Corn

Last night I made fresh roasted corn on the cob. It was Alex's first time to eat an ear of corn & he though it was pretty cool & very yummy in his tummy!

Open House

With Addy & Maryse at school all day, you would think I would have more free time (like time to update my blog.) But I'm finding that is NOT the case. I feel like I'm busier than ever! Getting the kids to & from school, working out, making breakfast & lunch for Alex & myself, bringing Addy to her speech & occupational therapy appointments twice a week, helping with homework & all the other school activites that I need to attend. And tonight, we had one of those activites....

Open house for Maryse.

Nick had a headache, so he stayed home with Addy & Alex while Maryse & I attended her open house.  Let me start by saying, Ridgepoint High School is HUGE! It makes Vidor High (my alma mater & Maryse's former school) look quite puny. And it's only 1 year old so its super nice & super CLEAN! I was very impressed!

Maryse brought me to 6 of her 7 classes & introduced me to her teachers. (Her Spanish teacher wasn't there.) It seems like she has some great teachers this year, especially Coach Adams, her World History teacher who is her favorite! (I didn't want to embarrass her TOO much, so I didn't take any pictures of her teachers, lol.)

Looks like she's going to have a great year at Ridgepoint High!



Zoo computer

All summer Addy asked to go to the zoo. But with this 100+ degree weather, its just been TOO HOT!! So instead, we started looking up zoo animals on the computer.  Addy calls this playing "zoo computer."  We downloaded the San Diego zoo map & printed out pictures of the animals & recreated the map to the best of our abilities.

Then I decided, why not make some animal habitats instead of just the zoo. So we got a coloring book with animal pictures & cut out the pictures. We colored them & glued them to a giant sheet of paper & then colored the habitats.

Ocean

Forest

Farm

And of course we had to make another zoo because the zoo is Addy's favorite!

pipe cleaner projects

We had lots of fun last Wednesday making things out of pipe cleaners.

Why, oh why do I have SO many pipe cleaners!?!

Addy wanted me to make a dinosaur. And not just a dinosaur, but a brachiosaurus.

And of course he needed a tree to eat from because

 he was a hungry plant eating dinosaur.

Maryse working on her red "M"

And here's her finished project

Maryse made these glasses

Flower made my me

Even Pepper liked playing with the pipe cleaners!

The first day of school

Today was the first day of school for both Addy & Maryse.

Our little Kindergartener

Our Sophomore

Maryse was both nervous & excited to start her new school. School starts at 7:30 so she has to get up extra early but she gets out at 2:30 which is good! Nick said he would have loved a school schedule like that, but I'm not so sure he would have as a teenager! Nick brought her to school this morning & I picked her up. That's our plan for the year. When I picked her up, she said her day was "not too bad." I guess that's better than horrible, right!?! She said she didn't know her way around or know anybody, but that she did meet a few people (even a girl from Australia) and had lunch with a girl that used to live in Beaumont. She even told me that a boy in her chemistry class just might be interested in her! So all in all, it sounds like she had a pretty good day considering it was her first day in a new school.

And Addy had a pretty great day from the sounds of it. She was excited to go to school, told me that she wanted to go to the library. (Sadly though, it wasn't library day.) I walked her in & guided her to her class. (I say guided because she thought she knew where she was going from last year & wanted to lead me. I had to steer her the other way though) There was a picture on her desk for her to color & she got to work on it just like a big kindergarten kid would, sitting at her desk & using the correct colors. I stayed for awhile & took pictures & talked to her teacher, Mrs. Cochran. Then I went & talked to Mrs. Cardenas, Addy's resource teacher & I even went & found Mrs. Barry, the aide for Addy's classroom. I wanted to make sure that EVERYONE knew what was going on & that Addy would be WELL taken care of!!

Addy & Mrs. Cochran

When I got home, Alex asked me "Oh no, where did Addy go?" (I think he might have missed her even more than I did today!) I started telling Nick about dropping her off & then I just lost it. I started crying, saying she's just not big enough to be in Kndergarten. She's barely 5 years old! Nick told me he would go pick her up from school if I wanted him to. Sweet, but no, that's not what I wanted. I felt kind of sick to my stomach for the rest of the day, just waiting to know how my sweet little Addy's day went. 3:00 o'clock couldn't get here fast enough!!

When I picked her up, she saw me & said "Mommy" and came & gave me a huge hug! Mrs. Cardenas, her resource teacher, said that she did really good today. I asked how lunch went & she told me that Addy ate some of her pizza (yes, they were serving cheese pizza in the lunch line so Addy actually got to buy her lunch) and that she crawled under the table twice but actually sat at the table most of the time. I was worried about that because at home she usually doesn't want to sit at the table. Mrs. Cardenas also said that while walking in line Addy would sometimes try to wander off & go somewhere else. So just a few minor problems on the first day of school! That's great because I was very worried.

 Addy won't tell me how her day went, but everytime Nick & I ask her about it she gets a huge grin on her face so I definitely think that's a good fantastic sign!

So here's hoping for an AWESOME year for both our girls!!!

Maryse Moves In

Last weekend, a big change happened in our home. Maryse moved in with us! Yay, we're all so excited about this! We ABSOLUTELY LOVE having her here.

It's been 1 week and I think everything is going great. We (Maryse & I, with a little help from Addy & Alex) spent most of yesterday painting her room. One wall is red, 2 are white & one is black chalkboard paint. It looks really good. We bought her a desk & a couple of bookshelves & a new comforter for her bed. We're still working on all the wall hangings & knicknacks though. I'll post some pictures when we have it all complete.

And tomorrow, she starts her new high school! She will be a Ridgepoint Panther. She'll be going to the new high school in Sienna. It opened last year & is HUGE! I know she is excited but also nervous to be the "new kid." She is such a sweet & personable girl though, so I know that everyone is going to love her!

Bounce Zone

Last Friday, the 12th, I took the kids to one of their favorite places, Bounce Zone in Beaumont.
They had lots of fun sliding, bouncing & playing in the arcade.

Addy wanted to play the driving game in the arcade.

She loved it!

But Alex did not!

Eddie was holding him up so he could see Addy driving. But Addy's driving REALLY STRESSED Alex out! Check out this look on his face. He was yelling, saying "Whoa, look out Addy! Stop! STOPPPPPPP!!!!" Over & over again. (Btw, he's a total back seat driver in my car!)

It was hilarious watching this. I was crying from laughing so much.

The kids played air hockey together.

A little later, Addy decided she wanted to play the driving game again. She sat down & started, Alex looked at her (look at his expression in this picture) & then took off to the other room of Bounce Zone. Apparently the first time she played was too stressful for him, he couldn't just couldn't watch her play again!

After we had played for about an hour, Alex came up to me & told me "That's enough!" & then he walked to the door. He was all played out & ready to go!

TP Rolls

I keep finding toliet paper rolls in the garbage can. What?? I can't believe Nick keeps throwing them away. He ovbioulsy doesn't know just what you can make with a toliet paper roll!

Like a pair of binoculars

an airplane

a snake

a bird feeder

(ok so we really made it with a paper towel roll, but whatever)

or even a really cool marble run!

Just playing