The Sled Hill

This has been one abnormal winter in the midwest. We've only had two snowfalls that amounted to anything more than a ground dusting, so there hasn't been much outdoor fun for the kids this year. However, last night we got about 5-6" of snow. So the kids and I flew through their studies as fast as we could this morning and were out the door about 11:30 to get to the sled hill. Eric ran into a couple of friends from his public school days (three years ago!), I got to go down the hill with Charlotte on her sled, and we all had a ball. I do have to say, though, that at the top of this particular hill the windchill must make the temperature about 30 deg. colder than at the bottom of the hill. It was a might breezy up top.

Who needs bullies when you can white-wash yourself?

Charlotte's hair catching a breeze on her ride....

Another Day At School

Don't you wish your math class had been this comfortable?




P.S. - I have no idea why my kids weren't punching each other over who got the chair this day. Naturally I had to capture the rare moment with the camera.



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When you give a carpenter a new deck....

We decided that our old deck (20+ years) needed to be replaced. It was so bad that you couldn't even walk barefoot on the deck without chancing splinters in your feet. While we were at it, we decided to put in a pool. And while we were at that, we decided to add in an upper deck to access said pool. While it's not 100% complete (the deck portion, that is), the pool has been getting a work-out since it warmed up in late May. Here's a few photos of the kids showing off their moves.

Charlotte lines up for her jump

I didn't ask, but I think it's called the frog jump.

Ker-plunk

Now a word about my new radio. I knew we'd be clocking some hours outside in the pool this summer, so when asked what I wanted for my birthday last month, I said "a poolside radio to listen to some tunes while we were in the pool!" Mike, my carpenter husband, went out and found me the mother of all radios. Here it is, and I gotta say it rocks!!

Eric doing his ninja moves
(and though he looks really boney in this photo, we do feed him.)

Look at all those custom cuts on the wood. Mike rocked it on the deck!

Levi Strauss

When Levi Strauss invented his denim jeans, they became favorites of the working man. They were also a popular choice among the 49'ers as they panned for gold. I'm just curious, though, since these pioneer jeans were subjected to what I consider some grueling labor and abuse, did they end up looking like this after 7 months?




And this is actually a "decent" pair of my son's jeans, as there's still one knee in-tact. Most of his jeans have both knees blown out, and we're not even all the way through the jean-wearing season yet. He's just a 10 year old boy. I know boys can be hard on their clothes, but how much in comparison to someone digging in a mine for gold 12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week? Did their jeans get all raggedy looking in such a short time? Is it asking too much for a pair of jeans to make it through one short, 8 month wearing season in-tact?? I think from now on I'm going to start ironing on some patches on the inside of his jeans to see if we can get a little more mileage out of them.

Maybe Next Time

We were at the Milwaukee Zoo yesterday to support our nephew on his first Down Syndrome Awareness walk. So we were on the walk portion of our day going by this foresty area that seemed like a great place to take a photo of the kids - you know, maybe for the annual Christmas card or something. I made the mistake of taking my sunglasses off while shooting the photos so I could see the light better, but duh, didn't put on my regular glasses so I really wasn't sure what I was shooting since it all looked blurry to me. Then there's Mike, ever the not helpful photographer's assistant, telling the kids to say cheeseburger or pizza or something stupid like that. All I wanted was a cute photo of the kids. THIS is what I get instead......

A Rare Occasion

It's a rare occasion that I catch a genuine smile from Eric when he's in front of the camera. I had rather hoped his fake-pained smile would pass quickly, but it's been hanging on for a couple years now. This week we've been getting some really nice autumn weather, the leaves are plentiful, so the kids were outside playing in a huge pile of them. There's no way I could resist a photo op like that, so I joined the kids to watch them in their fun and capture it for their scrap albums (if I ever get around to printing out photos from the past 18 mos.)

I tried the photo below in color and black and white. Both look good, but I'm a fan of black and white photos. For some reason it looks a little darker on my blog than it did while editing it, but that still doesn't hide the fabulous expression I caught on my 'lil man's face!

Back To......Homeschool

This day made possible by many family and friends' prayers and support, plus generous donations of books and even a printer!

Today was the day!! We launched Flood Academy (not sure what to call our little school. Suggestions?) Because it was not only the first day of school, but also the first day of homeschool, I made pancakes for breakfast. This made the children putty in my hands, an unexpected, yet wonderful, reward for my efforts. Actually, the day went really well. We're easing into things this week with math, reading, and phonics. Next week we'll add on everything else. Since it was so cold this morning (what is up with that on August 31?!), we did back-to-school photos after lunch.

Charlotte shows off her new backpack (yes, she'll need one for our Co-Op enrichment school)

Both kids and their backpacks (I need to have a chat with Eric about his, uh, "cool" face.)

The kids were not having anything to do with touching each other for a "together" photo...

....until I pleaded with them. Eric makes it look like a painful experience.

I think they've had enough of me and my camera.

That's Not Very Reassuring

Today the school sent home a "Dear Parents" note to let us know how in-tune they are with parental concern over all the school violence going on over the past several years. They wanted to make sure parents know that they're on top of things, that they "continually review and revise safety and emergency procedures carefully. [They] have developed lockdown procedures in conjunction with the [local] Police Department......" The note goes on to say they'll have a drill later this week prior to the children coming to school and to not be alarmed by police cars in the parking lot.

I know they want to reassure me as a parent that the school where I send my child for most of his day is a safe place. But I think they missed the point. I don't find the need for lockdown drill's in my child's elementary school very reassuring at all.

LegoLand

Eric is big-time into all things Lego. Since it's spring break, we decided to go visit LegoLand yesterday with the kids. Having a couple freebie kid passes made the trip less traumatic for me. I can't say I'd ever go back there (unless someone else was paying, lol), even though the Lego creations were really cool. For the $40 it cost for all of us to get in there, our kids each got one free white Lego brick with the entrance fee. What a deal! Well OK, we got to go on a dragon ride and see a short 4-D movie....plus go to the over-run play area.

I'm hard to please with my high standards. I think for $19 per adult, we should get something more than a walk-through of some Lego creations. I had hoped we could attend one of the workshops with a Lego master builder, but that was at 10:50 a.m. and that appeared to be it. Guess I dropped the ball by not asking when we got there, seeing as there were no signs anywhere about it and the cashier didn't even hand us so much as a site map (maybe he dislikes coupon users who bring their own cameras.) If I weren't trying to stop acronym cyber swearing, I'd be typing WTyouknowwhat, ya know?! In this case, entrance fees do not in any way equate to the value of the venue.

On the plus side, Eric has switched career paths. Gone are the dreams to be a carpenter. He plans to be a master builder of Legos. Sounds like a fun job, actually!

Hippo in the "jungle land" area

The kids with Batman

Indiana Jones

Eric was randomly chosen to push a button in the pretend Lego "factory"

Hagrid

Anakin Skywalker gone bad

Young Jedi Warrior

One guess who feels at home in front of the camera

Be Who You Are

A couple days ago during dinner we were talking about college. Mike and I figure it's never too early to plant those seeds into our children's brains. Eric has stated in the past that he wants to grow up and be a carpenter like his Dad. Awwwww......I know, that is so sweet, and a testament to how much he looks up to his Dad. But even Mike doesn't want him to grow up to be a carpenter; it's a hard life, and quite honestly, there won't be much left to build in 10-15 years when Eric's in the work force full time. So knowing he has a "thing" for building and creating, I've planted those college seeds by whispering "Beeee an engineeeeeeer". Or something along those lines.

So we were having dinner the other night where the"college" conversation was going on. Mike and I were saying to the kids that once you decide what you want to be, you go to college to learn how to be it. Quick as you please, Eric stated, "I just want to be my own person and not study for it."

Mike and I were stunned into silence. How do you come back from that?

Tsunamis

Eric is into reading books about natural disasters. It's almost alarming how he rattles off the death tolls and gazes at the photos of destruction and exclaims, "WHOA! Look at that ! Oh my gosh, SIXTY THOUSAND people dead!" Where's the compassion? Are all 8 year old boys like this?

So today he's reading a book called World's Wost Tsunamis. The world's worst is a rather recent one from December 2004 in Thailand. I explained that he was not quite 4 years old and how I remember that awful natural disaster. Eric went on to read about the Lisbon, Portugal tsunami, and he asked me a question about it: "So Mom, were you around in 1755 for this tsunami too?"

Party Envy

When Mike and I made the decision for me to become a stay at home mom, it wasn't without some reservations. We were giving up a huge income that we had sort of come to rely on. So like a young bird taking flight out of the nest for the first time, I jumped into the world of Stay-At-Home Momness. Five years have gone by since that decision. It hasn't always been easy, but every time I crave a bigger house, I remind myself that we could have one, but I wouldn't get to spend much time in it. When I long for frequent vacations, I tell myself I'd need them to recoup from the hectic schedule of the "working" mom (I use "" because all moms work, but I'm referring to a mom who's holding down a full-time job outside of the house on top of all her other responsibilities.)

One thing I've tried to come to terms with are my kid's birthday parties. My kids have been invited to parties at these places where you show up and they do all the work. Kids play and have fun, do cool things, food is brought in, and the mess is cleaned up for you. What's not to love? My kids would love to have one like it of their own, and I'd love to indulge them......maybe even indulge myself - like I'll be the coolest Mom ever if only I could provide an equally cool birthday party. So it's somewhat with a reluctant heart that I've come to accept that spending $300 on a party for one child is not the best way to responsibly steward our money.

This month was Eric's birthday and he wanted to invite a few of his friends over for a ["on-a-budget-but-fun-anyway"] Star Wars birthday party. This isn't exactly an easy thing to plan for the winter, because any outdoor activity can't be done since it's usually 12 degrees outside. I did some research and came up with a few ideas I thought we could pull off in our living room.

I was able to score a brand new Star Wars movie off ebay for a fraction of retail. The kids played Mario Kart and snacked on popcorn, then we started the movie while they ate their dinner of cheeseburgers. Before they had a chance to get antsy watching the movie, I paused it to call all the young Jedis around me. I demonstrated their task: Using Eric's light saber that he made at Disney, they had to keep a balloon up in the air. If they could beat the clock, then I added a second balloon. While they each took a turn (one at a time to prevent them killing each other), I played the Star Wars soundtrack that I checked out from the library. They enjoyed the challenge before going back to the movie. A little while later, we paused the movie again, so that we could play another game: This time we released The Force (6 balloons) and all the balloons had to be kept off the ground. We were laughing so hard while diving for the balloons (Mike and I were right in there with them!)

The kids ate some ice cream and home-made cupcakes before returning to the movie. Mike couldn't help himself though.....he's such a kid at heart! He started "the light saber wars", using the flexible orange Hot Wheels track for the light saber. I think it was the boys favorite part of the evening! The three hours flew by, and before I knew it, their parents were here to pick them up. With all the games, only half of the movie was watched, but since they'd all seen it, it wasn't a bad thing!

Each boy went home with a little goodie bag of miniature Milky Ways, Starburst, a large bubble wand I found for a buck that looks like a light saber, plus a personalized Star Wars bookmark (this was supposed to be a craft for them to do, but they were having too much fun playing the games, so I put them together really quick and stuck them into their take-home bags.) I even threw in a Star Wars word search that I made on some educational website.

As I tucked Eric into bed that night, I asked him how he liked his party, thinking that maybe he thought it was lame. He turned to me with the most genuine smile on his face and declared it was "the best party ever, Mom! I want one just like it next year!" It was awesome to hear that the best party ever could be had right at home without spending a lot of money. Maybe one day we'll be able to treat our kids to something more elaborate, but at least for now it's nice that they're content with the tradition of a simple at-home party.

The Dreaded School Projects

I hate school projects that Eric brings home. It's not that I resent being involved in my child's education. Quite the contrary, I'm very involved. I volunteer in his classroom, show up for parent-teacher conferences, occasionally e-mail his teacher, and I’m on him Every Single Day to do his homework. I care about how he does and want to see him succeed. I think he views me as his tormentor because of this.

Every day I make sure Eric completes his homework (which is no less than spelling and 20 minutes of reading, plus anything else that may come home); but what is most trying on the nerves is...... "homework drama". This is when my child falls onto the floor whining or stomps off to his room declaring that he just doesn’t want to do one more minute of school work. And who can blame him? He’s a second grader who has just spent nearly 7 hours at school and didn’t get a recess because it’s too cold (or wet or icy or snowing or raining) outside, and our brilliant school does not open up the gym to let these youngsters burn off pent up energy but instead has them play board games in their classroom, then sends them home to do more work.

So about 2 weeks ago Eric brought home a project assignment. Here’s an excerpt from the take-home page:

“We would like each student [yeah, right] to construct a dinosaur for the [display] case. Materials you can use: empty cans, cartons, containers, paper towel rolls, paint, markers, etc. The dinosaur should be able to stand alone.”

I think I would welcome these projects if I didn't already have a daily homework battle going on with my kid. These projects are like pouring salt on a festering wound. If I were an uninvolved parent I could be scoring some serious points with my kid by anteing up for the project, but since I'm already in his face about getting his homework done, these projects just add to our misery. I guess I'm one of those parents who think that daily homework for first and second graders is just not right. Add third grade to that as well. I suppose saying that makes me unpopular but so be it. It's the way I feel.

So back to the Dinosaur Project. Here's my observation about that: I just don’t have a child who can take a pile of crap and make a dinosaur out of it. No way. Since I know this truth about Eric, this led me to employ that old parental strategy of "picking my battles." Doing his reading and spelling will net him decent grades and get him promoted to third grade. This dinosaur will not hold him back one way or the other. Instead, I opted to borrow someone else's idea from a craft site and then let Eric choose between the options I found. So Mom found the idea, Eric whined while cutting out the teeth and mouth, and Dad spray painted it. We all did the project together without killing each other. WooHoo! That's the goal in our house, anyway.

~ Behold ~

A Milk Jug T-Rex

Happy Birthday Eric!

At 1:36 a.m. on February 3, 2001, Eric came into the world feet first (because he was ready to hit the ground running!), weighing in at 5 lbs. 3 oz. and 17 1/2" long. He was such a little peanut! How could I possibly know how much my life would change in that one instant?

Aprox. 2 weeks

Eric was such a happy, smiley baby!

1 Year Old!

The tupperware cabinet

Can't leave him alone for a minute!

2 Year Portrait

Autumn leaves me happy!
3 1/2 years old

Why a camera needs to be handy at all times.

What else are little boys supposed to look like after helping to make their birthday cake? 4 years old

4 1/2 years old

"Joseph" in his preschool Christmas Play

5 Year Portrait

Preschool Graduation Day!

6 1/2 Years Old

7 Years Old - Bowling Birthday Party

Mother's Day 2008

Summer 2008

Almost 8 years old