School

This year was a big year for the kids.  Alyssa entered Kindergarten and Knox his first year of preschool.  I was looking forward to getting some alone time finally but to no avail....next year!

Alyssa is in morning Kindergarten and couldn't be more excited about school.  Of course her favorite things are riding the bus, snack, recess, her friends she has made, music, and PE.  She does tell me she loves reading and writing as well.  The one thing she says about not liking school is because it makes her too tired to play sometime. 

She is starting to be able to read some and spell.  Such an exciting time in my opinion.  I am really happy with her teacher so far.  She is exactly what you would want in a kindergarten teacher.  We have her conference coming up next week and I look forward to talking with her and hearing all about how Alyssa is doing.

Knox is loving school too and it's fun to see him have something for himself and make his own friends.  I put him in a different school than I was originally because at the time I thought Alyssa was going to be in afternoon Kindergarten.  Of course once I switched she was in morning.  Oh well this way I have one on one time with each.

Anyways, his school is amazing.  It's in an old house and they have roosters/chickens, a kitchen to do cooking, a huge playground, a nice reading corner in the sun room, and the teachers are amazing!  He goes 3 days a week for 3 1/2 hours and is in the 3-5 class.  I was worried about at first but is really perfect for him.  I don't know how to explain it but he is just one of those kids you think he is so much older than he is.  It's not just me saying that a lot of people do his teacher even made the comment about it on the field trip.


I tried to get a picture of him at school but he was not having any of it.  So this family picture is Knox first day of school. 

He is doing really well.  He is working on learning the alphabet, he can count to 20 and he recognizes the numbers.  The letters he does know he knows most of their sounds for them.  His favorite book he is "reading." Of course it's very basic but it's very cute.

  Both kids are still in soccer and loving it.  They both do very well and will be doing that through at least the end of December.  Alyssa is continuing in dance but is now in a jazz/acro class which she loves.  They are gearing up for Halloween and can not wait!  They have two parties to go to this year in addition to Trick or Treating.  Halloween should be a lot of fun this year. 

Summertime Fun 2013

Yikes, I have done it again.  Life has gotten away from me and I haven't kept this current!  This last summer was a lot of fun for the kids.  It kicked off in June and just recently let up due to school starting for both of the kids!  Here is a list of some of the that we crossed off of my list to do.

1. Dance Recital
2. Cheerleading Camp ( Alyssa)
3. FIVE days in Longview with family (Alyssa insisted on 5 days)
4. 4th of July
5. Three birthday parties
 
6. Sports Camp (both kiddos)
7. TEN days in Longview per request (Alyssa cracks me up!)
8. Beach
9. Hanging out with cousins
10. Bike riding, and lots of it!
11. Hanging with friends and family at Long Lake twice
12. Multiple baseball games, Mariners and Aquasox
13. Silverwood Theme Park
14. Riding the "Duck"
15. Secret Agent Camp (both kiddos)
16. The fair and Monster Truck show with friends
17. Family time at the fair
18. Lots of BBQ's
19. Park play
20. School clothes shopping

These are just some of the "big" things we did this summer.  Since the weather has been so nice since probably April we have been spending a ton of time outside and having fun!  I feel like I'm getting old as I hate the kids sitting inside when it's nice out.  Both kids have an amazing imagination and so I have learned to turn the T.V. off and let them go for it. 

Now for the big year of both kids attending school, Alyssa in Kindergarten and Knox in first year of preschool in the 3-5 yr. class.  I'm really looking forward to all the changes that will bring them and our family over the next year!

Times A Changing.....

The last several months we have been very busy.  I was debating on changing this blog over to Word press which I still might do or just not continuing on.  Several people have encouraged me to continue since this is a way they keep up with all the happenings of the family.  For the time being I will continue and try to keep up!

Since I have missed several things the last few months I'm not going to back track, since that would take way to long, but will touch very briefly on them and will just pick up from recently.

There was Easter, Spring Break, the end of Preschool, and lots of other fun activities along the way.  Knox started T-ball which he has been loving.  I can't wait to get him involved in other sports.  He has also started swimming.  He doesn't mind it but clearly doesn't have the passion Alyssa has.

I came to a realization a few days ago that the past five years I have taken the years from January to December as many of us do.  That is all changing and very quickly.  The kids will both be in school starting in September and I will start measuring achievements etc. followed more by the school calendar.  That might sound weird but really we are going to become slaves to this pesky thing called EDUCATION!  Our lives will be changing and no more mid week vacations unless we pull the kids out of school or have someone watch them.  I'm not a huge fan of pulling the kids out of school though.


Another huge change in our lives is I am back in school.  I have wanted to do this for many years and since the kids are older now and I will be going back to work soon, hopefully in the next two years, it was the perfect time.  At this time I'm just taking my prerequisites before I apply for the program next March.  Seems so far away but I know it will be here before you know it.  I will talk more about this later I'm sure.

We are well into our summer and having fun.  There is a dance recital, Father's Day, 4th of July, camps, vacation, and lots of other fun coming our way!

The pictures are random ones through out the last several months.

Student Of The Week

Alyssa was student of the week at preschool and she was so excited about this.  What this meant was she got to be second in line and the second helper, the snacker is the one who is first.   She was also able to take "Bob" home with her. 

Bob was supposed to go everywhere with us and I got the fun task of writing in the journal of all his fun outings and happenings with our family. 

He had a birthday party to go to that weekend at the little gym.  We managed to take him to several parks and the museum.  He traveled to Seattle and got to have a very yummy lunch at our favorite italian place.  Alyssa loved making her poster and picking out all the pictures.  She was very sad to see Bob have to go back to the school. 

Guess Who Is Three!

I can't believe my little ball of energy is 3 already!  He is such a wonderful little boy who amazes me all the time.  He melts my heart when he will tell me, " Mom, I love you to the moon and back."  This is something the kids and I always say to each other.

On his actual birthday it was going to be a nice relaxing family day with swim in the morning and then just us celebrating during the day.  Plans changed.  I ended up getting food poisoning the night before so Cory took the day off and actually spent time with the kids down in Seattle celebrating with Great Grammy.  It made me sad to miss his first swim lesson that morning, but Cory took pictures for me.  It was a little foreshadowing of what life will be like at times when I go back to work.  More on that later.  The plan was to have a family party on Sunday but that changed as well due to illness but my parents were still able to come up.

This year we decided to throw him a party with all of his friends.  In the past we have just had it at the house so this was his first "big" party.  I was having a hard time figuring out where to have it.  There were a lot of good places but looking at cost etc. it was a little hard.  I finally decided on ice skating.  I took a chance since I had never taken the kids before and with the age of him and some of the others wasn't sure how it would work out.  It was a blast!

Everyone had a great time and both my kids keep talking about going back!  My only complaint about having it there is it's not very organized or has a lot of room for the party guests to celebrate.  All of Knox's friends came and had a great time.  It was a little hard to get many pictures but we managed a few of them.   Afterwards we had some friends come back to the house and hang out for a little while and the kids all played.  Then literally right after they left my parents showed up.

 The kids had a great day!  I was still a little wore out and not feeling 100%.  We just relaxed at home, ordered dinner in, visited and played.  I think his 3rd birthday was a great success!

Swim

I can't believe what an amazing little fish our daughter is becoming.  She absolutley loves the water and has told me she wants to be a swimmer when she grows up and an artist.  At the end of one of her sessions she was able to jump off the diving board and the rope swing.  I think the rope swing has been the highlight of her life so far!  Talk about an excited little girl!

Knox is also in swim now.  He is doing good as well.  I see improvement every week with him and can't wait for him to really start getting it.  He has no problem putting his face in the water which is huge.

Vacations are going to be so much more fun now!

Birthdays For The Week!

On Alyssa's actual birthday we celebrated with just us.  She had school that day and was excited to bring in her cupcakes and celebrate once again.  Growing up I always got to pick my birthday dinner, my kids will be no different.  When we asked Alyssa if she wanted to go out or stay in she chose to go out.  I gave her a list of restaurants that she liked and she chose the RAM.  When we got there it was packed so we decided to go to Bobs Burger and Brew.  She had a good dinner and enjoyed her gift from Knox, which was a new Barbie.  We decided that we weren't going to do any gifts for her since we gave her a huge party.  No worries, she did not go without!

The following day we had the actual family up.  She was so excited to be celebrating with both sets of Grandparents, Great Grammy,  Great Aunt Judy, and us.  She had swim that evening and was excited that her Grandmothers and Great Aunt joined us to see what an amazing job she is doing.  On the way back we grabbed a pizza and headed home to finish with the celebration.

The next day we celebrated Grammy's 93 birthday.  It was another full day of celebration and hanging out with family.  It was nice for the kids to be able to spend some time with their cousins since they don't get to see them too much.  Everyone really seemed to have a good time.  After a long day in Seattle we headed back home and were exhausted!  We still weren't done.

Saturday we had yet another birthday to celebrate.  This time it was a friend of ours.  Maddie was turning 3!  We headed up to their house in Arlington and had a great time.  The kids ran around outside, rode the bikes, and played games.  When we left late that evening the kids were zonked from such a long week of celebration.  I have to say I was too!

Alyssa's Birthday With Her Friends

I probably say this every year but birthdays are a big deal to me and especially for the children.  I have no problem going all out and having their day be as special as it possibly can.  This year was no different for our baby girl who turned 5!

When I asked her originally what she wanted to do she said have a party at the house with all her friends.  That meant twenty seven kids would be coming to our house.  NO WAY!  The second choice was the bounce place.  They do such an amazing job for birthdays I couldn't refuse and it's actually a great deal.

It was booked, invitations sent out, and now we waited.  She couldn't wait for her big day.  It was a few days before her actuall birthday but no biggie.  This day was all about her celebrating with her friends!  She invited all of her good friends she hangs out with and her preschool class.  When all was said and done she had twenty three kids there.  It was actually a blast and everyone had so much fun!

The kids had an hour and a half for play time and then forty minutes up in the party room where they got pizza, dessert, and Alyssa opened her presents.  Alyssa has three little suitors that I am aware of.  The long term one, Mason.  Then the two new ones Jackson who makes pictures for her.  His mom said they have several and he will make them all different but always makes her a princess.  This made me laugh!  Then there is Bret, who is always talking about her to his family and saying how pretty she is.  When his Grandma told me this it melted me heart!  I just hope these boys stay away when she gets older!  Haha!

She got amazing gifts from all of her friends and it felt like Christmas in our house after we got all the gifts in!  When it's your day you should be showered with love from all the people in your life and I hope I can continue to do this with my children for as long as they will allow me to!

When we got home it was very low key but a perfect 5th birthday for a little girl and her friends!

Valentines Day And Hockey

Another Hallmark Holiday has come and gone.  I'm not a huge Valentines Day fan just because I don't think you need just one day to be told how much you are loved or whatever.  It should happen several times throughout the year!  With saying this we did celebrate a little just because it's fun with the kids.

Alyssa had her party at school that Wednesday and was so excited about it.  I love this age!  Since she had swim on Valentines day we got pizza for dinner and of course the kids got some little gifts that they loved.  Cory and I weren't going to do anything but he surprised me with a nice bottle of wine that I like.  We had plans to go out to dinner the next night so we kind of used that as our celebration. 

Saturday our friends invited us to go to hockey with them.  They have season tickets right behind the penalty box of the visiting team.  Cory and I both love going to sporting events and wished we had more time to go and enjoy it.  We were excited to go and the kids were as well.  Both of them have been in the past and I was excited to finally get them to a game this year.

Knox was really into it until the last period where he then wanted to go to the bathroom every few minutes.  Which he never used just wanted to go wander around.  At the end of the second period the ref/official gave  Knox the game puck.  It was pretty cool and he was very cute about it.  Alyssa was a little upset she didn't get one but such is life!  I did explain that we had another one at home she could have and that seemed to make it a little better.

My friend and I got the kids a bunch of treats that they enjoyed and we did manage to stay the whole game.  The Everett was playing Seattle and unfortunately lost but it was a good fun time.  When we got home the kids were exhausted and to bed they went.  We had a big day on Sunday so I was really hoping for them to get some rest!