Dear old golden rule days!

My oldest child starts Kindergarten tomorrow! I can't believe it! Here's why she's not excited about school.

When I told her that school was every day she said, "Every day?! I have to go to school every day?! I don't want to!" When I told her that she can't wear sandals to school she said, "Why?! I love sandals!" When I told her that she has to wear shorts under skirts (which she really hates to do) she said, "But I hate doing that! People will think it's stupid." And when I told her about the school shirts she said, "You mean I have to wear a school shirt every day? That's so boring!" To sum it all up she says, "I don't want to go to school because I don't like all their rules. Their rules are so lame!"

She also thinks school won't be fun because she won't get to play like in preschool. I told her she'd be able to, but really I wonder how much she'll be able to play since kindergarten is only 2 1/2 hours long! Even preschool was 3 hours! I'm completely annoyed with the kindergarten hours in this town. If we'd gotten into the charter school she'd be in kindergarten for 6 hours & 40 minutes! That's too long! But the regular district with their 2 1/2 hours is way too short! It's a joke! Can't there be a happy medium?

We went to Meet the Teacher [Night?] today and I think that meeting her teacher & seeing her classroom has helped her get a little more excited. As we were walking back down the hall to leave she said, "This school is the best, huh?!" I've heard from several people that her teacher is amazing! Callie also has 3 other kids from her primary class in her kindergarten class, plus one of her preschool friends. I think she'll end up loving it. I hope. Although she still insisted tonight when she went to bed that she's not looking forward to school!

These pics are from Friday morning when we went to check out the class lists & find out who her teacher is!

Oh Ellie!

This morning I finished up my workout & saw this in the kitchen:



I love, love, LOVE my little Ellie! She is so fun! {although quite the handful} Last week after a nap she came out of her room by herself. She's just learned how to open our doors (we have levers instead of knobs), but I wondered how she'd gotten out of her crib! Callie & Jack both denied helping her & I believed them. Pretty much. But then I wondered the next 2 days since after another nap & in the mornings she'd complain when she was up & wanted us to get her out. But then on Monday I put her down for a late morning nap & about 20 minutes later, and Jack & Callie were both in my room with me, Ellie comes walking proudly in to us! Last night she did the same trick. The kids got a kick out of it & were laughing so she was smiling & thinking pretty highly of herself but Jeremiah took her back in & sang her another song & layed her down again. Then she got up again. One more song & he hoped that was it. But she got up again. This time no song. She got up again! I think she got out of bed 20 times & was a crying angry mess! This morning I took her bumper out of the crib (which btw I thought we should do last night but Jeremiah watched her hold onto the rail, swing a leg up, hoist her butt up, swing the other leg over, then hang on & let herself down till her searching feet could find the rails to help her finish her escape! She's very strong actually! So he was conviced she would be able to do that with or without the bumper). Anyway, tonight she didn't get out of bed. Maybe it's because I took out the bumper, or maybe it's because she only got a 15 minute car nap today & was thoroughly exhausted & just didn't have enough fight in her. We'll find out in the morning! The funny thing is Callie & Jack were so opposite! Jack was more of a monkey than Callie but Ellie tops them both! I remember having to show Jack how to climb out of his crib when he was probably 2! He just hadn't cared about trying it before but I wanted him to learn so I could lie in bed a little longer! LOL

crap!

Tara & I had such a wicked good time going to see Wicked that I got this little souvenir in the mail - a big fat fine! I'm so bummed! Why do I have such a hard time going the speed limit?

WA

We got home last Sunday night from a great visit to WA to visit Jeremiah's family. We had the best time! The thing that got us to spend 22 hours in the car each way was a big 80th birthday party for Jeremiah's Grandma McCombs! Out of the 33 grandchildren only 2 were unable to be there. In all there were 75 members of the Pete McCombs family at the party, plus several other relatives like Grandma's siblings, sibling-in-laws, nieces, etc. The party was on Friday (the 24th) and we had dinner (pulled pork sandwiches, tons of different salads, & chips), cake & had a little entertainment. My super talented SIL Richelle sang a song for Grandma & another cousin(s?)(was this a solo piece Ryan?) wrote a tribute song & played the guitar while 2 of his sisters sang it. It was really good too! As a side note, the McCombs family is the kind of family who has talent shows at their reunions. Seriously! There is a LOT of talent in the family! Anyway, it was really a great party with delicious food & great company. It was wonderful catching up with our family members. I say our because Jeremiah's family is really amazing & from day one made me feel like I was one of them & I don't just think of them as "Jeremiah's family" - I love them all too! On Saturday morning all the men got up (and a few of the women) and headed to Grandma's for a work party. It was construction work & there were lots of younger children that needed tending so not everyone could do the work.

Besides the birthday party we spent our time there relaxing, quading, visiting, snacking, and playing: card games, pickle ball, & ninja. We also floated the river with almost all the family that was at the birthday party. It was quite the site to see so many of us going down the river! And of course no trip to Colville would ever be complete without a visit {or 2} to Ronnie D's where you can get the best french fries ever! We had a blast!

Our family with Grandma McCombs

At Jeremiah's Parent's house - in their yard!

Jeremiah's dad & uncle Jim helping Justin put on some drywalling stilts. Just trying them out for fun!

Our cute nieces & nephew



Check out Jack's face in these pictures! We were trying to line up the kids for a picture & Katelyn & Callie are trying to hold it all together while Jack is off in his own little world! LOL




3 cousins & some cup o' noodles!

Ellie's Pinkalicious room!

Well I'm to the point in Ellie's & Callie's rooms that they're about as good as they're gonna get. I might eventally add a vinyl phrase above the closets, but any more than that would be overkill. So here's Ellie's room. I'll have to remember to take pictures of Callie's room sometime. Jack's room is pretty much done too, although we still haven't added closet doors to his closet! It's on Jeremiah's very long honey-do list! :)



In the middle bottom picture Ellie has a binky in her mouth. Every time I change her & she doesn't have a binky she gets upset & tries to grab the one in the picture! I think I'll have to change the picture when we take the binky away!

This banner is from Byrdie Graphics' Etsy Shop - I LOVE it!







Each of the kids has {and LOVES} a Classic Pooh animal. Ellie loves her Piglet from Aunt Tara!

Jack has an obsession with this flower mobile & it makes me SO mad! He batted it down with a stick one day & there were flowers all over the room! I was really upset but I had a calm talk with him about it & explained why he couldn't do it. He also had a long time out. 2 days later he did it again! I was furious! He had to sit in time out for a bit while I fixed it & I told him no tv/computer for 5 days. Yes, he's only 3! They don't even use the computer every day & some days no tv, some days 1-2 hours. But I figured that would be a more painful punishment since he's not too attached to any one particular toy. He hated not being able to watch tv for so long or play on the computer if Callie had a turn. The day after he was ungrounded he pulled the mobile apart again! I gave him 2 more days of no tv/computer & he said, "well that's not so many." I added one & he said it still wasn't so many. After I added another one he quit. So after another 4 days of being grounded he did it AGAIN! He spent a long time in time out that time while I fixed it yet again & glued the strings on the wires & when Jeremiah got home & I told him about it Jack got a spanking. Let me just say that we rarely spank our children. I just don't think it's usually the answer. For me anyway. Some people might think we're terrible for ever spanking at all & some people might spank a lot, but anyway, since we rarely spank I think it did the trick for Jack - he hasn't touched it again. It's been a week so hopefully he's over it!

Our {4th} of July!

A good day was had by all. Jeremiah went prairie dog shooting in the morning, but I won't show you those pictures! :) We went to the Hualapai Mountains (a whopping 12 min drive) to enjoy the cooler weather & let the kids play at the playground in one of the rec areas. Back at home we bbqed sausages & did poppers & confetti guns. The kids watched the fireworks with Aunt Kayleigh & Grandpa/ma & we rounded out the night with a great game of Settlers, a renewed favorite! It was a good day!

Gymbucks

I have $25 in Gymbucks I'm not going to use if any of you want it. It has to be used by this weekend - the 26th. Email/leave a comment/call me if you want it!

*** Update: they were gone in 40! ***

{Fancy Nancy} Birthday Party Extravaganza!

Okay, maybe not extravaganza, but I think Callie got a pretty great party this year! I spent lots of time looking for other peoples' ideas on how to carry this out (I'm not real original, but I'm a great copycat!) and spent lots of time putting everything together, and I just loved planning this party! (Can you tell I'm practically gushing?!) Most of my party plans & stuff came straight from Peppers & Pollywogs & Martha Stewart.

The invite -


Once the girls all showed up Abby read them Fancy Nancy.




Afterwards lunch was served! We had little flower-shaped ham & cheese sandwiches, farfalle pasta salad, mini fruit kabobs, and punch. I wish I'd taken some detailed pictures of everything! I added rhinestones to the ends of the forks/spoons to make them extra fancy! That was about the only good idea I got from the new Fancy Nancy Tea Parties book btw (glad I didn't buy it)! Oh, & I also put little pink or purple flowers on each straw. So cute!



Kenadee showing me how fancy girls eat with their pinkies up!

There were 3 jars of pink candy in the middle of the table. The candies in this picture are Trolli Strawberry Puffs and I'm now addicted! I've bought more since the party. Love them!

After lunch we (my amazing team of fancy assistants) put makeup (blush, eye shadow & lip gloss) on the girls & also painted their nails/toenails. I even found cute tiny rhinestone-ish stickers for their cute little nails!

Ellie LOVED having all the girls around & thought it was so fun that they were getting their nails painted & makeup done. She kept coming up to me & holding her fingers out or she'd sit & put her toes up while I was painting other girls' nails. I didn't want to do her nails then, but I did do her makeup! I was amazed at how well my 15 month old mimicked the older girls! She closed her eyes for me to do her eyeshadow, she sat very still for me to do her lip gloss, and she giggled when I did her blush! She was hilarious looking around at the girls waiting for them to tell her she was pretty after she was all made-up!



After makeup & nails & some glitter hairspray we played pin the jewel on the tiara. The girls loved that just as much as they loved the nails & makeup. One little girl was so sweet - she had got a jewel right on one of the places to win a prize, a little pack of bracelets, and then she stood at the front of the line while the other girls played & if they didn't get a jewel in one of the possible spots she'd give them a consolation bracelet & tell them they still did a good job trying! How cute!

Pinkies up girlies!

After presents we had ice cream parfaits just like in the book. I got the pink parfait cups from Dollar Tree & they were fun to make the parfaits in. Tres chic! :) There were lots of toppings for the girls to make their parfaits from: oreos, mini m&ms, sprinkles, bananas, chocolate syrup, & of course whipped cream & cherries! It was really hectic when we got to the parfaits cause the girls weren't passing toppings very quickly & parents started showing up. I completely forgot to do candles for Callie & have the girls sing her Happy Birthday! And the fact that none of my friends reminded me shows that we were all seriously workin' this party! It didn't even cross my mind till about 6 that evening! I felt guilty but only because I'm a mom. I know Callie didn't care - she was having a great time! Fortunately we did candles & sang her Happy Birthday with breakfast that morning! :)

The favor bags, straight from Martha, had candy lipstick/jewelry, heart-shaped sunglasses, butterfly hairclips, pearl-ish necklaces, and lip gloss in them, with a boa/crown pen on the outside of the bag. The girls could also take home a pink feather boa. I got the sunglasses, clips, necklaces, & boas from Halo Heaven & they have some amazing prices in case you're looking for party stuff or a ton of other things! Check them out!

I saw this cute banner online & was going to buy it but the seller didn't get back to me in time, so a few days before the party my friend Jamie helped me with this banner! She hand-cut every single letter & circle/square. Just kidding - she has a Cricut! Jealous much?! I am! After she cut it all out I "borrowed" lots of ribbon from my mom & put it all together!

And finally here's my birthday girl with her besties (Corinne in the first pic, Kenadee in the second)!

I know this is gonna sound like I'm at an awards show, but thank you SO much Abby, Summer, & Mom for all your help! You guys are awesome & I seriously couldn't have pulled it off without your help before the party! Thanks for staying & helping too, and also Tana (and I still can't believe you drove your girls all the way here for the party - you rock!) & Kelly.