Kindergarten!

Holy moly, how did we get here?!

 Jackson started kindergarten today, and let me tell you, it was harder on me than I anticipated!  He has been ready to go to school for a while.  He could've started last year, but we knew he had a little more growing up to do, so we held him out one more year.  It was fine with all of us, except when someone would ask him, "Are you in kindergarten?"  He always rolled his eyes a little and would sometimes launch into the whole explanation of "yes-I-should-be-in-school-but-my-mom-didn't-start-me."

I stick by my decision.

But when the first day came, he was totally ready.  Me? I thought I would be fine.  I'm not a cryer by nature. And this was a happy day, so why would I cry about that??  Yeah.  As we walked into the building, I could feel my throat tightening up. I had no idea it would hit me like that!  But I sucked it up and did fine.

 He has a great teacher who scored points with him right away because the first thing they did when they got to their seats was play with the Playdoh (also known as "that stuff we never get to play with at home").

When he got home that afternoon, he said he had fun, but that was about it.  He is soo my child.  All those days that my mom got the one word responses from me after school?  Yeah, I'm paying for that. I can't wait to see what his year holds.  He just seems so much more grown up already. Love that kid!

First Day of School, Girly Style...and My Little Kiwanian

My girls started preschool the week before Jackson started kindergarten.  It really worked out perfectly, because it gave them their own special morning, and it gave Jackson and I a couple of days of just the two of us, which never happens.  If you ask her, Sadie will make it very clear that she is going to her "very last year of preschool, and then she goes to kindergarten."  She's been pretty bummed that Jackson is moving on without her, but on the first day of her school, she was happy to be the big sister who knows the ropes. :)

The best part is that they only have to go to school two days a week, on the days I work.  I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to stay home with them and enjoy some girl time before they get too big for me!

When we found out Annabelle was going to be able to at least give Sunshine Friends a shot, we were so excited!  Her sweet teacher, Mrs. Molly, is so kind-hearted and patient...and boy, does she need it with this one! ;)  

 And then there's my Kiwanian. Seriously.  Last year, Jackson and Sadie went to Sunshine Friends on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, which left their Thursdays free for other things.  One weekly activity they both enjoyed was story time at the community library.  Nannie liked to take them (and Annabelle was too wiggly to sit through it anyway), so it became their weekly outing.  Then one week, Jackson decided to join Nannie at her weekly Kiwanis meeting. Pretty soon, he was going every week.  Then he was made an honorary Kiwanian.  Then he became their pledge leader. My mom would tell me how much they enjoyed having him there, but it was made evident to me one week when my mom was out of town and I had to make sure Jackson made it to "his meeting."  I had no less than three Kiwanis members ask if he needed a ride to the meeting!  So when the time came for his last meeting, I just had to be there.

 

Not only did he get a certificate of appreciation, they had a cookie cake for him and some presents too!  It was a special day for him. :)

Meeting the Mouse!

Back in February, we told my parents that we wanted to take the kids to Carlsbad Caverns, and we wanted to take them with us. My dad was excited (I get my cavern obsession from him.  I'm trying to pass it on to  my kids.).  My mom said, "But Jackson and I want to go to Disney World."

Guess who won? ;)

We had discussed going to Disney more than once, but thought we would wait until Annabelle was bigger.  However, my parents made the pitch that they had gotten to go to Disney World with all their other grandkids, and they wanted to take our kids while they were still able to enjoy it. Plus, it was the last year we would be able to take a trip like this while everyone else was in school.  All good points.  We started planning.

In planning the trip, I went through Michelle Shears of AAA Vacations in South Carolina.  She planned my parents' trip to Disney five years ago, and is something of a WDW guru.  We only talked on the phone once and did the rest of the planning via email.  She was super helpful, and although I could have booked the whole thing online myself, it was nice to have someone else making sure all the bases were covered (it was also a little cheaper!). 

The thing I love about Disney is the attention to detail in every aspect of your stay.  I worried about how much fun Annabelle would have because she was so small.  Turns out she could ride anything without a height requirement!  This is a HUGE plus for families with kids. The best part though, is there is soooo much to do that does not have a height requirement. 

Jackson and Sadie were absolutely in awe of all the characters.  We scheduled two character breakfasts through the Disney Dining Plan (AN ABSOLUTE MUST).   This was by far the easiest way to meet the characters because they come to your table and sign autographs and take pictures (the picture above was from the princess breakfast at Epcot.  See the smile on Sadie's face? She was in HEAVEN.).  Otherwise you have to wait in line.  However, while we were at the Hollywood Studios, we stumbled upon a building where we were virtually the only people there...and we got to meet a ton of characters all at once with fairly short lines (I think it was the art of animation studio or something like that, but I'm not 100% sure...it was just past the Little Mermaid show/ride/experience--which the kids also loved).

...Including this guy:

This encounter led to my absolute favorite picture of the whole trip. The DW photographer noticed Kevin and Annabelle standing off to the side while Jackson and Sadie got their picture taken, and asked if Annabelle would like to meet Mickey.  As I was saying that Annabelle was a little wary of big costumed creatures, this happened:

Seriously, couldn't you just die from the cuteness??!?!?!?

We had to tear her away from him. It was total love.  She's such a sweet mess.

Again, let me say, character dining is the way to go...

And here are a few (okay, a lot) more of pics from our trip:

  

For some reason, the only characters that really weirded Sadie out were Buzz and Woody.  She didn't shy away or cry or anything like that, but when we left, she said, "Why were they so BIG???"  She has a point. :)

One of my favorite parts of the whole trip was getting to ride all the "roller coasters" with Sadie and Jackson.  Jackson and I went with the school to Six Flags a while back, but Sadie's never been tall enough, so you can imagine her excitement in being able to ride almost all the rides (there were a couple of very disappointing exceptions for her--Space Mountain and the big one at Animal Kingdom--but we assured her we would come back when she was older and ride them all!

Just a little picture to remind you that Annabelle was there too! :)

  A couple of things we learned from our journey is... 

A) Renting a stroller is the way to go if you have little ones.  We actually rented a double stroller so that Jackson and Sadie could rest as they needed.  The strollers at the park are functional (if not pretty), and you don't have to worry about packing one. There are cheaper stroller rentals outside the park, but I didn't want to have to worry about lugging it on the bus/train/whatever.

B) Stay inside the park if you can.  And if we go back, we will stay at one of the resorts with monorail service.  We had bus service, which was reliable and fine.  But our resort (Coronado Springs--really nice, but a little spread out) bus stop was the absolute farthest point from the front entrance compared to other resorts and/or the monorail stop. When you're lugging around a 1.5 year old, that extra walk is not fun.

C) Did I mention the DINING PLAN?  And while I'm thinking about
it, after you buy the dining plan, you need to get online and make reservations for your evening meals (or whenever you want to sit down to eat).  You can do it while you're there, but a lot of the better restaurants fill up quickly.  It will save you a lot of "hey, where do we want to eat tonight?"

D)  I highly recommend the character dining.  We chose to do these at breakfast, because the kids would be fresh and happy, and they eat better at breakfast. I researched all the possibilities before we left, then reserved our places a month or so in advance.  I knew Sadie would want to meet all the princesses, so you can eat at Cinderella's palace in the Magic Kingdom or Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in Epcot. Both have princesses.  The castle, however, counts as two sit down meals per person, and the menu wasn't something I thought my kids (or me, for that matter) would enjoy.  We loved our choice (well, Jackson didn't.  He hid under the table when the princesses came to the table.  He was afraid of cooties or something).  Our other breakfast was at Tusker House in Animal Kingdom (see pic above) and had the traditional Disney characters (Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Mickey). It's a safari type feel and Jackson and Sadie both loved it.

Overall, we had an amazing time.  The weather was great, the crowds were minimal compared to summer, and the kids are still talking about it. That's a pretty good indication that we had fun. :)

Six

Turning six was a very big deal to Jackson.

It's not like we'd put any major emphasis on that particular year.  But I suppose the fact that we went to Disney World the week before (If you ask him, that was his birthday party/present.  It was not. I wish we could celebrate in such high fashion every year!) might have played into it, but I really think it's because he knows he's going to kindergarten now that he's six. Or because he's going to lose a tooth (or five) while he's six. Or because he's just growing up.

It could also be that earlier in the year he started going to Kiwanis with my mom and now he says things like, "Boy, it looks like rain today.  We sure need the rain."  They made him an honorary member and he leads them in the pledge of allegiance each week.  No I'm not kidding. He's a 65 year old man in a 6 year old body. :)

Because of the Disney trip, his party (and Sadie's party for that matter...I am definitely no threat for taking Mother of the Year from anyone this year...) was delayed...so those pics will come later.

But let me tell you about this kid. He is my master inventor. Everything and anything can be turned into an experiment.  He got a science kit for Christmas and it was one of his favorite gifts ever.  He also loves Legos, and goes back and forth between wanting to be a scientist and an architect when he grows up (we're pushing architect, ha!).

He's learning to overcome his fears.  He is working on overcoming his fear of going underwater.  He's pretty successfully whipped his fear of large animal costumes (think Chuck E. Cheese, school mascots, etc). He touched a boa constrictor at the gator farm, and he was willing to hold this:

He loves school.  We kept him out of kindergarten for one more year, and boy, did it make a difference. He is so much more mature now. It helps that his best buds were still at Sunshine Friends as well. :) He knows his letters, his sounds, and he pretty much taught himself to add anything that equals ten or less (in his head, which I think is pretty cool, even if it doesn't put him in the freakin' genius echelon).

He loves his sisters, even if he won't admit it.  Sadie is totally his partner in crime, and they play together so well 99.9% of the time.  And every once in a while he will just look at Annabelle, shake his head and laugh, and say, "She is the cutest baby in the world."  Love.

And this kid is funny. At five, he hated when people laughed at him because he thought it meant they were making fun of him. But now that he's six, well, he knows and appreciates the importance of being able to make people laugh...which is awesome to me.

He is such a great kid. I am such a lucky mom.

Sweet Sadie is Four!

***DISCLAIMER: I wrote this post in December.  AND I scheduled it to post on Sadie's birthday, December 29.  Yes, I'm a bad blogger for not double checking...and for not posting in two months.  But I totally blame Blogger for not posting this on time. :) ***

I am a bad blogger.  A bad, bad blogger. But my sweet SadieBeth turns four today, and if that isn't a good reason to write, I don't know what is. :)

It's hard to believe she's four...in one way, it seems time has flown and how in the world can she already be FOUR...yet in another part of my brain she's been so grown up and big-girl-acting for so long that I have a hard time believing she's only four. 

That being said, I think I've figured out the curse of the middle child.  When Jackson was 4, I started expecting him to dress himself.  Sadie started doing the same thing at 3, but when she has trouble, I think, "What's the problem? She should be able to do this already!"  ...because I pretty much expect her to do whatever Jackson does. 

Of course, I only take partial blame.  Sadie loves, loves, loves her big brother and does her best to keep up with him in every way, which makes me think she's older than she is.  That, and the fact that "I do it myself" has been a part of her vocabulary practically since birth.

Sadie is sweet, silly, smart (although if you tell her she is, she will reply, "No I'm not!" like it's the craziest thing she's ever heard...I'm not sure why, but we constantly reiterate that smart is GOOD.), loves church and princesses and make-up.  She is a very strong-willed little thing, but she also loves to please people.  She still prefers playing with the boys, but I do hear a few girl names being thrown about these days.

She got her first pedicure this year, and is gradually softening to letting me do fancy-schmancy things to her hair, which is so long and pretty these days.  She also got her first (and second) black eye this year...I'm afraid this might be the first of many, as she prefers looking at the person she's talking to rather than where she's going. She also became a fan of the VHS twirlers, cheerleaders and "Dazzwers," and somehow we're going to have to figure out how she can be all three in a few years. :)

Today she will be going to breakfast with her Aunt Debbie, whose birthday is also today...although she's not turning 4...and we will go somewhere special for dinner. We will have her party in a couple of weeks, after everyone shakes the post-Christmas exhaustion. 

I love you, sweet girl!