Her mother's daughter...

Claire decided to play mermaids in Cheyanne's water bowl...which of course led to water all over the floor.  So I handed her a towel and told her to wipe it up.  And this is what she did.

I wonder where on earth she learned to use her foot to wipe up a mess instead of making the effort to bend over and do it?

Proud Momma Moment

Okay not really.  But it is worth sharing.  She totally didn't deserve to graduate.  As evidenced by her pooping upstairs, shredding toilet paper, kid toy chewing, diaper stealing, annoying incessant barking at the cat, and blank stares when give the most basic command there is: SIT.  Ah well...she's cute though.  And she's not so bad.  At least she doesn't have fleas ;)

What she really thought of the dumb hat!

Awana

Awana has started back up for the year!  The kids are very excited!  Claire is out of the nursery and into Puggles.  She even gets a cute shirt to wear.  Which she hates :/  Connor has moved up to a Cubbies class, so he now gets his own vest, bag, and book!  And Caelin is in her second year of Sparks.  They were very excited to get started!

Well Claire was more excited about this stick...

This also means that we have started our Sunday night classes as well.  My class is on Titus 2, and it will be a challenge for me.  So far I am not doing well meeting the challenges put before me in the class, like this one "quit making excuses and get in the Word every day".  Ouch.

Daddy's last day in the office

Simon is now working from home.  He is still at the same company but switched to a different team, which gave him the opportunity to work from home.  We are converting our front room into an office (almost done, and pictures will follow) and everyone is working on adjusting!  Not having to commute makes a huge difference in his hours!  But it can be tricky having him here, but still 'at work' and not to be bothered.  He also has a web cam meeting every single morning.  So I'm sure that at some point his co workers are going to be treated to a naked kid running by in the background or something.  Hopefully not...but you know...probably will happen.  I think we may need curtains on the doors to that room. 

At any rate, we went to visit on his last day in the office.  It was kind of bittersweet and sad for him.  Although he now says he's over it and happy to not have to drive over an hour ever day.  Plus he gets to go to work in his pajamas.  That's always a bonus, right?

The crazy "chair" that works on posture so you don't slouch all day.  Belongs to a co worker who was letting him borrow it.  And said co worker was nice enough to let him bring it home with him.  Goody!  The kids enjoy it, and its a conversation piece for every other person who comes in the house and sees it.

 

We also got to have one last lunch in the cafeteria and visit to the gym.  

 

 

Puppy wall of shame....

The picture pretty much says it all :/  But facebook friends are all, "oh but she's so cute!".

And since someone asked on facebook...she does indeed seem to have a thing for Doc McStuffins toys..

Early 1st grade writing

We've already had our first school friend birthday party this year.  It was a lot of fun :)  And we now usually make cards for people instead of buying them (works for me!  saves money, and really its much cuter and memorable).  So she made a card for her friend.  I had to stare at the picture for a really long time, but I finally figured it out-Mario and Luigi!  I really get a kick out of this phase of writing development!

Happy Birthday Lucas  I hope you have a great birthday!

First Days of School

We started school a few weeks ago.  First day of 1st grade co-op:

Next year I will try to be a good Pinterest mom and have some cute crafty chalkboard sign or something...this year, we're lucky I remembered to make her hold up a piece of paper!

She's an old pro now...didn't even want mom to walk her in.  Just pull up to the curb and let her out.  At least she let me take a picture!

Of course, posting these pictures on facebook led to questions and me trying to explain exactly what we do, since people see this and say "I thought you homeschooled!".  We do.  But we found a very unique co-op/hybrid school, so she takes classes 2 days a week and we do 3 days a week at home.    I'm very thankful that we have the option of something like this!  Its pretty rare.  It helped me build my confidence a lot the first year when I had been too overwhelmed to try to homeschool.  Now that I have a year under my belt, I can truly say, it isn't necessary, but it sure is nice ;)


A week later, preschool started:

This can also lead to questions...since people don't understand why we would put our children in preschool if we are going to homeschool.  My reply is basically that there are many reasons people choose to homeschool, and our reasons do not lead us to forgo preschool.  Once again, while its not necessary, it sure can be nice!

And just for fun, a little story about the second day of preschool.  I took Connor to the bathroom before he went to his class.  And I realized that  he had his pajama shorts on underneath his shorts.  Why??  Who knows?!  But there they were.  I figured no one would know.  Until I went to pick him up...and saw like 4 inches of red pajama shorts hanging out the bottom of his khaki shorts!  :/  Yeah...you know they talked about me after we left...  But at least he gets himself dressed every day, right? :)

Note the red shorts hanging out...