pouting pictures

First, she pushed him on the monkey bars.  So, I asked him to come over and show me his mad face.

Then, she didn't give him another turn.  So, I asked him to come over and show me his frustrated face.

Then, he pushed her on the monkey bars.  So, I asked her to come over and show me her mad face.

and so on.....  (she continued showing me her "mad" face... check out that neck!)

and so forth....  (yup, she is still mad here - can't you tell?)

It was a rough morning. 

flower Friday!

the twins' first Tom Chapin concert

I love Tom Chapin.  Have for a long time.  My cousin Lori gets credit for introducing me to his music years ago with Family Tree.  It was pretty much love at first listen and I haven't looked back!  My first Tom Chapin concert was in 1992!

So, when we were home for vacation... oh yeah... I owe you 9736 vacation pictures all in one post, don't I???   Anyway, my Aunt Joanne called to say Stacey & Sydney were going to see Tom Chapin that night at the local park.  A free concert in the park!  usually a lot of fun no matter who is playing!

Well, we got there early because, let me tell you... I wanted a good seat!  We grabbed the bench dead center, front "row".  As "row"-ish as you can get with an outdoor stage.  In front of us was a concrete dance floor.  The kids took no time in hitting that!

It was half family/ half adult concert.  And, as his bassist, Michael Mark told us, "We'll do the adult portion for the second half, because by then, we'll be a little bit older."  But, Tom's adult music isn't anything racy.  He even played several of Harry's things in a tribute to losing his brother 36 years ago.

So, here are a couple photos.  I love the shot with the kids.  (Thanks, Mom... she took that one and a couple with me in them.  Notice which one I shared?) We waited in line after the concert ended to get a CD signed  and pose with the band members.  We were the last ones in line, of course.  Why is it we seem to have to be the last ones anywhere?  Oh yeah - it's so we don't miss anything!

Thanks Stacey & Aunt Joanne for alerting us to an awesome evening!!  It was great to see you guys, too!!!

wordlessWednesday

All my northern friends are posting pictures of their kids on the first day of school.  We've been back about 2 weeks now - so while they are pros already at going to school, it is still fairly new to the twins.  Last night we had Curriculum night and I got to talk more with the teacher.  But, we got rushed to a PTA meeting right after the homeroom meeting... and I missed out on seeing the twins' artwork that was hanging.  So, even though we are not supposed to anymore, I walked them in this morning so I could see the coloring they did.  Both awesome, of course.  (although the amount of coloring these kids do in kindergarten is insane!  And, they keep at them to color in the lines and fill it all in.  Don't get me started.  I can't make the kids feel like they are doing something wrong by following the teacher's directions, but.... oh how I hate the idea of this coloring "the right way".)

So, I got to talk to the teacher more this morning and I think a few of my concerns from last week will resolve themselves from here on.  See, the class began with 25 kids.  Now, they have added a 4th kindergarten and pulled 6 kids from this class to give to that new teacher.  Now, the twins' class has only 19 in it.  See how well I did that simple math?  25-6=19.  Got it. 

And, routines are falling into place as well.  Plus, they were kind of in limbo knowing a new class was forming, so they hadn't started any real lessons yet.  I'm sure some of these classmates have never been outside of their home all day every day, too.  So, there is a lot to take in in the first week. But, still, some of my concerns were valid.  No one checked to see if Carl could open his lunch and he came home without having eaten!  I know he needs to be independent, but he also needs a cold container for his food.  And, teachers need to check to be sure that kids can open the things... especially when this kid receives OT for (supposed) low muscle tone in his hands.  Anyway, I'm moving on.  really. 

I learned this morning that the teacher is doing something called Dibbling.  It is extensive reading testing on the kids to see where their abilities lie.  I cannot wait to get the results back and have the first Parent/Teacher conference to discuss both kids' reading programs.  They will group the kids according to ability.  Boy, I hope Carl shows them his true talents.

I even left the classroom with 3 projects to cut and staple and have ready for the kids to put together. Someday, I may get to tell her about my dream job:  going school to school doing construction paper bulletin boards.  Ahh!!


So, seeing all these photos of big 5 year olds getting on buses and carrying backpacks got me thinking about 5 years ago.  So, here is my 2005 Baby Collage du jour....

milestone approaching

I listed their toddler beds on craigslist.  We researched mattresses as much as we could take.  We visited every bedding store in town... a few of them twice.  We went together.  We shopped alone sometimes, too.   We listened to pushy sales people quote what they claimed were special deals for us.  We had one guy tell us the price the other guy (at one of their other locations) quoted me on the same exact mattress was $100 too low.  That took his store right off the list.  You should have heard him bad mouthing the other employee!  Totally threw him under the bus and pretty much expected me to then buy 2 of his $100 more mattresses.  I'll bet I could go back the other store (they have 4 local shops) and get the original price from the original dude if I were interested.  We brought the kids to a few stores and let them test drive the products.  They ran around jumping on beds and climbing up on bunk beds like 2 wild animals who stopped for espresso before shopping.  We looked things up online.  We read reviews, reviews and more reviews.  And in less than a week we made a decision.

And then, we bought the very first mattress we looked at!  Ha Ha!!  But, it was the correct purchase for the kids and we can feel comfortable (pun intended) with our decision.  They tried out many mattresses and told us several times, "This one is my style.  Can we buy it?"  and they both liked the one we chose.  They didn't have as much power in the decision as they thought they did, but still nice that they liked the final choice.

The new sheets are already washed and waiting.  We will look into assembling the bunk beds maybe tomorrow.  It is the last day of summer - no school and no work - and we're going to spend as much of it as we can under water in the city pool.  That is our favorite summer place and this is the last day they are going to be open until next summer.  This does not mean it isn't hot here.  Oh no.  Summer weather will continue for a long time, but summer activities are drawing to a close just like they are up north.

So, toddlers beds are on their way out and big boy & big girl twin bunk beds are on their way in!!  Starting kindergarten and getting big beds all in one month... double milestone month!  If they decide they are ready for the Tooth Fairy to finally visit (we have 8 teeth lost so far and not one visit...yet) we could have a Milestone Hat Trick month!  or for you bowlers and not hockey fans... a Milestone Turkey!

Now, we have to look for comforters.  You think the mattress purchase was thorough.  Baby, you ain't seen nothin' yet!

photo Friday... Lew version

Here's Molly helping her Daddy with his work.  She can't get up on the table fast enough when he sits down with his laptop or the Sunday paper.

She is a good helper!

only 4 days of school

before Carl had to stay home sick.  Yesterday, he fell asleep before dinner and before bed was only 99.6, but he was 100.6 when he woke up.  I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that 100 was the magic number. 

So, we dropped Gretchen off at school and hung out together.  I know sick days aren't supposed to be too much fun, but the kid wasn't acting sick at all.  We did do some fast grocery shopping for dinner on the way home in the morning.  Who knew???  If you get to the grocery store at 8:00am, they don't have any meat in the meat counter yet.  Back home, we snuggled on the couch and watched a little TV in the morning.  He ate a decent lunch and I managed to get him to take an early nap.  Well, by the time he fell alseep I had to wake him 30 minutes later to go get Gretchen.  He was not a fan of sitting in that pick-up line.  I brought him a snack, drink and his TAG reader (but he didn't use it.)   He was over 101 mid-day, so we'll see how he is in the morning.  I may not adhere to the "fever free for 24 hours rule" if he seems fine.  Shhhh.

We started journals today.  I should have started them on the first day of school, but, well, I didn't.  Here are the kids' entries from today with translations:

Gretchen's fifth day of kindergarten

September 1 2011

We went to the library.

We read a book.

We had 2 recesses.

We ate in the cafeteria.

The library had a lot of books.

September

1 2011

I am sick.

I stayed home with Mom.

Carl