First Grade Spring Music Program

Last week we got to watch Max perform with some of the other first grade classes in a musical program at the school.  Remember the ones in preschool?  Specifically then one where he decided he was too embarrassed to sing so he marched off to one side of the stage and kicked the drum?  Well luckily he has matured since then and this time he was thrilled to be on stage.  

The class had been practicing their songs (and dances!) for months.  It was fun to see it come together.  I giggled the entire time and I'm not sure why.  Sure it was silly and a bit cheesy but I think I thought it was so funny just because Max was loving every minute.  He nailed those dance moves, too!  Of course.  ;)  What a fun night.  

Teacher Appreciation Week is going on at school right now and as one of the room moms I collected hand-written notes from the kids in class and stuffed them into a pretty keepsake box for Mrs. Clark.  Max's letter is below.  Completely written by him and heart-felt.  I had to ask if Mrs. Clark was a bit down on herself or something because he was sincere in adding that she is "young" and "pretty" (preety) in his note.  He really loves her and she has made it such a great year for him.  Hoping to have the same kind of experience for Max next year in second grade.

Summer starts for us in 11 short days.  Am I ready???

It's Baseball Season!

With boring ol' t-ball behind us Max's first season of Coach Pitch Baseball has begun.  Thank God!  Admit it, t-ball is SO slow...  

This year he is on the Cubs (yay, no white uniforms like last year!) and is loving it!  The games are so fun to watch too because the kids are actually starting to "get it".  The details:  Each inning they play a new position in attempt to get the other team out in three outs.  If they don't get three outs the inning ends when the hitting team scores 5 runs.  Each batter gets 6 pitches then a tee is brought out for ONE swing.  You miss, you're out.  Typically most kids can hit the pitch and the games move along just fine, although we have yet to get in the scheduled 6 innings in 90 minutes.  More like 4 innings get played.  

Max is having a great time and loves to hit!  The habit we need to get him to break is to watch the ball and the goings-on whenever he hits.  He watches everything and sort of trots to the base.  RUN, MAX!!!!  (that's what I am often heard screaming)  ;)  It's funny to watch him come into home plate as well because if there is a play he stops and lets the catcher try to catch the ball and tag him.  I told him last time that it's a race (he's competitive so this should help) and his goal is to beat anyone and everyone, including the ball, to the bag.  Do not stop and look.  Do not let them catch it.  Plow them over if need be.  We'll see how far he takes that advice.  He's not as aggressive as I am.  Thankfully.

We are looking forward to a fun season ahead... and he'll be busy with other sports too!  Swimming for CFY (long course) starts this week.  Dunsinane swim team starts May 29, 5 days a week plus two meets a week.  Tennis starts in June and it's three days a week.  Plus baseball... and don't forget summer camp!  

It all can't come soon enough for Max.  His favorite time of year... and mine!

A Little Bit of This and a LOT of That.

It's been so long since I posted I almost feel too overwhelmed to begin... I guess we'll practically skip right over March and just pick up in April?

I had spring mini-sessions at the end of March (many of you received an Easter card from us with some of those images) for 6 clients. For boys I set up an "Opening Day Baseball" themed scene (finally, something cute to get excited about for boys!) and when my work day was over I snapped a few of Max. He's such a good sport. Cute, right?

Spring came way early for us this year... an entire month! In March we had warm temps. That made for some fun outdoors with Max. He has been practicing his swing in both golf and baseball and is loving both sports. His first baseball game is this Thursday. Coach Pitch. FINALLY. We'll see if it makes the game more exciting. Tee ball is awful!

To end spring break we got to celebrate Easter weekend. On Saturday we invited our friends to go with us to a new egg hunt (as Max was quick to point out, "it's not really a hunt because they aren't hidden") in Lebanon. The fun part was a helicopter flew over and dumped tons of eggs onto the field. The kids thought that was extremely cool. I was a little worried about who was steering the thing when the pilot seemed to be using both hands to dump the eggs but whatever.

After the egg "hunt" we came home to color eggs. Max left a plate out for the Easter Bunny, since we didn't have carrots to leave him, and then we were off to church. The next morning Max found his basket of goodies by the door, just where the Easter Bunny left it.

On Easter afternoon we had the whole family over for our third annual Easter celebration. The weather was great, we ate lots of yummy food, and the kids got to hunt (yes, some were hidden!) for eggs filled with candy and money (score!).

We have also been doing several home improvement projects this spring... I guess we are at the three year itch (is that such a thing?) where I want to actually decorate. Our office will get the biggest makeover but it's not complete so that will have to wait for another blog post. Thanks to Pinterest I get all kinds of great ideas for our home! Starting with our covered patio... I have wanted outdoor drapes since we built this house but they are so expensive! Well wouldn't you know painter's tarps from Home Depot do the trick? They were the perfect length! We spray painted some pipes, hung them and used clips to hang our new outdoor "drapes". So perfect!!!!

Before... (well actually one drape on the far right is hung)

....and after

I also finally got around to filling the frames for one of many photo walls I want to create! Here is the before and after... we actually painted the kitchen for the third time as well. Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter. A beautiful, light gray that I want to use all over the house but Chris won't let me. You can see a bit of it in the after pic below by the door vs. the greeny-gray we had in the before photo.

Happy Spring, all! :)

New Orleans Rock n Roll, March 4, 2012

Things that happened in NOLA: (once we finally made it after a 9 hour drive from Houston that should have been 5)

1) a man selling me compression socks for the race told me "you're tall so I'd go with this size". I'm tall? Who knew!?

2) a 5 year old (or so) kid kicked a beach ball smack into Carrie's face (ON PURPOSE!) while we were heading to the shuttles after the race. When I asked "where's your mommy?" he yelled "I'll hurt you!" Uh...

3) somehow we were VIP and gained access to a rooftop cafe at our hotel 24/7 where we enjoyed free cappuccinos, water, Pepsi, snacks, sandwiches, and much more. We thought we were very cool.

4) I learned that penny slots let you play your $20 much longer than 25¢ slots do... but you still lose (unless you're Amanda)

5) Bourbon Street is absolutely the most disgusting place on the face of this earth. I mean it's horrific. You can smell it three blocks away; it's all vomit and urine. I experienced it Friday night and don't care if I ever set foot there again! *

6) *disclaimer from above... I will set foot on Bourbon St for the Red Fish Grille and Pat O'Brien's though. Both worth braving the nastiness.

7) I was waiting for guns to be drawn at 5 am as we were hailing a cab at our hotel. Big fight between the Hyatt worker trying to get us a cab and the taxi driver who wanted to take us to the airport. For real. I was so scared. The taxi business is no joke.

8) The people in NOLA are so friendly! Even though it's such a gross town they are still so nice. Go figure. ;)

9) I ran my first (but not my last!) half marathon in 1:41 and was so emotional about it. There were so many people holding up signs throughout the 13.1 miles. One was a 6 year ovarian cancer survivor who was genuinely thanking everyone for running for her. (The Rock n Roll Series is sponsored by the American Cancer Society) Another read "you're running for my son". Every time I saw a sign like that I got choked up and had to calm myself so I could breathe and keep up my pace! Don't get me wrong, there were funny signs too... "Go Complete Stranger" or "Worst Parade Ever". It was an awesome race! I'm so proud of the four of us (Carrie, Amanda, Jennifer and me) for doing it, and thankful to Chris for being our cheerleader and holding all our crap!

10) and finally... I had a great birthday celebration with Chris after the race... sight seeing tours, beignets, shopping, roulette playing, and food, food, food. What a way to ring in a new year! Amazing!

Carrie and Me on Decatur St by the Mississippi on Saturday

Pre-race.... 6:30 am, 3/4/2012

Tour of the French Quarter, so fascinating!

St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square

Sharing a yummy beignet at Cafe Du Monde

Inside the cathedral

Scouts and Swimming and Sledding, Oh My!

Max has had a busy winter! He started Cub Scouts last fall and it's been so good for him. You know he has a mild demeanor and typically prefers playing with more evenly-mannered girls but Scouts has given him more chances to rough it with the boys, which he seems to love! Recently he got to participate in his first (but definitely not last) Pinewood Derby Race. He was so into it! Being our first year we didn't know what to expect; there were some really cool cars! Max named his the "FireBull" (he put a bulldog sticker underneath the car along with fire stickers on the sides) and was excited to race. He didn't do too badly either, coming anywhere from third to first place in each heat he ran. Can't wait to see what he decides to do with his car next year!

Swimming is also keeping Max really busy... three nights a week plus weekend meets. He is really a great swimmer and keeps improving!!! He is the absolute very youngest in his age group (the cut off is Dec 1 for age and of course his bday is Nov 30) so he is swimming against kids that are two years older than him in many cases. This weekend he broke three personal records at the KEY Invitational at the West Carrollton YMCA. He went from 1:02.89 to 54.62 in the 50 Free, 26.29 to 24.90 in the 25 Free and from 27.22 to 26.43 in the 25 Back. He was SO excited! He earned 6 points for the CFY team this weekend!!! He then informed us he wants to get a swimming scholarship when he goes to college and will probably be in the Olympics! Ok, then! :)

Basketball season is winding down as well... I don't have pics to share of that though. He is a really strong shooter this year, maybe thanks to the hours spent outside (during this super-awesome mild winter!) playing us in "HORSE"? It's quickly becoming one of his favorite sports; he waffles between it and swimming as his top choice.

And speaking of winter, last year we had SO many snow days and like 28" of snow or something by mid-February. This year? Like maybe an inch total! I love it. Max hates it. He got a new Zipfy for Christmas and bought his pal Max one for his birthday last week as well. When will they ever use them? Well after their basketball game on Saturday Max and Max took to our backyard to test out the dusting of snow we had. It was really cold so they were only out there for maybe 20 min but they had fun nonetheless. The boys want a BIG snow badly! I think they are crazy but then again, I'm not 7. ;)

Snow.

Some images of Max after school this afternoon during our first snow fall of the winter. (it's been an AWESOMELY mild season!!!) Isn't he handsome?

Things to Do/Eat/Drink After Tonsil Surgery

I hated this day. Look how pitiful! (immediately after surgery)

It's been two weeks. Max finally got to go back to school this morning. He was up earlier than usual because he was so excited to see his friends/teacher. He still isn't fully healed; who knows when those scabs will disappear in the back of his throat? Up until Monday he also still had pain when he ate food, only on one side. But Tuesday he seemed to be totally pain free so we are moving in the right direction. It did take him a full two weeks to recover. Poor kid. I'll admit though, it was nice having him home for two weeks without interruption. The house is awfully quiet this morning... and I'm a bit lonely.

I think Max lucked out that his surgery was two days after Christmas and just three weeks after his birthday; he was not short on things to do thanks to all the gifts he received! In this blog post I'm going to break down our time together at home in "list" style. I like lists. This is not in chronological order. If any of you are planning on having your kids tonsils out in the near future, maybe this list of "what to do after a tonsillectomy" will be of some assistance. ;)

First the facts: Max ate immediately after surgery. He was starving. Eggs were his choice most often. He rarely complained of pain except when he was asleep so we didn't give the Tylenol with codeine around the clock. He was very swollen for days and sounded like he had marbles in this mouth when he spoke. Around day 5 he started complaining more of one side hurting, especially when he ate/drank. This lasted through day 12. The only thing he liked to drink was pop. Either straight up or in slushie form. Even apple juice hurt. And while he ate regularly, he lost 6 pounds over these two weeks. His first night sleeping straight through with no pain meds was about day 9. He was a busy body for most of the two weeks but didn't leave to go anywhere until day 12 when I took him to see a movie. I think compared to most, he had a slow recovery but he did awesome in that he rarely complained. He was free to take Tylenol with codeine from the ginormous bottle as needed and was put on amoxicillin for 10 days. He really is a trooper!

Things Max ate/drank: (not so much nutrition here...)

1) scrambled eggs (tons!)

2) pancakes

3) pudding

4) jello

5) oatmeal

6) pizza

7) meatballs

8) cheese quesadillas

9) applesauce

10) ramen noodles

11) soup (watch the salt... it burns!)

12) 44 oz. coke or mt. dew slush from Speedway, daily (he will hate those days are over!)

13) gatorade

14) ravioli

15) orange crush

16) sprite

17) ice cream

Things Max (and Mommy and Daddy) did:

1) legos

2) puzzles (three of them, some with the assistance of Papaw, Austin and Mimi)

3) paper airplane competitions

4) fort building

5) matchbox car racing

6) remote control car driving outside on nice days

7) GAMES! (my word, I think we played every game we own- scrabble was a fave)

8) Wii

9) DS

10) homework! (he had plenty to catch up on!)

11) crafts

12) nap (ok, just one day... he's not a sleeper)

13) movies/tv

14) made cookies/bake pops/jello

15) read and enjoyed cards from all the kids in his class

I feel as though I'm forgetting things! Am I? Oh well. You get the idea. We stayed busy. It was fun!

Max also helped a little as I completed a craft that has been on my to do list for months; I found this chevron rug tutorial on a craft blog I follow and since I love all things chevron I decided to go for it. It started with a jute rug from IKEA, white paint, "hazel" paint from Sherwin Williams, and a chevron template piece cut from cardboard. This thing took hours but after three days we were done. It's not perfect (I didn't measure the spaces between stripes because I don't have time for things like that) but I love it! Now I just need to find a permanent home for it in my house.

All in all we had a great couple of weeks together. Chris was off for a big portion of it due to the holidays, so that was helpful. Max, even though he didn't see many friends during this time, was never short of someone to play with since we were both home. And even though I'm lonely today I'm happy knowing he is back where he wants to be... with friends at school! We have a follow up with the ENT after school today to make sure all is well before he rejoins his swim team next week, too! Here's to a healthy 2012 with no more sore throats!!!!