The home stretch…

So Bingo was fun!  Thanks to Granma and Pop-pop for the assist with the monkeys!  The event went…well it was smoother than the last one.  Seemed to have just as many (if not a few more) people than we did back in the Fall.  The raffle baskets seemed to be a big hit.  Only had 1+ pizzas left.  And not a single person asked for nachos!!! – so take that and shove it Bingo Nazi!!!

Just got back from the first ever Cool Spring Elementary Muffins with Moms.  We had a decent turn out, not as many as had RSVP’d, I’m hearing that a few little ones were too sick for school today.  I figured it was lousy timing with Daylight savings.  I think Jilly was more excited about eating with Granma than she would have been if I had been able to eat with her!  She was showing off her Granma to all her little friends!  Not only did they have a fun breakfast, but Jilly also won a Cabbage Patch Kid in the raffle!  She must think this is the luckiest day of her little life!

Next week we have the basketball game, then Jeff’s birthday, then Spring Break.  Looking forward to grabbing a few minutes of ‘down time’ – you know hanging with the monkeys!

 

Love

A lull in the action.

March 9th-Bingo

March 13th-1st Muffins with Moms

March 22nd-Faculty vs. Parent vs. Student Basketball game

March 30th-Jeff’s birthday

(Just so you know why I’m not able to post too much in the next month!)

Let’s go oldest to youngest this time, shall we?

Bug-Is really having a blast in High School, and can’t wait for warmer weather to be able to spend all her time out at the barn!

With her now getting to that point in life where it’s not cool to talk to your mom, I don’t find things out as quickly as I use to…I know all part of growing up, but still sucks!

Jilly-Really excelling in Kindergarten, never has a bad thing to say about school (kinda reminds me a another little girl we know….hmmmm) Right now she is learning to tie her shoes, which is an interesting look into her personality.  She is very determined, but also very impatient (I have no idea where she gets that from…!).  We can only practice for a few minutes before the head butting begins, but I try to wrap it up before we get there.

Cooper-Another girly monkey who loves going to school.  Today is Dr. Seuss’ birthday, so in school they have been reading lots of his books, and even ate Green Eggs and Ham on Wednesday.

  Here is only one of the reasons I look to Cooper when having a bad day-she calls him Dr. Soups!  She can say paleontologist, but the author of Cat in the Hat is Dr. Soups…!  Her new favorite saying right now is “That is so a-noxious!” and she does it with this sorta valley girl type attitude, you can’t help but laugh.

Wyatt-Is really enjoying the few hours 3 days a week he get the house to himself, he gets to color what he wants, listen to the music he wants, watch what he wants.  But the boy about tackles each of the girls when he sees them after school.  He’s starting to get a bit more clear when it comes to talking, so the hissy fits over lack of communication (mine more so than his!) are starting to fade.

Me-Just turned in an application and 5 pieces of artwork to see if I can be a teacher at the CTMH Conference in July in Texas.  Been wicked busy with PTA, but the school year is almost over!  I think I have another sinus infection, but that seems to be nothing new. 

Jeff-Well, he doesn’t really like when I share about him, so unless it pertains to anyone else in the family directly, he wants to stay off the radar.

 

That about wraps it up, busy month ahead PTA wise, kids gearing up for Spring Break, Easter and a visit from Grammy  in the near future.

I will try to get some recent pics up soon…

 

Love

...so much glitter...

So, Miss Jilly comes flying off the bus today (I thought girlfriend was going to bite it a few times!) and starts with "I got a pencil and a button from school today AND they sparkle!!! To which I respond with "What for?" Her answer " I don't know, but did I tell you they SPARKLE?!?!"

So we get her coat off and book bag hung up, and then she shows me the button and it reads "Student of the Month".

You have to imagine all this *yelling* while she had the biggest, cheesiest $h!t eating grin on her face. Ahhh, the pure innocence of childhood.

She did fill me in later on 2 more pieces of info:
1. Sam (a kid from her class...?) and she will 'be on TV' (I think they get to have a picture taken and get it shown on the morning announcements...?)

2. She got to be student of the month because "I follow the penguin rules ALL.THE.TIME, Mommy!" then she proceeded to roll her eyes at me!


*Sidebar - one of these days when the weather gets warm again and we get to wait outside, I'm going to take a video of Wyatt as the bus pulls around the corner, and how he about tackles Jilly once she's in reach! Boy misses his girly monkeys, but loves the one on one time as well....*

Love

Love is in the air...

...no, literally as I type Jeff is on a plane. Fun way to spend Valentine's Day. No, really, no sarcasm. It has been a no pressure kind of day. Well, as much as it can be when doing the Mommy thing on my own still...

Looking forward to getting to be crafty without interruptions once monkeys are in bed. That's about the only up-side to all the travel Jeff's been doing. Goodness knows, there's no perk of a few extra dollars, and all the lies and deception that seem to accompany every trip.

So, yeah, happy Valentine's Day

In true Cooper fashion....

Jilly studied dinosaurs last week in school, which means all we heard from girly monkeys was "I'm a palentologist...." and all we heard for monkey man was "arrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrrr" with a dance, of course! That is until last night when Cooper busted out with "Once I'm done being a palentologist when I'm bigger, I'm going to be Santa." And she is serious...and if anyone can do, it's my little Cooper-Doo!

Love

What is it worth to you?

This is a card I did earlier this week to give to one of the preschool teachers that does the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure.  To be honest, I wish I could have donated more, but I did what I could at the time.

And that got me to thinking (…I know, you’re all in trouble when that happens!), what if I made a few sets of these cards and put the profits into making a bigger donation…?

I will be selling them in sets of 5 for $12.50. (That covers my cost of materials plus shipping, and then we get to donate $10.00 for every set sold.)

So if you, or anybody you know would like to support breast cancer research by purchasing a set (or a few sets!) please email me to order.

curtis.chrissy@yahoo.com

Enjoy!

…homework…?

My kid loves to bake a cake for homework! Here is her science homework, it is an island that corresponds to a topographical map she had to create as well.  Not only did she get a good grade, but there wasn’t any left…they loved it!

Love

C

Halloween 2011

Being on an extreme budget this year actually was a good thing this year!  We got the chance to ‘recycle’ 2 costumes from 2 years ago, Cooper wanted to be Princess Jasmine (thank you Jilly!) and by default that made Wyatt the monkey Abu.  Jilly wanted to be a pink butterfly, but for the love of all that is good and holy I could not find pink wings anywhere! Purple-heck yeah, blue-sure enough boss, even a ton of yellow/orange…but no pink!

Thankfully, Granma saved Halloween (for Jilly anyway!) when she spotted a pink snow princess costume! *SCORE!* The teenager wanted to go, mostly to get free candy *smh* and decided to ditch the rest of us and go with friends.  So the 5 of us set out to conquer the Circle…in the 46 degree weather! (Did I forget to mention that it snowed the day before! Not enough to play in, but just enough to make a mess!)

Wyatt was not amused in the least, so he and Jeff bailed early, while the girls and I finished up the rest of the Circle with our next door neighbor Katie.

Not sure if it was the weather, or what, but we did not have nearly as many kids trick-or-treating this year.  Oh well, more for us!

Jilly was a bit disappointed that she did not get to dress up for school this year, but Cooper was over the moon!  She loved the parade around the school…girl loves her school, and her teachers!

Love

C

Whoooo is having a birthday?

Courtney almost did not celebrate her birthday this year.  I had been hounding her since the beginning of school to let me know what she wanted to do (party, movies, big, small….) and it came down to the wire.  I had been talking to my mom earlier on the day Courtney finally said anything, and I told my mom “She has until the end of today, otherwise she gets nothing…no cake, no presents, not even going to say Happy Birthday to her!”  (Yes I know, I was being a bit extreme, but there is little in this world that bothers me more than someone else's lack of planning and forethought coming back to bite ME in the ass!)  So she finally said, just a cake-no big deal.

Well, I wanted to make a little deal out of it…so I made her some cupcakes that look like her second favorite animal, owls.

  

Cooper said they were turkeys…I failed.

But at least I tried to do something special…not like I went to Wegman’s and bought an entire sheet cake and had a picture of a unicorn put on it like her bgf Al did. (Double fail for me, I got upstaged by a store bought cake?!?)

Oh well, good thing I got her an i-pod touch.  At least I got to be cool for a little bit that night.

 

Love

C

so.not.ready!

During the very first week of high school, Courtney was asked to go to the Homecoming dance.  It was hard enough to send her off to high school, but then for THIS?!?

Since she is not much of a girly-girl, she wanted Granma to make her dress so that it would be long yet short enough, and ‘show’ too much.  This is what she looked like.

 

…and this is what she looked like when she realized ‘yep, my mom is that mom’…

Still not sure why it was shocking to her that instead of just dropping her off at dinner with her friends, that I dropped her at the door, parked the car, strolled right up in there and got a few pictures…does she know me at all?!?

Love

C

Look who’s 2!

Wyatt had a typical 2 year olds birthday-that is to say, very low key.  Boyfriend loves to watch Blue’s Clues (sings and dances and everything!) so I hedged my bets when it came to cake.  I went with the ‘traditional’ Blue’s paw print out of cup cakes.

 

 

I think this makes me 4 for 4 when it comes to Blue’s Clues birthdays!

Love

C

Such a bad blogger!

Between the kids, businesses, PTA, the house, and trying to save relationships, I have had very little time to put thoughts/pictures together. 

Since it’s New Year’s Eve and I’m alone till Jeff is done work, I am going to try to get caught up since I last posted in September.

So long as I don’t get sucked into picture sorting/scrapbook planning, I should be able to bang out a few updates tonight.

Wish me luck…I’m going to need it!

 

Love

C

Welcome Class of 2015

It really is difficult to swallow that Courtney is a Freshman this year!  I fear that if I blink I’m going to miss her graduate!

This year when we took her for her ‘Back to school hair cut’ we opted for a straightening treatment.  (Think a relaxer, usually used on ethnic hair types.)  I have NEVER seen her so eager to take a picture before!  She loves how easy it is now deal with, and how much confidence it has given her.

For awhile now, Courtney has been stopping by Chrissy’s house to pick her up for the bus stop.  Chrissy decided to change things up a bit, at least for the first day!

I am not sure whose idea it was, but Courtney seems to be showing some interest in the Drama Club at school (insert mommy’s happy dance here!) with the stipulation that she never has to be seen on stage.  I just may have a future techie on my hands!

Thankfully most anybody reading this will already be sitting, but so I can say I warned you…make sure you are sitting down.  Courtney.likes.geometry!  I know what you’re thinking, “There is no way she likes a math class!” but thanks to being very adept at visual learning, she has discovered how easy geometry is! (I told her for the last 3 years her day would come, and now it has.)

Courtney is growing into such a caring and empathetic young adult…sure we have our ‘teenager’ moments, but I thank the universe for not making her exactly like me at that age!  I like that we are so similar, it helps us communicate (most times) and I would not change a thing!

 

Love

First day of Kindergarten 2011

Jilly is growing into such a lovely young lady.  All the parents at the bus stop love how bubbly and happy she is, even though she has to be at the bus stop at 7:20.

But what they know or have the ‘joy’ of experiencing is the holy terror that she can be very first thing in the morning.  Jilly is not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination, and for the first 5-10 as long as you don’t speak to her, she seems willing to let you live.  Keep in mind this only applies to mornings she has to be woken up, if she gets up on her own she is content. 

 

So far, Jilly loves school, her teacher, the other kids…all of it.  She reminds me of another little girl I know…..

Cooper's 3rd Birthday (slideshow edition)

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Nothin' New

No new pics yet. :0( But let's do this youngest to oldest...

Wyatt- Oh my little monkey man! The boy is going to be 10 before he eats a complete meal of 'real food'. He will eat real fruit, loves raw or cooked green beans, and (shocker) loves to eat Ho-Ho's! But when it comes to things like noodles, rice, or meats you would think someone was trying to kill him with the epic fit he can pitch! Cute, but frustrating for the cook. He loves to dance, run, play ball, look adorable, and especially loves to torment all the girly monkeys every chance he gets.

Cooper- Making such great progress with the potty training. Girl has a vocab that can only be described as amazing. And when she tries to tell you a story, or ask you a question the looks she can give will drop you to your knees in instant laughter.

Cute Cooper story-We were at CVS picking up a prescription and the clerk asked for the phone number. Since Jilly knows it she started spitting it out. Not to be out done, Cooper gave her version: six, six, six (pause) six, six, six (pause) six, six, six. It was ridiculously funny, so much so that even the clerk was in stitches. Girl scares me sometimes!

Jilly-Not to much to report here. Still the little ham, loves to sing, dance, and be the ring leader.

Courtney-Has turned into quite the little social butterfly as of late. I think the record for days at home without having someone spend the night or going to someone else's house to spend the night is currently 4. She's still riding, hoping to get back into the hunter shows. She didn't really care for the dressage shows, but is putting a lot of the things she has learned to good use with Moose. Happy to report she made the honor roll for the entire time she was in middle school. Best part...she finished Algebra I with a year long average of an A-! Her hard work is paying off, and she is beginning to see for herself how good it feels to put in your best effort and see things through to the end. We could not be more proud of her!

Me-Found out today that my Ortho is retiring the end of this month, which leads me to believe that he choose not to do something proactive about my knee. I'm to the point, it is what it is and until it decides to flair up again I'm just going to do the best I can and push though each day as best I can. I have gotten some of my products from Chrissy Curtis Crafts in a local retail shop. I will find out next week how well the first round of items sold. BugnBean will be at another show on the 9th of July with new product in tow. I think some of the improvements we have made are going to make the horse world stand up and take notice.

Jeff-Has been enjoying his Father's Day present along with the kids almost every single night. We gave him the NFL Training Camp game for the Wii, and it has a 60 day challenge that he really enjoys. He told me this morning that in the last week he has lost 5 lbs. The best part is when all the kids get up there with him and start doing the drills. I'm going to take some video of it tomorrow night. it is so precious.

As we do every year at this time, we are getting geared up for our 4th of July picnic and firework viewing. Lots of cooking and baking and crafting to be done before Monday. Good news is the camera is fixed so I will have plenty of pics of the whole event.

Well, that about does it for us.

Love

Footnote to Jilly's 5th Birthday

I happen to believe that those who have left this Earth still communicate with us. Five years ago when we were blessed with Jilly-Bean, I was outside on the back porch the night we came back from the hospital and was amazed at the amount of lightning bugs/fireflies/June bugs that were in the trees. So every year I look forward to being wowed...and every year I have been disappointed. And then it hit me this year. All the 'lights in the night sky' was the doing of my grandmother, Nana (with Pop-pop by her side) letting us know that she had her hand in bringing Jilly to us. Jillian was one of the few names Jeff and I could agree on, and was the name of my grandparents oldest daughter who passed away from SIDS. We wanted to honor our grandmothers with Jilly's middle name Grayce. Grace was my Nana's name, and Gray was Jeff's grandmothers maiden name.

I'm sitting here tonight, wondering where my 'night lights' are wishing I had the counsel of the woman from whom Jilly gets so much more than a name. I just hope I can do the Little Miss justice.

Love

Bug n Bean

This is the second time Bug n Bean has had the chance to set up a booth at a horse show.  We had quite a few sales, saw many old friends, and met new ones.

We are looking forward to many more shows, the debut of the new website, and even getting some of our wares into a local shop.

Exciting times ahead!

 

Love

Wrap up

And that gets us up to date on things with pictures.



In other news...



Cooper decided last week that it was time to go on the potty, and has been fantastic about it.



Jilly and I will be going to kindergarten orientation tomorrow where she will get to ride a bus for the first time.



Wyatt has figured out how to get up on the couch by himself. He also figured out how to move the baby gate that we now have to secure in the doorway. (We have been leaning it up against the wall so that the girls can get to the bathroom with no help...)



Courtney is studying for her final exams and gearing up to start High School in the fall. (Let the fun begin!)



We are in a holding pattern when it comes to my knee. The Ortho says since the MRI did not confirm his findings (he thinks he was sent the wrong report, but can't do anything about it) that the insurance company will not allow him to do anything for a month. My appointment with him is on the 27th, and I'm just hoping that I can hold out that long. It is almost impossible to do anything these days, especially sleep. Hopefully I can last these next two and a half weeks.



There is nothing new with Jeff, and I think he likes it that way.



Both businesses have bright futures with some exciting things on the horizon.

Hopefully we will have the camera figured out soon, the blurry fuzziness is driving me nuts!


Love

Preschool Graduation 2011

Jilly had another fantastic year at preschool.  She made a few new friends, but mostly enjoyed paling around with the same friends she made last year. The class is only 15 kids, last year Jilly was one of only five girls, this year there were six.  I love that she was able to become friends with these girls, and can only hope that since none of them will be in the same schools next year, that we can keep in touch with them and still have fun.

Here are Brooke, Sarah, and Jilly.  They were inseparable  when it came to drop off time. 

Here is Nicolas, Jilly’s ‘boyfriend’.  Jilly is enamored with Nicolas, but I think she loves his Mom even more!  Jilly will run to Nicolas’ Mom and give her huge hugs and tell her how pretty she is.  It is too cute!

The kids are getting ready to start their program. The boy to the right of Jilly is Reese.  Thankfully for Nicolas, Reese is more enamored with Wyatt.  Everyday Reese has hugs and kisses and tickles for him.  Reese has a younger brother, Quinn, that will be in the same class as Cooper at the preschool next year.

Here is Jilly and Mrs. P. getting ready for her solo.  Jilly chose to sing a song they sang for the winter concert.  She was loud, mostly in tune, and did the little dance to boot.  I really think Little Miss Jilly will follow Mommy’s footsteps and be a ‘drama geek’ as she gets older.

Mrs. P, Jilly and Mrs. Janda after before we headed out to the playground for the picnic. 

Mr. Jamie giving Jilly her purple bear with a graduation cap.

 

We have been truly blessed by the teachers and staff at the Douglass Community Center preschool. They have been witness to many milestones, and great guides and role models, and not just for Jilly but for all of us!

 

Love