Dances, Play Dates and Parties! Oh my!!

It always seems that most weekends we have nothing going on and then BAM...we have a weekend where we're gone all day literally driving from one event to the next.

Hunter had his first middle school dance last night. He's so much more confident than I ever was. I remember being so nervous and trying to find a friend to ride with me there because I couldn't even WALK in by myself. Forget about dancing...that was not happening. I asked Hunter when I picked him up if he had a great time and by the look of his red cheeks I knew right away the answer was "Yes!". Boy's got some dance moves and apparently he danced all night. 

Ava was Miss Social Butterfly today. She had a play date this morning with her friend Carson. Her mother and I have become fast friends and I really enjoyed getting to chat with a real adult this morning. Ava begs me all the time to have friends over so hopefully next time we can stay longer...like until we get kicked out. 

We left Carson's house and headed over to Ava's cousin's birthday party. I was totally blown away by what I saw. We walked in to a room filled with soft fuzzy purple bathrobes, bowls filled with goodies and a couple of awesome ladies primed and ready to pamper a group of little princesses with manicures, pedicures, sparkly hairstyles, dress up time and a trip down the red carpet. Ava was in heaven although she didn't look it. Bryan says she got my bad attitude and sour face. He must of hit his head on something because I don't know what he's talking about. 

 When the girl pulled the makeup out Ava did not hesitate to tell her exactly what colors she wanted and wear to place them. Sister knows what she wants or maybe she's had her makeup done a time or two before ;)

 Nails Nails Nails

 Getting her hair done...with pink and sparkle spray no less.

 She really looks like Bryan in this picture :)

 How cute is this?!?

 I promise you she was having a good time!!

(beautifying herself with face cream)

 See!!! Look how happy she is :)

 Playing dress-up

My Pretty Princess!

She took a quick nap while she waited for Leslie to pick her up to take her to the next event on her calendar...birthday dinner for a friend at Friendly's. Leslie brought her back with a big fat smile on her face and said "Have fun". Ava was full of giggles and all kinds of craziness. I'm pretty sure Leslie slipped some sugar in her drink. Don't worry, Leslie! I won't forget and revenge will come back tenfold...

Bedtime's coming early tonight!!!!

Over Reactive First Time Parents :)

I was always a sensitive child...my sister would fall and scrape her knee and I would cry for her. My sister would get her feelings hurt and I would cry for her. My sister would get a splinter and I would cry for her. It didn't take much to reduce me to tears so basically I cried enough for both of us. My crybaby childhood probably paved the way for my becoming an over reactive parent when Hunter was born. Yep, I was one of THOSE parents. If Hunter got hurt I rushed to his side as if he just lost his right arm. The slightest drop of blood on his knee meant that he might need a blood transfusion. I'd like to think that my overreactions are the reason Hunter is a what I would call a "sensitive soul".

When Ava came along I was a little bit better. I didn't run to Ava's aide when she fell nor did I dive across the room to stop her from drinking from another baby's cup.

 Now that Jackson is here it's basically no holds barred. I don't freak when he puts a toy in his mouth that another baby just slobbered all over, the 5 second rule has now become the 30 second rule...shoot just this morning I let him out in the back yard and said "Have fun"...wait no that was Gus.

I've come a long way from being a first time mom but I now know that the over reactive parent inside of me is still there waiting in the wings. I called 911 for the first time the other evening, well actually Hunter did. I must say that I'm extremely proud of him and the fact that he stayed calm and gave the operator all our information. I was in the process of cooking dinner and the kids were all in Ava's room playing. I had gone back to check on Jackson and noticed Ava's Hello Kitty chap-stick was on the floor. I'm not sure now why I didn't say anything to her about it. I went back out front and a few minutes later I heard Jackson crawling down the hallway. He was making a hacking sound and when I picked him up I knew something was wrong. He seemed to be struggling to breath. I looked in his mouth and didn't see anything. He continued to act like something was stuck in his throat and he was trying to either swallow it or cough it up. He then began throwing up. I put him over my lap with his head down and  gave him a couple of pats on the back. He still seemed to be struggling with something and I didn't want to take any chances. We had a close scare back in October where he actually choked on a piece of apple, he was not breathing and I stuck my finger in his throat to swipe it out. Ever since then I've been extremely sensitive to him choking. I told Hunter to call 911 and I continued to try to figure out what was wrong with Jackson. He was still throwing up and struggling to swallow and I felt completely helpless. It was an awful feeling that I hope to never feel again. While all this was going on Ava came running out front, upset that the cap was missing from her chap-stick. My immediate thought was that Jackson had swallowed the cap. As we waited for the Firemen and Paramedics to arrive I had the kids look to see if maybe the cap was somewhere in Ava's room. Right about the time the Firemen and Paramedics arrived Ava found the cap to her chap-stick. THANK GOD!! By this time Jackson was no longer throwing up and was a little overwhelmed at the sight of 8 (good looking) men in our den. I couldn't thank them enough for making me feel at ease when answering their questions while they carefully checked out Jackson. They joked and entertained Ava (she was in heaven with all the attention she was getting) and commended Hunter for being so mature in the way he handled calling 911. I've come to the conclusion that Jackson ate some of Ava's chap-stick which is why he was gagging, having a difficult time swallowing and throwing up. Although I'm a little embarrassed that he wasn't really choking and those guys had to stop what they were doing to come to my house, I'm so thankful that Jackson's okay. This experience has taught me that the over-reactive parent inside of me still exists and to never feed Jackson chap-stick.



I also told Bryan that I may start calling 911 more often if they always send good looking firemen to my house :)

I have a habit of starting something and not finishing. It's kind of a running joke among my family. A few years ago I had a friend who made baby blankets. I thought they were really cute and looked easy to make so I went out and $100 later had everything I needed to start my booming business of selling baby blankets. I made ONE blanket...ONE. My next venture was beading...that lasted about 2 hours. I bought a violin with the hopes of playing again and maybe trying out for the Symphony. It's amazing how squeaky you sound when you haven't played in years! There's a pink paintball gun somewhere in my attic back when apparently I was trying to give people the impression that I was a bad ass chick. I got shot in the ankle and haven't used it since. This blog is another hobby that I've attempted. You can see how well I've managed this one. I'm sure I've left a few others out but as you can see there have been so many it amazing I can even keep track.

My latest hobby that I've been dabbling in over the last few years is photography. By NO MEANS do I think I'm good but it's the one thing I've actually come back to over and over again. I decided that I needed to make small goals in order to keep this particular hobby alive. I've been working really hard lately trying to learn how to actually use my camera as well as how to use editing software. My plan is the better I become at taking pictures than the better I'll be at keeping up with this blog. We'll see if that theory works ;)

Since becoming a SAHM, or as my hubby calls me "Sit at Home Mom" (huh, let's see him spend a day in MY shoes), I've been really trying to take advantage of the time I have with the kids. I follow a blog called Play at Home Mom and I LOVE it! I think their philosophy on how kids learn is awesome and I really want to incorporate the same ideas with my own children. My background is in education and I have a LOT of materials that I've collected over the 11 years I taught. The kids have had a great time "playing" with my teaching stuff and they keep asking me to bring out more. At least all that money I spent on teaching materials isn't going to waste ;) I took some pictures of some of the activities that the kids have been doing.


Here's Jackson experiencing the color orange. I chose a color and pulled out all the toys I could find that were the color orange. Anytime he picked something up I mentioned what the object was and the fact that it was the color "orange". Ava had fun being his teacher ;)

Ava building with my Base 10 blocks. She's making a picnic table in this picture. She has spent hours over the last few days building with these blocks. Even Hunter (my 12 year old) wanted to play with the blocks.

I didn't take a picture of it but I also gave them a bath and put food coloring in it to make the water orange. The kids LOVED it!
**I gave Jackson and Ava a bath...Hunter would die if I even came into the bathroom while he's in there!

Anddddd so you also can see some of my photography skills (Ha!!!) here a few pics I've taken recently. I used Lightroom to edit them. Please don't laugh at my watermark...I'm learning :)

Hopefully this hobby won't become something else to add to my list...