Kacy's 4 Year Check-up

I was a tiny bit late for Kacy's 4 year check up, but it's a good one to be late for. I hate the 4 year shots! (Probably not as much as the 4 year old themselves, but it's just so sad!) I asked Cory to go with me because I wanted to be able to be there for Kacy instead of having to take care of Brooke. Everything was going okay, but then she got weird when it was time to the eye test. She got all nervous and was hiding behind my legs. We finally got her to do it when I held her, and Cory covered her eye. Then, it came down time for the shots. She did so great for the first three, and then cried for the last one. I couldn't believe she took the first three like nothing! After the shots, she had to get her finger pricked for some blood tests. That was torture! I hate just waiting there for them to fill that tiny thing with blood; it always seems like it takes a lifetime. She got over it after some ice cream. :) Everything else in the check-up was great! She has gone down a little bit on her weight chart, but I think it's because she was a tiny bit chubby before and she has slimmed down a lot lately! I love my Kacy so much. Her sweet spirit, her storytelling, her personable nature, the little spark she has that makes me smile, and her desire to play all the time. I am a little concerned about her stuttering. She has a hard time getting words out sometimes. It comes and goes, but in the last day or two she has gotten frustrated and just decided to stop telling the story or whatever. I am making it sound like a bigger deal than it is, but it's still a little concern. Everything that I have read says that it's just because their brains are moving faster than their words at this age. She doesn't show the typical stuttering symptoms, and with her excitable nature, I could imagine that her little brain in moving a mile a minute! I am just trying to work with her on slowing down and thinking about what she wants to say. I can't wait for her to start her new preschool, and see how she likes it!

This was a picture that I took of her at the Griffins the other night. She said, "Mom, can you take a picture of me with the moon?"

Girl, I love you all the way to the moon and back to your beautiful blue eyes!

First Day of 1st Grade!

Adilyn started 1st grade on Monday! It was hard to believe summer was over already, but it was about time for us to get into a routine again. We had done really well with learning and activities at the beginning of the summer, but I slacked off the second part and we had all gotten really lazy! I was a little nervous that we would have a repeat of last year's first week of agony. Everything Adilyn told me about school seemed like she was feeling positive about starting school, but there was still that little part of me that remembered the drama of last year. We went to meet the teacher, and Adilyn seemed okay with everything. She had a few people that she knew from last year in her class. She also saw one girl that she said was really mean to her last year. I told her that maybe she was just in a bad mood those days, her reply was, "It was everyday, Mom!" We talked a little more about it, and I told her that people change over the summer. Maybe this year she would be super nice. Sunday night came, and I tried to get her to sleep early. Unfortunately, she had a a finger that was hurting, then a snuggler that she couldn't find, then a coughing attack...she didn't fall aslpeet until 10:30!!! I had to wake her up at 7:15. Yikes!
Well, in the morning, she popped right out of bed. She was really excited to get ready and get going. She . I had made celebration pancakes the night before, so we heated those up. Then, she remembered that we had white powdered donuts in the counter. She said, "I really love the pancakes, but can I have the white powedered donuts since it's a special occasion." So, we got the donuts out had a yummy mess. We went outside to wait for the bus, and I kept waiting for her to get nervous or something, but there was nothing! The bus came a little late, but when it finally did, she jumped right on! Whew! So much nicer than last year!
When Kacy woke up, she was sad that she had missed Adilyn getting on the bus. I knew that we had to have some things to do to keep us busy all day. We decided to go to the library with Dana and Hudson because they were feeling weird, too. Unfortunately, the library was closed. We rebounded and went to the park, but then it started sprinkling. Dana and I were fine, but Hudson and Kacy were whining about getting wet. Crazy kids! It rained all day, and it was pretty gloomy. I tried to keep Kacy busy all day, but she was still missing Adilyn. I couldn't play "mermaids" right, I couldn't fit in the box with her, and basically I was a failure of a playmate. The time was finally here to get Addy from the bus. I was so hoping that she had a good day. She came off the bus with a big smile! She just kept saying that everything was great. Every answer she had was "great". Not "great", like a bored teenager, but "great" with a big smile on her face. She also told me that she rode home on the bus with the girl that she thought was so mean, and she was really nice. She said, "You were right, mom, maybe she was just grumpy or tired last year." It seemed like everything went perfectly, and she had a great day! Hope her excitement will last all year long :)
When, she got home we had a cake in the shape of a 1, for 1st grade, of course. We all decorated cupcakes and had fun talking about our days.

Cousin Time

We watched Cash for a couple days last week. Even though it's hard to add another little one in the mix of our crazy lives, it's really nice to see them get to know each other better. Brooke and Cash were little partners in crime! They were jumping on the couch together, climbing on the chairs, dumping out bins, and stealing each other's cups. Adilyn and Kacy loved being "in charge", and they would put Brooke and Cash in time out for messing with their stuff. Brooke knows better not to listen, but poor Cash would actually go to the corner and sit in timeout. I would have to go pick him up and tell him to play again. We had a lot of fun together! Everywhere I went people thought that Brooke and Cash were twins. That would be a whole lot of work, for sure.

This was their "cousin band"!

Brooke and Cash touching their noses and listening to orders from the big girls.

Nammie End of the Summer Fun

Every year Mom comes down right before school starts up again, and we have a lot of end of summer fun! Since I am not teaching, we get to do this the week that teachers go back to school, which means everything is dead. It was so amazing because everything we did was super easy! We went to Kemah, and there was absolutely nobody there. We never had to wait for a single ride! The first ride we went on was a crazy, fast spinning ride. Kacy and Adilyn both rode on it. Kacy was pretty scared, but she seemed to have fun. Adilyn really wanted to ride the super tall "drop" ride. It was seriously super, duper high! She didn't seem too nervous on the way up. It was really high!!! When it dropped, it was really scary. It wasn't really like scary fun, more like just painful scary. When it got to the bottom, I looked at her, and she looked really, really terrified! She said she definitely did not like it. Luckily, she finally got over it and went on the Pirate's Boat with me later on, which she loved! Both Adilyn and Kacy loved the little Jungle Bounce ride. They must have gone on it at least 20 times! It was so much fun! Cory met us for a yummy Mexican dinner, we got some souvenirs, and headed back home. The rest of the time we just played around the house, swam at the Y pool, and went to Fuddruckers. We were going to go to the beach, but it seemed like a lot of work :) It's always fun when Nammie comes to town!

Swim Test!

Adilyn has been wanting to do the swim test at the YMCA all summer long. All you have to do is swim the length of the pool, float on your back, tread water, and float on your belly. She can totally do it, and she had been so excited to try. Unfortunately since we have our own pool, I am never in the mood to take the trek to the Y. Finally, the other day we went. She passed it so easily, and she was so proud of herself! The bonus was that she was tall enough to ride on the slides, too! She was so excited and so proud :) Love seeing her accomplish her goals!

A Late Night Swim Party

We love the Griffins and the Hrobars so much! The kids all get along so well, the adults get along so well, and we always have a great time. We had a pizza party over at the Griffins last weekend to celebrate the end of summer. All the kids swam, rode 4 wheelers, and played on the trampoline until the sun went down. Then, the kids got really excited when Carl turned the colored pool light on! Love our little crew :)

Weekend Getaway

This year we planned another weekend trip with Cory's high school friends. We missed last year, so we were all excited to see each other again. There was drama with the rental house a couple weeks before we were to leave. I got a call from the rental agency about the house that we had rented. There was a new noise ordinance placed on the house for 24 hour noise levels. There could be no noises above a normal talking voice anywhere outside at anytime. With 13 kids, we knew that would be an impossible challenge! Luckily, there was another property that would still fit our huge crowd. It turned out to be a pretty cool place. One main house with four bedrooms, a separate one room cabin, and another separate two room place. There was a nice pool right in the middle of the property, and a lot of room to explore. Each family got their own room, and after we got unpacked, we headed to the Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood for some amazing food with everyone. The restaurant had outside seating, which was fantastic for our ridiculously rowdy kids. They ran around, climbed on the tables and the trees, sat and ate for a few minutes, then ran around again. Everyone said it was great food, but being a vegetarian, BBQ doesn't really have much for me. :) After dinner, we all headed home to rest up. We had noticed that there were birds in the chimney of Sonja and Carl's room. They had tried to get them out, but the best they could do was close the flue, and hope that they didn't actually get in the room. The worst part about it was that there were baby birds in the nest, so they chirped and went nuts all night long, every time the mama bird fed those little babies, it was so loud! Sonja and Carl didn't sleep all night. The other problem was that the air conditioning wasn't cooling the rooms in the main house very well. Another huge problem was that Dana was sick. We didn't know just how sick, but it ended up that she was sick in her room with a crazy high fever and a stomach bug the entire weekend! It was so horrible :( I called the rental agency to see if they could do anything about the birds or the air conditioning. Long story short, they never really fixed either problem. Luckily, everyone dealt with the issues and had a great time! We mostly stayed around the house, playing in the pool, battling each other in horseshoes, and the kids loved having Nerf gun battles and playing hide and seek. On Saturday, most of the girls got in the pool at noon, and didn't get out until 6:30 for dinner! Unfortunately, on Saturday, Luke also got sick, so the Griffins left their noisy room and headed home early. It was a really fun time, despite all the drama and sickness. It's great to see the kids of old friends becoming new friends. Everyone got along really well, and there were lots of smiles and giggles throughout the weekend from the adults and the kids!