The boy can S-P-E-L-L

The first full week of kindergarten was great for Max. He's doing better with not being so tired (I honestly think his allergies were making him fell a little cruddy!) and he got a refresher course in how to spell color words.

We stopped by to see Grandma Bonnie over the weekend and when she asked how school was going, he did the standard reply, "Good!" So, I started to ask Max to spell his colors. This is how the conversation went.

Me: Max, how do you spell red?

Max: R-E-D

Me: Good job buddy, now how about green, how do you spell green?

Max: G-R-E-E-N

Me: Great, next let's do blue.
.
Max: B-uhhh I? uhhh (Maggie whispering L in the background) B-L-I?

Me: Okay...well we'll need to work on that one. How about yellow... Max how do you spell yellow?

Max: Y-E-L-L-I-V-A-N!

We all looked at each other and then exploded into laughter. The double L's in yellow made him think of his last name. So then he just rattled off the rest of his name. It just amazes me how their little brains work. It was a nice try and I've gotta give him a little credit for that!

Hey, and you never know....someday it might just be a new color in Crayola's box of 64.

My week in a nutshell...

Me trying to get in the swing-of-things as far as working every afternoon while it is quiet in the house....

Me trying to cram food down the throat of my daughter before she heads off to soccer practice one night and a soccer game the next night...

Me being the "bad guy" (like always) by making the kids come in to do homework and read before the above said practice and game.

Me getting a kink in my neck, which then put a kink in my plans for the last few days...

Somehow...all the negatives came out first....and boy do I feel better getting that off my chest!

How about a few positives...

All the 31 Gifts/Bags/Totes/Purses came in...and they are so cute. If you don't have yours yet...I'm gettin to ya. I'll try to have them all delivered by Sunday. Oh, and thanks again for your orders. I had a great party!

Got to see my SIL, Janelle and the kiddos this morning for a while. We always love hangin out...and we are looking forward to seeing them a lot over the next several weeks!

It's Friday and we made it through our first full week of school. Getting that morning routine back in order and it's all running pretty smoothly.

The MS Walk donations are rolling in (A GREAT BIG "THANKS" to all of you!) I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'm one of the top 6 teams again this year. I'm trying to get a tent again. The deadline was moved to Sunday...so keep your fingers crossed.

Anyway....that's just a few of the highlights....I'm off to rest a bit and work on gettin this kink out of my neck before it's time to pick up a few more pain-in-the-necks....Haaa-Haaa!....I crack myself up!

Have a great weekend friends....I'll try to be a better blogger next week!

Sweet Max!

Max is loving kindergarten, but the poor thing is so tired when we comes home from school that he can barely keep his eyes open. Here he is cuddled up on the couch with his blanket and Legos...watching Aurthur on PBS. One of those priceless moments that I want to remember forever!

Operation Beautiful!

Saw this on the Today Show a few weeks back and want to thank Linda for reminding me about it!

The only other thing I'm going to say is that sticky notes are probably on sale right now....go out and get some!

My Big Fat "Duh" Moment!

With school starting this week, I was so excited to meet the kids' teachers. I have a huge respect for teachers and the challenges they face each day. I can't even imagine how hard their jobs are. That is why I try to help out in what ever way I can.

As I was talking with Max's teacher, I was commenting on how cute and organized her room was. It is the same room Maggie had in kindergarten, but Max's teacher had moved things around and I really like the layout of the room. I was asking her if she still needed to get anything and she said she had pretty much everything she needed. Although she was still looking for some bean bags.

My brain automatically thought she was talking about small bean bags. Like the ones you would use for a bean bag toss. So I immediately volunteered to make them. I think I even made the comment, "oh, I can whip those up for you in no time!" Remind you...I'm still thinking of small, fit-in-your-hand-type bean bags.

So after school yesterday, the kids and I headed to the fabric store where to quickly picked up three little quarters of fabric (still thinking small) in the colors Max's teacher has going on in her room. I even asked Max if he knew what his teacher was going to use the small bean bags for. Which he replied, "to sit on mom!" It still NEVER dawned on me.

After returning from the fabric store, I decided I better send his teacher an email to find out what size she wanted these small bean bags to be. Maybe she needed them to fit into a certain little hole?! I didn't know. So when I got her reply, I felt like a complete idiot!

She wants a bean bag the size of a standard pillow, or around that size. She just wants a few comfy, cozy spots for the kiddos to sit.

What a great idea! I love it!

But it's wasn't at all what I was thinking!

HELLO TRACI....SHE WANTS BEAN BAG CHAIRS.....DUH!

So I'm here to apologize to the other moms who were there for the conversation. They probably all think I'm some brown-nosing mother who is trying to get in good with the teacher. Remember my comment, "oh I can whip those up in no time!" Uh, no I can't whip those up in no time. In fact, I here admitting my error in hopes that someone out there with more sewing ability can help me.

And to Max's poor teacher...I will NOT leave you hanging. I WILL get your chairs to you. Unfortunately, they won't be done by Friday! I hope you understand and I really hope you can forgive my stupidity....and not hold it against my sweet boy.

This Big Fat "Duh" Moment was brought on all by myself.

First Day of School!

My babies aren't babies any more. Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday they were little bitty and needed me for everything. That is no longer the case.

My baby girl is a big 2nd grader now! Gone all day...doing her own thing.

As you might remember, she had a rough start to school last year. But I think she's going to do just fine this year. She has grown so much over the summer (not just in size) and I really think she is going to have the confidence she needs to have a great school year.


Max is going to afternoon Kindergarten this year.

Max really couldn't care less about school. He says he's excited about school, but I think he's more excited about Marvin, the class fish. He told me he was going to ask his teacher if he could feed him. He's my go-with-the-flow kid, nothing much really bothers him.

Yesterday was just a half day for Mags and a hour for Max, so today will be the true test.

Autumn & Maggie


The true test to see how I manage without them!

Amazing!

The other day I posted our Indiana Dunes pictures on Facebook. I'm sure most of you have seen them. Pretty good...I thought.

I got this message on Facebook from my friend and professional photographer:

Your Gorgeous Daughter.

Send me the close up of maggie full resolution and i will edit it for you. It's the most Gorgeous Pic. You need to get it blown up. E-mail it to XXXXXXX!

So I sent her this picture!

And look what she did with it!

I can't even believe how awesome this picture is! I totally want to blow it up and have it framed!

So, if you are looking for a local photographer! Check out Jacque Austin Photography! She does beautiful work. You can link to her website here or find her on Facebook here!

Thank you Jacque for taking the time to make my mediocre picture fabulous! You are so talented!

One Month!

One month from TODAY is September 12! Do you have it marked on your calendar? I hope so!!

It is the second annual MS Walk that Traci's Troops! is participating in! And I want YOU there!

I know it's still a month away...but I'm getting ready to place my order for T-shirts and want to make sure I have enough!

So let me know....and remember this is an event for the entire family! Bring your hubby and kids...heck, bring your 4-legged friend too!

I know a lot of you can't be there this year....but you can still be there in spirit! Plan to wear your orange that day and say a little prayer for a beautiful, cool day!

Please contact me and let me know who in your family is planning to come. I'll get you registered and make sure I have a T-shirt with your name on it. (maybe not literally!)

Support Traci's Troops! and a great cause! Join me as we walk to find a cure for MS!

MS WALK 2010
Sunday, September 12th
@ 1:00
Junction City, Peoria
(The walk is approximately 3 miles...down Prospect and back!)

I'd love for you to arrive around 12:30 so we can get everyone together!

Thanks!
Traci's Troops!

Our first trip with Harvey!

We took "Harvey" (thanks for voting on a name!) to Indiana Dunes State Park for our first trip! We had a really good time.

We did forget a few things...like our lawn chairs. They were still in the little car from church in the park the morning we left. And we also forgot the Hersey bars to make smores. Thank goodness for the camp store! Oh, and yes, those items were on my list....just forgot to do the run-down before we left.

Max took this picture of Mom and Dad! Pretty good shot buddy!

The kids still had to do chores while camping....I'm such a mean mom!

The beach was the best part!

We had so much fun playing in the sand!

and taking pictures!

The bugs were bad and both kids (and parents) came home with way too many bites. So if you see us all scratching for days...you'll know why!

The only other problem....which we are laughing about now (at least till the bill comes) is that "Harvey" decided he didn't want to come home. We had a problem with the crank wench that raises and lowers the pop-up. A very large cable "jumped" and we couldn't get the pop-up to come down. After several calls to local dealers...we finally got the park ranger and several other campers to help us cut the cables and lower the pop-up by hand. Not an easy task for even 6 of us. So after a long while of freaking out (that would be me!)....we finally got on the road about three hours after we had planned to. We got home fine and now we will be taking "Harvey" to the doctor to get fixed.

I'm thinking a mobile unit that comes around to help out stranded campers might be a good little business to start! People would be willing to pay a lot to get some help and get on the road!

Needless to say....our first trip with "Harvey" was definitely memorable.

My apologies!

I've been looking for a new bedspread/quilt/duvet for quite some time now. And I think I finally found it.

So the last few days I've been trying to put the finishing touches on...throw blankets, pillows, etc. Well in the process, I got rid of our yucky old flat pillows and got new, puffy, clean ones!

They were horrible!

It wasn't that they were hard or uncomfortable....they were just way to fat and puffy!

I felt like I was sleeping with my head propped up on a mountain.

So my apologies to my hubby.....so sorry if your head and neck are hurting today as much as mine are.

Oh, and by the way, I got the yucky old flat ones back out....and we'll be sleeping on them tonight!

The countdown is on!

Only two short weeks of summer left (as of yesterday!)

So there may not be a lot of blogging going on here.
We are out and about doing

and

Enjoy the rest of your summer!