100 Days of First Grade

Monday is the 100th day of school for T. Well technically not school, she has been going to 'school' for a few years now. Monday though is the 100th day of 1st grade. Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday I was dropping her off on Day 1 and she and I handled it like a pro and Day 2 she was still a pro and I bawled like a baby...since it became real that my baby was truly growing up.

What a great year T has had already...She started at a brand new school and has already made a ton of new friends. She is ahead of the class yet still learning a lot. She is the teachers right hand, little helper, and even has mastered the task of walking the bad kids down to detention. She gets along great with the girls and the boys (maybe a little to good, hence the multiple boyfriends any given day). She was awarded student of the month. And she even got to participate in the coveted money jump for having excellent citizenship.

All this in just 100 days. I'm so proud of my, not so little anymore but she'll always be my baby, Princess.

**Picture taken today while working on her 100 day project. She was supposed to collect one hundred of something and design a way to display it. We took a trip to Michael's and on her own she decided she would paint a letter T pink and decorate it with 100 stars. Her explanation was because she wants to be an astronaut and they love stars, her name starts with T, and her favorite color is pink. Not bad to put all that together into one project that is reflective of her and going to turn out so cute. Told ya she is one smart cookie, but of course I'm her mom so you expected me to say that.

Another Tooth Gone

T lost a tooth tonight!!! I guess the tooth fairy will be making another stop by The B House tonight, just two weeks after the last one.

Time to Slow Down

This message was made clear in two different ways by both Taylor & Cody these last few weeks. First from Taylor in a conversation she had with her teacher on Monday. It went something like this.

Ms. Sheena: Hi Taylor, did you have a nice weekend

Taylor: Yes, Sunday was awesome!!!!

Ms. Sheena: Really, what did you do on Sunday?

Taylor: Nothing, absolutely nothing. It was perfect.

And a picture of Cody from that same weekend. All tuckered out...

These two events made it quite obvious that it was time for One Busy Mommy to slow down and let the little ones catch up. Bring on the relaxation!!!

Peace Out...Cub Scout!!!

Princess Taylor is 6

On May 4th my Princess turned 6 years old. It's been a few weeks since this happened and while it gets a little each day it still is unfounded to me why time has to go so fast. On one hand it seems that the past 6 years have flown by on the other I try to imagine life before Taylor and it seems a world away. My Princess means the world to me and each and every day she amazes me at the young girl she is turning into. Almost a little too much at times, but really that is only the beginning, people have told me wait until she reaches her teenage years. Eek!

Posing with her cake at her party

Getting started on her presents

Taylor in true Taylor form, need I say more

Peace Out...Cub Scout!!!

Easter 2009

Tomorrow will be one month since Easter, which means it falls into my rule: "as long as it's less than a month ago it's still Blogable". I just hit the mark on this one.
Easter was yet another extremely busy Holiday filled with family and fun and food. This was Cody's first year understanding the Easter Bunny and he was very excited. Taylor enjoyed dying the eggs this year and took pride in making sure they were up to her standards.
The night before we did our traditional dying of Easter eggs, Easter morning was spent having breakfast with my parents and an egg hunt at their house. We followed that up with a visit to a local driving range that was hosting an Easter egg hunt for the kids. The day ended with a visit to Jeremy's parents for Easter dinner and the final egg hunt. Three egg hunts in one day equals Two tired kids and Two tired parents. Great fun, but happy to say that Easter 2009 is now behind us.

Stuffing eggs to take to school for the egg hunt

One for Cody, one for the eggs

This face says it all, that's my Taylor

It's got to be perfect
Concentrating

Easter morning loot

Egg Hunt at the driving range

Dinner Easter Egg Hunt

Peace Out...Cub Scout!!!

Home Depot Workshop=Parents Required

At a local festival they had the Home Depot Workshop set up for the kids to make a fire truck. Of course every kid wants to get involved, get a cute orange apron, and give it a try with some tools just like Daddy. The problem though, these projects are not the easiest to put together and required some serious parent help. So the kids each got their kits and set out and watched mommy and daddy put together their fire trucks.

Staged photos, Cody never used a tool the whole time

Taylor tried for 5 seconds and got nowhere
Finished product

Peace Out...Cub Scout!!!

Dinner: Teppanyaki Style

Jeremy had never been to a Japanese Steakhouse before and recently we had been talking about how the kids would love it. After a few times planning to go and it not working out on a whim we decided to give it a try. The kids had a great time watching the food get cooked right in front of them. And the cook had a fun time giving a show for the kids. It was not the cheapest meal, but good food, fun times, and the kids enjoyed themselves so it was worth every penny.

The food getting started on the hot plates

Flaming Onion
Taylor is a pro with the chopsticks

Cody amazed at the fire

Taylor and her favorite dessert

Peace Out...Cub Scout!!!

Watch Out Babe Ruth

Here comes Taylor, t-ball extraordiniare. Yes, I had to dig all the way back that far to be able to include a name that was worth Taylor going after the fame of. I mean who else was I going to use?
Pete Rose, nope.
Barry Bonds, not likely.
A-Rod, never!!

Taylor started T-ball practice 2 weeks ago and with a little more practice she will be ready to be in the big leagues.

Back to reality. She has a good time playing and hits the ball occasionally and catches it sometimes too. She has mastered the art of running to 1st and 2nd base but likes to skip 3rd and run straight home. Nothing wrong with taking a short cut as long you get the end result, right. But there is still time and really what matters is that she is having a good time.
Taylor's first game is this Saturday, wish us luck.

Peace Out...Cub Scout!!!

Tag, I'm it!

So a long long long time ago....well not that long but back in January. My friend Kylee tagged me on her Blog. I set myself a reminder to make sure I answered the tag and here we are almost 3 months later. Without further ado, here are the rules.



1. Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer
2. Select the 4th picture in the folder
3. Explain the picture
4. Tag 4 people to do the same

First off, I typically don't store pictures on my computer, I keep them on CD's. So I wasn't sure I would have a picture to share. But I did come across 6 folders with photobook pages in them, the 4th one happened to be from our cruise last April. I can't believe it's been almost a year since we sailed off on a week of pure bliss. This picture was taken on one of the formal nights all dressed up and ready for a night on the ship. I still remember this night like it was yesterday and will treasures those memories forever.

Now it's your turn. I tag...Steph, Kimmy, Brandi, and Stacey.

Peace Out...Cub Scout!!!

You Grab a Line...

I'll grab a pole, honey...Now that I got that song stuck in your head, let's move on.

A few weeks back my Pops decided it would be fun to take the kids fishing. Now you need to understand that when Pops decides something it means it's going to be all out. Here is a great example.

I think hey, let's go pick up 2 kids fishing pole kits and hit the park.
Pops thinks, hey let's go pick up 2 kids poles, a pole for me, a new tackle box, gotta have a fishing license, bait, weights, and a million other disgusting looking fishing things.

See the difference. Simple versus Complex. But I've learned it's easier to just go with the flow when it come to Grandparents.

The day came and this weekend we headed out to the fishing hole. Which for us means a park a short drive away that has a giant lake in the middle of it. Taylor & Cody were super excited for this day to come, they had both spent the past 3 weeks casting their poles in the front yard. We got up, got ready, and headed over to Pops house to pile in the truck.
As soon as we pulled into the park we knew it was going to be a quick fishing trip, just didn't realize how quick it was going to be. The wind was blowing, but not unbearable so we decided to make the trek across the park and find the perfect fishing spot.
Pops baited up Taylor's pole and she cast out in the water and waited for a fish to bite.
Cody cast out his line as soon as we stopped at the water's edge. Yes, with the cute little red play fish and no bait on it. Then he reeled it right back in and cast out again. Part of me thought I should correct him, put some bait on the end and explain the art of patience. But he was having too much fun reeling in his fake fish over and over so I let him be.
About 10 minutes into the fishing adventure Taylor caught a nice piece of branches from a tree.
The wind started to pick up, my chair tipped over, and my Dooney purse was mere inches away from dropping into the lake.
It was at that moment I realized this fishing thing was not going to work, the wind won and we shall try fishing another day.

Peace Out...Cub Scout!!!

Taylor - March 2009

What better way to get back into my Blogging than with updates.

Taylor is flying through kindergarten and will be starting 1st grade before we know it. Yesterday, or so it seemed, we were hanging around waiting for her to come out in her cap and gown for pre-school graduation and now we are headed to yet another graduation in just a few short months. Taylor has been doing exceptional at school, she is ahead of her class on learning her sight words and is able to read books for bedtime. The days of mommy and daddy reading to her are gone, another happy but sad accomplishment.

Taylor has started t-ball practice and has her first game on Saturday, I'm not sure who is more excited for her first game, Taylor, my mom, or me? It's very sentimental to see Taylor playing on the same field in the same league that I did, oh about 15 years ago. Taylor is having fun with t-ball but I noticed something the last few months that has become very obvious with t-ball. Taylor is a perfectionist, she has to be perfect at everything. She gets frustrated when she doesn't catch the ball. We are working on this and hopefully over time either she will get so good she doesn't have to worry about missing the ball or get over it and realize that she doesn't have to be perfect. I'm hoping for the latter and am working with her on it.

I'm loving the way that Taylor and Cody and getting along, of course they have their spats as all siblings do, but overall they are doing great at getting along. The highlight of the week for Taylor and Cody is Friday nights when they get to have sleepovers together. Both Taylor and Cody sleep in Cody's room on his bunk bed. They love spending the night in the same room together and I love seeing them get along so great.

In just a few short months Taylor will be turning the big 6 years old, mommy is not at all ready for my little princess to be 6. But since I can't stop her from growing, I tried, I have to just accept it and enjoy spending time with her.

Peace Out...Cub Scout!!!

Pippi Longstocking

Who would have thought that one name would make a little girl so happy. Taylor is smitten with Pippi Longstocking. It all started a few month ago when on a whim I searched for Pippi Longstocking on YouTube and came across a bunch of short clips. Taylor was sitting with me that day and saw them and from that day Taylor had one thing on her mind, a freckled faced red head girl, Pippi Longstocking was coming into our world. I went on the search for a DVD and came up empty handed. Really, no stores feel the need to carry this in stock, my mom went everywhere, and trust me if it's out there my mom will find it. My search of course turned to the one place that never lets me down, eBay. We got the DVD last week but didn't have a chance to sit down and watch it until yesterday. And now the total count of times Pippi was viewed this weekend in its entirety is 4. Yes, 4 times this weekend both Taylor and Cody too sat and watched Pippi from start to finish.

Peace Out...Cub Scout!!!

Out Of The Mouths - Fakey Stories

This weekend Taylor & I were having a typical mommy/daughter conversation that went totally haywire. Really I'm not ready for this girl to grow up. Taylor was telling me about her week at school and mentioned her and a friend doing fakey stories. Fakey what?!? I had to ask, and am sorry I did. It went down a little like this.

M: What's a fakey story?
T: Want me to tell you one?
M: Of course!!
T: So Reed my boyfriend comes to my house in his car and picks me up for a date and we go to Tommy's because I really want a chili cheeseburger and then he asks me for a kiss and I slapped him. There that's a fakey story.

I wish I had a tape recorder and a mirror because I don't remember what I said first and I can only imagine what my face looked like.

Peace Out...Cub Scout!!!

Paint-A-Bear Gingerbread Cookies

At Target's Holiday clearance sale I picked up a Crayola Paint-A-Bear Gingerbread Cookie kit and had been meaning to do it with the kids. Tonight was the perfect night as we didn't have any plans. I baked the cookies for the kids then let then go to town with the painting. Taylor is addicted to painting right now and using a million different colors, just ask my mom who has to spend tons at the craft store for wood projects for the Princess to paint when she is over at Grandma's house. Cody on the other hand just loves to get the job done so he can move on to the next project.

Peace Out...Cub Scout!!!

Out Of The Mouths - Kid Treatment

It seems every day that the kids are saying something that will just crack us up and I figured what better way to document those than here. Plus it gives my readers something funny to laugh at too. So here we go with the first feature of 2009...Out of the Mouths.

This morning I made the kids some eggs for breakfast, just simple scrambled eggs. Actually I can't take credit for all of it either. Taylor loves to help in the kitchen and while I was straightening up the house she got the eggs from the fridge, cracked them in a bowl, scrambled them, then poured them into a pan on the stove. My part was to just cook them up since she knows she can't do that part yet.
I put the eggs onto plates and got both Taylor & Cody set up at the table. Taylor looks at me, looks at the eggs and the conversation proceeds like this

Taylor: You forgot the pepper
Me: Oops, sorry I didn't know you liked pepper now
Taylor: Gees, is this anyway to treat a kid?

Peace Out...Cub Scout!!!

Rose Parade Float Viewing

Not many people live in Southern California and have the opportunity every year to take a short drive to see the floats from the Rose Parade. Ok, maybe that statement is not completely true since there are a ton of people that live in Southern California, but my point is that since we are here, so close to this once-a-year opportunity we should definitely take advantage of such an awesome sight…2 miles worth of floats decorated completely in stuff of “natural materials”. This year was going to be the year we took this trip. The kids were not exactly sure what to think but once we got there and they found out we would take a school bus to get to the viewing area they were very excited. This would be the first trip for each of them on a real school bus.

It was a bit cold which provided for some drama with Taylor. My Little Princess did not want to wear her jacket because then nobody would be able to see her gold sequin shrug. I did let her take her jacket off for a quick pic in the bus which resulted in a giant smile.

But as soon as we got to the viewing area and were back outside the jacket must go back on which created for some pretty interesting pictures: One upset Princess and One Crazy Cody.

The float for the princesses complete with a tiara was the one sure fire way to get a smile on Taylor's face.

Cody was head over heels for the Sesame Street float.
The day was awesome though, the floats were beautiful, and it makes me want to watch the parade now that I have seen the floats in real life. What it made we want to do even more though was go to the actual parade. I will add that to my list of things to do.

And it seems that many other people had the same idea as we did as the day wore on it turned into a sea of people checking out the once-a-year opportunity.

I’ll add another post with the pictures of the floats…I took a ton and had to narrow it down best I could.

Peace Out...Cub Scout!!!