Playing at Stewart Park

3-18

After Charlie's last day of school, we headed over to Stewart Park for one last time playing on the playground. It was a beautiful spring day! Funny enough, Charlie and Molly were dressed alike in their black and red while Alanna and Hattie were dressed alike in light pink and dark pink. What a coincidence! We played for a good while before heading home to eat supper. This has been a fun park and we have enjoyed playing here for sure.

Charlie's Last Day at Fullerton IV Elementary School

3-18

On Charlie's last day at Fullerton, he wore his Fullerton Panther shirt with pride. He has loved going to school and being in Mrs. Pecorilla's class. Being his last day, as well as the day before his birthday, I brought birthday treats in the afternoon for his to share with his classmates. I fed off Jill's idea and made Oreo cookie "salad" (yeah, right - salad! haha! it's dessert!) as dirt cake and put it in individual clear plastic cups. I topped it with a little sprinkle of crushed Oreo cookies and two gummy worms. They turned out really cute! At first when I talked to Charlie about dirt cake he was pretty concerned that the dirt cake would taste like dirt. It seemed like a legitimate concern until I explained to him that the dirt cake was actually chocolate pudding and Oreo cookies. He thought that sounded much better than actual dirt. :) I brought the birthday treats at 1:30 and stayed for 20 minutes while Charlie and his classmates ate and chatted. I popped in during his lunch time that day as well; partly to make sure he was doing ok emotionally, and partly because he really wanted me to come and have lunch with him one more time before we moved. I'll have to ask Charlie to help label his friends.

Molly wanted her picture taken with Daddy.

This is MacKenzie. Charlie talked about her NONSTOP during the first week of school (as well as several weeks and months following). Charlie pretty much decided that since he met MacKenzie, he had made his one friend for the school year and didn't think he needed to make any more friends. She is a nice girl and they played really well together. She has been a really good friend of Charlie's. I met her mom when I helped out at the Valentine's day party and she seemed like a quality person. I asked Mrs. Pecorilla about who Charlie's friends are in her class and she mentioned MacKenzie (of course), Quinn, and Audrey as the ones he plays with the most. I asked her if there were any boys that Charlie played well with, and she replied that he had made some great friend choices because the three girls she listed were nice, sweet girls. Charlie came home from school for the first six weeks of school and said that the same few boys kept getting their names on the board... so I think Charlie has made some excellent friend choices. Not that he doesn't play with some of the boys, too, but I think he knows what he wants to do, what he's ok with, and what he doesn't want to be a part of. I was so thrilled to find that out. Good decision making, Charlie!

Quinn, MacKenzie, Charlie, Hunter, and Ashley

Back row from left to right: Jeffrey, Samara, Vanessa, Audrey, Payton

Front row from left to right: Hunter, Charlie, MacKenzie, Quinn, Debbie, and half of Gabby

The hexagon table from left: Vanessa, Audric, Alanna, Charlie, and Ashley

Mrs. Pecorilla and Charlie. She was a perfect match for Charlie. It was a fabulous year, something I'm so thankful for.

Front row: Tyler, Ashley, Gabby, Audric

Second row: Debbie, Alora (purple shirt), Quinn, Vanessa

Third row: Payton (long black hair), Hunter, Audrey

Fourth row: MacKenzie, Audrie Ann, Taylor

Standing in back: Charlie, Gabriel, Jeffrey

Not pictured: Luke and Samara

Laundry Basket Fun

3-16

Our washing machine was running a marathon for a while with all of the extra things that I wanted to get freshened up before storing them in boxes. These little honeys are always up for pushing laundry baskets around the house! It's a great job for them. Well, Hattie just likes to snuggle with warm freshly-laundered blankets. Who can blame her! Knowing that the end was near for Molly's time in the crib, I took a picture of her napping. This is the classic Molly sleeping pose. I have no idea how she's that flexible, but it is the position I see her in the most when she's sleeping. She has been all about her blanket lately, dubbing it her 'bebe' and pulling it out of the crib often. So cozy!

Treats

3-15

While Matt was back in Canon City for a week, we took the time to do some extra special things. Dairy Queen was having a free ice cream cone day. Naturally, the kids and I had to participate! I picked up Charlie from school and we, along with loads of other people, enjoyed some ice cream treats. Actually, Hattie and I just watched while Charlie, Alanna, and Molly devoured their twist cones in cups. I invited a bunch of Mom's Connection moms over for tea and biscotti later that night so I saved my treat for later. I maybe was stalling on packing and made several batches of biscotti instead. Stressed out? Baking therapy totally works!! I made gingerbread, funfetti, and a lemon biscotti along with a chai spiced gluten-free sugar-free biscotti that was really yummy. My friends came around 8:15 and I believe the last two gals left around 12:30pm. I then felt guilty and proceeded to pack boxes for two hours after they left. Nighttime is the BEST time to do some uninterrupted work. Except for that whole sleep loss thing... I was planning to take Alanna's twin bed down and pack it up the next day. In my desperation, I snapped a picture of Charlie and Alanna before their bedroom started to be disassembled. Their last night sleeping in their regular bedroom! They still slept in their bedroom, but they both slept together in the queen bed since I washed and bagged up Alanna's bed. The house is really starting to look like we're moving. Sad.

 From left and around the circle: Rebekah Harris, Carly Mauch, Vaughnde Edwards, Georgia Kershner, Anna Heacock, Sara Wells, Jennifer (and Jefferson) Zeliff. We gabbed and laughed and ate and drank tea... it was such a wonderful evening!!!

 From left: Jen, Sara, me, Anna, Rebekah, Carly, Vaughnde, Georgia

Matching Little Girls

3-12

Molly and Hattie have matching onesies and I wanted to document them wearing the same one at the same time before one or both of them grows out of theirs! We also have this same set in a preemie size for Alanna's dolls. Pretty sweet sisters!

Growing, Goodbye, and Grooving

3-11

20 weeks and counting!!

I brought the kids by Matt's office on his last day. (He drove back to Canon the next day to work there all the following week.) The kids got treats from the snack bar in the break room and decorated the white board outside Matt's cube one last time. We didn't stop by Matt's office too many times (half dozen maybe?) while he worked there. I think it's because it's a bigger office and the fact that he was a district employee. It was special each time we stopped by!

What a sad, empty cubicle. :(

Later that night, Charlie's elementary school was having a Sock Hop fundraiser/family night. We really weren't planning on going but Charlie was so excited about it that we decided to go for an hour. It was pretty fun! All of the kids were experiencing sensory overload at the beginning (notice Molly covering her ears?!), but they eventually relaxed and had a good time. We got some cotton candy for the kids to share. It was a hit! For the last 15 minutes or so, Charlie played with a few friends from his class - mostly just chasing each other around and running back and forth between our family and his friend's. Mrs. Pecorilla was there helping out and made a comment (with her eyebrows raised) about one of her students running non-stop since the beginning of the dance. I got the impression that the level of activity at the dance matched girl's level of activity in the classroom. Yikes! We danced a bit and took it all in. The kids talked about the Sock Hop for the rest of the weekend. It was a fun event!

Molly's First Haircut and Spring Pictures

3-9-16

I made an appointment for both Molly and Alanna to get their hair cut before we moved. Why? Because I had tons of extra time to spare. ;) Molly has needed a trim for a while, mostly to even out the back of her hair with the long stuff on top. When we got to the beauty shop, Alanna sat in the chair first. Molly acted like she wanted to get her hair cut, but when it actually came down to it, she was pretty resistant. I ended up sitting in the chair with her. After a few minutes of her not sitting still or even wanting to look at Misty at all, I was so close to calling it until Molly buried her face in my chest. Three seconds later, Misty jumped in and just started trimming! It actually worked out well. Molly kept her face on my chest and Misty kept trimming. Maybe 5 minutes later, Molly was all done and had a cute little bob! I wanted to take actual pictures of her sitting in the chair. Do you suppose my two-year-old would cooperate and do something that I wanted her to do?!? Heck no. I didn't get any pictures at all. Doesn't she know how monumentous this is in her childhood? How will I fill out the 'my first haircut' section of her baby book?? (wink, wink) I snapped a few in the bathtub later that night. It looks really sweet. Misty probably cut off two inches or more! She saved some in an envelope for me to keep. What a big girl!

3-10-16

Alanna got her hair trimmed as well, probably three inches or more cut off the bottom. She needed her ends cleaned up as well! The next day, I told her that we would do something special together while her little sisters were napping and Charlie was at school. I busted out the curling iron and we spent some time fixing her hair.