His First Book

I have been working with our youngest on his letters and sounds. We have a long ways to go, but he is picking things up quickly. Today I pulled out an easy book to see if he was even close to getting the idea of reading. He caught right on!

He read his first book "Mat." And this little guy was just beaming and excited to tackle each new word!

He is so excited to be a reader! Yay!!

Nice to be Nine

This last week we celebrated our daughter's ninth birthday. It is hard to believe that she is that old!

Her wish list wasn't too long, but there were a few "age appropriate" gifts that she wanted: "Mom, I think I stink, can you get me some deodorant for my birthday?" I was a little surprised by such a request, because she doesn't stink, but it's not too early for her to learn good hygiene...and it was an easy gift to get her. She now religiously puts on her lady speed stick every morning...and feels quite grown up!

She also wanted a kit to make friendship bracelets. She has made several, but has discovered that they aren't easy to make and take a lot of patience (for the mom too! Ahhhh! When she makes a mistake somehow I'm at fault...but I am learning to be patient....wow, it's hard!!!)

For her birthday dinner date with her Mom and Dad, she chose the Pizza Factory. We had a lot of fun and spent the evening talking about third grade and our memories/teachers/friends. I think it surprised her a little to realize that once upon a time her parents were nine-year-olds.

Happy Birthday to our special daughter. You are our treasure and we love you so much!

In Response

Okay, this whole junior high thing is giving me a few (more) gray hairs! I was pretty nervous sending my innocent son into the halls of our junior high this year, but I think he has handled it pretty well, up to this point. I, on the other hand, have had to talk myself into being okay with having a teenage son. Right now I am silently freaking out due to some Valentine's notes that he received yesterday.

Rather than write a letter to this girl and her parents, a thought which I admit has crossed my mind, I have decided that I can't influence any girl that tapes heart-covered messages to his locker, I can only talk with and trust my son. However, IF I were to write a short letter to this girl, it would go something like this:

Dear ______,

The Valentine's day candygram that you sent my son was very thoughtful. Thank you. He was quite flattered. The notes that were left on his locker were also a nice touch. He is a cute (HOT) boy and kind too...that we agree on. However, I disagree that he is a "sexy beast." And no, he doesn't "want to kiss." If you are that set on kissing, however, I'm sure that you can find many who would like to join you. Good luck.

Fortunately our oldest is quite embarrassed by the attention and has no interest in this very forward teenage girl. For that I am grateful...however, I still feel like I have sent my young guppy out among the sharks!!

A BIG kid

Our Star Wars fan recently joined the shooting club and has started shooting every Thursday night. He is turning into quite the little shooter and really is enjoying himself.

One of the fun parts of shooting is getting to wear all the gear. Shooters wear shooting jackets like this one above and they actually help stabilize the shooter quite a bit.

Our Star Wars fan is quite a bit too small for a shooting jacket. They just don't make them his size. Since my husband worked and worked to customize a gun that is small enough for him, I decided that I could at least try to make him a shooting jacket.

It may have taken me 20 hours or more (and several household chores have been neglected) to come up with this finished jacket that fits him perfectly!

But it was worth all of it and more to see him confident and proud in his very own shooting jacket! He feels so big and fits in with all the other shooters at the club!

Temptation, Yahtzee, and Cupcakes

Family night this last week was a lot of fun!

Our second oldest gave a fantastic lesson on temptation. Afterward my husband asked me if I helped him prepare the lesson or if he had done it all on his own. It was a really good lesson and I hadn't helped him at all...it was a nice moment as parents to realize that maybe he does hear a little bit of what we try to teach him.

After the lesson these cute boys played yahtzee while the girls put frosting on the dessert. They rolled four yahtzees and it was quite a heated competition, but our Star Wars fan came out victorious.

It was our daughter's turn to make dessert and she was set on cupcakes with purple frosting and sprinkles. We had fun making them together...and the purple frosting was delicious! I think she was going for a girly color that the boys would turn up their noses to, but she quickly learned that boys will eat any color of frosting!

Yes, I (C)an!

Our youngest is growing up so quickly! I am really enjoying this last year of having him home with me. I can hardly believe that he will be in kindergarten next year. We have been spending a lot of time learning his letters. He has learned 15 of them so far.

I have been hesitant to teach him the "k","c", and "g" sounds because he says all of them with a "t" sound. I know this is common for youngsters to have slight speech issues and that they eventually grow out of them, but I have been confused how to teach him the sounds when he can't make them. Fortunately, Chad's very awesome niece is going to school to become a speech pathologist and gave me some worksheets/exercises to do with him...and it has been great!! He can now make all three sounds and even though he still makes the sounds incorrectly most of the time when he is talking, he can differentiate when corrected and we are able to move forward. He is so proud of himself too, and just beams with pride because he is seeing and recognizing letters all over the place!

I (re)knew it!

Our daughter recently participated in the third grade spelling bee at her school. She did a great job!

The principal explained all the rules and procedures.

Our daughter made it through 8 or 9 rounds and missed the final round by one word: renew, which she spelled r-e-k-n-e-w. Afterwards she came up to me and said, "it's r-e-n-e-w isn't it, Mom?" She really wanted to win the trophy (she is a trophy girl) which was awarded to the first place speller,

but she was happy to get a medal and certificate for placing third. I think she may be a little more motivated next year to actually study the list of words that they give to all the students...I guess we will see.