Got Stickers?

A friend of ours included us in a sticker club a few weeks ago. (We participated in one last summer, but the kids are having so much more fun with it this time around.) The kids LOVE getting mail, then of course the treasures are fun in and of themselves. Little Miss A always has a creative use for them, usually involving paper creations, today it was arm decorating. :)

All Lined Up

Okay, this is an example of Mr. D's "clean up" in his room. It is definitely nice and tidy, but not exactly put away. :)

Charlotte's Web

We went to our new neighborhood middle school production of Charlotte's Web. The kids loved it. It was perfect for the kids. They loved the songs and all the cool costumes. They completely followed the whole story...they were laughing in all the right places, clapping when it was appropriate and of course were sad when Miss Charlotte died at the end.

The really fun thing was that we saw a lot of friends from school. (The students from our school still get bused to the middle school by our new house. Next year they'll have a new campus of their own though.) Anyway, Mr. D ran into his book buddy!!! How funny is that? The really weird thing is, I just pulled her into my classroom yesterday to test her for my program. I had no idea that she was D's book buddy, she had no idea that D was my son, and D was just shocked to know that I knew HIS book buddy.

Field Day

The kids first school field day!!! Double bonus...they got to go TWICE...at 8:00 with their morning friends and at 12:00 with their afternoon friends. :) They did sack races, danced and played in bubbles, played lots of games and got completely SOAKED on the giant inflatable waterslide. Follow that with snow cones and you've got some seriously happy kids!!! Big shocker, their favorite "event" was the waterslide!! :) Unfortunately, the only pics that really turned out were of the kids right afterward in their sopping wet clothes. :)

Phone Number Exchange

When I picked A & D up from school today, the kids were on the playground with their teacher and one of their friends. As we were leaving, D yells across the playground "E remember to tell your Mom to call my Mom so we can have a play date!!! Do you remember my phone number?" His friend yells back a big "No" to which D sighs and screams "I told you it's _ _ _-_ _ _ _!!!" With all my students in the Y around playing to hear, I might add. But, holy crow, it was TOTALLY our number!!! I honestly didn't know he really knew it!!! We haven't sung the phone number song since last summer. How does he remember this stuff?

Later he tells me that we should call E instead of waiting for him to call us and his number is _ _ _ _. After repeating the same number all afternoon, I reply "Buddy, there are couple numbers missing. You only have four numbers for me to call, there should be seven." His response "Are you sure? Do we have seven numbers in our phone number?"

After the teachable moment and counting the numbers out and comparing the two. He decided we should look it up. So, I took out the school calling tree and OMG, minus the three prefix digits, he had it right!!! Seriously, our little boy has one amazing memory!!!

Digital Generation...

Okay, let me just start by saying my kids (like most their age) have no fear what-so-ever when it comes to technology. As I was doing some laundry I heard my cell phone ringing, only it didn't stop...the song kept going. I find my cell phone in the little hands of my baby girl. In the short time she had my phone, she had opened the music folder, started playing Lady Gaga, created a totally bizarre contact comprised entirely of symbols and made a call to one of my friends. (Granted she had NO CLUE how she did any of that, it certainly wasn't intentional. Little hands can apparently move faster that bigger hands can.) So there she sits playing the song with her head bopping to the music. She was in heaven...until I had to take the phone, apologize to my friend for the "prank" phone call, fix my phone book and close out the music program. Then it was off to the manual to figure out how she accomplished all this so fast. I haven't had my new yet. I guess I need to talk to Little Miss A for some techniques and usage tips. :)

Memorial Day = Splash Day

I totally forgot to post the events from our holiday, but better late than never I guess. Let me just say it was SO nice to "pretend" to have summer for a day, but gosh it was hard to adjust back to the reality of work this week...summertime tease!!! We can't wait. :)

The kids kept saying, "really, we don't have school today?" Nope! We slept in, had a late breakfast, then threw on our swim suits and headed outside. We had EVERY water device out that we own and had to keep switching the sprinklers for added variety. The kids had so much fun, squealing at the top of their lungs. (Okay so that was mostly Mr. D...man he's got a set of lungs!) They got creative this year and put the water hose down the slide on the play scape and created their own at home water slide. :) A full day of fun in the sun followed by dinner with friends...I can't think of a better way to spend a holiday!!!!

Diving...

Uvula?

Okay, this is totally random but I just have to share just because it's so hilarious to me. A & D have been OBSESSED with their uvulas lately. WEIRD, right? They are both constantly talking about them, why do we have them, what are they for, mine is bigger than yours, etc. Well, the other day I overheard Little Miss A tell Mr. D that girls uvulas have critters on them and boys don't. WHAT? So I asked her what she was talking about and she said "You know, the critters that help keep our teeth white. That's why girls have whiter teeth than boys." Where does this stuff come from? :)

"Carantulas" on the Road!!!!

J and I love the fact that the kids call any big spider a "carantula". As we were driving the other day, J actually saw a HUGE tarantula walking across the road. The kids and I missed it, so of course we HAD to turn around so everyone could see it. Sadly, the car behind us didn't see it, so it was a little squished when we saw it. Daddy circled the critter twice in different directions so everyone had a window seat perfect for viewing. It really was cool...creepy, but cool. The kids were both so excited to tell their friends at school about the HUGE "carantula" and its hairy legs. The term "carantula" has taken on a whole new meaning. :)

Monkeys at the Park!!!

We went on a typical scooter ride around the block this afternoon. (I didn't take the camera OR my phone, I'm still kicking myself for that.) The kids decided they wanted to stop at the play scape at the school and play for a bit. Again, nothing out of the norm. BUT today Little Miss A and Mr. D decided to REALLY try out he monkey bars on their own. A went ALL the way across...first try TOTALLY by herself. I was shocked!!! I think my mouth literally fell to the ground. WOW!!! After that we had a little competition going...D had to show his sister that he could do it too. Before we left, he did it too!!! Poor A, in all her work on the monkey bars she ended up with her first hand injury...horrible water blister that burst on her last slip. That incident had us racing home for reinforcements (a.k.a. band-aids). As we were leaving A started saying it hurt so bad she wouldn't try it again. So I started recounting how many times I used to get blisters on my hands from playing on the monkey bars, but reassuring her that it was so much fun I couldn't let those blisters stop me. Hopefully she'll get back up there the next time we go. :)

Field Trip to the Stables

A & D's class at school took a field trip to some local stables to learn about how to take care of animals. (Totally has Little Miss A's name written ALL over it, right?) She has been in countdown mode since we found out they were going over a month ago. She was so excited. The day of the field trip the kids had to wear long pants, since a horse ride was part of the experience. This was what Mr. D was so psyched about. Every morning he would pull out his jeans and put them on with his cowboy boots...then he would ask if we were going on our field trip that day. After finding out it wasn't field tip day it was a major chore to convince the little man to change into shorts for a regular school day. (Remember we're in Texas...though it's only May, we're already hitting temps in the upper nineties.)

Finally the big day had arrived. They both jumped out of bed with smiles on their faces "it's field trip day!!!" They got ready faster than I've seen them move in the early morning all year. (If only every day could be field trip day...is there a real magic school bus out there somewhere?) Since I wasn't able to go on the field trip with them, this is a super busy time of year for me in my classroom, I'll have to see if Ms. L has pics I can upload. That said, the only real info I have is from post trip questions. Here's the gist...Little Miss A LOVED the lamb. She said she just wanted to keep petting it. "Mommy, can't we have a lamb at our house?" Yikes, I swear my little girl would have a zoo in the backyard if we had the space. She loves animals. Mr. D's favorite part of the day was riding the horse. I honestly thought that would have been A's favorite part of the day. :) Drew says he "was like a real cowboy!" Other than that, they pet a lot of animals and even got to brush them, they listened a lot, ate lunch and played with friends. Yep, that's all I got from them, but they went on and on about their favorite things. They definitely had fun!!!

New House Update

Okay, while my slide show gadget at the bottom of our blog is on the fritz, I thought I'd post the latest pic of the house. With the whole house being framed, the kids now know where everything is, what every room is and especially where THEIR rooms and bathrooms are! :) They want to run all over the place, like they already own the place. That makes me nervous...it's still such a construction zone, but it's nice to see everything coming together. :)

Music

It's been a musical morning at the Caswell house! What began with Little Miss A finding Mommy's iPod and jamming in the family room saying "Mommy, this song rocks!" (I'm happy to report it wasn't a "Mommy" song.) That led to a full house destruction of our music center and a full band. Everyone had an instrument to play...boy was it LOUD!!! Then we decided to listen to loud music and dance all over the place. Don't you just love Saturday mornings? After a crazy two weeks at work, I sure needed that!!

Band-Aids?

Wow, this is another HUGE difference between the twins!!! Little Miss A needs a Band-Aid for EVERY little scratch, scrape, bruise she gets. Mr D on the other hand can be GUSHING blood and DEFINITELY does NOT need a Band-Aid. How in the world does that happen? Inherent differences between boys and girls? Who knows, but I sure wish we could find a happy medium between the two extremes! :)

Gymnastics Show

Our little man had his gymnastics show last Saturday. I'm so glad he got to have his time in the spotlight with Little Miss A's dance recital looming in the near future. Let me just say this about that...we have one VERY active little boy!!! As with any regular class in gymnastics they had they rotation stations set up. They were organized into small groups with individual instructors. Unfortunately, D's coach wasn't at the show, so he had a different instructor helping him in the show. I have no idea if that is what prompted his crazy behavior during the course of the hour or if was the LARGE audience he felt he needed to entertain, but he was all over the place!!! I honestly don't remember how many times the kid fell on his head. (Yes, we were the bad parents in the audience that were laughing, but only because this is D on a daily basis at home.)

To sum up without creating a novel in this post, let me just say D was constantly being redirected and refocused. He was always watching us and waving at us in the audience while his coach was giving directions for the station they were going to that he had no clue what he was supposed to do at each piece of equipment. YIKES...that's a teacher's worst nightmare...I was embarrassed!!! The, like the little boy that he is, waiting is an issue. If there was a line at the next apparatus, he would simply take another go (or two) on the equipment he was currently using, which of course caused issues for the gymnasts in line behind him. It was crazy...funny and frustrating all in one. That's our boy!!!

Growing Up/Letting Go (a little anyway)

Little Miss A went to a birthday party last week...no big deal right? Well, her friend's Mom picked all the girls up at school in the middle of the day and took the girls to lunch, then out for pedicures and then back to the little girl's house for cake and tea. (Or so I'm told...I obviously didn't get to go.) Thankfully A and I have been out several times for pedicures together over the past few years, so I didn't miss that first thing, but man I wasn't ready for her to go anywhere without me yet especially with someone else driving. I had the biggest struggle with this one...how could I keep her at school while the other girls left? That was a really big step for us.

Anyway, my daughter had a blast. She came home with the cutest little toes and was just beaming.

My son, on the other hand was VERY confused as to why he didn't get to go. So, I went and had lunch with him and played on the playground with him at recess. Then picked him up early for some Mommy/son time before Little Miss A got back. I hope that made up for it in his mind. However, like me, the whole time we were spending time together he was thinking about her. "Where is she? When is she coming back? Why can't I go?" I just replied if she hadn't gone, I wouldn't have been able to spend time just with him. It was only then that he thought it was pretty cool.

Chicks at School

One of our teachers at school had an incubation kit to hatch some eggs. A & D LOVED it. They wanted to check in on the babies every day. Especially Little Miss A, she was so sweet with them, making sure the boys were being gentle and not picking them up. Too cute.

School Carnival

We had a fun carnival at school last night. The kids had a blast!!!! I was in the dunk tank to start out the evening, an event Daddy sadly missed. Thankfully my school friends watched the kids for me while I was getting soaked. The kids didn't take their eyes off me for a second...they are so sweet. They didn't even want to try to dunk me themselves. Mr.D was actually so worried about me that he came over to check on me...sweet boy! :)

Aside from the dunking of the evening, there were so many bounce houses to choose from, the kids went back and forth between them all like pinballs in a giant pinball machine. They kept begging to do the giant rock wall and multi-spinner, but were unfortunately just a little too small for those. With snow cones and cotton candy in their favorite shades, I had a pink daughter and a blue boy by the end of the evening. On top of being colorful, they were also grass covered babies. They got in the bubble pit at the end of the evening which completely soaked them and covered them with tiny blades of grass and dirt. YUCK!!! They were such a MESS, but man they had FUN!!!!

TRYING to Ride WITHOUT Training Wheels...HA!

Since one of our classmates at school has recently learned to ride his bike without training wheels, Mr. D has been insisting that we take his extra wheels off too!!!! (Though this friend is almost a year and a half older than my two, A & D seem to think they are the same age and can do anything he can do...I'm thinking of a song here.) Well, with a trip to the store to pick of some major reinforcements, knee pads, elbow pads and hand protectors, not to mention a new helmet that fits better, Little Miss A decided she was ready too...for the gear anyway. After that purchase, we were ready to go. As soon as we got home, the kids got their gear on and Daddy started taking off the extra wheels. Mr. D was SO gung ho about it!!! However, he did NOT want anyone to let go of the seat. Daddy started out with him and was getting the third degree about the importance of "not letting go" of the bike! So I took him out for a spin, again with the lecture, but I was letting go here and there and he was actually doing okay. BUT as soon as I told him he was actually doing it on his own he freaked. Thankfully I grabbed D before he fell off the bike, but that was IT! Those of you that have been around my bouncing baby boy know the "Mr Dead Man" routine. It was in full force on the neighbors lawn. HILARIOUS!!! Daddy and I were trying so hard not to laugh.

After all that drama, it was Little Miss A's turn. Of course seeing the hullaballoo that was D's reaction to riding a bike, you can probably guess what her reaction was. "NOPE!!!! Not gonna do it. I don't think I'll ride my bike anymore." Great.

So, we began the day with two very excited kids and ended the experience with two children that may never get back on. How do you encourage them to keep trying...read the Little Engine that Could? Is that the typical teacher response?