This is What Happens...

...when you decide you're not going to go to sleep for your nap... Mwah hah hah!!! :D Mommy takes you outside for pictures. You sure have fun kicking on the ground. I don't think you even know that giant flower is on your head. You just know you get a few minutes playing with Mommy, and it's even better than normal because you are outside.




Fifteen minutes of playing tired Caroline out, and she went nicely to sleep after that. I worked in the yard again today, digging out grass that was encroaching on my flower beds. Bad grass. Bad, bad grass! This is one time I'm thankful we just have a small yard and few flower beds. I can't imagine going around a big yard digging out all that grass! I think we'd need a rototiller or something. I told Lauren we could plant seeds today, but we didn't even get to it because I just dug out grass the whole time we were out there. She didn't mind, as she was blowing bubbles. We bought new solution at Target last week, and she's already almost used up one whole bottle! Austin is at T-ball now. I just dropped him off today, instead of all of us hanging out at the field.

There She Goes....Again

On our walk to school Friday morning, I spotted this caterpillar on the road. Julia right away scooped him up, named him Fuzzy Wuzzy, and carried him all the way to school.

**She did drop him on the busy road we have to cross, and it scared me, because both she and Austin were eager to run back into that busy road and get the caterpillar. I held tightly on to both of them until a car finally stopped for us.**

When Julia went to line up with her class, she gave Fuzzy Wuzzy to Austin to hold, then he passed Fuzzy Wuzzy on to Lauren when he went to line up, and Lauren carried him all the way back home. At home Lauren got their bug cage and put Fuzzy Wuzzy inside. She (I helped a little ;) ) gathered a bunch of leaves and grass to add to the cage.


Saturday morning we were convinced Fuzzy Wuzzy was dead, because he was curled up tightly, and wouldn't uncoil when Julia got him out of the cage. She buried him in the flower bed and put a stone by his grave. Later that afternoon when she went outside to eat a Popsicle, she came back in with Fuzzy Wuzzy, and said, "He's alive! Fuzzy Wuzzy's alive!", so exited. She'd buried that caterpillar alive!! I asked her if she was sure it was the same one, and she was, because he was right by his grave. And not in the grave. Oh my.

Saturday morning Julia and I headed to Arroyo Grande High School where she competed in a sightread aloud contest sponsored by the Pismo Beach Kiwanis Club. She had to read at 9:20. Every reader got a certificate for a free ice-cream cone at a local shop, Daddy-O's. They had cookies for after she read. I went in the room with her, and she did great! She read perfectly, I have to say, no mistakes, good expression, good pace, smoothly, easily, like she'd read the selection a hundred times before. And she had read it before, actually, as it was a selection from a Magic Tree House book (and she's read them all, I believe). The monitors said most kids said they'd read it before.

After the reading contest, Julia and I headed to the nearby nursery and bought a bunch of plants. A lot of ours have died. We keep trying.... ;) I can't even blame the frost this year, as it hasn't gotten that cold too often. However the frost did almost kill two of our vines, but we *think* they will come back. Friday I'd gone to OSH and Lauren and I picked out plants there too. Both girls had a ball choosing flowers! Forget shopping for clothes and shoes, shopping for flowers is oh-so-much more fun! ;)

Austin's first T-ball game was at 11:00. Brian took Austin and Lauren in his car, and I took Julia and Caroline in the van. The boys only play for an hour, which happened to be two innings, where every boy got to hit twice. :D They keep no record of outs or runs. Every kid gets to bat and run the bases. It was really cute. And plenty comical!! I had to laugh, as the ball would roll through the pitcher's legs, through the second-baseman's legs, and finally slowed enough where a kid (and I don't even think it was the shortstop) caught it behind second base. Austin had fun and likes T-ball! I thought he might get bored, but he seems to enjoy it.

Julia and I left a few minutes earlier than Brian, to go back to AGHS for the reading contest awards ceremony. They showed up just a little later. In first grade she entered the same contest and won 5th place. I could tell she was a little excited/nervous after her name wasn't called for 5th place. Well, she ended up getting 3rd! She was so happy about that! There are two groups of winners, 1st - 5th place, for each grade, so ten kids get medals for each grade. But only the two 1st place winners for each grade earn a $100 savings bond.


Here is the group of medal winners. All the winners weren't there, though.

I could tell Julia did better reading this time than in first grade. She read all the words correctly that time too, but wasn't quite as smooth. I really don't know why she didn't get 1st place, not that we are complaining or saying it wasn't fair. We (and she) are proud of her for getting 3rd. The *only* thing I could think of is that her voice got a bit soft in part of the reading, which could have cost her a bit. They are judged on volume, so maybe that is it. Although I could still understand and hear her and I was sitting behind the judges.

Also, there are so many kids reading, that there are more than two sets of judges for each grade, so that could make a difference. Julia's friend, Cassie, who came for her birthday, got one of the 1st place awards, so that was nice. Also, each school library is given money based on the percentage of kids participating from each school. So the more kids competing from a certain school, the bigger the percentage of $$ for that library. Julia got to help choose books for her school library with the money she won in first grade. I think the librarian kind of flaked out on it though, because Julia said she doesn't know where those books are! I wonder if the librarian ended up ordering books she thought they should have, instead, with that money.

Back at home we ate lunch, 2:00 by this time! Lauren and Caroline had naps and the rest of us went outside to work in the yard. Brian and I were sore today from all the ripping out and planting and digging we did. We filled two green waste trash cans with branches, leaves, etc.--mostly those two vines the frost got. There are a few more straggly plants that need to be ripped out, but we ran out of room in our containers! We went out for dinner to Red Lobster, and I think it was 8:00 before we ate! Because we'd worked in the yard until it almost got too dark and cold out there. The kids always like seeing the Lobsters in the tank. There were only two left by the time we were done eating, and Brian said their names were Lunch and Dinner. LOL We all had showers/baths last night and slept well, as we were exhausted!

Because I can hardly post without a picture of her, here are a few of Caroline. She is at such a fun age, babbling and talking, making several consonant sounds and using different voice inflections. SO cute! She's learned to clap her hands by herself, and will usually do it when I say, "Caroline clap hands?" Then she claps and claps away, like there's no tomorrow. :D She also gives us wet, open-mouthed kisses, and understands what "Kisses" means, as she will give us kisses. Not just on our cheeks, but on our noses or mouths or eyes or whatever happens to be closest. ;)


We got out the Twirlin' Whirlin' Garden toy last week, and she (and the big kids) have been most entertained with it. They also like her learning drum (in the picture too) I got out at the same time. "New" toys again! Woo hoo! No matter age range they are for...


I must have been in a black-and-white mood, editing these pictures; three in one post! Lauren does not like these "gray pictures" when they come up on our screen saver slide show. She says they are bad pictures. LOL I thought the first one here was so sweet: getting tired, sucking her thumb. And pinching her chubby little arm. Then falling asleep by Daddy for nap time; just what she likes. ;)

Princess, Bubbles, 37 Weeks, Naughty Polly

Yesterday Lauren dressed up like a beautiful princess. Julia bought her this princess dress-up set at the auction her class had at the end of the first trimester. She spent a lot of money on it, too, which was thoughtful of her! I made Julia and Lauren these tutus almost two years ago. They are so so simple! Just tulle strips tied around an elastic band. We went outside for awhile while Caroline had her nap.

It's hard prancing around in those high heels! They were soon kicked off. Then Lauren wanted to blow bubbles. So we did that together for awhile too.

After Caroline's nap the three of us went outside again, and Lauren blew more bubbles. Caroline was laughing and laughing, so hard, at Lauren! She'd giggle and giggle, barely pause for a breath and then laugh some more. So cute!

The little angel asleep in her bouncy seat... She woke up early from her afternoon nap so I stuck her in here to sleep some more.

Austin had T-Ball practice yesterday after school, so we hung out at the ballfield while he practiced with the boys. Lauren brought her bubbles there and nicely shared them with a little boy. Julia does her homework at practices.

Today Lauren wanted to blow bubbles again! She'd already used up the container from yesterday. She gets frustrated when the bubbles get foamy and she can't blow them. ;) Then I have to come out and blow some for her. Also, Caroline's 37th Thursday...

Taking a break from bubbles... And then chasing bubbles once again.

Julia and Austin had a half day of school today. I was eating lunch, when I heard Austin talking, to himself, but loud enough for the rest of us to hear. "Polly was naughty..." then played for awhile quietly.

Julia paused in what she was doing and said, "Mommy, come see what Austin did with Polly!"

I looked at poor Polly hanging out of his vehicle. He said, "Polly was naughty. She got arrested. She stealed something!"

"She stole something?"

"Yes! She stole a car. And now she's going to jail," and off he hauled her in his police "car". This is the same police car he built the other day, super tall, he said, because there are lizards in the bottom part of it!

Here's Polly being hauled off to jail. See the police man sitting behind her? And in the next picture, Lauren's expression during this whole situation.

She wasn't happy about Austin hauling off with her beloved brand new See-You-In-The-Mountain Polly. She said Polly was going to live somewhere else! I asked her where, and Julia piped up, "Maybe a jail cell!"

That didn't help matters any. Lauren said SYITM Polly was going to move back into Cuckoo's house. I'm serious. That is SYITM Polly's friend. He's a boy Polly, and lives in a hotel (Lauren said). Austin eventually released Polly and sure enough, Lauren moved her bed, armoire, bench, TV, clothes, etc., back to Cuckoo's house. Apparently SYITM Polly had moved out earlier today... She'd also gone shopping for hula hoops. And bought one to take to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

You just never know what's going to happen over here. I get surprised myself!!

Bible Quiz, Baseball, Basketball, Bathtime

Bright and early Saturday morning, Julia, Caroline, and I headed down to Santa Maria for the Central Coast Awana Bible Quiz and Games Jamboree. The quiz was in the morning and games were in the afternoon. It was held at First Baptist Church/Valley Christian Academy (that meets there). There were six area churches participating. Julia was kind of nervouse and threw up her ham from breakfast. :P I quizzed her and studied with her while we waited for it to begin. She was on a team with two other girls from church, Kallie and Keely.

Book 4 kids quizzed first, then Book 3, 2 and Julia was last, competing with the Book 1 quizzers. Each quiz team could have 2 or 3 people. Or you could quiz alone. Since Julia was on a 3-person team, one person had to sit out part of each section. Julia got to answer all ten multiple choice questions, Keely and Kallie each got five. Each of the girls got five speed questions. Here are Kallie (#11) and Julia before starting the multiple choice part. Julia's favorite part is multiple choice, not speed.


The kids had to put their heads down while the question was read.


And then once they had chosen their answer and paddle, they could lift their heads. Here are Keely (#11) and Julia. Julia had the right answer this time. She missed two out of ten because she couldn't understand what the man was saying. Keely's mom and I agreed that he was hard to understand sometimes!


For the speed round the kids each had a clicker/buzzer and had to buzz in the fastest to get to answer the question. Keely got in first once and knew the right answer. Julia knew several right answers but wasn't fast enough clicking to buzz in first. I could see the wheels turning in her head; she's a lot like me, hesitates just a bit before committing. ;) I know she knew a lot of those answers *quick*, but I also know she quickly went over the question and answer in her head to make sure it was right before clicking, and that ever-s0-slight bit of hesitation made her too slow to buzz in first.

At 12:15 was the awards presentation. Julia said that she and Keely were talking, and once they heard the Book 1 fourth place winners called, they were sure they weren't getting an award. ;) Weeell, they ended up getting second place! The other two Book 1 teams from our church tied for first place! I don't remember who all won for the other Books. Here they are, so proud, with their second-place ribbons: Kallie, Julia, Keely. And Keely's sister, Abbey, who was supposed to move out of the picture. ;)

Julia chose to go to Wendy's (b/c she wanted a Frosty) for lunch, and then we went home. While we were gone all morning, Brian took Austin and Lauren to the park for the Little League opening ceremonies. They were celebrating 50 years, so Austin had to be in a group picture with all the baseball players, TBall to the Major Leagues, then they had the ceremony. Brian took the kids home for a short while, and then at 11 Austin was in a picture with just his team. Brian took Austin and Lauren to Old McDonalds (what L calls it) with a playground, and they were very excited about that.


Watching one of the March Madness basketball games together

Caroline's first bath sitting up in the sink. She had so much fun splashing around, big girl!

Julia's class had an end-of-the-trimester auction on Friday. They earn pretend money during each trimester to bid/spend at each auction. Julia bid on and won this Polly doll for Lauren. She bought sports stickers for Austin. Lauren named her Polly dolly, See-You-In-The-Mountain-Polly. She tells us all kinds of things See-You-In-The-Mountain-Polly does. Saturday SYITM Polly had a daughter that died. I told Lauren that was so sad. And Lauren said, "It's ok. She has another daughter that's growing up now." Since Julia gave Lauren SYITM Polly, Polly has gone everywhere with Lauren! Here SYITM Polly is visiting Caroline with Lauren.

36 Weeks, Bug Eyes

Miss Caroline's 36-week picture


Caroline sits up really well now. And you'd think she should, being 8 1/2 months old, after all. She reminds Brian and me of Julia. She looks a lot like Julia, but some like Austin too. She is sooooooo mild-mannerend! Julia was a content baby, enjoyed attention, but just fine sitting, playing on her own for quite a long while too. Julia was pretty quiet, and Caroline seems quiet, peaceful. Julia had no teeth until just after her first birthday; Caroline still has no teeth. Julia didn't crawl until 10 months; Caroline shows no signs of crawling just yet. She does scoot backwards, but now that she can sit, it seems she likes to sit and play. Like Julia. ;) A couple other sweet pictures from Thursday.



And one more: examining the hem of her pants.


Caroline has been an excellent sleeper from the beginning. However. Just in the last few weeks she has been waking up about 30-60 minutes after being put to bed at night, most nights. We don't know why, though we are kind of thinking it might have to do with her tummy not being used to digesting solid food. Anyway, we've been burping her then rocking her back to sleep.

Well, we are tired. Tired of rocking her at midnight or one when she should be going right back to sleep. And just tired because she is waking us up and we have to be up till she is good and asleep once again! So we decided she should go to sleep on her own {let her cry it out}. The first night she cried an hour and I went in to check on her and she'd thrown up in her bed! Poor baby. And of course her sheets and bedding and jammies all had to be changed. And she had to have a quick bath because it was on her, too. Yuck!

Last night we tried again, and she did finally go to sleep after 30-40 minutes. Hopefully she will realize she can put herself back to sleep just fine! Also, I'm hoping it will help with naptime. She sleeps well once she's asleep, but again, we've been rocking her to sleep, every day, every nap. I like rocking the baby, but also think she should be just going down for a nap now. I talked to a friend at church yesterday who said she wishes she'd have let her son cry it out like at 6 months, because now he is two years old and still doesn't sleep through the night. And for naps she lays down next to him pretending to be asleep, so he will fall asleep. I will not be doing that at two years old! No way, nuh-uh, not me! So we will be trying to have Caroline go to sleep by herself, now. My other girls could do it at six months. Austin was a good boy and pretty much I could just lay him down from the start.

I finally took this toy Caroline got for Christmas out of its box. She liked it. Of course, once Austin and Lauren discovered the toy, they liked it too. Good thing Caroline doesn't mind sharing...

They were making balls out of the stacking bowls, making bug eyes. Silly kids! Austin made his name necklace at school. He was pretty proud of it.

St. Patrick's Day, Kindergarten Program

St. Patrick's Day we don't really celebrate much here. We wear green though. Don't want to get pinched! Julia reminds us every year that, "...pinching is not allowed at school!" Brian went in Austin's room in the morning to say good-bye before leaving for work, and Austin pinched him! Hard! And Brian was even wearing a green shirt! What a stinker. I guess he thought it was his one and only chance, St. Patrick's Day, where he'd be allowed to pinch Daddy. ???

Austin told me that some of the girls in his class didn't wear green and Ms. Van gave them a green string to put on their shirts. He said he thinks leprechauns are real, and Julia agreed, because in first grade they made leprechaun traps. Hers had toothpicks all over it to poke them! She said no one caught a leprechaun, but they tipped over some of the traps. And knocked the teacher's bowl of paperclips off the desk. And wrote on the whiteboard, "You can't catch us!"

I was doing the dishes before Awana Tuesday night, and Caroline was watching me. She is able to feed herself crackers now, which is nice, as she can be in the kitchen watching me, be entertained with something, and have her hunger satisfied. A little...she's a pretty slow cracker eater. LOL It takes awhile with no teeth. They have to get good and soggy first, so a piece will break off. :P :P


Lauren was finishing up supper when I took the above shot, and said, "Take my picture!" How does one get ketchup up by their eyebrow?! And of course the veggies are saved till last. At least she ate them...


Monday after school we had to pick up Austin's T-Ball shirt and cap. He was so proud of them! He wore them all afternoon until I made him take them off for supper so he wouldn't get food on them. His team is the Rock Hounds. Who makes up these names anyway? Another team is the Lugnuts! It's kind of funny he's number 3 again, like in soccer, just coincidentally, as they gave him the shirt. And the color is similar too! His coach decided on navy socks and belts for the team, but I kinda think royal blue would have gone better... Oh well. I have a thing for colors. LOL I will say, I asked when we picked up the shirt, if that was the navy blue. And the coach's wife agreed with me about questioning it and not sure about the navy socks and belt!

Today was Austin's Kindergarten program for the end of the 2nd trimester. Their songs and hand motions were so cute! But we could hardly see him, as we happened to sit on the opposite side of the room. And a big, tall kid was standing in front of him (that boy in the print shirt...). This was about as good as it got for pictures. All the kids were supposed to wear a blue school shirt or just a blue shirt if they didn't have one with the school name. That coffee pot in the background makes me giggle every time I see it. A nice fake ficus tree to perk up the cafeteria. But there sits that coffee pot!!

Today and tomorrow are minimum days; Austin gets out at 12:15 and Julia at 12:30. They are conference days, but not like in the fall when everyone gets a conference. These are only if the teacher thinks your kid needs to be discussed, or if you have concerns. Julia and Austin are doing well, so no conference needed. :D Though I have a friend who says the teachers are being paid to give conferences, and she was going to go have her conference! Even if it wasn't needed. LOL Here is Austin with his friend, Solomon, after the performance. Solomon is coming over tomorrow to play for a couple hours. Austin is excited!

This afternoon I read Lauren stories for nap time, and Austin listened too. I told them the author's name was Jonathan Bean, which they laughed about: "That's a funny name!"
Then Austin said, "Morgan in my class, she has a friend who's name is Applesauce."

"Applesauce? Are you sure?"

"Yep, that's what she said." Austin was quite serious about it and quite sure he was right, too!

Project 365, Weeks 1 - 5

Here are my Project 365 layouts for the first five weeks. I'd thought I'd be able to use more pretty papers and embellishments, but there just wasn't room with 7 pictures and all the little journaling cards. Oh well. It makes the project that much simpler! :)

Week 1



Week 2

Week 3

Week 4 I decided I might as well stick pictures on the front and backs of each page, and use up some older paper I don't care tooooooo much about, since you don't see much of the paper anyway. So from here on out, one week will be patterned paper and the next will be white, when I use the back of the paper. Unless of course the paper is double-sided with two patterned sides. Hmmm...that could be pretty... ;)

Week 5

And that's as caught up as I can be for now, because I ran out of pictures. I have an order for prints that should arrive later this week, then I can get back to work on this.