Izzy Celebrates at School

On Monday, February 2nd, Izzy had school. She got to bring in a special birthday treat. Typically the teachers request healthy snacks, which I think is great, but I like that for special occasions the kids can bring a sweet treat.

Last year Izzy took the heart shaped sprinkled doughnuts from Krispy Kreme. This year she originally was going to take the same kind, but once she got hold of the chocolate sprinkled covered doughnuts from the day before she quickly changed her mind.

So, Drew and I dropped Izzy off at school and then headed out to pick up the doughnuts. We returned in time to catch the kids doing a craft/free play before joining them for her celebration snack. Izzy sure has a great class this year. The dynamic between the all the students is really sweet. I was looking at a calendar with Izzy and telling her which student was having a birthday next, and when I turned around all the students were silently standing behind me just listening.

So, after the kids cleaned up and got sanitized, Izzy hopped into the leader chair for us to sing Happy Birthday.



She also got to choose the which blessing the class would say before snack. She chose "God is Great Boogie". The teachers wanted Drew to sit next to Izzy, but he refused to move until they addressed him as "Alex". He character choice for the day Alex the lion from Madagascar.

Here he is sitting in his own chair.




Izzy told her teacher to call him Alex. As soon as the teacher said, "Alex, can you go sit by your sister?" he hopped right up and took a seat next to her.



Once all kids were seated for snack, we sang Happy Birthday one more time.



Drew took a seat right next to his big sister. It is hard for me to imagine him doing this next year. I am SO not ready to let him go :(



After snack, I had the chance to talk to Izzy's teachers about what class she should be placed in next year. We have a choice of 4 or 5day for 4 year olds. Registration is tomorrow and I am really undecided as to what I want to do. I either want 4 days for Izzy and 2 for Drew or 5 for Izzy and 3 for Drew. At first I thought I wanted 4/2 so that Fridays we could just chill. BUT ...then I think about Izzy going to full day kindergarten the following year and think maybe I should sign her up for 5 days? I can always keep the kids home on some Fridays for a break, right? The flip side is that Drew will be in the 2 year old class, but turning 3 a month after school starts. So...I think he would be better off in the 3 day cause it typically consists of the "older" 2's. Let's face it, there is a big difference between age 2 and 3. One last thing, if Drew goes 3 days a week then he will have the teachers Izzy had last year and I love them! You will have to stay posted for tomorrow blog entry to see what days we ended up with. I am so conflicted! Can you tell?

Well, Izzy's teachers think I should put her in 5 day. I think to help prepare her for kindergarten and she will "mesh" better with those teachers? I heard the 5 day teachers are really really great. Very kind, caring, compassionate, gentle, and do a great job trying to get the kids ready for school, all while having lots of goofy fun. And honestly, I just want her to have fun. I want her to LOVE school. She would probably go 5 days a week this year if I let her. Everyday she asks if today is a school day and is upset when I tell her no.

Okay, this wasn't supposed to turn into an entry about school, but rather Izzy's school celebration. Here is one last shot from the day. This is the best shot her teacher could get of the three of us - and she took like 10!

New Skill

I can't say that this was a milestone I was looking forward to. As a matter of fact, I was dreading the day that Drew figured this out. With this new skill has also come a much cleaner hardwood floor!



Can you tell that Drew has been well trained? Every time a camera is aimed in his direction he says, "cheeeeese".

Izzy Turns 4

Sunday is one of the greatest days of the week to celebrate a birthday. Izzy woke up at just after 7 this morning and came into our room looking just a little bit older and wiser. She immediately wanted to go downstairs and open presents. ...she's not fool, she knew what awaited her below.

Pete made a quick run to Krispy Kreme for a birthday breakfast of donuts.



I just grabbed a candle for the donut and guess what...it was a trick candle. The kids thought it was hysterical! Every time Izzy blew it out, *poof*, it would come back on. I think she blew it out nearly a dozen times.

After breakfast we moved on to more important things like presents.



She told Drew she wanted a spotting scope and a magnifying glass. Thank goodness for the dollar store! Drew also got a spotting scope for himself. And my mom had bought the kids each a pirate costume that I didn't give them for Christmas so I decided to wrap them up for each of them today.

Here she is with all her loot! ...we went a bit overboard this year.



A last minute grab at Toys R Us yesterday were a couple puzzles. One is a 25 piece Strawberry Shortcake puzzle and the other is a map of the United States. She has gotten so good at doing puzzles and really enjoys doing them on her own. Score for me! She completed the Strawberry Shortcake puzzle in 10 min. ...guess I need to move onto the next level of pieces. The US puzzle is a lot more challenging. The pieces don't fit together very well, rather they sit next to one another matched up by edges. She insists on doing it herself, and with little frustration, is doing a really good job.

Izzy chose our dinner tonight. She requested steak and pizza. We ended up with just steak (tenderloin in fact) since we recently had pizza. With her steak she wanted egg noodles and broccoli. Here she is eating off the special plate.



...with one more bite


The special plate is something my family used growing up and a tradition we will continue with our children. On special occasions the designated plate is used. A journal then has an entry in it regarding the date and the reason the plate was used. I don't know if it was because she chose the meal, or because she got to eat off the special plate that she then became a member of the clean plate club!

After dinner Rylie and Stephanie stopped by to drop off a present and have some cake. It was so nice to have a friend of hers help celebrate her special day.









Rylie brought her some really cool dot art markers and dot art book. Izzy has been eyeing dot art for quite some time and immediately wanted to play with this gift.



Rylie's attention quickly turned to some of Izzy's newest toys.



This Cool School Computer is a hit among all the kids in our house!



Rylie left around 7:30, and then it was off to bed for Izzy! Happy Birthday my sweet Isabelle. We love you~

(added note: all of these pictures were taken on Izzy's actual birthday. For one reason or another Izzy wore many different shirts throughout the day.)

AKA: Drew

Andrew is his given name. We call him Drew or Drew-Drew. It used to be when you asked him his name, he would reply "I Drew-Drew, I two."

These days he is Drew 5% of the time.

The following list is made up of names that Drew has given himself. Most of these names have "partners" to go with them. I am typically the recipient of these names if there is only one other partner. If there are numerous partners in crime then the pecking order is me, Izzy and finally Pete.

Current list:
Mr. Incredible (Molly is Violet, Izzy is Mrs. Incredible and Pete is Dash or Syndrome (not sure how to spell that name or really even pronounce it since I haven't sat through the entire movie)).

Buzz Lightyear (Molly and Izzy are either Woody or Jesse)

Handy Manny(Molly is Kelly, as is Izzy sometimes, Pete is Mr. Lopart)

Zoom-Zoom His superhero name

Baby Jesus(Molly is Mary) He often says "I Baby Jesus" when rolling himself up in a blanket.

Austin from the Backyardigans (Molly is Pablo, Izzy is Uniqua)

Rooney Doodle from the Doodlebops (Molly is Moe Doodle and Izzy is Dee-Dee Doodle) When in Doodlebop character you can count on him to be singing the theme song. Don't try to sing along with him though because you aren't allowed!

I am sure there are a couple more that I will need to add. I love that he has such a great imagination, but also realize that he may watch a bit too much tv. For those that see him on a regular basis you are aware that if you address him by his given name when he is in character you will get a tongue lashing.

A Fun Saturday Night

We decided to have a last minute pizza party on Saturday night. The day before Delaney, Jen, Mia, Stephanie and Rylie all came over to play. They did really well together - cause three is a tough number of kids to play together because someone usually feels/gets left out. I think all us moms are pleasantly surprised that they play together SO well. We didn't have one fight or argument to break up. In fact, since Drew was alseep and Mia was the only little one around we got to have a nice afternoon of chit-chat.

The girls playing dress up - an activity that has been getting lots of play around here lately.


So why not push our luck again the following evening and throw all the girls together again, and let the husbands tag along too? I am happy to report it went almost as smoothly. We only had one incident of door slamming which resulted in two girls crying. Delaney, rightfully so, because her fingers were slammed in a door. ...and Izzy, because she was the door slammer. When Izzy does something wrong, and knows it, she has a tendency to hide. Sure enough she was found upstairs under Drew's bed. I think she was crying because a) she knew what she did was wrong, and b) she hurt her friend.

After all tears were wiped away, it was onto cupcakes!

Look at Miss Mia's expression in this picture. It is like she knows that Drew should not operate a knife! ...or she is thinking, "you are doing it all wrong!"


And now look at Drew as Mia licks a knife


"Say cupcake!"


Stephanie and Jen enjoying a glass (or two or three)


Husbands just hangin


After cupcakes the kids moved onto some quiet play. How strange to have a house full of kids and for it to be so silent. When I peaked around the corner I saw this (Rylie was working on another puzzle).


After the quiet play had ended the girls decided to hold a tea party. This is one of Izzy's most favorite tea sets. Thanks Aunt Jaclyn!


Shortly after the tea party ended it was time for all party guests to go home. While I fetched some pj's for the kids, Pete read a couple books. It melts my heart every time I see Pete with both kids near him enjoying books. There is just somethin special about kids and their Daddy's!

Drew...

So Drew has had some AWFUL diapers for the last week or so. Today he had about 5-6 particularly bad ones. So, I am trying to figure out if he could be sick, or if it might be teething? It is hard to say because then end of last week he certainly wasn't eating well and he was whipped around with Pete in the hospital. So is he now sick? simply adjusting to the chaos of last week? or teething?

So tonight I notice that he is drooling quite a bit. I say to him, "Hey Drew, does your mouth hurt? Do you think you might be getting some new teeth in there Buddy? Can I put my finger in your mouth and see if you are getting any new teeth?"

He says, "Sure! (pause) ...and then I bite it!

The little booger. So of course I tell him that I don't want to put my finger in his mouth if he is going to bite it and he immediately tries to grab my hand and shove it in his mouth. The little stinker.

A Trace to An Inch

of snow that is.

We woke up this morning to find snow. Rumor had it that we would be getting some, so you can only imagine the kids excitement when they woke up this morning.





We literally came downstairs, opened the coat closet, put on boots (over footed sleepers), coats, hats and gloves. Out the door we went.



Checking out the snow


Catching snow flakes


15 minutes later we headed back in the house all the while listening to Drew protest our return indoors.

Later that afternoon we headed back out. This time we made some snow angels.





...and the kids had to sample the snow...


And see how some of the outdoor toys were weathering the storm


Running through the front yard


And down the side yard into the backyard


This is also the hill that I took the kids sledding on. As you can see there is not really enough snow for sledding, but we tried our darndest to make it work. Basically the kids sat in the sled and I ran down the hill pulling them, and then had to pull them back up. A couple times I flipped them out of the sled and told them to walk. I figured if I had to work so hard outside in the cold then I needed to tire them out so I could get a decent nap out of Drew!

...and it worked ;)