Once-a-month cooking

Has anyone heard of once-a-month mom? I just came across it, because I'm trying to save money on groceries! I can't seem to get a handle on them. This website tells you exactly what to do to cook only ONCE a month for the whole family (freezer meals, of course). They suggest doing it with another person--the grocery lists they show are for 2 families--only one BIG shopping day a month? Can that be possible? I just might try it next month and see how it goes...the link is on my right sidebar--once a month mom. I'll put it here, too, so you can check it out:

http://onceamonthmom.com

"I don't wanna get bigger!"

I think I have officially scared my children into thinking that growing up is not fun--only painful. Yesterday we were reading one of our favorite books, Faces. It has pictures of all different kids and one page talks about eyes, ears, noses, and mouths, with close-up pictures of them. A few of the mouths had teeth missing. So I explained to them that when they get bigger, your teeth will get wiggly and fall out and then big teeth will grow in. If you could have seen the look on Julianna and Blake's faces--oh my gosh. The thought of their teeth getting WIGGLY and FALLING OUT?? Maybe they thought all their teeth would fall out at one time, I don't know. So to make them feel better, I said, it's fun when you lose a tooth, because then you can put your tooth under your pillow and the tooth fairy will come during the night (we were talking about this close to bedtime) and take your tooth and leave you money that you can buy something with. This idea was intriguing to Julianna--her response was, Can I buy ice cream from the ice cream man? I said, Yes! So then I did a little recap for them so they could understand: When you get bigger, you will lose your little teeth, and then you can put your teeth under your pillow for the tooth fairy who will give you money when you're sleeping at night. I could tell they were thinking about this carefully.

About a half hour later it was bedtime. As I'm asking Blake to get in his bed, he covers his mouth (or his teeth), and with a pouty voice, he says, "I don't wanna get bigger!" And as he's laying in bed after I leave, he's crying and whining and saying this over and over. Even after telling him that it's okay, you won't get bigger, I can't even console him, so I go to Julianna's room. Julianna's worry was, "Is the tooth fairy gonna get me now?" I told her no, you haven't lost any teeth yet. She reminded me that she didn't want her teeth to get wiggly, and I told her it's kind of fun to wiggle them, and she started to cry. So they had a hard time going to sleep last night because of this big news I dropped on them. I guess growing up isn't as fun as I remember!

First day of kindergarten!

Karmen (Drennen's sister) and Blake hanging out in the classroom.

Sitting with Drennen.

The kids ready to go!Blake thought he was going to school, too.

The big kindergartner!

Well, today was the big day! It definitely was full of surprises. Other than her bus being really late and me bringing her in late and having no permanent teacher yet, things were okay! She seemed to be okay after a few minutes, and mostly after her friend Drennen got there--then she felt right at home. I stayed for the first hour, then went back for the last half hour and she seemed just fine and happy. After talking with the "teacher" (or should I say substitute just called in to teach an academic special day class 2 days ago with no special education experience), I am feeling a little better. And the district office says they should have a permanent teacher by the end of the month. Let's hope so--or I might have to explore some other options.

Julianna is growing up so fast!

Conversations with Blake at 3am

So Blake called out to me in the middle of the night last night to say he had to go "pee pee." I was very happy about this, because he has been wetting the bed lately (I refuse to give in to diapers at night!) After using the potty, this is what we talked about while he ate a piece of bread (he said he was hungry.)

Blake: There's too many stars.
Me: How many are there?
Blake: (Looking at his hand) One, two, three, four, FIVE! (Thinking for a second). Nana (Julianna) is five. I'm two.

Blake: (Pointing at the ceiling fan) It's cold up there.

Blake: You have blue eyes. I have green eyes. My blue eyes are all gone. (Remembering that Joel said his eyes kind of looked green in the sunlight the other day .)

Me: I got you a new Spiderman backpack for preschool today. You can see it when you wake up in the morning.
Blake: (Thinking about this). I wake up. It's only a little dark. (By the way, he says "backpack" like this--"quackquack." I'm not kidding.)

I finally had to tell him it's time to go to sleep so we need to stop talking. He responded to this well and went to sleep. I seem to have my best conversations with him during the night or right before bed. I usually ask him, "What did you do today? Where did you go?" and one time he replied, "I'm right here!" It was funny. Blake is getting so smart and fun to talk to.

Swim Lessons are done!

We finished our first summer of swim lessons. I wish we didn't wait so long to do them! They really liked it and learned a lot. I'm just glad it was over--4 nights a week for two weeks is a LOT! But well worth it--they can now blow bubbles, "reach and pull," and even go under the water! Of course the best part was playing on the playground at the end. We'll have to do it again next summer.

Like our new look?

We had a little fun with Joel's webcam on his new laptop. I think Blake's is the funniest.