Back At It

Yesterday was Back to School!  Mason is now an 11th grader, Ella in 3rd and Silas started Kindergarten.  I knew that Silas starting K would be sad but I cried all the way home from school.  I told Justin he'd better get snipped soon, before I start on a baby kick again!

Mason has some interesting classes this year.  He's taking German, a Marine biology class, personal finance, psychology, pre-calc...he started an Engineering course but wants to drop that (can't say that I blame him...).
His friend Kyle is supposed to drive him to school, giving him an extra 20 minutes of sleep in the morning.  Kyle picked him up yesterday but at the end of the day, his car wouldn't start, so it was back on the bus today!

Justin and I walked Ella and Si to school - Silas was very excited.  He met his teacher at an ice cream social last week and then also at open house on Monday evening.  It's the same teacher Ella had for K and we LOVE her!!  Justin has been teasing Silas about how mean she is and how she likes to pinch the kids.  Silas came home yesterday and told Justin that she only pinched him once :)

I'm used to having Silas walk home with me after dropping Ella off - now I drop them both off.  But a mere 2.5 hours later, I pick him up and take him to Kelly's so at least I get a mid-day hug and to see his rotten little smile :)

El looks like such a little grown-up here!

Holding Dad's hand on the walk :)

Silas posed with Mrs. Sherwood before getting into line with his class.  Such a big boy!  He was SO excited when I picked him up yesterday and said what an "awesome!" day he had :)

Monday, the last day of summer break, was absolutely beautiful out.  I decided to take Ella and Si to the zoo for a last outing.  It was perfect!!  And not very crowded as some of the schools had already started back.

Silas looks a little concerned about the polar bear coming up behind him!

Hard to believe another summer has flown by already!!

Catch 22

Either we have nothing going on and I have time to blog but not much to blog about....or we have so much going on that there is no time for blogging. The last several weeks have been the latter.

Our summer break is officially underway!!  So far we've helped Kevin of the Waco Mascos celebrate his 40th birthday.  He got a lovely pedicure out of the evening :)

Me and Justin at one of the bars

I took the kids to the zoo on their first Monday of summer break.  It was a perfect zoo day - the weather was gorgeous. We saw the new polar bears, lions, tigers, bears, wolves, manatees, reptiles and much more. 

Ella and Si - love his ornery face here.

Silas is about mid-way through t-ball.  It is quite an hour trying to chase and direct eleven 3&4 year olds on hitting, running, fielding, etc. while trying to get them to keep their hands to themselves, stop eating dirt and please don't lay spread eagle in the middle of the infield...

here is Si in action

Last weekend was the Bull family's last horrah with the neighborhood gang.  It was quite a good time, and with a fitting going away present...a hangover...sorry Kelly!

Peggy, Angie, Jodi, Anndrea

Kelly, Beth, me

Jill, Kelly and Anndrea

We will miss you Bulls!

 

The Lists

Well, Christmas break is over...the kids are all tucked in bed, getting ready to head back to school. It went incredibly fast.  I could have used another week off, bickering and all.

I had 2 lists for break.  One was for stuff to do around the house - organizing, cleaning, etc. The other was stuff that I wanted to do with the kids. 

On the "fun" list was...

 1.  Make Christmas cookies

We made lots of cookies and a really BIG mess!

 

2. Go to see the Wildlights at the zoo.

 

The zoo lights were beautiful!  We went on a pretty cold night - it was about 20 degrees.  It started snowing when we were on our way there and by the time we got there, it was coming down pretty hard.  The kids started complaining because the snowflakes were pelting them in the eyeballs. It made the lights even more beautiful though.

 

Ella got very cold and about 45 minutes into being there, got a nasty earache. 

 

They did have fun riding on the Merry-Go-Round - it was warmer in there!

 

After that, we decided the weather was getting worse, everyone was cold and tired

and we headed home (making a pit stop to pick up some Caines Chicken).  It was REALLY snowing hard and difficult to see much on the road.  Warm pj's for everyone when we got home, and Motrin and a heating pad for Ella and her ear.

#3. The Main Library and the train display.

 

With the kids' school schedules/times all being different, it's hard to find a good time to get down to our awesome Main Library. 

 

We took Aunt Margie down there with us.

Saw the train display, the kids picked out a ton of books and played in the

Children's area - wow, has that changed since I worked down there.

Apparently you aren't supposed to take the book baskets out into the lobby area - 

the security dude jumped all over us about it.  If I want one badly enough, I'll have to steal it from Kroger instead...

Two things that did not get crossed off our list were Graeter's Ice cream  (lots of gift cards to spend but who wants to eat ice cream when it's 9 degrees out??) and the Franklin Park Conservatory.  Those will have to wait until we have a no school day or some weekend with available time.

On the NOT so fun list, I admit I got less than 1/2 of my items crossed off.  And my Christmas tree is still up until next weekend. But I feel like I spent a lot of time resting, spending time with friends and family (3 family birthdays, several family Christmas gatherings, a fun NYE party/birthday party and a Buckeye victory in the Rose Bowl!), had a lot of fun with the kids and the mess will still be there when I get to it.

One thing that Justin accomplished is getting my under the cabinet iPod radio mounted (a Christmas present for me).  Love having the free counter space!

 

What did not get done is cleaning up the kids' rooms, sorting though my piles of papers, taking the tree down (like I said), starting on the basement cleanup...all in due time.

*I do have a special request.  Over the holidays we found out that Justin's dad, Grandpa J, has cancer (lung). Please keep him and the family in your prayers.  I hope to update more later when we have more details. Until then, prayers and positive vibes are greatly appreciated!

Happy New Year-

May it be a blessed one for us all!

Parties, Baseball and Zoo Fun...

Well, I did an update last Thursday and already, more to update again because of such a busy weekend. It's hard to keep up with the blog when I'm so busy DOING stuff!

Saturday we helped Sam celebrate his 2nd birthday!

My kids are the ones that never smile!

Sunday we went to the Clippers game. First time at the new
Huntington Field. Very nice! Very expensive food!
And it was VERY hot out.

Chowing on some cotton candy

Kevin and Mason looking too cool!

Monday, Jen and I took Mason, Tyler, Sam, Ella and Silas to the zoo.
I didn't get any pictures of the kids but got a few animals :-)

This stingray was eating lunch - I've never
seen a stingray eat, or even realized where the mouth was.
He's much nicer looking from this angle, when you can't
see his long stinger.

And Mr. Monkey guy was very cute and even
smiled at the kids (seriously!)

'

Today was Margie's 3rd and hopefully final surgery! It went very, very well - it did not take as long as Dr. L said it might and he was practically tap dancing when he gave us the post-surgery update - he was very pleased with how well it went. Thank God and thanks for all the prayers!

This week is busy with getting everyone ready to get back to school.
All 3 in school this year - wow!

Words to Remember

Some recent Si and Ella words....

Silas:
"Mama...the ducky bathroom toilet is plogged again!"

"Can I help you water the pasta?" (he means Hosta plants...)

Ella:
Silas asks - "Can I drive when I'm this big (holding his hands out)?
Ella responds - "You have to be 16 to drive and 18 to get kicked out of the house!"

Today at the zoo when we're looking at the new baby elephant...
Ella: "Wow, how big are elephant eggs???"

Zoo Night

We had a fun time at the zoo last night, helping our friend, Danielle's, teen group raise money for their Costa Rica trip. We got to meet Jungle Jack Hanna. Silas wasn't really impressed but we were!

Silas was impressed however with the snake's ooky, spooky tail when it moved.

Mason got a kick out of holding the snake.

My favorite was Pokey the Sloth. He was really funny to watch.
He moved like he'd been smoking some wacky tobaccy.

Ella really liked the snake too though you can't really tell
that from the picture...

This was Ross, one of the new cheetahs at the zoo.

We also got to go on a night walk of the zoo - it's a spooky place at night! We saw some of the animals in North America, the Discovery Reef and then some fun stuff at the Education building (like a hedge hog, baby gators, a porcupine, an aardvark (really strange looking things!) and some other fuzzier animals too.

We're Going to the Zoo Zoo Zoo..

how about you, you, you....

Our $19.99 group picture...suckers!

Ella - Trent - Si



We spent a lot of time watching the gorillas



And they enjoyed watching us - I love the one holding his head.



Ella was brave and petted Maury, the 17 year old snake that is blind because of cataracts - but she wouldn't touch 300 pound Fluffy.

Si and Daddy

Ran into a peacock on our way out

As we were leaving the gorilla area, Justin told me to hurry and take a picture - I had my big zoom lens on and didn't realize until I zoomed WAY in that...

This guy is made of wood...