Last Few Days of February

Allie had to choose a person to research and then give an oral report on that person......and dress up as them too. Any guesses who she chose? It really is no surprise that she chose Jane Goodall. Allie is such an animal lover. She has changed her mind about wanting to be a teacher when she grows up, to a veterinarian. She is constantly bringing home animal books from the library. Allie researched Ms. Goodall completely on her own and before I knew it she already had her report written up! Derek is not a fan of Jane Goodall so he was constantly poking fun, not at Allie, but Jane Goodall. He listens to Adam Corolla religiously and she had been on his show not too long ago and she said something to Adam along the lines of "you do not know how wrong you are." and so Derek was just always saying that to Allie in his best Jane Goodall voice. Okay, I did too.....it was pretty catchy. She HATED it! It was kinda funny. Allie is such a loyal person though and if we were making fun of the person she was identifying with, well then she was going to stick up for her!

It's finally starting to warm up some here. Blake and I went to the playground and we had so much fun playing. I love that he is completely content to play with his Momma and he is not ashamed of it at all. He is also sporting his new Ninja Turtle sweatshirt that he that he wants to wear EVERY.DAY. 

Oh, and Blake went to his very first friend party. Like a party that his sisters weren't invited to! It was for his friend, Isaac. They are soooo cute together.

Avery also lost her 2nd tooth!! It had been so loose for the longest time. I know it was bothering her because she would ask Derek to pull it almost every night........and then she would chicken out. On the day of Hedgehog Hangout it was just hanging there. She so badly wanted to lose it at school. She had some idea that she would get a necklace to keep it in and then she could proudly display it for all to see. I don't think they do that at FES. Maybe she got the idea from Allie's last school. Allie was pretty sure that's what they did at MME. When I arrived at lunch time she couldn't even take a bite of her sandwich because of her tooth! Her teacher came up with a grand idea to let me pull it and everyone could cheer for her once it was out. I seriously just put my hand on it pushed a little and it was out. Her teacher, the principal, her classmates and other fellow first graders were all there to cheer for her and I am quite certain it made her day. :)

Girls were in school. Blake wasn't feeling well---so he was resting. I decided to make up some freezer meals and then used the leftover chicken to make up a few lunches! I made up all 8 freezer meals all before 11 am. These will be so handy with the upcoming soccer season. No more eating out every night after practice and games!!

Biggest news of all. Derek has been selected for promotion!!! He is so very deserving of this. Of course, he is disappointed because he didn't get a school slot.....which I agree is disappointing. I seriously don't know many that are more deserving of a school slot than this guy. He likes to joke that he gets all that gray hair from me and the kids (probably somewhat true) but I am pretty sure he gets it from his job. He works harder than anyone I know, puts WAY more hours in than anyone I know. The other disappointment, it may still be a while before this actually happens. 

February HIGHlights

Our "happy" little fox. The kids went to their friend, Addison's, birthday party.....I think it was the end of January. I've lost track of when things actually happened with the Paris trip. It was a busy week leading up to that trip! 

A sweet surprise from Derek after returning home from Paris.

The kids had a half day at the beginning of the month. Avery and a friend had a play date at the skating rink. Blake and Allie tagged along. We had the whole place to ourselves! Blake's first time skating!!

There were several 2 hour delays at the beginning of the month, not really because of snow but the possibility of it, cold temps and ice. One day we did actually wake up to some snow! I'm glad I let the kids play in it because it was gone by the time they got home. However, Allie came home from school that day with a 102 temp! She was completely fine that morning as you can tell!

The 100th day of school was on the Friday I was in Paris. We thought it was going to be the Monday after I got back, but found out Tuesday afternoon that it was Friday! Avery and I quickly brainstormed and came up with something super creative and all our own! No pinterest copying on this one! There was some significance with the hedgehog choice. Their school mascot is a hedgehog.

The spelling bee selection was going on the week I left for Paris as well. Of course, that was the week Allie was sick and missed a day and a half of school. They were doing their spelling bee trial in the classroom and Allie was so upset because that meant that there was no way she could go on to the school spelling bee finals. The school nurse was so sweet in helping to figure out a way that Allie might still be able to participate. One teacher even went and tracked down Allie's 2nd grade teacher to see how well of a speller Allie was. To which Ms. Shafer replied that Allie was her top student last year. :) That made Allie's day and instantly made her feel better. And......I got a phone call in Paris from Allie saying she made the spelling bee!! 

The spelling bee was last week and she did really well. She finished right in the middle of the pack. She was really upset when she got eliminated. She has such high expectations for herself. We are so proud of her!

A peek at the girls' Valentine's cards this year. Allie's had glow sticks in Yoda's hand. Her party is actually today. We couldn't find the glow sticks anywhere in time for Avery's party so we just used her hama beads to make those Yoda's.

And.......a goofy selfie.

Girls Trip {Paris}

Paris Girls trip. How many people can say they've done that!?! Seriously feeling so very blessed with the amazing opportunities I have living overseas and with the incredible people I come in contact with over the years. This trip was completely unexpected, happened so fast, but was much needed. I very rarely get any sort of break from everyday life. I love my kids. I love being a Mom....THEIR Mom. I love my job. I also love some ME time. I cannot tell you the last time I got this much uninterrupted time. It was so good for me on a bunch of different levels. It was hard too. My family is my EVERYTHING. I thought about them A LOT while I was gone. 3 days was the perfect amount of time.

I've been to Paris several times. This time was so different than the rest. We spent all of our time in parts of Paris I had never been to before, visited places I never thought I'd visit. The majority of our time was spent in the Montmartre region and the Opera district. Montmartre is the area where the Sacre Couer is. Every time I have been to Paris I have wanted to visit the Sacre Couer. I had heard the view of the city from there was amazing. It didn't disappoint.......and it was even overcast while we were there.

We had to go back at night for another look

The Sacre Couer itself wasn't so bad either.

It started snowing on us

We spent almost an entire day in the Musee d'Orsay. I honestly never thought I'd pay to go into an art museum. I love being creative and crafty but looking at paintings and statues all day has never really been my thing. I can't say I loved it, but it wasn't terrible either. Definitely not anything I would have been able to do with kids.

The main reason behind the trip was because one of the girls had recently been to Paris and found a fabric district of sorts. She is big into dress making and really wanted to go back with some girls to these 4 story stores (she went with her husband before and I don't think he was really into it). I must confess. I am not much of a sewer. I would like to be! I have had a go at a few things....but it takes me forever. Most of the fabrics we found weren't my cup of tea. I think I much prefer the things I would find at Michaels or JoAnn's. This fabric was so expensive too! I'm used to using coupons when buying fabric. ;) There were a few solde (sale) bins outside the stores and so I did find a fabric for a potential project. It was only 4.50 euro for 3 meters! I really should have taken a picture of the fabric district!

On the evening of the day we spent in the art museum we wandered the shops of the Galleries de Lafayette. Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, all the big names of fashion in one place. However, I am not a fashion guru. I love to shop. Maybe if I had the body for those styles it would have been more fun and appealing for me. My absolute favorite part of the shopping.....and maybe the whole trip, was the view from the rooftop. Breathtaking!

We stumbled upon a Scottish parade, of all things, one day. Not only did we stumble upon it but we were pretty much in it! 

We tried to go take a tour of the Opera House but arrived too late.

Of course, we had a lot of food. Paninis, French onion soup, fondue, patisseries just to name a few French dishes we had. My new friends are quite the foodies. Eating things I had never been brave enough to try before. They let me have a taste of some of their meals so I can now say that I have had lamb and duck, which I will say are quite tasty.

Yes, I said new friends. I barely knew these ladies. In fact, I just met one, Emily, the week before the trip. Jodi and I had only met in person once before...and then lunch the week before as well. We have a mutual friend and when Jodi found out they were coming to England our mutual friend, Lorna, got us in contact with each other. So we had done a lot of communicating back and forth before they got here and then we had them over for dinner a month or so after they arrived in England. We really like their family. They are so fun and are the type of people we are drawn to and tend to be friends with. However, we had not been in contact since that time. We just assumed they didn't like us that much...or we didn't leave a good enough impression. Who knows. Maybe we didn't. I'm not stupid. I'm pretty sure I was invited on this trip because one of their original trip goers had trouble with her visa. She had already purchased her flight and they were looking for someone to fill in for her. That said, I was thought of! I'm grateful for that. I hope I am cool enough for them to want to hang out with again. ;)

I can't believe I forgot to post a picture of the sweet note I found in my luggage.

January HIGHlights { Blake starts Preschool, Weekend Getaway, First Snow!!}

Blake {1st Day of Preschool}

Blake started preschool on January 7th. He LOVED it! I was sad to miss his first day as I was on a field trip with Avery. I think it was probably a good thing to have Daddy drop him off though. His 2nd day he was a little more hesitant to go and I think it was because he was with me. He only goes 3 days a week for 1/2 a day. He thinks he's pretty cool that he gets to go to school like his sisters. His favorite part of school is definitely recess. Whenever I ask him what he did at school he always talks about riding the car outside.

Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam

The 1st Sunday of the month Blake graduated Nursery at church and is now a Sunbeam and in the Primary with the big kids. Allie also moved up and is in Senior Primary so Blake doesn't get to see her. He has done pretty well. Though last Sunday he refused to go. He did fall asleep with Derek so maybe it was because he was tired.

Field Trip with Avery {Cinderella}
I was lucky enough to be able to go on Avery's first field trip of the school year. It was to a Cinderella pantomime in Bury St. Edmunds. If you remember Allie's first field trip of the year was also to a panto, Aladdin. Cinderella was cute but Aladdin was WAY better. The Bury theatre was pretty neat. It's set up so you have box seats.....you can only fit about 5-6 people per box. I was worried we wouldn't be able to see much but it wasn't bad. So glad I was able to go since I didn't go on any last year.

Avery gets sent to the principal's office
So, long story.........Avery had been coming home for a couple months telling stories about a boy in her class hitting her and making fun of her. I never took any action because I know Avery overreacts and exaggerates things. I would talk to her about the things she was telling me and explain to her that maybe it was just this boys way of getting her attention, I told her boys can be a little more rough than girls, asked her if she was sure his "hits" weren't just meant to be playful.......to which she would always say no, he was trying to hurt her. I just still had a hard time believing it since Avery is almost always the instigator at home. She also, unfortunately, likes to get her brother and sister in trouble and does like to tell stories. After Christmas break she came home with yet another story. I might add that everything always seems to happen in her specials classes or at lunch or recess, never in the classroom. Her teacher has the class very much under control and would never let anything like this happen. This new story happened during Art class and the boy was threatening to punch her. She then said that as they were lining up to leave art and go back to class he did hit her and that her teacher saw him do it. She said that her teacher had him hop back on the behavior chart and later called his Mom. Now Derek and I thought this sounded a little more serious especially if her teacher was taking some action (though found it odd that we weren't notified by her teacher). We sat her down that night and had her go into more detail. She really did not want to talk about it. AT ALL. She finally did and also told us numerous stories we hadn't heard before. Like him knocking her lunch off the table and she was forced to get a hot lunch then, and by that time only salads were left (which she won't eat) so she just had cucumbers that day and ended up starving all day. And, he tried to punch her during lunch one day and a friend held up her lunch block to block him. And, he called her "slow" and "stupid" and made her cry. Those are just a few things.
Avery had a field trip the next day and I was going with her. I decided to watch her and this boy interact. Honestly, I didn't see anything go on between them that was concerning. The boy sat right in front of her on the bus and they were both peaking through the seat crack laughing at each other and playing. It does seem that they BOTH like to tease each other, but I never saw anything physical done or anything hurtful said. I still wanted to talk to her teacher so I stuck around after school and did so. She was surprised to hear all of this and had never noticed anything. She also said that she never saw him hit her and never hopped him back on the behavior chart for it. I was so frustrated with Avery for lying about that and I know that her teacher was surely disappointed in Avery as well. She was still concerned especially because Avery has been having a hard time sleeping at night (I have no idea if it is related to this or not), but she said she also tells herself "be brave, be brave" when he does this stuff to her. So, she wanted to get the principal involved. Within an hour I had a call from him and he said he was going to call both Avery and the boy to the office the next day to talk to them. And he did. Avery said she missed all of Mr. Lucas's class (Enrichment, her favorite special just because he's the teacher....she loves him, and so does every other student)....so that means she was in there for awhile. Mr. Shea did call me later in the day to tell me that he did talk to her and that Avery talked more than he thought she would. He didn't go into too much detail but said he does think the boy has been bothering her and that won't be tolerated and it will be put to an end. Of course Avery didn't go into to much detail about what they talked about. She "couldn't remember." She did say that he called her friend, Gigi, into the office to ask about the things that have happened at lunch, which she verified. I'm still not convinced that this boy means any harm to her. I do think he may be bothering her, but I really do believe it's just playful. Or I hope. Now to get Avery to really understand the importance of telling the truth, to differentiate playful teasing and mean teasing, and to know when to get an adult involved or when it would be tattling (because we were informed she does an excessive amount of it!)

Kids say the Darndest Things

One night during dinner Allie declared that I need to open up my own restaurant! I guess she really liked what I had made for dinner (Bacon Cheeseburger Soup). She then named off a bunch of different things that I make that she really loves and that was to be the menu. :)

"I want to smell you!!" This is something I hear at least 15 times a day from Blake. Sometimes I'm not sure if I should worry about this weird behavior or be happy that he wants to take big whiffs of me. I'm just relieved that every time he takes his sniffs he always walks away completely satisfied. :)

I also should mention that Blake is always calling me his princess, always tells me that he loves me, he will even tell me I'm pretty and that he wants to marry me!! The boy knows how to win over his Momma! I have no doubt that he will make an excellent husband to a VERY lucky girl someday.

Little Getaway
The  kids only had 3 days of school this past week. We didn't do much over MLK day weekend. We did take them to CurveMotion, an indoor play place. This weekend we drove north to Stoke on Trent and spent a day at WaterWorld, an indoor water park. The kids had a lot of fun and Blake and Avery started getting really brave towards the end of the day (Allie was brave the whole day). We took one picture and got in trouble.....they don't allow picture taking.

Saturday we went exploring some English Heritage sites. We will never tire of playing hide and seek at all of these castles and abbeys!
{Croxden Abbey}

{Kirby Hall}

more hide and seek

Other Picture Worthy Moments

First Snow!