School so far

Luke:
Notes in his agenda book in his first 2 weeks:
Day 3 - working hard on keeping our hands to self and not on friends
Day 7 - working on keeping our hands to self
Day 9 - hit a girl on her bottom
Day 10 - licked a child next to him during lunch

Oh Luke Lukey Luke - what are we going to do with you!??  I talked to him long and hard about each infraction and on day 9 I couldn't believe it!  I was pretty mad and he looked at me and said "so mom, you are mad at me because I can't be good ALL the time?"   Well, that softened me up cause really he is doing SO well.  I mean this is 7 hours of being on your best behavior.  And for 6.999 hours he was so good.   And then I said, "Luke, you can't hit people on the bum!"  He said, "but mom, you do it to me all the time!"   uh.... he's right.  I totally do.  I love-spank all my kids when I love them too much to be contained.  He might as well have said, "I learned it from watching you!"  I told him moms get to give their kids friendly spanks but that he couldn't do it at school.   So many bugs to work out in this new world of ours.  :)

Here he is on his first real day of his Kindergarten class.  He's really loving it.

 What he wasn't loving was homework.  Here he is doing his very first homework. 

 He hated it at first.  I wasn't a fan myself.  I considered boycotting all homework.  He's FIVE!  My few hours with this kid is just too precious to be doing worksheets when we could be riding bikes or wrestling.  But I wrote a nice email to the teacher instead just with a few of my concerns.  She was so nice and said that I could be creative with "homework" and tailor it to him.   She gave me the license to do educational things at home my way and just write down what we do.  I loved that.  But to be honest - he doesn't mind the given homework as much anymore.  And Joey is the homework parent and gives them some good one-on-one bonding time.  So, it's working. We just make sure he gets lots of swimming and bike riding in before we make him sit down and work.

Here is a sample of his work from his first week.  Love those fenders on that old fashion looking car.

We are working on his citizenship marks.  It's E (excellent), G (good), S (satisfactory), N (needs improvement) and U (unacceptable).    He's gotten Es, Gs and one S.  After the bum hitting and kid licking incidents - we made a sticker chart and told him if he got 15 Es we would buy him a Storm Trooper costume (star wars) and if he got a week straight of all Es - we'd take him to see Monsters University.  Well, this week he gotten straight Es with only tomorrow to go.  We might be taking him to the movies this weekend.  Ahh, the magic of the bribe.

Lucy:

Lucy started JOY SCHOOL!   Joy School is something I did when I was little. and I've always wanted to try it with my kids.  I'm excited for this group!  It's a values based preschool and basically teaches ethics.  It's a co-op so the lessons are taught in homes by the moms in the group.  She wanted to wear her pink headband with her bangs back for her first day.  She was so excited.  

Joy School group 2013-2014:  Daxton, Lucy, Jackson, Jane and Helen.  Two old friends (the boys) and two new friends for Lucy.  

So, speaking of school behavior.  I picked up Lucy from her first day of Joy School and I asked her how it went.  She looked at me with a twinkle in her eye and a sly smile and said, "I didn't listen to Ms. Marie"   Oh, dear.  Well, there's always Maryanne.  Maybe she'll be good in school.  :)

My Birthday

I woke up to this little sleepy girl singing to me ...

happyhappybirthdaytoyou from katiehale on Vimeo.

We actually celebrated later since we did the baby shower for Sheri.   We went out to eat at Macaroni Grill with Kate and Caleb and Amanda.  I love double dating with Kate and Caleb - we always have so much fun.  And I love Amanda (whose husband Drew may or may not show up since he is a crazy busy business man right now bringing home the bacon).   It was a funny night of chatting and stories.

Well, Joey gave me a special birthday card (that he apparently made out of the paper tablecloth and crayons at Macaroni grill - so sneaky) that gave me the best gift of all!  A trip to a resort with my sisters and my mom!!!  He booked flights and a condo and even took time off work to have the kids while I get a VACATION!  I go on trips, but never vacations so this is super exciting for me!

Later, Kate made me an awesome pink lemonade cake and the little dear made sure that I had all 35 candles on the cake. 

An English Tea Party

One of my best friends in Memphis is spending the next 6 months in Bristol England!  (waaaah!)  So, to send her off properly we threw her a British party with all the finest teas and delicious crumpets known to Mormons. (It was actually really funny cause I had to assure people that the tea was ok to drink as they eyed me suspiciously)  Sheri is also pregnant with her very first GIRL!!  And I couldn't be happier for her.  So it was a tea party / baby shower / good-bye party. 

The party planners:

To combine the themes of British and baby - we played a game to guess the American words for the list of 25 British baby words.  Like pram, dummy, nappy, etc.  It was pretty fun.
Party goers: Jerianne, Becca, Sheila, Johanna, Jill, Gianetta, Marie, Alicia, Angie, Sheri's mom, Katie, Melissa, me, Marcia

And then she opened presents.  I always love presents that involve tiny baby clothes.  And picturing a new little person in all the clothes - it's so exciting. 
(Sheri's mom Lynn, Sheri and Amanda)

Hat Story: I went to look for a hat for the party and found an old hat in an antique store from the 40's.  It once belonged to Ms. Ellen Davies-Rogers who was born in 1903 on the famous Tennessee "Davies Plantation" which she later inherited.  She was known far and wide as "Miss Ellen" and was known in the 20th century as the most influential woman in Tennessee.  She had a note pinned inside this hat that said "wore this hat to Egypt"   How cool is that?   I mean, it's kind of falling apart but it was so fun to have a hat with a story.  And doesn't it make me look a little more.... influential in Tennessee?

It was also my birthday - so it counted as my birthday party too.  Everyone sang as I ate my British cupcake. :)

So, happy travels friend!  You are missed.  We anxiously await your return with your new little British bundle.

First day of the rest of your life

Oh my goodness.  My first child had his first day of kindergarten today!!  You know, up until now people keep telling me how fast my kids will grow up and they will be 25 before I know it.  And I keep thinking "they aren't really growing that fast.  I feel like I've been doing babies and toddlers for a LONG time and am still doing it."  With 3 kids at home for the past year and a half I was also thinking "Oh school will be so good for Luke and so good for me to focus on my girls and give them a little more attention."  But man oh man - I was surprised how empty I felt walking out to my car after dropping him off.  I just kept thinking "how can I stop this!  My buddy that has been with me since I started this motherhood journey is going to be gone!  ALL day!  And I'm not going to be the main adult in his life anymore.  Is he ready for that?  To be out on his own?"  And all of a sudden that 5 1/2 years DID seem to have gone fast.  really fast.  There was a little ache in my heart in the middle of all that excitement that brought some real tears and kept them coming until I picked up my girls.  I will miss that Luke but I'm also so excited for his new adventures.  I feel proud and anxious and hopeful.   It's that feeling that comes with a big change.  And I know that I am standing on the threshold of a new stage of life - school kids.  And all the challenges and joys that come with it.

3 Hale-ians - day before school.  Sunday, August 04, 2013

So, on back-to-school eve I thought we should have a special dinner just for Luke.  The only problem with that is Luke doesn't like dinner.  Or food in general.  But I gave it a try and told him it was his special last night before school and that he could pick whatever dinner he wanted.  He picked... cookies.  Well, I could make him cookies for after dinner but I told him he needed to pick a real dinner.  His next pick was ... pie.  Again, Luke - real dinner food.  I said, well there is a real dinner that is pie.  It's called chicken pot pie.  And he said "yeah! yeah! chicken pot pie!"   I was skeptical that he would really eat it but thought at least it would be a fun activity on his special night.  So Luke and Lucy and I made pie.  Lucy rolled out the bottom and Luke rolled out the top and I made the filling.  (which was only chicken, carrots and gravy.  Luke's orders)

Well, wonder of wonders - Luke loved it!  He ate TWO big pieces and even closed his eyes with a "mmmm" on each bite.  I was so happy.

Then we did interviews, a haircut, made cookies, had a father's blessing and a family wrestle.

mustache kids waiting for the feast

1.  Luke and his chicken pot pie   2. Luke with a new haircut and a daddy-made chocolate chip cookie

Interview with Luke

Lukeinterviewbeforeschool from katiehale on Vimeo.

Interview with Lucy

Lucysinterview from katiehale on Vimeo.

 FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!

So this is where I said good-bye and he was as happy as could be.  It was so fun to see him being so friendly and excited to be there.  And then, aforementioned, I drove home and cried like a baby.  Then I had to wait until 4:30 to hear about his day!   He was so excited about the bus that of course he begged to ride it home.  I left my house 15 minutes early with L&M to go and wait for him on the corner.  But right when I got out of my door - I saw the bus pulling away!  HIS bus!  But they were 15 min early and there was no Luke!   Then we (my neighbor and I) saw some little boys walking from far away and when they got to us they said they were lost!  They didn't know where their house was.  Luckily they knew their phone number and we called their dad and he came out and got them.  They were only 2nd graders and got off at the wrong stop!  Then, I am thinking "Oh no!  Luke is wandering around the neighborhood somewhere lost and scared!!!"  My neighbor offered to drive around and look for him.  But the bus came around just as he backed out, he flagged it down and got Luke off.  So I never got to talk to the bus driver.  It wasn't the best first day experience for me and sort of freaked me out.  But as Luke got off the bus he was grinning from ear to ear and ran and hugged me and said "Mom! I was right!  The bus IS the best thing about school!"  It was so cute.

He had a good day.  He came home talking about "Pete the Cat" and singing "going to lunch with my school shoes on!" - new things he had learned at school.   I think it's healthy for kids to go off to school and do their book learnin.   And even though I missed him sooooo much, the ache felt a little bit good.  I guess my heart grew a little fonder today.