Andrew's Big Day

Today is a HUGE day for Andrew! He gets to be the PRINCIPAL for the day at his school today!! His school has an Accelerated Reader (AR) program. In the AR program you read books throughout the year and then take tests on those books to earn points. At Andrew's reading level, each test is worth 1/2 of a point if you score 100% - less then 100% and it's even less the 1/2 point. If you get 8 points per quarter you get to go to a snow-cone party. If you get 100 points within the school year you get to be the principal for a day! Andrew read and tested on over 200 books this year in order to reach this goal (and remember he started school a month later then everyone else!). He is the second kindergartner this year to achieve this goal and we are VERY proud of him!!! In fact, I think he has decided that we are a little too proud of him. I took him into school today so that I could get some pictures and after telling me multiple times that I could only take ONE more picture he finally just told me that I needed to leave. Another perk about getting to do this today is that the principal will take him to lunch at Al's Pizza - he made it very clear that I WAS NOT allowed to go to Al's today. I guess he knew what I was thinking.
McKenna started off being very proud of her brother and excited - she even chose her dress this morning based on what would best match his outfit. When we got to school though and everyone made a big deal over Andrew things changed. She's used to being the center of attention and she wasn't happy when Andrew got to be in the spot light for a change.
Here are a few pictures from our exciting morning!



With his teacher, Mrs. Mills


At 'his' desk

patrolling the halls


Helping with student drop-off


and by far the most exciting part of the day - getting HIS walkie talkie (he get's to keep and it use it the entire day!)



and finally a picture of Ken just to keep her happy

Easter

Thought I'd post a few Easter pictures. We had a nice relaxing day. We were at the beach most of the day - notice the sun burn on McKenna in the later pictures. It was the strangest thing. I put 50 SPF sun screen on Steve, the 2 kids and my 2 nieces - didn't put any on myself. They all got horribly burnt and I was fine. It was the first time that I had bought generic sunscreen, I think I'm going to have to go back to my expensive stuff.





Steve found an albino lizard. As you can see from the pictures below, McKenna loved it - Andrew didn't want to touch it.

This is the lizard crawling on McKenna's arm - notice Andrew keeping his distance in the background.

McKenna still playing with it

Look, it crawled up her arm into her hair

Uhoh, now she's loving him a little too much - I love the demonic smile


Here is the lizard right before we let him go, no worse for the wear other then the missing tail......

Spring Break

I knew that I wouldn't be good at this whole blog thing. I forget to update it and then when I finally do remember I just can't seem to find the time. Things have been a little busy around here lately - who am I kidding, things are always busy! Between the kids and the animals, it just seems like there is always someone who needs something!

Andrew is doing great and has been cleared to play sports again. If I haven't talked to you recently, Andrew began having some leg pain a few weeks ago that would just kind of come and go. I thought it was probably just growing pains so I really didn't worry about it too much. On Saturday it was pretty bad. He was limping, didn't want to play and didn't even want to go to his t-ball game. I knew it wasn't just growing pains when he let me pick him up and carry him in front of his friends. For my 5 year old 'big boy' things like that just aren't allowed! So off to the ER we go! They did xrays and couldn't see anything wrong, but they didn't think it was growing pains either so we were referred to an orthopedic specialist at Children's Hospital. After a thorough exam yesterday by the specialist it was decided that the most likely cause was that a cold virus settled into the hip joint causeing it to become inflamed and painful but it looks like it's getting better now. Sound a little familiar? It's very similar to what they said about McKenna when she was drinking 120 ounces of water a day. After ruling out all of the serious problems that it could be it was decided that a virus settled in her kidneys.

For those of you that know about the issues that we have been having with Chloe (the dog), we've been seeing some improvement over the last few days. I'm not saying that she is 'all better' by any means, but I am hopeful that we are making some progress!

Now for some pictures - since I haven't posted in a while there are quite a few of them.

First one of the kids being sweet to each other. It doesn't happen a lot so I had to get a picture. Yep, Andrew STILL sucks his fingers!


Kenna with Riley

Steve and the kids took me to Urban Flats for lunch on my birthday - the kids loved the dessert fondue


Steve's birthday - wow, he's getting close to 40!!!


Working on an art project - Thanks Aunt Debbie and Breanna!!!!




Here are a few of McKenna. It's funny to me that I ended up with a little girl like McKenna. As most of you know, I'm not a fan of dresses and things that are overly girly. I wear jeans or shorts with t-shirts. If I have to dress up, I wear dark jeans with boots. My mom tells me that I was this way even as a young child. So how did I get a bowhead???? How did I get a little girl who insists on outfits - no jeans and or shorts with t-shirts for her. She wants a matching outfit or a dress. Then she wants the shoes and hair accessories that go with it and the bigger the bow, brighter the colors, and more ruffles there are the better! Steve calls the outfit below her clown suit but it's one of her favorites. Oh, and that bow - not even one of her biggest! She's only 3 but she asked me the other day if she could get her ears pierced. Now, I have strong feelings on getting little girls ears pierced but I also know how to deal with my daugher so after thinking about it for a minute I told her, "sure you can get your ears pierced but do you know how they do it?" I then explained EXACTLY how they go about piercing ears. Call me evil if you want, but I think I'm good for a couple of years now!



Lastly a few funny kids stories. The other day McKenna and Andrew were outside playing with some friends when McKenna decided to throw a piece of sidewalk chalk at her brother hitting him square in the head - kids got an arm on her too - it left a welt. Anyway, I made her come inside and sit in timeout which really doesn't seem to bother her all that much. She just sat there singing her songs and talking to herself. As you all know, McKenna loves princesses and wants to be a princess so when her timeout time was over I asked her if she thought that a princess would act like that. She thought about it for a minute and then broke down in tears sobbing, "no, I guess I'm just an evil witch." All I could think was, "I'm sure your brother would agree with you on that one."

Now of about Andrew. Andrew is all about Legos right now so when I found a set the other day that was on clearance I bought it planning to save it for his birthday. Well, I didn't hide it and he came home from school and saw it so he started pestering me about it. I told him that we weren't going to talk about it any more so he went to his room. Well, a couple of minutes later he comes back out and says to me, "You're just a big waster mom! It's a watse to buy a toy and not give it to me and you KNOW it's bad to waste thing!" I thought it was pretty creative thinking on his part. He still didn't get the toy but I have to say I was impressed.