End of the Year Celebration and a Visit to the Splash Pad

Today was Brianna's First Grade celebration. She will soon be a second grader.... How did she get so old!

She got several awards and she was very excited. She has had a very good year and has learned so much!

After school I decided to take Brianna, Jacob and Brianna's friend to the splash pad. I suppose I am CRAZY... I deal with kids all day everyday and I decide it is a great idea to go to a busy place and once again deal with kids..... It was tons of fun. Jacob takes a while to get used to the water but once he decides he likes it he has the best time.

The best part of the day is tomorrow school is out and we can really begin our SUMMER!!!!

Dance Recital 2011

Last night Brianna danced in her 4th dance recital. It is amazing to see good she has gotten since that very first dance recital. She dance in Jazz (which she says is her favorite because this is the first year for Jazz) Tap and Ballet (which I think she is the best at). I have decided that no matter how many sports we put her in..... She will never love those like dance.

Brianna's First Recital- Mr. Ed's School of Dance


Brianna's Second Dance Recital- Sonshine Academy














Brianna's 3rd Recital- Sonshine Academy













Brianna's 4th Recital- Sonshine Academy



Brianna we love watching you dance!!!

Hello World...

Finally the school year is coming to an end. My first year at a different school and it has been a year. I think I have become more of a grief counselor than anything for these kids. We have dealt with three different deaths including a death of a classmate. I can only believe that next year will be so much better.

I can say that this school has been a blessing for Brianna. She has not had any close friends at her old school because she was so different than the other kids but this year she has plenty of kids that she likes and is allowed to do things with outside of school.

I wake each morning knowing we are less than 20 days until summer.........

A day at the zoo

We took the kids to the zoo on Saturday with Brianna's friend from school. I have to admit the LR Zoo is getting better. This is the first time I went to the zoo and actually felt like we saw enough animals that we did not waste our money getting into the zoo.

The highlight of the day was Mary the Elephant painted a picture that was too be raffled off after she was done. Brian bought a few chances to win the painting. I never actually thought that he would win that I did not take any pictures of Mary painting. Luckily Savanna's mom did and she sent them to me!!

I had no idea of how much people want these paintings but a guy asked Brian if he would sell it to him. Brian declined and I am thinking a framed painting to go in the newly redecorated black and white kids bath is in order!!!

Book Character Dress-Up Day 2011

Brianna has a very strong love of the book A Bad Case of the Stripes. It is about Camilla Cream who wanted so badly to be liked at school and on the first day of school she wakes up with the stripes. Her parents try to find a cure and everyone has an opinion and they stripes keep getting worse until finally they find out the cure is actually lima beans.

She developed the love of the this book from her kindergarten teacher and she has never lost it. She was hoping to dress up as Camilla last year at her old school but they did not have a dress-up day and she probably would not have been able to since she had a little boy in her class that was afraid of the book and all things stripes.... Surely I would have talked her out of it.

This was her year to get to dress up as Camilla and there was no talking her out of it. We got her up really early and Brian painted her stripes on. She was so excited!!!

She won the character dress-up for her class and ALL of the first and kindergarten classes!!! She got a bunch of goodies and a gift card to Barnes and Noble! My only concern is what can she do to one up herself next year!!!

Christmas Round 1- JuJu's House

With the exception of a few gifts for Brian and I those are all for Brianna and Jacob!!

This year we are having to change the traditions we have had since Brian and I got married. We are going to spend Christmas in Texas at his parents house. This is a big change for everyone because the last few years we have hosted Christmas. Some days I am sad and other days I am glad that I did not have to fully decorate and worry about having everything perfect.

Jacob was so excited to finally get a John Deere.... I guess he must be a country boy at heart!!

Last Saturday, we celebrated Christmas with my mom and brother. My mom cooked a huge lunch for us and it was good eating. We opened gifts and the kids got to spend the day in the country playing at JuJu's house.

Brianna is really hoping Santa gets her that DS she is wanting!!

I think this is going to work out much better for the kids because they are not going to be so overwhelmed opening all of those gifts in one day. They actually get to enjoy their new toys before getting more.

Round 2 comes on Tuesday night with the Mayfield family and then it is a waiting game for the big day.......

First Day of First Grade

So really we just finished the third day of first grade but I did not get a chance to load the pictures until today.... Not only was this the first day of school it was also Brianna's first day at her new school.. Carver Magnet... which I am hoping will be her last move for many years......

Brianna is enjoying her new teacher but I am pretty sure that no one will fill the shoes of Mrs. Hart in her mind..... She reminds me everyday how much she loves her.......

Goodbye Summer.... Hello Football

This week is the week that I thought seemed so far away when I hugged those little angels in June... but yet the time has come when I must return to my day job.... Don't get me wrong I LOVE teaching.... but I also LOVE summer break or any other time that I get to stay at home and do just what I want to do.

This summer we did a lot of fun things like.........

....attend a dance recital

.....spent time with our favorite little people

.......shot some fireworks

....played in downtown Little Rock

.....and visited with family......

so long summer.... bring on the football season... we are ready!!!

Wordless Wednesday!!!

Our day at the splash pad......

A Day in Downtown Little Rock

Yesterday, Brian had the day off from work and I thought it would be fun to take the kids to the Museum of Discovery (MOD). I enjoy the Museum and it has a lot of fun things for the kids to play with. We got Downtown just in time for lunch so we decided to eat at Iriana's Pizza one of my favorite pizza places then Brian decided that we should walk downtown to the Old State House because it has Sparky I and Sparky II (the electric chairs used in AR) much to my surprise the Old State House has really changed it is very nice. We toured the museum and since the kids were on their best behavior we let them play in the kiddie room. In the kiddie room it has a craft (which of course Brianna had to do) a little bit of dress up but I talked Brianna out of that since I was not sure who else had it on and trains which Jacob LOVED!!

Then it was time to walk to the MOD and play with all of the fun

stuff there. We all had a lot of fun and enjoyed to day.

We also stopped and ate cupcakes from one of the little shops in the River Market. They were very good. Brianna and Jacob ate watermelon flavored but Brian and I were less daring and ate just vanilla flavored.

One more Canoe picture

Well as I have already told the eventful canoe trip we recently took... Here is a picture of Jacob that pretty much sums up how we all felt before that trip was over.

Fourth of July

In celebration of Independence Day we went to Jennifer and Joe's cabin on the Buffalo River.... We thought it would be real fun to go canoeing..... WHY in the world did I think I needed to be in the canoe with anyone I am not real sure because every other time I have been in a canoe it has not had very positive results.... So we load up the canoe and everyone else just paddles off and we flip our canoe. Thankfully Joe and Jennifer paddled upstream to save us and to put Jacob in their canoe... That is most likely to save his life which was probably a very wise decision for him. Off we go and managed to only flip the canoe a few more times... The rest of the weekend was wonderful with lots of fireworks and good times had by all.

I think I will just stay away from canoes for the time being!!!

Snow and a lot of it

I have be wishing for a ton of snow well..... Today we got just that... A LOT OF SNOW.... I actually did not think that we were getting any especially since it was a slight chance of a dusting then after I got up got dress and I was even having a good hair day... I went to put the dog out and was really shocked (he was too for the record) ...... The kids and I went to play early this morning and it was a decent amount and then it started snowing more and more and more and when we went out after lunch there was close to SEVEN INCHES on the ground... I am so excited.... I can say we never get that kind of snow and I love it!!! In this picture we were attempting to sled in a box... it really did not work so well!

Snow Day and Snowman

Brianna making a snow angel.... that was her #1 priority!!

As everyone knows by now... I finally got the snow I have been waiting on.... I know that is sad that I would actually think with everything going on in the world that getting snow should actually be a worry that I have... However it is.... and finally we got to build a snowman... The last time AR had this much snow Jacob was only a few days old and we lived in an apartment... I tried to help Brianna build one but I am just not a snowman maker..... This year we all got to enjoy the white stuff and here is proof that it was fun.....

Happy 6th Birthday, Brianna

Brianna turned 6 years old this week. I cannot believe how much she has grown up... time flies....

Here are 6 reasons why I love Brianna:

1. You are such a smart little girl.

2. You are a great big sister to Jacob and he loves you so much.

3. You are compassionate to all people.

4. You are a beautiful dancer.

5. You love to play dress-up and are so cute when you make up your own clothes.

6. You are a natural born teacher and leader and I cannot wait to see you grow into a lovely young lady!!!

NOTHING, I mean NOTHING gets past Brianna.....

Today was the Kindergarten Awards Ceremony for the first semester. Each student of course gets something and we (meaning the teachers) have the ability to give out a Principal's Award however Brianna's teacher chose not to give one. Later after her class had gone on with their day a little girl in Brianna's class asked why their class did not have one and Mrs. Hart says that she did not print one off but if she had she would have given it to Brianna and a little boy in the class.



So fast forward to dinner tonight.....



At dinner I was telling Brian that Brianna got the Alphabet Achiever and explained what that meant. Brianna chimes in that if they would have had a Principal's Award so I said Brianna why do you think that and she replied that Mrs. Hart told the class when the little girl asked (the story above). Well I know the child who asked and (sorta under my breath) I said well the way she acts surely she did not think she was getting it then Brianna (sorta under her breath) said her mom does not answer the phone when Mrs. Hart calls her either!!! I just had to laugh because nothing gets past Brianna and she is waiting the the perfect time to tell the world all she knows..... Unfortunately, sometimes her wealth of knowledge gets us all in trouble!!!!

"Ball" and the Sunday Paper

For those who are not around Jacob a lot it is hard to understand his undying love of balls. He is forever playing with a ball. Well a few weeks ago he realized that the Sunday newspaper (any day really but we only get the paper on Sunday) has an entire section devoted to "ball" It is really cute that he loves the ball so much.... My only wish is to for him to be very successful in his future... Who knows are we looking at a future quarterback, pitcher or point guard???

Riding a bike without training wheels

Brianna has had her bike for a while but we have never taken the training wheels off.... until today........ I go outside (my mom was with her she was not outside alone) and she is riding the bike and it appears that she is a very stable rider so I suggest...... Do you want me to take the training wheels off.... Brianna replies.... YES!!!! So I go and find a wrench in the garage (which is a small victory in its own right) and remove the wheels.... We take the bike back to the street and she gets on I run along beside her and then let go... Brianna manages about two additional pedals on the bike and then crash.... This continued for a while and she laughed each time.... Finally, I was afraid that she would injure herself and talked her into trying again tomorrow........ Hopefully I will have news of a successful bike rider by the end of the week!!!!

Presents, Fuji and Cake

Today we celebrated all of the January birthdays (Brianna, Jacob, Jema and Randy) at Fuji. It was real fun since Brianna, Jacob and Andy were the only kids that had been to a Habachi grill before. I think once the inital shock of the fire and crazy chef wore off the kids and adults had a wonderful time. Then we had cake and presents and it looked like Christmas all over again. Hopefully in February Jacob does not think we should shower him with gifts too!! Thank you Jennifer, Joe and Ashley for coming and helping us celebrate!!

Happy Birthday Brianna, Jacob, Randy and Jema!!!

Brianna Lost her First Tooth!!!

Brianna lost her first tooth today after school. She was so proud of her tooth and then she said this means I am getting big.... Yes, Brianna you are getting so big!!!