Christmas Day

We are blessed. I have been quite depressed the last few weeks and not looking forward to Christmas. Our finances have been such this year that there wasn't any money for presents. We were able to buy Zander the 3 things that he "ordered" from Santa with money that he received from Grandma's. I was watching this video later on Christmas Day and I realized that I was crying. I looked under the tree at the few things that he had and was sad. But, then I realized that he was happy and I should have been happy also. After all, we made it through another year without losing any family members. I then read the obituaries for two young people that we knew that were to be buried this week and thought about their families and  children and how sad they must be this Christmas and probably each Christmas to come.
It made me think about New Year's Eve the year that my Grandfather died. It was the first year that I didn't go to my Grandparents house that night with the rest of the family. I chose to go out with some friends instead. I got the call about 11:15 telling me to come to the hospital. They waited until we were all there and right around midnight they came in and told us that he didn't make it. Every year on New Year's Eve we all gather and instead of it being a joyful time, there are very sad undertones to the whole evening, but we are all together. It is never easy to lose a loved one, but it is especially hard to lose one on a holiday.
I went on to Uncle Steve's house and smiled as I looked around at all of the family members that could gather there on that day. (We missed you Aunt Jennifer and family) The kids had a great time playing together and the grown ups ate way to much, watched Christmas Vacation 2 times and had fun playing Pictionary. It was a great day after all and I am very thankful for my family.
Oh, about Zander's order. When I took Zander to see Santa this year, he got on his lap and Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas. Without thinking he said, "I would like to order, a Megatron, Optimus Prime and a green light saber." I have tried several times to tell him that you don't place an order with Santa, you tell him things that you would like to have and he decides what to bring you. But when anyone asked what he wanted for Christmas, he continued to say, " I ordered........". It was really cute. Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to everyone from our family.

For you Mom

Sometimes in life, well most of the time, it is the small gestures that makes it all worth while. This has been a tough year for us as it has for most people and I haven't exactly been feeling the Christmas spirit. Summers and Zander got supplies together and made me this beautiful wreath. They put it together and Summers let Zander decorate it with what he wanted. He chose gold balls, feathers and black scratch off paper. I don't know if you can see it all in the picture but it was perfect. Then he wrote "To Mom" on a peice of paper and put it on the wreath. It is really special and Zander was so excited to give it to me. Merry Christmas!

Snow Fort

This is the snow fort or igloo. It took about 3 hours to build and we were all so tired that we took a big nap when we came in. We made it on Friday and part of it is still there the following Tuesday. Check out the video on my youtube channel, friendsmiling66

Big Snow

This is the first big snow that we have had since Zander was born. It snowed really hard yesterday. He played outside for a little while. This morning there was at leat 6 inches when we woke up. We ate breakfast and then got dressed and went outside to play. We went in search of the perfect hill and tried several but didn't find the right one. It was really hard to walk. There was so much snow that at times it came over my boots which were almost to my knee. At one point the snow pulled Zander's boot right off.
We went back to our yard and decided to build a snow fort. It was alot of fun. Pictures to come.

Farm Day

 

Zander's class was studying about farm animals. The teacher asked for the children to come to school dressed as their favorite farm animal. This is my quick attempt at transforming Zander into a duck.

Mom, I'm Hungry

 

Zander was still hungry at bedtime. He knows the only snack he can have is an apple. He didn't quite make it all the way through the apple. How sweet.

Confused

 

I took this picture 3 weeks ago. It is a single bloom on one of our azalea's in front of the house. Zander noticed that it was there. What is really stange about it, is that it is the only one on 7 bushes and none of the others even have a bud on them. I looked at it again this morning and it still looks the same as the day I took the picture. I don't understand how. We have had ice and frost several morning and for the last 3 days we have had nothing but rain and high winds. It usually only rains one time and the blooms get ugly and fall off. I wonder if there is some significance of this bloom?

Paisley

For the last year or so, Zander has been telling me that he is going to marry me when he gets big. I have tried several times to explain to him that I am his Mom and someday he will grow up and choose a girlfriend and then get married. There have been times that this has upset him terribly. He says he doesn't want to move out of our house or marry someone else. Sometimes he even cries.
Well, yesterday he came home with this picture. When I asked him about it he looked at me like he had done something wrong. I said, "Zander, do you have a girlfriend?" and he said, " Mom, I think I've found her, I think I will marry her." He looked like he thought I was going to be really upset. I had to walk in the other room and laugh. How sweet, the first of many I am sure.

Kindergarten here I come!

 

 

This is Zander waiting outside on his first day. Do you think he is excited? He was very disappointed that he didn't get to take the Star Wars bookbag. The school implemented a no book bag policy. This is an art school so we looked at the fountain, the spiral walk and the planter that is made from glass rocks, dominoes and lots of other little trinkets.
Then we went inside and waited for 15 minutes before we got to go to his room. I was amazed at how many things they expected him to do when he arrives. Let's see, wait outside, go in the meeting room and wait. Remember to take your lunch box and your water bottle with you when they call your teacher's name. Get in the right line (which he hasn't done yet), line up, put your lunch box on the right hook, take out your snack, juice and milk money- get back in line, give the teacher a hug, put up your water bottle, sign in, put your snack in the snack basket and then sit down to do the morning task. Whew, I am tired just trying to remember it all!
He did great! He gave me a hug and told me bye. I did great too.
PS. Today is day 4 of kindergarten. We were running late today and I asked him if he wanted to get out of the car in the car rider lane today and go in by himself. He of course said no, but with a little encouragement he did. He came over to my window and gave me a hug and said, "bye Mom." I watched him skip to the door, walk on the spiral and go inside. I did fine until I started out of the parking lot and then I cried all the way to work. How silly, I know! My baby is growing up. Oh yeah, he was left on the playground by himself again today. Story for another day.

Kindergarten open house

 

 

This was open house night.Zander checked out the room with some of his classmates. I thought that we would learn about school procedures etc. tonight but really didn't come away with anything. I think it did put him at ease though. Kindergarten in 2 days!

Kindergarten visit

 

 

This is a picture of Zander meeting his teacher during a special visit just for him. I think they got along great. He really seemed to like the room. It is really hard to tell if he is excited.

Star Wars Camp

 

 

Zander also got to attend Star Wars camp for a week. He had so much fun! Yes that is Darth Vader and Boba Fett was also there. He wanted it to go on forever!

Blue hair

 

 

 

Blue hair, yes blue hair. When Zander got his last haircut it turned out to be shorter than it ever has been. He wanted it to be spiked and we found some blue get to put on it. It definately spiked it but the blue is hard to see. He really enjoyed it and wants it to be like that everyday.

Scicamp

 

 

 

Zander was able to attend Science camp this summer. It was his first experience away from daycare and teachers that know him. Mama was extremely nervous. It was alot of stimulation and I think that he did the best that he could. He had a ball but it was hard to find out much about what he got to do. These are pictures from the first morning when they were doing bubble prints. This week he would like to be a chemist.

Big 10

 

 

 

 

When I was a little girl, my sister and I and my cousins, Vicki and Tracy stayed at my grandmothers house during the summer while our parents worked. Things were quite different then and most days we were sent out to play and didn't come back in until lunch. Then we usually went back out and stayed until the late afternoon where my obsession with General Hospital began. That is a story for another day.
One of my favorite things to do was to go to Big 10. What is big 10 you ask? Big 10 is what we called a large rock that was by a creek behind my Grand parents farm. Some of my favorite memories are there and it continued to be a special place for me as I got older. I took a few special boyfriends there to show them my special spot. None of them seemed very impressed. I also found it quite comforting to go there when things in my life weren't going right and I needed to be by myself with the rock and the water. I can't imagine how it will be when my grandmother is gone and so will be all of the special spots but not the memories.
When my sister was here, we decided to take the children to share it with them. It was alot of fun. We walked in the creek to Big 10. The kids had a ball walking in the water and most of them had walking sticks. PaPa helped them find a crawdad and we took pictures and videos of them having fun. It makes me sad to realize that my son will grow up so very different than I did and won't get to know about summers on the farm and lasting relationships with cousins and siblings.

First big scrape

 

Zander had a rough day at school today. This is the way he looked when I picked him up. He and another child got their feet tangled up and fell face first in the dirt. His nose took the brunt of the fall. Hope it doesn't scar.

Happy Fourth of July

 

 

 

 

We had a lot of fun on Saturday. We started our day at the local parade. It wasn't as long as usual but Zander still enjoyed it. We got to cheer for our friend Ms. Lisa that was running a 5K and watch all of the floats. Zander's favorite thing is getting candy of course. There was an older group of people sitting beside of us and I couldn't help but laugh at the elders trying to get candy faster than Zander. He was nice enough to share with them.
We went home for several hours and just chilled out together and then returned for fireworks in the evening. We met the Brady Bunch. It was alot of fun. I bought the kids poppers and glow sticks and they brought bubbles. They had a ball with the poppers, not so sure all of the people around us enjoyed them as much as we did. We had to wait for an hour and a half but it went by really quickly. The fireworks were pretty, just not very long enough. Happy fourth to you all!

Swimming

 

We decided against putting up the blow up pool this year. I am not sure if that is the right decision or not. He is really doing great and has graduated from a mask that covers his nose to goggles. If we could, it would be the perfect time to do swimming lessons, but it is not going to happen right now.
We are very glad that Uncle Trav has moved back home and has a pool at his house. We have gone over a couple of times. This is video of him jumping off of the diving board and having fun with his dad.

Water park

Once a year our water park offers discount tickets. There is only one catch. You have to get in line very early because they only offer that price to the first 2000 people in line. The doors open at 7 AM. We got up at 5:00 and made the 45 minute drive. Zander did really well waiting in line. We got in and went to a pool first. It had a large pirate ship that you could jump off of. He loved it until he fell off of the side and skinned his knee. My favorite ride is the Cyclone Cove. It is a round circle with a current. You put on a life jacket and just let it pull you around. It is very relaxing. Zander and Dad rode the Bonzai Pipeline. It is a very tall slide with a bump in it. Most of the time you become airborn at the bump. I was a nervous wreck. Zander was too small to hold onto the handles so Summers just wrapped his legs around him the best he could. THey are on the right in the video and you can see them just hanging before they start down. They made it and he rode it 3 more times. I didn't watch anymore. Then they went on the Tunnel of Terror which has a 4 story drop. It is totally enclosed and in complete darkness. He loved it! We had a great day and were all very tired. Once a year is enough for me.

Preschool Graduation

This is my new favorite picture!


This is Zander not wanting to go on stage and dance. This is his nervous face.

This is what Zander wants to be when he grows up.

I can't believe that Zander has graduated from Preschool and will be attending Kindergarten in the Fall. The school that he currently attends has been open for almost 3 years and they have never had a graduation. I met with the director and teacher and helped them put together a Hawaiian themed graduation. It was really funny. Zander does not like to be in front of people and usually won't say or do anything. Not this time! This time he wouldn't be quiet. He really didn't want to dance or sing though. It was really cute.