Organized garage accomplished

Caroline and I organized the garage today...I can't tell you how much that re-energized me. I had been feeling tired and slightly overwhelmed this morning. But I've found that when I feel that way, if I tackle something that I have been putting off, I feel much better. And our garage looks and functions much better. Its all good.

So, rather than bore you with another picture of our garage, I thought I'd share one of my favorite pictures. Henry had just turned 6, Seth was about 3 1/2 and Caroline was about 1 1/2. Weren't they sweet?!

Our "almost Kindergartener"

This picture was taken on Caroline's first day of preschool last year. We've blinked, and she is about done with her second year of preschool, ready to move up to the big time...Kindergarten.

We just had a conference with her teacher, who declared her "soooo ready" to start Kindergarten, and gave her such a nice report card. Caroline is obviously very proud of it, because she made me read it to her several times on the way home in the car. She loved the part where her teacher called her "a lovely young lady!" (We think she is too!)

The teacher said that the only thing she needed to work on was remembering the difference between the letters "b" and "d". Guess what she was practicing the whole way home?

I'm so happy that she's had such a good first experience with school!

Seeds

Seeds fascinate me.

The life within them starts out so small. All you have to do is pop them into the ground, water them, and soon a little tree or plant starts its life.

We planted a Kentucky Coffee Tree seed a couple of weeks ago. Seth just discovered a couple of days ago that our little tree just popped out of the soil. (It kind of looks like a little red worm.)

Its neat to have a picture of the kids with their little trees...my parents took pictures of me with trees they planted in their yard. The romantic part of me wonders if we could actually keep this tree growing, planting it outside when it is big enough, imagining that our children will be grown when this tree is, wondering what their lives will be like.

Henry's Do is a Don't and Our Baby Trees

Today was crazy hair day in Henry's class. He said he got many compliments on this look at school today, and asked if he could wear it this way again tomorrow. Thank God it all washed out of his hair tonight. That's all Mom has to say about that.
On Arbor Day, Henry's teacher gave him a fir tree. He has been taking very good care of it.
This is Caroline's Kentucky Coffee tree (aka Theresa), compliments of Grandma and Grandpa Orton. She is a good caretaker as well, even bringing her worms to make better soil. ;)
She is our dandelion girl. She picked a bunch of them for our centerpiece on our table tonight!

It all started when...

...I just wanted to plant some flowers in front of our house. While planting, I came across a fair number of worms. Knowing my daughter's affection for them (she takes after her Grandma Orton, love you mom!), I called her over. She began collecting them.

Well, you know, what one does, the others have to do too. The kids began to look for the muddiest spots in our yard to do some worm hunting. (What kind of a mom lets her kids do this?!) They were very successful, both in collecting many worms, and in coating nearly every inch of themselves in mud. I've got a little laundry to do tonight.

Right after we took this picture, we threw the kids in the bath, got dressed, and headed over to my sister and brother-in-law's for dinner (YUM, Jim's lasagna!!).

The boys playing video games with their cousin, Braeden. (He's in the picture, but you can't see much of him!) Evan thought he was such a big kid to play with the big boys!

Robbie and Evan ignoring all of the toys to play in the kitchen cabinets.

Thanks for a fun night, Karen and Jim!

Practice makes perfect!

Seth has been faithfully practicing his part for first grade's fairy tale theater. He's playing the part of the husband in Rapunzel, interestingly enough the same part that Henry had when he was in first grade!

Caroline has been faithfully practicing her basketball shot, and was bursting with excitement when she made her first two baskets all by herself!! Unfortunately, I did not catch them on camera, but I did catch some close ones. :)

Caped Kitty Cats and a Couple of Kids Creatively Camping

Don't know why this cute pair of kitty cats are wearing pink capes. But they sure looked sweet doing it.


Unfortunately, the big Cub Scout camp out is going to be rained out tomorrow night. So to help the kids get past their disappointment, we suggested that Seth and Caroline "camp out" in Seth's room. (Henry is at a sleepover.) They came up with their own ideas and set it up all on their own. Please note:
--the big brown blanket playing the role of dirt
--the small blue blocks as a stream
--the red and yellow blocks as the campfire
--Baby Bear (the one Caroline is sleeping with) as a "very scary bear"

Back in the saddle again

When Evan woke up this morning and the first words out of his mouth were, "I want Chicken Nuggets," I knew that his appetite had returned. I took him downstairs and he proceeded to eat two bowls of yogurt, a bowl of dry cereal and a bowl of jello. At lunch, he ate cheese sticks like they were going out of style, and he's never touched them before! It was such a relief to see him eating well again, and his normal good-nature returning. He even stayed dry all day today. Yeah, Evan! (I love his ear-to-ear smile when he is successful and watching him skip bare-bottomed (because he can't be bothered to put his pants back on :) ) over to the candy jar.

Henry's flu had really knocked him out too. He fainted once and was dizzy for a lot of yesterday, as well as this morning and had such a terrible headache. By the afternoon, we had gotten him rehydrated, and he felt much better. He was relieved because he wants to go to school tomorrow and he doesn't want to miss the big boy scout camping trip this Saturday. We'll see.

I'm hoping that we might be starting to come out of the woods, that the rest of the family does not catch this nasty bug. Its been a very rough week. Mom is ready for things to go back to normal! I am looking forward to getting more sleep, being in less of a fog, and catching up.