mirror me

papa and nana are on a road trip with their friends john and liz and they decided to pop on over our way for labor day weekend since they were already in indiana.  they have been friends with papa and nana most of matt's life so they are sort of like family.  the kids (at least madelyn) have met them a few times and receive cards with stickers from them on almost every holiday and birthday so they know "mr. john and mrs. liz".  madelyn even knows liz' handwriting when the mail comes.

we played downstairs after they arrived this afternoon (see "daddy the jungle gym")and then we all went out to dinner.  maddux sat next to mr. john (and his white shirt) during dinner.  i had warned john that maddux was a "full contact" eater but apparently i forgot that he was a mimic.  maddux and john had a great time posing like each other and the rest of us were very entertained watching!

dinner and a show! love.

daddy the jungle gym

soccer practice

this week madelyn decided that she didn't like soccer.  after a few questions she burst into tears and said that she wanted to stay home and "snuggle with my mama" instead.  i guess the time away from home during school is starting to take its toll.  we reminded her that she made a commitment to her team for the season and that she didn't have to play next season if she didn't want to, but she needed to see this season all the way through.

she still wasn't super excited when we left for the field this morning, but got herself ready to go.

i decided manning could show his support by wearing his soccer socks.

mason all ready to cheer for madelyn!

while madelyn was at school, the boys and i went to get her some pink shoelaces since her cleats this season don't have any pink on them.  she was pretty pleased when she opened her back to get her gear on.

i don't know what it is but this is the second season where madelyn's actual coach hasn't been able to make it to the first few weeks of practice/games. the coach's wife has been running practice and today she had some 'older' kids come over to help madelyn's team with their skills.

madelyn wasn't as peppy as she was last week.  maybe it was the oppressive humidity (florida style thick), maybe it was her desire to be at home, whatever it was, it made her s-l-o-w.  here she is dragging up the rear in a dribbling drill.

when we were leaving the field she said that she had fun, so maybe next week will be back to normal.  love.

smash balls

i have been running the boys all over this week so this afternoon i wanted to let them do something fun. so we made "smash balls". they are just cotton balls dipped in equal parts flour and water with some food coloring. then you bake them at a low temperature (325) for 45 minutes.

the boys dipping their cotton balls. mason liked it more than maddux but both boys didn't really like that it was messy.

our finished "smash balls"

once they were done we took them down stairs to smash. the boys were super excited but a little too gentle at first. once they got the hang of it they thought it was really fun.

mason was so cute because after smashing a few he said that we should save some for madelyn. and we did. she really enjoyed them too.

i highly recommend this activity. super easy and it was great for keeping them busy (and stationary) while i swept and cleaned up the patio. we will do these again and will definitely make them on days when we need to do yard work. love.

big week for manning too

madelyn might have started kindergarten, but manning has had a pretty big week too! besides sleeping through the night (he has for the past three nights), he has figured out how to settle down without a pacifier, suddenly likes swinging (before it would just make him mad to turn the swing on - this has been a HUGE help during dinner prep) and tonight he started sucking his thumb (he has been working on that fist trying to get it free for at least two weeks) and he just did his first giggling! love.

 

 

morning at the park

a chill was in the air as we were getting ready to take madelyn to school so everyone wore either pants or long sleeves.  it gets me excited to think about fall!  we dropped madelyn off at school (read: we unloaded everyone from the car and walked her into the lobby every day this week) and then i took the boys to the park for a walk and some playing while it was nice a cool out.

while i miss having madelyn with us all day, it is nice to hear what the boys think and notice when we walk around.  they are so used to madelyn taking the lead that they happily go along - most of the time.  maddux has been in a phase of always wanting to hold my hand and mason will usually hold madelyn's (like when we walk into school) but without her he was feeling a little lost.  after getting upset that he couldn't hold my hand (my other hand was pushing the stroller), he told me (sadly) that madelyn holds his hand.  after some thought he told me that "you only have two hands, not four".  and somehow that made it okay with him that i couldn't hold his hand.  he really is a big sweety and so understanding when things aren't fair or aren't as he would like them to be.  such a blessing. love.

kindergarten: post-game

we (she) did it! she is now an o-fish-al kindergartener!  the boys and i ran errands all morning and went to the 'playland' in the afternoon until we had to go pick her back up from school. what was the first thing out of her mouth about the day? (aside from "hi, mom") "i got my school supplies today!  i got scissors and a glue stick and crayons!"

so i told her to get into her seat so that other kids could get picked up (we were in the car line since i had three sleeping boys in the van)!  once she got all settled and buckled, she told me about her day.  it sounds like it was a great one too.  besides the school supplies (the school provides them instead of everyone buying their own you have to write them a check), she had music class, recess twice, lunch, book time and did some coloring and gluing.

she is already looking forward to music class next week when she can actually play and instrument (or so she was told).  she said that recess was fun.  i asked if she played with other kids and she said, "yes, but they didn't know that i was playing with them". 

she didn't get to eat most of her lunch at school so she had it for snack when we got home.  it sounds like lunch was pretty exciting too and she was already telling me how to make her lunch better for tomorrow  (she didn't like that her frozen yogurt stick had melted and was "just yogurt").

after reading a friend's blog saying that her daughter was tired of talking about her day by the time her dad got home, i decided that we should try to call matt while she was still excited.  that worked out well and he got to hear some of the stories she had told me.  and then we called nana who she was able to talk with quite a while.  i asked if she would talk to grandma now but she was starting to get tired of talking about it and asked if she could just tell her a few things.  it worked out that grandma didn't answer.

to complete her 'special day', i made one of her favorite dinners - "snack dinner".  i basically make a bunch of finger foods and lay it out on the table so that they can help themselves.  i like it because it is easy and requires little prep or clean-up.  they like it because it is "fun".

just to milk her 'special day' a little more, madelyn asked if she could have a donut "since it is my special day".  we agreed that she could.

i don't think she could have had a more perfect first day of school.  can't wait to see what tomorrow holds!  love.