Fraternity Families

Last weekend, we all trekked up to PA to visit with Nana and PapPap and Tracy and Tim. The event that brought us up to PA though was to attend the "Sippy Cup Picnic" with the Nu Lambs. Mike (and all of us) met up with his old fraternity brothers and their families for a cook-out. It was so fun to watch everyone! Here is a group shot of *MOST* of the kids... there were always kids running around, so we never caught all of them. Looking at this photo, I know we're missing Thad's daughter, Steve's son, Todd's daughter, Craig's daughter, and a few of the older boys. Here are our four, Doug's two, Thad's one, Steve's three, and Mark's three... and someone lurking in the background.


Gracelynn, looking cute.

Gracelynn in the background; Todd's daughter in the front. The legs belong to one of Steve's triplets!

Reagan and Doug's daughter.

Tommy being swung by Mark.

We all had a great time. Thank you Craig and Todd for organizing it. It was wonderful to meet the spouses and kids. Amazing how we all became "grown-ups". Instead of talking about college and parties, we talked about kids' sports, preschools and family vacations. :-) We hope to see you all soon.

Dinner Group

Tonight was adult night out. We gather every other month with three other couples to have our "dinner group". Each couple brings a dish/course to the meal. The host usually makes the main entree. These are our crazy and fun friends: Rich/Becky, Pete/Kathleen, Mike/Christy, and Neil/Karen. I told them I was going to post them on the blog. Let's see if they believed me. :-)

Neil and Karen, our lovely hosts tonight (beef brisket... yummy!)

Rich/Becky, our friends for over 7 years now

Kathleen and Pete (who figured out how to use the timer on my camera!) Kathleen was the one to get this little group started... thank you!

And of course, Mike and I (ok, with all the photos taken tonight, I decided that I totally need bangs... do you? I'm never happy with my hair... ugh)

Tonight was our third anniversary! Three years of wining, dining, and just plain fun. What a great group of friends! Oh... and check this out... we didn't realize that our camera did a three-shot succession of photos when using the timer. Can you tell we weren't prepared for photo #2 or #3?"What... did it just flash again?"

This last one cracks me up... we all were waiting to see if it would happen again... it did! Nice close-up, Pete! Karen, where'd you go?

Another First Day of School!

Well, last week was the start of school for Ben and Reagan. This was the first week of school for Tommy, Grace and Mommy!! On Tuesday, Mommy had a good day. The kids in her class are so sweet. However...Gracelynn had a record three meltdowns (ugh)... and Tommy bit his teacher (on the behind, mind you! double ugh). So, although Mommy was a happy girl at 1:30pm, the other two didn't have the brightest of days.

Fortunately I waited two days to write this entry. As it turns out, day two at preschool proved to be great for Gracelynn! She used the potty (and asked to go), played with the other kids, and had NO TEARS for four whole hours!!! She did wonderfully, even finishing off the preschool day with a full-fledged, zonked-out nap. :-) Poor thing. She's so used to napping around noon-time, that by the time nap-time at school rolls around at 1:00, she's out like a light.

Tommy also had a good day at school yesterday (he goes 3 days/week) and today. YAY! I think the little bugger wears out his teachers, but at least there were no incidents and he "stayed on green" the entire week. Today his teacher made a silly comment regarding a Mountain Dew can (that we saw in the fire extinguisher box)... laughing at it, asking if I wanted to give it to Tommy. That sealed the deal... I know now that he is exactly what I expected. Full of energy in class.

Ben and Reagan were absolutely not ADD. Although at Tommy's age, Ben was full of energy and loved to talk (and still does), he can focus on any activity and do his best when he knows it's necessary. Reagan is a little social butterfly and loves her friends, but when it comes to schoolwork, she always aims to please and does her best. She's our little scholar. Tommy however... whew, Tommy... who knows. He's a wild child. He's not usually outwardly violent (although since Grace came home, he's shown a little more anger than before), but he cannot always focus on a task. He's much more interested in playing with toys, or talking about what he did at home, or seeing what others are doing than to concentrate on his work. This week, Mommy became a drill sergeant at home. We are doing "homework time" with all four kids for an hour each day. The older two do their homework and read while the younger two work on their handwriting and coloring skills. I expected disaster when I first did it with T&G. They shocked me. Gracelynn loves to please, so she was great. Tommy even wanted to work, when he realized I was serious and loved seeing his nice handwriting. So... we'll see. Maybe he'll just be that pain-in-the-butt active child in class and not truly ADD? I guess I'll wait to see what the teachers have to say.... perhaps being in the school all the time will open my eyes to what Tommy is really like in school. :-)

Tonight is the drop-off for the consignment sale I do. So, time to go clean the car and remove the seats. I have quite a load to haul over there!

First Day of School 2008!

Oh my... where does the time go? This morning, we took Ben and Reagan to school! Last Friday morning we went in to meet the new teachers. Both teachers seem wonderful! For the first time ever, they each only have one teacher. (Preschool had 2 in each class; Kindergarten had a teacher and helper; Ben has been in a multi-age switching-classrooms program for 3 years with 3 teachers; and Reagan's first grade class had an assistant in the room). So, instead of the 9 teachers I had to buy for last year, I just have 8. Tommy and Grace still have 2 apiece in preschool (and Tommy has 2 more on a separate preschool day).

Today, I heard Mike in the shower so got up and dressed at 6:15. At 6:30, I headed out the door to awaken the kids. What was I thinking? Reagan was already fully dressed, sitting at the bottom of the steps with her backpack! Ben was pulling on his shoes as I passed his room. The commotion with them eventually awakened the two little ones. We were all dressed and downstairs at 6:50! Woo hoo! Daddy got the kids set up with breakfast and we were all done at 7:15! YAY!

Here are some first day photos:

Ben and Daddy

Mommy and Reagan

All four kids

We all walked to school and I saw that they got in their rooms. My babies are now in second and fourth grade. Geez! Mike's comment was, "Well, now you only have two kids at home during the day." I looked at him. I said, "But the ones in school are the two easy ones!" LOL

One more week till preschool starts... tomorrow is Meet the Teacher night, or in my case, Meet your Students.

Labor Day Weekend Continued

I think we did a fairly decent job of having a fun last weekend of summer with the kids. Gran and Granddad visited; we had a big fondue dinner on Friday night at home (not something Mommy enjoys preparing for, but they are always fun!); we went to the Air and Space Museum; we went to Red Robin (a kid favorite); we had donuts at Fractured Prune; we had a lazy day Sunday after church and Subway lunch including a nice drive in the evening; we went to Silver Diner for a special lunch and milkshakes on Monday; and the kids all got to pick out movies at Blockbuster which we watched later in the day. Not to mention our daily family walks/bike rides, playing the Wii and Scrabble, and just hanging out.

As you can see in the photos above, Gracelynn had her first real milkshake. In the past, when we ordered milkshakes at other restaurants, she was still eating or too tired to want more. She loved it! In fact, both she and Tommy were drinking Mommy's chocolate malt! Aha! I have two companions in loving malts! (Mike greatly dislikes them.) Another new this weekend... Mommy found someone else to love shrimp! I only pulled out about 1/2 pound of shrimp for the fondue on Friday night, figuring I was the only one who would eat it. Wrong! Grace ate almost all of it!!! So, she has good (albeit expensive) tastes! I think I may hold off introducing her to lobster. She's three... she's supposed to enjoy hotdogs and chicken nuggets... y'know, the cheap stuff. I guess I forgot to mention in the previous post about our fondue meal. The kids just love fondue, but I'll admit that I don't make it much since the preparation and clean-up is usually long. It was Grace's first experience with fondue. It took her awhile to figure out that food doesn't come immediately onto the plate (and thus, dinner takes awhile), but once she learned that she loved the shrimp, she was a happy girl. We only had two minor burns when Reagan forgot that the skewer will be hot after removing it from the pot... but they were extremely minor. And of course, Mommy and Daddy did all of Tommy's and Grace's cooking (and eventually Reagan's!)

On Sunday, we had more of a laid back day. We attended church and saw a great trio of singers from Mercy's Well. We didn't stick around to buy the CD, but plan to look online soon. After church, we went to Subway. Ha. Our days of $12 bills at Subway are long gone. $35!!! When two kids eat full-size meals and the other two can pile away a mini-sub and chips, the cost adds up quick! Geesh. That afternoon, Ben and Reagan were quickly entertained by Gran, who loves to play boardgames and card games with the kids. (This is not one of Mommy's fortes!) Gran and Granddad went back to Fredericksburg to be with Mamaw, and later in the day we all took an hour long drive to see the pretty countryside. I love our town... close enough to a major city to go to events, airports, etc.... yet, a stone's throw away from beautiful farm land, horse country, and rolling hills. The kids were less than excited and asked a million questions. "Where are we going?" (nowhere) "Are we almost there?" (no) "How long are we going to be?" (just sit back and watch) "Why are you looking at that house... are we moving?" (no, not now) "Why not?" (just 'cuz) Mike and I have always enjoyed just driving around and seeing what's out there. We went down a few one-lane roads (having twice to squeeze to the side to let an ATV, or worse an SUV, through) and saw some gorgeous "dream homes". Yeah, won't be moving in this real estate market... and not on one main salary, that's for sure!

On Monday, we took a long walk in the morning and later went to lunch at Silver Diner. Mike and I agreed it was easily the most enjoyable and least stressful meal-out that we've enjoyed with four kids yet. No complaints, no whining... and only maybe 6 times did we have to ask Tommy and Grace to sit down (and not stand on the booth seat!) Oh... and we each only had to take Grace/Tommy to the potty once. That's a record. Both seem to be addicted to public restrooms (yuck) and want to go potty all the time when we are out...and it always seems as though one mentions it and BOTH have to then go. At Cheeburger Cheeburger last weekend, we had a total of FOUR visits to the bathroom with these two in the course of one hour... the manager actually felt bad for us. At Silver Diner, I had a crabcake melt on focaccia bread. Yummy!!! The scale did not like me this morning, but my tummy was happy.

All four kids at Silver Diner.