Liam's Graduation Pictures

They are not joking when they say the school year flies by before you know it!  It truly doesn't seem that long ago, when I posted his pictures at the start of the school year, and here it is graduation already?!  Liam probably only has one more year at Kids Village, and I am quite sad about that.  The teachers there are so wonderful!  I just hope that when he does go to public school, he won't get too lost in the huge class sizes.  But, I guess we will cross that bridge when the time comes.

We had the end of the year parent teacher conference, and all his teachers praised Liam for being such a good kid.  They said that he has advanced very well with socializing.  He is very good with the other kids, and he's doing well with his writing.  Miss Kelli mentioned that he can be a bit of a worrier, and I told her he probably gets that from me.  She also said that he was a perfectionist, which he probably gets from his dad.  She said that she has a son like that, so she knew just how to help him.  Miss Kelli said we should work on his lower case letters over the summer, but all in all, he has done very well passing off all of his tasks.  We are very proud of him and look forward to seeing his graduation program in a couple of weeks.

If you click on the label 'school pictures' below, you can see the previous ones, and see how he has changed.

Liam's School Program

Here is the best of the video's I got from Liam's school program today. We were so proud that he sang and danced, and didn't stand there with his hands in his mouth like the last time : )

Liam's New Bed Video

Kid's Pictures Part I

So last Christmas (2010), Liam's school had a fund raiser for a couple of girls that have cancer. We ended up having the winning bid on a photo shoot, that someone donated for the silent auction. I casually tried setting up a shoot in the summer time, but nothing materialized, and time flew by, and I kept putting it off. The woman contacted me in the Fall, and asked if we'd like to do it before winter hits...well, to make a long story short we finally were able to set it up on a super beautiful day, Halloween. Unfortunately, Mike was not able to be there because he thought he was going to be leaving on a business trip that week, and needed to be at work when we set up the time. But, we really wanted to get some pictures done before the cold...The kids were being completely uncooperative this day, and I am truly amazed that she was able to get as many as she did : ) Since she was only able to get about 1/2 the amount of pictures she normally does, and Mike was not able to make it, she kindly offered to take a family picture in the Spring time. So, below are a few, and the link below shows the rest. Hopefully, we can get the kids to sit still for a nice family picture in the Spring because we have not had one in a LONG time!









REST OF PICTURES HERE

Here is a link to the photographer's blog

Kids Birthday Party

So, last month on November 19th, Liam and Rowan had their 4 and 2 year old birthday party. We found a company online that offered to set up a HUGE bounce house in a rented room at Noah's. We invited all the cousins/family and some friends, and the kids jumped and slid down the slide to their hearts content. We had some sandwiches and sides for lunch, and then they got to open their presents, followed by cake and ice-cream. I think everyone had a great time!! We did get a video of the cake (I think), but no pictures, except this one I got w/ my phone after I picked it up, oh well!)





























SEE REST OF PICTURES HERE

Liam's First Day of Preschool

Liam had his first day of preschool today. We are trying the morning schedule this year. We thought maybe if he wasn't as tired, he might get a little more out of the experience. So far I do like the morning time since we can get it done, and then I have the rest of the day to make up my time at work. The only issue so far, is trying to get him to eat something before he's dropped off. He is just like his dad, in that he doesn't like to eat anything when he wakes up. I just don't want him getting too hungry while he's at school. Hopefully we can figure out something out!

Anyway below are a few pictures I got of his first day. I like to get one outside the door, but as you can see it's pretty bright out!! If you want to compare his picture from his first day last year, check this link.

I think he had a pretty good day. It was kinda funny when I went to pick him up, I didn't see him in the room, but they do rotate the kids, so I wasn't too worried. The teacher said he was in the bathroom. One of the girls opened the door to the bathroom which is in the classroom. He was standing with his pants down, trying to get some soap out of the pump. I stepped into the bathroom to assist him, and the girl kept opening and shutting the door!! I quickly put his pants up...it's a good thing he's too young to be embarrassed by that.

He told G'ma that he thought his teacher was really really pretty, and that the girls in his class were cute. So, I would say his first day at school was a success!

Up late working on pictures again...

Well it is almost 1am, and I'm working on pictures again. I'm caught up on all the pictures that have been uploaded to the computer so far. And I wanted to share a really cute picture of Liam this time. BTW, you can see all our pictures on our smugmug site.

Mommy Brag

So sorry, this is my 'brag' today, instead of my blog...we went to meet Liam's teacher today. We thought we were going to have Miss Erin, but when we got there we double checked with the front desk, and I guess Miss Erin decided to leave at the last minute because her husband got his dream job and they had to move. So anyway, his new teacher is 'Miss Raya'. She is really nice and pretty, and I think he will love her. After we met her, we went to visit his teacher from last year, and she was talking to another family, so we went on to another room. We were going to go back, but she left her room to come say 'Hi' to us and to Liam. She loves him so much, and we found out the reason he does not have her this year. She took a 2nd job at her church as a director of child development (or something like that) and so she is only teaching one class this year, and it is the tater tot class (4-5 yr olds). She said that she would keep an eye on Liam though since they will be there at the same time. We asked if she would be here next year, and she said she would never leave there, so maybe he will get her next year, or maybe Rowan will? We also asked her about next year, and if she thought 2 or 3 days would be better for him. Since Rowan will be going too, we wanted to send them at the same time. She said that Liam is so smart, that he would be fine with either schedule. Anyway, it seems Liam is a very popular kid with all the teachers because they all seemed very happy to see him, which we are very grateful for. I can't believe that school starts next week?! It seems we just had his graduation, but I think he will very much enjoy being back to school....I'm just crossing my fingers and toes, we can stay healthier than we were last year!!

Mr. Phishy

Mike and I have had several Betta fishes in the past, but we haven't had one for many years until now. We thought it might be fun for Liam to have a pet that was cool to watch, relatively low maintenance, and doesn't jump up on him. The dogs were low on food, so Liam and I stopped in at the pet store to get some food, and to pick out a fish. There were so many to choose from, and even ones you couldn't see because there were several rows of them in cups on the shelf. I saw one that kinda looked sick because he kept floating to the side. I told one of the employees, and she said they would take him to the back and keep an eye on him. Liam was very concerned about him, and even a few days later he is asking about the sick one.

He absolutely loves watching his fish. He doesn't lag in the morning because he wants to go watch his fish, and he likes to watch him before bed too. He loves it when we feed him, and he comes up to take a bite of the food. I'm not sure how long the excitement will last, but we are enjoying him enjoying the fish!!

We haven't really picked a name yet. One of the cute names he suggested was 'Dorthy', after Elmo's fish. Mike thought that was really cute since his first fish was name 'Talbot' after Ernie's fish. I suggested 'Thomas', but he said 'No, Thomas is a train'...Anyway, Liam likes to change his name several times a day, and we find it amusing, so he may just have an ever changing name.

Swing Set Is Finally Done!!

And I only say 'Finally' because the weather was finally nice enough this past weekend to work on it. Friday, the night before we finished the swing set, we let Liam do a marathon nap, and we know it's always a gamble when we do. Most of the time he will sleep through the night, but this night he woke up around 11:30 pm, and stayed awake till about 3am! I let Mike sleep in since he stayed up with him, and then he got started on it around 11 am. Liam played on what was done throughout the day, and crashed pretty hard around his nap time. We decided to wake him from his nap, as to not have a repeat of the night before. So in this video he is still waking from his nap, and it took a little coaxing to get him to go down. He finally did and the darn slide was so steep and fast he landed right on his bum, the poor guy. Thankfully, he only cried for a minute or so, but he was ready to go inside after that.

(Play Video below)


Anyway, the next morning we found an old dog bed that has about 6 inches of padding, and we placed that at the bottom of the slide and told him he wouldn't hurt his bum. Thankfully he trusted us, and went down and had a great time!! He slid down that thing so many times that day! We are pretty happy with our purchase, even though it was a pain for Mike to install : )

(Play Video below)

One of the virtues of being very young is...

that you don't let the facts get in the way of your imagination. ~Sam Levenson




Conversation this morning on the way to work:

(Liam saw the big plume of steam where Geneva used to be)

Liam: Mom, look it's the abominable snowman!!!
Me: Wow, it's amazing! (Thinking to myself...did he just say abominable??!! Do 3 yr olds really use that word? I'm pretty sure he got that from 'Frosty the Snowman' movie, but still...pretty amazing vocabulary.)

(As we got closer)

Liam: That's not the abominable snowman, that's a nightmare!

That kid never ceases to amaze me.

April Fools

Mother Nature can be cruel at times, but sometimes she has a silly sense of humor...hence the snow this morning, 'April Fools', 2 days late!! Although it's probably for the best because we are both pretty sore today. My arms have had quite the work out over the last several days....Thursday evening I did 20 min. on the Elliptical (first time in many months), Friday I spent 2+ hrs. cleaning our stove top (that had baked on grease) and then took the kids for a walk in their stroller up some pretty steep hills, and Saturday I raked the dead grass out of part of the lawn, then helped Mike carry the club house part (left part of set, see below) from the garage to the back yard! Needless to say we both need a break today. I forgive Mother Nature for the snow too, since this storm saved us from a minor disaster last night. As I was leaving to get take out last night, the wind blew the door to our house in the garage open. I got out of the car, and for some strange reason I went behind the car, and saw a box of parts for the set right behind my tires! Had the wind not blown the door open, I would have run over it!! So glad I didn't, that would have been a spendy mistake...it had the swings, and other parts in it. Anyway, we all got to enjoy a short swing before the storm got too bad. Below are some cute pics of the kids. Before the storm blew in last night.

I should have got a before picture, but imagine it looking pretty black around the burners :)
When we ordered the swing set, it said 2-3 weeks for delivery. We got a call from the delivery company the next day that it was ready! Now that is fast service.



First walk of the year 4/1/11


I love this picture of Liam looking back and Gretchen peeing in the background!




Love the crazy look on his face here!
Happy Swinging!!

Apples

On this day, my 13,031st day on this planet, I realized that I prefer red apples to green ones!

Mike is 12,594 days young
Liam is 1210 days young
Rowan is 490 days young

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT HOW MANY DAYS YOUNG YOU ARE

I came to this realization this morning because Liam was up late again last night. Last week at school his teacher told me that Liam was darting out of the class room, and we think it's because he was in his loopy phase, which means he's so tired he doesn't listen, and he acts crazy...it's the stage right before he gets really cranky. Anyway, today is a school day, and since I had a little extra time from working later yesterday, we decided to let Liam sleep in. Rowan was already awake, and she was downstairs in her chair watching Elmo, she can say 'Elmo' now BTW, sooo cute!! And I decided to eat an apple, but all we had left were green ones. Maybe it was just a bad apple, but I did not enjoy it at all! Anyway, Liam woke up around 8 am, and he was well rested! Last night before bed Dad told him to dream about Georgie riding Thomas the Tank Engine, and the first thing Liam told me was he had a good dream about Georgie and Thomas!! Their minds are like clay! It's crazy.

Movies, Liam and School

So Liam has had a hard time with the time change, no shocker there. Even before the time change he was having problems going to bed at bedtime. He now wants his light on, and that makes it hard for him to fall asleep. He will call me several times after I say good night to him. And he's not falling asleep till past 10pm?! It is also really frustrating because now I have even less time to get anything done before we get ready for the next day, have dinner, and go to bed. Our dinner time has been pushed from 9pm to 10pm!! Then he has a hard time getting up in the morning, and is tired all day, and crashes in the car on the ride home, and it's just a vicious cycle!! I know he needs his naps, and I need them too...but this schedule just isn't working. Anyway, so since he's been up later on the nights he takes a nap, we let him watch a movie last night. He picked out Snow White. Well, now that he is 3, his imagination is at full swing, and he is also very good at following what is going on in the story, so he ended up having bad nightmares last night. I didn't even hear him wake up, but Mike did, and being the really good dad that he is, slept on his floor for much of the night because Liam was scared and asked him to stay. Most of the time I just tune out what the kids are watching, but really I need to pay closer attention, cuz duh, I knew that the story of Snow White was scary, but when it has the Disney name on it you kinda forget it's not ALL cute animals and dwarfs...there is a scary forest scene and a scary witch too! He also recently watched Bambi and cried so much when the Mama was killed. Poor kid!

He is a 'Tender Heart' for sure. That is a term his teacher Miss Farrah used to describe him. And speaking of her, we had a parent/teacher conference with her yesterday, and she says that he has made a very good improvement from the fall. And she asked if he was coming back next year. And we said, for sure, and we also requested her to be his teacher. She was very thrilled to hear that, and even said she wanted to request that Liam was in her class, but wasn't sure she could do that. Anyway, if that doesn't make a parent feel good, I don't know what does!!

Correcting a Parent's Mistake (Hopefully)

Liam is TOTALLY obsessed with Thomas the train right now. And I made the mistake of telling him that we got tickets to go ride on him over 2 months in advance. He wants to go 'RIGHT NOW!', and because he's only 3, he doesn't fully understand the concept of time, and that he won't be here for a couple more months. Lately, he has been waking up and wanting to go 'RIGHT NOW!'. And after I explain to him that it isn't till May, he gets very cranky, and is not happy for a long time. I got the brilliant idea (I hope) this morning to print out Thomas's schedule and a map of the U.S. and put stars on the state he's in...I hope it works, otherwise the next 2 months are going to be miserable ;)


SCHEDULE


MAP