WW: Proud of My Gals!

at the Farm standing with their school scarecrow.

We had Parent Teacher Conferences last night and I am so SUPER DUPER PROUD of our Beans and Razz.  All glowing praises from their respective teachers!  Razz is pretty much done with the Kinder curriculum (after the first quarter) and her teacher now has to challenge her for the rest of the year.  Beans is excelling all around as well.  It was SO hard for me to contain my smile.

I wonder though, is it wrong to gloat?  That paragraph up there was going to be my FB status.  Then, I thought, is that ok?  Is that frowned upon?  Is it too show-offy?

My FB friends are people I know in real life with the exception of 2 bloggers, but I’ve “known” them via blogs since I was pregnant with Beans (who will be 8 on Sunday!!!!).   Now, we are FB posters, I  mean, my hubby and I post a lot – photos and status updates.  Mostly because our family is on there and our immediate family is in NJ and TX and cousins all around the US and in the Philippines.  It’s a way for us to all keep up with each other without having to do mass emails all the time like before.  Now, we also have friends from grammar school and high school that we may not have kept in touch with if it weren’t for FB.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad we all found each other and reconnected, but you know, there are some that we’re just not tight with that are we are friends with.  Who knows, they’re probably sick of us and hid us from their timelines, but anyway, I digress.

Is it in bad taste for me  / us to post how proud we are of our children?  I was wondering, maybe someone’s child is having a hard time and they may take our post in a negative way.

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for more Wordful Wednesday Entries, check out Angie’s site: http://sevenclowncircus.com/2013/10/wordful-wednesday-jdm.html and linky-linky!

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School’s Out for the Summer

Last Day of School - 05.23.2012

Anyone else singing that song in their heads?

Well, it seems like, in the blink of an eye, we now have a 1st Grader amongst us.

Today was Beans’ last day of school – all of 1 hour. I don’t know…don’t ask. I picked her up and she looked sad and told me she was teary eyed earlier. 2 of her classmates were bawling…I mean, really, really, really crying their eyes out complete w/huffing and puffing. These Kindergarteners love their teacher and their friends and will really miss each other, I guess…

When I finally got her to liven a bit, she gave me her report card and she did pretty well overall. Looks like she’s even excelling in Math, according to the state/national test she took 🙂 In this year, she’s reading more, faster and better.

Here are her favorites about Kindergarten:

• Class: Science because she really liked learning new things about animals and insects – especially caterpillars turning into butterflies. Her teacher had that caterpillar / butterfly kit so they were able to see the transformation.
• Sport (in PE): Hockey. This could be due to the fact that she just finished up Ice Hockey lessons this past Saturday.
• Music Class: Playing a lollipop drum.
• Color: Still green.
• Book: Still “Green Eggs and Ham” by Dr. Seuss (also her fave from Pre-K).
• Person from History: George Washington because he was the very first President of the United States of America. She learned about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr. and…? I’m not even sure of all the others, but those are her top 3.

During her last full week of school they had a THEME week where each day, they would dress up or do things as part of the theme. They had HAT Day where she wore my Mickey Mouse Hat from our Disney trip in 2010. PAJAMA Day she wore cloud pajamas from Mama. For CRAZY HAIR Day, I just did a whole bunch of buns (so not creative) and when I realized I should have bought colored hairspray, it’s when I was already driving her to school. They also had STUFFED ANIMAL Day where she brought “Plex” who holds a special place in her heart because she won him all by herself from one of those crane machines. Last, but not least, they had HAWAIIAN/BEACH Day where she wore the dress Mum bought her from the Philippines.

Hat Day, Pajama Day, Crazy Hair Day (I'm so not creative), Stuffed Animal Day, Hawaiian/Beach Day

She’s gotten more involved w/different sports this year too…She’s still in TKD (a red belt), played 2 sessions of Biddy and 1st Grade Basketball and then started Ice Hockey. She will start Softball in a couple of weeks while still going to TKD and starting a second session of hockey. She will skip soccer this year though she loved it last year. Oh and let me not forget that she can ride a bike now! She learned some time in April…Wasn’t kidding when I said we call her “Sporty Spice”.

Anyway, now, it’s summer break. What do we have in store? Well, I’ll have ALL 3 girls home with me (and of course the big 2 are already bickering), but Beans is a GREAT helper and I could always use an extra set of hands. She really has grown into her big sister role like she owns it. She tries to help with dishes, emptying/switching out garbage, walking Buddy (our pup who I have yet to introduce) and soothing Shrimp. No wonder her teacher has nothing but praises for her. Of course, she has her other side where she will say things in a way she knows not to (like answering with “WHAT”. UGH). She also will sometimes not realize that she’s doing stuff she’s not supposed to – like talking loudly while her baby sister is napping…but you know what? She’s still a kid after all and if those are the only things that are a MINUS to all her PLUSes, then we’ve got it good 🙂

And whoa…I’m still trying to wrap myself around the fact that she will be in 1st Grade next year. FIRST. GRADE. Holy Moly!

PS = Still disappointed that there was no Kinder Graduation in this school. Not even a “Stepping Up Celebration” or “Completion Celebration” or “Kinder Awards”…zero, zilch, nada…

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linky-linky over here…

WW: Bean’s 100 Days of School

This past Monday, January 30th, Beans had her 100th Day of School. What the heck? Already? I can’t believe how fast time flies. Didn’t I just give birth to this girl???

Anyway, the kids were asked to bring in 100 “somethings”. 100 m&ms, 100 skittles, 100 paperclips, 100 popsicle sticks, etc. At first, we were going to make a necklace w/100 beads…Beans didn’t want to do that. So I suggested a house made out of popsicle sticks…she didn’t want that either. Then, thought about making “pasta art” (faces or people or things or shapes glued onto poster board with 100 pieces of pasta). She wanted to do that, but somehow, pDaddy convinced her to do the popsicle stick thing…Maybe because instead of a “house”, he said “castle”. Castle-schmastle.

Anyway, here it is, our castle made out of 100 popsicle sticks 🙂

It was actually 103, but then again, pDaddy said “well, some aren’t whole pieces. We had to trim a few.” Still, I just randomly took off 3. I didn’t know if they were going to take turns presenting and practicing their counting throughout the week (note: submitted on Monday, back home on Wednesday). I was so happy to see pDaddy so involved w/helping her build this 😉 Now, we’ve set the bar pretty high for her future projects and her sisters’ 100 Day Projects. Crap…

Anywho…She said her classmates all loved it and we think it turned out great, but apparently, her teacher didn’t say much about it?!? I can’t believe it came home already…I thought there would be some kind of display…maybe keep them out until parent-teacher conferences? Whatevs. I’m still trying to read her teacher and I really can’t. Can’t say I blame her though. She was a last minute addition to the staff.

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For more Wordful Wednesday entries and to add your own, check out Angie’s Blog over at sevenclowncircus.com

PS: hahah! I just noticed her drawbridge-door looks like it’s giving the finger! oopsies…

Scatterbrained…

I’ve been posting mostly to Facebook the past few months and, obviously, not here or Twitter. The “status” update there says “What’s on your mind” or something like that. What’s on my mind? Obviously TOO much to post as I went over the character limit:

What’s on my mind? Too many things! Care to step inside? No? Too bad, here it is anyway…I need to just let it out…

1 – Lola being sick (grammie on Mom’s side). She was hospitalized a few weeks ago and stayed there for about a week w/a visit to ICU too. She’s doing better now, but still not fully recovered. She will be 89 this November and we were planning a HUGE party for her 90th next year.

2 – Mum going to the Philippines (aka “PI” for “Philippine Islands”) to be with her. I feel for Mum. She’s got 2 daughters that are pregnant (yes, my sis is pregnant…2 weeks behind me, though I look like I’m 20 weeks ahead of her) and a sick mother. Mum was so torn about going to the Philippines to be w/her Mom and staying here to be be our Mom. We convinced her to go to PI and that we had our husbands, MILs (who are both nurses) and other friends and family. Besides, even if she stayed here, she wouldn’t really be “here”, ya know?

3 – Razz and Beans being sick. My poor girls caught a cough/cold/fever last Thursday and has managed to keep us in for most of Labor Day Weekend (except for when we snuck out to go to Target yesterday). It was scary on Saturday b/c Razz started looking and feeling really weak again and started her little cough – which, from what we learned back in the Spring – triggers her asthma. I didn’t want to be going to the ER again. Back in the Spring, they were in the ER and Razz ended up getting admitted then getting transferred to another hospital with a PICU (pediatric ICU) b/c her oxygen levels weren’t going up no matter how much they gave her. So horrible seeing her struggle with breathing, being so weak and just not being herself. Anyway, their doctor was away until today so I started giving both of them their nebulizer treatment and, thank goodness, it looks like it’s working.

We weren’t planning on staying home this weekend. pDaddy was going to VA for a basketball tournament and we were planning on going to my parents’ on Friday and staying at my sister’s the rest of the weekend. So, I didn’t force pDaddy to get groceries before he left. Yes, he’s actually been doing the groceries b/c I can’t walk much and he doesn’t want me walking much to trigger labor just yet. Good thing my in-laws came to the rescue. They brought us dinner on Friday, slept over, went grocery shopping for us on Saturday and slept over again Saturday night. They left us Sunday morning w/a stocked fridge and pantry and a chocolate cake to boot (MIL was in a baking mood Saturday night).

4 – My last day of work last Friday, but man, did they seriously put me to work the past couple of months. Even on Thursday, I was working so much that I barely got out of my chair and my legs and feet being so swollen were proof of that!

5 – I was also worried about pDaddy going to VA for his tourney and that hurricane named Earl that was hovering about the area.

6 – What to name this lil girl who’s moving around in my belly like she’s her own lil hurricane.

7 – Putting things away / cleaning – AKA Nesting – but I can’t even do much b/c I am SO huge and slow!

8 – Getting the rest of Beans’ school supplies. She starts PreK-4 on Friday…I can’t believe it. My lil girl, who’ve I’ve stayed home with since she was born, is actually going to start school! This Friday is a half day for her, but the rest of her days are full days from 8am to 3pm. Her school supply list isn’t so bad and actually, Mum and my siblings have been buying her stuff when they go out shopping, but I still don’t get why she needs 2 bottles of ketchup!

9 – Beans ACTUALLY starting school on Friday …oh my. Wait, I mentioned that already, right? Still in shock. I think dropping her off at school will send me into such an emotional and hormonal outrage that I’ll end up in labor. lol

10 – Thinking I was going into labor Sunday night (see previous entry).

11 – Hoping and praying, whenever Shrimpie does come, she’s happy and healthy like her sisters 🙂

12 – SLEEP! I miss SLEEP! And I know I’m not even going to get much anytime soon w/baby coming!

13 – How I’m going to juggle 3 kids and 1 being in school!

14 – Having to go back to work. Can’t we just win the lottery already?

15 – Having only a 2 bedroom house with 3 kids. Speaking of lottery…I really do wish we could just win it to get a bigger house AND not work. Did I mention Beans and Razz want a dog? Um, not quite yet my dears. We were supposed to list our house this spring/summer, but our basement renovation took longer than expected (that’s what happens when family does it and just does it on the side) and now, there’s no way in hell we’re going to be able to pack all our crap and move. At least getting our basement done forced us to purge some of crap. In any case, we don’t even know where to move to. pDaddy is set on moving out of state for a cheaper cost of living – which I get. However, I’m more worried b/c I’ll have a newborn and 2 other kiddos and all our family is here – with the exception of pDaddy’s sister and her family. My sister will also be having a little girl in the beginning of October and of course I want to be around to meet my new niece. In addition, who’s going to help us when we need it? Plus, we don’t trust anyone to babysit for us except our moms. How’s that going to work out?

See? Way too much going on in my head!

To Go or Not To Go? That is the question…

This morning, I took the girls with me to check out a preschool for Beans. She’ll be turning 4 in October so I thought it was time for her to get acclimated to a “school” environment. But, I found out that she doesn’t make the cutoff and will have to be in the 3 year old program instead of 4. If we put her in the 4 year old program, she’ll probably have to repeat it anyway…unless, the School Director feels that she’s ready to move on to Kindergarten next year. At that point, we’ll have to petition w/the Board of Ed.

I was thinking of sending her for 3 days a week – half day sessions. The Director told me we could put her in that program for the 4 year old class and if she has to repeat, she can do the 5 day session next year.

I’m debating this b/c I feel that Beans is ready for school, but don’t really want her to have to repeat and well, you know, finances. If we could hold off another year w/o having to pay for school, why not? Right? But then again, I feel like I’m short-changing her by keeping her home for another year…Another year of not being in a school environment…another year of not being around kids her age to learn social skills and such. I’ve even been debating homeschooling, but I know I’m not at all certified or qualified or whatever. I wouldn’t know where to begin, but so far, I have to say, I’ve been a pretty good teacher to the girls and they are smart cookies!

What to do…what to do???