Loss

We lost a devoted blog follower and dearest family member this month. Just over 2 weeks ago, I raced to Abbott to meet my oldest godchild, Hope, where we would tragically and unexpectedly say goodbye to her mother.

Hope recently told me that Cheryl read this blog religiously (I really never know who reads these posts). And I recalled that Hope knew when Lincoln learned to crawl..all because Cheryl had read it on this blog and immediately messaged her. I've spent the last two weeks remembering my aunt Cheryl and how wonderful she was to everyone who had the opportunity to meet her. The woman was never without a smile, and if she spotted you, be it in a room full of 400 other people, she would holler for your attention, just to say "hi". 

We are deeply saddened and will forever miss her. I couldn't avoid writing about it, for its what has been on our minds, the topic of conversation, and the endless questions from the girls (who are just trying to comprehend the concept of death). 

We will take care of her dear Hope who we love so very much. 

Watch over us Cheryl, we love you. 

fall progress-2014

Yesterday afternoon, we headed to the girls' school for their fall conferences. They were both a little nervous for what their teachers would tell us....and I remember the same feeling when I was growing up. Not that they (or I) had anything to be worried about, but frankly, maybe it's a little healthy for them to feel nervous. They weren't sweating and scared, no, it was more of a "I wonder what she will tell you" kind of nervous. 

As it turns out, they are both excelling academically. I honestly didn't expect anything else. There was no indication that they were falling behind. And so, we listened to each teacher tell us their impression of our children. 

Regan's teacher (and student teacher) were up first. She talked about her reading, that she's at a level R (current should be N-P so she's ahead of schedule). This was certainly  no surprise to us. The kid is a book worm. This week, she came home with Harry Potter and another gigantic book from the library at school. Mrs N laughed that when she sat at her desk, with her pile of books, she could hardly see around them. This is her headboard, since she spends at least 30-40 minutes/night reading. 

I know just how important reading is for learning, and so, I am so very relieved that she excels in this area. As for math....well, she's getting along. It's not her strong suit, but in her defense, Mrs N admits that the cirriculum changed this year and Regan/class are now expected to be doing dividing/multiplication, whereas previously, these were 4th grade requirements. Even worse, when we were in school, those requirements came even later (eye opener to Ryan who likes to boast how easy that came to him.....he was 12 years old, not 8!). So we just keep telling her she's doing great because confidence is half the battle. Mrs N told us what Regan's teachers from prior years have been telling us all along: she likes to talk. Yes, we know. Thankfully she takes redirection well and is quickly remembering when it's Mrs N's turn to talk and when it's her turn to talk. Successful conference #1. And then, she brought home this amazing drawing she had done during her art enrichment course....incredible! 

And then it was onto Sidney's teacher. We went through how she's doing with letter recognition, numbers, counting and reading. Miss P talked about how much she enjoys having Sidney in class. 

She went on to say that when a group of kids struggles to understand  concept, Miss P often asks Sidney to answer the question and then to explain her thinking. She says it's like having another teacher, someone who can help her peers learn. WOW. I was stunned. It's no surprise that Sidney is seen as a leader among her peers (and her teachers), but it impresses me that she does so with grace. Miss P says within the class as well as within the smaller friend group, she notices that others follow Sidney's lead. When Sid says her favorite color, the rest end up picking the same color for example. 

A sample of her sight words

And while she is also described as a 'talker', Miss P says when it's time to learn, Sidney is quick to stop chatting and sit quietly to learn. She's a rule follower, that girl and it bothers her when people don't. We are so very proud of the progress she has made in Kindergarten! Successful conference #2. Here's some of the fun counting she does around the house....we count everything these days!

These two girls of ours never cease to amaze us! Congrats on such wonderful conference reports. Keep up the good work. 

Seasons

Seems like winter kind of snuck up on us. We went from fall to winter in the blink of an eye. The kids went from this: 

To this: 

They might be a little more excited than Ryan and I.

Lincoln's first birthday-Party day

We celebrated the little man's first birthday with a red and blue party on Saturday.

I think he was maybe just a little excited to be turning ONE!

 

This was the only picture I got with the three of us, and I think it's a tad blurry unfortunately :( It was tough getting Lincoln to slow down enough to take a decent picture! I never even got a family picture. Good thing we had formal family pictures taken this week!

He loved all of his fun balloons and decorations.

And the cakes?! Well they were over the top adorable. I went to take his picture sitting next to this big cake and he dipped his little fingers right in for a taste. Needless to say, I knew he'd have no problems later on digging into his smash cake!

That little elephant was adorable! When I found this similar cake on Pinterest, I wasn't set on getting the elephant too (basically because I knew it would probably cost a fortune for someone to make!). Ryan loved it though, so when our cake lady said she could whip one up easy peasy, I was sold!

I had to set him a little further away from his cake in order to get a decent picture. He kept reaching for it and got mad when I wouldn't let him touch it!

His month by month pictures finally came together in banner format. Man alive has he changed. His cheeks quickly filled out and personality just blossomed.

His high chair got a make over for his special day too. Draped in ribbons and one single balloon to decorate the chair, it was all ready for his 'smash' session.

 

And balloons hung in the doorways that he was so excited to touch. Mr. Adorable knew that this day was all about him.

And he loved every second of it!

 After presents and dinner and playtime, it was cake time!
There was a loud chorus of HAPPY BIRTHDAY and boy he just wanted to dig in. That song couldn't have ended soon enough.

 

 By far, he gave us the BEST first birthday smash cake performance.
It went on and on. The frosting was thick and eventually I wiped it off so he could get to the actual cake part.

 

Once he started hugging the cake, we all just lost it. Too stinkin' cute!

 

He made a mess like I have never seen before.

I'm still finding bits of cake in places I didn't think to look while cleaning up (like the door frame about a foot to his left).

He did this.

All. By. Himself.

 

That was one messy kid!

 

I plopped him directly into the bath.

And then all the kiddos got into their jammies and posed nicely for us at the end of the night.

I think it's safe to say that he had a pretty amazing first birthday party.

Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate!

Halloween 2014

Halloween has come and gone. It was a whirlwind of a day. Heck, it was a whirlwind of a week! Sandwiched between Lincoln's birthday, family pictures, Lincoln's 1 year doctor visit and his first birthday party, was Halloween.

Ryan and I decided back in September that we would spend this special day volunteering at the kids' Harvest Parties. Well let's be honest, I made the decision and he hastily agreed to being signed up when I asked him in the middle of a chaotic Open House for school. :) You see, when we only had one kid in school, he was free to go about his day while I spent time volunteering. He's honest when he says volunteering isn't his thing. I even roped him into cross-walk volunteer for the morning of Halloween. I'm pretty good :) lol

 

My parents came up to babysit Lincoln while we headed to school. On the drive, I gave him a preview of what to expect and it went something like this.

Me: "I want to warn you that the chaos and noise level is slightly deafening on party days".

Him: "I might hate you a little right now".

 

In the end, he admitted that it was fun! And seeing the girls be so excited to each have a parent volunteer is worth every second of that deafening noise level.

 

I got to spend the afternoon with Sidney. It was my first time volunteering in her Kindergarten classroom. And while I'm familiar with some of the kids (due to lunches, school events and living in the neighborhood), it was fun to see her interact with all of her classmates.

Her class operated in station format. I was in charge of the 'snack' station. It was a pretty cute owl. She was over the moon delighted to have me as the parent-helper for her first station.

Miss P decorated their tables with some paper in the morning so that the tables were somewhat presentable. She asked all the children to draw a little picture on their table spot. I couldn't resist snapping a picture of Sidney's spot.

My little Picasso. 

Here is her class.

She's sandwiched between her two BFF's. Those 3 are essentially inseparable! 

I was able to sneak away for a few minutes and catch Ryan in Regan's classroom. Unfortunately, their grade was operating on a little different rotation so he only got to spend the last 15 minutes or so with Regan's class (some grades rotate between all grade level classrooms, some grades stay in their own classroom and just rotate stations).

His station was the mini golf into a carved out pumpkin. Not a bad gig for the golfer in the family! 

Here's Regan's rowdy bunch! I had to snap quickly because these kids were excited. Like jump around, can't sit still, excited! Regan's in the back next to Mrs N and her BFF. 

And as if that excitement wasn't enough, we dressed up after dinner and headed into the bitter cold (just under 40F and getting colder). Lincoln (and I), made it to about 6-7 houses before he was ready to go home.

 I love love loved his costume though and just had to take him out in it! He certainly was the cutest little lion that I ever did see :)

 

It was a slow night of treaters at our house...only 6! SIX kids. Sad. We are accustomed to closer to 30. Darn cold must have scared them all away.



Thanks mom and dad for helping out!