Report card time!

I am very proud and pleased to announce that Nick and Tatiana's report cards came home from school with very high marks. They have changed the way they grade on report cards here in our school district that is kind of confusing to explain. I am not sure if you all have had this change or not. But basically they each received the grades; "OT" (on track for the school year), "E" (Exceeds current grade level standard), or "MA" (has mastered grade level standards). See what I mean, kind of confusing. I do not see how "E" and "MA" are different. Nick's teacher said that basically "OT" equals a traditional "A" grade, and the other two equal a traditional "A+" grade. Needless to say, we are very proud of them! Way to go Nick and Tatiana!!!

And with Accelerated Reading Tatiana has 108 points for the year! I will just say that is more than Nick and more than over half of Nick's 4th grade class and she is only in 2nd grade! Nick's Accelerated Math is still a grade level about what he is expected to do. We are proud of both of them.

They are both in the TAG (Talented and Gifted) program and both do Accelerated Math and Accelerated Reading above their grade levels. I am very happy with their school work and their grades. They were even home sick for a week (each of them) this past nine weeks! Way to go guys!

Am I bragging too much? Oh well, I am a proud mommy and I am going to brag! :-)

Nick...smarty pants!

I was just blogging and Nick was reading as I typed. I hadn't proofread what I typed yet and Nick decided to correct my grammer. What does it say about me when my 10 year old son is correcting my grammer on my blog??? I am not sure, but I know it says that he is a smart kid! I am proud of him....okay, he just did it again!!! Of course he had been right every time and I have made the appropriate corrections. You cannot see me, but I am rolling my eyes right about now.

Andrew is on the move!

Here is a cute video of Ben and Andrew interacting. It shows Andrew crawling... he's on the move!

Ben has glasses!!!!

Ben has glasses! His speech teacher called me on Tuesday, March 10th, to tell me they think he needs his eyes checked. So I got him in that Thursday. Only because we are friends with the opthamologist. He had no appointments open until April 30th! I had made an appointment with one of his colleagues because I didn't want to wait that long. Then I ran into him Tuesday night at a band concert and he told me to come in Thursday. Nice to have connections! Anyway, his vision is 20/30 which is not bad for his age, but he has severe astigmatism and needs glasses. We we got his the glasses on Saturday, March 14th, and by Monday morning we were back in there to get them "fixed". Three year old boys are very rough on glasses. We did get him the flexible kind, but the hinges are not flexible. And we did get a special where we were able to get him two pair. Thank goodness, we are going to need them! But doesn't he look so cute in them?



Hmmm....maybe we should just get Andrew checked now. Three out of four kids in glasses and the fourth one is just a baby, odds are stacked against him.

More of random photos...

Here are some more random photos I wanted to share.

Tatiana made me a super sweet picture on our dry erase board. Before it got erased, I had to take a picture. If you want, click on the picture to enlarge it and see what she wrote. She is such a sweetheart!

Ben is taking a "mini movers" class through the parks and rec here. I thought this was a precious picture. He got paired up with a cute little girl and you can tell by the look on his face that he is going to be trouble when he gets older! Can you say, "Ladies' Man"?!

We went to our Middle School production of "Seussical the Musical". They all did a FANTASTIC job! There are some extremely talented kids in that school and we knew half of them in the play. Here Nick and Tatiana are with Thing 1 and Thing 2. It was a very fun evening.

I just had to include this picture of Andrew's smiling face. Isn't he just the cutest little man?!?!? Oh! I am sooo in love with him!

More fun with Brownie Girl Scouts!

Yes, Tatiana has a lot of fun with her little Brownie Troop. She doesn't have any sisters and neither do three of the other girls in her troop. So all of them (even the ones with sisters) call each other their "Girl Scout Sisters". It is very sweet and I am so glad Tatiana has a good group of girls to do these fun things with and I am very glad that I can be her leader and share in these wonderful times with her.

Tatiana was the "Caller" for the opening flag ceremony three of our girls did for the Albany School Board meeting this month. She did a fantastic job! She spoke, loud, clear, and slowly. I was VERY proud of her! She said, "my insides were shaking", and she was very nervous, but you couldn't tell. Good job sweetie.

Our troop had our 2nd annual "camp-in" on March 19th. We set up a tent inside the Girl Scout building here in town, taking advantage of their flushing toilets, full kitchen, locking doors, heat, phones, etc. This year no one had to call home because they were homesick like last year and everyone had a great time. Actually last year the night of our lock-in was the night I went to the hospital and was admitted and put on full bed rest with Andrew. So I missed out and was so glad to be there this year.

The girls voted and came up with the activities and planned the whole night. They decided to do a "spa night". So I went to the dollar store and got samples from places and we had a spa night! After our spa night we watched a movie, "Space Buddies". My co-leader has a movie projector and we used Nathan's white backdrop he has for photography so it was like a BIG screen movie! So much fun!

Tatiana received a pedicure...


A Manicure...

A facial...

And they all looked and felt FABULOUS!

Odds and Ends...

Here are just some odds and ends photos of this and that. Thought I would share, because it is the little moments that get missed out on too.

Ben riding his bike while we were taking advantage of a beautiful spring day.

Andrew having fun in the little car. Do you want to know how spoiled we are in Oregon??? This afternoon was about 50 degrees out and sunny. Nathan had a t-shirt on, but I was chilly and wearing a sweatshirt and because Andrew had just gotten over a cold, I bundled him up in his one piece outfit. Yeah, I know we're spoiled. But just look at how happy Andrew is!!!

I decided to do some kitchen science with Ben one day while Andrew was napping. Here we are doing the color explosion trick. Ever hear of it? Try this; (1) pour about an inch of milk in a dish (we used a pie plate), (2) put about 3 drops of food coloring in four "quadrants" of the dish. Place them so they are not too close together, but not too close to the edge either. Use all four colors in your food coloring box. DON'T BUMP OR JIGGLE THE DISH! (3) Get a toothpick or a q-tip and put just a drop of dish soap on the end. (4) Now carefully dip the soapy tip into the milk. Try it over and over. Try dipping in the middle of the color, to the side, etc. Experiment and see what happens. Then sit back and watch...it keeps going! So cool! Ben loved this one so much we did it three times!

This was priceless. Ben pulling Andrew around in the Mega-Blocks wagon. Andrew was laughing so hard. He loved it!

Nick and Tiana had "Crazy Hat Day" At school to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday. We put some on the little guys too and took a picture. Funny bunch.

Scouting Saturday

Saturday, March 7th was a busy day for scouting. First Tatiana and I sat at a booth selling cookies for three hours. But I can finally say that after 350 boxes of cookies sold, 7 hours of sitting a booth, several more hours going door to door selling and delivering cookies... we are finally done with Girl Scout cookies for 2009! Whew! Well, not done eating them of course, we have a freezer full of them...YUMMY! And Tatiana's favorite part of selling? Handling the money of course! That girl is a whiz at math!

Then I took Nick's Cub Scout Pack to Goodwill Industries for Goodwill/ Good Turn Day. They dropped off their donations and then we had a tour. They were able to see how it works behind the scenes and hear about all the good things Goodwill does for the people in our community and the environment. Pretty interesting.

Of course Ben came a long. He was a good kid. How do you keep a 3 year old boy to behave on a field trip? Simple, give him a sucker that is almost as big as his head! It kept him pretty busy!

Nick's Pinewood Derby

Nick had his Pinewood Derby on March 6th. His daddy helped him and they made a super cool car that looked like a bullet! Nick isn't going to district, but he had a lot of fun and received the most compliments for a creative design. Good job Nick!

The middle car is Nick's, the one that looks like a gold bullet with a silver tip...


Nick is sitting on the chair, the furthest kid on our left, his right. They are anxiously waiting for the races to begin. Oh! The suspense!

The OSU Lambing Barn

I took Andrew and Ben to the OSU lambing barn on March 6th.

Ben had fun with his friends and made some new friends...the lambs!

They are so cute!

But the cutest, most cuddly critter of all is of course our very own Andrew. We went to McDonald's afterwards for lunch and Andrew loved those fries!

Bubble baby

How do you keep the baby happy while you are taking that much needed shower and getting ready for the day? Sometimes us moms have to be creative. We have a tub adjacent to our shower in the master bathroom. Ben likes to play in the bubble bath while I take a quick shower. He sings the whole time so I know he's okay. Usually Andrew is happy playing in his highchair in the bathroom with us, but this day he was being fussy because he wanted to be in the bathtub with Ben, he LOVES bathtime. So I scooped out some bubbles, put them on his highchair tray and he was super happy slapping and playing with the bubbles. So cute!

So tell me, what are some of your creative ideas?

Happy Adorable Lovable Andrew!

I just had to show off this super cute picture of Andrew. He is so happy, showing off his teeth, having fun with daddy. Oh! I couldn just eat him up!

Girl Scouts = Busy Busy Busy!

So I have been very busy lately! First of all we had sick kids for three weeks straight, then the Cub Scout Blue and Gold, and I have physical therapy three times a week, and then all this Girl Scout stuff on top of it all. It's been crazy! But I would do it all over again, because it is for my kids!

Tatiana sold 259 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies this year! Woohoo!!!! Way to go girl! We were very excited until they came in and we spent an hour sorting them, yikes! But we finally have them all delivered.

On February 24th, four days after our Blue and Gold, we had our Girl Scout Ceremony. I planned it and even wrote two sections of it. It turned out really cute and Tatiana felt special, so therefor it was a success!

Then on Wednesday, the 25th, we had a fun field trip to a scrapbook store. The girls had a blast!

After scrap booking we went across the street to the carousel museum. They have been working on building a hand-carved carousel for f years now. They have come a long way and the animals are beautiful, but it will be at least another 5 years. The girls enjoyed being "testers"!

Fun at the Duck Park!

The kids went to a Science Assembly and then afterwards we went to the park. Ben had been asking for days to go to a park, so this was for him. We all had a lot fun!

Grandpa had fun on the tire swing with the kids. Tatiana couldn't go fast enough!

Blue and Gold Banquet!

This year was Nick's last Blue and Gold Banquet. The Blue and Gold is an annual event that celebrates the birthday of Cub Scouting. Our pack holds a "Father/Son Cake Auction" every year at the banquet to raise money for Day Camp.

Nick is a Webelos now and this is his last year in Cub Scouting, his last Blue and Gold, his last cake auction, his last day camp...can you tell I am a little sad about this. My baby boy is growing up! When did this all happen?!?!

But the cool thing is that while I was his Den Leader for his first year and a half, I am now his Cub Master for his second year and a half of Cubs (if they let me stay in there!) So we had fun planning a Blue and Gold Banquet that he will never forget!

We had a photo booth where their picture was taken and turned into a Wanted Poster (this was for anybody who wanted to do it, free of charge because all the supplies were donated.) We also had a shooting range with rubber band guns the boys made and the kids who came had fun with that. The parents were all grateful there was something for them to do. We had a delicious pot luck banquet - chuckwagon style. I was able to do the decorations really cheap because most of them were recycled and donated. And if you couldn't figure it out already, it was a Old West Cowboy theme. Very fun!

The best part is always the auction. This year was extra special for Nick because his Grandpa B. was able to come out and auctioneer for it. He did a great job and we made our goal of $900 (we had 13 cakes to auction.) I think Grandpa had just as much fun as the kids!

More fun with the nerf guns

We brought out the nerf guns again. There is just something fun about the way those velcro darts stick to the felt tunics I made. We had Grandpa Tolman try one out. He looked pretty awesome....

and ready for a fight!

Of course Nathan, Nick and Tatiana all had fun showing Grandpa how to do a nerf war.

And even Ben had some action. Thank you "Ampa"!