WoW! CoNgRaTs!!!

Bethanie one 2nd place out of about 85 3rd graders for a poster she drew for Red Ribbon Week! DARE week! She was so surprised this morning at assembly when they called her name as one of the winners! I haven't seen her picture yet, but I can hardly wait to see it! She was scared to death to walk up and get her award. She wanted to cry. It didn't help that she had to walk from her class line, which was clear at the back of the gym, all the way to the front with 400+ kids watching and clapping for her! Poor kid! She is way to shy. Besides the award, she got a Walmart gift card, a free pizza and DQ Treat! Plus some other great stuff that she loves!!!
But anyway, CONGRATS BETHANIE! I am SO PROUD OF YOU!

Bethanie is on the back row, second from the right. These are all of the winners, K-4th graders, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place for each grade! Way to go kiddo's!

HaLLoWeEn TiMe!!!

Today was a day filled with PARTIES! First, Madison had her first ever Halloween Party. It is her first year of preschool, and she LOVES going! She would go every day if she could! But, today was fun because she was able to wear her costume the entire time she was there. We chose the Dorothy (Wizard of Oz) one for her class party. It is what she wore last year. But for Halloween she will be Snow White. We didn't want the dress to be torn while at school so we are being two things this year. It was really quite the hoot because after the activities were finished, the kids were to go sit on the carpet area and read a book or do a puzzle. But Matthew was laying there on the floor with his DSi. ALL of the kids stuck their heads in and tried to take a peak. It is pictured above on the top left! The cookies they got for their treats were so cute! Madison got a witch. It looked very realistic and yummy! Most of the kids had black lips and teeth when they were done. :O)

I was Chair Mom on Bethanie's 3rd Grade Halloween Party. Matthew and Madison came with me and crashed the party. I didn't feel so bad when other moms had their extra kids. LOL! This year, Bethanie is a Flapper girl. That is such her style! She is a classic young lady. The entire 3rd grade went to an assisted living place in town to spend the afternoon with the residents there. They sang songs with them and came back to watch a movie, then we had their party. They made the cutest bats that move! We did a couple different treat bags and just kind of kept it low key because they had quite the afternoon. As soon as we came home, it was time to usher Bethanie off to dance.

What an exhausting day! I love Halloween time though. It is a great time for imagination for the kids! More pictures will be posted about it, I am sure. I love making a big ta-do about holidays. I think it is important for the kids to have the time for play and fun, and imagination. Memories are all they will have of their childhood! Make the best of it!

My MoMmY...

had back surgery today. :'( She has struggled over the lasts year or so with horrible pain. She had some calcium build up that was pressing all of the nerves inside the spinal cord off to the side. She had severe pain down her left leg all the time, which also led her to be unstable in her walking, and led her to a fall a month ago. She has had 3 knee surgeries in the last year, and now it was time for her back. Dad, Ann and I were there (Jeff was with our kids) during the surgery and waited. It took just over an hour. The surgeon said that the cushion between the discs looked good, and he cleaned out all of the blockage. Her recovery time will be long. 6-8 weeks, and she will be using a walker. I doubt I have seen her in as much pain as I have today after surgery. She has been through a lot in her life. She is 60 years old and has had more than one lifetime worth of pain and suffering. What an example she is to me though, as she goes through it, she never moans or groans about it. It was hard seeing her today, because she hurt so much. I DONT want to be there when they get her out of her bed tomorrow to walk. :'( makes me sad to think about it. She MIGHT get to come home on Friday or Saturday. I will spend a couple nights with them to make sure she gets her needs met (as well as dads).

LeT's Do ThE HuLa!

I have NEVER seen a three year old, who is super independent, and hard headed, be so determined to do something. She can keep going for a very long time. I can only take clipets of video to post on here because it is too large of a file otherwise. :O) So, this is her, determined to hula hoop! Oh, and she choose her own outfit. :O) Just sayin.

Similar....yet not...

Today was Madison's school picture day. She took a group class picture and an individual one (with a blue background and red tricycle). But I wanted to take some outside pictures. So the one on the right is what I came up with. I decided to do a side-by-side shot of the two. Bethanie is on the left and Madison is on the right. They are the same ages in these pictures (3). The similarities struck me. You can tell by the eyes, though, which one is the dreamer and which one is the thinker. People seemed to freak out a little that Madison's hair is so curly. It is normally as straight as can be, but we put it in rollers last night.

PuMpKiN PaLoOzA!!!

Today was Pumpkin Palooza at Rolling Hills Zoo. So we went. The kids all got to pick out the PERFECT pumpkin from the patch. They are so excited! They are every year! I think that this trip has begun to be an unofficial welcome to Halloween for our family. Last year, we went with my parents, for some reason, I cant remember, Jeff was not able to go with us, so my parents went, which was tons of fun. This year, Jeff was there, and his parents came with us. It was a lot of fun. The kids loved seeing the animals, taking time to feed the giraffes. We just had an all around good time, which our family needs a lot more of these days.

After we were finished with the zoo, we went into Salina and stuffed ourselves silly at one of our favorite lunch spots. And then did a little browsing around at a couple stores. Everyone had so much fun and we are totally wore out.