Catching Up

This post is dedicated to saying all the things I've been meaning to post about for the last couple of weeks and haven't gotten around to.

#1 - TADPOLES!!!
Katey and her class found gobs and gobs of tadpoles living in the (very large) mud puddle outside of her classroom. Mike told Katey she could bring a couple of them home before school ended and we would keep them around for a few days before releasing them into the creek behind our house. I think she brought 6 home and they lived with us for a week and a half. While the kids were sad to see them go, they were excited to have them in our creek. Wonder if we will see them again soon as frogs??



#2 - FATHER'S DAY!!!
We love Daddy Mike! Katey and Seth and I shopped for Mike's Father's Day present and labored over what to get for the best dad in the whole world! Here is what we settled on:

Breakfast in bed (cheerios with a Hershey's kiss hidden in them, and a side of chocolate covered almonds, compliments of Katey).

A monkey (or is it a gorilla or an ape??) golf head cover, a Tervis travel cup with a golf theme for water at work, a grill basket and a bouquet of flowers that Katey made. All this came with a wonderful, handmade card from the kids. "Roses are red, Violets are blue, Today is Father's Day and you have two children to be father to!"
Mike, we love you so very much and really do think you are the best dad (and husband) in the world! Our family is blessed beyond measure to have you as our head!!

#3 - TOMATOES AND CORN
Remember our sadly unsuccessful attempt at a garden last year? Well, we have had a little more luck this year! Pictures show Katey getting ready to pick our first cherry tomato - and she has eaten 4 of them so far with more on the way!! Also, we have a couple of corn stalks and Katey is showing us that they are already knee high BEFORE the 4th of July!! We are hoping these will produce fruit and it will be the eating kind...she brought the seeds home from school so we have no idea what type of corn this is!

Are Those Wings I Hear?

YES!!!!

We have been waiting for about 3 weeks for Seth to lose his first tooth (at the ripe ol' age of 6 and a half!). Several weeks ago we noticed a big tooth growing in behind his baby ones. See...

Daddy was on the job and tried his hardest to get the loose tooth out. Even though Daddy is a semi-professional tooth-puller, having pulled out at least 8 of Katey's teeth, that little tooth would NOT come out.

And eventually, Seth refused to open his mouth and let Daddy try to pull. That tooth was tough! We had corn on the cob last week and that didn't do the trick. Seth got (accidentally) kicked in the mouth at church last week and THAT didn't do the trick. This boy inherited his stubborn baby teeth from Mommy!
Last night we could tell it was barely hanging on (this picture is from 2 days ago, so you can imagine what it looked like last night!)


But Seth was...well...let's say reluctant to let anyone even touch his tooth. Mommy wiggled it a bit then we convinced Seth to let Daddy just touch it. Mike tried to pull but Seth was fast and closed that mouth. I convinced him to let me dry off the tooth with some toilet paper so we could see it better and I just yanked that sucker out! (This was no small feat for a mommy who gets a little nauseous at the thought of teeth being pulled.)


Next up was creating the "Tooth Fairy Trap"! Seth wanted to try and catch the Tooth Fairy and take all of her money. I asked how the other kids would then get money for their lost teeth and he assured me there is more than one fairy and the other ones will take care of it. Good to know. So, here is the trap:


The tooth is in the bag and when the Tooth Fairy pulls on the bag the box will fall down on her. Good plan!


Did it work? Were we the family that was finally able to catch the ever-illusive Tooth Fairy? When Seth got up this morning, the box was down. Under it he found $1 and this note:
Maybe next time!

Let the Summer Fun Begin!

Last week the kids and I met up with our good friends, the Molendorps. We picked up their kids, Anna and Dayton, and brought them back here for 2 whole sleep overs! All the kids were thrilled to be hanging together again and I enjoyed hearing their funny conversations and giggles. While they were here we went to the pet store, played at Xtreme Play (a bounce house!), played on the Wii and got to swim. Really fun times!!


On Wednesday, Mike and I loaded up all the kids and drove to a beautiful mountain house in Maggie Valley to return Anna and Dayton to their parents, Jon and Sara, and spend 2 days with all of them. It was so much fun for the kids but just as much fun for the adults!

What an incredible view from the deck of the house!!

While we were in Maggie Valley we roasted hot dogs over the fire pit, made s'mores, played games, went putt-putt golfing, and watched movies. There is nothing quite like hanging out with old friends! The highlight of the trip for the kids was playing in the "clubhouse." In one of the bedrooms at the mountain house, there is a little loft area that the kids could climb up into and they loved to go up there and play. The highlight of the trip for the adults was realizing that we could be on a separate floor from the kids and finish an entire conversation without being interrupted (usually)!! That and catching up and playing games together.

The girls at bed time. They loved reading together and sleeping in the same bed!

The boys with their lovies all ready for bed!

Sara, Anna and Jen all got a hole in 1 on this one!

Katey learning that roasting marshmellows is a hot job in the NC summer sun!

And enjoying the fruits of her labor!

It was hard to say good-bye, especially for Katey and Anna who are, as they put it, peas in a pod! But the girls are looking forward to some e-mail time and talking on the phone this summer.

What a great start to a summer of fun!!

She gets that from him

4th grade marks the beginning of the AIG (Academically or Intellectually Gifted) program for the students at our school. All the kids are tested to see if they qualify for the program. We got word this week that Katey will be in AIG for Math and Reading in the Fall!

In and of itself, this is a big deal. She will be in the class with 5 other kids which means that out of 100+ 4th graders, only 6 qualified for the program. Wow. But, the even bigger surprise was that Katey tested incredibly high - a 99th percentile - which is almost unheard of. Wow!

And, while I'm blatantly bragging on my child, I will take this opportunity to also note, for posterity's sake, that on the EOG tests Katey scored in the 98th percentile on Math and 89th percentile for Reading!!

Seriously, she got that from her Daddy.

We couldn't be more proud of our little girl. And, to use her words, there definitely is a "BIG brain in there!" We are anxious to see, as she grows and matures, how Katey uses this gift that God has given her.

Thinking Back

Today is the last day of school for my cuties. I have been in a rather retrospective mood the last couple of days, remembering all the way back to August (go ahead and laugh, but it is amazing what you forget in a few short months!) and the start of the school year.

Minutes, hours and days seem to drag on and on, but weeks and months fly by! The kids grow and change so much over the course of a few short months. Here are a couple of highlights from the year:

When Seth started Kindergarten he was terrified of the fire alarm. A couple of months into the school year we discovered that he even refused to use the bathroom during school as he was afraid the alarm would go off while he was using the restroom. Now, he is no longer afraid of the alarm and didn't even flinch when they did a tornado drill!

At the beginning of 3rd grade, Katey kept forgetting her homework at school. I am pleased to report that it has been several months since we have had that problem!

Getting the kids up and ready for school was, to say the least, a real challenge at the start of the year. The mornings were a stressful time for all of us. I am so VERY thankful that now the kids have done a great job of getting up on their own and getting ready for the day with minimal prodding!

It is hard to believe that this school year is done. It is even harder to believe that we now officially have a 4th grader and a 1st grader. WOW!!

Katey in August, 2009
June 10, 2010

Seth in August 2009

Overheard

Mike and I woke up this morning to the sound of our kids having a cute little conversation. Went something like this:

Seth: (knocking on Katey's bedroom door) Katey, there is a mosquito in the house. It bit my leg and I have a bug bite there now.
Katey: Where is it? Did you see it?
Seth: You have to block your room. Get stuff to put under the door so it can't come in. I did my room. I used my karate outfit and whoopie cushion.
Katey: (We couldn't hear this response)
Seth: I folded the whoopie cushion over in half so it would block the door.

Seth's Door


Katey's Door

When we got ready to head downstairs Seth was standing at the bottom of the steps. Upon seeing us he yelled, "WARNING! There is a mosquito in the house and it bit me!" Then we hear Katey calling from her room, "I can't come out of my room; I'm afraid the mosquito will get me!"

We assured them that the mosquito probably bit Seth yesterday while playing outside and wasn't actually in the house. Katey decided it was safe to come out of her room then and the morning progressed as normal...well, as normal as we get around here, anyway!

Big Enough

Remember when I said that Katey had birthday money from last August that still wasn't spent? Yeah, scratch that. On Saturday she decided to purchase a big BIG toy. Mike okayed the purchase but this thing didn't look nearly so large in the Costco display as it does in our garage! The kids (ours, friends and neighbors) have been having a BLAST with this thing:


It did take some work to get it blown up. We all took turns using the hand pump to inflate the ginormous contraption, but we are really thankful there was a pump and it didn't have to be blown up using lung power!


So, as I sat down to do this blog update and load the memory card into the computer to download pictures, I was surprised to find several shots that I didn't remember taking or being taken. Guess which kids are big enough to figure out the camera on their own and take some shots? :-)