Kids checkup

Adriana had her 5 year old checkup and Joey had his 9 month old checkup today. Both are doing great. Adriana had her hearing and vision checked and passed with flying colors. She measured off the charts for her height and 75% for her weight. Still tall and skinny. We did discuss her eating habits and lack of eating most foods. Dr. Dorfman seems to think she has some sensory and texture issues with her eating that we have to work on. She suggested a group we could go to if my efforts don't start helping. Other than that she is doing great. Joey is tall and skinny as well. He is actually measuring bigger than Adriana and Andrew did. So he may just be my tallest one. Adriana and Andrew were able to get the flu mist to avoid the shot. Joey got the flu shot. So we are good with the kids until Dec. when Andrew gets his 3 year checkup and Joey gets his 1 year!

Funny picture of the kids

While we were in Branson over the summer I wanted to get a picture taken of the kids. So while we were at Celebration City we got the kids dressed up in 50s attire and went to have their picture taken. I'm not quite sure what was going on with Andrew but he had all kinds of crazy looks in his pictures. We finally decided on this picture because Adriana and Joey looked the best in this one, but there is one of Andrew's crazy looks! It just cracks me up because it says Andrew all over it. It almost looks like an add for Coca Cola! Sorry the quality of this picture isn't the best, its a picture of a picture.

Our piano

I know we have had the piano for almost a month now, but I finally got around to taking a picture of it at our house. The kids love playing on it, but we still have to get it tuned.

The turtle

I know the blog for this month sounds like its a tribute to Adriana's birthday, but I promise this will be the last one to mention it. Anyway, while driving home from school on Adriana's birthday we saw a turtle walking across the road. I tell the kids I just saw a turtle and I hear the squeals coming from the back seat "get it mommy, get it". So I park the car and get out to pick it up. Not knowing much about turtles, I figure its got to be a box turtle since its out away from the water and walking on the street. So we bring it home and put it in a box. Not having any idea of how to take care of it I take the kids up to the pet store to find out. Surely they have food or now something about what to feed them. We get into Petco and I find one of the sales people. I inform her that we had just caught a box turtle and I wanted to know what we would need to take care of it. So we headed over to the turtle stuff and we got some bedding (which looked just like mulch to me), a ramp with a spot for water for him, and some box turtle food. She asked me if I was sure it was a box turtle we had and not a water turtle. I told her I had no idea but it was walking around on land so I assumed it was a box turtle. I asked her how would I know what it was and she told me to go on the conservation website and it should tell me what kind I have. So we get home and before I open everything I have I looked just to make sure. What do you know, the turtle I have is a red ear slider turtle, which is a WATER turtle!!!! Great, so now I'm going to have to tell the kids we have to get rid of it because we don't have the time or money to take care of it. Well of course they got upset. So the next day we went back to the pet store to see if they had any kind of box turtle they were selling. I thought I had remembered seeing some but never looked at the prices of them. So we get there and head straight to the turtles. Wow I found a turtle living on land the sign said turtoises. Great! What $99.......are you kidding me......for a frickin turtle!!!!! Well kids we're not getting a turtle! So now the kids are upset again. So lets see what else we can get to help ease the pain without it being a major money buster or a pain to take care of. I got it, beta fish. So the kids each got a beta and we returned the turtle supplies. So here is some pictures of the red eared slider heading back into the pond. (By the way I looked on Craigslist trying to find a box turtle and red eared sliders are going for about $20, but we were nice and set it free).

And here is Adriana's beta fish which she named Princess Rosa.

And a picture of Andrew's fish which he named Bl

Adriana's birthday celebrated at school

On Monday before her actual birthday, Adriana got to celebrate her birthday at school. I came in to help out as parent helper which also made Adriana special helper for the day. I brought in a cookie cake to share with friends which Adriana picked out.
Everyone got to see Happy Birthday to her which she thought was great. Then her teachers gave her a special little tag to put on that showed she was the birthday girl for the day.

Next she got to hold the American Flag while the students said the Pledge of Alegiance.

After that was the calendar. Adriana got to say what month, day, and year it was then add the next day onto the calendar.

She was so proud of herself for getting it all right!!!

Through out the day she got to do all kinds of fun activities. Here she was decorating a picture of herself that she made. This was the table I got to help out at.

At this table she was making a special picture which the teacher then hung on a board next to her name. You can kind of see the boards in the back of this picture where all the kids have their pictures hanging up.

Before we went home Adriana did the weather chart. She got to tell everyone what the weather was like for that day. It happened to be sunny that day. She then counted how many sunny, cloudy, rainy, and snowy days they had so far this school year.

The last thing was the map. Adriana told everyone that we lived in the United States of America and in the state of Missouri. What a smart little girl she is. Seriously, I had no idea what state or country I lived in until probably 2nd grade. I can't believe what they learn at preschool!!!!

We both had a really fun day and it was another great day added to her birthday week! I still can't believe my little girl is already 5!!!! It makes me so sad to see her grow up so fast!!!!! I love you Patootie!!!!! And I hope you had the best birthday ever!!!!!

Adriana and Paw Paw's birthday dinner

On Saturday after Adriana's birthday party we went out to eat at the hat restaurant (Chevy's) to celebrate Paw Paw and Adriana's birthdays. This has become Adriana's favorite birthday restaurant and she gets so excited to get the birthday hats (yes, we have quite a stash of them.) Here is a few pictures of the dinner.

Here is Adriana giving her best cheese smile with Maw Maw and Paw Paw. Here they are singing Happy Birthday to Adriana.

Adriana and Paw Paw getting their birthday ice cream.Adriana and Paw Paw wearing their birthday hats.

Adriana eating her ice cream.

Andrew wearing Paw Paw's hat.

Joey wearing Paw Paw's hat.

We had a great time and look forward to the next birthday dinner.

Adriana's birthday party

This year for her birthday party, Adriana decided she wanted to have it at Jump 4 Fun instead of her usual bar b que at our house. Adriana had a great time playing with all of her friends. Here is a picture of her going down one of the slides. Joey even had a great time at his big sissy's party.

By the end of the play time the kids were all getting a little daring and decided to all go down the slide together. Surprisingly only a few minor accidents happened. Here is the kids going down the slide.
Here is the giant pile up at the bottom of the slide.
Here is the sign at the outside of Adriana's party room.

A picture of all the kids sitting down getting ready for cake.

Singing Happy Birthday to Adriana.

Adriana making a wish and blowing out her birthday candles.

A picture of the birthday cake Adriana picked out. Surprisingly she picked out a ballerina barbie over her typical princess cake.

A picture of Adriana, Kaitlyn, and Grace hanging out.

Adriana and all her presents. Boy was she a lucky little girl!

Adriana opening up her presents.

One of the many gifts Adriana got.

All the kids scoping out all the new presents Adriana got.

I want to thank everyone who was able to make it to Adriana's birthday party. She really had a great day! I asked her what her favorite gift was and she said everything was her favorite because she had so many great friends!!!!!

Adriana's birthday pictures

Saturday morning I was planning on taking Adriana to get her birthday pictures taken. I asked her how she would like me to do her hair and she said she wanted it all down and curly of course. So I spend an hour and a half curling her hair with a small curling iron. I got done and her hair was very curly so I sprayed it as much as it would hold. We immediately left and headed up to Sears to have her pictures done. Go figure, by the time I got there all her curls were already out :( Gotta love the humidity. Anyway here is a few of the pictures we had taken.

Our ugly tree comes down!

We had this pine tree in our front yard that I have hated since we moved into our house. Well year after year I kept asking Chris to get rid of it, but he insisted we needed it because it kept our house shaded (which really it did). Well finally after 5 years of our front yard grass not growing from all the sap and pine needles he told me he would cut it down! Plus the tree was about dead anyway. So I am finally free of ugly tree!!!!! Here is some pictures of Chris and his dad cutting the tree down, of course I forgot to get the pictures of it when it was all gone. I will take them and add them as soon as I can.

Adriana's first day of preschool!

Adriana had her first day of preschool on Wednesday morning. So realistically this is her 3rd year of preschool, but I still have to do my first day of preschool pictures! She did really well. We met her teachers the week before and saw that she had some of her same friends in class that she had last year. She was so excited to get back to school. She goes to school on M/W/F from 9-3. I'm trying to start getting her ready for when she starts all day kindergarten next year. I figure if she gets used to going to school 3 days a week all day, adding in the extra 2 days won't be as big of a deal for her. When I came to get her she said she had a lot of fun and loved her new teachers, not that I really expected her to say anything else. So here is her first day of school pictures.

Andrew's 1st day of preschool!

Andrew started his first day of preschool on September 2. He has been so excited to start school since last year when we would go and drop Adriana off at school. We've been talking all about school for the past several weeks. Well the first day finally arrived. That morning he told me he was excited as we started getting ready for school. I think he was more excited than I was. We got all ready and drove to school. I walked him into the door and down the hallway to his big boy classroom. He started putting his bookbag on the rack right away (I guess he watched his sister do this many a times). His teacher showed him his nametag and off into the classroom he went. Adriana and I showed him around his classroom and showed him where the bathroom was so he wouldn't have any potty accidents. He was busy playing with the trucks and we finally got him to move. He didn't seem too interested in the bathroom and came back into the classroom to play at the sensory table. I told him that I was leaving and I would be back for him in a little bit. "Alright mom" was all I got out of him. I'm on the verge of tears and he could care less.
Well it finally came time to pick him up and we were one of the first cars in line so I could be one of the first to pick him up. As we were pulling up to get him I saw that he still had on the same clothes I dropped him off in (thats a good sign that he didn't have any potty accidents.) Ms. Gail, one of his teachers, was standing there with him as I stopped to pick him up. I asked her how he did today and she said he did awesome! I was so proud of my "big boy!" I asked him if he had fun at his new school and he said yes then I asked him if he wanted to go back and he said no! Well I guess we will have to work on that. I'm so proud of my big boy!