Coming to Ourselves

If you're interested, here's the link to the post I did on my other site.

Have a wonderful week!

I did it!

I pulled the plug on our daily tv watching!  Looking back, it probably wasn't the best idea to do it right after Halloween and before the time change. However, we have stayed strong and I am feeling good about it.  I'm not going to take the time to post all of my philosophical/spiritual opinions about this right now, but I will say that I am feeling much better about our family climate and myself in my role as a mother. 

I have gotten into some bad habits, one of which is disconnecting from my kids when I feel frustrated and overwhelmed.  I was relying too much on the television.  My house still isn't clean, but I feel justified because I have truly been creating memories and spending quality time with my children.  Making new habits takes a lot of work, and at one point I was on my knees in prayer bawling.  But Help has come.

Alright, now onto the fun stuff :)  Here are a few of the ways we connected yesterday (today we played in the snow for an hour and a half, don't let the sunshine in this picture deceive you!).

We washed carrots from grandma's garden

Set up an obstacle course

These cute little guys are the next contestants

Demonstrating

Making bread

Homemade soup with some of those homegrown carrots!

(p.s. we didn't completely do away with the tv. Tonight we had a family movie night.  It does seem a little counter productive to reward our first no tv week with a movie, but we had some great snuggling and laughing all together :).

Hallowee 2012 Part A

I forgot my camera when we did pumpkins so when I get the pictures copied to this computer 

I will do part b. 

Here is the little Halloween parade for the afternoon class.  It was nice because it was small.  Here he is trying to be quiet in the hall, but say hi too.

I helped with his class party; it was cute to see him in class with his friends.

Ready to go trick or treating on the most beautiful Halloween ever.  We hit a record high that day.

The hubby had to go to school that night so I brought in help.  

Thanks Aunt M, I couldn't have done it without you!

Look, I was there too!

Leaves :)

Grandma is so silly ;)

Lovely Aunt A

Running and jumping

His dress of leaves

Aunty M playing too

Cute little leaf smasher

We couldn't get sister to play in the leaves.  She's kind of prissy sometimes.  So she hung out with Aunt B who was a good sport to take care of her.

Frightfest

This is in the union building. We did some trick or treating, cookie decorating 

and played some games.

I said before that I think cuteness is a defense mechanism so you don't get rid of them when they are screaming hysterically because someone is looking at them . . .

Look at his tongue sticking out when he's concentrating.  Like father like son :)

Pouting princess

Pumpkin bowling

Cake walk
(sister wouldn't let go of my hand)

Officer's Hollow

The first Halloween event we went to was Officer's Hollow up on campus.  It was a beautiful day.  Thankfully we got some nice pictures and some fun things done before temper tantrums erupted :)

The houses each had a theme and were decorated.  This was in the Mario house.  They had the game music playing.  We thought the vine was fun.

Here we are in Hogwarts.  Sister was sorted into Ravenclaw.

Brother into Slytherin (we love him anyway :).  And for the record the sorting hat didn't take his choice into account.

Here is the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets.  Look at me being a good mommy and touching the snake even though they creep me out.

This was some goo in the science house that danced" to sound waves.

In the Candyland house.

Fishing

We also decorated cookies and pumpkins.  Lots of good fun!

Fun Run

There are some days when your kids are so cute it is unbelievable!  Brother's school hosted a fun run.  Brother kept telling me that he planned on finishing second because he likes silver better than gold and he wanted to let his classmate win.  He kind of reminded me of Dash from the Incredibles.  It went just as he said it would. 

Sister spinning in circles while we wait for the race to start.

And they're off!

He is checking to see where his competitor is and decides to pull back.  He could have run faster, but it was so cute to see him being such a good little sport.

Look how happy he is!!!  I love it!

Here he is ducking under the finish line.  (Sorry for the poor picture, it's hard to get good shots with a baby girl and other spectators.)

I don't know what he was telling his teacher here, but he sure looks cute!

First day o' kindergarten

Transitions always bring lots of mixed emotions-relief, nervousness, joy, sadness, guilt.  Overall we were ready for school.  I think the hardest thing for me was trying to comfort him through things that I was nervous about too; trying to put on the brave face and keep my feelings from showing.

He is in afternoon kindergarten which I have loved because I get a couple of hours to myself (keeping our fingers crossed that sister keeps her naps a bit longer).  With the hubby being in school this has been big in keeping my sanity.

This boy loves to wear pajamas so I had to draw the line and say he couldn't wear them on the first day of school.  This isn't the outfit I would have picked out for him, but oh well.  Life goes on :)

Sister needed to be in on the excitement too.

Daddy was able to take a long lunch and come with us.  It was so nice to have him there on this big day.

In the end he was excited.  He kept running ahead of us and I had a hard time keeping up with him.

Love this picture!

Last hug before I turn him over to the unknown world of public schooling!!!

Marching right in and not even looking back :)

I hadn't cried until we started walking away and sister started crying.  We got some video, but I haven't been able to get it loaded-it keeps giving me errors.  It is the saddest thing you have ever heard!!!  So the three of us walked home a little teary eyed.

So far he seems to like school.  He is a little bit bored, but I knew he would be.  I love hearing him come home and tell me all about what they did.  Overall the transition has been smooth and good for all of us :)  I sometimes joke with him about how mommy's ears get tired and when he is at school I can rest them and be ready to listen when he gets home.  It has definitely helped both of us!