Merry Christmas!

We've had a nice day so far.  We were at Mom and Dad's yesterday (drove up there on Friday afternoon) and made it back just in time for church last night, then went to Outback for dinner afterwards.  By the time we got home the kids were super tired and ready for bed and went to sleep pretty quickly. Eric and I made sure that everything was ready for today (which included him fixing our dryer; we'd discovered on Friday just before leaving for Pickerington that it wasn't working) and headed to bed relatively early. I figured the kids would wake us up at the crack of dawn wanting to open presents!

You can imagine my surprise when it wasn't until 8:30 that they came in... Conner is typically a super early bird (up between 6 and 7) but he slept until after 7, then went into Aud's room to wake her up and read her some books. She also told me that they were having a tea party, too - it's so nice to see them playing well together (especially when at times they pick over the littlest things!).  We headed downstairs to see if Santa had come and despite some of their previous bad behavior, he made it!  Eric had broken a handle on the door of our fireplace last night and I left a note from Santa apologizing - the kids really got a kick out of that!  

The only thing Audrey had asked Santa for was some "princess chapstick" (she was so easy to buy for this year!) and Conner had gotten his special present from Mom yesterday (a remote control helicopter) so Santa didn't bring all that much... then under our tree were some other little things (Legos for Conner, which he adores, a music player and speaker for Audrey, amongst other things). They each had a "Santa Shop" at school where they could do some shopping of their own. Aud bought me some of the ugliest earrings I've ever seen and it looks like I'll have to wear them out at some point!  Later she said that her "second favorite" thing from this morning was seeing me open the earrings.  Guess we have to teach this girl some fashion sense!  Her first favorite was the Panda Pillow Pet that Uncle Andy sent from California - he really does a nice job with presents for the kids.  Although they usually involve some sort of noise (like the little electronic drum thing he just sent for Conner).

After we'd finished unwrapping I pulled out an envelope for each of the kids. Last night I put together 5 clues for each of them to lead them around in search of their last present.  Both kids were upstairs, downstairs, in the kitchen, and then outside to reach the final thing.  Audrey found her new princess bike in the little playhouse outside and Conner found a 4-wheeler (!) out back under the deck.  He and Eric (who I think is actually more excited about the purchase than Conner is!) have already been out for a long ride.  It's so nice to have the land that we do and generous neighbors who don't mind the boys playing on their land, too!  We're getting ready now to pack the kids' bikes over to a park nearby so that Audrey can try hers out. Because of the hills it's tough to find a good place to ride around here, especially when you're not the strongest rider yet (Aud).

Later on this afternoon/evening we're heading out for the week. Eric's parents bought a house down in Sun City Center, Florida (close to Tampa) and have moved there permanently (which really kills my back-up babysitter options!). The plan is to drive through the night to get down there tomorrow and then stay for several days. We'll probably start back on Saturday and make a stop on the way home at a hotel.  We don't have any big plans while we're down there - we thought about checking out Busch Gardens but it's just so expensive and we'll probably save that for a trip this summer.

Going to try and make my next update in < 6 months. :)

Summer's here!

Today was day 1 of summer vacation, and everything went great! I set my alarm to get up at 8:30 because the kids will let me sleep late (as they watch Animal Planet and eat pop tarts) and then we got a move on. I set up some "weekly tasks" yesterday that included some cleaning, picking up, academic work, mail-getting, animal-feeding, and tv watching every day. The kids were really excited to check things off their list this morning (and not get behavior strikes that take away the tv shows!). After we did some chores around the house, we packed a lunch and headed off to Coney Island for a while. Fun!

After a short while at home (where the kids rested, changed clothes, and did some reading and writing) we headed off to dance (Audrey), baseball (Conner), and softball (me). Busy night!

Audrey has a new favorite hairdo... She told me that she wants it like this everyday. I'll update with a picture when I get a chance.

End of the year!

It's so hard to believe, but we're nearing single digits on how many days of school we have left! Me and Conner, at least. Audrey's down to a mere 4 more days! It's been so chilly this week (rainy and in the 50s) that you'd never think that it's the middle of May. We did have a hot spell last week.... I'd much rather it stay cool until June 3rd. Then I'm all for the heat! School is just miserable when it's hot.

Audrey brought home her last progress report today, and her teacher had some really nice things to say.

"Thank you for sharing Audrey with us this year. She is such a warm happy child. As you look at her progress note, remember these are skills we would expect students to master before they enter kindergarten - and Audrey has another year in preschool. Audrey has mastered most of these skills."

Nice, huh! As for the "warm, happy" part, you can obviously tell that her teacher isn't here at bedtime!