Hailey is 4!!

Hailey turned 4 on Saturday!!

Hailey, Gavin, Aiden, Uncle Rick, Talon, Tyler, Sydney & Braden.Pool fun!! Hailey, Ava and Lacy in the castle Cake!!♫ Happy Birthday to you ♫
♫ Happy Birthday to you ♫

♫ Happy Birthday to Haaaaaiileeeey ♫
♫ Happy Birthday to YOU! ♫ Presents (Hailey, Talon's rib cage & Lacy's head)
Try to focus on the cute dress up clothes, not the crazy hair poking up from my head. What the ?!? is that about? It looks like I could stab someone's eye out! :)

This is one of those dolls you can draw on and wash over and over again. Talon, Sydney and Hailey played with this thing together for a really long time until they talked Hailey into washing it out in the bathroom sink. Nice! :)

Hailey's 1st Day

Last Monday was Hailey's first day of preschool. She goes three days a week this year, and loves it! She is so excited that her best friend, Lauren, is going to be in her class this year!Talon already left on the bus that morning, but Hailey wanted to pose with Lacy. :)
This is Lacy's morning face.

Here is a picture of Hailey and Lauren after their first day, thanks Jill! :)

Another giveaway!!

Cally makes things. Really useful, great things! She is giving some of her things away, and I want to win them, because I don't make things. Not even super easy, non-useful things. You can try to win them too, but if you win and I don't I really, really want the diaper strap and the bag. Please? Finders fee, right??

Kindergarten - Day 5

Last Wednesday afternoon, after Talon's 5th day of school, his teacher called me. As you can imagine I was not excited about that.

Apparently Talon told his teacher it was his, "worst day ever!"

It was blue day. She was in the back of the class preparing the blue snack. Apparently Talon told the other kids at his table that if they told on him, and he got in trouble, he would kill them. Nice. One kid ran back and told her what Talon said. She said she calmed the other kids down and told them Talon was really not going to kill them. Talon had to turn his bear around, and did not get a blue snack.

Later, during "resting" time he took off his shoes and socks. Apparently this is a no-no. His teacher does not want to help put 19 pairs of stinky, sweaty shoes and socks back on after nap time. Who would? Anyway, she told him that since he was not supposed to take them off, he would have to figure out how to put them back on himself. Good for her.

He threw his shoes and socks at her. Bad for him.

The rest of the class went to P.E. while he pouted barefoot. She talked him through putting them on, without helping at all.

Since Joe was picking Talon up after school, I called and told him about my conversation with his teacher. When he picked him up he asked him how his day was.
Fine.
Where you good?
Yes.
Really? Because your teacher called.
I was mostly good.
Really?
Yes.

Joe said it took a lot of questioning to get most of the story out of him. He went back on day 6 and apologized to his teacher and the kids at his table. He told me he switched tables. I wonder if there is another mother out there writing a blog about her kid being threatened by a bully, and asking to have that kid moved to another table.

I'm sure they were all friends again by day 7. At least I hope so.

A giveaway!

For those of you with tiny, little feet at home...check it out! A Story of A Princess and her Hair is hosting another Hair and Share Giveaway. Good Luck!!

I'm thinking that with the great discounts at ShooShoos I might even be able to get a great pair for some twinners that are growing in my sister-in-law's belly. :)

Sea World

Hailey was so excited! Not only did her cousins Gavin and Ava go with us to Sea World with their dad, but her best friend Lauren got to come too!! Here they are sweating and watching the Pet Show.Lacy liked the doggies.
This is Joe telling Ava to smile bigger. Hilarious!! Uncle Jono and HaileyBailee and Talon We took the kids to see the 3-D Elmo show and they were all crying by the end. When you name a movie after a loveable, cuddly, little creature like Elmo it should be kid proof. Not scary, spitty, blow-up things in your face the whole time. We calmed them down and then bought them some hats to make it up to them. :-)

For the money, and what our kids could do there, I think Legoland was the better choice for my family. We'll go to Sea World again in another 5 years or so, when they're all tall enough for the rides. :-)

Legoland

While we were in California we took our kids to Legoland. It was perfect for 3-5 year olds. Our kids had a great time! It wasn't too bad for us either. :-) This was the lamest ride EVER!! The helicopters went up and down and around on the base, but the kids L♥ved it!
They also had a huge water area for the kids to play in. We went prepared and took their swimsuits.Here is this cool tube in the aquarium. The kids got to pop up and pretend they were in the tank.This ride was not too scary and the kids were both tall enough to go on by themselves. :-)

Talon met Bob the Builder!!Waiting in line...happily.These cars were just the right size...with no waiting!! Hailey totally passed him. :-)

Talon's First Day Pictures

Here are the pictures from Talon's first day of kindergarten. He's so proud and excited to be going to big kids school!The girls are all ready to walk him to the bus stop. Check out Hailey's pose! :) Wait a minute!!! Are all three of my kids looking at the camera at the same time and SMILING? What the crap? Daddy thought we were gonna be late, so he didn't want to wait for Lacy to walk with him.On the bus!!For those of you who read the last post and are wondering: yes, I met the bus at the school again this morning. No, there was not anyone helping anyone again today. There were plenty of kids all over crying again today. One kid in Talon's class also rides his bus with his brother, who's in 1st grade. I found this out yesterday, because he walked him to the right playground (right before the kindergartner started crying and his mom showed up) yesterday.

Right when Talon got off the bus I told him to walk with Gavin because his brother always makes sure he gets to the right place. He also had an older neighborhood (very chatty) sweet girl to help them get there today.

Maybe I won't have to meet the bus at the school for the rest of the year if Talon's hooks up with these guys every day off the bus.

Talon had some really funny stories from school yesterday.

One about a little girl in a yellow shirt who "made a good choice" and sat next to him, because he held the door open for her.

One about a kid who got hurt on the playground and had to go to the nurse. She wrapped up his arm, but it was OK cuz he just used the other one.

One about meeting a "singing teacher" who had music really loud and then turned it to medium loud. He said he got to pick what they do and he picked marching (thanks Mrs. Rogers) and the whole class followed him around the room. I think that might have been in kids corner after school. He didn't seem to know the difference. :)

Today he is supposed to learn his teacher's name and his room number. That was his homework from Aunt Adelina. She said she's gonna call him everyday until he knows those two things. Next we're gonna work on learning my cell phone number.

Talon's First Day

I realize I have more pics to post from California still, but I want to write about Talon's first day while it's still all fresh.

Joe and I disagreed about what time the bus was going to pick Talon up. We went too early and ended up standing in the wrong place because there wasn't anyone else out there. The good news is that the bus stop is even closer than we thought. Talon got on the bus and was excited to start his first day.

After it rode away we took the girls home and I got in my car to meet the bus at school. Everyone at the school assured me there would be people there to help him when he got off, but I don't believe people, so I wanted to make sure.

I got to the school before the bus, so I parked and stood a little bit away from where they said the buses park. I was just going to observe. There was one lady there when the kids where getting off the buses. Mom? Teacher? I don't know but she didn't say anything to Talon. He got off and followed the crowd. He saw me, smiled and waved. I waved back and watched. He put his backpack down with the other kids and started wandering around. This was obviously not the kindergarten playground I was told he would be shown to.

I walked up to a lady with a whistle. "Excuse me, I followed my son's bus here to see what would happen, and nobody has shown him where to go." She smiled, "Oh, that's so good you followed the bus. It only takes them a few times to figure out where to go." I did not smile, "Only if they are shown where to go. Where is the kindergarten playground?" "Oh, it's downstairs in the front." I looked at her blankly. She knows I said kindergarten and I was asking where it was right? I'm ASKING for help, unlike my 5 year old, and you're still not helping. She offered to have an older kid show us where it was.

We followed him past about 7 different playgrounds and down a flight of stairs. Seriously? This is your setup? Make the kindergartners go THIS far on their own? Talon stopped paying attention to where we were going about 20 times on the way there. It was chaos everywhere. We finally made it to the playground and he put down his backpack and played. I witnessed a few children crying, and a few more being found and brought to the playground...you know because everything was sooo organized. When they blew the whistle Talon found the right teacher (who magically appeared right after the whistle blew) and got lined up and headed out to what I hope will not be his "worst day ever!"

Beach Pictures

I am sooo far behind. I realize that. There are just sooo many pictures and memories from our California trip with the Dairmans...I've felt a little bit overwhelmed with where to start. I am a procrastinator by nature. Talon is starting kindergarten tomorrow. I am so worried about him. He is going to get lost, and refuses to learn his teachers name, "I told you mom, I'm going to call her teacher." I tried, "what if she calls you kid?" "Nope, she knows my name." "So, don't you think you should learn hers?" "Nope, I'm just gonna call her teacher." What do you do?

Anyway, back to California. We had planned on a professional photographer, but Joe's sister, Florence, was not able to come. She has one job right now. Take care of those twins in her belly. :) We cancelled the photographer, but those of us that were still there put on our whites and headed to the beach. I know it's hard to see everyone here, but this is a bunch of us who all stayed in the same house. Good times!! Here's a pic of all of the Dairman grand kids (except Carina and Ethan) and the Briggs.
We can never get everyone to smile and look at the camera at the same time, so this ended up being the best view of my family. :-) You can barely see Lacy's head poking out between me and Joe.See what I mean?At least we're (almost) all looking, even if Talon and Hailey look like grumpy monkeys.We stole this idea from the website of the real photographer we hired, and later had to cancel. Thanks to her creativity it ended up being my favorite picture of the day. Yay!! Hopefully, one day we'll actually get the whole clan (including those twins) together and actually get her to take some shots of us.Me and my man...isn't he HOT?Awe, Grandma and Grandpa Dairman.

We had actually intended on getting some "sunset" pictures, but we got there so early we had a hard time keeping the kids entertained to wait for that darn sun to set.And Lacy did her best to get as filthy as humanly possible, but was so cute doing it!

I don't know what he told her...then they caught me looking.

Even though our kids were done, we tried to get a sunset picture. Too bad I'm not a professional and I have a very basic camera.

Our silhouettes

Thanks for taking the pictures Jill. We did the best we could. :-)

I think it's about time I update our 4th of July background too...Geesh!

Before I forget...

I have a million pics to post from our week in CA, but I just don't have the time or energy to group them and post about them yet.

Some of you have been asking me if Lacy has had any more episodes. She has been REALLY close quite a few times, and had one episode while we were in California. She really freaked out some of Joe's family members, which actually made me even calmer - weird. Anyway she is doing really well and says a lot of words very clearly now. Here is a list of things she says, and uses correctly.

Mommy
Daddy
Aaaple Juice
Mik (Milk)
Uh Oh
There you go
Thank you
Ba Ba Ba Ba (Sponge Bob Square Pants)
Aye Aye (at the beginning of the Sponge Bob song)
Ba Ba (bottle) sometimes she'll say Ba Ll if she's trying really hard. :-)
Me! This one is her absolute favorite! She'll say "Me" and point at whatever she wants to do, then look at you and wait, then do it again if you don't respond.

She l♥ves doing whatever the big kids are doing, and wants to be with them no matter what! She l♥ved the beach and walked into the water with no fear. The waves would knock her down and she would get right back up and keep going out. Crazy kid!

Talon starts kindergarten next week. Wow! Crazy right? He's such a great kid. Here is a conversation he had with Alicia last week.

Alicia: Talon, are you excited to go to kindergarten?

Talon: Yah, but I'm a little bit nervous too.

Alicia: Why are you nervous?

Talon: Cuz I'm afraid I'm not going to be a very good listener.

Alicia: Something, something, something (I can't remember what she said)

Talon: I'm not really nervous, but my tummy is.