Kindergarten

We registered Hayley for Kindergarten this week. It's kind of crazy to me. A year ago we thought we were going to homeschool because of some reservations we have with the schools in our area and the full-day schedule. I can't believe we've done a 180 and she's now registered to start in September! But we feel like it's a good decision for her for now. If mommy can keep the panic attacks at bay I think Hayley will do just great!

I had no idea how much paperwork I had to fill out to register her. I marched into the school office with 3 kids thinking we'd just fill out one paper and it would be a great experience for everyone. Maya could see where Hayley is going to go and start to get used to the idea and Hayley could check out her new school.

I didn't take the diaper bag, a toy or a snack for anyone. Turns out there was a stack of papers waiting for me. Alice started crying as soon as we got in there. So there I was bouncing a baby on my hip, signing enless forms while I tried to keep Hayley and Maya in line and wondering where the "great experience" went?!? After about 5 minutes Hayley said "Mom, I don't like school!"

Welcome Friends and Family

Well...it's been a fun week or two working on dreaming up ideas for this blog and making them appear on this page! Hope you have fun keeping up with all the things we get around to posting. I made Ryan and Hayley author's also, so if it doesn't sound like me writing, check the bottom of the post to see who the real author is (I'm hoping they'll contribute occasionally!)

Fo those of you that are new to the blogging scene (like me) one really helpful site I've found is google reader. You can cut and past the links to everyone's blogs in there and then just go to one place to see if anyone has updated their posts (as long as their blog doesn't require a log in).

We sure enjoy reading everyone else's blogs! If your blog isn't listed on our site...send us a link so we can check it out.

A day at the Zoo

Look at that smile! Alice loves the zoo too!






We spent a day at DC Zoo with our friends Alyvia, Berkely and Samantha. Climbing was much more fun than actually watching the animals!

Dancing the day away!

Dancing is a daily event in our house. Maya is our little DJ. She makes sure there is someting blasting from the karaoke machine most of the time. She and Hayley spend hours dancing. Lately, my country music CDs have been their favorite....a nice change for me from Disney!

This is my favorite! Maya is trying to copy exactly what Hayley is doing...she's a pretty good little student, huh?

Happy Birthday Hayley!

Hayley turned 5 this week! Wow! What a fabulous 5 years it has been.

Thank you for making me a mother Hayley...for being a strong enough little spirit that I can learn how to mother through you, my first child. You've taught me so much and helped me to become a better person already in your 5 years.

It seems like 5 is such a turning point. I'm excited to see you start to spread your wings and fly on your own now and then. I know you'll do amazing things.

This year we introduced the concept of having a big birthday party with friends only on even birthdays...so this year Hayley invited just one friend over--Carly. They got together the day before her birthday. Hayley planned the whole party using a kids princess cookbook we found at the library. They had fun painting flower pots. We filled the flower pots with ice cream (chocolate so it looked like dirt) then put sprinkles on top and stuck a straw and silk flower in it. They looked really cute. After they ate the ice cream Ryan took them outside and helped them plant some flower seeds in their pots. They also decorated their own cake. So fun!

The next day, on Hayley's real birthday we just had a lazy fun day at home playing together and dancing lots (more pics of that to come). A few of her friends come over to tell her happy birthday during the day, then we met Daddy at Chuck E. Cheese (again, planned by Hayley). What a great birthday!

The day after her birthday, Hayley came into my room and started telling me all about her plans for her next birthday. What a great planner she is! Only 364 days to go!

Confessions of a reluctant blogger....

I'm a reluctant blogger.....

I remember when I was up to date on all the latest technology (there wasn't that much...like I remember getting an email address and explaining to my mom how easy it was to email me instead of call or I thought I was so cool for having a cell phone for work before most of my friends had one!) Over the past 2 years a few friends have started blogging and I've had fun reading their posts. Then in the last 6 months it seems that everyone I know has started blogs.

So, if you know me, you are in shock that I'm finally joining the millions that are blogging. I was so determined not to! Thanks for your patience.

This was my demise:

• A couple weeks ago I told Ryan "I know I'm going to have to start blogging someday," (since that's how his family communicates now and I'm the last one to join in!) "but I really hope I can hold out for another year because I just don't have time right now!"
• As soon as I admitted that I might one day be a blogger (even reluctantly) I started thinking about blogs all the time. One of the kids would do something funny and I'd think, "that would make a good post." We'd take some cute pictures and I'd think, "someday I'll just be able to put those on my blog."
• I spent conference weekend thinking up names for a blog (At this point I knew I wasn't going to last a year!)
• I started bothering friends that blog for information on how they make their websites cute and original (heaven forbid I make this easy and use a template page!) and have learned all sorts of stuff about Html codes and making slideshows, etc.
• I started a blog!

..........and I have to admit that so far, it's been fun!