Hailey's element

Hailey had a 4-hour "lock-in" at school with all the 5th graders and teachers until 10pm at night. (And moi, since I like to be in my kids' bizness). This girl is the life of the party. A natural leader and such a happy sunshine-y girl.

1st day it snows=awesome snow hats!

"Butt"

Hat Day @ school. Should be called Ugly Hat Day.

Mason

Mason Monkey is officially potty trained. I even waited a month to publicly declare that just to make sure. The awesome thing is that it literally took 5 hours. Now before I get the mother-of-the-year award I will give my secret process:
1) Wait until 3 so there is complete understanding. None of that age 2 nonsense.
2) Have Dad give a stern lecture. Just a pinch of fear never hurt.
3) Bribe Bribe Bribe. Almost like it's Christmas. Masons love? Thomas the Trains. Lots of them. Like 15. In one day. (Now I wasn't expecting it that fast. Thought I could use a few for Christmas.) After the fantastic bribes keep it up with MnM's and Skittles. Nice....

Oh yea. This is how Mason comes into my room after naptime every single day:

FHE activity

The Hokey Pokey just for Mason. A blurry picture is all I have to remember this dance in our kitchen. :)

Debate

Nathan and I were debating last night. I got an email notification from Facebook that said, "Your anniversary with Nate Eaton is in 5 days." I say, "Why did you put in a wrong anniversary date?" He says, "I didn't, you did." And than we argued about who was at fault.

10 minutes later we realized Facebook was right.

oops.

I promise our anniversary date is important to us. :)

Creations

Emma made frozen apples-on-knives-drenched-in-honey. (aka caramel apples). Tyler made apple yogurt slurpees in plastic cups. (That will stay in this freezer drawer uneaten for 2 decades if I don't throw them away secretly in a week.) Tyler also is into masking tape. The red and orange contraptions? Shoes. That Tyler wears. Gah.

Soft

My Emma is a sweet soft girl. Tonight at dinner I asked her to get 6 forks and put them on the table. She could only find 5 clean ones. (Who's behind on their dishes?? ) So I tell her I will use a spoon instead.

We eat the entire dinner. (Chicken, angel hair pasta, and brocolli/cauliflower.)
I don't realize I am eating with a fork and NOT a spoon until Emma says, "Can I use your fork now mom?"

She chose to wait for me to finish. Didn't even point out that she was waiting. Just quietly did a kind thoughtful service.

:)

Mild

Hmmm. School has been in session for 2 weeks now I thought I would have SO many interesting things to write about. Not so. We kind of slithered into the school routine and it was uneventful for the most part.
Tyler: 6th grade is "the bomb".  He has P.E. first period, (a nightmare for girls, but a dream come true for boys) with his best buddy Spencer (who also has a locker right underneath him-because I was a pushy mother and requested it at the open house). His math teacher told him he has fantastic scores in math already and he needs to not be afraid to speak up in class and go to the chalkboard. Lunch requires a lunch card, and his language arts teacher is "the coolest".
Hailey has a repeat teacher she had in 3rd grade, (we liked her, she's crazy and slightly unorganized, like me :) Hailey says, "5th grade is actually pretty hard". Like 1-2 hours of homework a night hard. sigh....
Emma (1st grade) has quiet nice people in her class-like her- and I still don't know to much about the teacher. But I do like her name! Miss Dooley. But Emma DOES still wear carazy clothes. Yesterday? Her black and red silk china clothes and brown knee-high suede boots. Again, sigh.....
Mr Mason Monkey is still at home with me. We are waiting until his preschool starts on Tuesday, but we DID go check out the room today. Two turtles live there! :) And another easy name to remember: Miss Misty. Coolness.
My two college courses this semester are Physical Science and Intermediate Algebra. 2 nights a week-which is a little too much for me, I prefer one. But I plug along. :/