Sleepwalker

Over the last several months I have been so busy that I feel I hardly have time to blog about what we are doing. But what I really miss is taking the time to jot down the little things the kids say or do that I know I will appreciate reading back on when they are older. I really don't know how well the following little tidbit is going to translate into words but it was so cute and funny that I just have to try.

So as I mentioned in my last post, I have been trying to get the kids to sleep in their own beds. Once Jadyn is asleep in her bed, she tends to stay there quite awhile, sometimes even making it all night. I have used this to fuel Jake's competitive side and try and get him to stay in his bed all night. So far, it has yet to happen despite Jake being fairly motivated.

This morning I came to greet him as he woke up in as we like to call it "Mama and Dadda's bed". He looked up at me with confusion and frustration, "Mom, why do you keep moving me into your bed? I want to sleep in my own bed all night!".

I smiled, "I am not moving you Jake."

"But Mom", he replied. " I close my eyes like this in my bed and when I open them like this, I am in your bed". As he demonstrates the closing and opening of his eyes, he is so serious and so confused, I do everything not to burst out laughing as I explain to him that he may not remember it, but he is indeed coming into our bed on his own.

This might take longer than I thought.

Magoomba Monday

- Joe has been gone for the last 2 weeks training Marines up in Bridgeport on the California/Nevada border. He comes back this week making it the longest he has been gone. I cannot wait for him to be back. I cannot even get into all the little things that happen when you move into a new house that require his expertise or strength not to mention that I miss him and the kids miss him and I hate that he missed spending Father's Day with us. Boo!

- This week the kids both start swim lessons so my mornings will be spent poolside for the next two weeks. I think I said this last year too but I really think both the kids might really be swimming by the end of this summer. Actually Jake already is, he just needs a little more confidence and Jadyn has been amazingly brave underwater in our pool at home.

- I am starting to regret the decision to have Jake play on the All-Star team. I committed to letting him play in the tournament without thinking about the commitment it would require ahead of time to prepare. After all this is a team of players who have been opponents all season and now they have to learn to work together. So, I am commuting back to 29 Palms again, this week Mon-Thurs evenings for practices. Ugh! Luckily, for better or worse the tournament is this weekend and I really do think it will be a great learning experience for Jake. And, Joe will be here, which makes it all the more better.

- One of the ways I have been decompressing after getting the kids to bed in the evening is by catching up on movies now that all of my TV shows are over. Just this last week I watched Dear John, The Lovely Bones, Valentine's Day and Lars and the Real Girl. I continue to be disappointed with any movie that is adapted from a book. That said, if you haven't seen Lars and the Real Girl, I highly recommend it. It is such a heartwarming story and brilliantly acted.

- Speaking of movies, I took the kids to see Toy Story 3 on Friday and it was really, really good. I mean, it seriously rivals the original. And yes, I even got a little teary-eyed.

- Also speaking of movies, I have just a little over a week until the midnight opening of Eclipse (the third movie in the Twilight franchise). Every time I read New Moon, I say it is my favorite book of the series but then I read Eclipse and I change my mind. No matter what however, Eclipse could potentially be a really good movie and I am super excited about it. Then I think about how disappointed book adaptations are and I get nervous. I really hope they don't mess it up.

- And back to the subject of bedtime, Jadyn got her new bedroom furniture about 2 weeks ago and both the kids have been starting the night off in their own beds. If you don't recall, ever since Jadyn gave up the paci about a year and half ago, she usually falls asleep in bed with Jake and then of course they both get up at various points in the evening and come into our bed. Right now they are being rewarded for every night they start off in their bed utilizing a sticker chart. At the end of 2 weeks, they will only be rewarded if they stay in their bed all night. So far it is going amazingly well and my hope is that by summer's end, Joe and I will again have our bed to ourselves. It only took 6+ years.

- And I think I will stop there but I have a lot of things I am working on for summer. Since its a much more relaxed time without the constraints of a school schedule, I can get everyone back on track in certain areas and that is exactly what I plan to do.

Hope every one's week is off to a productive start!

Pool Time

Last year I begged Joe to put up the pool the weekend of Mother's Day because it was so hot. I knew with moving the pool might not go up until later than usual but what I didn't count on was that it would be due to the unseasonably cool weather. At any rate, it finally started to get hot the weekend after Memorial Day. It is so fun to watch the kids excitement that first day as the pool is filling up. They both really love the water. I think there has been several days this past week that they have played in the pool for 2-3 hours at a time. Meanwhile I get to relax and read, unless of course its so hot that I am in the pool with them. Either way, I come out a winner too. I love summer!

Time for Some Magoomba

Now that I am (finally) caught up from blogging about our move and Jadyn's big weekend, I can touch on some of this and that.

1) On a serious note, on May 7th my Grandpa Gardner (Dad's Dad) passed away after battling multiple health issues these last few years. We had gone to see that side of the family on Easter and I was fortunate enough to catch my Grandpa on one of his more lucid days. I knew that his health was declining and was able to say my good-byes then. I feel so blessed to have had that final hug and "I love you", especially because in that moment, he knew who I was. He lived a good long life and if there is any reason to celebrate that, it was evident at his memorial when 8 out of 9 of his living children (my Dad and Aunt Beth had previously passed), all 19 of his grand-children and several of his great grandchildren were in attendance. I am hoping to be passed along some pictures that were taken of all of us together soon.

2)School is out for summer and Jake has officially been promoted from kindergarten to first grade (seriously, would the kids just stop growing up so fast?) At the final awards ceremony he recieved an another award for outstanding achievement in math as well as a few smaller awards for knowing all his letters and letter sounds. The parents were then invited to eat lunch with our children on the lawn one last time. I can't say I will miss driving him from our new house 30 minutes to school everyday. I can't even say I am going to miss THIS school but the end of the school year does carry mixed emotions for me because I will miss his teacher Ms. Bigelow and the fact that he will no longer be in school with his two besties, Evan and Sam.



3) In addition to the end of the preschool year, Jadyn also finished out the session of Toddler Time at the local library. Here she is during free play on the last day. Notice, we just had 3 inches trimmed off her hair and I think it looks super cute not to mention being tons easier to comb in the morning:


What I absolutely loved about toddler time was seeing Jadyn get into the singing and dancing and better yet, the instructor gave me a copy of the CD she used in class so now we can sing and dance in the comfort of our own home.

4) And even though I have yet to blog about opening ceremonies, the regular t-ball season has come to an end. I stress the word regular because Jake was selected to play All-Stars so we will be doing the tournament thing later this month. At the last game of the season, Jake single-handedly got the first 3 batters out at first base. Of course, I am sure he set out to accomplish this after seeing another teammate do the same in the game prior, but still, it was pretty neat. He was so proud.

5) Our local theater company was putting on a very kid-friendly production of Aesop's Oh So Slightly Updated Fables. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to introduce the kids to plays and you know what, they both loved it. I kind of thought Jadyn would but Jake really surprised me because he liked it so much, he asked for days afterward if we could go again. They both laughed and clapped and were thoroughly engaged throughout the production. This makes me excited because I have a love for live theater and have fond memories of my Grandma taking me to plays when I was a little girl.

6) And finally two personal notes. One, I am on TV detox now that all of the regular season shows have aired their finales. Overall, I was happy with the conclusion of Lost, although I think I walked away with a slightly different interpretation than others. I was a little peeved to find out FlashForward was NOT being renewed for a second season as they didn't resolve much in the season finale and I personally thought it was a quality show that deserved more of a chance. Although on a weekly basis it is not nearly as good as it once was, the season finale of Grey's Anatomy had my heart pounding. Now it's time to catch up on movies and books! The second note is that I really need to find a way to get back to working out. It kind of fell to the wayside during the move but now that things are settling down, I am running out of excuses. I know getting on the treadmill is going to be hard that first couple of times but I am hoping that if I put it on here for everyone to see, it might make me accountable to really DO IT!

So that's that. I am looking forward to lots of pool time and play dates this summer, hopefully some river and beach trips and lots of relaxing time spent at home. It's been an eventful spring.

Jadyn Turns Four

I know it sounds cliche but I can't believe my youngest, my baby girl is 4 years old. It just seems so OLD, like where did the time go? We had her party on Saturday of Memorial weekend since the majority of our friends and family did not have big plans to travel over the holiday. We did it at the splash park again because normally the weather is too hot to do anything that does not include water. As it was, the spring has been very mild and with the breeze, it was almost too chilly to go in the water but I think a majority of the kids did get wet at some point. Thankfully the park also boasts two playgrounds, swing set and skate park so the kids had a good time regardless.

Here is the invite:

And here is Jadyn posing with all her gifts:

Hitting the pinata:


The princess and the frog cake:

With Jake and Kiana from school before we sang happy birthday:



Love this picture. Thanks Rose!:
Opening gifts:

With Sam and Jake after running around in the water:

The absolute highlight of the party was Grandpa Bob showing up in his own tutu:

Back at home, we had a few people over for a BBQ. Jake and Jadyn got to continue the party with their cousins:

Family photo to complete the day:

Sunday of Memorial weekend, we stayed home and vegged. This was seriously the first day since moving that we had nothing going on. Jadyn played with all her new toys including dressing up in her new butterfly wings, wand, tutu skirt, and princess and the frog shirt.

On Monday, which was her actual birthday, Jadyn sported one of her new birthday dresses and we went to see Shrek Forever After (cute!) and had lunch at Red Robin where we had them sing her happy birthday and she didn't even get shy. Yes my baby girl is growing up way too fast.

Jadyn's BIG weekend

This last week Jadyn had school every day in order to prepare for the end of the year preschool promotion and graduation. I am not a big fan of overdoing the graduation thing. I would rather see it reserved for the truly big milestones like high school and college. However, watching a group of 3 and 4 year olds sing, dance, wear graduation robes and caps and shyly accept their graduation certificates is nothing short of adorable. What makes it even more special is that we have watched Jake participate in this event for the past two years and now it's Jadyn's turn. I definitely think that having been in the audience in the past helped her prepare because she wasn't in the least bit afraid to sing and she smiled genuinely for all the paparazzi. She did get a little shy when she went up to accept her certificate, as evidenced by her biting her lower lip in the photo but other than that, she did great.

Here she is singing:


Receiving her certificate:


With her pal Hayden after the ceremony:

Eating one of Ms. Rose's famous cupcake cones:

With her teachers:

With Mommy and brother. Joe was there too, he is just allergic to picture taking:

And apparently, Jadyn was pretty tired out from the whole ordeal because outside before leaving I tried to get her to pose with her two friends Amber and Elly and this is the look I got. I thought it was so funny, I had to include it:

But this was only the beginning, because Saturday was Jadyn's 4th birthday party (coincidentally at the same location as her preschool ceremony) and Monday was her official birthday. So Jadyn's BIG weekend was just getting started. We are so proud of our little girl.