Last day of pre-school

Today was the last day of preschool for Cooper here in Iowa! He has had a wonderful time this year in preschool and has made many friends. One special friend came home with us after school today to spend the afternoon with us and play. Her name is Shae and Cooper says that she is his best friend!! The class took a group photo and they all signed their name on a piece of paper for him! One little boy started crying when he left school today and he said he was sad that Cooper was leaving. It made me cry.....I'm such a softie.

Fluency Fridays

Parker's teacher has named Fridays....Fluency Fridays. What a terrific idea. This past Friday he brought home a poem that he had to read a certain number of times. Here is the poem... I thought I would share because it is pretty cute! Enjoy

Getting Dressed for School....by Kenn Nesbitt

I must have been too sleepy
getting dressed for school today.
I tried to tuck my shirt in,
but I couldn't make it stay.

I also couldn't tie my shoes.
I fumbled with the laces.
I snagged my scarf, and now some yarn
is dangling from my braces.

My socks are different colors,
and my pants are inside out.
My sweater from the hamper left me
smelling like a trout.

I thought I put a hat on
to control my crazy hair.
The hat turned out to be a pair
of purple underwear.

I spilled my breakfast on my clothes
and headed into school.
My friends, of course, were all impressed.
I'd never looked so cool.

Snow

This morning we awoke to about 2 inches of snow! Not a big deal but I needed to get it all shoveled because we were having an open house today. Both boys were super eager to help me so we bundled up and outside we went. The snow was just perfect! Light and fluffy!! Both boys had a shovel and I just used the broom because it was so easy to move I could just sweep it off the driveway. We weren't out for very long and my neighbor next door came out to do his driveway. Now he had the right idea....he used his leaf blower!! The snow was so light that to use a snow blower would have been pretty useless....shovelling seemed a bit trivial but the leaf blower....did the trick!! He came over to our driveway and finished it off for us as well as the sidewalk. The boys had a ton of fun with him. They would stand in his way so when he blew the snow it would blow towards them and cover them head to toe! He even gave each boy a turn with the leaf blower so they could blow the snow themselves! What a great neighbor!! After everything was done we thanked our neighbor and started to head back inside. As we were heading in Parker stopped and told me to wait a second. He then proceeded over to our neighbor and said, "I don't believe we have met". "My name is Parker ". And he held his hand out to shake. I was totally proud of my little man. He was correct...he had not yet been formally introduced to our neighbor and he took the initiative to introduce himself in such a polite manner. YIPPEE for good manners and I made sure he knew how proud I was of him.

Elvis is in the house

Cooper has taken a love of Elvis! At one of the local grocery stores they celebrated Elvis' birthday and we had to make a special trip to the store to check it out. To his disappointment, Elvis was not there. Even though I have told him a thousand times that Elvis is an angel singing in heaven....he really really wants to meet Elvis. The latest Elvis story is this.... Cooper and I were in the music section of Target the other day. In some stores they have a sampling of music that you can listen too. I was checking out the 80's music and Cooper made a beeline to guess who....The King himself. He kept pushing the same button over and over so he could listen to a snippet of Hounddog. We must have stood there for a good 5 minutes as he perfected his song of choice. As we left he kept singing....Ain't nothin' but a Hounddog over and over and then asked me if he had the Elvis lip good! Who knew my little boy would love Elvis so much!

Conferences

Yay for my boys! They both received spectacular reviews from their teachers. I was told Cooper is definitely ready for kindergarten and is actually the most mature child in his class who also received the most excellent markings!!! Parker is ahead of grade level in both reading and math. Actually, his teacher told me that he advanced a whole years worth in 6 months in both subjects. He is at beginning 4th grade reading level. I am so proud of them. Amazing Pizza Machine....here we come!!!!!

Solely for Rob

No pun intended...solely...pic of shoe....anyway...here is a pic of the new shoes I got the boys the other day. The boys wanted to make sure that you knew what they looked like. So here they are....pretty cool! By the way, they both have the same style of shoe! Can you believe Parker is wearing a size 3 and Cooper is wearing a size 13? Oh my!! We are going to have some tall boys!!

Sleep Over

Last night the boys spent the night at their friend Nolan's house! They have so much fun over there and they really look forward to sleepovers. Since they were gone I was left alone at the house. It sure was quiet. I miss the sound of my boys!!! Can't wait to go and pick them up. This was their "Good Morning Mom" picture they sent me this morning!!

We are glowing!!!

This past weekend I took the boys miniature golfing. There is a place in our mall here that has glow in the dark miniature golf! They had a blast and thought it was sooo neat to be in the dark. We played 64 holes and it was a good time by all. This picture is goofy but it totally shows everything glowing!!!

Missing Daddy

The countdown is on! We made chains to count down the days until we will possibly see daddy again for a visit. Both boys have had such a hard time with daddy being gone....especially Cooper. He is daddy's shadow. I do believe I have had tears every night before bed. I miss him also. I hate to wish away time but I hope this next month goes by quickly!

Games

This past week we have played many games! In our family, we love to play games together and we received 2 new games for Christmas. Sorry Sliders and Spongebob Monopoly. Great times had by all! In between board games we have been playing Guitar Hero! Santa brought the complete band set for us to enjoy. We have a guitar, a drum set and a microphone. So far no one has been brave enough to break out the microphone. And...I stink at the guitar! I have the drum down but I can't get past the beginner level on the guitar. My competitive instincts are coming out and I am bound and determined to succeed!!! In addition to all of the games and their noise factor...we have enjoyed some quiet moments (sort of) of imaginary play with all of our Star Wars little people. Everywhere I turn....little light sabers....the last time I counted we had 52 little figures and I know there is more to buy that we don't have. And for the life of me, I do not know all of their names. I think they should put their names on the bottom of each figure...just like they did with the Thomas the Trains. It would make my life so much easier. But just before I was able to go crazy....thanks to a good friend... we now have a handy dandy flipper to browse of every Star Wars character in case we cannot remember who they are!

Happy New Year...2009!

Happy New Year to all! It was just the boys and I to ring in the New Year together! We had a fun day of relaxing, playing games, watching movies, watching fireworks and eating a few munchies. We were all settled in and Cooper fell asleep on my lap at about 10:00pm or so. Bless his heart...he tried so hard to keep his eyes open and he just couldn't do it. Parker on the other hand had no problem staying awake! So at 11:00pm we watched the ball drop in Times Square. We woke Cooper up and called Daddy at the same time. When the ball dropped we all said Happy New Year to each other, blew our noise makers and kissed each other! Another year gone in a flash! So far the new year is starting off well. I am blessed to have a wonderful family and our plans of moving closer to the rest of our family and friends is working out well for us! Actually, really well since we also bought a house yesterday!!! YIPPEE!! My resolution for this year is to try to enjoy more...the simple pleasures as my boys continually remind me of. Those are the true blessings in life!