Lydia's school

For the month of August Lydia was the "Good Citizen" at her school. Each teacher chooses a child to be the good citizen for the month and they get a certificate and then they go to a special lunch with the principal. Lydia got to ride on the school bus for the first time!

Every Tues. and Thurs. morning I go in and volunteer at Lydia's school. I love being able to go into her classroom and work with all the kids. Lydia loves me being there. She told me the other day that she was so glad that I worked at her school. :) The only down side to this is that I have very little time to do the other things that I really need to be doing while my two other little ones are in mother's moring out and preschool. But starting next week I will only be going one day a week because Lydia's teacher has asked her mom to come in and help on Thurs. so that will free up one day a week for me to do the not so fun things that I have to do to keep my life running smoothly i.e. grocery shopping...Here are some pics that I have been able to take at Lydia's school

March of Dimes Cruise In

This past weekend I joined some of the young women in Dothan 1st and 2nd wards volunteering at the March of Dimes Cruise In. We were in charge of the kiddie area. They had several inflatables donated by Jumparoo and free snow cones and popcorn. It was really a nice event and I hope they do it again next year. They had so many really cool classic cars and some really decked out new cars too. It was $10 for the family to get in (Rafael brought the kids) and in the kiddie area everything was free. They had live bands and a lot of food venders including Brusters, The corn dog man, BBQ shack, Lowe's Hot dog stand, and more. As a side note, I had to be there pretty early and I wanted to make it easy for Rafael so I got the girls all dressed and their hair fixed so I had no time to eat breakfast before I left home. So I was starving come 10:00 when I could smell the aroma of those corn dogs. Everyone laughed at me when I said I wanted a corn dog that early in the morning but when I came back with it in hand it sent more then a couple of girls running to get them one of those famous corn dogs too. Unfortunately I left my camera in the car so you'll just have to take my word for it that it would be a great thing to take your family to if the do it next year.

Get up and Go, Go, Go

I have been out of the blog world for a few weeks now and I finally decided to make some time and check it out. We have been really busy...but who hasn't? I have also realized how bad I am at remembering to take pictures of things. I was really tempted to just write and say check out Jay and Mia's blog for updated pictures of Lauren's dance and check out Jay and Mia and Dan and Holly's blog for pics of us at the Lake. Although I still recommend checking out their blogs I am going to try and update mine a little. I still don't know how to do too much (like those cute collages) but I can upload a couple of pictures. I have some pics of Lauren at dance but none of Lydia because I am busy entertaining Lauren during her class. I have some pics of Lydia at gymnastics but none of Lauren because I am busy chasing Andrew during her class. Like I said we've been busy! Lauren has gymnastics and dance on Mondays and Lydia has dance on Monday and gymnastics on Tues. Thank goodness my mom watches Andrew for me while I am at the dance studio for 2 hours on Mondays. (THANKS MOM!!!) It would be complete torture for him and me to be cooped up in the small observation area they have for 2 hours. He's a very busy boy and his favorite thing to do, turning on and off lights, has just been replaced by a new skill, opening and closing doors. For some reason I don't think the other moms at the dance studio would appreciate his skills. Okay, so I just looked through my pics of Lydia and Lauren at dance and gymnastics and I don't have any that are good enough to post (why can't they just freeze in mid air while doing a cart wheel or pause while shaking to the rumba??) Anyways most of my pictures are just blurs. I think I need a new camera although I just got this one...maybe I should read the instruction manual. Hopefully I'll have some good ones next week.

Andrew

Here is my little man. I thought about posting a picture of him where he is wearing cute clothes and has his hair combed but this picture shows who he really is so much better. In this picture he wasn't so happy about being dirty because this is grease not dirt and it doesn't come off so easily but otherwise he would have been right in his element. He is all boy and always getting into things. He certainly keeps me busy. He is a lot of fun though. He is always so happy. He thinks everything is funny and loves to make people laugh. I definitely see a class clown in the making. I never really believed it when people would tell me how different girls and boys where but now I am definitely a believer. It's a good thing he wasn't my first born or I would probably have been way too exhausted to have any more children. He keeps me going but I love him to death. Rafael can't wait until he is old enough to throw ball with or take fishing (we tried that once...all our lines are still tangled and Daddy went home in a really bad mood). Soon enough!

Lauren

Lauren has just started taking dance this year and she loves it. She has been taking gymnastics since the beginning of the year and she really loves that too. Lauren just loves to play and be active. She will probably be really good at gymnastics because she has no fear. When she was 18 months old I took her to a neighboorhood park and she climbed the rock wall something her older sister wouldn't dare to attempt. She just learned to swim this summer. She was so excited to finally take her floaties off and jump in the deep like to big kids. The problem is once she's in she has to either make it to the side or to the shallow because she hasn't figured out how to come up for air and continue swimming. She is a very emotional little girl. Which can be a good or bad thing. She can be so loving, more then any child I've ever seen but when she is upset...I have to take deep breaths all the time and try to zone in to patient mom mode. Most of the time she is a really fun girl though.

Lydia

This is Lydia at her last dance recital. She is taking balet and tap. Right now we are making her stick with it because she is really good at it and quiting because tights make her hot is not a good enough excuse. Lucky for her Ms. Kathy, her dance teacher, told me that she doesn't have to wear tights to class anymore if she doesn't want to. So now she is almost excited to go to dance class. Lydia is somewhat of a perfectionist which is probably why she is good at dance. She is 5 going on 21. The other day I took her shopping because she cleaned her room everyday for a whole month and she wanted to go pick out a toy as a reward. After going down all toy aisles at Target she decided she wanted to go look at books. I was more than happy about that the last thing we need in this house is more toys. In the end she decided on a little book and a Hannah Montana CD. Usually when she gets home from school after her snack she heads up to her room closes the door and dances around her room listening to her new CD. Next thing you know she'll be wanting to wear makeup and asking for a cell phone. She sure is growing up really fast. She is just starting to learn how to read and she is so excited about that. She has always loved books. When she was barely even one all I had to pack in my diaper bags to keep her entertained was a few books. I could literally read book after book to her. Even now I get tired of reading well before she gets tired of listening. It will be so fun when she can read herself.

Where to Begin???

Okay...so as I said in my profile, My life revolves around my kids. I am the mother of three wonderful (and sometimes not so wonderful) children. My oldest, Lydia, just started school so I will be posting some pictures of her school experiences soon. She absolutely loves school. She just told me today that if it was her special day and she could pick anywhere she wanted to go she would go to school. She is only in kindergarten so we will give her a couple of years and see how much she loves it then. She is a very eager learner so maybe she will always like school. Lauren just started preschool. She is loving it too. She only goes half days on Tues. and Thurs. so I still get to have her home with me most of the time. My little man, Andrew, is in a mother's morning out program at the same place where Lauren goes to preschool so Tuesdays and Thursdays our my days to do the things that I want to do. Although now that Lydia has started kindergarten I spend atleast one of those mornings volunteering at her school. She is so excited to see me at school and loves that all her friends at school know me. I better take advantage of that while it last.