Anna's Birthday!

Has it really been this long since I have written something down. Oh not good. Sunday we celebrated Anna's birthday. How is it possible that she has turned 6? We decided on a bowling party this year. I had invited her class but only 3 children came to the party. I had mixed emotions about only 3 children attending but in the end I was so happy. Of course Julia, JoanMarie and Hans came to the party. I had already knew the one parent and the other two parents were very nice. I thought it was pretty cute that more fathers were at the party than mothers. It is a silly observation since I usually send Gerard to the parties so I can get school work done.

The funny thing that happened at Anna's party was her cake was a Rapunzel cake with her hair being the icing wrapped all around the cake. The children kept saying "I want hair on my cake!"
It just sounds like such an odd request until you saw the cake.

School for Anna is way different this year. She has to be there by 7:45 which is pretty early in my opinion but she gets out at about 2:30 which is actually better than I thought because it give us time to do homework before I go to work. Oh yes she has homework every day. Mostly reading but last week she had some math homework too. I have made her a lesson plan book. What I do is slip any homework that does not need to be returned into a plastic sleeve and I let her use dry erase markers to complete it.

We have made a couple of trips to the library for new reading books. We are encouraged to practice reading every night for a minimum of 30 minutes. There have been times when she is not too excited about it but usually if I start reading aloud she becomes interested.

I am getting back in the swing of my own schooling. I am only taking one class this semester and it feels so different from last semester when I had to take two classes. My goal is to get into a routine where I am getting all my work done when she is in school. So far it is working. I have completed 3 weeks and I only have another 12 to go. If I power through I will be set to graduate in the spring of 2015. I would really like to next summer off however so we will see. I am just not in a rush to get it done. The last year I will be required to work in a physician's office part time. I am not quite sure how I will be fitting that into my schedule yet.

The first day of kindergarten

The long awaited first day of kindergarten snuck up on me this past week. How is it possible that she is old enough to go to kindergarten. Didn't she just come home from Russia yesterday? Well I guess time flies when you least expect it. In the past I would pick out all of her outfits but I know the time is coming when she will no longer let me pick them out. I savored picking out her outfit for the first day.

We decided on a cute little sweater dress with a pair of grey leggings. She decided on her sparkly silver shoes. We decided together that her hair should be pulled back in the front so that it is easy for her to see. The night before I made sure she had a nice long bath to rinse off all the summer time fun that we had. I ensured that her nails were clean and clipped. We talked about how having a good routine will be very important for us because she will need to be to school very early.
Preschool started at 9:30 am but kindergarten starts at 7:45 am...YIKES that is early is all I could think. I think setting her clothes out the night before is an important first step to letting her pick out her own clothes. Tonight we decided on her outfit together and made sure it was in an easy access spot for her.

After the first day of school she came home very excited but she did shed a few tears because she was missing a few of her friends. She told me that she asked the teacher to drive to the other school to pick them up. I can tell this teacher is a no-nonsense teacher which I do believe it good. Anna came home mimicking her (not is a bad way) when she was telling me about the rules. I have not met the teacher yet.

The first night I got a boat load of papers to fill out with the appropriate contact information in the event of an emergency and so forth. I was a bit rushed and did not get it completed. Friday night we (yes I do mean we) got our first homework assignment. She has to fill out 2 sheets that describe her favorite things. I must supervise her that it where the we comes in. The note attached said that this was a graded assignment. YIKES! A graded assignment already. I had a bit of anxiety wash over me. The perfectionism in me immediately took over. I took a deep breath and made the decision that this is really Anna's assignment and I am the supervisor of time management and making sure that the criteria is met. I have a feeling that I will be taking many deep breaths in the future when it comes to homework. The assignment is due this coming Friday. I have made the decision that we need to be complete this assignment early if possible. I want to save procrastination for my own homework.
Anna and I decided on a few pictures that she would like to include on the project. We have shopped for some horse stickers. So tomorrow I think we will start to put the project together.
Here are some pictures from her first day.

Horse camp

Anna's time at horse camp is not all fun and games. I have to say I love the stable where she goes to camp. They make sure she understands how important it is to completely take care of a horses needs.

Yesterday I was able to sneak a picture of her working.

Photo Session with LeAnna Fisher Photography

While we were on vacation in July I was looking through my Facebook news feed and saw that LeAnna Fisher was doing what she calls a mini session on the beach. I emailed her and was able to secure a spot. Gerard was all pictured out from the cruise so he opted out of the picture session. Which honestly I was fine with so I worked the night before. My mother dropped off Anna that afternoon freshly bathed.

Somehow I just think Anna knows when to act up. Usually when I am getting ready for something. I had pulled out two dresses for the picture session. She liked neither of them. One was an old Easter dress that she seriously disliked. That is when I decided if LeAnna was up for it then I was good with her trashing this dress in the ocean.

Despite gaining some weight I decided that I wanted to be in the pictures too. I have so few pictures of Anna and I. I have decided that I want to print a few and hang them in my room. So without further delay here is our photo session.

So now that I have blown up this post with pictures if you have a favorite which one is it?

The summer is winding down

On Facebook the other day I read an article about always telling your child to "hurry up." I am one of those people who really like to be on time. I think it is disrespectful to not be on time if someone is waiting for you. With that being said I think at times I have been too busy to really enjoy my life. I like to be busy. I always have. Anna likes to be busy in her own way too...and always has. Gerard is the same. We usually have a project going and one in the line for when that project is done.

This is one reason why for our family vacations away from home are best. It takes away the chores of our everyday life so that we can really enjoy our family time together. I am off this week coming up and we are going to just enjoy our time together. I think back to the beginning of May and I am thankful that I made the decision to not take a class for school. I have really enjoyed my time off.

Tonight I had wanted to head out to the store and told Anna my plans. She replied with "How about we stay home and play with my dinosaurs?" Well that was a better plan anyway so this is what we did. I have been very careful lately to really look at her and pay attention to her when she talks.

Originally I thought it might be nice to go to Virginia this week. Anna really enjoyed the beach there but I feel that I need to make the best decisions for my family and today that is to save money. We will spend time on our beach this week. I also need to spend this time prepping for the start of school for both of us. 

I need to clean out my spare room, the closet is a disaster. The influx of baby gear in our home has made it feel small. I must evaluate what is absolutely needed and what we can do without. I like having my own stuff for Jenny's girls here because it makes it easy for her to come here and spend time with us. I want things in order before start our school year.

The first day of school is approaching fast. I want to make a cool sign for Anna to hold in her picture. For the past two years Anna has been able to wear the same outfit on the first and last day of school. I will admit that I loved this so much that I want to try to recreate this again this year.

This week Anna and I had professional pictures taken. I had worked the night before so I was heading to the photo shoot with a bit of a headache. I have only gotten to see the proofs for two of the pictures and I am in love with them. I had an old Easter dress of Anna's that I love but that she disliked. The pictures were taken at the beach. I promised Anna that she could "trash the dress." Both of us ended up in the ocean fully clothed. Amazingly my headache faded away. I am going to book her again for our Christmas pictures in October.

So the goals for this week are to go to the beach, clean the spare room, make a sign for kindergarten but the most important goal is to just enjoy my time with Anna and Gerard.

 

I think we are ready

Last year when we made the decision to let Anna stay in pre-k it was a hard decision.  In my heart and gut I knew she was not ready. In the last month she is really showung signs of being ready for the challenges kindergarten. 

While I was shopping for thi gs for our cruise I walked through the school supplies.  I picked up a book to help Anna with her penmanship.  The book has been sitting in our kitchen since. 

Today we were picking up our house after 2 of the triplets went home. She sat down and started to write her letters on a piece of paper. Anna then told me "Mommy I am working hard because I want to write like a grown up." A piece of me was crushed. You know the piece of me that wants her to stay just the way she is forever.  So sweet and innocent. 

I pulled out the book that I bought and now she is practicing her penmanship all on her own.

Disney Vacation Part 3

Yes I am sorry there is a part 3. One thing that Gerard and I both liked (I knew I would like it but he did not realize I am sure) is that we spent so much time together as a family. Gerard is always on the go. He literally loves to work. If I would let him work more he would and still not complain. This is one reason why for our family vacation away from home is so important. We get his full attention the entire time.

After we got off the boat we had decided that this day was going to be just a relaxing day. Maybe some time at the pool and than early to bed. The Florida rain got in the way of our pool plans but we had a very early dinner like 4 pm, a little ice cream and we were off to bed. Gerard and I had been discussing whether or not to go to the Magic Kingdom. Gerard hates lines and crowds for that matter so for him it was a flat out NO! We started talking about how much Anna enjoyed the parks and how Magical they are for her. I think what sealed the deal was when I asked him when did he think we would be coming back to Disney. We all fell asleep.

Around 8 am he asked me if I wanted to go to the Magic Kingdom...I was like WHAT! I would have been up an hour ago to get ready. I popped out of bed and got our things packed. We were off to the Magic Kingdom. When Anna first came home I purchased 10 day passes for us. They were a small fortune but I have been so glad that I did that so many years ago. We talked about whether or not we should buy Anna a multi day pass and we did.  So now we have 5 days left on all of our passes. I am thinking this could be at least 3 more trips.

Each time we take Anna it is better than the last. I will say we are absolutely blessed because Anna is a really traveler. If we explain where we are going and what we are going to do there she will have very good behavior. Now that Gerard and I have been there a couple of times we know how to work the park and the things that we like. I ran to get our fast passes for Peter Pan and he took her on the tea cups. We were able to see Ariel in her grotto and ride the new Ariel ride with nearly no wait at all.

 

Anna told me that she was very careful with Ariel's tail

 

 

I was surprised that the park was not really crowded. We did pretty much everything that we wanted to do. By 4 o'clock both Anna and Gerard were asking to go back to the hotel. One of these days I will get to see the fireworks...sigh.



 

 

The following day we met up with Kellie and her children to go to Gatorland. I am not sure how I have missed this adventure but I will say it was pretty cool. Anna loves animals and reptiles are one of her favorite types so this was right up her alley. Some of the alligators were so big I could not believe it. I could never imagine one of these swimming in our lagoons. YIKES! Anna wanted to hold an alligator and a snake so we let her (Please note that the snake was not a poisonous one and the alligator's mouth was taped shut). Anna beamed. She loved the shows and feeding them hot dogs (again from a very safe distance). I highly recommend Gatorland. 

 

 

 

We spent the rest of the day looking in pawn shops. Gerard and I both like this and I have found out that Anna enjoys it too. We had a nice dinner and then were off to the airport. I am so glad that we decided to participate in this Russian Reunion. One interesting thing that I noticed is that every parent was solely focused on having fun with their children. I am lucky enough to be friends with my coordinator on Facebook. Prior to us going on this trip I contacted her to tell her about it. Anna is such a gift. Everyday Gerard and I ask ourselves "How did we get so blessed to have her as our daughter?"