beginning of the school year surveys

Callie

Age: 5
Height: 42 1/2"
Weight: 36.4 lbs
Hair color: light brown

Favorites:
Animal: flamingo cause they have pink feathers. and peacocks.
Food: pasta carbonara & sandwiches
Game: Don't Eat Pete
Toy: make-up
Thing to do: "Go shopping to pick out stuff and paint nails"
Book: princess books
Color: pink, purple, and all the colors of the rainbow
Movie: Sleeping Beauty
Song: "I Know You" from Sleeping Beauty
Primary Song: Scripture Power

My best friend is: Corinne. And Kenadee.
Other friends I like to play with: Emily, Melody, Alexis, Ivy
Things I like to do with my friends: paint nails, play dress-up, dance
If I had a pet it would be a: flamingo
named: Janika
What people like about me: "My pretty hair & clothes, and I'm sweet to my other friends and nice to everyone else." (I think that's because people are always saying they love her hair or that she's dressed so cute)
Things I can do really well: flips on the trampoline (not), paint nails by myself, puzzles

Jack

Age: 3 1/2
Height: 37 3/4"
Weight: 31.4 lbs
Hair color: dark blonde

Favorites:
Animal: dinosaur
Food: strawberry milk with mac & cheese
Game: Don't Break the Ice
Toy: remote-control car
Thing to do: cook with mom & dad and play bear trap with dad
Book: Disney Storybook Collection
Color: blue
Movie: Bolt
Song: Spiderman (he made it up)
Primary Song: If You Chance to Meet a Frown

My best friend is: Tyler
Other friends I like to play with: Kenadee, Corinne, Ali
Things I like to do with my friends: play
If I had a pet it would be a: dog
named: Jack-in-the-box
What people like about me: "I have so much toys"
Things I can do really well: "Making food with mom, puzzles but not coloring"

Oh Ellie! - pt 2

To update the crib/sleeping sitch - it's bad. The morning after the post about it she came and climbed up on our bed at 5:42 am! So it wasn't the bumper helping her out!

I took the side off the crib so it's a toddler daybed, because my plan was that if I didn't let her leave her room she would give up & get in bed & go to sleep. Jeremiah doesn't agree with my theory. I did it for a nap a couple of days ago & it worked just like I'd thought it would.

But really every night since I made the crib a daybed I (or Jeremiah) use a Supernanny method: put her in bed & sit next to the bed & put her back in every time she gets out. The first night she was pissed & crying & a mess! The next night she sang to herself, held onto the end of the crib & swung her butt around, and played. After 10 minutes she finally got out of bed. I put her back in & she didn't cry. Instead she would dangle her legs over & get her feet near the ground & see if I was looking (which I wasn't). She got out of bed a few more times but no tears & she finally went to sleep. It's been like that almost every night for a week. We move closer & closer to the door & the plan is to eventually not stay in there & have her just stay in bed. She's a fighter. I think it will definitely take another week at least.

That's just getting her to bed though. She's been waking up during the night, probably from teething, and now that she's discovered this freedom she gets out of her bed in the middle of the night instead of falling back asleep like she normally would! She has also got up early most mornings for the past week or more. We're sick of it! Callie suggested putting a lid or something on the crib so she can't get out! :) But really we're considering buying a crib tent. Anyone used one or heard good/bad about them? This can't go on! If it's her teeth that keep waking her at least it will pass, but my children are s-l-o-w teethers so it could be a while & we need more sleep!

Oh, and because of the middle-of-the-day kindergarten schedule, her naps are becoming few & far between. She's mostly getting one or two 10-20 min car naps & that's just not enough for a 17 month old! It's not as easy (for me) to do the Supernanny method for naps because it can take a long time. The other day I had to wait for the bug spray guy to leave before I could start & then after putting her back in her bed for 20 mins (she's not as cooperative during the day) I gave up because by the time she would have fallen asleep I would have had to wake her up to pick Callie up from school. Another day it was visiting teachers over so I couldn't put her down. Another day it was another person. And then there's the little boy at home who wonders what's taking his mom so long so he pounds on the door while I'm trying to get her to go to sleep.

*sigh*

Dear old golden rule days! - pt 2

After school on her first day she told me all about her day & she said she liked it. On Friday morning she asked me what day it was. When I told her it was Friday she said, "No! I don't want to go to school!" She had a good day anyway & is ridiculously excited about being able to hula hoop during recess & has been bugging/begging me to get her one so she can show off her skills at home.

I asked her yesterday if she likes her teacher. She said, "Yeah, but sometimes she's kind of grumpy. There's some naughty kids in our class and she gets grumpy because they're always not listening to her." And she named one of the boys in her primary class! LOL

Today on the way to school I asked her if she was brave. She said a little bit. I asked if she was brave enough to walk into school all by herself while I watch her from the car. Her response was tears. I parked & got out with her & gave her a hug & kiss & said I was doing it now so that when we got to the doors she could just say bye & walk down the hall & out to the kindergarten playground. She cried because that sounded scary. I walked her to the doors & she wouldn't move forward & there wasn't an aide there to guide her so she cried & I took her back to the car with me b/c I wanted to move it to the first spot in front of the doors since it was gonna take a minute & Jack & Ellie were waiting. She got in the car too & buckled her seatbelt. I asked why & she said she was going home. I told her she had to go to school & she bawled. Thank goodness her friend Connor showed up then. I asked him if he'd walk with her down the hall & poor boy didn't know what to do when we got to the doors again & Callie wouldn't move past them. She stood there sobbing. I had to tell her if she kept throwing a fit I was turning around right then to leave & if she wanted me to stay & watch her walk down the hall she had to walk with Connor. I watched (and heard) my poor little girl bawl all the way down the hall & out the next doors at the end. I felt like a terrible! It was sad for me.

After school I asked her what happened after she got to the playground. She said her teacher took care of her. She gave Callie a hug & let her stand by her since Callie didn't feel like playing (and we even got there earlier per Callie's request so she'd have more time to play before school started). I told Callie that it was hard but that she'd do better tomorrow & that she was going to have to walk down the hall to the playground without me again & she started crying! Augggg! Tonight we talked about it again & I told her she could have 5 jewels in her jar (our awesome incentive program!) tomorrow if she'd walk all by herself (or w/friends) down the hall. She's saying she's gonna do it.

Kettle Corn

I have never been a fan of kettle corn. Never. Yuck! Last time Jeremiah & I went to the movies he put some kettle corn seasoning on the popcorn & he claims he only did it on one side of the bucket (how is that possible), but it ruined the first few inches of popcorn for me. It was gross!

Jason & Richelle stopped at our house for a few hours of sleep on their way to Lake Powell & Jason left us a bag of Trader Joe's Kettle Corn because he knows Jeremiah really likes the stuff. Can I just say I'm in love! It's so delicious & I love it enough that I will probably even sometimes make a special out-of-the-way stop at TJ's in Henderson just so I can get some! It's great! Go get yourself some. (And thanks Jason!)

Swim Lessons

All summer long I wanted to sign the kids up for swim lessons but it never worked out, either because we were gone on sign-up days or we'd be gone for part of the session. Thankfully last Monday morning Summer told me there was still one more session starting that evening! I wasn't able to get Jack & Callie in sessions at the same time, but at least I could get them both in at all. Jack & I did parent & tot & Callie did level 1.

Callie was so excited when we got to the pool & found out one of her favorite preschool classmates, Melody, was in her class!

This is how Jack spent much of our class time! :)

On the 2nd day I was able to coax him into the water & got him to swim around a lot. He said he loved it! Unfortunately a couple days later it was windy & the water was unpleasant so it was back to the side with lots of whining.

Thanks Summer for taking pictures of Jack & Me during his "swim lessons!"

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.