Back To School

Morgan was so excited to ride the bus with Brittany. Finally, after all of these years just watching Brittany she was able to go with her. As I watched them run down the street to catch the bus I had to fight back the tears. It is so scary to send them out into the world alone.

Zane thinks he needs to ride the bus with his sisters and was upset to be left behind. All morning he asked where Morgan was. Then at 10:00 he put his shoes on and said, “Let’s go get Borgan, Mom!” He was ready for her to come home.

The girls have to be ready for the bus by 7:15am and school starts at 8:00. Morgan is finished at 11:00 and gets to ride the bus home except for Tuesday and Thursday when I pick her up to take her to speech therapy at 11:30. She is pretty tired when she comes home!

2 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

We got Morgan a REAL bed for her birthday. After two years of sleeping on a mattress on the floor she was overjoyed to have a bed. I can’t believe how much cleaner her room looks! And the bed is tall enough to stash all of the totes full of toys under it. (Maybe that is why her room looks cleaner.)

I bought the quilt for her when we lived in Jerome and she was only a few months old. It had been packed away when we moved and I found it when un-packing a couple weeks ago.

Fortunately, she loves it!

Birthday Continued

Here are a couple more birthday pictures.

I couldn't find PINK Snowballs for the pig's nose and ears so we used white. I know, it looks a little strange.

It was hard for me to let the kids smash the PIG pinata after putting so much work into it. The squeals and laughter when the pinata broke made it worth it though.

Happy Birthday Morgan!

Morgan had a PIG birthday party.

We made a PIG cake. . .

and a PIG pinata.

I put together an obstacle course for the kids and they had so much fun! Morgan wanted the party to last all day long but after a couple of hours I was ready for it to be done. Thankfully Brittany was a big help.

Happy Birthday Morgan! We love you!

Getting Ready for School

Morgan is so excited to go to Kindergarten at the “big” school however we have a lot of work to do to get ready. She has done pretty good with saying the alphabet and she recognizes many of the letters as well as the sounds they make. She can almost write her name and loves the letter M. In fact, she has decided that the letter M also needs to be at the end of the alphabet. When she sings her ABC song she leaves out the letter Z and finishes with a big M. (Sorry Zane.)

She knows most of her colors but still mixes up red, and pink. She has learned her phone number but doesn’t understand the concept of the address. Along with speaking understandably, we are working on paying attention for 10 minutes, taking responsibility for her actions (not blaming Zane), and cutting on the lines. We are also working on the concepts of first, second, and third. Morgan is certain that first is all we need and she should always be first.

School starts next week. I hope we make it!

Flowers for Mom

I put Zane down for a nap and hurried to finish some work on the computer while he was asleep. Morgan had gone outside to play and I was thinking it was about time to check on her when I heard the front door open. She came and quietly stood beside me, waiting for me to look away from my work. I turned to her and asked her what she was doing. She held out a small flower pot and proudly told me she had planted a flower for me.

My irises in the front flower bed are long past blooming but I haven’t made it out there to cut off the dead, brown stalks. She had broken one off and carefully planted it in a small pot she found in the garage. She was so pleased with herself so I graciously thanked her, telling her she had down a great job, and then asked her to find a special spot for it outside.

She thought it looked best next to our turtle and the flowers near the house.

Later that day, I noticed a small hole in my lawn just a little bigger than the gofer holes. Unlike the gofer holes this one had no mound of dirt next to it. I asked Morgan if she had dug a hole in the lawn and she quickly blamed the dog. I started to ask her what she had done with the dirt and then realized that is what she used to plant my flower. How could I be mad at her?

Redneck Birthday

You might be a redneck if. . . you hold your two-year olds birthday party in your garage with a bunch of your friends. But most of my friends have children so that makes it okay, right? And Zane really didn’t care. He had friends to play with, got to open presents, and got to eat a large bowl of ice cream. He thought it was great.

I saw the idea for the cake in a magazine when we were at my parent’s house and decided to give it a try. It actually turned out really cute. I also made cupcakes for the kids.

It’s hard to believe that two years ago we made the long drive to Jerome and then the long drive back home with our little boy. He started out so chubby that now he actually looks thin since he has started growing taller instead of wider. Zane only has one speed – ZOOM! He is a typical boy – playing in the dirt, wrestling anyone he can jump on, and peeing on the floor. He also has a sensitive side and will play dolls with Morgan and give hugs when someone gets hurt. I wouldn’t trade him for anything!

Tiny Tots Rodeo

This week was our fair week. I think Power County has the SMALLEST fair in the nation but it is also the cheapest fair.

We signed Morgan up for a couple events in the Tiny Tots Rodeo. There were so many kids and many of them young enough that the parents had to hold their hands and help them. I thought Morgan was going to be overwhelmed but she did really good.

Here she is doing the Stick Pony Barrel Race. She even remembered to go around all three cones – one she went around twice just to be sure. She had so much fun and is anxious to do it again next year. Zane felt a little cheated so we will probably sign him up next year as well. All the kids that participated got blue ribbons and a sack of candy.

Morgan asked her dad to bring home a REAL horse so she can practice for next year. Then she asked me to buy her a saddle and some boots like Dad’s.

One Project Done

When I was a young girl I received a wonderful, white cabinet for Christmas. My bedroom was always a mess so my dad built me a cabinet to store my treasures in. Over the years I plastered the side with stickers and it kind of took a beating but it stood faithful and strong and held many different things.

More recently, I used the cabinet to hold Morgan’s clothes and blankets when she was a baby. When we moved here I was determined to paint it before I put anything in it. So it has stood empty in my garage for two years. I spent a week and a half sanding and painting every spare minute I could find and now it stands nobly in the corner of my dining room.

No, I am not using it to hold dishes or linens. It now holds most of my scrapbooking supplies and countless pictures that some day I anticipate turning into glorious scrapbook pages. I am hoping if it sits next to my table I will be able to pull out some pictures and papers and create a page when ever the mood strikes.

Once again my cabinet is being used to store my treasures.