Jackson's Birthday

Today is my youngest child's birthday. He is so sweet, gracious, silly and helpful. If you are putting your shoes on and the tongue gets in the way or the heal bends down he will reach to help before you even get a chance. He tries to help me zip my coat and wants to do the big kids jobs around the house so bad he can taste it. For school today his assignment was to watch "T*y St*ry 1 & 2" and has the sweetest giggle that he had us all giggling and we weren't even watching the movie. When I told him what he would get to do he said, "Tank you, mommy. I am sooo happy!" He is so easy to please.

Happy Birthday, Kid.

We're Back

We are back to school today after a extremely wonderful vacation. I just have to say that I spent last week with the silliest, cheesiest grin on my face as I watched my children experience so many new things. The hotel staffs at both places were phenomenal and the people in Ontario were so kind and polite everywhere we went.

We came back using the Tunnel and the traffic was very heavy, so we craaaalwed through which gave Jordan lots of time to worry about the structure and strength of the tunnel walls. I started singing water-themed songs which did not help any, but gave me a laugh.

Pictures in no particular order:

Our view from the hotel window

The dog's favorite position

Cold pizza; Breakfast of champions. LOL!

Hot sauna rocks

First time in sauna (we stayed for about 30 seconds)

Nana at the pool

Jackson in kiddie pool

Jackson at bat

Jordan at bat

James at bat

As Jackson described: "Dead animals" at the bird sanctuary museum

Canada geese

Pheasants and turkeys

The puppy traveled so well! He enjoyed his regular walks, was afraid of the elevator and slid across the marble floors.

Day 3 & 4

We are having so much fun and will definitely come back soon. We have stayed in H*lid*y In*s where kids e*t free and boy have my kids made good use of that. LOL!

We have done lots of sight seeing, just driving around, swimming and also went to the bird sanctuary. Later we are going to an indoor fun center with batting cages, go karts and other amusements. This has been so fun, educational and relaxing.

Oh Canada! Day 1 & 2

We spent the first day and 1/2 in Windsor. We had a very talkative Customs Officer who actually pulled us over so he could pet our puppy. Turns out he has a black schnauzer that has similar markings as ours. He really did not pay too much attention to us for loving on the dog. LOL!

Crossing the Ambassador Bridge

Crane statues on the river

Nana and the boys
Elephant statues on the river

A Boy & His NASCAR

My boy loves his NASCAR.

Opening Day of Spring Break

Our 1st day of spring break was GREAT!! The weather was beautiful and we got lots done outside. Big Bertha was uncovered and opened and she started right up. We also opened our pop-up which I call, 'Lil Tag-a-Long.

The boys raked about 2 bags of leaves and we uncovered and took down the picnic table, put the basket ball hoop back up and uncovered way more bikes than I care to mention. BTW, If anyone knows of a program that takes old bikes and repairs them to give to children in need, please let me know.

Our puppy loved running around the yard with ears just a flappin' BBQ dinner ended a great day.

In A Word

I've been tagged! My friend Mom In The Trenches hit me up for a one word meme. Thank You MITT!

So it goes a little something like this...

Hair-locs

Your Mother-here

Your Father-unchanged

Fav Food-grilledcheese

Dream last night-scary

Fav Drink-tea

What room are you in? livingroom

Hobby-Internet

Fear-failure

Where were you last night?-home

Something you aren't-skinny

Muffins-hardly

Wish list item-house

Where you grew up-Cleveland

What are you wearing?-sweats

Your pet-schnauzer

Friends-few

Something you're not wearing-shoes

Okay...your turn:

Diana & Blaine, Mama K & Hubby Love, Christine & John, and Kim & IH

Wrapping Up!!

We are finishing up school so that we can start our late spring break. I wanted to wait a little longer to be sure that we did not have snowy weather while traveling North. Wednesday will be our last day and then we will take 7 - 10 days off. We will be traveling to Canada for a lovely vacation and also do some chilling at the house. I hope to get our motor home uncovered and restocked for the camping season and usually once we get it uncovered and cleaned out, we end up spending a night out there because everybody misses camping.

I have started shopping for next years curriculum. It's like a part time job. LOL!

Call In Backup!

Tomorrow our local church is having another pancake breakfast and James has had the biggest grin on his face every time we passed the marquee out on their lawn. LOL! He is a very thin kid, but he can pack away some food. The older ladies at the church love to see him coming as it "does [their] heart good to see that boy eat!"

And guess where all that food goes? To.His.Feet!!!

We went out shoe shopping today for summer sandals. James' shoe size has jumped from a 1.5 to a 4!!!! How is that possible?!?!? I told him we might have to cut off a few toes to keep him in kid sized shoes. ~Grin~

10 Week Countdown

We have about 10 weeks left of school. The time has gone by pretty fast and it has been a very good year. I have really enjoyed teaching my pre-kindergartner and he has surprised me so much with what he was able to learn and do this year. Yesterday he had a reading page with a picture for coloring and we were cracking up at the way he added himself and siblings to the picture. See how the kids are hanging out the window? I asked why they weren't in their car seats and he just laughed and slapped his knee. Too funny. He is like an old man sometimes.

I have also kinda taken this attitude of exposing him to lots of things, even skills above his level just to see what he will do and I am always surprised at his abilities. Many times I will give him a page and not tell him what to do to see what he will come up with.

We Interrupt 4th Hour....

What excitement today! We had a tornado drill and had to go to the basement for about 22 minutes. The city we live in does not typically have tornado's as we live in kind of in a bowl, but the surrounding townships have had tornado's in the past.

The kids were just looking out the window discussing how dark the sky had gotten on this rainy day when the EAS alarms started ringing. It was a good drill as I gave instructions and everyone followed them carefully and completely. We sat down stairs and talked about weather and how to respond in emergencies. (We also sorted some laundry and started a load of towels. LOL! ) A few years ago my oldest son had to prepare an emergency kit for school that we kept in the basement. It needs to be updated a bit as we have grown by 2 kids, so I guess 6th grade will be doing that this week.

We now return to our regularly scheduled class.

The Lamb Returns

So if you read here, you know about the lamb. Well this Sunday, the lesson continued with the fact that after the sacrifice, the Lamb was returned to us in the form of our Savior. When the pastor's wife announced that the lambs would be returned, 6th grade smiled so big.

So we have our lamb back and while the puppy thinks that the little lamb should be his own personal chew toy, all are happy.

Happy Easter

Birthday Surprise

My daughter turned 12 and we had a surprise birthday party for her. It was so fun to do and she says that she never suspected a thing.

Let's just say there is not a tube of lib gloss left anywhere in the city. Ha! And her toe nails have about 12 layers of sparkly clear nail polish.

After the party, telling her Auntie about her goodies.

**Update**

She got her guitar!