Miscellaneous

After we all got up this morning, Peyton requested that we all get in Mommy and Daddy's bed with the animals. So we did and enjoyed a few minutes of snuggle time with very wiggly kids! While we were all snuggling, Peyton made an announcement. Big Brother Bear turned into Batman last night, and Little Sister Bear turned into "Wobin".

Peyton's soccer party was tonight. He was presented with his very first trophy (pic to follow soon). He's very proud of it, but, unfortunately, Reagan finds the shiny gold very appealing, too! So we had a hard time keeping it in Peyton's hands (his insisted on holding it) and out of Reagan's hands!

Today was Peyton's 3rd swim lesson. He's doing really great! So much better than last year! He's already swimming to the bottom of the deep end (with the teacher's guidance) to retrieve a toy. Today he even swam a few strokes by himself! This summer, we opted to try swim lessons with a lady here in McKinney who teaches in her backyard pool. Typically, she teaches two kids per lesson, but the girl who was supposed to be in Peyton's class broke her foot on Monday. So Peyton is getting unintended private lessons!

On Tuesday evening, we went to a birthday party for Mia. The kids all had a blast swimming in the hot tub and in the pool!

Comment of the Week

Peyton: "Daddy needs to have a police car instead."
Daddy: "Sorry, Peyton. Only policemen can drive policecars."
Peyton: "Daddy can be a policeman, and I can drive his policecar. Then Weagan and I can be the bad guys and sit in the back."

In the World of Reagan...

These days, Reagan seems to think she is 1 going on 5. She really thinks she can do everything Peyton does. She insists on climbing into the car and her carseat all by herself (which adds about 5 minutes to our travel time!). She can pull a stepstool out from a cabinet to reach whatever is going on on top of the counter. She is very good about making her needs/wants known! She says, "I want..." She has recently started saying "Thank you" ("ank ooo") whenever you hand her something. It's really sweet! She loves to wave and say "hi" whenever someone walks in the door. She can also do the hand motions to "Itsy Bitsy Spider" - which we have to sing before every nap time and bed time! She now has a name for her big brother - she calls him "Peyt". She even ask for him when he isn't around. At a birthday party last Thursday, she climbed onto a large trampoline all by herself using a little ladder. She really had to pull to get herself up there, but she did it with no help from anyone! Once she was on the trampoline, she was surrounded by several older boys jumping high and doing flips. Didn't bother her however; she just jumped right along with them!

Our Preschool Graduate

Thursday was Peyton's last day of school and graduation ceremony. We tried to downplay this year's graduation, since he will be back at Kid Care next year for TK (and next May will be his "real" graduation). It was a sweet, fun ceremony! The kids marched in to the graduation song, stood on stage and sang a couple of songs. Then they filed off stage and returned one class at a time for their diploma presentation. As each child was announced, the director read a statement about them written by their teachers. Peyton's introduction was "He is so focused and interested in how things work. He is 'Mr. Inquisitive'." After all marching out, the kids and parents were treated to a reception in the gym. It occured to me that this year's graduation is the first of six years in a row of graduation ceremonies for our family. Peyton will graduate three times - preschool, TK, and then Kindergarten. The next year, Reagan will have her preschool graduation, then TK, and then Kindergarten!

Party Time!

May has been a month of partying at our house! We kicked it off with Daddy's birthday, then Mother's Day and Grandma' birthday (a long distance celebration!). Then there was the end of the year Awanas carnival. Then came Reagan's class' end of the year party. Next came Peyton's class parties - first a birthday party for the summer birthday kids, then an end of the year camping party, finally a graduation party. Now come the birthday parties - 5 parties (including Peyton's) in a week and a half! Oh, and the soccer party is next week as well!

Why More Men are Needed in Kids' Sunday School

This afternoon, Peyton and Reagan were playing church in the back yard. "I'm Weagan's teacher," our son announced, "Ms. Peyton."

Comment of the Week

Peyton: "Why don't Mommy and Daddy have stuffed animals?"
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Peyton: "When I get another 20 warm fuzzies, I want to go to the bank and get some money to put in my train bank."
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Peyton: "Next year, I'm going to go to 'Key Tay' " (TK).

Happy Mother's Day!

Daddy here...blogging again due to a Mother's Day "agreement" with Mommy. :-) We had a nice day, which started with Mommy opening her cards and presents. The kids card was a musical one that played the Peanuts theme song, and just as practiced the night before, Daddy and the kids began dancing as soon as Mommy opened it. Mommy thought it was hilarious and Peyton thought we needed to make Mommy laugh again, and again, and again. Mommy's main present was a pretty pendant necklace with hammered gold and silver discs that had Peyton's and Reagan's names stamped on them. After that we ate Daddy's infamous (i.e. the only thing he can cook) Belgian waffles for breakfast. The rest of the morning, like every other morning, was pretty much a blur of getting cleaned up, dressed up, packed up, and buckled up.

Mommy and Daddy got to be Peyton's Sunday School teachers at church during the first hour. Peyton brought his "resurrection eggs" to class, which in this case were actually just 12 plastic ducks from his Lucky Ducks game in an old egg carton. They were actually a big hit with the kids and kept them occupied until time for Chapel. After singing, dancing, and sort of listening to the Bible story, we returned to the room where Peyton did a great job making a couple of crafts for Mommy. After church, we went out to Chili's for lunch. Mommy got chicken nachos and the chicken was comped because we could not seem to understand why we were being charged an extra $4.89 for the chicken on a $4.99 order of nachos! After lunch, we returned home to naps, except for Mommy who has not been able to put down the books in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series since she started reading them a few days ago.

After naps, we all put on our swimsuits and made our first excursion of the season to the neighborhood pool. The water was still a little cool, okay ice cold, but we still had a good time. Peyton did not hesitate to get into the pool, while holding onto the sides of course, and he even asked Daddy to do "swimming lessons" with him in the deep water. And not to be left out, Reagan "asked" to go swimming with Daddy as well. After swimming and showering, the kids ate some leftover pizza and after putting Reagan to bed, we again ate Daddy's infamous waffles for dinner. Even Peyton ate another entire waffle for "dessert" after already eating his supper. Bedtime ended Peyton's day shortly thereafter, and after catching up on a little TV, Mommy and Daddy called it quits on another fun Mother's Day as well.

I hope you had a great day, Sweetie!

Reagan Went Poo-Poo in the Potty

It's true - she did! Twice!

Comment of the week

Peyton: "I need to go to bed now; otherwise, if I stay up too late I will have a nightmare like last time."
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Peyton: "When we go way up high on the overpass, are we in outer space?"
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Peyton: "When I get my next 20 warm fuzzies, can I go to outer space?"

Mommy's Going Back to Work!

It's official! Mommy has a new job! Starting next fall, I will be teaching 3 days a week at Kid Care. I'm currently assigned to a 3 year old class, but that could possibly change. I'm excited about the opportunity! It will be great - Peyton, Reagan, and I will all get to go to school/work together 3 days a week next year, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. On Wednesdays, Mommy will get to take the kids to school and the have a few hours of "free time" before picking them up at 2. Dustin's excited because we will now get 50% off our kids' tuition!

A bird in the house....

A few weeks ago, Dustin found several empty bird's egg shells in our yard. He looked around for a nest, but didn't find one. On Monday, I walked out our front door to get the mail and discovered a baby bird on the front porch. So I started searching and found the nest - a mud nest on the top of my very favorite wreath! Later, when my friend was dropping Peyton off after school, we discovered another bird in the yard. Both were still small but obviously babies leaving the nest. So we left them alone for a couple of days. On Wednesday, I walked out again to get the mail (leaving the front door open out of habit, came back in and closed the door. Half an hour later I walked through the dining room and realized that something was not right.... there was something odd on the window sill. Yup... a bird was in the house! I called Dustin for his advice and tried to enlist Peyton's help. Peyton, however, had another idea. He retreated to his room at the first sign of life from the bird and shut the door, claiming that he was "scared the bird will poop on me" (as it had already all over the floor, window sill, everywhere!) Eeewwww! Finally, with Dustin's advice and a broom the bird flew back out the front door. And my favorite wreath was deposited in the trash can as soon as Dustin got home from work. Now we're fighting a bird couple from making a home on our back porch next to our back door!

Daddy's Birthday

On Monday we celebrated Daddy's 33rd birthday! For breakfast we had cinnamon rolls and Daddy got to drink his new Starbucks coffee. Then it was off to work and school. While Peyton was at school, Mommy and Reagan went to Wal Mart and bought 2 dozen helium balloons and another package of balloons to blow up at home. Reagan was beyond excited at all the balloons! She kept saying, "Ah booon! Ah boooon!" We got them home and released the helium ones in the living room. Later I blew up the rest, so our living room was filled with 4 dozen balloons! Both kids had a blast playing in the balloons that afternoon. Peyton told me that he wanted balloons for his birthday, too, but "not as many as Daddy has because Daddy is older than me."

I had told Peyton the week before about my plan to put balloons in the living room for Daddy's birthday, stressing that it was a surprise for Daddy and he needed to keep it a secret. Four-year-olds, however, can't keep secrets! On Saturday, Peyton woke up and asked Daddy for balloon in the living room. Fortunately, Daddy didn't make the connection!

When Daddy got home from work, the kids met him at the door yelling "Surprise! Happy Birthday" and blew on party horns. Then Daddy opened his presents, with Peyton's help! After presents, we took the kids to Adventure Kids and then went to Dustin's favorite Chinese buffet. By the time we returned home, we decided to postpone the cake until Tuesday. Daddy enjoyed all of his birthday phone calls!

On Tuesday after dinner, we finally got to the cake - a chocolate with peanut butter ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins - Daddy's favorite! Peyton enjoyed singing "Happy Birthday to You!". We're still enjoying the cake several days later!

Surprise! Happy Birthday Daddy!

(more pics in Spring 2009)

Happy Birthday Daddy!