First Day of K-4

This past Wednesday, the children had their first day of K-4 ... it was a BIG day for them as the decision was made back in the spring to separate Ian and Bonner in school.  The first clue to separate was that Bonner told their teacher last year several times "Don't yell at my brother like that"; in addition, the teacher would ask Ian to clean up something and his sister would do it for him!  So, I talked to their teacher and after much prayer and watching them interact at the beginning of summer, it was decided that each would be in one of the 2 K-4 Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes.

We all went to "Meet the Teacher" on Tuesday so Bonner was able to meet her teacher, Mrs. Zivitski, and Ian met his teacher, Mrs. Benthall.  Bonner only has 9 students in her class and Ian has 16 ... I think that is actually the best for both of them!  God is good and answers prayers, for sure!

Ian woke up at 5:45 a.m. Wednesday morning and never went back to sleep so I was a little concerned how it would go! But they both got up so happy and ready to get dressed, to get their backpacks ready, and to eat their breakfast!

Here they are still in their jammies!

One day a week, they are going to stay late and take a nap at school so Bonner thought she needed to take her pillow, her blankie, and one of her DreamLites :-)

Ian wouldn't pose near as nicely, but check out Bonner in the back :-)  She was ready!

And after they got so dressed, they were so precious!

Ian wouldn't take a picture with his sister but she was all smiles!

This pose just kills me ... 4 going on 14 :-)

I had to go back and look at these pictures from years past :-)

First Day of EE2 in 2010

First Day of EE3 in 2011

The saying in K-4 is "We are in K-4 so let's say good-bye at the door!"  I thought that would be an issue, but they both gave me a hug and a kiss at the door and went right to their seats!  So sweet ... but this mama must admit that she was a little sad :-(

The greatest thing about K-4 though is ...

the carpool line :-)

I hate I didn't take any pictures of their teachers walking them to the car ... they were so precious!  Both teachers reported "Great Days" which was wonderful!  And Ian's teacher told me that Bonner stopped her in the hall twice and asked her, "Is my Ian doing ok?"  She also said that they "reunited" on the playground (all the K-4 classes have recess together) like they hadn't seen each other in years!  Ha!  So sweet - but it definitely solidified the decision to separate them!  It was actually fun hearing from both of them how terrific their day was ... I asked Bonner what her favorite thing was to do and she said, "I painted a picture of Clifford!"  Ian just laughed and said, "I did, too! But I didn't paint him red; I painted him a little different!"  Can't wait to see what a "little different" big red dog looks like :-)

Fresh Paint does a Mama good

I bought 10 hours of decorating services at the Heart Ball's silent auction and have been so pleased with the decorator.  We have met several times and she has helped me so much ... and now, I am sssooo excited to share some of the first pictures of paint changes!  We are nowhere near finished but the paint has me feeling so cheery that I wanted to pass it on.

Foyer

BEFORE

(Ian insisted in being in the picture)

And NOW

Now the Color is "Spa" by Sherwin Williams and the wainscoat was added at the bottom

Dining Room

BEFORE

 

and NOW

The wall color is again, "Spa" by Sherwin Williams;

I left the gold in the tray-part of the ceiling to give it a more formal look;

we added the wainscoating in here as well;

and, we painted the ceiling pink (official color is "Coming Up Roses")

the "Library"

BEFORE

and NOW it is going to be a "Craft/Play Room"

the wall color is "Coming Up Roses" pink;

the cherry cabinets are now white;

and the inside of the cabinets matches my kitchen in the color of "Lime Rickey"

I finalized the order for the new blinds and window treatments today.  I think most of my furniture will work so that will be good - I'm going to get some local art for the walls and do some things with old shutters!  I LOVE the colors - they are so cheery.  The decorator that is helping and the window treatment lady have both said, "We never get to do anything this bright!" Not sure if that's a compliment or not ... but I'll take it :-)

I'll post pictures along the way so stay tuned!

 

Our last Summertime Hurrah

I had every intention to get down to Alabama to see Steve's mom, my nanny, all summer ... but that didn't happen until last week.  Steve & I took the kiddos down there for a few days; it was alot of fun.  We stayed in a hotel, but spent most of our time at my Uncle Casey's house with his 2 teenage girls - they were such a GINORMOUS help and I actually was able to relax a little bit!  Uncle Casey has a pool in his backyard so the kids swam and swam and swam!  Here's a quick video - Bonner is just about to jump off the diving board without any floatation device :-)  She will be fine if she'll do it once!

We stopped in Atlanta on our way down to break up the trip and spent lunchtime at the new Legoland in Phipps Plaza.  It was fun, but pretty crowded.  Here are some pictures from our stop!

Ian is trying to figure things out on the map!

"Look, mom, so many legos!"

 Bonner enjoyed the "Friends" section since it had pink legos!

 You can barely tell from this picture - but that's Ian riding the Merlin ride they have with one of the Legoland staff members.  Steve battles motion issues so I didn't want to take a chance of him getting sick so Ian was fine to ride with "Mr. Ed"!

 Here's Bonner next to me riding the Merlin ride.  She couldn't hold onto the handle and reach the pedals but she enjoyed going round and round and round!  It gave me a great workout as the faster you pedaled, the higher up you went!

 Unfortunately, I waited until the last day to try and get pictures taken of Ian and Bonner with Nanny - they wanted no part of that because they were exhausted.  The best we could do was to have Uncle Casey holding Ian who is holding their toy poodle, Baby, sitting in front of Nanny with Bonner taking the picture with my phone ... yep, best I could do!

When going back through my phone to find some pictures, I found these that obviously Bonner took while Ian was playing!

This is Ian's new Toy Story Imaginext toy that he got for his birthday a couple of weeks ago.

 It came with an alien :-)

 who enjoyed his ride on the round-about

 and then met up with one of his friends :-)

And these absolutely end Bonner's chances of ever running for public office ... she figured out how to take her own picture holding my iphone and she made the most of it!

Busy Week for my 4-year olds

Wow, what a week it was?  After the birthday celebration last Friday night, my best friend from college came into town with her 2 children to spend Saturday night with us.  It was so much fun.  Then on Sunday, we got to babysit our little niece, Waverly, who was born in February.

I know I'm partial but I just think she is such a cutey.  Ian actually said, "Mommy, she is cuter than presents" during our babysitting fun :-)  So sweet!

 Monday, my kiddos were at Stewart's so I got some errands done ... mostly focused on the redecorating I am doing around the house.  Tuesday, we went to Pump It Up to play in the morning, McDonald's playground for lunch, and then Ian spent the afternoon at a friend's house while Bonner and I spent some "girl time" together.

Wednesday morning, the children had their 4-year old check-up, shots and all.  They did great ...

 getting their vision checked (Ian was 20/30)

Bonner was 20/40 (not sure what happened to her hair)

getting their blood pressure checked

and, getting their hearing checked!

Dr. Jones then came in to check their hearts, their throats, their ears, and their spines!

 Ian weighs 37.2 lbs (62 %tile) and is 39.25 (27 %tile) inches tall.  Bonner weighs 34.4 lbs (46 %tile) and is 38.75 (30 %tile) inches tall.  They got 2 shots at the end; Ian didn't even flinch and Bonner held her own with "just a few tears".

Just after lunch on Wednesday, my Aunt Joyce came into town which was so special - she hadn't met Waverly yet so Taylor brought her over for a visit.  Here's Aunt Joyce with the children :-)

Just after this picture, I trimmed Bonner's bangs ... about 5 minutes after that, she proceeded to cut her hair on both sides!  I haven't taken a picture of that mess yet :-)


Thursday morning, I woke up and noticed that the Greenville Water people were parked outside to read the meter, I assumed.  But when I went to go get ready for a funeral, I had no water - argh!  After calling the water company, I was informed that I hadn't paid a bill in 3 months ... well, that's odd because I was 99% sure that I had signed up for automatic bill pay-up when I switched the account to my name.  Either way, they had turned the water off without a courtesy call or anything.  I kept my calm on the phone but explained to the young man that I was extremely disappointed that as a customer of at least 12 years and someone that has probably missed a payment 3 times in those 12 years, they didn't have the decency to call me.  He waived the $40 cut-off fee but it was several hours before the water came back on.

The funeral was for a dear friend's grandmother who passed away over the weekend.  It was such a sweet service; this woman has done it all ... if she set her mind to it, it was as good as accomplished.  The interesting thing they did was open up the floor to those in attendance to talk about the lady which I just thought was a great idea.  I, of course, said a few words; but then wondered to myself if I would be so bold as to have that happen at my funeral.  All comes back to the legacy you are leaving; I know that I have stepped on alot of toes in my 38 years of life, but I finally feel like God has tamed my tongue and my heart to show greater empathy and sensitivity to those around me.  Maybe I could just open it up to those I have met since I turned 35 - ha!!

After the funeral, I ran home and got Ian so I could take him to his cardiology appointment.  He did great!  EKG was stable; sats looked good; he was well-behaved; and, the best news of all, "All clear for another year!"

I must say that I was really nervous in the waiting room; he, on the other hand, was not!  Just taking it all in!

Another height, weight, and blood pressure check!

All smiles getting his EKG!

Watching Dora while getting his echo!

Enjoying a lollipop for being so good.  We built that lego tower behind him - he insisted on it having a flag so I improvised with stuff from my bag - a plastic lid, a straw, and a paper towel!

Thursday evening we went to watch our little buddy, Hunt, play t-ball.  I am hoping that Ian will want to do it next year now that he has seen it and understands it a little better.  After a busy day, I was exhausted so off to bed we all went.  At 4:30 a.m. I heard some giggling going on; I got up to find the children playing in their room very quietly.  They never went back to sleep - we had some neighbors come over for a little playdate while their mommy ran out - I was proud of mine for rallying and not passing out.  Stewart came to pick them up around 1 p.m. and I am pretty sure Bonner was asleep before they got out of the driveway and, not too far afterwards.

The sleeping issue is a big one around here.  Without fail, someone wakes up during the night and they are now into waking the other one up to play.  To separate them, I would have to put one of them in the basement which would be much worse for everyone with potty, etc. So I really don't have too many options - 1) I could move, but I have zero desire to do that because I absolutely have the best neighbors in the world or 2) I could put a bed in the new "craft room" which is how I am leaning.  I am converting our current dark, formal library to a craft/playroom for us to actually use so I think I am going to take the couch out of there and put a daybed of some sort in their.  The painters come this week so I am sssooo excited for some fresh colors in this house!  I'll take some before and after shots so you can witness the transformation.

Thanks to everyone for their texts, calls, and emails this week during the doctor appointments.  I'll be honest, I do not think I could handle a surgery for Ian right now so I am sssooo thankful God has seen fit to protect his little heart for at least another year!