Monday, August 13, 2012

Musings of a Kindergartener

Brighton said some pretty funny stuff in the last week as she's started up the routine of going to school. It's hilarious. I've only written down the big ones that stuck with me- there were honestly so many! If you haven't had your first day of school yet, keep a notebook handy to write down all the funny things your kids say. Too good.

M: How was your first day of school?
B: I said (very sassy-like with a hand on her hip), "I want my mom. And they wouldn't let me!"

She started school on a Monday and she has all day kindergarten. When I woke her up on Wednesday morning, I said, "B, we've got to get up and get ready for school (in a lovely sing-song voice that ANYBODY would want to get woken up to, honestly)!"
B: Mom... if I go to school so many days, I don't have any days to play!

She forgot she had a lunch on the first day. I asked her what she ate because the ENTIRE lunch was still in the lunch box. She said she had a tortilla with all the other kids who had tortillas, too (apparently there were burritos...?). And "the lady gave [me] a banana even though [I] didn't take one." Then she thought she'd get into trouble if she got out of line to get it from her backpack on Tuesday. She finally ate her own lunch on Wednesday. I made her carry it in and ask her teacher where she could put it so she didn't forget again.

She has informed me that she eats lunch in the "factory."

Here's a picture of B doing her homework.

The conversation in the car ride home went something like this:
M: Ok B, when we get home, we need to do your homework.
B: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That's silly, mom. (in her really good, really cracking up, she'd be rolling on the floor if she wasn't still strapped to the car seat, laugh) Work is for grown-ups! NOT KIDS!
M: Yes, work is for grown-ups. HOMEWORK is for kids in school.
B: oh. that doesn't make any sense!
my thoughts: I know, B, I know...

And finally, one story from the classroom:
B: The girl needed help writing her name.
M: Did the teacher help her?
B: Yes.
M: Did you write your name?
B: I pretended I didn't know how (all smiles and sneaky). I tricked her (SMILE!!!)
M: Brighton, you DON'T pretend to not know things at school. You HAVE to do all the things the teacher asks and ALL the things you already know.
B: ok, mom... 
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Making a Balance Board

I saw this in Family Fun maybe as much as a year ago. We were invited to a birthday party and I thought this would be a great gift for a little boy. So Mason and I bought enough stuff to make two!
 
The board is about 11 in wide and 3 ft long- I bought a board from Home Depot, 11 in wide and 6 ft long and had them cut it for me.
 
We covered the board with strips of duct tape- they have some really fun patterned ones out there and fun colors- but I just used some that I already had. Mason picked the colors. : ) We were just going to do red and white stripes, but Mason threw a curve and asked for blue for the last stripe. He knows what he wants.
 
I bought a swim noodle and cut it to fit the length of the sides, and a slit along the length. Slipped it on the board, and hot glued it to the top of the board.
 
Then, some piping- mine is 3" wide, and 2 1/2 ft long. They were already pre-cut to the length. Put on some end caps and there you go!
 
Glue the ends on if you want, but I didn't bother.
 
Here's Mason pretending he fell off. He kept doing this and asking me to take pictures of it. He kept running over to the camera to look after each picture.
 
Then he wanted me to take a picture of his butt. : )
 
Mason practiced all day so that he could show Brighton how to do it when she got home.
 
Some fun while we're stuck inside in the hot weather.
 
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Hanging Out With Mason

My little man and I are so much enjoying our time together. He is very sensitive and snugly and he has needed his one on one time for a few years now. He's behaving better, helping more and listening and we're having less confrontation with potty training just in the last week. It's weird how just the few hours together is making him feel more loved and the change is taking place so fast.
 
Here he is posing on B's bed, showing me how cool he is climbing. Also, his new green shoes- he's worn them almost every day in the last week. : )
 
 
Thought I'd share my yummy breakfast with you since I had to share it with Mason, too: water in my pretty teacup, homemade yogurt with homemade granola with dried cranberries, and some homemade zucchini bread with butter- yes that's how much butter I put on it. And it may not have been enough : )
 
Caught in the act of stealing my cranberries! He ate almost all of them while I was taking the pictures, and while he crawled into my lap as I was eating. He picked them all off, drank my water, and ate half my zucchini bread. Maybe I'll get skinnier now that Mason and I are sharing all this time and meals together.
 
So he decided he needed to get the bag of berries and get some more for me and for himself.
 
 
Once he took over the meal, I tried to snap some pics, but he was hiding.
 
My happy little Mason. It's hard to believe that he'll be three at the end of this month.
 
Mason and I also made some cupcakes together. These were so yummy! My mom found this recipe in a magazine, I think. They're called Mini Hummingbird Cupcakes.

Yummy- they were like banana bread cupcakes with nuts, but with a delicious surprise of pineapple and ginger. Oh, and cream cheese frosting.
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Brighton's School Hair

Brighton always wants to wear a "ponytail only" in her hair. As soon as we get home from church she says, "mommy, take this out and put my hair in a pony, we're not at church anymore." So we've made a deal with each other that she could only wear her hair in a pony two days each week.

I only took one picture from last week, but she only ended up wearing a pony once- Score 4 for mom! Here's just one 'do that she liked. It was super cute from the front, she looked like she had little tiny ponytails. She LOVED it. She wore a semi pony today, but I've got her wearing a skirt tomorrow so... score one more for mom : ) 
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Monday, August 6, 2012

Brighton's First Day of School

Alright, I'm really going to try now! I've been so bad about blogging and feeling overwhelmed by the idea of playing catch-up, so I'm not gonna do it. I'm starting again from right here. I'm really going to make an effort, ok?

Here's what we did today:
It was Brighton's first day of school! We got her into kindergarten a year early so I wasn't as prepared as I would have been thinking about it all her little life but I didn't cry today so I consider that a success. Here she is eating her breakfast and talking with Dale about how excited she is to get to school.
 
 
Modeling her new Hello Kitty backpack. She really did pick this one herself. I thought for sure she'd go for Spiderman or Justin Bieber, but this is the one she wanted : )
 
Unfortunately for us fashionistas, B's school requires uniforms- either an orange, yellow, or grey school shirt with their little logo on it. But we're gonna work it. She had some orange, yellow and blue hair ties in her hair and we found these cute shorts with an orange, yellow and blue flowered embroidered on it. I think she looked great, and she is actually REALLY excited about the school shirts.
 
A picture with my girl before we hit the road. My necklace? From here. Kassie, my little sis, visited this past weekend and we both made some really cute ones.
 
The family outside her classroom building.
 
This is it!!!
 
One last picture with daddy.
 
She just runs in, drops her backpack and settles right in. I tried to say bye and she waves me off and says, "Go mom."
 
There she is at the first table, on the left, digging in and getting started on drawing. I missed her all day. We asked Mason where Brighton was, he said, "At school." "Do you miss her?" "... (making a sad face, then an extremely lit up, happy face)... NO!" We had a fun day of running errands and lunch with mommy's girlfriends.


And of course, you all want to know what I'm making today:
 
Some raspberry/strawberry fruit roll-ups for lunches.
 
And some crackers. They're similar in taste to wheat thins, but not quite as crunchy. They're filled with millet, flax seeds, and whole wheat flour so I feel like they're somewhat healthy, for a cracker anyway.
 
Dale's out of town tonight so I'm sitting here on the couch relaxing, blogging, watching some TV and enjoying my drink of choice lately- Pellegrino- along with some raspberry shortbread cookies. Now, don't let the minuscule number of cookies fool you, I'd already eaten more than half by the time I took this picture, and they are now completely gone. I'll be getting up shortly to eat some more. : )

And, naturally, those of you in WA want to see what I'm wearing lately. Nude tights. If Kate Middleton can wear them, then so can I. Just kidding. These are my lovely compression stockings that I've been wearing for the past four days. I had my first endovenous ablation treatment on Friday so I've been enjoying a nice round of pain killers this weekend and the great excuse to just sit back and prop my feet up. I had a follow up ultrasound today and everything is looking great. I'm sore and a teeny bit swollen, but only have a little bruising and I'm pretty much back to full function.

As far as REAL fashion goes, I'm rockin' my cropped and rolled boyfriend jeans. Perfectly comfy and very cute. Well, not so cute at the moment with my booger and flour covered t-shirt, but dressed up- you can imagine. : )
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Monday, April 2, 2012

Jack and Jill Fell Down the Hill

We live on a hill. I was worried about the hill in WA, but this one is way bigger. Dale taught the kids to push their little scooters (what are these toys called?!) up the hill and go down. I've since had nightmares about the kids falling and busting their crowns, and so they aren't allowed on a bike without a helmet now. I'm probably a bad parent since they didn't have them before we moved here, but they have them now, and that's all that matters, right?
 
It kinda looks like WA huh? I think this may have been the day that it rained on and off, and then all night. See, we get rain too...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Oh yeah, she's getting too brave.
 

And that, besides the park and story time at the library, is what we've been up to. Trying to enjoy the outdoors until it's too hot and we'll have to play inside.
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