Digital Scrapbooking Magazine

There are some GREAT layouts on pages 34 & 69, if you're interested.

Ballet Photos

Yesterday was Emma's first ever stage performance. She was very nervous last week before the dress rehearsal, but once she got on stage, under the lights, in front of an adoring audience... she wanted MORE!! I was recruited to help backstage, which was exhausting, but so much fun to see the excitement on all the little faces. Plus, it was fun for me to be "behind the scenes" again after so long. I haven't been on or behind stage in 12 years, YIKES, that's longer than I thought!

The show went really well, and the girls all did wonderfully. Emma's already talking about wanting to get back on stage. And she certainly loved getting flowers afterwards. They were a surprise and she was thrilled!

I'm busy color correcting the photos, but I chose a few of my favorites to do first and share here. Enjoy!

And Jason is...

a Dreamer, too! But in a very different way. I'm an escape artist and he's a thrill seeker. It's amazing sometimes, reading these things. I know they're horribly generic and, like astrology readings, you can always find a way to make it fit. But still, it's interesting to read how the choices you make may define you. Anyway, here are Jason's choices:

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Another Fun Quiz

I'm a Dreamer, what are you?

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

You know you're old when...

...you spend 10 minutes dancing in the cool basement at 4:30 in the afternoon with your husband and 6 year old daughter to the awesome band you loved in college (Lawsuit, now sadly defunct), and you get a cramp in your side.

Jason was winded, too; only Emma kept going strong.

I love summer

It's 9:15. I'm still in sweats and no make up. The kids are outside playing in the sandbox and chasing the dog. In an hour, we'll get ready for our second day of swim class. After swim class we'll stay for family swim time. Then we'll have lunch. Then we'll go back outside. Then nap time/reading time/quiet time. Then back outside. Then dinner. Showers for the kids and off to bed. Drinks and maybe a movie for Jason and me.

Can life get any better? I'm so very glad that I decided not to over schedule our summer with day camps and such. The kids are loving this freedom, and so am I!

Pictures and stuff later, I'm going to go refill my coffee and sit....you guessed it, outside!

The newest 1st grader in town...

Leaving for school this morning:
Getting a hug at the end of the day from quite possibly the best Kindergarten teacher in the world.
She received an award for perfect attendance, has the phone numbers of several friends who want playdates, got a new I Spy book from Gramma, and McDonald's for lunch; but the thing she's most excited about? She gets to sleep in almost every day for the next three months!!

I'm right there with you, kid, enjoy your summer!

George's Wish List

I know this will come as a complete surprise to all of you, but George's birthday this summer will have a Thomas theme. I know! SHOCKER!!

I normally hate wish lists, I would rather people give what they want, but in this case I felt it would be easier to put together a few things for family members, since we do already have a few Thomas items. Plus, I've had more than one request for a list this year. So, here's a dozen or so things that I found on Amazon that he doesn't have. Add to that list any Thomas books, he only has a couple and even duplicates would be fine as we could keep them in the car.



We buy the metal Take Along series, not the wooden trains. For obvious reasons, I think! They can be found at Target, ToysRUs, and Barnes & Noble, among others. Thank you in advance to all our family! Thomas trains are helping him be more verbal and interact socially with other kids. For those reasons, we're happy to encourage this obsession!

Random Monday Musings

Here we are in the last week of school. How the heck did that happen??? I have exactly 7 hours 45 minutes left of kid-free time! George's last day is Wednesday, and Emma's final day on Friday only lasts until 11:00 am. It's my goal to keep these kids busy, but not overly scheduled this summer. George's behavior quickly deteriorates if he doesn't have some kind of routine or if we fail to get out of the house every day.

I've signed them both up for swimming lessons starting next Monday. Not sure how that's going to go. Emma will be fine, but George and I will be doing what is essentially a Baby & Me class. I couldn't see him going in safely with his age group, away from me and paying attention to a new teacher. So, we'll go in together with the babies. I may have wasted that $36 and we'll end up moving over to just open swim, but he loves the water so much that I want him to have some concept of water safety. Never sure how much of that computes, though. Can you tell I'm really looking forward to this new adventure? At least it will get us out in the open air every morning (not too early, Emma's not exactly a morning person, LOL), and we can play in the open swim area afterwards.

Other than that, there will be a lot of trips to the library, craft projects, visiting various family members, and trips to the beach whenever Jason's available to go with us. Emma's especially excited about the library. She's reading and writing all the time now, and loving it! I love watching her and having her read to me. Such a fun stage!

Speaking of the library. Emma checked out several books last week, and Jason was looking through one last night. Kid books have definitely changed since we were youngsters. Case in point: Um, hello? It's a true statement and all, but is it necessary? Course if you're going to mention pooping, I guess you've got to go the other way, too. Did you notice this is a "pull the flap" book?

Seriously people? Thank god they stopped there!!!

Back to normal stuff. We've had lots of success lately, or rather George has, with some changes. He's been pacifier free for a couple of weeks now. I wasn't sure how that would go, but he didn't fight it at all! I made him a social story (picture book) all about how he didn't need it any more, and a few days later, when he had ripped his latest pacifier, I simply didn't put it in his bed. NO FUSSING! Unreal. A few days later, when he was having trouble sleeping, he asked for it, but when I told him it was gone, he didn't whine or fuss at all. Whew!

We've also changed one part of his diet. There's a lot of research about gluten free diets being better for kids with Autism. Their bodies have a hard time breaking down wheat products and it not only upsets their digestive systems, but also creates more havoc in their brains. I fought this idea for a long time, George is such a picky eater that it was just something I couldn't deal with. But we need to get him out of diapers so he can start attending "regular" preschool in addition to his early intervention preschool. And having a messy diaper every afternoon was not helping. So far, we've only switched out his sandwich bread to this:It smells horrible to me, but George seems to like it. And the messy diapers have STOPPED!!! Unreal. I guess those scientists know what they're talking about. Now I have to be careful what snacks I let him have. Over the weekend, I made chocolate cupcakes for the kids to frost and decorate, as a treat. Let's just say that George's system is no longer used to the regular flour and sugar in cupcakes. Poor kid was miserable. So many things to keep track of just to help him be a normal, happy boy. I've gotta keep reminding myself that all the work we do now will make it easier for him as he progresses.

Novel over, sorry for rambling! And I only have 7 hours, 15 minutes left of my kid-free time! Must go mop the kitchen, wheeee!!!!

Inspiration Overload

I love my husband. I love his job. Yesterday he brought me this:

This, combined with the information that he can acquire paint for us at an extreme discount means I can get paint happy again! Those of you that saw our last house know that I am not afraid of color. But painting here was put low on the priority list simply because the money was needed for other repairs. But for, ummmm, *cough* $5/gallon *cough*, very little money, we can go for it!

Jason keeps laughing at me because I'm carrying this book around with me like a baby blanket. But I love it! I'm thinking a buttery yellow for the living room, dark grayish blue for the dining room (to match the trim on the curtains), with all the molding touched up in fresh white. But what about the kitchen???? There isn't much wall space showing in there, might just go for the same yellow as the living room.

Ahhh, life changing decisions going on around here, I tell ya!

Just 'cause

And my heart melts....

Climb

We went to Florence yesterday, and the kids helped Papa & Gramma clear brush and chop down trees. Fun for all!

Summertime Cometh!!

I'm looking at listings for swim classes and day camps, and loving that I don't have to factor in 90% humidity this year!! Made me feel like drifting down memory lane, so here are a couple of pages featuring photos from last summer. (Man, those kids have GROWN!!)