Veteran's Day Trip to the Mall

Since kindergarten started, Anna has been complaining that she doesn't get to go anywhere with me anymore.  The days of running errands with me is over for the time being because I don't usually run errands in the afternoon.  So, when Veteran's Day hit and she was home, I asked her what she wanted to do with her day with us.  She immediately responded, "I want to go to the mall!!"  She even ran and got her allowance money so that she could pay to do the jumping thing.  We had so much fun hanging out and being silly.  She begged for Jack to jump with her so Anna paid for herself and Mommy paid for Jack.  It was Jack's first time and he loved it!  Anna figured out how to do flips and did one right after the other until her time was up.  Crazy girl!

Ready and waiting patiently.

Wheeee!

Little gymnast

50th Day of Kindergarten

It's hard to believe the 50th day of school has come and gone!  The school encouraged the kids to dress up in 50's attire.  Mimi was amazing and came up with a no-sew poodle skirt for Anna to wear.  She was so cute!!


And just so I have it on record, I wanted to give a little update on Anna and kindergarten.  The first 3 months of school were a very difficult transition for her and us.  I think the school day was just so much longer than before that Anna came home completely exhausted--mentally, physically, and emotionally.  She hasn't napped since she was four, but has had rest time almost every afternoon prior to the end of August. We now know she really depended on rest time to refuel.  Without that, she came home starving and exhausted and everything caused a meltdown.  Every. Little. Thing.  Choosing a snack, having to get ready for gymnastics, doing homework, coming downstairs to eat dinner, I mean everything.
So, we had to regroup and find a solution.  We cut out almost all after school activities.  We stopped piano lessons with Uncle Greg.  We stopped going to church on Wednesday nights.  We kept gymnastics and soccer because they were the times she saw her old friends from preschool and kind of perked up (and her Daddy was coaching the soccer team).  Other than those two nights, we stayed at home.  We became super strict about bedtimes and we just helped her adjust gradually.
She kept complaining about school and would cry about having to go.  This was the same child who would get upset last year if she had a doctor's appointment and had to miss even a small part of school! Will and I were so concerned and upset.  We finally figured out that she was anxious about the behavior policy in her class and was always worried about getting in trouble (because she had gotten in trouble two or three different times).  We had to have lots of talks about that and how it was only there to remind her how to behave when she forgot.  Academically, she was fine and doing well, but the rest was a bit overwhelming for her.  I am happy to say, now that we are past the first quarter, she is doing much better.  She has adjusted to the new schedule and is much more pleasant when she gets home.  She doesn't love school like before (yet), but she isn't crying that she doesn't want to go.  We have figured out how to budget time for homework and play time.  She and Jack have spent hours playing outside and getting energy out playing with the neighbors.  Even though things are better, if we do have a crazy week she will remind me that she just wants to be at home.  She needs that time to decompress.  I am just hoping and praying that things will continue to improve and that she will eventually come to love school again like before.  I am relieved that those crazy few months are behind us.  The good thing is that it made us slow down and spend more quality time at home just being a family.  And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that!

Our Trip to Kansas

My long-lost cousin, Kristin, and her family recently moved to Kansas from Minnesota.  It has been quite a culture shock and I think the toll of moving every two years is weighing on them.  I really felt the need to go visit because they have come to the east coast multiple times and I have yet to travel west of Tennessee to see them.  But leaving the kids for a trip to Kansas just never seemed to fit into the schedule.

Then God winked.  Will's aunt and uncle, who we have kept in horrible contact with since his step-grandfather's passing, invited Erin and Will and me out to see them and go to a football game.  And guess where they live………Kansas!!  When we started looking at the geography of it all, we discovered that they only live about 30-45 minutes from each other!!  Sweet!
We booked the flights and then two more miraculous things happened.  First, we remembered that a friend of ours from Carolina had moved out to Lawrence to go to law school at KU.  We contacted him and he was so excited to get to see some NC people.  Then Kristin let me know that her parents, my aunt and uncle, were coming down that same weekend from Wisconsin.  Woohoo!!  I get really excited about killing FOUR birds with one stone, so we were off!  We left the kiddos sugar-overdosed on Halloween candy with Nannie and Pops and were gone!

Me and Ty Guy on the way to eat lunch with Mac at school.

The ladies: Kristin, Me, and Aunt Patti

Luv my cuz!

Aunt Patti, Uncle Richard, and me

Little Ty on the ice!
This was my first ever taste of hockey!

Mac and Me

A cousin selfie!

Let's see how many faces we can get in this one!

It was great to catch up with my cousin and family and see where their everyday lives are these days.  Plus, we got to do some major planning for the family reunion trip to Tennessee in June.  CANNOT WAIT!!  After spending a great day with my long lost family, Will and I drove the 35 miles to Lawrence and met up with Mel and Di and Erin and Matt.  We hung out Friday night and then were up Saturday morning early for breakfast and the drive to Manhattan, KS for the K-State/Iowa State game.  We had a blast!

The whole crew, even with Riley and Drew!

Uncle Mel is the best!

Carolina blue skies, even in Kansas!

Sisters!

Melly Mel and Will

The four stooges!

Mel and Di took such good care of us and it was so great to see them again after so many years.  Moriarty was still his crazy self and we had so much fun hanging out with him again.  We are hoping we can lure him back to NC after law school…we'll see!  We were so glad we made the trek out west to see everyone!!

Halloween 2013

The Witch and Diego

We definitely missed being in a big family neighborhood over Halloween this year.  Instead of hanging around our house, we decided to go to Nannie and Pops' neighborhood and ride on the hayride to take the kids trick-or-treating.  The hayride winds through the neighborhood, stopping every so often and allowing all the kids to jump off and run to the surrounding houses.  Anna was loving it!  Jack wasn't too sure and couldn't quite keep up with the needed speed with his little legs.  Mommy got a work out for sure, helping him run up to the houses he could get to.  We got off at Aunt E's house and got the final pieces of candy there and at Nannie and Pops' house.  What a fun night!

Preschool Fall Festival

The preschool always has its fall festival the week of Halloween.  Anna was excited about going back and seeing all of her old teachers again.  Jack wasn't really sure what all the fuss was about.  It was cute to see him with his friends and I was glad to be able to put some faces to all the names we have been hearing since the beginning of school.  He is such the little stud!

I'm too busy eating for these shenanigans!
With Maddie and Brooklyn
Brooklyn couldn't keep her hands off of him!

Maddie and Jack--best buds!

No More Monitor

This is the monitor we received when Anna was born.  The base has been in her room and this receiver in ours ever since.  Both of the homes we have lived in have had main level master bedrooms, so I have always felt better having this on at night so I could hear her wake up upstairs and get to her quicker.  The receiver has been on its last leg for awhile, only able to work while docked on its base.  It finally bit the dust the other night and I had to toss it in the trash.  It was bittersweet...the memories of all those nights hearing her breathe or cough or cry out for us...and the realization that she is definitely old enough to not need a monitor anymore.  It was a tug on the heartstrings for sure.  That's how those milestones go, I suppose.

Who Loves the Train Table More?

It has been hysterical to me to watch my "boys" and their dual interest in the train table.  About once or twice a week, a new track has just magically appeared when Jack wakes up in the morning.  Wonder who might have done that??  ;o) And if it's been a while, Jack will take his track apart and say, "Daddy, my track is broken.  You need to fix it!"  He knows he will end up with a new one.  And these new track pieces keep magically appearing, too, with the excuse "I just don't have enough options with the pieces that we had." Uh-huh.  I see....