Sunday, May 25, 2014

My Kindergarten Graduate!

Kate is finished with kindergarten!  What a fast year.  She has loved being a kindergartener.  



I picked her and a friend up from school for a little
"last day of school" celebration.  

This is them with their wonderful teacher!  We could not have hand picked a sweeter teacher for our girl.  Kate ADORED her! 


I took the girls out for ice cream and let them put whatever they wanted on it.  They put way too much ice cream in their cups and topped it with chocolate, sprinkles, gummy worms, gummy bears, cookie dough... and then they basically just ate the top layer and threw the rest away.  Ha! 


Then, we went to The Magic House for a few hours.  





Mark was working at an event with his boss that night, so after I dropped her friend off, I took Kate out to eat.



She is ready for summer! She said that on Monday, she is going to wake up and run through the house screaming, "I'm free!!"  Haha!  We missed her at a lot of playdates this year, so she's ready to be a part of the fun.   

I'm looking forward to the relaxation of summer.  We have a LOT of fun things planned, but there will be plenty of room for sleeping in, lazy days in Mimi and Papa's pool, running through the sprinkler, afternoons spent with friends, late nights, popsicles on the deck... I LOVE summer!! 

ANNNDDD, no more packing lunches or picking out clothes the night before for awhile.  Yahoo!!!!  Maybe on Monday, I'll run through the house along with Kate screaming, "I'm free!!" 

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Jack

I love spending my days with my Jack Man.  He is going to preschool three days a week next year.  While that time will be nice, I'm going to miss my little buddy.

He has developed quite the temper, but he is also so sweet. He is stubborn, but sensitive.



He always asks to snuggle (which he calls "nuggle").  On Mother's Day morning, he climbed up in our bed and said, "Happy Mother's Day, Mama."  He said, "Here's your Mother's Day present" and kissed me on the cheek.  Ahhh, I love that kid.



He will tell me he has a secret to tell me and then will say, "I love you, Mama".



He says "Piderman" for Spiderman and "yittle" for little.



He usually calls a sneeze an "achoo".  One day, I told him his nose was all red.  He said, "That's 'cause I have a lot of sneeze in it."



Kate likes to make up jokes, which usually make sense. Jack's make no sense.  For instance, "Why did the football flatten the bee?  Because he wanted eggs."  When asked about that, he said, "Bees poop eggs out like chickens.  Ummmm, ok.



I was packing Kate's thermos one day and he said, "What's a thermos?"  I told him it was a container that keeps things hot or cold.  He said, "I choose hot."



He has zero endurance or attention span for cleaning up messes.  He can make a mess in two seconds flat, but begs for help when it's time to clean up.



We were talking to him one day in the car about disobeying Mommy and Daddy and how it is important to obey.  He asked, "What obey mean?" (even though he knows).  Right in the middle of explaining it to him, he got distracted and said, "What's that on that car over there?"  He doesn't have time for deep discussions about listening to Mommy and Daddy. ha!



He cracks us up with random little sayings like the other night when he said, "Hey, get me out of this stinking tub!"



We went out to lunch one day after church.  Jack wanted a hot dog.  We ended up at Q'doba, where he ate hardly anything.  He said he was done and I asked if his tummy was full.  He said, "Yeah, but I still have a yittle spot for a chili cheese dog."



As we were leaving our MOPS group not too long ago, it was really windy.  He closed his eyes as we were walking to the car and he held out his arms.  I asked him what he was doing and he said, "I telling the wind I love it!"



He loves to play fight.  He's always kicking and punching the air, along with sound effects.  He is all boy, for sure.


He is a Mama's boy, but sure loves to spend time with Daddy.  He has assured me he will always stay with me.  Let's just hope he keeps his promise. :)

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Easter 2014

Our Easter in pictures. 

 We dyed Easter eggs a few nights before Easter.  


Ruckus was cracking Kate up! 







On Easter, the kids cleaned up pretty nice. ha! 







I was in love with Kate's dress! 




Yeah, this picture is a little more like it. 



Love my babies! 











Trying to get some good cousin pictures. Notice Jack is giving Ruckus bunny ears. 


Oh, this picture.  So classic! 








Saturday, April 26, 2014

Kate Rileigh

In a little less than a month, my girl will have completed kindergarten!  Where did the time go??  



It's about time for a "Kate Sayings" post.  



This girl is C-R-A-Z-Y.  She is one of the most animated, bossiest, expressive, and funniest six year olds I know! 



Awhile back, she said something about a yo-yo.  Jack asked her what a yo-yo was and she pulled it out saying, "This bad boy right here." 



She was writing and the pen leaked ink all over her hands.  She asked me, "Will you get it on your hands so I don't feel bad?"



 She's been known to say, "Hang in there, Sugar Lips."



Jack drives her so crazy sometimes.  She told me one day, "I was like on the top level of losing it with Jack." 



She says goofy things like, "I ran into your elbow and hurt my spleen" or "I fell and hurt my knee.  I think I have a blood clot." 



She has a humongous vocabulary, but still says some words "the little kid way".  She says "drawed", instead of "drew", "rided" instead of "rode".  When she means to say "reminded" (like "I reminded you to get my water bottle), she says "I remembered you to get my water bottle." These are words that I don't fix, although I probably should.  For now, it makes her still seem little. 

I also heard her tell Jack the other day, "You are going to be in trouble with a capital CH!" 

One day, she said, "I'm crazy with a capital C or K.  I don't really know which one it starts with."  Way to cover your bases, Kate. :) 



She was telling me about how close she is with her teacher.  She said, "Yeah, we laugh a lot.  We bond. Just like me and you.  Except that I don't toot in front of her." 

Kate and I were watching American Idol one night and laughing about something.  She said, "We totally just bonded.  We have so many memories together." 



She thinks that Jack steals her limelight (trust me, that's a tough job!).  She asked him, "Jack, why are you always the centerpiece?" 



One afternoon, Jack rode his bike and I walked to get Kate from school.  She and I walked and talked while Jack rode a little ahead of us.  He was zig-zagging on his bike (which usually ends with him falling over) and I asked him to stop and just drive straight.  Kate said, "Yeah, the only time to zig zag is when you are being chased by an alligator."  Apparently, that little tip stuck out in her mind. 



Jack was acting up during reading time before bed.  However, it was one of those times where he was being bad, but it was really funny.  Mark and I were trying to keep from laughing and not doing a very good job of it.  Kate (in her bossy voice) said, "Ok, I'll be the parent here since these two won't be."



 After walking through a parking lot, she had something in her shoe.  She said, "Hang on, I have road crumbs in my shoe." 



She made up this joke (which took me a minute to understand at first).  "Where did the cheetah learn how to run so fast?"  "Onrrrr-ine" (online)  She makes a growly face when she says it along with a claw hand. 

She also made up this one.  "Why did the car keep on tooting?"  "Because it had too much gas in its tailpipe." Not too shabby.  She's trying to work on a football joke now. 



She and I will sometimes play a game, "Say two things you love about me".  She says two things she loves about me, I say two things I love about her.  One afternoon while driving in the car, I said, "Two things you love about me."  She answered, "You are a good cook and a good planner."  I said, "A planner??"  She said, "Yeah, like if we go somewhere, you know exactly what we are going to do."  Good observation, my friend.  In other words, I'm the boring one (and I'm o.k. with that).  :) 



I'm not sure if I ever shared this story on here, but for the past two years, we have been putting cut out hearts filled with things we love about them on the kids' doors the night before Valentine's Day.  On Valentine's Day this year, Kate got up earlier than usual and I could hear her standing at her door reading the hearts.  She would read it really slowly, sounding out the words. "You have a great smile."  Then, she would comment out loud, "That's true, I really do."  Or "You are so funny" and I would hear her say, "I really am." Haha! At least she's confident in herself, I guess! 



Daddy called Nanny on her 75th birthday.   He and Kate had a little conversation before: 
Kate: "Tell her happy birthday because she's 95 today."
Daddy: "No, she's 75."
Kate: (in her very sarcastic voice) "Well, at least I got the 5 right."   



One evening, she was going over all the work moms have to do. Making beds, cleaning up, doing laundry, shopping for groceries, cooking dinner, cleaning up dinner, getting the kids in trouble... ha!   She said, "I changed my mind.  I don't want to be a mom when I grow up.  I want to be a dad!"   Best. comment. ever. 



She is always trying to "teach" Jack.  Poor guy.  He is 100% uninterested.  Maybe poor Kate because he's a terrible "student" for her.  I overheard her tell him one day, "Ok, Jack.  I have a surprise for you.   We are going to play Guess the Letter. It's a lot funner than it sounds."   Sidenote: They never played Guess the Letter that day. 




She asked me for a shake one day from Steak N' Shake.  I told her no because Mommy and Daddy were working on saving money and we could just go home and make shakes.  She yelled, "We're America's Best Cheapskates!  Let's use dish towels for toilet paper!"  I think she's been watching too much reality tv on TLC.

In kindergarten this past week, they were working on writing persuasive letters.  Here are a couple of hers. 


Let me translate. "Dear Mrs. Clayton, I think you should give me the job of teaching because I am very good at it.  Yes yes yes.  Everyone loves when I teach.  They love you, too.  Love, Kate."  This would be her dream, let me tell ya. 


Oh, this one cracked me up. Apparently, Kate is bothered by the amount of posters on their classroom wall. 



"Dear Mrs. Clayton (spelled correctly this time), I think our room is too crowded with posters.  We should take some off the wall because we just have too many.  From, Kate"  And then, my favorite part, "You are welcome." haha! 

She also wrote a letter to the principal saying she wants more lunch time because she doesn't have time to eat her food and she wrote a letter to us asking for a puppy that she would name Sparkle.  She even wrote P.S. I'll give you 10 bucks.  

Oh, this girl... she keeps us laughing, that's for sure!  

I'll leave you with these little gems.  This would be "the crazy face".