing back tuck and a layout for the first time!

As soon as that was done...we headed to Rylee's first dance competition! She was so excited/nervous! Judy and Jenny were a great help with the little kiddos and came to watch Rylee's performance...she danced like a serious hip-hopper! Work it Rys!

Everything went smoothly and we made it to all the right places at all the right times. We stayed for Rylee's awards ceremony and she was STOKED to get second place and a trophy!! We hit Chuck E. Cheese for some dinner (always a good time!...thanks Judy!) and on our way home we stopped by Karlee's gym to see the results from her try-out...she made Level 4!! Audree and Spencer were troopers all day (especially since we had a Leapster and an Ipod Touch and a huge bag of Starbursts to keep them entertained). Whew...

No School!

What do we do when school is out for a day?? NOTHING!! and it's wonderful! Here are the kiddos at about 11:00 in the morning today. I lOvE it when we all gather on the big bed to wrestle, tickle, make dog-piles and be silly! So here's to a great lazy Friday!

Check Mate!!

Several weeks ago Rylee came home from school all excited and waving a piece of paper in front of me. She was begging me to sign her up for a chess tournament. I don't know how to play chess...it's too complicated, just a bit of checkers is right up my alley! But, I knew that Jake is pretty good at chess and the two of them would have fun playing together. So, I asked Jake to teach her and prep her for the tournament (which he gladly agreed to) and I signed her up. She had about 3-4 weeks to play and prepare...honestly her interest came in spurts, but she was excited and nervous when the day arrived. The way the tournament worked was that she played 6 rounds, each against a different 2nd grader...they got 1 point for a win, 1/2 point for a draw and 0 for a loss. Anyways, she ended up winning her first game...FAST...and we thought that was pretty impressive. After that she lost 3 games, and had 2 draws. Some kids there have been playing on teams and with clubs for years...so it was an interesting mix of people and abilities. It was a LONG day (the tournament lasted 6 hours!) and she was bummed when she lost some of those games, but in the end she said it was fun and she'd like to do it again next year. We'll see if she's really interested later, but it was fun to go and cheer her on! My favorite thing about the day was that the tournament was filled with mostly super-smart little boys and my Rylee...with her hip hop hat and bright colored ensemble stood out like a sore thumb, but she didn't notice a thing and loved the competition. Anyways, I was glad to spend my Saturday hanging out at the chess tournament with my Rylee!!

Dr. Seuss's Birthday!

So, the other day was Dr. Seuss's birthday and the kids were celebrating at school. They were really excited because it's the only day of the year that they are allowed to wear hats to school and they were encouraged to wear silly or fun hats if they had any! Well, Rylee, of course, came up with the idea of making their own silly hats. I had absolutely NO input on these and couldn't help but laugh at their creations...Karlee's isn't too crazy, a bit of white paper with some lines drawn on it. Rylee's, on the other hand, was quite elaborate! I don't think the photo does it justice...although the monocle (made out of a minature magnifying glass) was my favorite aspect...there was also a white feathered bird on there, some patches of packaging foam and a plastic monkey hanging off the side. I wasn't sure if they would actually WEAR these hats when the time arrived...but they proudly put them on and strutted out to the bus...after school they claimed that their hats were well-appreciated at school. I LOVE THESE GUYS!! Anyways, I had Spencer's preschool group here at our house that morning (we had a great day of T for Trains!) and completely forgot about Dr. Seuss day by the time Audree left for school...luckily a kid in her class had a hat to share with her, I am such a slacker mom! She wasn't real happy that we forgot to send her with a hat, but she has since forgiven me...