The "First Grade is Over" Blues...For Eden

I have a love/hate relationship with first grade.
I love that my kid is in school all day. I hate that my kid is in school all day.
I love the how the brain is developing and how letters become words. I hate that I am no longer needed to read a book.
I love that they have so many fun new experiences. I hate that I'm not there when they happen.

~

I am sad that first grade went by so fast, I've been through this with Maya so I know how fast it goes from here. I have loved watching Eden blossom this year. She is so darn smart it's ridiculous, but because things come so easy she can be very lazy which makes for some tension around here some days.

What I LOVED most about first grade with Eden, and what I don't ever want to forget...
Her "SAVE THE APPLESAUCE" cause. She just couldn't watch all that applesauce go to waste! She is so my girl...

Her obsession with her teeth. She loves to wiggle them and pull them out. She brushes religiously and looks forward to her dentist appointments like they are trips to Chuck E. Cheese.

Her cute hairstyle. Always side pony tail with a pony that matched her "elefit".

The way she folded every single piece of paper she was supposed to bring home from school and then stuffed her back pack to the max! Here is a sample of her paper folding and back pack stuffing.

The way she tackled me every time I walked into her classroom and insisted on a kiss on the lips. I had to pry her off of me every single time.

Having lunch with her at school. She made me feel like a celebrity.
Watching her play at recess when she didn't know I was there.
The way she would run to the fence during recess when she saw me and Camden rollerblading by.
The way she tied her sweater/sweatshirt around her waist. She even had one on during her class picture!

The field trips I was able to go on...the county fair and the butterfly freedom day.

For the most part Eden had a great first grade year. She had a very loving teacher who truly saw Eden as the precious spirit that she is.
See Eden was in a class that had THREE special needs kids. There were two autistic little guys and one other child who had some serious behavior/emotional issues. I was the room mom and was in the classroom on a regular basis. I knew that her teacher had her hands full. Eden had been in an integrated kindergarten class so she already knew one of the boys very well, and she was not phased by their behavior.

Her teacher knew Eden could handle these guys so she would have Eden usually sit in a group with one of them to help them out. One boy became very comfortable with Eden which meant he would act out at her for no reason. The teacher was on top of this and did her best to intervene before things got ugly but Eden definitely had some tough days. It made for some teaching opportunities and I know that she has a big heart that was able to understand what most kids her age don't. She learned what it meant to love unconditionally and have compassion. There were many times she would come home and tell me about something that had happened that day where she had to stick up for one of the boys.
A couple days after school got out I found this note in Eden's report card envelope.

There are many reasons to love Eden and because I am her mom, I get a front row seat to see her greatness. But when someone else sees it and gets how great my kid is...well... it just makes me feel so honored to have such a special little girl.

 

I'm going to miss my first grade Eden. She rocked!...but I have a feeling she will rock second grade too.

So Far Behind...

I have so much to blog and, as usual, so little time.  I have a lot to say about Eden leaving first grade. I'm not okay with it. I have a lot to say about Maya going into fifth grade...I'm TOTALLY not okay with that!  I will post more about that stuff later.

So here is what's been going on...

The deck is almost done. It looks so amazing, now I have been trying to get the rest of my yard looking decent.

 

I lost my camera. I have had it for five years and it disappeared. I think it got stolen out of my car one night. So I got a very fancy pants new one. I had it for a day and new that it wasn't for me. There is a neat story behind that story that I might share with you someday. Instead I took it back and got the updated version of my old cannon. LOVE IT!

I've been working on my kitchen. I made new curtains and tonight I will begin painting the island. Tomorrow the red walls and next week the cabinets...ya hoo! I will post pictures when I'm done with it all.

The weather has totally sucked. I'm sorry but that is the only word I can think of that adequately describes it. It's only been the past three days that it's actually felt like summer! Yay for 7o degrees!

The only show I make time to watch is So You Think You Can Dance. It brings me so much joy! I still have issues with the format this season but every time I see Neal I get over it.

Maya broke her foot. Thankfully it was a very minor break. She had to stay off of it for a week. She got crutches because her parents are too cheap to buy the boot and she got to be pushed around the school in a wheel chair.

The girls had their dance recital. It was when my camera went missing so I had to borrow one. It was a point and shoot that I wasn't familiar with so my pictures weren't so great.

This is Eden in her "Africa" costume. It was, by far, my favorite costume to make and I didn't get a decent photo of it!

I made these costumes too. I totally channeled my inner Dixie Chick and Pat Benatar.

Me and Kerry the fearless room moms! I always get stuck with the "difficult" group. One of the girls in Maya's class is oppositional defiant...I could not keep track of her to save my life. After three hours I was so exhausted!

My friend Kerry took some good pictures with her fancy camera, so when she shares them with me, I will share them with you.

We had our annual community garage sale which we totally rocked, thank goodness because it paid for our Ikea shopping spree.

We are loving our season tickets to our hometown arena football team...GO SHOCK! #1 BABY!

I had another incident with my OAM neighbor (the cat fight guy). This time it was the dog barking like crazy, in my ear, while I was weeding. Aric sprayed the dog with the hose...a light spray...and it got the OAM all hot and bothered. We are getting privacy bushes planted ASAP!

Another one of my dearest friends (Stacey) moved. I made her a photo book with some highlights of our almost seven year friendship.

 

I'm sad.

Camden got hand, foot and mouth disease. It was yucky. And now the girls are totally paranoid about getting "the disease."

We celebrated Aric because he is such an awesome dad.

We got him lots of presents.

 

He celebrated himself by making some YUMMY ribs. He knows better than to put me in charge of such a special meal.

 

Let's see what else is there...oh yeah...I hurt myself running my marathon so I haven't been able to run. I'm so frustrated there is really nothing else to say about it. Tomorrow I will roller blade nine miles next to my buddies while they run....LAME!

The girls had dentist appointments and got haircuts. Maya may need braces or a retainer...here come the orthodontist bills!

...Eden is loosing teeth like crazy...

...and C is making me crazy!

And that's about it.

Easy to Please

Aric and I have been married for 11 years and 2 days. We knew our anniversary weekend would be filled with garage selling and recital dancing so we celebrated the weekend before.
We left the chitlin's for 36 hours and headed over to Seattle.
We knew it was going to be a fabulous trip because of this omen while we were filling up on our way out of town...

(A mullet of this amazingness can only mean good things to come.)

We celebrated with a much anticipated shopping trip to...

(I will post the amazing finds ever later.)

We took in a Mariners game...

 

(Nothing says "thirty-something" couple more than this picture. Oh and the fact that we were singing every word to every 90's song that they played. It happened to be turn back the clock to the 90's game.)

(Truth be told, I would have much rather been at a Red Sox game but we couldn't go the dates they were coming...so sad.)

(We left the game early.... losing 7-1...and found a few more treasures at Ikea.)

We had a fun trip. It was short and sweet but we made the most of it. Here are some fun food highlights:
~ Eating at sports bar for our anniversary dinner. We had pizza as not to break our tradition of eating Italian food on our anniversary night.
~ Eating yummy vanilla frozen yogurt at Ikea for a snack.
~Eating teriyaki tenderloins and chocolate cake for dessert.
~Eating the best french toast and breakfast potatoes EVER!
~Eating gross chili nachos at the game...we were too lazy to walk to the other side of the stadium for the garlic fries. A decision we totally regret.
And now non-food related highlights:
~Getting almost in trouble by an old lady seat patroler at the the game. Our seats were in the club house but I was cold so we went to the nose bleed seats that were in the sunshine.
~Spending a few hours in Ikea getting the best deals ever!...I think I already mentioned that...
~When Aric said "Pretty girls don't read in bars." I got to finally finish reading Pride and Prejudice I started reading it a few months ago. It has been 17 years since I was introduced to that masterpiece. Oh how fun it was to read it with my 34 year old eyes. Aric didn't appreciate my neglecting him while I waited for our pizza.
~Getting to wear my new shoes...

I love them. I found them at Ross for $19.99.
I have a whole lot more to say about my 11 year 2 day marriage that we celebrated but that will have to wait until I have more time to write. It is 20 minutes past my bedtime and I can't hardly keep my eyes open....

Window into my world...

Who knew that boys were so different from girls? Of course I knew there were things that were going to be different, but my girls never made the messes that C makes. You may think that I exaggerate but here is proof.

These are the five basic rules that all must adhere to in our house.

Rule #1 - Keep all bathroom doors shut!

Why this is so hard to remember? I do not know, but people in this house really need to be better at it because...I find him playing in the toilet, turning on the tub, or sucking on the toothpaste more times than I will ever admit.

Rule #2 - Push all the chairs in around the table!

...or else C will climb up on it and either stand on it or dump whatever he finds, like the sugar or cups of water.

Rule #3 - He can never be alone in the upstairs family room!

He will find markers and eat them. He will find scissors and play with them. He will push buttons on my sewing machine and computer. He will play with my camera and take a million pictures like this...

Rule #4 - Keep the patio door locked!

He loves to be outside. He has figured out how to open the slider and with the new deck he wants to escape.

No worries, there was actually a parent out there this time.

Rule #5- Close the pantry door all the way!

This is the most important rule, but the one that gets broken most often. C loves the pantry. C loves food...

...especially cereal...

...and crackers.

It's impossible to count how many pieces of cereal or crackers I have picked up because of this boy. The messes that I have to clean up take so much time out of my day it makes me crazy just thinking about it!

He sure is one messy little boy, but I love him...oh, do I love him!

 

Here's a funny little video of my messy little guy.