Motherhood-- I teach reading

As a first time mother I often learned things as I went along. I suppose we all do. Nothing prepared me for my first child entering Elementary school. To complicate the whole event I delivered premature twins the week before my oldest entered this new stage. So off she went while I cheered. With four children 5, 2 and twins in the NICU the social outlet of school was a blessing. Looking back much of this year is a complete blur. I honestly don't know how I managed to get her to school. I know for a fact I didn't manage much else. When First grade began and some of the fog had lifted I soon received a letter in the mail telling me my daughter was below grade level for reading. I was shocked. Mostly because Lindsey was very bright. Come to find out that parents are the ones who teach their children to read. Books coming home which I viewed as optional we're necessary. They aren't teaching reading like that in school. This was a bit of Rude awakening for me. We worked every day --I tutored her for an entire month and in no time she was above grade level. I had learned the rules.

 

Fast forward a few years my two year year old was now entering this stage. A stage I had come to loathe. Teaching children to read is not my strong suit and I found the work process a bit overwhelming! This time I knew the rules and we worked at home and pretty soon those Mat, Sam books were no longer torturing me.

 

Fast forward again to my premature twins learning to read. Not only did I know the rules I no longer had the distractions I used so often as excuses. Yet I found out again just how much I hate being the reading teacher. How about reading your book three times every night and when you are done do it again with another. So it won't surprise you that one of my favorite milestones is when my kids learn to read to me!!

Not only have the twins learned to read to me they moved five reading levels in three months and are both of above grade level for reading! This means the hours of torture reading have paid of a hundred fold. I would do it again and again and again and again-- oh wait I already have.

Just last night Hailey read me her library book five times and it was music to my ears and the other night I caught the girls up late and when I went in to see what mischief they were up to--They were reading books.

Halloween Haunts...

Happy Halloween. This year we were lucky enough to have an unusually warm Halloween! We took full advantage! We always have Grandparents, and cousins over for dinner first.  They even got to do a few houses together before heading over to their own neighborhood.

 Sydney as a fairy

 Jacob as a zombie football player

Hailey my peacock

Lindsey as a  roman goddess.

Our Peakcock and Fairy. The first time the twins had different costumes. 

 Cousins together!

 Heading out...

Trick or treat

Motherhood- 3rd grade field trip....

The other day my only son came running in the house. He was lit up and excited. They had rescheduled his field trip (the first was rained out) and it was next week. The disappointment from the first failure was tough on him so I shared his happiness. Not long in to talking with him though I discovered the true source of his excitement was not simply because the field trip had been rescheduled but because he had decided that I could accompany him on the new one this next week. In the years I have had school age children, six years if we are counting I have found ways to help in the classroom including teaching art, class room parties, correcting homework. All of which I don't do for the teacher, I do it for my kids. The look on their face or their excitement is worth the sacrifice. I, however, have never attended a field trip (unless you count the twins at preschool). Mostly its because I have always had younger children they don't allow to come along. Sure I could have swapped babysitting but my older kids seemed to accept my inability to go so I continued to volunteer at the school in other capacities.... Until this one.

So I said yes! We were scheduled to head up to a Garden I was familiar with so that didn't seem to difficult. Proving to swap the twins proved to be hard on this particular day but in the end a good friend took them.

So yesterday I was running behind after dropping the twins off and went to change into good walking shoes as I knew I could expect two hours walking around the garden and the weather was again unsettled. This is where things went down hill. My gym shoes were no where to be found and I didn't have to look much to know where they were... they were on my sixth graders feet! So I grabbed my boots (which are high heeled and very uncomfortable and ran out the door. My plan was to run in the school and force the culprit to switch me shoes. This would have worked except when I got to the school the previous written planned had changed from eating at the school to shuffling on the bus immediately and heading to a park. So off we went.

I was worried about walking the garden in my boots but the face above was worth the pain.

 Upon arriving at the garden I was ready to get off the bus :)

So we grabbed a poncho and headed out.  We walked through the beautiful Daffodils, past the paved pathways, and out of the garden and headed into the wet, soggy foothills. 

It was muddy. It was drizzing. It was cold and it was steep hills!

I like to hike and like to be fit but I was completely unprepared for this kind of hiking.  I began to contemplate turning back but my pride was hard to conquer.

So I kept going.  It got more muddy and more uneven and it was difficult.  I rolled my ankles several times.  Try walk in grass in high heeled boots. Then imagine walking uphill, downhill, through mud, rocks, uneven ground all the while worrying if the rain increased there is no way I would make it down at all.

It got a lot muddier.  At this point I decided I had to go back or I was going to fall, get hurt, I just couldn't make it.  We had been hiking about an hour and it was here that discovered it was a loop.  I was half way in.  Jacob had ran back to check on me and when I told him I had to go back he was worried and wanted to help me go back too.  This tugged my heart strings ....  I would do anything for him to have his Mom to do this with him.  So I continued.  We passed other groups.. all covered in mud.  All I could think was all those shoes ruined.  Wouldn't other Mom's be mad?   Some kids had ditched their shoes and were barefoot (it was cold too).

Here we are before heading down the steep slopes.  I'll be honest I almost cried. It hurt that much and was that hard but I made it!

 Those high heeled boots are going in the trash!  As for the sixth grader what is the appropriate punishment?  If I had any idea we were doing a two hour hike through the mud and hills I would have absolutely switched her shoes and made the whole entire bus wait.... and I would have had those to throw away too.  But I would have had a lot less pain.

So my first field trip experience wasn't exactly glowing but Jacob's face was.   We stopped for Sundae's and McDonald's and he expressed gratitude to me for doing it all.  That almost makes it worth it.

Happy Birthday Lindsey 12

Twelve is a big birthday around here.

So to make it special and mark the year we decided to do

a complete redo of Lindsey's room. The hard part... without out her knowing!

A couple months ago I helped redo a girls room in my neighborhood who had been in a serious ski accident. All the wonderful women I live near came together and made the perfect room. I wouldn't have had half the good ideas they had. I am now convinced that working in a group like this is the way to go. Way more fun and its amazing what different people bring to the table. I feel lucky to have been a part of it, even if only a little! Service is an amazing thing it bonds you and it feels amazing.

Anyway I knew this was the room I wanted for Lindsey (I can't take credit). It had the teen look without the teen look, ha ha. Plus I knew she LOVED it which was helpful because it was a surprise. I began by forcing her to clean out her room which really meant me spending hours in her room throwing almost everything away. My Mom and I had spent the weeks prior shopping getting everything together. This was the fun part! My Mom also gave her the quilt, sham, and the mirror for her birthday.
Then the day of her birthday, the very minute I took her to school we started. Painting. Time was limited because school got out early on her Birthday! Thank you to my husband who worked from home and helped, My sister in law who came to paint, My Mom helped pick everything out,who cared for the twins and brought the birthday girl her special lunch at school while I was busy and all my many friends who shared their ideas and opinions. We finished five minutes before she arrived home. To say she was happy was an understatement. It was such a fun surprise!

 At this stage the color was scaring me a bit but I had copied it so I knew it dried darker.

Day 4 Puerto Vallarta

My Mom began getting sick the day before we stopped here and was unable to get out of bed or the boat for this stop.

As your getting off the boat they are taking all sorts of photo’s to remember it.  The parrot photo’s of each kid were soo great but at $20 a photo I wasn’t about to spend $80! This will have to do…

We went to Marriott resort which was amazing…

There are always more pictures of the twins  as they are the only ones with me long enough and willing enough to constantly be photographed.

Alan and my Dad…

This was the perfect day. The resort was very nice! Lindsey spent almost the entire day in the ocean.  She also resisted being reapplied with sunscreen for too long and ended up with a terrible sunburn.

Cruise Day 2 and 3 (at sea)

The first two days were all at sea.  I love sea days. After finishing our basement, then Christmas, then packing for a big trip I was ready for some rest!

The kids woke up early and were the first people in the hot tub.

Breakfast buffet.  One of my favorite meals of the day. As a Mother its priceless to be able to fed the kids all day anytime of the day and not prepare the food!  Plus they can have almost anything they could ever want!

Ready for a day in the sun. 

The salt water pool caused some trouble for the girls. They hated it stinging their eyes. Note to self.. Goggles next time! Princess Sydney called me to towel her eyes so she could deal with the stinging.

Hailey sounds asleep in the warm sun!

Me and my sisters.  The most important part of the cruise is walking every night.  We met every night possible and walked around the boat.  Just to avoid major weight gain.  Usually several miles.  Next first day on land … Puerto Vallarta!