Some Things I've Learned

So here are a few things I've figured out over the last week or so:

1) Apparently only 8 people read my Blog... that is about 4 more than I thought, so that's pretty good.

2) I don't like kids! I love MY kids of course and if you are reading this, I probably like your kids, but I think kids are mean and I don't like any one else's kids!! Case in point - Henry came home last week & said that someone at school wouldn't let him play soccer at After School, because he couldn't kick. Thankfully, Henry was given the opportunity to show that he could kick, he kicked it far, so they let him play. I tried to talk to him about standing up for himself & that HE DECIDED to play; not that they LET him play... that they are not the boss of him & if HE WANTED to play, then he could. I said, "Because who is the boss of you?" And Henry said, "You are."

3) Sad days are a comin' at the James House.... Brad is making me clean out the attic of all baby toys, baby supplies, baby gear & baby clothes. We have so much stuff in the attic, it is impossible to get stuff OUT of the attic; a fact Brad points out every time he has to take down / put away Halloween or Christmas decorations. So I have to do it - I have to part with my baby stuff.... not all of it mind you - there will be things I know I simply wont be able to part with... but I absolutely dread having to do this. It will really break my heart. I only hope I can think of a good charitable organization to give my prized baby stuff too. I also wish I knew how to quilt - I'd love to have a couple of quilts made of each of my kid's clothes. Know anyone that does that?

4) Further to point #2 above, the time has come to move Kyra in to a real bed. She is still sleeping in the crib, which has been converted into a toddler bed... but with pillow, stuffed animals & blankets, she is running out of room in there. Now, I love her room - I think it is so pretty, but she is 2.5 years old and likely ready for a big girl room... but this crib has been a fixture in our house for over 5.5 years!! Not seeing it somewhere makes me so sad - Brad will HAVE to find room for that in the attic!!

Wish me luck!

The Maize Maze

Yesterday we went to Rural Hill Farm.  In addition to a small pumpkin patch and bounce houses, they have a 7 acre corn field that they've turned in  to a maze.  The object is to find 12 pieces of the maze puzzle (which are strategically placed in mail boxes throughout the maze) & get out of the corn field in as short of a time as possible.

Henry was VERY excited to go through the corn... we spent about an hour walking around the corn field.  Brad and I had to take turns holding Kyra after the first 15 minutes of walking... but I'm proud to say that we found 10 of the 12 puzzle pieces!!  It was a lot of walking though, so afterwards, we went on a hay ride around the farm to rest, before hitting the bounce houses one more time.

Brad needs to carve our pumpkin, which I fear might not get done before Halloween, but here are some pictures of our day.

Just Another Manic Sunday

Today we decided to have another Arts & Crafts Day... even Daddy got into the action & made Henry a very cool picture of 2 football players facing off over the football.  Henry used a sticker to put the football down in the middle of the page & Daddy did the rest.  With that, they were both done w/ Arts & Crafts Day.

Kyra on the other hand, used the new stamps, and got crazy with (thankfully) washable paint.  She painted for about a half hour.  She required some serious clean-up afterwards, but it was worth it.

When we were done with that, Henry went to his computer to check on all the football games... this is something he does every Sunday afternoon & Monday evening... he logs on to NFL.com and watches the replays of every game.  Then for the rest of the week, he reminds us who played who and what the score was.  Scary Genius that one there!!!

Meanwhile, Kyra & Daddy (and Hobbies) opted to rest & eat a snack.

And what did I do???  I baked my children some chocolate chip cookies AND made them some mini muffins for their morning snack!  So domestic I was this afternoon!!!

The Very Busy Columbus Day

Today was one of my favorite days - in addition to being over 85 degrees and breezy, it was a bank holiday!!  Bank holidays would be one of the reasons I work for a bank!!!

Henry still had school though, but Kyra and I did our best to include him in our day.  First she came with me to drop him off at school, then we went to Dunkin Donuts for coffee (for me & Daddy -  not her)!  We came home to beautify and then met Henry for lunch at 10:36am at his school!  He was SO excited that we were there and Kyra loved the pizza they were serving... since it looked & smelled EXACTLY the same as when I was in school 18 years ago, I opted to pass on any cafeteria food today!

Then she and I did the following:

1)  Got our toes painted - she chose blue again & I picked red... I let her get her fingers done too!

2)  Went to the mall so she could play a bit, and I bought myself a pair of pants & 2 shirts

3)  Went to PetSmart to buy $60 worth of dog food & cat food - madness!

4)  Picked up Henry from school & took him to get a much needed hair cut  

Then we came home & the kids played outside for ever!  Kyra fell asleep at 7pm which was an added bonus to the day!!!

How Cute is This Outfit???

Even the socks & shoes match!!!!  Granted, these are supposed to be capri pants, but I accidentally bought the wrong size.... the socks have a brown flower on them & the brown shoes have pink flowers on them!  How precious is that?!?!

Saturdays with Kyra

For the past 3 weeks now, we've been taking Kyra to dance class on Saturday mornings. It is at 10am & is 45 minutes long. They do ballet for about 1/2 hour & then tap for about 15 minutes. Kyra finally got her tap shoes today & loved them! I tried to take pictures of her before class, but they came out terrible - I think maybe because the room is pink?? Anyway, this first picture is the best of what I took.

Now, as you can see, her hair is getting kind of long... I've never cut it in her 2.5 years of life! I'm thinking that maybe I should, but I'm kind of scared to. I love her hair. SHE loves her hair - loves to choose which barrette she'll wear in the morning or whether to wear two pig tails vs. one pony tail. Sometimes, she likes to practice on me. She'll go get my brush and try to brush my hair, try to put it in a pony tail and she'll say, "Do you want it up here or down here?" and "Look here. Turn your head there. Stay still. Don't move." These are things I say to her so it cracks me right up. When she was getting nowhere with my hair today, she turned to her Daddy, who was kind enough to let her do his hair... he took direction very well I might add!

Happy Birthday Daddy

I let Henry choose what we'd have for dinner tonight to celebrate Daddy's birthday... to Daddy's immense delight, Henry chose pizza & wings from "Taste of Buffalo Pizzeria."  It is THE BEST pizza around and what's great is that the whole inside decor is done in Buffalo Bills motif!  :)

Daddy LOVED his homemade cards & paintings.  He is going to hang his paintings up at work (for however long he can that is).... and my cake - a HUGE hit.  Henry wanted two pieces & Kyra ate only the frosting... Daddy was too full from all of his wings to eat much cake but I think he was most pleased with his birthday!!  

Even Hobbies got in on the action & helped us sing "Happy Birthday!"

 

Call Me Betty

I was going to take Henry to the grocery store tomorrow, after I picked him up from school, to pick out a birthday cake for Daddy... but then I figured that I could make one for a whole lot less... and given that Daddy works for Wachovia (for now that is), I decided to be frugal!

The kids really love to bake - I think it's because I let them lick the bowl.  The cake may be from a box, but I'm going to make homemade chocolate frosting... thankfully the kids are now in bed, because they'd be brown if I let them lick that bowl!

In unrelated news, Henry got his first "Mid Term Progress Report Card" today.  They are graded with a 1, 2 or 3 - 3 being the highest.  Henry got a 3 in everything!  Interestingly, they seem to think he "exceeds expectations" in Writing, but only "meets expectations" in Reading... odd don't you think, given that he's been reading for over a year now?  I'm going to let this go though & will wait for 1st week of November, which is Parent / Teacher Conference time!!!

Something to do When You Don't Have Gas

I have been on empty for 3 days now.  The serious gas shortage in Charlotte is unreal, so with the exception of karate/dance classes yesterday, I haven't left the house in 3 days.  Brad was able to find some this morning, although he had to wait 20 minutes to get $50 max.... and that actually isn't that bad compared to how long some people were waiting last week.  I decided today that I really needed to think about what driving I do and so today, when Brad went in to the office, the kids and I had Art & Craft Time.

Brad's birthday is on Thursday, so we each made him a card, using construction paper, glitter, glue, stickers, markers.... whatever we wanted!  Then when our cards were done, the kids each used their water color paints to paint a picture for him.

I almost felt like Ms. Katie with this activity and the kids LOVED it.  Henry even said, "Mommy, aren't crafts fun?"  I'm going to try and do more craft like things with them again soon.  We spent 1.5 hours on all of this - I couldn't believe it... of course, as you can see by the last picture, Kyra got a little mad at me when I tried to help her!!

Preview

About 3 years ago, a co-worker of mine got me 2 Halloween costumes from his brother who works for Disney.  One was Tigger, which Henry wore for 2 years and the other was Captain Hook.  Henry is now big enough to wear the Captain Hook outfit & last year, after Halloween & marked down more than 60%, I bought Kyra a Tinkerbell costume.  I'm very excited because I think they'll look SO cute and even more so because Henry WANTS to be a pirate.

However, I went to the new Super Target today & saw all of the costumes & began to wonder if Henry's school would allow them to dress up for Halloween.... and then I thought, if they did, do I want him to mess up Hook?  What if he loses the hat, the wig or the hook?  Most days he forgets to bring home his water bottle, so a costume doesn't really stand much of a chance.

Clearly, the child does not need two costumes, and if I was smart, I would have waited to see what the school was going to do before I showed it to him, but he was SO EXCITED to see it and he begged me to let him try it on... I couldn't resist the preview!!

Princess Party

Today Kyra and I went to Sydney's 3rd Birthday Party.  Sydney's mom & I work together and we were most excited to go to our very first princess party.  

Another friend from work loaned me two princess dresses - Belle & Aurora - and Kyra chose Belle.   Before we left for the party, she said, "Mommy, where's your dress?"

Sydney was Ariel and imagine the girl's surprise when Ariel herself showed up at the party!  She made butterfly balloons for them, painted their faces, let them make bracelets and they danced to music & a bubble machine!  Kyra was a huge fan of the face painting, and of course dancing!  

Sydney got a special sash, tiara and magic wand from Ariel.  It was a really cute party!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

So Brad took these pictures last Sunday... apparently, this is how I eat ice cream - with a pillow on my lap.  Kyra asked for some ice cream too, in her own bowl.  She made Henry get off the couch, so that she & I could sit there & she made sure we each had a pillow.  I didn't even realize that she was copying me until Brad got out the camera!!

Videos from Sparta

We finally got around to downloading these videos - here are 3 of my favorites.  

Kyra Liebowitz

Kyra got a hold of our camera yesterday, managed to turn it on AND take pictures with it!  She was most excited!!  Here are some of the pics she took, which are sure to be in her portfolio some day!!

Mommy & Kyra Day

Today Brad and Henry went to their very first ASU home game... both were beyond excited... but so were Kyra & I because we had a "Mommy & Kyra Day."

We met my friend Courtney at the mall, and played at the indoor play area, then we went to get our toes done (Kyra chose blue!) and then we had lunch at Red Robin.  The girl loves to dip her food in ranch dressing, as you can see!

On the way home, Kyra fell asleep, and honestly, that was the best part of the afternoon because when I got her out of the car, I decided to lay on the couch with her, instead of putting her in her bed.  She slept on my chest for well over an hour... something she hasn't done since she was a baby.  I hope some day she'll remember getting our toes painted together, but I'll remember watching her sleep!

What a Day!

First - there was a water main break this morning at School 4, so Brad had to pick Kyra up & take her home.  They had a great day together though - they went for a bike ride, played with sidewalk chalk, rode big wheels, played with bubbles & went to the grocery store.  Between you & me, Kyra needed the extra attention as she has taken Henry going to KDG rather hard... yesterday when she & Daddy got home, she walked right past me so that she could say "HI" to Henry & give him a hug!

Second - I drove all the way to South Park for my bi-annual dermatologist appointment (mole patrol) that I scheduled some 4 months ago, only to find out that my dermatologist moved to Texas 3 weeks ago!!!

Third - I got home to find our First Fundraising opportunity had been sent home with Henry.  They want us to sell Citipass books - basically coupon books to area establishments.  Do you know how many friends / family members we are going to alienate by soliciting those things??  

First Homework Assignment

Henry's first homework assignment was to write down 5 things he likes about himself.  He wrote:

1)  Watch Star Wars

2)  Karate

3)  Funny

4)  Baseball /  Football

5)  Good reader

Mountain Weekend

We spent the weekend at Old Beau - that is in Roaring Gap (about 1.5 hours north of Charlotte).  On Saturday, we drove to Mt. Airy which is famous as being the town which Mayberry was based on.  We went to Barney's Cafe for lunch and dropped by Floyd's Barbershop, where ironically, there was a wait and a woman running it.  The kids favorite stop was to Opie's Candy Store.  Believe it or not, it was insanely hot in the mountains this weekend - Saturday had to be like 90 degrees! Note the pic of me & Henry (taken at Barney's Cafe) - he asked us to buy him this flag & he sang "The Star Spangled Banner" all weekend long!

On Sunday, we drove to Sparta in an attempt to find a playground.  We also stopped and got some balls and bubbles and had the best time there.  We played volleyball, basketball, and then spent time on the playground, before stopping off at The Pine Restaurant for lunch.  Note - if you are ever in Sparta, you might want to avoid the Pine Restaurant.  They had no air conditioning, my cole slaw was served at or below room temperature and the sanitation grade was only 90 or something like that.  The waitress was very nice though!  

I have a bunch of videos from our time in Sparta - I'll ask Brad to post them when he's done air-rating the yard!!