First day of school

While according to the calendar (or weather), it may not officially be the end of summer, but summer as we knew it is over!! No more sleeping in, staying up late, going to the pool, staying in PJ's all day, having friends over fairly regularly and living with just about no type of schedule at all. Today summer ended and school started! Life around our house is back on a schedule. One that may prove to be a little more hectic than in years past. Instead of just getting one child off to school, I now have to get two out the door. Kendal started third grade and Payton started Kindergarten. Both were very excited for their first day of school. Everyone was in bed last night on time knowing that they would have to be up by 6:30 this morning. I went to bed praying that it would be a good morning! I got up at 6:00, went to the kitchen to get my coffee and before I even got it poured, I hear, "Hi Mama". Kendal was already up! It was going to be a good morning!!! :)

My big girls excited and ready to leave for school. They started asking at 7:15 if we could leave!!

Bransyn had to be in some pics with her sisters!

Payton with her teacher, Ms. L

She seems so little to be putting things in a locker!! :-/

sitting at her desk

After getting plenty of hugs and kisses and me shedding a few tears, she got right into coloring. I knew she was going to have a good day!

Kendal with her teacher, Ms. F

After we left Payton in her class, Kendal informed me that she could get to her class by herself. She has always been little miss independent! I took her anyway because I am just not ready for that independence. Plus, I had to take pictures...obviously!! :)

I managed to leave both my girls with minimal tears and head home to get a few things done before going for a Mommy playdate with my friends Allyson and Kelly and our "leftover children" as they are being referred to. :) It was so nice to sit at the table drinking coffee and talking with very minimal interruption. We kept commenting on how quiet it was.

The "leftover children" had fun playing together and didn't seem to miss their older siblings at all.

We picked the big kids up after school and they all came out with a smile, got in the car and were excited about their day. All said they had fun and they liked their teachers. We celebrated the day with Sonic Happy Hour. It was a great day...hopefully these kind of days will continue through the year!!

Until next time...

Payton turns 5

This past Saturday was Payton's FIFTH birthday. Since Bransyn's bday is 2 weeks away, I asked the girls if they wanted to have a party or if they would rather go to the zoo. Both excitedly said the zoo! Since my parents are coming this weekend and it worked out that Jeff has to work both of their birthday weekends, we will taking the birthday zoo trip this weekend with Grandma and Papa. Payton wanted to wait and have cake and open presents with Grandma and Papa so we told her she could pick a place to go for dinner so she would have something special to do on her birthday. She picked Red Robin. YUMMMMM!!!!

Our server (is that the PC term??) and other employees came to the table with balloons for her, announced to everyone in the place that it was her birthday and proceeded to sing to her.

She got a little emabarrassed when they were singing to her.

It was worth the embarrassment. :) She got this ginormous sundae that she shared with her sisters....and well OK, Mommy too!! :)

She loves her bendy Red Robin that they gave to her as well.

Happy Birthday sweet Payton. We love you very much!!

Until next time...

Go With The Flow

Last Thursday, my friend and I thought we would be fun Mommies and take our kids to Dallas where a train promoting a Disney movie coming out later this year would be. We just knew our kids would love it!! We would get to take a tour of the train and watch a premier of the movie....ALL FOR FREE!! Thanks to Marilyn Monroe on the GPS we found exactly where we needed to go. Us bright Mommies, however, did not think about the fact that you have to pay to park in the city. So, after scrounging through the change in both of our wallets, we managed to come up with the $4 to park in a lot somewhat close to the train station. We trek with all kids to the station and walk inside where we are informed that there is a TWO HOUR wait to see the train!! REALLY?!?!?! Well, now what are we going to do? We have made the drive and paid the last of any money in our wallet to park, we don't want it to be a wasted trip but we are unwilling to stand in a two hour wait line outside in the heat with six kids to see a train. So instead of seeing a train like we thought, we took a little tour of the area with six kids in the heat. The kids were a lot less disappointed than I thought they would be and had a good time anyway.

Payton saw this building and asked if we could go in the palace because of course, that's what any princess would think this was. She's so cute!! :)

After walking around for awhile, everyone was hot and thirsty so we stopped for some cool air, drinks and cookies. YUM!

We went with the flow and had a fun time even though it wasn't what we had originally planned.

Until next time...

A Mommy's Worst Fear

As a mommy, I think I can speak on behalf of all of us that our worst fear is something happening to one of our children. And by that, I mean them being lost or taken. Sadly, there are families out there having to deal with these sort of things on a daily, hourly and minute by minute basis. My heart breaks for them!

The girls had received a package from Grandma S this weekend containing clothes for each of them. A couple of items needed to be exchanged for different sizes. Yesterday afternoon, we made a family shopping trip and hit several stores which included JC Penney and Children's Place where the items needed to be exchanged. Since the item at CP was a pair of pants for Bransyn, Jeff dropped her and I off at the door so it would be less chaotic (so we thought) and I was to call him when we were done.

Bransyn and I enter CP, I found where the pants were, found the size I was looking for, tried them on her and yep, they were the size that were needed. SCORE! We go to the register so I can exchange them and two employees were busy with something so I was patiently waiting. Bransyn was standing right beside me. I turned around to look at a package of panties for a FEW SECONDS, turned back around and Bransyn wasn't standing there any longer. No big deal...I do a 360 turn, but still don't see her. Now, Bransyn is our child that doesn't like to be left behind so she pretty much sticks right to me. She even gets upset if I get too far ahead of her in the aisle at Walmart so I wasn't overly concerned. I look around the clothing near me and finally one of the morons working at CP tells me, "she went that way" pointing through the (doorless)doorway. REALLY?!?!?! So I go through thinking she will be right there, but she isn't. At this point I am still not freaking out, but I am quickly making my way through the store looking in and around all the clothing calling her name...first and middle! With each call of her name it is getting louder and louder as the panic starts to set in and I AM NOW FREAKING OUT!!!! My heart was POUNDING, I was shaking so bad and started sweating like crazy! Gross!! There were three other women there shopping with their children and not one of them stopped to help me look for her. Now I realize that it is my responsibility to keep an eye or both eyes on my children, but one would think that as a mother and you see someone searching frantically for their child that one would stop holding up articles of clothing and maybe help look. I personally have done that in the past, but not these moms, they couldn't have cared less!! I was so irritated and furious that I would have loved to strangle them with the clothing or beat them over their heads with the hangers! Maybe both!!!

I finally go back to the CP moron, I mean employee, where both morons, man! I mean employees are still working on whatever it was they were working on about 5 minutes earlier. NO ONE was concerned that I am screaming Bransyn's name running around the store in tears like a crazy person. When I finally asked for assistance, they helped look for her. Just as I get Jeff on the phone and tell him (in tears) that I can't find Bransyn and that it had been about 5 minutes, another employee hollers that she had her. Apparantly, she was tucked between something watching three boys whose mother was letting them run around and play in the window display and I kept missing her. Not to judge...but *nice*!! I scooped her up in my arms and asked her what she was doing and why she didn't answer me. She said, "I was right there!" :) and said she didn't hear me calling her. hmmmmm!! She was not even the least bit concerned or aware of the panic I had been in. I exchanged the pants with her still in my arms and carried her out to the car and didn't let go of her until I put her in her car seat.

Not something to be proud of, but I have now managed to "lose" all three of my girls somewhere. Kendal was almost 5 at an outdoor Easter event, Payton was the 2 to 3 range at JC Penney and now Bransyn, almost 4 at Children's Place. Sheesh!!

Thankfully for us in all those situations, it worked out OK in the end...we left with all our kids in tow. Last night though, I could not sleep. I kept thinking about the "CP incident" as well as thinking about all the parents that "that few seconds" has had a completely different ending for them and has forever changed them and their families. I laid in bed and cried for them and prayed for them!! I am so thankful for what God has blessed me with!!!

Until next time...

Ready for school

We are officially into August and in 19 days, I will be taking not one, but two kids for their first day of school. Kendal will be starting 3rd grade and Payton will start her school "career". :)

Last night I took the girls (all three of them) to buy school supplies. I keep saying that I am going to buy the school packs through the PTA, but I am a helpless cheapskate (I get it from my mom) and I just can't bring myself to do that when I can save money by going to Walmart and getting everything myself. This year was actually a more pleasant experience because I didn't wait until almost the start of school to get everything. Last year I had to go to three different stores...what a pain that was!!! Probably didn't actually save any money when you factor in the gas that was used, but I digress.... :)

With TWO grades of school supply lists in hand, the four of us hit Walmart. I let each of them have their own cart to put their supplies in which was very cute, but was actually done to save in the arguing that I knew would ensue if we just had one and also to save me from having to re-sort everything before school starts. We were able to get EVERYTHING on both of their lists at ONE store. That was great! We only had one minor hiccup and that was the YELLOW PLASTIC FOLDER WITH POCKETS AND BRADS. I couldn't find one! Kendal, bless her heart, kept pulling out yellow folders and saying, "here's one!", but it would be one with pockets and no brads or brads with no pockets or not plastic at all. After several frustrating minutes, I finally resigned myself to the fact that we would have to locate one somewhere else. About that time, a very sweet and helpful Walmart employee (who you usually can't find to save your life) appeared and asked if I needed help finding anything. Thank you, Lord!! I told her that I was in search of the elusive yellow plastic folder with pockest and brads. She disappeared for a few minutes and when she re-appeared, was holding one in her hand and informed me that that was their last one. WHEW!!! God works in mysterious ways! :)

Kendal still has her messenger style book bag that my sis-in-law made her for last year that I absolutely love, but she informed me that she wanted a regular back pack for this year. I tried encouraging (pressuring) her to use that again, but she REALLY WANTS A BACKPACK! :) I decided that in the whole "pick your battle" scenario that this wasn't a battle that I needed to fight. The backpacks were only 10 bucks and I figure the messenger bag can be used whenever she wants to. If only I had realized the backpack she would really want, I may have fought that battle! She picked out an iCarly backpack with the iCarly girl, Miranda Cosgrove (Ithink that's her name) on it! BLEH!!! Not *bleh* Miranda Cosgrove...she's a cute girl, but *bleh* the backpack itself. I have NEVER bought any apparal anything with people or characters, whatever on them and I really didn't want to start with an iCarly backpack. I know, "what's the big deal, there are worse things", but this is just one of my crazy quirks! :) We stood in the aisle "discussing" this for about 15 min. before I finally told her that we would go ahead and get it, but that I reserve the right to continue to think about it and possibly return it. She was OK with that and threw the backpack in her cart. We will continue to look around and see if I can encourage (pressure) her to pick something else. :) Payton had already thrown her cute backpack in her cart, but when she saw that Kendal was getting the iCarly one, went running to the Princess one hanging on the wall...I just couldn't go there so she got a Princess water bottle to take to school instead. She was happy with that!

Payton, as I have mentioned in previous posts, has not been excited about the start of school because of the shot situation. She doesn't want to get shots, so she doesn't want to go to school!! I was at a birthday party last week talking to a friend that works in the school district and she was saying that if she didn't have her shots that they wouldn't even let her start until she gets them. I wasn't sure how to work that since her birthday is on Sat. the 22nd and school starts Mon. the 24th. You can't get shots prior to the birthday so what was I going to do...take her first thing Mon. morning before school to get her shots and then drop her off for her first day of Kindergarten. That just seems way mean, but the only other option was to miss the first day of school, which was also not acceptable to me. I decided I needed to look into the matter.

I went to the office where they get their shots to inquire about this dilema. The nurse pulled her records and low and behold if she doesn't need shots after all! HALLELUJAH AND PRAISE THE LORD!!!! She also pulled the other two and come to find out, Kendal has to get a second chicken pox vaccine. Made me laugh...ruined Kendal's day! :) I can wait and take her in the same time I take Bransyn in for her shots after her 4th birthday next month. I don't know where I got the idea that Payton had to get 5 year shots, but FYI...if the school nurse doesn't inform you that shots need to be given before starting school when you register them, then you're good to go. DUH!!! ;-D

Summer is winding down....I am watching my friends girls three days this week and next, we will have a few more trips to the pool (AAHHHH!!) hang out with friends and before we know it, school will begin. Two kids with homework, not really looking forward to that! With the "shot crisis of '09" averted, school supplies purchased and plenty of school clothes (thanks to my mom-in-law), we will be ready when the day comes. There will just be a few tears shed and all from this mommy!

Until next time...