Week in pictures

Trying this out.  It's from last week's pictures (which I didn't resolve to taking more photos until mid-week).

1. Pedicure on my day off before my adventures with the kiddos began
2. Ethan scored 5 goals at his last soccer games!
3. Fun on the tire swing at Laurel Hills park
4. These boots were made for walkin
5. Brynn on the swing at the park (and kind of sucking her thumb, which she's started lately).
6. The note the tooth fairy left
7. Ethan's soccer team.  Braden was the coach, but he was out of town for the last game.
8. Fun at the Durham Bulls game!
9. Brynn likes jelly beans more than baseball

A farming we will go

I've come up with a different theme for each week basically to make it easier for me to come up with art projects, stories to read, activities, etc.  So this first week the theme is "Farms".  So the best way to kick off the week?  Head to a farm!  We headed out to a farm in north Durham on Saturday for a one hour tour.  Probably wasn't worth the 45 minute trip to get there, but hopefully the kids learned something about life on a farm.  When we first arrived (we were early), they were in process of artificially inseminating 3 cows.  Not exactly what I wanted to get out of the farm experience, but I guess even Braden and I saw something we'd never seen.

During the tour, the kids got to run around with goats and sheep, chickens, puppies, and kittens.  We also saw a mommy emu, a daddy, and 3 baby emus.  The emus didn't want to be touched though.  We pet some sweet horses and found the herd of cows.  Had to do a special call to get them to come into the field with us.  Goes a little something like this...."Here cows! (clap, clap, clap)".  Seriously.  And actually it works.  Who'd a thought.

Ethan got to hold a chicken, so that was cool.

Brynn likes petting the sheep.  This particular guy loved being pet and will actually knock you down if you don't pet him when he wants to be pet.

They also got to hold some eggs that had just been laid.

We continued the farm theme all the way through the weekend with a trip to the "Got to be NC" festival at the fairgrounds.  Okay, so maybe we spent most of the time riding rides and eating snowcones, but there were lots of tractors there, a really loud tractor pull contest going on, and we did go through the petting zoo area, so it counts, right?  Here's Blythe and Doug about to tackle the free-fall ride.  

Good weekend prep for (hopefully) a good farm-themed week.

Off to greener pastures

Well, this is it.  My last day working full-time.  I've been working full-time for the same company for 10 years (my 10 year anniversary was May 6th).  It hasn't been all that rewarding, especially in recent years.  They blamed the economy for freezes in merit increases.  Laid off people that were good workers.  Claimed they cared so much about their employees.  But there are more than 30,000 people who work for this company, so really everyone is just an employee number and an email address.  People at the top have gotten quite greedy as our company is doing well and yet still there are meager (if any) merit increases.  The work has been challenging though and keeps my brain in tip-top shape.  And I work with some really great people (even if I have had 4 different bosses in the last 2 years).  Plus I work from home, so that's always been the draw that keeps me here.

So I'm hoping my next full-time job (stay-at-home-mom) is more rewarding than this last one.  Brynn and Ethan  have their last day at school tomorrow and then they'll be home with me next week.  Blythe has school until June 7 and then the real challenge begins...me and ALL 3 kids.  Ethan says he's happy that he won't have to go to school anymore, but I don't think he gets that he won't see his friends anymore.  Wonder how long it will take before he's asking to go back.

I'm excited about this very big change in my life, but also very nervous about it.  Will I have the patience to deal with them all day every day?  Will they listen to ANYTHING I say?  Of course all the images in my mind are of us having fabulous days with lots of learning opportunities, but I know they won't be like that.  I've spent many hours working on themes for each week and coming up with learning opportunities, field trips, projects, etc.  But will Ethan be begging to watch TV all day and Brynn asking for snacks all day?  Probably at the start since that's how our weekends go.  Hopefully I can change that.  It hasn't really sunk in though that I will have almost NO time to myself.  I want to be able to spend a lot of quality time with the kids without having to worry about other things, but there is grocery shopping to do, house cleaning to be done, errands, exercising, and holding down 2 part-time jobs (swim camp administrator...which takes up more time than you'd think, and working for my current company which I've committed 10 hours a week to work).   Guess we'll figure it all out as we go along.

Somehow I'm hoping to blog more.  Or at least take more pictures.  Lynette - I'm planning to copy your "My week in pictures" so my goal is to take at least 9 pictures a week :)

So anyway, stay tuned for changes ahead and wish me luck!

Blythe lost her first tooth

On Thursday last week, Blythe's teacher sent me an email in the morning telling me Blythe had lost her first tooth!  I was pretty shocked considering I wasn't even aware she had a loose tooth.  Appears it probably wasn't all that loose, but during snack she couldn't get her tupperware container open, so she used her teeth and out came a tooth.  By the time she got around to telling her teacher, it was nowhere to be found.  She said she had it in her hand, but it must have fallen out.  They looked and looked, but couldn't find it.  Blythe wanted her teacher to email me right away so that I could tell the toothfairy to come even though she lost her tooth.

Later she asked me if I told the tooth fairy and I said "yes".  Still later she asked HOW I told the tooth fairy.  Wasn't quite prepared for that one, but I told her I sent the tooth fairy an email.

Anyway, Blythe was SO excited about losing a tooth.  Everyone in her class except Blythe and her friend Ariel had already lost a tooth, so now she joins the ranks of the other kindergartners.

She was also very excited to go to bed that night in anticipation of the tooth fairy coming.  Apparently one of the boys in her class said his tooth fairy brought him 4 dollars.  I made sure to tell Blythe there are LOTS of tooth fairies and each one does something different.  So, Blythe's tooth fairy isn't quite as wealthy as that boy's, but might make up for in style or friendliness (if we were ever to meet her).  This is what she left under Blythe's pillow along with 1 dollar.

Maybe our tooth fairy should have a name??

Loaded with sand

What?  Not everyone plays fat-kid-in-the-sandbox?

Le Artiste - Age 6 edition

Blythe LOVES art and loves to draw or paint or color or glue things.  Her talents cover a wide range as illustrated below:

1. Our very first "No Boys Allowed" sign in our house.  In case you couldn't get it from 'No BOY', she drew it out (only couldn't remember how to spell 'yes' and I believe those are intended to be shorts on the boy).

So that one is pretty rudimentary compared to the next.  Blythe's frog and lily pad picture she made at school was on display at the mall for 2 weeks.  Go Blythe!  

We had just left a clinic at her ballet studio about how-to hair and makeup for recitals, thus the dolled up face.  

Brynn's newly decorated room

Ok, so I'm pretty terrible at remembering to take "before" pictures.  The only one I have of Brynn's room is from before we bought the house.  But basically, we only had added furniture: her crib-turned-toddler bed, red toy box, dresser with pig knobs (left over from farm-themed nursery in last house) and a glider chair and ottoman.

I didn't really have plans to decorate it yet, but when Braden went on a trip to Louisiana with just he and Brynn around Easter, I figured it was an ideal time to paint it.  So I got to work.  Her room took quite a bit of effort and materials:
1. Paint whole room
2. Make stencils for butterflies, emblem over bed, and growth chart
3. Paint butterflies, emblem, and growth chart
4. Get new knobs for dresser and night stand (night stand was in closet, so we switched it with red toy box).
5. Pick out new bedding
6. Get new mattress and boxspring
7. Take apart crib/toddler bed to use just the back as the headboard
8. Order new curtains and and curtain rod and install (note: panels were on clearance at Bed Bath and Beyond for $5.00!  Nice!)
9. Buy white lamp, lamp shade, and ribbon.  Hot glue ribbon onto lamp shade.

And here we have Brynn's newly decorated room:

Last photo taken by Blythe Holloway Photography.

Brynn loves her new room!  She slept great last night and when I got up this morning, Ethan and Brynn were in her bed looking at books.  It's a popular spot since it's the biggest bed of the kids' beds.

Needless to say, now that Ethan and Brynn's rooms are painted, Blythe is very anxious for us to paint her room!  I think I should be able to do it in the next couple of weeks.  Stay tuned.

Anyone for a game of golf?

We had only semi-decorated Ethan's room after moving in.  The pennants were put up and that was it.  Combined with his comforter and pillows, it was a sports themed room, but there was room for improvement.  Braden had been bouncing around a lot of ideas...Wolfpack room, baseball room, a wall of all pennants, but finally decided upon a golf course.  He wanted to paint a golf course on Ethan's walls.  I have to admit I was skeptical.  That seems a little over ambitious for a non-artist.  But he formed an image in his mind, bought all the paint colors, drew out the golf scene, and then painted it.  And I have to admit I think it looks pretty darn good!  And Ethan is digging his golf room too!

Chart Toppers

Brynn's been singing quite a few songs for us recently.   ABC's has been a hit for a while now.  As has "If You're Happy and You Know It" and "Wheels on the Bus".  Other songs in her repertoire include: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat", "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", and "Set Fire to the Rain".  Okay, that last one isn't true (it's a hit song by Adele...I have to clarify that for my dad because I don't think he probably knows that one).

Anyway, she also loves Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee.  The first verse goes:
I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee
Won't my mommy be so proud of me
I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee
Ouch!  It stung me!

Here it is Brynnified:

These days with Blythe

Haven't posted much about Blythe recently.  She's still doing ballet once a week, but has told me she doesn't like ballet.  That might change a little today when she gets her costume for her recital in June.  After she puts that on and some makeup for the recital, she might like ballet a little more, but I'm thinking she won't do it again next year.

She did start swimming yesterday though and she couldn't have been more excited.  She's swimming 55 minutes 2 times a week for the next 5 or 6 weeks until summer league starts.  She hadn't swam AT ALL since Labor Day, so I was a little concerned about how she would do.  It was pretty clear it had been a while as she attempted freestyle and had to stop on the wall several times on the first lap.  But after a little while she improved and was so happy the whole time.  She'd smile and wave to me at the end of every lap.  She even seemed excited that her teeth were chattering, so she pointed that out to me.  When they were done after 55 minutes, she was disappointed that it was time to get out.  So, very cool that she's so excited.  I know it has a lot to do with the fact she hasn't swam in 7 months, so we'll see how she likes swimming after this session, then summer league start, then swim camp, then a full summer of swimming.

As she was getting ready for swim practice, she asked me if the clothes she was wearing were from Justice.  For those not in the know, Justice used to be Limited Too and it is very bright and sparkly in that store.  She has one thing from Justice, a long dress we just bought not too long ago.  So anyway, I said no, only the dress was from Justice.  So she said she wanted to wear the dress the next day to school.  I'm a little unprepared for this.  We are only in kindergarten and we are concerned about brand names?  Good grief!  She's also been telling me recently that she's embarrassed by things.  The water bottle I packed in her lunch, or the jacket I made her wear.

So, she's like 6 going on 14.

She also loves art and has had a few new pieces put on her Art link on the right side of the blog.  Check them out!

One of these days maybe she'll learn to ride her bike.  She finally started trying again and blew a tire.  I took it in and they were going to fix that and a few other things and get it back to me in a few days.  That was 8 days ago, so I guess I should call and check.

Lastly, she appears to judge how much fun something is by the number of friends she makes while doing it.  I've sent her to a few camps during school breaks.  The first one she went to was at Marbles.  She said it was "ok" because she only made 1 friend.  On the first day of Spring Break, she went to another camp at Marbles.  She appeared to like that one better because she made 2 friends.  Last week she went to a Cheerleading camp (because my friend won a free week of camp, but her kids are too young to use it).  She liked that one quite a bit, not really because of the cheerleading or the gymnastics, but because she made 3 friends.

Overall, she is a very vivacious, beautiful, smart, loving young girl and I'm so lucky to have her!

Cheetos!

Brynn.  That girl loves her some Cheetos!  I mean LOVES Cheetos.  She would eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if I would let her.  I probably should not ever buy them.  Though in my defense these Cheetos were from a bag my mom brought, so I'm not the guilty party.  This time.

OUTDOOR soccer

Ethan started up outdoor soccer a few weeks ago.  Have to be specific about that...OUTDOOR soccer.  He did indoor soccer a little over the winter, but always wanted to know when he'd be able to do OUTDOOR soccer.  The question stemmed from this day care activity where someone comes once a week to work with the kids on sports skills.  It, of course, costs more money and since we already spend an arm and a leg on day care, we weren't doing that.  But his best bud at school does.

So anyway, he plays soccer on Sundays.  A 1 hour practice (yes, that's too long) followed by a 40 minute game.  So it's a stretch getting him to focus for that long.  But he's been doing great!  I haven't been at practice the last couple of times (I've been home with a napping Brynn), but Braden is coaching Ethan's team and he says Ethan has been trying really hard in practice, listening, and really getting better each week.  Yesterday he even scored 2 goals!  He couldn't have been any more excited.  It's so great to see him work on something really hard and then get the results he wants.

One day I would love to get up at the game with my camera and get some good action shots.  For now though, I have to deal with Brynn on my lap wanting snacks every 13 seconds and Blythe who wants to be the photographer.  So, here's a video clip.  Tried to get him scoring a goal, but never worked out getting that shot.

And here's a couple of photos (these may even have been taken by Blythe).

NC Museum of Natural Sciences

Last weekend Gommy and Laura came into town and I was determined to find something fun to do, despite the rainy forecast.

So Saturday we headed to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences.  It's located right in downtown Raleigh, so not far away, and none of us had ever been.  They are opening a very large expansion to the museum in a few weeks that I think is going to be really cool, but I wanted to go before so then I could know just how cool the expansion is the next time we go :)

We REALLY enjoyed this museum!  It's 4 floors and we didn't get to do floor 2 because Brynn got tired, so we'll need to check out that section next we go back too.  On the first floor we saw huge whale bones, fish, and birds.  We also opted for a short 3D movie about tornadoes.

Ethan loved it!

On floor 3 we saw dinosaurs and snakes!  Ethan said his favorite part of the museum was the dinosaur.  Specifically the fake one that looked like T-rex had taken a bite out of him.  Leave it to Ethan to like the gruesome stuff.  Blythe liked the dinosaur footprint and Brynn really liked the snakes.  Probably because she loves drawing snakes these days.  She just draws a line on paper and then says, "Mommy look!  sssss"

The last floor was lunch at the cafe on the 4th floor (which was very reasonably priced) and the bug exhibit.

We had a lot of fun at the museum!  And another great part....it's FREE!  And on a weekend, parking is free too!  Whoopee!

Laundry Love

I have to kick myself for not getting a good "before" picture.  So the only "before" picture I have of our laundry room is this:

So, clearly, we actually did have a washer and dryer in our laundry room (this was taken before we moved in) and we had a whole bunch of crap on that ONE shelf that was hung (that must have been hung up by someone who was 6'5" as I could hardly reach it).  We also had dogs beds over to the right and some other various odds and ends.  And usually stacks of clothes piled carefully atop the washer and dryer so they would all fit and I would have a teensy bit of folding space.

So for this project we took down that shelf and replaced with cabinets (on sale at Lowes).  I painted the room a nice shade of green.  We put a shelf atop the cabinets and all the way along that wall.  We built a table/countertop from the washer to the end of the wall for lots of folding space!  And the dogs like the roof over their heads.  We also put up a rod for hanging clothes to dry.  I used to never hang clothes to dry, but now I'm hanging clothes like crazy!

A roman shade, a little greenery, a picture, and some nice cabinet hardware and....wallah!

Major props to my dad and to Braden for helping me attain the laundry room of my dreams :)

Brynn's ABC's

Brynn's been singing her ABC's for a few weeks now.  It's pretty darn cute.