March

Only two months behind!  Caroline had a huge Cubbies team in Awana.  The limit is 15 per team, and there were 15 kids on all 4 teams, with a waiting list!  Our director said that's never happened before.  Caroline was on the youngest team, all young 3's (and one not even 3 yr old) last fall.

I helped in her group the whole year, and it was exhausting!  It was fun, and the kids are so cute, but we had a few that were quite a handful, plus they were all just really young.  It was neat to see how the little group of them grew through the year.  At the end of the year they could actually line up--and stay lined up--to go to story time.  They could get their own drink of water from the faucet if they'd had their limit of apple juice refills at snack time.

This photo was from Caroline's 2nd time being Star for the night.  She got to hold the American flag for the pledge and was so proud.  :)  {The story teacher said I would have to pick Jammy Night to bring my camera...  Ha ha ha!!!  I just knew Caroline would be Star that night, so had to bring it.}

Caroline had several little Cubbies friends that live in our town, not typical, since our church isn't right here.  She and another little girl have gotten to be good buddies, and get along so nicely together!  We've had her and her little sister over to play a few times, and they all get a long great!  They are all easy-going and calm, which is nice for me.  ;) 

One of Julia's chores is unloading the clean silverware from the dishwasher. I gave her this chore when she was 8 and Caroline was just born, and I needed help!  I've been thinking, this chore should be passed to Lauren, and Julia can unload the rest of the dishwasher, as she can reach the high shelves.  Maybe after doing so much work when the kids were little, I will get a break now???  LOL  Maybe at least from the dishes. ;)  Tonight Lauren dished up ice cream for her siblings and herself and was so proud.  :)

Julia was in her school play March 7.  They performed Beauty and the Beast.   All the kids who wanted to be in the play had to audition.  Julia didn't know what to do.  She ended up singing You are My Sunshine, and that was just fine.  She ended up getting a part as Howler, a wolf, and had a short solo in one of the songs.  It was not the Disney version of the story.  She had to say a few lines too.  I barely recognized her, aside from her black boots!!  She is the wolf closest to Gaston here.

March 9 the kids had off from school, so Brian took a vacation day and we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  Brian and I went there years ago, but none of the kids had ever been.  You can see Julia still has some of the dark make up on from the play.  Of course she washed it off, but it took a few days to completely go away!  She wasn't feeling well this day, coming down w/ a cold.  She and Caroline are sitting in front of part of a dome-shaped window where waves would crash over.

The kids and me on a deck at the aquarium.  We drove up just for the day.  It really wasn't a bad drive, about 3 hours, and it was an easy drive w/ pretty scenery (at least at this time of year!) and no traffic.

 Some of the sea creatures we saw...  The jellies were my favorite!  That is Austin pointing at the fish in the bottom left.  :)

Lauren brought this library book bag and had her own camera in there, her own map, her own stamp cards, etc.  The kids could stamp sea creatures on bookmark cards at various stations.

Julia and Austin are geting a little big to fit in these egg shell photo props!!

Hi Brian!  Hi Austin! 

We stopped at Chili's for dinner in Paso Robles on our drive home.  We stayed at the aquarium the whole day:  arrived just after opening, ate lunch at their cafe, and left when the aquarium closed.  It was a good day to go--not very busy.  We saw several families w/ little kids, but not too big kids, being a school day for most of them.  So nice to not have to fight the crowds.

We go to our little local hardware store all the time.  It is so handy to not have to run to Home Depot, and they have most of what we need.  The little kids always get balloons, and everyone gets free popcorn on weekends.  None of the kids ever turn down a weekend trip to Miner's.  Hee hee 

It has taken us soooooo long to put up pictures at our new house.  It's because I'm a perfectionist and want to make the right decision the first time.  So I have to think about the "right" places to hang things.  And that takes time.  LOL  Or else I need just one more accessory to add to a grouping.  That kind of thing. 

I hung this entire photo wall March 11.  Julia was sick, and she and I stayed home from church.  I'd made paper templates of the frames months ago.  Seriously, it was New Year's Day I made those templates!!  Brian was relieved to not have to help.  LOL  The family handprint tree we made Feb. 22.  I got the idea on this blog.  She has a lot of ideas I'd like to try!  And she is not a perfectionist like me, and gets her projects done much faster!!!  ;)  The branch is just one I trimmed off one of our trees.  Love having all the trees!  You see the sideways picture of Lauren at the top right?  Well, it's still sideways.  I need to decide which pictures to replace w/ what!  And so it goes.

We were so busy in February!  Julia's birthday weekend, she had Bible Quiz.  The following week was busy w/ extra play practices (chauffering for me), then the aquarium.  Finally she had her 12th birthday party March 16.  She had 5 friends come over, and 4 spent the night.  They all went on the trampoline together--in the drizzle.  Talk about exceeding the weight limit.  Oh my!!!

My friend had a Dollar Store scavenger hunt b'day party for her daughter a few years ago.  I love the idea and totally copied the whole thing!  I made up clues like:

I season your eggs

Your carrots and peas

You shake me with salt

I might make you sneeze.

Cheerleaders shake me

I’m fluffy and light.

At basketball, football

Games at night.

I clean your bottom

After you go potty

And can wipe your nose

When it’s snotty.

The girls were in two teams, each w/ the same clues.  They had to run around (NOT wildly!!) the store finding the items to match the clues.  The first time to find them all got little prizes.  Then, I timed the teams to see who could put away the items the fastest.  It took them about 15 minutes to find everything, and about 2 minutes to put it all back!  Then each girl got to choose 5 of their own items that I bought.  I was going to give them all $5 of their own, but then what about tax?  It took them the longest time to choose what to buy!  Sooooo much fun.  The girls loved the hunt!!  Two of them told their moms they wanted to do this for their birthdays.  Awwww....

Back at home we had cake and ice cream.  I bought two St. Patrick's Day cakes--one chocolate, one white.  Julia said that was fine as long as I changed them to not look like St.PD cakes. ;)  I made a cat face w/ M&Ms on the chocolate cake, and jelly bean flowers on the white cake.  The girls jumped on the trampoline in the dark, w/ glowsticks we bought at the store.  That was so cool!  And fun to watch from inside the house.  The girls stayed up soooo late--didn't go to sleep till 3:30 am!  They played Apples to Apples, "Freeze" and acting games.  Whew!

It rained a lot March 17.  The little girls had a great time jumping in this huge puddle on our patio after church the next day.  They got mad when Brian swept the water away!!

Little Mun talking on her phone.  She does this all. the. time.  It is hilarious the conversations she comes up with.  I never hear the other "person's" responses.  The conversations are all one-sided, but make complete sense as she imagines the replies before her next reply.  Only we never know what they "say"!  She pretends she's talking to Daddy.  Or Grandma.  Or Gotta Gotta or Laura, her imaginary friends.  Then she hands the phone to me for me to talk to them.

March 24 was the Kiwanis Sight Read Aloud contest.  Austin didn't want to do it.  But Lauren and Julia thought they'd try.  Well.  Our little Lauren ended up winning a 4th place medal!!!  There were 2 groups of winners for 1st-5th grades, 1st-5th place winners in each group.  I was so, so proud of Lauren! 

She is an excellent reader, but I didn't know how she'd do w/ the sight read part of the contest, since she still has some speech issues. She used excellent expression, volume, pace, everything.  She read a selection from Henry and Mudge, and said "throat" like "twoat", and r's like w's.  But still earned 4th place.  Clarity is an area they are "graded" on, so not sure how the sounds played into the score.  She did so great, though!  Yay, Lauren!!!

Speaking of Speech.  Since the beginning of the school year, I'd been in contact w/ her teacher, requesting a speech evaluation for Lauren.  In fact, in Kindergarten she was evaluated, and the SLP said she needed to be tested at the beginning of first grade.  Finally, finally, in January!!!!  Lauren was evaluated.  And she wasn't eligible to go to Speech, that she could say all the sounds she needed to at this age.  I was glad those were the results, but still thought she should have help w/ enunciating.  The SLP agreed, and had Lauren come as a "guest" to Speech twice a week until the end of the school year.  They were particularly working on "sh" and "ing".  Both the SLP and Lauren's teacher said reading aloud, slowly, will help her be more clear.  Which I've noticed as well.

At the IEP meeting, Lauren's teacher was so kind, and had nothing but praise for Lauren (who was also there, and playing with toys, but you know she was listening to every word discussed!!)  She said Lauren is doing so well in her school work that it would be fine for her to miss that class time to go to Speech.  Ms. N. said Lauren writes beautifully, and brought writing samples for the SLP to see.  Lauren loves Speech!  They earn Speech Money and get to spend it at the end of the month.  Plus it is just fun, and the SLP is so sweet.  Several times I have heard Lauren correct herself when she said "sh" like "s", or "ing" like "n".  Sometimes I still have to tell her to slow down and say her sounds.  :)  She's supposed to be evaluated at the beginning of next school year, so will see what happens then. 

   

Julia did not earn a medal this year.  There was only one group of medal-winners for 6th grade (less participants).  She also read so well!  Flawless!  The competition must have been out-of-this-world, I guess!

Both girls received a coupon for a free ice cream cone at RiteAid.  We teased Austin that he wouldn't get ice cream, since he didn't want to enter the contest!  As it turned out, we all got a cone there one day after church.  ;)

Austin reads all the time at home (as do the girls).  He's read all the Geronimo Stilton books at the library.  All the Diary of a Wimpy Kid he can find there, all the Sugar Creek Gang books from the church library.  SO many books!  It seems harder to find good, fun (not weird, mystical, etc.) books for boys than girls.  Now he's reading through the American Dreams series from the church library. 

Julia went to Science Camp March 27-30 with most of the 6th graders from school.  The kids requested 4 friends, and were guaranteed to have one in their cabin.  She and I were both happy her friend, and cabin chaperone, were Julia G. and her mom, our friends.  Julia had a great time!

While she was away, the 3 younger kids put on their own Beauty and the Beast performance.  Lauren was Belle; Austin was the Beast.  Not sure who Caroline was?

Here Austin is prowling around as the Beast.  Lauren is singing, walking through the village...

Our little princess Rapunzel setting up a tea party.  She "bakes" and serves us toy food and treats, pretend apple juice, tea, and coffee, all day long, every day.  Love it!  Her most recent thing is filling her toy tea cups w/ water and leaving them on my bathroom counter for Pongo to drink from!  Caroline can turn my faucets on and off; the kids' bathroom faucets are too hard for her.  She takes every opportunity she can to climb on my bathroom counter and wash her hands or give Pongo water. ;)