Letters From Henry

For the past month, Henry's class has been learning about things that are cold and how to write a letter.  Each child was given a piece of paper that said, "Dear ___" at the top and "Sincerely, ____" at the bottom.

One boy in his class, wrote a letter to Henry that said, "Dear Henry, I like to play wih you Do you like to play wih me. On the play gand."

This however, was Henry's letter:

Dear Mr. Snowy,

I love you.  You rock!  Sorry you dont have a hat!  :(  like the others. but ill try to find a hat for you!!!!!  but do you no if i should put you in the freezer? cause youre always so cold. even when you were on the rug. with me. and all the other kids. and you need cold very very cold water.

Sincerely,  Henry

The next day, they were to make a penguin out of a paper plate - something that Henry could not get right, he said... he said that he couldn't get the penguin to look right and he got mad.  So he wrote the following letter that day:

Dear Penguiin

Is it fine if i put your nose back on?  You are absouloutley destroyable indeed.  Well this despolourex of you i dont know. well I can't have same apporalocnes of penguin snacks. I expect your appolege [apology] of penguin disaster.

Love, Henry

Evil genius huh??

Cleaning Lady

While "vacuuming" our floor today, Kyra could be overheard saying, "Daddy, I'm cleaning this floor for you because it is disgusting."  Then I heard her say, "This floor is filthy."  

Does this sound like something a child about to turn 3 should say???

Fashionista

The only purpose of today's post is to show you some of the really cute things I have purchased for Kyra recently.  Why you ask?  Well as mentioned, they are really cute... but also, "The Children's Place" might be one of my new favorite places to shop - when they have a sale that is.  I got this outfit - to include the shoes & headband (which she likes!) all for $18!!

Now, this just cracked me up, because if you remember, I once posted a similar pic of Henry... but check out the shoes - they have ballet shoes on them!  Aren't they adorable!!!

Dots

Last night after bath, the kids were all dried off, not yet dressed, but standing in front of the bathroom mirror waiting to brush their teeth. I looked down at Kyra and she had each of her index fingers over her little boobies. Here is our conversation:

Mommy: Kyra, what are you doing?

Kyra: Playing with my dots.... Henry, do you want to play with your dots?

Snowmen

Henry's homework assignment for the week was to make a snowman.... and that my friends was the extent of the instruction we were given.  His teachers said to make a snowman out of whatever the kids wanted, to use their imagination... well this is great if you have a parent who has any artistic capabilities whatsoever.  The only thing I could come up with were styrofoam balls.  So we made a trip out to Concord Mills Mall yesterday so that we could shop at the only craft store I knew of - sad fact.  Anyway, while I was at work today, Brad assembled the snowman and of course, Kyra wanted to make one too.

After I got home, it was time to 'decorate' them... first Henry tried crayons, then marker... but when they didn't work, he made the switch to paint.

 

As you can see, he is VERY intent on detailing his snowman.  The thing on the side is his broom.  He also wound up with a carrot for a nose, a scarf, brown hair and ear muffs.

The finished creations!  Masterpieces, aren't they?

Bill & Madge Shelby

When I started working for Bank of America in 1995, I worked in the tax department and every year, Madge would temp for us during tax season. Her job was to mail out all of the tax forms we prepared... a temp job she'd been doing for probably the past 20+ years!

I adored Madge - other than her gray hair, you'd never know she was in her 60s! She moved fast and hated to sit still. She was sweet and fun and she took me to/from the airports whenever I was going home and always had a stash of Hershey Kisses close by! I ate lunch with her almost every Friday of her temporary assignment - some 10+ years!!!

In 1997, she was diagnosed with cancer, but had radiation and went into remission. She & Bill attended my wedding in 1999 and my surprise 30th birthday party in March 2002! She was SO excited when I got pregnant with Henry four months later. In what was one of the saddest days of my pregnancy (or even this decade), her cancer came back and she died in November of 2002. When I went to her funeral, her husband Bill turned to me and said, "She wanted so badly to meet your baby." I think of her often - especially when college basketball starts because she loved ACC teams and every year when we pull out the Christmas decorations, I unpack an empty Hershey Kiss tin that she gave me... I just can't part with it.

After her death, I kept in touch with Bill... at first with phone calls to see how he was doing, then just birth announcements and Christmas cards. I sent him one last month like I always do and today, I received in the mail a note from his dauther, who told me that Bill passed away last October - he had a rough time at the end and she was glad he was now in peace. She was sorry I didn't know, but thanked me for my friendship with her Dad.

So I'm writing this post tonight, through tears I can not stop, in memory of two very special people - Bill & Madge Shelby.

Spare Bedroom

One of Brad's projects over the last few weeks has been to fix up the spare bedroom - it has previously been Henry's nursery (when he was in a crib & painted light blue)... then it was a play room / spare bedroom combo, then it was just a play room and then it went back to being a spare bedroom, but with a single bed.  When we got Kyra's new furniture, we moved that twin bed into her room & got the full size mattress from storage (aka Brad's parent's house).

So, I purchased some new bedding, which let me just say was like 80% off or something - I paid $55 for the comforter, two pillow shams & bed skirt!!  Rather proud of myself with that.  Then we chose a new color & Brad painted.  He likes the color but thinks it is too glossy or satin or something - I don't know.  

Anyway, the kids enjoy sleeping in there every now & then so I let them do so the other day... imagine my surprise when I found that Hobbies had gone up to join them!!

A Few Things

Henry BEGGED me for this ornament - don't ask me why!  But it was about the only thing on sale that I could find today - I can not believe the lack of post Christmas sales out there!!  He then proceeded to spend an hour on www.pillsbury.com looking at recipes!!  What??

What is a mother to do when she is trying to grow out the top of a child's head?  One would think that since she is small, the hair wouldn't take as long to grow out because there is not as far for it to grow - not the case.  Ponytails make her head itch.  Barrettes fall out.   So I decided to try something new with Kyra's hair - headbands!  She looks SO CUTE in them, doesn't she?  But alas, they hurt her neck, or her head.  Back to the drawing board...

Kyra got a hold of my camera again... I didn't realize she had until I went to download the camera & there were 50 pictures on it... all that basically resembled the ones below.

Day Before, Day of and Day After Christmas!

On Christmas Eve, we went to Aunt Cyndi's for dinner, then to 7:00 Candlelight Service.... try as I did, I could not convince Henry to wear nicer pants for the entire evening, instead I had to bring his nice pants for him to change into!  I really hope this sweat pants / track pants thing is a phase!

Thankfully, the kids slept in until 7am on Christmas morning, because Mommy & Daddy didn't get to bed until midnight!  That's what I get for waiting until Christmas Eve to wrap their presents!!

Kyra is LOVING her new art table!

This morning, Kyra and I hit Target for some after Christmas sales... however, the pickins were rather slim.  So we went to Dunkin Donuts for coffee & chocolate creme filled donuts, which even Hobbies enjoyed!

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Yesterday the kids and I finally started making some Christmas cookies.  First up were Peanut Butter Blossoms... it was all Henry could do to keep from eating the dough and most of the Kisses were eaten, but Kyra had LOTS of fun rolling the balls in sugar!!

Earlier in the day, Kyra got a hold of my camera AGAIN!  I have lovely pictures of Henry's computer, a stack of pillows, the floor, the desk... but my favorite was the one she took of Barty!!  Well Done Kit Cat!

More Holiday Fun

I've been a bit lax about posting anything for the last few weeks - I don't remember being so busy around the holidays before... work has been crazy busy lately and I still have to wrap gifts, bake cookies for Santa and get rid of the grey hair that is sprouting out of the top of my head!  And only 3 days left!

Anyway, on Sunday (once our Gingerbread Tree was stable), we spent the afternoon with the extended James Family... an annual gathering with Brad's dad's side of the family.  It's always fun to get together with the James Family... there are 11 grandchildren now... 3 of whom Kyra simply referred to as "the girls."  For the first time ever, she actually cried when it was time to go, because she did not want to leave her new friends!  It was actually very cute... but so was the fact that she fell asleep at 5:30pm on the drive home!!!

Well, the falling asleep at 5:30 would have been cute, had she not gotten up at 3am and proceeded to vomit every half hour for the next 4 hours!!!  Thankfully, a short lived bug, but that never gets old, does it?

Thanks again to Mia & Trey for these adorable hand me downs!!!!  

Run, Run as Fast as You Can

On Sunday, the kiddies and I attempted to create our first Gingerbread Masterpiece - a Christmas Tree!  I'll be honest - I bought this kit last year, after Christmas, when it was about 75% off... so when we opened it the other morning, the icing was a tad on the hard as a rock side and a couple of the "limbs" had broken.... but a little kneading of that icing brought it back to life and well, year old icing will glue just about anything together.

The kids had a great time and were determined to use every piece of candy provided on their tree.  Of course, every time I walk by this masterpiece, I do wonder if it will last another day... it has a bit of a lean to it!  Likely caused by the fact that I can barely assemble a house of cards, let alone a tree of gingerbread!!

The Holiday Shop

Henry's school has a "holiday shop" and each class gets to go shopping there one time.  The email I received from school said that most items in the shop were $1 or less, some were $2 and even fewer items were $3.  Henry's class went today to do their shopping.  The idea is that you put money in an envelope, write on the envelope who they are buying for & send them on their merry shopping way.

Last night, Henry totally did not want to shop.  This morning, I stuck $5 in an envelope and wrote "For Mommy, Daddy & Kyra."  I told him that if he wanted to shop, he had plenty of cash to do so... or did he?

He was VERY excited when I picked him up today - it was the first thing he told me... he said, "I went to the holiday shop today... but I ran out of money... I couldn't buy you anything."

I was sure he was kidding - a little 5 year old humor... I mean, I'm his MOTHER - I gave him LIFE!  I still dress him every morning, give him a bath almost every night and stay up with him when he's sick.  I planned his birthday party & made up all the party favors.  I bake him brownies every few weeks... Surely I got a sticker or something?  Surely his teacher provided him with a quick math lesson on what to spend per person when you have $5 for 3 people?

He wasn't kidding... he bought Kyra a container of bubble gum (because she loves the stuff) and he bought Brad a picture frame with baseballs on it... I know this because he insisted that they open their presents today!  These are extremely sweet, well thought out gifts... I'm actually quite proud that he saw these items and thought of his sister & Dad.  

I've decided to chalk this up to the fact that MAYBE I am hard to shop for????   

The Polar Express

Yesterday we drove over to Bryson City to take a ride on "The Polar Express."  This was the first time we've ever done this and since I had no idea what to expect, I opted for the 8pm ride and decided we would spend the night afterward.  The lady who took my registration information encouraged me to put the kids in their pajamas for the ride.

Had it not been raining the entire day and night, had the train not been 15 minutes late, and had I not just gotten flu shots for myself and the children the day before, this would have been a PERFECT evening.... but alas, it did rain all day & night in Bryson City (well, mostly mist) and I let Kyra choose the Abby Cadabby footie pajamas, so someone had to carry her all night... then the train was 15 minutes late, so we waited in mist for 1/2 hour... 

Once we were on the train though, it was great if only because the kids were SO EXCITED!!!  We were served candy & hot cocoa, they read a story and when Santa finally got on our car, I thought the kids would lose their mind!  Henry asked for a  Batcave & McDonald's Kitchen, while Kyra asked for a sweater & a cradle for her baby doll.  Honestly, Santa was rather surprised that Henry asked for the McDonald's Kitchen given the kitchen he brought them last year, but I digress.

By the time we got back to our hotel, it was well after 10pm and I thought Henry felt a little warm, but figured it had been a long day.  At 3am, I heard him moaning and say "I'm hot."  The poor guy was burning up!  I gave him Tylenol, he and Brad switched places in the beds, and I waited for the Tylenol to kick in!!  I got a cool washcloth for his forehead, worried that my Tylenol had expired & tried to remember if I had seen a drug store (or hospital) in Cherokee... thankfully, at some point we both fell asleep.  He wasn't 100% today and I do wonder if he'll be able to go to school tomorrow, but they both are already talking about taking the ride again next year!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today Brad and I hosted his mom's side of the family for Thanksgiving dinner.  This is our 2nd year doing this - the Drum family gets together for Thanksgiving dinner every year, but normally, my MIL plays host.  The Drum family is very big - we easily had 25 people here today and not everyone came - so last year, we offered to host and I think have started a new tradition.  

It's funny - Brad and I have very specific childhood traditions that we followed every year, but since getting married, we haven't really been able to recreate any or start any new ones... so it is kind of exciting to take over this annual role.

Henry and Kyra were very excited to have a house full of people - as you can see, they were sitting by the front window, waiting for Ammy & Paw Paw to get here.... and they had so much fun with their second cousins!!  The food was great - and apparently, especially our bird!!!  People were raving about it!  I was shocked, because I'm normally a pretty bad cook!  I found the recipe for the turkey & cornbread dressing.  I made the dressing & Brad prepared the bird... I checked & basted it each hour and was rather fearful that we had over cooked it, but apparently not!  What a team we are over here!!!

And I've said this before - but how friggin cute is Kyra's outfit?  Before she had an accident that is?  Thanks Mia!!!

First Haircut

Well, I did it - I took Kyra for her first hair cut ever!  Since this was a big deal, and because we had to go to Ballentyne for Jeffrey's birthday party, I made her an appointment at Sweet & Sassy - this little girl hair boutique.  It's a cute place - they do manicures & pedicures on little girls in addition to hair cuts & very loud birthday parties where they put extensions in the girl's hair & let them sing loudly... this last part I know because there was such a party going on while we were there.

Anyway, I paid $15.95 for the stylist to spray Kyra's hair wet with a water bottle, snip for roughly 5 minutes, blow her hair dry, put glitter spray in her hair, spray her with cupcake smelling perfume and give her a gourmet lollipop.... I'm still trying to determine whether or not I was completely ripped off and that cupcake perfume made me want sugar all afternoon!  But, the stylist did put some of Kyra's hair into a plastic baggie for me and Kyra loved it all, so I guess it was worth it.  She easily cut off an inch from the back, but you wouldn't know - her hair is still pretty long.... and very pretty!!