Girls Are Mean

Five year old girls are MEAN! Annabelle has a friend over for a play date and they are completely TORMENTING Jack. At the moment, he is upset and they are both chanting:
~girls go to college to get more knowledge
~boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider

I've never heard that one before- it's kind of a catchy little song...

Look Mom!

Jack FINALLY learns to pump!

Being Creative

This morning I found Jack playing golf in the living room. Everyone else was still in bed when I heard someone shuffling around downstairs. I went to investigate: Jack had set up his own little mini golf course! He had taken an empty toilet paper roll, using it as a tee, stood it on it's side and placed a golf ball on top. He had found a toy golf club and he was using an orange soccer cone as the hole. A funny site to stumble upon!

Doing Great!

Annabelle, being Annabelle, was completely unfazed by the school switch. She took the transition in stride and has happily adjusted to her new surroundings... I think she enjoyed all the attention of being "the new kid."

She ended up in the same class as her neighbor friend, Lila, so she was very happy about that. She also knows a bunch of kids from preschool, the daycare at the gym and soccer... It is only a matter of time before she stages a coup!

Kindergarten

Phew, we survived the first 2 weeks of kindergarten... Glad that's over!

Annabelle was so excited about going to kindergarten at her new "big kid" school, she had been counting down the days since the beginning of August! Because of the Labor Day holiday, first day of school was not until Tuesday the 7th and by then, she was VERY ready.

But because Annabelle's new school does this thing called, "exploratory", where, for the first 3 days, they shuffle the kids around to try and find the best class mix, she ended up having one teacher on the first day and a different teacher the next. It was all a bit disjointed and nerve wracking, I must say. I just wanted her settled with a class already!

The whole process seemed to take forever but soon enough she was settled and loving school. She was very pleased with her teacher and was even in the same class as her little buddy from preschool, Tore. All was going swimmingly well until...

Yesterday I received a phone call from the parent center informing me that a space had opened up at another school, one which we had requested her to attend months ago.

Faced with the dilemma of what to do, Nick and I weighed the pros & cons and, of course consulting Annabelle about it, have decided to move her over to the other school. Annabelle will be starting kindergarten AGAIN on Tuesday, at her NEW, new school!

Even though she loves the current school and is a little bit sad to be leaving all of her new friends, she is looking forward to the switch. Several of her friends that live on our street, as well as many friends from preschool, also attend this new school. Hopefully she will be as happy there as she was in her first kindergarten!!

First Day Back To School

Still smiling... Looks like he had a good first Day!

The Interview

This morning I had to take Annabelle to her new school for a screening- I guess it is a mandatory thing for all incoming kindergarten students. At the screening, the teacher was asking a series of questions to test basic comprehension skills: things like, GIRL is to SHE as BOY is to ___? (fill in the blank), as well as administering different tasks to test motor development; jump on one foot, stack some blocks, blah blah blah.

During the screening Jack and I were sitting across the room, filling out some paperwork, and I could hear little snip-its of the conversation. Every time the teacher would ask Annabelle a question, she would answer (correctly) and then go on to tell a lengthy, but relevant, story... And then ask 10,000 questions.

When the teacher announced that they were finished, Annabelle stood up, brushed herself off, then said, "I'm ready to meet the other teachers now. I think I want to be in this class, because they are going to make puppets this year, but I will have to see what the other teachers have planned before I know for sure."

Um, yeah.

From what I heard, it seemed like Annabelle was the one conductiong the screening!

Aqua Boy

Jack has been scaring the living daylights out of me lately! He has become completely FEARLESS in the water: all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he started going under water and staying there for extended lengths of time. He has been doing underwater flips, and also this crazy face down floating thing... The first time I saw his "deadman's float", he just about gave me a heart attack!

Camp

The Monkeys started another week of day camp on Monday- and yes, Annabelle's little friend, the one who was "kissing on her" last time, is there, lips ready. What are the odds? Annabelle is very pleased to have another week with Santiago and is already asking to have him over for tea. I'm keeping a close eye on this one!

Jack is very excited to be back at camp as well, mainly because his good friend (or girlfriend), Sophia, is there, but also because he gets to play in water and draw for hours.

At camp, they have been giving out printed pictures to be colored in, or coloring pages. Very rarely does Jack actually color in the pictures- nine out of ten times he will flip over the coloring page and draw on the back... He has been coming home with some really great drawings!

Jack brought this one home on Monday: it is a picture of him walking a dog down our street. The large blue building is our house, with my car out front. He said the other blue structure is the ice cream store. I love his fancy signature!

Pathetic Blogger

I have not been blogging at all lately... I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because the kids are out of school for the summer, demanding every ounce of attention they can possibly get and I have not had a chance to think straight. It's like they hear me typing and start babbling at me!! Right now Jack is asleep on the love seat and Annabelle is watching "Martha Speaks"- a show about a talking dog. Apart from the periodic barks she emits, Annabelle has been relatively quiet... Although, now the show has gone to commercial and the non stop chatter has begun.

Team Monkey has been keeping pretty busy lately: this week we are watching my sister's dog, Homer. The kids love having a dog in the house. In fact, they love it so much, they are plotting to steal him by hiding him, and all of his belongings, away in the attic when they come to collect him, shhhhh.

Homer has been a most excellent house guest- apart from being incredibly cute, he has been very low maintenance and has succeeded in keeping the Monkeys pretty well entertained... Can't complain about that!

Completely random thoughts:

I've been noticing more and more how grown up the kids are becoming. Last week we were at Cape Cod for a little beach vacation. On a day we were walking in the road to the beach, I took Jack's hand and I remember thinking how HUGE it felt- he is getting so big. I can't stand it.

Also, while we were at the Cape the kids wanted to share a room. Every morning they would wake up and drag all of their pillows and blankets into the living room for a little "camping trip" then they would get up and make themselves breakfast.

Every night before bed Jack wants to read "Mrs. McTats and Her Houseful of Cats." Annabelle gets very frustrated at this because she is "SOOOO SICK of Mrs. McCATS" that she "can't stand it anymore" and it "makes her want to rip her head off"- she is still so very dramatic!

A couple of weeks ago, Annabelle made a new little friend at day camp named Santiago. On the last day of camp she told me that, "Santiago was kissing on her." She is starting a new week of camp soon and is hoping that Santiago will be there... I'm secretly hoping that he is not!

The 4TH

July 4th, 2009: The 2nd annual drunken circle street party.

My kids have been waiting all year for this: the promise of being allowed to stay up LATE to watch FIREWORKS has been the driving factor. Last year we failed to let them stay up... we have been listening to them talk about it for a year!!

Our lovely neighbor, Christine, organized some activities and games for the kids. We had a swimming pool set up, a craft table...

and even an egg race!

This year we had a special guest appearance from our friends, Mark & Maggie... and their parents too ;)

No 4th of July celebration would be complete without roasting marshmallows to make smores!

In the end, a good time was had by all... Especially the Monkeys who, after much anticipation, finally got to see the fireworks!

Happy Birthday Nick!!

It's your birthday- make the craziest face possible!

Well, once again Nick has caught up to me in age... for the next 6 months we will both be 38, scary! This year Nick had the day off, due to the 4Th of July holiday being on the Saturday, so we hung around with the Monkeys during the day and then dropped them with my parents for a sleepover. Nick and I went out to dinner and were home by 9:30. I was passed out on the couch by 10pm- so lame... Happy birthday, sweetie :)

Little People

Conversations overheard today:

Annabelle: I'm so tired of all this rain, I want to kick the rain's butt.
Jack: Annabelle, rain doesn't have bums.

Annabelle: Do you remember the time I choked on a hot dog?
Jack: You choked on a hot dog?
Annabelle: Uh, yah.
Jack: Oh. Was it tasty, Annabelle?
Annabelle: It sure was a good hot dog.

Strawberry Picking

Comedy Jack Quotes

(Talking to me) "Daddy can help me build a train because you're the rubbish one."

"Annabelle, you don't need to get a real puppy because, look over here,

I drew one for you."

and then this morning: my friend asked him to do something and whilst BOWING said, "my pleasure!"

He Kills Me

Jack just asked me something in a very whiny voice. When I asked him to stop whining, he asked me why I said that. I told him it was because I wasn't a big fan of the whining. A few seconds of silence went by then he said, "Mommy, I'm sorry." When I asked what he was sorry for, his reply was, "I'm sorry for being squeaky."

Another Play!

It's the end of another session at "acting class" which means I had the pleasure of watching another play! This one had something to to with a king and a golden goose- I never know what is going on with these things but they sure are adorable.

Jack did MUCH better this time; he said all of his lines and didn't seem to have any stage fright at all. Annabelle, of course, was right in her element.

Before the play I tried to get a photo of them together- hopeless.

Jack in his King costume- I think he looks angelic ;)

Annabelle in her princess costume- such a ham.

The group.

THE King and his princesses

Jack saying some lines!

More group.

Close-up of the cuteness.

More cuteness.

More lines.

Taking a bow!

Graduation Day

Another year, another graduation day. This year we had two reasons to celebrate; Jack finished his first year of pre-school, Annabelle her second!

The day was very similar to last year- each class did a performance on stage in the temple auditorium then received a diploma. Afterwards they went over to the school yard for fun and games.

Before the ceremony: Annabelle and a few of her classmates pose for some pictures with their teachers.

Jack's class performing their "special" song.

Getting their diplomas!

Annabelle on stage with the class.

Being transformed into a puppy.

Snacks on the steps.

Oreos with Papa.

I tried to get them to stand together for a picture; it was hopeless.

Damaged

This morning I found Annabelle lying face down at the bottom of the back stairs. I guess she was running and tripped over the threshold, tumbling down head first. She has some bumps and bruises, mostly on her face, but she is OK. Thankfully, nothing is broken!

Soccer Has Begun... Again!

Spring soccer started a couple of weeks ago. It's amazing how much has changed over the few short winter months since the fall soccer season ended. For one, the club got new uniforms. But even more notable, is the fact that Annabelle has gone from an enthusiastic non-scoring member of the team to THE dominating force, scoring as many as 8 goals in one game!

Other changes this season; Jack has officially joined the team! He was pretty excited about being old enough to play this season, mostly because he wanted the uniform, but he has surprised us in that he is actually a pretty good player- much better than Annabelle was at his age!

At the first game, Jack seemed pretty nervous- not really knowing what to do, but by the second game he was right out there chasing the ball with the rest of the kids. By game three, he was even making contact with the ball- PROOF below:

Yet another goal scored by Annabelle- tongue hanging out!

This season Nick was asked to coach his own team- The head coach of the Jaguars moved up with the older kids, taking his team name with him, and thus 'The Bandits' came to being. The Bandits, or Banditos, as Nick likes to call them, are undefeated so far but shhhhhh; we're not really supposed to be keeping score ;)