Sunday, February 12, 2012

Bowling Fun

We gathered for some bowling fun today...
Riley was the only kid to "bowl" a strike...

Sam was super excited to be a "big kid" and took his bowling very
seriously.  It has fun to watch him wait his turn, he jumped up right when Riley was done
because he knew his turn came next.  Here he is yelling, "go ball go"...



Nora had her own style, notice her fingers in the holes...

Uncle Matt showed us what true form looks like...

and as usual Nora was the best cheerleader, here she is jumping for
Ahmie after she bowled a strike!

Ian had fun chewing on a meat stick wrapper...

and these little heartbreakers, who couldn't love 'em...

An afternoon full of cousin memories!!

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Friday, February 3, 2012

Bragging on Riley

We went to Riley's conference last night, and got a glowing report!  Mrs. Bergeron said she is a delight to have in class (wish I could be a fly on the wall in her classroom).  Riley is now reading at a 7th grade level!!!  She is also performing well and above grade level in math and spelling but not 6 grade levels ahead.  Riley just LOVES to read, she routinely asks for books rather than toys and is usually reading more than one at a time.  So we brought her home a book from the book fair to let her know how proud we are of her for being a good student.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

What's in a name?

I'm not really sure where I come up with the nicknames that my kids get but I love how the other kids get on board and use the names too!  I also think that the kids know they are special when I use one of their nicknames, notice I said one of, they all have multiple.  I will list a sampling of them below:

Riley:  button, peanut, cakes, riley-cakes, riley roo, roosa, ri-ri, risa

Nora:  nori, nora boo, nora rini, norsie

Samuel:  sam, sammy, sam boy, samster, sampson

Ian:  ian monster, "e", e bo-bo

Friday, January 20, 2012

One of "those" days...

I'm having one of those days today...

The one where I get a text saying Riley's ride to school can't bring her this morning so I have to swing by (but not really swing by because it isn't on the way) her school before I drop Nora at preschool.  I think to myself, no big deal we've done this before.  As we are frantically dressing for the super cold weather I smell something and ask, "did someone fart", they all deny so we continue getting ready, a few seconds later I hear Nora say as she shows me her mitten, "I must not have wiped good enough", sure enough her mitten has all the evidence I need!  I scoot her downstairs, jacket and all and have her undress, change her underwear and I help wipe her behind.

The morning entails me holding Ian or he is crying and even most of the time I'm holding him he's crying.  I drug him up with some ibuprofen and think about checking his ears.

Samuel has just now decided he no longer needs to nap--this is the same boy who over Christmas, just one month ago, couldn't hold it together and was the king of crabbiness because he had lost out on too much sleep.  So he is talking, jumping, singing, and throwing things in his crib.  Not sure when he'll figure out that he can climb out.  Hopefully not soon!

Ian has finally laid down for a nap but it doesn't last long....
Need to check those ears soon.

I'm doing laundry and when I go down to switch the loads I realize I never put laundry detergent in the load I just took out and put in the drier--rewind, put that load in again, this time with detergent.

I take a look at Ian's jammies and they are filthy,  I realize just how dirty my floors are, YIKES!  I like to pretend that my house is not that dirty.

Did I mention it is Brian's birthday and the cupcakes I made didn't turn out very well?

I'm surprisingly calm about it all--must be because I have these kinds of days often...



That night, one kid started on abx for a bladder infection, and another on abx for an ear infection!









Friday, January 13, 2012

GOOD!

It 's a simple word but it made my day yesterday, I asked Riley how school was that day and she said, "good" and continued right on with her playing.  It may not seem like much but the start of first grade has brought about more stress in this house than I care to have in my life.  Starting first grade wasn't something Riley was excited about and the transition left us all struggling to know what to do.  She has definitely improved since September and I would say that school is something Riley tolerates rather than enjoys.  So a simple "good" sure made this momma's day!!!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Sweet Sounds...

Every once in awhile the planets align and what I hear are the sounds of content kids playing...
It is happening right now...

Riley and Nora are playing PipPip and Chance, Sam is playing with his cars, and I'm holding Ian getting kisses at the stove making dinner.  I'm just soaking it all in, it will probably change soon...


Date night!

It is my turn to take Riley on a date tonight.  She wants to go to Barnes and Noble for a book and some hot chocolate.  She asked if Ian could come with us tonight--I told her "sure it was her decision"--when asked why she said "because Ian gets sad at home when you're not there"  what a sweet big sister.