Gracie's First Day of School

Last night was a total and complete opposite of what I thought it would be. Starting around 5 last pretty much everything set Gracie off; except for going for a ride on the neighbors go cart. That was pretty much the only thing she didn't scream, kick, or hit about last night.
When she was told that she needed to go inside, eat dinner and then we would be doing her fathers blessing before bed, she started yelling that she only wants a mothers blessing. She wasn't accepting the fact that it isn't something moms can do. I had to promise her that I would say a prayer with her but that's all I could do.
She reluctantly let her dad give her a blessing, with me holding her hand of course. It was a beautiful blessing and I feel lucky to have a husband willing and able to give my kids a blessing whenever needed.
When it finally came time for bed, Gracie told me that during the blessing she could feel the Holy Ghost. She said he was pulling her skin from inside! I'm not exactly sure what or how you felt baby girl, but the spirit was strong!

This morning her alarm went off after everyone else was already awake. She walked down the hall barely awake and mumbled "my alarm is going off for the first day of schoo.......MY ALARMS GOING OFF FOR THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL". It took her a minute to realize, but once she did, she was ecstatic. I could barely keep her from bouncing around the house long enough to do her hair or eat breakfast. Come to think of it....I don't think she even took a bite of her food. She was too excited.

Pictures were taken, we sent William off to the bus stop alone for the very first time, and we were off to school. Once we got there, she ran right over and found the cubby with her name on it, threw her backpack in and went skipping off with her teacher (same one from last year which really helps!) and never looked back. No kiss, no hug, no tears. It was a bitter sweet moment. Then I got in the car, drove home, and sat on the couch for 3 hours!!!!!!!!!!!! I need to be productive while she's at school....but that definitely wasn't happening today!

Will's First Day of 1st Grade

Well this may be a bit of picture overload...but I just can't decide which ones are my favorite!!

I honestly can't believe that he is almost 6 and already in 1st grade. Today snuck up on me, and not just in the sentimental sense. I didn't realize that today was the first day of school until last week when we ripped off the July calendar and there it was on the calendar. I had less than a week and a half's warning and so many things I still wanted to do with my kids before vacation ended. Well.....we didn't do any of them! We spent every day just like the others. Running around for hours in the dirt and heat, a few hours here and there at the pool, fighting with friends and pouting about bed time. That was pretty much our time before today hit.....and then just like that, we are back into a routine, he's gone for 7 hours a day and I keep eyeing the door waiting for him to come bursting in thru the front door and give me a hug before running back out to play.
I miss the little guy...a lot. I know I need to let him grow up...but it's hard.

Boring Underwear

The other day Will and I went hot tubbing at my parents house. After as William was getting dressed we had this conversation

W: "Mom, do you wear underwear?"
Me: "Yeah I do"
W: "Do yours have skylanders on them too? Or is it something girly like Gracie's?"
Me: "Mine and Dad's are all white bud, remember, you've seen them before"
W: "That's super boring. Maybe I'll color you some pictures on your underwear so they aren't so sad"

Hahahahaha, I wish that life was so simple that the only thing we needed to worry about was the fact that our underwear is super boring!!

Thanks for making me laugh bud.

Do you have friends?

Today Gracie came and snuggled up on my lap and asked "do you have any friends". Of course I do! She then continued on to ask me a very specific question that completely blew me away. "What do you do when your friends throw dirt at you and you don't want them to? Do you yell?"
I almost couldn't believe that she was grown up enough to be asking me questions like this.

Earlier today she had come home crying because her friend's little brother had spilled her drink and been throwing dirt at her so I figured her questions were stemming from this earlier instance.

I explained to her that I never yell at my friends, even if we disagree with something, I always use calm words to solve the situation. She then replied "so I can't hit them or yell?"

I honestly couldn't believe the mature and real person conversation I was having with my daughter. How did she get this old?  I kinda want my baby back but at the same time I am loving that I can have talks like this with her.

OEK Program

Being a Mom is hard. Before now I thought that sleepless nights were the hardest parts, or that having them talk back everyday was hard. Watching them grow up was the hardest. Little did I know that watching them go out into the world would literally bring me to tears; and I wouldn't know how to get over it.

Watching William get on the bus the first day was difficult. I wondered if he would make new friends since he didn't know anyone in his class. I hoped that he would remember to be polite and raise his hands in class. I questioned if he would be able to unbutton his shorts when he has to pee; or if he would be the first kid to get in trouble for throwing wood chips on the playground. Would the teacher understand that he's shy when he gets around adults, or would he have friends to read with during story time?

What I didn't anticipate was the phone call I got from his teacher yesterday. When she started talking I could hear the hesitation in her words, and it was almost like I needed to pry the words out; "Will qualifies for an all day kindergarten program called OEK. It's an early intervention program that helps kids be ready for 1st grade next year"
As a Mom, pretty much all I heard was "you're kid isn't as smart as he needs to be" "you didn't do a good enough job" "he needs more help than the other kids"
It was everything I could do to ask questions, get her opinions and then get off the phone before she could hear the tears in my voice. I hung up and immediately wanted to talk to Sean. Luckily he didn't answer because I couldn't even get words out. He called me right back and all I said was "I need to talk to you, but I can't stop crying". He came home and we talked it over with ourselves as well as with William. We all still have concerns, but now all Will knows is that he gets to have lunch at school which involves brownies...who can beat that?!
I expressed my feelings to Sean. All of the "what ifs" started coming. What if we had moved here in time to get him in preschool last year? What if I had worked harder with him over the last year or the Summer? What if he had a daycare or even karate before now that helped him with authority? and of course What if he now gets teased because he's in a "special class"?

Is he gonna resent me for this? Is he gonna be mad because he's loosing out on upwards of 4 hours of play time with friends each day? Am I gonna be able to handle it? What am I gonna do with my little man gone for 7.5 hours EVERY DAY?
But then I had to set my feelings aside (really I just shoved them down way deep...they may come back up later!) and think about what if we didn't put him in the program? Would he not be ready for 1st grade? Would he need to repeat Kindergarten?
We have given the teacher a yes to the program. Tomorrow I am going to a parent meeting that will hopefully answer any and all questions that I have, and ease any concerns that might arise. But I'm excited to see how much William grows from the program, and see his smarts and talents flourish from it.

Here's to hoping I can keep my emotions in check, and not miss him too much as he starts this new journey next week.

BBQ fun!

Another post full of pictures. Because really, I love to take pictures of the kids playing with Daddy, and see their fun expressions when I pull out the camera!

The other night we had a BBQ our in the back yard. It was nice to get out of the house for a bit. Dad has been cooped up so much lately after his surgery, that fresh air was nice for a change.

Oh, and I bought a horseshoe game at target in their dollar section. So fun to teach the kids how to play...or at least pretend to play!

Then we decided to have some races. Gracie was such a good girl and never complained that she always got beat. Even though we tried cheating a ton of times, to help her win. Will's just too smart for us!

So Sean tried to run with her. Well, sick little (and yes, I mean little. The man has lost over 15 lbs in a week!) him couldn't make it too far. And he got yelled at by me, because she was well over his 5lb lifting limit.

And we learned that these are NOT racing shorts. Because he started off fine, then looked funny running back. When he got to me, he turned around and I realized him shorts were down to his thighs!!! Silly boy