Blue Springs.

 We're back from Spring Break and our trip(s) down to Miami and up to Orange City for some camping. We had wanted to head back to Manatee Springs in Cheifland, but they didn't have any availability so we went with a new place: Blue Springs. (I know the sign says Blue Spring but everything and everyone said "Blue Springs" so I'm gonna roll with it.)

 Of course there was lots of swimming in the spring. We were lucky and found this inner tube that someone had left in the garbage. I guess they didn't want to take it home with them. Score!

 This little dude would spend probably about five minutes in the water and then get out because he was so cold and spend the rest of the time in the sun trying to warm up.

 The highlight of our trip was spotting an actual manatee. We knew that it wasn't the season for manatees since they usually come down during the winter so to see one during a very warm March was pretty exciting. The boys and Helen were in the water when the manatee swam up.

 Of course no camping trip is complete without roasting marshmallows and making s'mores.

 I think the only reason the kids like camping is because of the s'mores. Can you blame them?

We also did some hiking on one of the trails at the park. All in all it was a great trip. Good food, good people, good memories. Until our next adventure...

I'm baaaaaack!

Dear Blog,
        I'm sorry I've neglected you. As I look back on old posts, I was so glad I took the time to record those memories while they were still fresh in my mind (makes for much easier scrapbooking later). Unfortunately, I decided to take a little break from blog land, but that little break turned into a really long break. I want to post weekly, but then I think we don't do anything every day that warrants a weekly post: kids go to school, kids come home from school, kids do homework, we eat dinner, kids take showers, kids go to bed. Pretty boring reading content, right? But of course, so much more than just that happens, all the moments in between, even our everyday. And those memories are priceless to me which is why I love doing Project Life and making layouts. To remember it all, even our boring routines. (Yes, I have scrapbooked my kids taking a bath.) So, little blog of mine hang in there. I will try to visit you more often. I can't promise weekly dates (my husband and I don't even go on weekly dates), but I will try. Oh yes, I will try.
                                                                                                   Love,
                                                                                                 Jennifer


And since you shouldn't post without a picture, I'll share some recent gift packaging. It's a gift for my friend, Gini's, daughter. The pink chevron paper is Pink Paislee, the blue ribbon is from an old baby gift I received for Will (save everything! you never know!), cardstock and the chipboard butterflies are Studio Calico.

Hello December.

Wow. It's officially December...only 24 days until Christmas. I only need to decorate the house (at least we have our tree up), finish shopping, wrap all the gifts, get going on our Christmas cards...oh, and work on my December Daily. I got Ali Edwards' kit at Studio Calico and I'm going to try to just use what's in the kit or anything else I've got in my stash. Try to keep it simple so I'll actually work on it.

Before I post anything Christmas-y I wanted to share Thanksgiving. I only took one picture. Gasp! It was just the six of us at home. (We're planning to be in Miami for Christmas this year.) Mike did all of the cooking, of course. For lunch/appetizer he made spanikopata, or spinach pies. Our traditional Thanksgiving dinner was turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, green bean casserole with homemade fried onions and rolls. For dessert we had a pumpkin pecan streusel pie and, since Helen doesn't like pumpkin pie, we also had carrot cake. Everything was delicious. Will took a nap and missed most of the meal but woke up in time for cake. We spent the rest of the evening sitting around the fire pit relaxing. I even got to "chat" with my friend, Val, via text message. So great to spend time together.

Halloween

I know it's practically Thanksgiving, but I hadn't had the chance to post our Halloween photos. What can I say? Life gets in the way sometimes. First up on Saturday was the community Halloween Party. This was our first year attending (last year we hadn't gotten our membership) and we all had a blast. The kids found their friends and hung around the playground. Every so often they would come over to the pavilion to grab some food and drinks. We all wore costumes and Mike even carved a pumpkin for the contest. His is the one on the far right. "The Haunted Hizzle" He won first place and got a copy of It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. We were so excited because we were actually debating whether or not to buy one at the store. Every time we went we'd pick it up and then say "Maybe next time."  For Mike's and my costume we went as a sword thrower and his assistant. Originally Mike was going to wear a blindfold, but while at The Dollar Store he picked up some Mr. Magoo glasses...to explain why he kept "missing."

The kids this year: Jason, an alien, a cat and Batman.

We were smart about trick-or-treating this time around. Instead of walking all the way from our house, we parked the car at the end of the neighborhood "hot spot." Of course, we still brought the wagon...and of course the kids still complained about all of the walking, but it was a great night.  And I think the kids finished all of their Halloween candy in about 4 days.

Studio Calico September kits.

The latest Studio Calico kits have shipped and mine should be arriving today. Brown box love! The main kit, Glee Club, is pictured above . I also ordered all four add-ons. Usually I just get the main kit, but I had a $5 off promo code since it was my birthday. It was only for one add-on, but I figured if I was buying 1 I might as well buy the other 3. Makes sense, right?

Thespian has lots of goodies for Halloween. I've already got a mini book planned for this year so I may hold on to this kit for next year. Or some cards perhaps?

The Home Ec add-on has those adorable hand stiched tags made exclusively for Studio Calico by Amy Tangerine. Great on a he-said/she said layout.

Debate Team sold out fast. Maya Road, Basic Grey and some new Amy Tangerine (she is the guest designer this month).

The last add-on, Pep Squad, has beautiful Pebbles, Amy Tangerine and Pink Paislee. Love that cute sprinkles background stamp. Now I just need several uninterrupted hours of scrap time. Sigh.

His first day.

Today Will went to pre-K for the first time. It's also his first time being away from mama. We tried to talk to him about school beforehand and anytime we mentioned the "s" word he would go into fits screaming, "I don't want to go to school! I want to stay home!" I kept putting off signing him up because I think secretly, I wanted them to tell me they were full, or it was too late. I know he'd probably have a blast, and I'd rather get the I-hate-going-to-school-fits out of the way now, but he's the baby, my last one...and he actually wants to be with me. We all know that doesn't last very long. So, fighting back the sobs, I enrolled him at Ladybird Academy (no relation to Ladybird Johnson).

This morning, I woke him up as usual. Got Helen and him breakfast then drove to the bus stop. He even kept his backpack on the whole time we were waiting for the bus. The bus arrived and as the kids started climbing on, he tried to follow them. I told him that he wasn't going on the bus, not until next year, but that mommy was going to drive him to school. And that's when it all went downhill......once we got in the car, he noticed we weren't turning around to go home, and the screaming began. I'll spare you the gory details but at one point I managed to get him out of the car by saying that I would walk in with him (for pre-K you're supposed to stay in the car line and the teachers take the kids inside from the curb). Once inside I explained to one of the teachers the situation and she said that we could wait until the car line was finished and that I could walk Will to his classroom. Fifteen more minutes of howling "I want to go home!" and we were ready to head inside. As I was helping Will put his shoes back on (he had thrown them off to show me that he wasn't going inside, EVER! he told me, "You know when I say, 'I hate you' I still love you." Awwwwww. OK, no school for you. Let's just stay home and cuddle. j/k. sort of.

I walked him in, met both of his teachers and while Will lined up to wash his hands the teacher explained all of the classroom procedures to me. When she was done, I looked around the room and Will was already sitting on the rug with a bunch of the kids. Mama who? Somewhat relieved and somewhat heavy-hearted I made the walk back to the car...alone. Maybe someday I'll relish the "me time" but for now I'm missing my sidekick. I feel like Batman without Robin or Mermaid Man without Barnacle Boy or...you get the idea. At least it's only until 12:00 PM.  

UPDATE: I picked up Will and we have success! He climbed into the car clutching his blue folder and candy from his teacher. As soon as he sat down, I asked about his day and he said he had a great time. "The teacher gave me candy! And we went to the park (playground) and we had popsicles!"  I was so happy to hear that he had fun. He was a little disappointed in the candy (Whoppers) "These don't taste good." Luckily, I had his Skittles from yesterday stashed in the car. As the afternoon wore on he shared little tidbits: "I used scissors and didn't cut my fingers. The teacher helped me."

and "If you sneeze on your hands, you can't touch the teacher's things."

 Not sure what this was about but "We had to hit the colors. Not the red one only the blue one and the green one." Maybe it was some sort of game? Also, he was on green! And he has a homework sheet to do this weekend. Pre-K + Will = the start of a beautiful friendship.

(Let's hope next week goes as smoothly.)

getting older and tough decisions.

Last Tuesday I celebrated my 37th birthday. I was lucky this year because my mom decided she wanted to come up by herself, spend some time together and then watch the kids so Mike and I could go out. She left around three to take everyone to see the Smurfs movie. I had about three and a half hours to myself before Mike got home from work. What did I do with those glorious hours? Watched bad movies on Netflix. Why didn't I take a nap? No idea. Anyway, we had a nice time at the Ale House. At first, we pretended we were on a first date...asking questions like "Where are you from originally?" and telling stories about our childhoods (even though we've both heard them a million times). After dinner we moved outside to the patio for the beer portion of our evening. There we played "What's their story?" We go around the bar and make up little stories about the people. Of course, the more outrageous the better. It always gets us laughing. I think 37 is going to be a good year.

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In other, more serious, news we had to make a tough decision about Helen and school. She had a rough time in second grade last year. I don't know if it was because it was a new school, she didn't mesh with the teacher or the material was just difficult for her. She began the year a little behind grade level which is normal after coming off summer vacation. However, she consistently stayed below grade level and no matter how much we worked with her, she basically made no progress on her achievement tests. At the end of the year we met with the principal who suggested we retain her, but that if we worked with her more over the summer, they would reassess her before schools starts to see if she would be ready for third grade. We ended up enrolling her in the reading program at Sylvan Learning Center and did some additional work at home. In six weeks she made a tremendous amount of progress...some areas she was beyond an incoming third grader and other areas she was about a middle-of-the-year second grader. The assessments at the school showed the same results. So what the decision boiled down to was: move her to third grade where she would be clawing her way through or have her stay in second grade where she would be most likely to succeed, even be in the top of her class according to her teacher. We opted to stay in second grade because we felt that having that feeling of accomplishment and confidence in doing well would benefit Helen so much more than just being in the grade she's "supposed" to be in. It was difficult for all of us, but in the end I think we did the right thing. The girl is gonna be alright.