My Life as it Should Be

Happy Mother's Day to Me!

We don't really do much for Mother's Day here. Sometimes I will get breakfast in bed, but this morning we headed off to church early where the Knights of Columbus were hosting a free breakfast. Brandon liked the bright napkins they had out and wanted me to save one to put in his lunch on Hawaiian Day at school. Last night we went out to dinner at Red Robin, mainly because I wanted a milkshake... and it was really yummy!  Brandon couldn't wait to give me all the presents he made at school so I opened them at dinner. He made a pouch with a pretty watercolor picture on the outside that held all the presents. 

The petals read:

• Second Grade. 8 years old.
• At school I am good at reading and taking A.R. tests.
• I am happy when I help someone.
• I would like to be an explorer when I grow up.  (Brandon has asked me to change this one to an author.)
• My favorite food is Coco Puffs and milk. (This is not something he gets at home - must be from the school breakfast!)
• My best friend is Lleyton.
• In my spare time I like to read.   

There were a couple other items in the pouch. One was a Mother's Day Creative Writing sheet with the instructions: Write a word, poem or sentence using each letter in the word M-O-T-H-E-R.

• M - made me 
• O - owns me
• T - teaches me
• H - helps me
• E - explains things to me
• R - respects me

And another where they were practicing paragraph techniques...

      "Mommy you are the best mom. First, you make a lot of home made things like chocolate sauce and smoothies.  They are very yummy. Second, you and Daddy bought a house to eat, sleep and play. Third, when I am sick, you give me medicine and if I have a fever, you take me to the doctor. You are the best mommy because you make home made things, bought us a home, and take care of me when I am sick.  Thank you for being my mommy."

Alex had a present for me as well, but couldn't wait and gave it to me on Friday... hand print art made in her kindergarten class. Brandon remembered making his and ran upstairs to get it from my room so they could compare the size of the hand prints!

There is a poem that goes with the hand print:

Sometimes you get discouraged
Because I am so small.
And always leave my fingerprints
On furniture and walls.

But every day I'm growing
I'll be grown-up some day.
And all those little hand prints
Will surely fade away.

So here's a final hand print, 
Just so you can recall
Exactly how my fingers looked 
When I was very small.

I am amazed at how fast time has passed, and how fast the kids are growing. Alex will be in first grade in September and I will be without kids from 8am to 3pm every weekday. Unbelievable!  While I already know I will have plenty of activities to fill my days, it is bitter sweet to think about how much time the kids will be away from me. The days of taking them to morning play group or story time at the library are gone. Now the afternoons/evenings will be forever filled with homework and rushing from one activity to the next, usually with little time for dinner. I must remember this sure fact and try to savor the time with them over the summer... give more of myself during the long lazy days because I know I will have my time come the 1st day of the next school year!

Home Depot Craft

The first Saturday of every month we try to get the kids to the Home Depot Kids Workshop.  This is available at every Home Depot and you can attend anytime between 9am-12pm.  The kids get a Home Depot apron (the first time they are there) and a certificate of completion with a pin after finishing their project. This past Saturday Tony took the kids and each of them made a Picket Fence Planter.  

They get to assemble the pieces right there with glue and a hammer and nails, with adult supervision of course!  The kids enjoy the hands-on activity and it is free!  Well, mostly.  I wasn't with them this week but apparently they were handing out marigolds to go in the pot.  Tony wasn't aware of this so they headed over to the nursery area of the store where Alex saw the cactuses and had to have one.  Brandon also said he wanted a cactus but took a good 20 minutes (not sure if Tony is exaggerating here) looking for one and then said he wanted one of the marigolds that were being handed out instead.  So back over to the other side of the store they went and then they still had to wait in line for the (free) marigold.  All this put them 20 minutes late to Alex's gymnastics practice.  Oh well, here is a picture of the cactus... the flowers are fake, glued on rather sloppily.  Alex loved how soft the needles were, but not that soft as they still stuck right into her hand!

 

Sick Day

Brandon had kind of a rough day today.  He was feeling bad enough that I had to pick him up from school at 9:30am but not so bad that he needed to take it easy and nap.  It turned out to be just a bad headache so I had him to keep me company today!  We stopped by the local scrapbook store after picking him up (because I knew he wasn't really sick, and they are family friendly and have a couch and TV area) so I could get a few things to complete a layout to submit to Creating Keepsakes today.  He was pretty patient and actually enjoyed looking at some of the neat things they have for sale.  He noticed some pop-up soccer stickers and wanted me to get them to do a layout of him playing soccer. I guess I should print out the layout I have already done (of him playing soccer) so he has one to look at now!  Anyway, when we got home I worked on a couple different projects that needed to be finished today and he decided to make a practice spelling list for Alex.  He made two columns on the lined paper (from Grandma) and wrote out the words he wanted Alex to copy.  I told him not to be disappointed if she didn't want to do it but to my surprise she got right to it when Meghan dropped her off at 1:45pm!

In kindergarten Brandon got in the habit of circling his best letter when practicing them over and over so that is what the circles are below.  Brandon wrote the title, "Name" and "Date," and the the first word in each of the columns.  The rest is Alex's handwriting.

I was also presented with a work of art from Brandon... about butterflies.  He said it was for me to keep.  This is the topic of his class science chapter right now so the drawing is of the life cycle of the butterfly.  There is an egg and a caterpillar in there somewhere, and the cocoon/chrysalis (or pupa) is hanging from the highest branch and then finally the butterfly.  I was a little confused about the large winding tree trunk and he said it was a "question mark tree!"

Brandon's final project of the day started when he saw me in my craft room putting together a scrapbook page.  I handed him the 12x12 cardstock and he made his own "pictures" to scrap with... again, the life-cycle of the butterfly. This time with a little more detail, and he peeled off and stuck down each letter for the title all by himself!  He added a bit at the top to add the title so it is not your traditional 12x12 page anymore, but it looks great to me!