Sugar Rush

The Night Before Second Grade....

Perfect time to get some CAKE!!!

First Friday Night Lights

Okay, it's just a scrimmage.  And it's probably going to be over before it gets dark and would even need stadium lights.  But still-- Friday Night Football starts tonight!

We started easing back into all things black-and-orange last Saturday at the kick-off picnic:

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Ouch

I must have slept funny because I have a big crick in my neck.   And that's the most interesting thing I have to report!

Off to finish getting ready.  I'm taking the kids with me this morning to the PTA Back-to-School Breakfast (complete with banana mini muffins that Miss C helped me make yesterday).   I'm hoping to stash them (the kids, not the muffins) in a corner somewhere with headphones and Charlie Brown on the iPad while I hang around and be a PTA presence.  The PTA Pres has been given a few minutes to talk to the staff a little later so we'll stay through that and then...........I'll go back this evening for a couple of hours to stand by the PTA table at the Kindergarten Parent Meeting.   And then back tomorrow for the Open House.

I'm thinking about moving into the school.

Hopefully I'll be able to move my neck once the ibuprofen makes its way through my system.....

Meeting Maya

We were able to pop in to see Emily & T and meet baby Maya, who was born in early January.   She is such a cutie!

I'm sure the kiddies loved seeing the new little one.....but they were more excited about playing WiiU with T!!!

One of our favorite Corning stops!!

Crystal City Exploration

It's a very different experience to come to Corning with kids.   As it turns out, they aren't quite as taken with wandering through all the cute little downtown shops and/or trying out the fun new restaurant spots as their mother might be.   So trips here become an exercise in figuring out how to entertain children who are each younger than I was when I moved here in the first place.

We have been so fortunate on this trip to have an adopted "home base" at family friend JuJu's house. Not only did she provide us a tasty (and festively red!) French toast brekkie...

...but she also had a wonderful suggestion about a way to spend a chunk of the day.  We went to a local airplane museum that has a little cafe in the corner--the ladies could sit/eat/chat while the kiddies ran around the giant hangar and had plenty to explore:

After we ate our yummy sandwiches, the kids and I got to experience the 727 simulator (an actual cockpit from an American Airlines plane) and the B-man LOVED getting to do that:

 After that aeronautical adventure, the kiddies retreated to the enclosed porch at JuJu's to build the Lego sets Grammie bought them:

Then we did lure them to Market Street for a little shopping-- the promise of bubble tea was pretty powerful:

The kids wanted to run across the Centerway walking (er, running) bridge.   Miss C got tired so she decided to hide out behind the tall vegetation...

...to surprise her brother!   (Can you see him?   Click to enlarge and look off to the right-- he's doing the maze on his way back):

We'll head back home this morning after a fun little getaway!!   It sure was easier/cheaper to see Grammie in the Crystal City rather than in Dallas!   (And so fun to bunk up with both Grammie and adopted grandmother, JuJu!!!)

Look!

It's Grammie!

And there's ice cream!

(Eagle-eyed readers can figure out our location from a certain landmark in the top photo!)

Fruit on High!

Can you see all those apples way up high?

This is the first year we've seen them look more like legit apples.  The tree is along the general border with the lot next door and, yesterday,  I watched out my window as the guy mowing their lawn managed to get ahold of one and take a bite.  He neither spat it out nor keeled over so color me intrigued about seeing what they're like.  Of course, we better find a tall ladder....

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Then and Now....Kinda

We went to visit Coach BG in his office last evening because it was the annual night of collecting money from players after their fundraising blitz.   We have made a habit of hanging out on this evening every year since it always comes at a time where we haven't seen much of the big guy around the house.

In my classic-EMK way of loving Then & Now shots, I made sure to get one of Miss C sitting in her daddy's lap like a picture I remembered from 2 years ago.   I just found said photo in ye olde files and, oops--- looks like I forgot someone!

 But he was there, too-- ready to play!

Midweek Musings

Between work projects with tight deadlines, a constant stream of PTA emails/tasks/meetings, and these pesky children who require full-time parental presence, things have been really busy of late. (Oh, and the start of football season, of course, which means the long-hours absence of the other adult.)

I find myself stressed most mornings about figuring out what to post in these electronic pages.   My report today (sans photos) is that I took B-man to an orthodontist yesterday after the dentist suggested I do so.........and we found out he doesn't need to go back for 1.5 years!  Woot woot!   I'm sure his orthodontia will still be long and $$$ but, hey, at least we can put it off for awhile!   :-)

What I don't want this spot to be, however, is an added stress in my already chock-full-of-daily-anxieties life.  Since it's pretty much settled into a one-way conversation in recent years, I often end up feeling like I'm spending way too much time/energy on something that no longer feels like a fun interaction with all my peeps.

So we shall see what happens.   I'm an awfully determined person when I have a project I care about....but I'm also tired.    But who knows-- some exciting/hysterical/heartwarming tale could be about to unfold and I'd DEFINITELY have to share it!

Going Off the Deep End

Actually, this isn't even a post about a swimming pool!

It's about me giving in to the most Texany of all things Texan:  the oversized hairbow!   :-)

At some point in the past, I stumbled across a bow-making company called Polkadot Posies.  They must do a brisk business because they are able to sell bows at a MUCH lower price than we see in retail stores around here.  I got on their mailing list after my initial order and, true to form, sprang into action recently upon receiving notice of their 15% off Back-to-School Sale.

Does C even really need bows added to her collection?   Nah.
Do we turn down sales?  RARELY.

Anyway, I decided that, if I were going to do this, I might as well "look ahead" to when she will (hopefully) have fuller hair and should honor her ancestors by purchasing a very large bow.    Said bow has been gracing the sweet-smelling head of her Cabbage Patch Doll since its arrival last week but I requested a photo of Miss C wearing it.   She refused-- good thing I managed to find another model:

And it's not even the biggest bow they sell!

(At least, per the inches given on the descriptions.  The above bow is the 7.5" ABC and they show 8.5" Ring bows!)

Also-- the above bow was........wait for it........$3.61 with the discount!!

With her new additions (the rest of which were much more diminutive), we're pretty much out of room on her bow-holder ribbons.  But hey-- we have LOTS of color options!!!

The Adventurer

This girl.   Always ready to GO.    In this case, she "didn't want to get her pjs wet" when going outside to play with a water squirter.....so she put her swimsuit on top:

Alas, her idea didn't work and her pants got a little wet.  So off went the pajamas.    The BG showed me this picture later-- apparently this development convinced him he should just go ahead and pull out the big plastic pool for her to splash around:

HA!

Shaping Up

I had originally planned to take Miss C to get a haircut on Wednesday but that got pushed back when B stayed home from camp.  It hurt my bargain-loving heart to miss "double-punch Wednesday" (as in, you get two punches on the salon's loyalty card that results in a 1/2 price haircut after 10 punches....claaaaassic Emily),  but we went ahead and ventured over there on (regular, single-punch) Thursday.  We got to the shopping area before the hair place opened but we managed to kill some time at the library, coffee shop, and outside green space!

And yes, I did take the "before" pic in the library bathroom:

I take her to a walk-in kids' place so it's not like we're going somewhere fancy.   I have also found that my "I don't know-- what do you think would look good?" attitude towards hair stylists carries over to my feelings about haircuts for my kiddos, so when the stylist asked what I wanted, I was like, "Uhhh...clean it up and make it look nice?"    She ended up deciding to keep it all one length but maybe, when I'm feeling daring sometime in the future, we'll try layers.

In any case, she emerged looking like a grade-schooler:

Speaking of layers, I knew my own hair had gotten long and scraggly but it wasn't until this recent pic that I realized I basically have two-tiered hair:

I was feeling bummed that I'd missed the window of being able to get a haircut until C is back in school--which isn't until mid-September!--but then I remembered that hair places actually stay open in the evenings for all the normal people who go after work!  Since the BG is getting home slightly earlier this week and next now that they have practices starting first thing in the morning, I was able to get in for my own cut late yesterday afternoon!    Woo-hoo!

Oh, but sorry--- didn't take an "after."   It's basically just a shorter, much-better-looking, version of the above scraggle-fest!  :-)

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Interruption

Our week had a little bit of a hiccup with young Master B-man feeling under the weather.  He is attending a camp at his school run by the PE teacher and seemed a little less-than-energetic at the beginning of the week. He also hadn't been eating much, even by Brooksie standards.  By Tuesday night, his temp had crept up and he mentioned that "earlier, my throat hurt a little bit."  CUE ALL THE WORRIES about the strep throat that some of us have been dealing with over the last month.

I decided to keep him home yesterday and was all prepared to call the doctor first thing in the morning when he woke up and......had not even a titch of fever. Like, none.  Like, I kept checking every hour and it was never elevated even an oonch.  Nothing like a good medical mystery to remind me why I find this whole "Do I need to call the doctor?" one of the hardest questions of parenting.

He clearly still wasn't feeling 100% so, long story slightly shortened, we ended up making an appointment for a throat swab/doctor visit after his temp had finally crept up to 100 degrees when I took it for the 97th time at 2pm.

Neither of my kids has ever experienced the *joy* of the throat swab so that was fun.   Amazingly enough, he didn't die like he thought he would and we went on upstairs to the pediatric office to wait for our appointment.  During our wait in the exam room, I checked my email and saw I had "a new test result" which said that the rapid strep test was........negative!  Oh, thank goodness-- I was so worried we were about to have to embark on a whole thing of trying to figure out if any of us are chronic carriers for strep, etc, etc, etc.  

The doctor seemed a little startled for my enthusiasm about the test being negative-- maybe people are usually happy because at least there's a diagnosis and meds can be started?!--but I was indeed elated.  By this point, B was basically acting completely normal so I knew he was feeling better.  The next clue was that he said, "You know-- McDonalds is right across the street and I sure am hungry!"

FYI:  This is what a kid desperately hoping for a particular Happy Meal toy looks like:

Spoiler Alert:  he didn't get it.

But she sure got some cute specs!

Wayback Wednesday

Football season is officially upon us. 

I decided to look back and see if I documented the first day of football season during the early days of this blog and, sure enough!    Check out this post from 7 years ago (back when they started on a Saturday, apparently)!

August 16, 2008

(I think that's the ONLY time he had some chubs!)

Sib Smiles

The BG's BD was not very exciting but that was largely on him since he went in to work at 10:00am even though his only actual responsibility was weight room at 4:00pm.  (Best.Employee.Ever.)   But I think he enjoyed his leftover pasta dinner (Ha!)....which was capped off with a cinnamon roll from Panera that C and I bought him so COME ON.

I've been spending lots of time with this new PTA gig, partially because all the new officers are still trying to figure everything out but also because, before I knew I was going to end up as VP, I'd offered to help co-chair the fall Read-A-Thon fundraiser.  Since it happens pretty soon after school starts, there's basically a double-dose of stuff I need to be thinking about.  I've also just created a Facebook page for the PTA and needed to swing by the school to take some pics.  So we did that this past Friday afternoon and the kids played on the school playground for awhile.

And they were cute:

The BG's BD

(that's Big Day, not Big Daddy)

Happy Birthday to the Coach.    I'm not sure that anything interesting will happen today (he's pretty much in full-on football mode with practice starting on Wednesday) but we had a delightfully lazy weekend "celebrating" by doing not much of anything.  Pretty sure we didn't leave the house on Saturday, and then yesterday, I put sprinkles in his Sunday pancakes; we went to GameStop and picked out a video game they all could enjoy together, and we stuffed our faces at our fave local gourmet sandwich shop on the way home.   Boom.  

I was (am?) hoping this week would get off to a productive start but it's gray and rainy and already 7:46am and I have accomplished exactly nothing.    But hey!   I've sent HAPPY BIRTHDAY WISHES into cyberspace so that's something!

Early Birds

I wandered into the living room at right at 7am and found this snuggly pair:

May I say for a moment how happy I am that it is currently 64 degrees instead of the 82 it already is in Dallas?  When I see the list of "highs" there for the week and there are more "106"s than any other temp, I pretty much start crying.  Stay strong (and cool), Texans!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Quintessential Summer Afternoon

Lounging by the pool:

Firing up the grill (unpictured) for some bacon/cheddar sliders and buffalo drumsticks...

...and loading up the ice cream maker:

mmmm......vanilla with fresh peaches:

Wayback Wednesday Reflection

I just looked back in ye olde blog archives and found the following text that I wrote on August 5, 2011 about the differences between 3.5 year old B and 6-month old C:

Turns out they're (gasp!) different in other ways, too! To wit:

• C is WAY stronger than her brother. She has a grip like you wouldn't believe and is shockingly quick at grabbing whatever is in front of her. She has meatier legs and will put weight on them, which is something B very rarely did. (Prediction: B will tend towards his mother's level of athleticism and be the "moral supporter" on the swim team, while his sister will be a powerhouse wrestler.)

• C rolls over and over as a form of travel; B just rolled and stopped. (Prediction: B will be the guy whom friends call when they just want to hang out, while C will be the one organizing the adventures.)

• C is quieter than B was, but B grinned more. (Prediction: B will successfully charm the customers as a WalMart greeter, while C plots world domination.)

• Although both are excellent sleepers, B fell asleep in non-crib locales more easily. (Prediction: B will be a much better roadtrip companion, while C will stay in only 5-star hotels.)

• B never had diaper blow-outs like C does. (Prediction: Again, B will be a better roadtrip companion! :-) 

-------
2015 Thoughts:

•  Everything about this first bullet is still true 4 years later.  Can't even tell you how much!!

• I actually now see the second bullet as a continuation of the first one:  B will do one active thing for a few minutes and then is ready to rest (like his madre).  His sister, however, always wants to be moving around and playing.   On the friendship front, the main difference between them that I've seen so far is that the B-man is a "Friend to All but a Bestie to None" (he will seriously make friends anywhere and is just such a happy/outgoing guy but doesn't have any super close-knit relationships) while his sister developed more of a close friendship with a few people in particular.

• Yep, she's still quieter, at least in social situations, by far.  This personality trait (cough cough, her dad's, cough cough) has been a challenge for me--as a more B-man-like outgoing type--to deal with.  I would drop her off at her beloved preschool but she'd barely respond to all the teachers saying hello.   I realize now that me saying things like "someone is a little shy" was NOT the proper response (although it was the one I chose to "save face" re: what I perceived as an impolite child) because she grabbed right onto that for her benefit.  Just last week, she said she wanted pickles with the lunch that Christy was making her but couldn't ask Chisty for them herself because she's "too shy."   Sigh....

•  They are both still excellent sleepers, although she falls asleep faster than he does 95% of the time.  Of course, when he was her age, he was still napping during quiet time and she very, very rarely does that.

• Thank goodness this last bullet hasn't been an issue for years!!!!!!!!!!!  (And they are both still fabulous road-trip companions!)

What will they be like on August 5, 2019???  Will they still love their (GASP) 40-year old mother?!

Balance

If there's going to be a pic of kiddies eating sugary treats...

 ...then we better counter with one of them in a "truck" of fruits and veggies!

The Big Sleepover

The BG was away at football camp Fri-Sun so the kids and I were on our own this weekend.  We broke a new record by going to a pool Fri, Sat, and Sun so hooray for our Vitamin D levels!   Figured we might as well break another record by having our first ever sleepover in my bed!

Miss C wanted us each to have an animal/friend:

She also took up more room than her larger family members but, all in all, the overnight was a success.  Here's a pic I verrrrrry carefully took at 6am yesterday when I slid out of bed: