Bye, Bye, Bunny!

March is a month that passes before I have a chance to breathe....with birthday after birthday, spring break and Easter...the month is almost over before I know it. Spring break has arrived and this year that meant Easter has also come (and since gone). With Mason's birthday SLOWLY dragging out well past the date of his birth (March 5th) due to presents slowly filtering through the mail, he was excited to know that more goodies were coming his way. The Easter Bunny visited our house after several community and friend sponsored egg hunts, so by easter AM , the kids were pro's! Mason decided to leave a note for the Easter Bunny...it was so cute because he sounded out and wrote each word...lets see if you can de-code his note " DR ESTR BNE, BST ESTR BNE, HR IS CRT, FRM MASON" - in case you didn't catch it, "dear easter bunny, best easter bunny, here is carrot, from Mason" - so cute considering he just turned 5 and isn't in school yet...

He also left a carrot at each door along with some pennies and pesos my parents brought him from Mexico...in case he needed money to buy something :).

Madeline spent 3 days with my parents..her first big girl trip without us.. I was worried that she would miss us and cry..unfortunately, she literally ran out the door for their car and played happily with my parents making mud pies with gravel sprinkles, going to library story time, playing in the water and at the park and talking up a storm...how lucky my kids are to have such fantastic grandparents! My children would rather spend time at their house looking for bugs, going on treasure (trash) hunts, reading books than almost anything else...how can I complain?

Although I revel in the spring break, I am happy to be able to say bye, bye bunny - see you again next year.

Does watching this count as my AM workout?

My sister is a rockstar (not literally)....I only wish I had as much motivation and energy! Check out my beautiful sister in this clip - she is the fitness model...
http://www.kusi.com/news/goodmorning/16610521.html?video=YHI&t=a

BIRTHDAY BOY & BALLERINA GIRL!

We had Mason's birthday party this past Saturday...the weather was decent. I decided this year I couldn't stomach a birthday party and Chuck E. Cheese or Peter Piper Pizza...those places make me crazy since you spend half of your time trying to keep track of your child in an overly loud playpen and then spend half of your money on horrible pizza that most of the kids don't eat...having his party at the park allowed them to run and play and the parents could have some kind of a conversation!

He had a great time and had fun playing with his friends. I brought toys, games and a parachute from my school so they also had sack races and had the chance to do other fun things, but most of all, they had the chance to be loud and run without parents nagging about "slowing down" or "using indoor voices".

The days before the party Madeline made a tutu that she is proudly showing off...once she got in a kit from my sister as a gift last year. She is dead set on going to "ballerina school" when she turns 3. Now we just have to convince her that ballerina's don't wear diapers and then we should be doing good!

So I won't forget..

I picked the kids up from preschool today...Mason, little papers in hand asked, "mom, don't you want to see my work?", assuming it was more of the same little drawings he does daily I said "sure". He handed a picture that I couldn't figure out with a picture of a person on it and a handwritten word "grandma". I asked him who drew it and he answered that he had. "What is it?" I asked..." a picture of grandma Marla - So we don't forget what she looks like"...I am speechless...

Mason never met Marla (Steve's mother) but knew about him shortly before she passed away in 2002. Although he has never met her, he knows of her presence and has seen many pictures. It is amazing that in a typical school day, filled with activities, screaming and playing children, singing and a million other distractions that she entered his mind. He amazes me. We agreed that she loved the picture :).

Five comes and goes...

Like the blink of an eye Mason turned 5....

Steve and I took Mason out for lunch - "an adult restaurant" was his request, our destination? Applebees :).

As he sat with us waiting patiently for his PLAIN burger and rootbeer I couldn't believe that next year he would be in kindergarten. I know every mom has a moment when their child turns 5 and begins the journey to kindergarten. It must be a hallmark of parenting or something. He was incredibly proud of his big boy status. After lunch we went bowling together (Mason and I).. I felt a pang of guilt when I realized it was really the first time that we had spent time together by ourselves and it made me eager to make a point of having "dates" with him more often. As we got ready to bowl and found our lane between the chubby 12 year old with his grandmother and professional bowling bag and shoes, and the grey haired bowling team drinking what must have been their 10th cup of coffee of the day, we eagerly began to bowl. I was surprised at how clean this bowling alley was compared to the Cherry Bowl in Emmett - a smoke infested, greasy alley that probably still hasn't changed since we went bowling as a PE class so many years ago.

In any case, Mason kicked my butt (albeit I forced gutter balls so I could see the excitement in his face from winning over his mom). In any case, he is 5 and I am proud to say he is a great kid who is too smart for his own good!

Time...where is it?

Life caught up with me once again and when I found a few minutes to breath between school meetings, calling parents of students who decided that school wasn't important enough to come, T-Ball practice and trying to clean our 2 car garage so we could actually use it to house a car, I was more interested in sitting on the couch in a vegetative state watching American Idol...yes, I do watch and enjoy it.
Mason's birthday is this week, tomorrow actually. He is turning 5 years old and this birthday in particular makes me realize that time really does fly by. I was looking at his baby photo album (which by the way contained monthly professional photos and a thousand photos of him smiling, sitting, rolling over, you name it - of which Madeline has about 25 of) and I realized that I almost couldn't remember those moments - where did that baby go? Kindergarten
In addition I got an email from a student that I had when I taught in Wisconsin...a student that is now in her 20's and still is in the same predicament she was in when I left...living at home with a dysfunctional (although whose family isn't these days) family trying to decide what to do - work at a daycare to have money in hand or try to go to the local community college and further her education and have to take out loans. She is such a sweet girl, I had her in the 6th, 8th, and 12th grade. Has time gone that fast that?
Speaking of time, I am off to proctor our Standards Based Test....students sitting in desks for 3 straight days for 14 sections of testing.....