A lot happened on the first day of school

It was also this boy's birthday and he hit the big double digits! I keep telling him to stop growing, but he isn't listening to me.

The day started with a trip for some birthday donuts with Dad. Then, I made some cupcakes for Sparky's class. Then all focus was turned to the birthday night. This birthday was all about Legos. I attempted to make some marshmallow fondant for this little Lego cake masterpiece, but it didn't work out the best. Apparently I am not the Ace of Cakes.

All the boy really wanted for his birthday this year (aside from Legos) was the computer game Spore, but we threw in a few other things as well.

After the birthday dinner, Sparky strapped on his Scout uniform and we headed off to pack meeting where he received his Bear badged and moved onto Weblos. Way to go Sparky!

I think it was a good day. Stay tuned for pictures from his birthday party which occurred this past weekend.

Day Sixteen

A quick rundown of the weekend: On Saturday, I felt myself come out of sleep, but it was still dark out and so I rolled over. Then I started thinking. I wondered what time it was and so I looked at the clock. Low and behold, it was 6:20 am. Wow. I naturally woke up at 6:20. So, what did I do to celebrate? I rolled over and went back to sleep of course. But only until 7:30. It was, afterall, Saturday. On Sunday I didn't set my alarm because I wanted to see if the same thing would happen. It didn't, but I did wake up at 7:30 am. I am really liking 7:30 am. If only that time would work for me during the week. Well today, day sixteen, I woke up at my new weekday time of 6:15. It was hard. I had a long night and my head hurts. Today is going to be a very long day, especially if this headache continues at its current intensity. All that aside, I am starting to enjoy being awake earlier. I still really, really dislike actually getting up, but I am seeing the benefits. I think I shall continue.

He just has his own way of thinking

Sparky: What just hit our car?
Me: It was just a stick hanging down from that tree.
Sparky: Actually, it looked like a dead parasitic vine.

First Day of School = A Happy Mom

The first day of school was glorious . . . for me (oh, and for the kids)! The last month has been rough and I guess I didn't realize how much of that had been due to the fact that we were all just ready for school to start so that we could have a routine again. Here is the before school money shot. This was right before Sparky went off to have his birthday donuts with Dad. You see, Sparky's birthday was also on the first day of school. A fact that definitely put an extra bounce in his step this day.


KK racing off of the bus, excited to tell me all about her first day.


Tiger really missed his brother and sister. I thought he was doing pretty well until he had a total meltdown over something silly and was impossible to console. Seeing the kids at the bus stop definitely made his day.


This picture just makes me laugh. I told the kids to hug because they had been so cute and happy and I must have caught Sparky mid-drama over this hug because he totally looks like he is crying and that KK is consoling him. I promise that he was all happy smiles with no tears. Actually he was probably whining over the fact that the sun was in his eyes (because heaven forbid that I ask him to smile for the camera when the sun is shining).


So there you have it. Another great school year has begun. Stay tuned for Tiger's first day back-to-school coming next week.

Day Thirteen

All I can say is that if the kids didn't have school today, there is no way on earth that I would have gotten up this morning. I have been a very bad girl lately and have been going to bed way too late. But, on a positive note, I have gotten up at 6:15 for the last three mornings. This has made a huge difference in my attitude when I have gone in to wake up the kids. I have to wake them up at 6:30 and it is very hard for me to be nice when waking them up when I am not quite awake myself. Plus, by waking up a bit earlier I am more ready to make their breakfast and lunches.

P.S. KK is a lot like me in that even if she goes to bed early, she still wants to sleep in. She is also a lot like Doug in that she is impossible to wake up in the morning. This is going to be another long year for this poor girl.

Day Eleven

Tiger: Mom, do I like peanut butter?
Me: No, peanut butter makes you sick.
Tiger: Yes, peanut butter makes me sick and chocolate makes me better. Mmmm, chocolate is so yummy and delicious. . .and spicy. It's spicy and it makes me better.


Today I feel as if a black cloud has been lifted from me. Oh yes, school started today. I didn't realize how incredibly ready I was to send the kids back to school. Now only one more week and then Tiger will start school as well. I almost feel like I can breathe again.

Yesterday I totally didn't try to wake up early at all because it was the last day of summer break, but lucky (??) for me Tiger decided to wake up at 7:30 and so that got me going a bit. Today however, I set my alarm for 6:15 and, . . . wait for it . . . I got up, and I stayed up (and it's even darker at 6:15 than it is at 6:30). Ok, granted I had to get the kids up at 6:30, but still, I consider the fact that I got up a little bit early a huge success. Especially considering the fact that I didn't go to bed until 1:00 am. To shake things up a bit, this morning I tried turning the light on as soon as I woke up and it made a huge difference (for those of you concerned for my other half, that man can sleep through anything). Now I just have to figure out some way to have the lights come on automatically when my alarm goes off. That would be an immense help in my waking up efforts.

Oh, and today is Sparky's birthday. My boy has hit the double digits!

Day Nine

I am just going to skip days 7 & 8 because they were utter failures. Moving on to today: Success. I awoke at 6:35 (because it took me 5 minutes to hear my alarm) and stayed awake. I'm not going to lie. It hurt and every part of me was begging to roll over and just go back to sleep. But I didn't, even though it was cloudy and dark in my room, even though it was nice and cool and I was warm and snugly. Nope, I stayed awake. Now the question is, will waking up early become easy? Can it become a habit for me? Can I even do this tomorrow, on my last day of summer vacation? For those are the true tests of this experiment.

Photos - For your viewing pleasure

This year my KK decided to try her hand at softball. I think she had fun, but at the end of the season she informed us that she thought that softball was tennis and that she didn't think she wanted to do this again.

Day Six - I am a lightweight

I haven't been sleeping and so occasionally I try taking Unisom, Tylenol PM, or most recently Melatonin. These are great. They help me turn my brain off so that I can fall asleep, but most importantly when I wake up during the night for whatever reason, they help me actually fall back asleep. The problem is that they stay in my system forever and make it extremely hard to wake up in the morning which is why I don't take them very often. I am a serious lightweight when it comes to sedatives. In fact, a dose of Benedryl knocked me out right after I gave birth to Tiger and anesthesia works amazingly well for me. Anyway, I have taken Melatonin quite a few times this week and I tell you, it is making it really hard for me to wake up in the morning. I don't think I would be up right now if it weren't for the fact that Tiger woke up early. So, I think that if I am going to be able to succeed in Operation Wake Up Early, I will have to stop taking my little happy pills. The whole point of this is to get my body into a better and healthier sleeping pattern anyway. So here's to optimism (raise glass and . . . clink).

Day Five

I really need to go to bed earlier. That is a huge downfall for me in this whole trying to wake up early thing. Today I have to say that although my eyes were technically open around 6:50 this morning, I didn't technically get out of bed until around 8:15. I just didn't want to. I really just wanted to roll over and go back to sleep. It is just so hard to convince myself to get out of bed when I don't think I really fell into a decent sleep until around 4:00 am and nobody else is in the house is up early either. Perhaps I should try to enlist Doug into this little experiment of mine? Hmmmm . . . Somehow I don't think he is going to go for it. I have to say though, that on the mornings this week that I have been awake earlier, it has been much easier to get out of the house at a somewhat decent time. That is an aspect of this that I definitely like.

Day Four

8:15, not good! But in my defense, I was up during the night with a coughing girl, it is cloudy outside, my room is nice and cool, my bed is snugly, the kids are still asleep, and I am so very weak. Tomorrow - NO excuses!

On a side note, do kids really need birthday parties? Sparky's birthday is next week and I promised him a party this year but I am completely unmotivated and have no desire of putting one together. I have to say that his birth date really was not planned very well and is quite inconvenient. Sigh. Don't worry, some sort of party will happen. I am not that mean of a mom.

Day Three

Um, have I mentioned that I don't like to get up early? Today really hurt, but not as much as I imagine it will hurt on Saturday. I actually didn't get up until 6:50 but really I consider that a success because I think that, for the first time in awhile, I actually got some sleep last night. My mom suggested that I take Melatonin for my insomnia and my sister also swears by it so last night I gave it a try and it worked quite well. I just may become a fan. Hopefully since I got some sleep last night I won't have such a bad headache today. So, in a nut shell, today it was still hard to get up, but I am determined to make it easier. . .somehow.

Track Season 2010

This year Sparky tried his luck at track. He did pretty good, but more importantly he had fun and wants to do it again.

Grandma and Grandpa even made it to a meet. I think Grandpa had a good time.

Good job Sparky!

Day Two

Better. I didn't immediately turn my alarm off and I didn't completely go back to sleep. I did doze for a good 15 more minutes until I peeled myself out of bed, but it hurt and went against all of my natural instincts. Things that helped get me out of bed: Sunshine! A sick and coughing girl. Tiger moaning while he tries to stay asleep, but having a hard time because he is still getting used to the new room he now shares with Sparky and it is a lot brighter in the morning than his old room. Things that made me want to crawl back into my snugly covers: Insomnia. I am not a fan of this little insomniac phase that I seem to be having right now. Last night was particularly bad and I am not sure I ever fell asleep. I also don't know what to do with myself this early and so there isn't any motivation for me to get up. I need to start having a plan or some sort of goal to accomplish once I get up. Sure, I could work out, but I am not mentally there yet. I could read, but that will just put me back to sleep. There is always laundry to fold . . .hmmm, we'll save that as a last resort. Goal tonight: Go to sleep on time and actually sleep.

Ahhh, that's better!

Those were the words uttered by Tiger after he walked into the house from church, stated that he wanted to be in his toes, his legs, and his belly and then proceeded to strip down to his underwear.

Day One of Operation Early Rise

FAILED. Miserably. Apparently I turned the alarm off in my sleep because I woke up to Tyler crying at 7:45 am. I remember having a dream that I was going to just turn off my alarm and then go back to sleep, well apparently it wasn't a dream. But who knows? I also had a dream that my niece was running around half naked in my house wearing KK's I Love Lucy t-shirt. Sometimes you just can't tell dreams from reality. I also went to bed really late last night which doesn't help at all. Going to bed early is going to be key and so I will just have to try again tonight. You see yesterday we went down to Cincinnati to hang with my cousins and we were just having so much fun (Thanks guys!) that we left later than we should have which meant we got home late which meant I got to bed late, but it was totally worth it. So, to wrap up, today was an early to rise failure but tomorrow I will succeed.

Tiger Talk

Tiger: I eat my food. I don't eat my broccoli.

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Tiger: Ugh, I so frustrated!! Wachaa (with karate chop motion)! Mom, are you frustrated?
Me: No, what are you doing?
Tiger: I make you frustrated. Ugh! Are you frustrated now?

A daring and bold move on my part

They say that early to bed and early to rise will make a man healthy and wealthy and wise. I have always been more of a fan of kind of late to bed and then sleep in for a while and then around 10:00 I am good to go. Really, if I could just sleep in until at least 8:00 every day that would be just perfect. Alas, I know that is not an option when school starts in a couple of weeks and I am dreading it. They also say that staying consistent in the time you go to bed and the time that you wake up in the morning is key. Since I absolutely love to sleep in and I love, love, love to be in bed, this is not a practice that I follow. I may have to get up early during the week when the kids are in school, but you better believe that when the weekend comes I am sleeping in as long as possible. The problem is that I have thoroughly been enjoying my sleeping in a bit too much this summer and absolutely nothing is getting done and my house is a mess. So, here's the daring move I am about to make. Bum, bum, bum . . . starting on Sunday (a usually beloved sleep-in day) I will be waking up at 6:30 am and going to bed by 10:00 pm every day for an entire month (I thought about 6:00 am, but that just seemed a little too painful). I will test out the theory of consistency and see if it rings true. I will also be giving up a good week and a half of precious sleep-in days. I will then document my thoughts and feelings on the subject which you will all have the pleasure of reading. I have a feeling it will be very painful, but maybe my laundry will actually get folded. Hmm, so many possibilities. Wish me luck because I think I am going to need it.

Hungry

Tiger: I'm hungry
Me: What do you want to eat?
Tiger: Cookie cereal.
Me: Cookie cereal?
Tiger: What? It's so tasty to eat.

Tiger Mumblings

Tiger was munching on some fishies during sacrament meeting at church today when he leaned in to whisper in my ear.

Tiger: I eat garbage.

Me: What? You eat garbage?

Tiger: Yep, I eat garbage.

Visit to Buttertown

While we were in Hilton Head we were but a measly little hour away from Savannah, GA, THE home of Paula Deen. How could we not take our little selves on a mini road trip over to eat in her fabulous restaurant? It was heaven!! Totally worth it. That lady sure does know her southern cooking and I now crave it fortnightly.

Morning mumblings

Every morning when Tiger wakes up, he says the funniest and most random things. I am going to try to start writing down what he says everyday because sometimes it is just hilarious. Here is today's mumbling:

Tiger: The elephant lives in the zoo.

Me: Yes, there are elephants at the zoo.

Tiger: The elephant lives in the zoo and the baby elephant goes to work.

Out of the mouth of Tiger

Tiger: I'm grumpy in my house

Me: You're grumpy in your house?

Tiger: No, I'm grumpy in my holy weird church.

Me: ??

Hilton Head Island - best told through a whole bunch of pictures

We started off our lovely journey by staying in a hotel on our way down to the island, because the kids just wanted to swim in a hotel pool. Our stay would have been perfect had it not been for the fact that the hotel had just cleaned most of the carpets and so we had to play musical rooms for a while and then Tiger ended up slipping on the slate floor due to these wet carpets and bashed his face in a bit. After the bleeding stopped, the hotel staff was more than happy to make sure that the rest of our stay was as comfortable as possible.

Fortunately we are not deterred by facial injuries and the next day were on our way. The kids couldn't wait to get to the beach.

KK found herself a nice hole that someone had dug in the sand.

A little evening crab hunting


One of the coolest things about the beaches at Hilton Head is that the sand is quite hard and so you can ride your bike all over the beach, right next to the ocean.

Or your scooter, if you prefer.

On one of the days we headed down the the Salty Dog Cafe. I don't think that I have ever been so hot in my life. I felt like we were being cooked by the air around us.

The parentals on the dock.

Being cooked. . .um, I mean waiting for our lunch.

Anyone for a baked 4 year old?

Has my face melted off yet? Let's ditch this place and go to the pool. The pool at the house was definitely one of the highlights to the trip. Note to the committee: We must always have a pool.

The last good beach day we had ended up being really, really windy. Tiger played the best he could, but in the end the pelting sand won out and he headed back to the safety of the pool.

Two cute girl cousins enjoying a little craft time.

My kids and I posing in front of the alligator pit near our house. Unfortunately it was too dark out to get a good picture of the alligators.

Our last night on the Island which meant we had to hurry and get some sort of family picture taken.

Precious girls. Morgan was so sweet and bought this matching necklace for Kelsey. She still wears it all the time.

The whole group.
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Is it time to go back yet? I could seriously use another week at the beach. If for some reason you don't feel like you have seen quite enough pictures from this week of fun, feel free to see more at my brother's blog here or my sister's blog here.