12 Days of Christmas

We love Christmas music! We play it in the house, we play it in the car, we play it on the computer. When we are in the van we can plug in the ipod and listen to music but when we are in the car we can't so we have to listen to music on CD. I discovered this year that our selection of Christmas CDs is really lacking. When I took Emily to Karate class the other day she kept asking to listen to The 12 Days of Christmas. We listened to it over and over again all the way up and all the way home again. We are almost home when suddenly she exclaims oh I get it turtle doves! They are birds like doves but they are shaped like turtles but why are they singing about a fridge? Doves that looked like turtles...fridges...where we listening to the same song? I had to ask. Emily says yeah mom is says two turtle doves and a part fridge in a pear tree. How did they get the fridge in the pear tree and why is it only part. It was really hard not to laugh. When we got home I showed her the words to the song and we looked up turtle doves on the Internet. She seemed a little disappointed but I hope she never forgets her version of the song

Halloween

Okay so way past Halloween but way to worn out for more than this...sorry folks I'll get back on the ball promise! Alek was a cyborg (he designed it himself this year), Ethan the skeleton, Emily the cheerleader, Andrew was supposed to be a pirate but wouldn't put on the costume so he was a golfer instead, Eleanore was also a cheerleader (Emily felt that if she had to be a cheerleader then Eleanore did too, loooong story). Enjoy...

Preschool Bound...

Yeah for preschool! We finally got everything squared away and found a preschool for Andrew. Andrew HATES primary and hates being left alone without either me or Erik so we weren't sure how this preschool thing was going to play out. He was pretty apprehensive but you could tell that he was really excited too. He wouldn't go unless we let him wear his Wall-E shirt.When we got there he was met by his teacher Mrs Jones. She is originally from England and taught preschool, kindergarten and first grade there. She has lots of fun new ideas that I had not seen before. I was very happy that he warmed up to her so quickly, not something he usually does.

Now there are four of the five of them at school at least four days a week. The house gets really quiet for at least a few hours of the day.

Emily's Birthday

Happy 7th Birthday Emily! I can't believe that our Pim is 7! She was very excited for her birthday this year and started reminding me about it a month and a half in advance. (As if we would forget)
She wanted a Tini Puppi dog, new markers, some High School Musical stuff, lip gloss (i.e. lip smackers) and a pink and purple flower cake. It took some looking but we actually found the Tini Puppini dog. Andrew gave her the new markers and Alek and Ethan went in together and got her a High School Musical purse and High School Musical lip gloss.

It doesn't seem that long ago that she was little and watching never ending episodes of Dora the Explorer. Now we have turned a whole new page and are into High School Musical, Hannah Montana, and Wizards of Waverly Place. Crazy how time flies like that!

The Karate Kid

Emily decided that she wanted to start taking Karate lessons. We weren't sure about it at first since her interest in lessons has ranged everywhere from dance, to horseback riding, to snowboarding. We found a good local class and went ahead and signed her up.

She just started at the beginning of August but she is really enjoying it. I got to sit in on one of her lessons and see how it went and she did really well. I like that they emphasize respect a lot in her classes. They talk a lot about how to do karate right you must respect yourself, respect you class, respect your teacher and respect your parents. I also like that they teach them how to handle "stranger danger" with what they learn should they ever need to.

Emily on her first day of class.

Striking a pose.

I wish these pictures where better but they came from my Palm.

When I picked her up from one of her first classes she was telling me all about her friends in class and the things they are working on and she says "I have a couple of teachers in my class. I have Sensei Frank and Sensei Dinner." I asked her Dinner? She said "Yeah I don't know why he has such a weird name" I tried to gently correct her that his name was Sensei Daren. She looked out the window for a few minutes then said "So that explains it. I thought it was Sensei Dinner so I just kept yelling that every time we had to say his name. I will have to remember next time." I love how kids say the funniest things.

First Day of School

The first day of school was actually August 3rd. I am running way behind. The first day of school is always bittersweet. On one hand it is nice to have them returning to those "hollowed halls" of learning where they can do so many other things than play games, jump on the tramp and just generally annoy each other. On the other it means homework, early bedtimes, early wakings, lunch boxes and catching the bus. Here are their first day of school pictures for 2009.
Emily on her first day of 1st grade. She had to have this cool lunchbox that looked like a purse.

Ethan looks like he is headed to military school with that pose. He was excited to start 4th grade. You can't see it but he was especially proud of his new black and yellow striped backpack.

I can't believe Alek is in the 5th grade. I remember when he started preschool! When we went back to school shopping we found out that he wears a mens size 7 shoe! (I had the lady at Famous Footwear measure him twice to be sure ) He wasn't at all happy about having to be to the bus stop by 7 AM.

Here's to another fun year!

Back to School

It's hard to believe that it is already time to head back to school. Yesterday we went to back to school night for the kids. They don't want to admit it but they are all so excited to go back to school.

Taking the kids to back to school night always brings back those memories of going to school. It was always exciting to find your name on those long class lists. You would search and search until you found your name and then search to see who was going to be in class with you. After that you would either groan or celebrate depending on who you got as a teacher. Then you checked out your classroom, got your supply list and then got to go school shopping! Nothing like the thrill of a new lunchbox and backpack!

It is strange to think that we have a fifth grader this year. To this day my most vivid memories of school start at around the fifth grade. It may be because that is the first school year that I only attended one school, I'm not sure. Erik says that he remembers fourth and fifth grade clearly too so I think that it is just that at about that time you are old enough to be able to carry those memories even many years after they happen. Alek is really excited to start band this year. The first week of school they get to go in and try out the instruments and decide if they want to join. I have mixed feeling about school starting. I am of course looking forward to having a quieter house during the day and hopefully getting things done but I am not looking forward to the homework, early bedtimes, packing three lunches every morning and most of all 7am school bus! Yuck!