Thanksgiving Feast...Part 2

Today Kaelin had her Thanksgiving feast at school. It was more of a big snack really. Here is what they had to eat:

That's a cornbread muffin in her hand. And please notice the amazing artwork on the placemat. Kaelin did that herself. : )

To add some cuteness to the feast, Kaelin's class got to dress up. She had on a headdress and a vest. Here is a picture of her attire:

The entire kindergarten (6 classes, I think) was out in the hall sitting down together at the feast. It was very cute! And the hallway after the kids were finished eating...well, it looked like the entire kindergarten just had a Thanksgiving feast. Food was everywhere! But the kids enjoyed it and it was actually pretty easy to clean up.

One more picture of Kaelin:



Happy Thanksgiving, Everybody!!

Thanksgiving Feast...Part 1

'Tis the season for Thanksgiving feasts with the kids. Collin's was yesterday. They do a really nice job at preschool. We have a catered meal. The problem for me is I had it 2 days in a row because his class had their feast yesterday and my class had their meal today. That's a lot of turkey and dressing in 2 days!!

Anyway...Collin came in wearing this adorable headband made of handprints (feathers) and he had made a turkey with tailfeathers with something that he is thankful for (see previous post...I told you we do that a lot this time of year in preschool) written on each one. I would like to point out that the entire family did make a thankful feather on this turkey. I don't know if there was any coaching from his teachers, but I would like to think that there was not. : ) Cole and I were on one feather and Brendan and Kaelin were on another. I'm not even going to say what was on the other 3. ; )

Yes...there are pictures of Collin in the adorable headband.

Collin and Cole

The 3 of us.

Here's Collin with his buddy Sam...aren't they cute??

Collin's Thankful For...

We do it every year at this time. We ask preschoolers what they are thankful for as part of our Thanksgiving activities. Last Sunday during Sunday school, Collin's teachers asked him what he was thankful for. He didn't give the usual "mommy," "daddy," "my cat," "my brother or sister" answer that most preschoolers give. Here's what he said:




Clearly I'm doing a fabulous job of parenting this child. ; )

Finally...we won!!!

Today was our last soccer game. And yes...we finally won!! Yay Cheetahs!! : ) When the season started and I was one of the coaches, I have to admit I really wasn't terribly excited about it. But I have to say I really enjoyed the time I spent with those little people. I had no idea what I was doing, but I (along with my co-coach) tried my best and I had a lot of fun. And I got to spend some precious time with Kaelin. I'm glad the guy at the Y talked me into coaching the team...it's an experience I'll never forget. : )

To commemorate the last soccer game, here are some pictures of Kaelin.

This is what made it all worthwhile to Kaelin...a medal and a goodie bag.

This is what made it all worthwhile to me...the hug I got from Kaelin after the game.

4 Shows, 4 Days

I've just returned from a whirlwind trip of Florida. What was I doing in Florida, you might ask. I was going to 4 Third Day/David Crowder*Band concerts all over the state. It was awesome!!

I spent last weekend with 2 of my closest friends in the world. We drove all over Florida and we laughed like crazy, drove all night, acted silly, and almost ran out of gas driving through the Everglades. It was an adventure I will never forget.

These are my partners in crime:

You might wonder why we would drive all over the state of Florida and go to the same concert 4 nights in a row. Well, that's a good question. If you saw the documentary we made of the trip, your question would be answered!! There is no simple answer to that question. I can say that the 2 bands that we saw are my favorite bands, but there's more to it than that. It was mostly because Jamie, Traci, and I all live in different states and we met because of Third Day and they are something we have in common. It's just a way that we can get together and hang out and spend some time together. We just don't see each other enough. I already miss them. These adventures that we have together are priceless memories that I keep in my heart forever. Oh, and the concerts are pretty good, too!! ; )

One of the highlights of the trip was going to a meet and greet at the last show in Fort Myers. I had never gotten a picture with David Crowder and I really wanted one. But so did everyone else at the meet and greet. So we opted for a group picture. Here we are with David Crowder:

And I would just like to take a moment to say what a nice guy he is. And he's funny, too. I'm very excited to finally have a picture with him. : )

While I'm posting pictures from the meet and greet, here I am with Brad Avery from Third Day:

Here's Jamie with Tai:

And Traci with Mark:

That's all the meet and greet pictures I'm going to post. Here is a picture of Traci, Jamie, and me with the signs we made for the Ft. Myers show. Mac read them during the acoustic set and he said some very nice things to us and then he asked us to bow with the band (from our seats) at the end of the show. It was cool!!

Those pictures are just a few of the memories from the trip. There is so much more that I could put on here, but it wouldn't make sense to anybody but the 3 of us that were on the "Florida 4-fer." And to the one person (well, 2 people really) who wasn't there, we missed you soooo much!!

Jamie and Traci...y'all are awesome traveling buddies...let's plan another adventure sometime soon!! But let's be sure and keep an eye on the gas guage this time!! ; )

Betcha Didn't Know This!

Well maybe you did, but I didn't. I have heard the story of Noah and the ark my whole life. I thought I knew pretty much everything about Noah and the ark, but I learned something new yesterday. I was quite shocked by this news. I'm sure you will be, too. Are you ready for this news? Here is what I learned yesterday about Noah and the ark:

Spongebob was on the ark!!

At least that's what one of my preschoolers told me. He drew a picture of the ark and then he drew Spongebob on it. Who knew?? ; )

Check out his picture...it actually kind of looks like Spongebob on a boat!

Life with preschoolers...it's NEVER boring!! : )

Parenting 101

Tonight I experienced a tough parenting lesson. Brendan is in 3rd grade and he's always been an excellent student. He's always done his homework, he's never gotten in trouble at school, he's pretty much done everything we've told him at home, he's just been a wonderful child. Well, in the last few months we've seen an attitude develop. He says he doesn't like school and a lot of the time when he responds to Cole or me he has the typical smart mouth of an 8 year old boy. He doesn't get away with it, but he tries. For some reason this year he has had a tendency to "forget" to do his homework. And he doesn't even have that much homework. I've been trying to figure out what the deal is. His grades are all still excellent, and his teacher says he's does everything he's supposed to do at school, but he sure doesn't want to do his homework.

So about tonight...last week he brought home a paper explaining a science project that he was supposed to do. He would have to make a diorama of an animal that he had studied. The paper was very specific about the requirements of the diorama. The date that he had written down for when the diorama was due is still a couple of weeks away, so I was not worried about this project yet, but earlier today we were at Wal-Mart, and I told Brendan to pick out some supplies for his project. I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and get a head start on the project.

Tonight at 7:50, as he is getting ready for bed, Brendan tells us that his diorama is due tomorrow. What??? I thought he had 2 weeks to do this diorama and he's standing in front of me at bedtime on Sunday night telling me it's due tomorrow! So I look at the paper again to check the date that he had written down and it's the date that I thought it was - 2 weeks away. Then I check his homework folder, which is also a behavior folder (where his teacher writes down any communication she needs to have with me, which, I will admit, I don't always check as soon as he brings it home because I have never, ever had a bad report on this child) and sure enough there is a note from his teacher saying the diorama was due last Friday and could he please have his turned in on Monday. By this time it is 7:55 and Cole and I are just staring at each other trying to figure out how to handle this situation because Brendan is our first child and we've never dealt with this particular situation before.

And here's where I learned my lesson tonight. I so wanted to sit down and make that diorama of a musk ox and its habitat for Brendan so that it would be good and he could go to bed on time. But what would that have taught him? That he could continue to "forget" his homework and I would rescue him every time and he would never have to be responsible for his actions. I did help him a little - I printed out 2 pictures of a musk ox so he could see what they look like...what in the world is a musk ox anyway??? And I asked him a couple of times if he needed help with anything and he said, "No," and he did the whole project by himself. It doesn't look that great and I'm sure it won't get a high grade, but he did every bit of it and I stayed out of the way and it was hard. But I guess parenting isn't supposed to be easy all the time, is it?

Ah...the Memories.

This picture is for my traveling buddies who were with me on the Texas Trio. It made me laugh and I hope it will make all of you laugh, too!


And is that not the cutest tater tot you have ever seen???