Graduation Day

I can't believe my first born has graduated from her first year of preschool. She seems so grown up! The year went by so quickly; it feels like just yesterday we were anticipating the first day.
Annabelle had a great first year at school. She had a fantastic class and made loads of new friends. Not once was there a day where she didn't want to go to school. I only hope next year goes just as smoothly!

Walking into the auditorium for the ceremony.

Pony ride!

Making a necklace, which we forgot to take with us.

Painty face.

Hamming it up with her birthday buddy.

Posing with the girls. Who's that little guy in the background?

Taking time out from all the activity to have a slush with her brother.

Hanging with Daddy.

The boys.

Sad to be leaving.

Party Planning

Annabelle is currently busy planning her Care Bear birthday party for NEXT FEBRUARY. She is sitting at the dining room table making invitations as I type. I can hear her trying to work out what [she thinks] she is writing:

Dear my friends,
Come to my party. You are invited.

Dear my friends,
You have to come to my party. It's February 5Th. Ask your
moms.

Dear my friends,

I'm having a birthday party. You have to come. Tell your
moms.

Jack has just asked if he is also invited to the Care Bear party. Her response: "you can come Jack, but don't mess up my cake, OK."

And now, apparently we are supposed to walk to the mail box to send these off, "before it gets dark." No names. No addresses. No stamps.

Memorial Weekend

We had a very lazy weekend at home- Did a bit of gardening, filled the inflatable pool for the kids, ate and drank tons, and just basically lounged around... Much like I do every day :).

Happy Memorial Day!

Like Pulling Teeth

Sometimes I wonder about Annabelle. Sometimes she just doesn't seem to be "all there." She is very smart, her teacher said so, but sometimes she just seems so... Blond.

Yesterday I picked her up from school and as we were driving home she announced to me that she, "got in to trouble three times at school." When I asked what she had done, the conversation went something like this:

Me: You got in trouble? What happened?

Annabelle: Oh, you know.

Me: I don't know. What did you do?

Annabelle: I just, um, hey Mommy, are we driving?

Me: Huh?

Annabelle: Are we driving?

Me: Yes Annabelle, we are driving. What did you do to get into trouble?

Annabelle: I, well, I was, is that light red?

Me: Annabelle, what happened at school?

Annabelle: I was being mean.

Me: Who were you being mean to?

Annabelle: Oh, just my teacher.

Me: WHAT??? How were you being mean to your teacher?

Annabelle: I, well, can we go to the park?

Me: Uh, NO. How were you mean to your teacher?

Annabelle: Can we go to the toy store?

Me: Why were you being mean to your teacher?

Annabelle: But I really want to go to the toy store.

Me: We are not going to the toy store. What happened at school?

Annabelle: Then can we go to the park? I really want to go to the park.

Me: WHAT HAPPENED AT SCHOOL!!!!!!!

This exchange went on for, what seemed like, AGES. Eventually, what I got out of the conversation was that the class was practicing for their graduation performance and Annabelle didn't feel like doing part of it, so she decided that she would run around the auditorium. When her teacher asked her to stop playing up she refused and was sent off to another room.

Diagnosis... Sick

Well, we made it in to see the Doctor... As I suspected, she has an ear infection (both ears), and a cough, AND conjunctivitis! -I knew she must have had a touch of the pink eye because, A) there was a ton of goop coming out of her eyes and, B) one of her little school friend's was rumored to be absent because of it.

No worries though... Miss madness was given plenty of medication for both ears and eyes, and should be back to normal in no time. In the meantime; I will be enjoying the quiet as the lack of sleep has finally caught up with her!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Last night Annabelle woke up crying several times during the night, complaining of an earache. I got up with her once and gave her some Motrin, anticipating a long night ahead. Lucky for me, Nick remembered that today is Mother's Day, took pity on me and dealt with the rest of the night crying... ALSO, as an added bonus-let me sleep in this morning!

By the time I got up Annabelle seemed fine, or at least claimed she was fine, so we attended her soccer game as planned.

Jack wins the prize for best facial expressions!! (click to enlarge)

After the game we headed back to our house for a bbq. She still seemed fine to me; in fact, Jack was the one I was worried about, as he has had a nasty cough for the past few days that seemed to have gotten worse after the game. But, as karma would have it, just after we put the kids to bed and I was settling in to watch the season finale of Survivor, little Miss Annabelle started complaining of pains again.

The next morning...

Last night was an extremely looooong one. Annabelle was up all night coughing and crying. I ended up staying in bed with her and neither of us got much sleep. Miraculously, she seems unaffected by this lack of sleep and is being her cheeky little self... Only super snotty, and coughing still. I'm going to see if I can get her in to see the Quack this morning. Hopefully we can get her sorted out so we do NOT have a repeat performance of the past two nights!

Sad Puppy

Annabelle has become somewhat of a quick-change artist lately; sometimes she'll disappear into her room for two seconds and return wearing something completely different from what she had originally been wearing. There is no rhyme or reason to her clothing choices; one day she is sporting a winter vest (over her pajamas) and flip-flops, another, a bathing suite and snow boots. Other days, she emerges from her room in full on costume... Yesterday was one of the "other days."

Yesterday Annabelle was a puppy.

Puppy was standing at the window, watching her friends play outside. Puppy wanted to go out and play with her friends. Mean Mommy made puppy wait until her brother woke up from his nap. This made puppy very sad. Puppy didn't want to wait.

Eventually mean Mommy caved and woke sad puppy's brother. This made sad puppy very happy... And mean Mommy no longer mean.