Book Orders!

Matt and Kayla recieved their first book orders on Monday. They RAN out of the classroom books in hand so happy and excited to show me what they had recieved. I was SO excited for them to participate in the book order as this was one of my favorite parts of school growing up... can't wait until Octobers choices!



Matt and Kayla with their book stacks.

How much is $5 worth to you?

A couple of weeks ago Heidi and I hit up the Oakpointe mom 2 mom sale. Overall, the sale was excellent, but I probably embarrassed Heidi a TON (sorry!).

See, I have a car seat thing... I realize it, and I'm trying to deal. I strongly believe that car seat safety is SUPER important.

I support (and practice) extended rear-facing. I don't know why you wouldn't, but if you choose not to... your biz. I want my kid to ride as safe as possible at each stage in their life, and for a child under 2 (or as long as they're light/short enough) my child will ride RF.

I believe in extended harnessing (more of the above)... regardless of the fact that almost every kid in Matt and Kayla's class is in a booster (or nothing)... again... my kid...

Never mind the fact that it's ILLEGAL in MI now for a child under the age of 8, less than 80 pounds or shorter than 4'9'' to ride in nothing...


ANYWAY...

Back to my poor Heidi story. I've learned to walk quickly away from USED carseats. (I am also sure to NOT open any craigslist carseat ads anymore).

But this one... I just couldn't ignore. There was a lady selling a Century (not even in business anymore), over-the-head shield (generally recognized as not AS safe as 5-points), 2 years expired carseat that ALL her kids had ridden in. She was trying to make $5.... HONESTLY. I tried to tell her that it was expired, and recalled, and unsafe. I did so as apologetically as I could, when really I wanted to ask her...How much does $5 mean to you? Is it worth my kids life, is it worth some very well meaning grandma picking it up for their precious grandchild to ride in? I was tempted to buy it and destroy it... I've done that before, but we'll quickly grow poor that way. Would you sell a backup parachute that is likely damaged/too old to function properly/ recalled??? Is putting a child at risk worth FIVE dollars?

Moral of the story. Buy new carseats... they sell perfectly safe one's for younger kids for as cheap as $40... there are some GREAT extended harnessing seats out there much more affordable than in years past.

And to save yourself some embarrassment... don't mom2mom shop with me.

All by myself

Julie's not loving that Matt and Kayla are gone at school so much, but today we had some fun Julie Peanut and mommy time.

Recent Pics

They LOVE to ride their bikes!

5 of my fav's.

Another fav!

Picture Catch-Up

Julie modeling the new Chunky Monkey Diaper.


Diaper's inside print :)

Matt and Kayla at school with their friend Matthew.

Baby Bo came with us to pick them up before our cousin's lunch last Thursday.

Lots of Rain = Lots of fun with umbrella's

Gymnastics

Matt and Kayla have been counting down the days until gymnastics start. Since Matt was too young for most "organized" team sports (I thought he'd probably be bored in clinic type sports), and we choose gymnastics rather than dance if our girls were interested we thought we'd give it a go. Little did I know Matt would be more excited than Kayla to do "flip arounds" and stand on "me head". I was amazed at how much improvement

Anyway, their first day was every bit as fun as they thought it would be. They did great, learned a few new things- and enjoyed every minute. I almost wish we could do it more than once a week. Julie was a little panicked that Matt and Kayla were leaving her again (and cried for awhile, before she realized she could watch them through the glass) but hopefully she'll adjust to her big brother and sister being gone more than before.

First Day of Pre-K

Matt and Kayla had their first day of 4 year old preschool. They'll be going 3 hours a day/4 days a week. After last years disaster of a school choice, I'm SO happy that today went perfect. The kids had a blast, and are super excited to go tomorrow. Even pickup w/ Jacob/Julie/Alayna went smoothly (and actually Heidi and Sasha joined us on our walk to and from their school this afternoon). The kids came home acting like "big kids". Talking about the "big kid" things they did at school, and with a teeny bit more attitude than they left this morning (we'll work on that).


Of course, to make the morning a little more interesting-- a very excited Kayla knocked herself off the kitchen chair (before even 1 bite of breakfast was consumed) giving herself a split and swollen lip. It's not the best look for pictures, but oh well.

Funny story, as Jacob, Julie and I headed out Jacob grabbed Dog. I said, are you sure you want to carry him all the way there. Jacob looked at me like I was crazy and said "yes, Dog doesn't know how to walk". LOL. I love him!

Anyway, here's some 1st day of school pics...


Julie, liking the concept of school, but would not like the leaving mommy part...
(She LOVES her new Elmo backpack that Grandma Sue and Capi bought for her!)

Buddies (not pictured, Alayna)

Big Kids

Matt

Kayla -- "mom, I don't want to smile, my lip hurts"

Kids outside their classroom-- Matt pointed out 3 boys Spiderman backpacks-- "that's the kind I really wanted"-- he was very pleased to take a picture in front of one of them. (Santa's already in process of making that wish come true by Christmas) ;)

Mrs. Miller-- We already love her. Although, when I asked Matt to take a picture with her, he said "mooom" like I was embarrassing him, so I let it go. I'd hate to make him "not cool" on his first day of school.