mommypalooza™ ~ a daily dose of mommy mayhem.

Landscaping. Or, lack thereof.

I am sitting here in my kitchen looking our our back window and am noticing that our bushes are in desperate need of a trim. I somehow fear that David nor I will actually get to it till Spring. Sad, right?

Landscaping is just not a priority for me. I have no idea why. I'd much rather do something more cathartic like clean out my Tupperware drawer, iron, clean a bathroom, or organize my coupons. I feel bad for our neighbors behind us that have to look at our yard but it's still not enough to get me off my bum and get clipping. Maybe if I let them grow tall enough, they'll cover our floor-to-ceiling kitchen windows then I can leave the blinds open and no one will be able to see inside. Yeah, I am sure that will get the homeowner association nazis on my front doorstep, pronto!

The Receipt Game.

Nathan has been fascinated by receipts lately. He usually asks to get a receipt of his own anytime we leave someplace. Today after our brief trip to Target, I let him hang on to the receipt and when we got inside the car he told me he was going to try and find the Jello on our receipt. So he very carefully began to read some of the other words on the receipt, like 'sun chips', 'Motts', and then finally came to the word 'Jello'. He screamed out with such excitement when he found it and then he asked how to tell how much it costs.

So, we had a whole lesson on receipt reading and what side of the receipt has the price and how to read a price. So when I tried testing him and asked him how much the sun chips cost, he looked at it on the receipt, said he was following the number over to the right with his finger and then shouted out,

"Three-dot-zero-zero! The sun chips cost three!"

I praised him and told him that in fact the sun chips were three dollars and the 'dot zeroes' mean 'no cents'. I think he got the picture because he started rattling off prices of various other things off of the receipt after that.

Violin recital.

Today was Nathan's very first violin recital. His performance was a Beginner's Exercise which involves focusing during one variation of Twinkle, Twinkle. He has been practicing so hard over the past few weeks at rehearsing everything from walking up to the front, to bowing, to holding his violin steady while focusing on the "scroll" part of the violin while the accompanyist plays the song. His practice has been perfect and it really showed during the recital.

I was so proud of him and he had so much fun that when his turn was over and he came back to his seat, he whispered to me,

"Mommy, I want to go again!"

I kindly told him that it was our turn to sit and enjoy the rest of the performances and that we needed to be respectful and watch his friends perform because they worked just as hard as he did for this day. He was okay with that.

During all the excitement of watching him perform, I forgot to take a pic of him bowing (which, by the way, was his favorite part of the performance!) so afterwards I had him go back up and take a bow so I could get a pic of him. Anyway, I had such a good time at the recital. I could've stayed all day long and listened to some of the kids play. It is obvious that Ms. Jean, Nathan's instructor, is great at what she does because the kids were awesome! I truly never really appreciated string instruments until recently after seeing all the hard work that goes into learning and playing a string instrument. I can't wait till Nathan and Will are all around the house giving me a concert anytime I wish. Yeah, right....one can dream, right?

It was good practice for the real thing.

Tonight was Trunk or Treat at our church so we decided to take the kids for a real dress rehearsal of what's to come in a few days. The kids had a great time and we shelled in a ton of loot. Looks like whatever else we bring in for Halloween will just be icing on the cake!

I took a few photos of the evening and if you're patient enough to get to the end, I promise the last few pics are a real "treat"!

Well, at least he’s praying.

This evening after Catechesis, we were driving home and Nathan informed me that in addition to praying for me, he had also prayed to God that he could come home and find his Buzz Lightyear toy that's been missing since yesterday morning. He prayed that God would keep Buzz safe and that we would find him soon. When we'd mentioned to Nathan yesterday that he'd lost Buzz, Nathan actually clarified that Buzz was just playing hide-n-seek and wasn't really lost at all.

Guess he finally realized that Buzz wasn't going to just jump out and reveal himself.

Parent - Teacher conference.

Today David and I met with Nathan's preschool teacher for his parent-teacher conference. I must say that although I was extremely pleased with Ms. Jan's assessment of Nathan, it also scared the heck out of me. I had no idea it would lead to the discussion that it did.

You see, Nathan has a September birthday so I'd always assumed he would have to wait an extra year to attend Kindergarten because of this God-given fact. Let me just say that his teacher today made it very clear that it is her professional opinion that David and I should seriously consider petitioning to have him start Kindergarten next year! YIKES! WHAT THE HECK???!! She said that he could walk into a Kindergarten room right now and still be ahead of the game with his current skill level.

Yes, Nathan has completely mastered every single item on their assessments. According to his teacher, he also frequently reads for her and to her. He is doing exceptionally well with everything this year so far and can pretty much just have "playtime" the rest of the year. Yeah, right, like I would let that really happen! His patterning and reading skills are above where they need to be and his teacher suggested that we step it up a notch at home just to keep him challenged. She also alluded to the fact that if the schools were really hard and fast about the birthday rule, and if he were given no other option than to attend a Pre-K program, that he would DEFINITELY need extra academic activities at home or outside of Pre-K just to keep him challenged and learning new things.

She basically said that he'd be bored in Pre-K and it wouldn't be enough for him. She suggested and volunteered to check the public school about the hard and fast rules concerning his birthday and for us in the meantime to be thinking about what we want to do. I am also going to check around at a couple of other Kindergarten program options just so David and I can make the best decision for Nathan. David of course wants to hold out on sending him (even though he's clearly ready) just for SPORTS related reasons! Crazy daddy! But, after talking about off and on all day long, he really just doesn't want Nathan to be bored if we do end up waiting and sending him on schedule. We'll see though, as we may not even have an option for sending him early if the schools aren't willing to budge on their date policies.

It's just so scary to imagine that my baby is more than ready for big school! I certainly am not ready for that! I think David and I are really in for a challenge in quenching Nathan's constant thirst for knowledge. His teacher told us that he's SO excited about learning and so eager about everything and that his enthusiasm in the class is so refreshing. She said he's very bright and that he'll do well no matter what option we choose but that he's definitely ready to move on at this point.

Anyway the Senior Frogs class is doing great and I know it will be a fantastic year for the class! And, I am so excited to see what the future holds for Nathan.

william’s wishlist

Wish list of gift ideas for William since I get asked all the time by my family members!

nathan’s wishlist

Wish list of gift ideas for Nathan since I get asked all the time by my family members!

Macaroni tacos.

In following his Daddy's footsteps, Nathan has created a new dish. Today after preschool I was getting ready to make lunch and asked Nathan what he wanted. He didn't want the usual PB&J (I was shocked!) and told me to "just make it". That usually means surprise him. Well, I really wasn't in the mood to think or come up with some extravagant meal idea. I think he was already a little put off since as soon as I picked him up from school he asked (like he always does) if we could go to Chick-fil-a and I told him no - not today.

So instead I started rattling things off that I could fix him for lunch. He finally stopped me at mac 'n cheese. So it was settled. Since I was going to throw together a few soft tacos with the last of some steak meat I had left over for myself, I had the tortillas out on the counter waiting to be heated up. After fixing the boys their mac 'n cheese I gave them each a half of a tortilla just for grins. Later on while we were all at the table together eating, Nathan informed me that he just wanted to finish his tortilla, not his mac 'n cheese. I kindly told him that he would not be able to do that. He should be able to finish all of his mac 'n cheese since I hadn't given him much to begin with and that afterwards if he were still hungry he could eat more tortillas. Then I told him that he could eat the mac 'n cheese and tortilla both together at the same time if he wanted.

So, he proceeded to place the mac 'n cheese into the tortilla, folded it, and took a bite. "Mmmmm!" is what I heard. Then we had a good laugh at the new Macaroni Taco that he now refers to as one of his favorite things to eat.

El fin de futbol.

Today was Nathan's last soccer game of the Fall season. He'll be able to sign up again in the Spring but for now he keeps asking if it's time for The Little Gym to start back up again. I suppose since he has no activities that involve sports or physical movement now, AND since the weather's likely to get bad, that it's time to re-enroll him in the Little Gym sports skills class again.

Anyway, the last game was supposed to be last Saturday but it was rained out. Today was a great morning for soccer!

Even Will has grown fond of soccer and our weekly trips to the fields.

Nathan and his buddy, Brennan, after their last game.

Nathan's first ever trophy!

So PROUD!

A little too much cupcake!

I asked Nathan to stand anywhere he wanted to pose with his trophy for a pic and he exclaimed, "I want to take a picture with my Daddy!" Who was I to argue?