School play,Awards and Graduation

Hello. Remember me? Facebook has really killed my blogging mojo. Here's a few of the most recent activities in our family.
Braden's first grade class wrote an original play "Ms Chicken and the Strawberry Milkshake". It was really cute and I'm glad I was able to go and watch. Braden got this new patches at the last Cub Scout meeting. Now I just have to figure out where they are suppose to go.

At the first grade award ceremony, Braden got the class clown award. That's not really what the award was called. I think it was called the funniest in class but if the red nose fits....

My baby is a preschool graduate! Their ceremony was really cute. There was so many kids that I couldn't see Ashlyn during the program but she gave us our own private graduation performance.

She's going to kindergarten. Kindergarten here she comes. She might take a train. She might take a plane. She might take a yellow bus. She's going just the same. Going to kindergarten. Kindergarten here she comes.

Ashlyn's Bakery

Santa brought Ashlyn an Easy Bake, a cupcake set, and an ice cream sandwich maker. We had so much fun playing with them. And she looked pretty darn cute in her chef's hat and apron.

Happy Birthday Ashlyn

Today Ashlyn had her 5th birthday party. We had about 18 kids in the house! It wasn't bad at all though. The kids played well and things went smoothly.

Her favorite part of the day....playing tag in the yard. It's always the simple things that they are the most impressed with.

Christmas Traditions

We have a few family traditions that we look forward to every year. One is going to Macy's and mailing our letters to Santa. Another is picking out our stocking ornaments. Every year we buy a new ornament for our tree. We started doing it a few years ago because if I picked out all the ornaments we would have a tree full of red balls and clay Santas.

Ashlyn, in true princess fashion, picked an Ariel the Little Mermaid snow glob ornament for her stocking.

Big surprise that I picked another clay Santa for my stocking ornament.

Last year Mike's cousin bought him this LT ornament. So he was very happy to use it this year on his stocking.

We wanted to get a dog or puppy ornament for Ariel's stocking but the two stores we went to didn't have any. Of course now I see them everywhere. So the kids settled with a reindeer to decorate her stocking.

Braden has quite the nutcracker collection going. We already have a couple ornaments on the tree and he has his nutcrackers in his room year around. This years nutcracker is covered with glitter. It looks pretty at night when the Christmas lights shine on it.

Another Christmas tradition for us is gingerbread ornaments. They are super easy to make. The dough is made of applesauce, ground cinnamon, and a tiny touch of good ole' fashion white glue. Super simple and the kids love lOVE LOVE making it. I pour all the stuff in the ziplock bag and let them mush it around until a ball of yummy smelling dough forms.

fa la la la

With Christmas comes Christmas programs and concerts. Ashlyn's class sang "Must Be Santa" but I think that most of the audience would agree that Ashlyn sang the song while the rest of the class chimed in as back up. She nearly fell of the stage a few times because she was so animated. Silly girl.

Braden's class sang "Jingle Bells" and " Jolly Old Santa Nick" at his concert. I had a hard time seeing him. The bad part about being the tallest kid in your grade is that you always get stuck in the back. He didn't care. He was just happy to wear something other than his school uniform for a day.

Star Athletes

Baseball is offically over! I think the whole family was ready for it end. Braden had games 3 nights a week and Ashlyn had a practice one night a week and a game on Saturdays. That's a lot of baseball.

Braden got his trophy at a team pizza party Thursday night and then Ashlyn got her's Saturday a league picnic. They both are very proud of their trophies and I'm very proud of them for playing.

More Halloween

This year Ashlyn decided very early that she wanted to be Dorothy from the Wizard of oz. We bought her costume early in September at Wal-Mart.

Braden took a little longer to decide. He briefly wanted to be a zombie, a vampire, and a few other things. Finally I convinced him to be a mummy but in true Braden style he had to put a twist on it. So he asked for a pharoh hat to go with it.

The mummy part was easy- an old tee shirt and shorts, an off white bed sheet, and big bottle of tacky glue! The hat took me a little longer to figure out and I didn't actually make it until the night before but it must have turned out ok because Braden was happy with it. I just cut up a stretchy blue shirt and glued it onto a piece of cardboard and added some gold glitter.

All in all Braden's costume took me about $6 and 10 hours to make. Ten hours to make and he wore it for a wopping 3 hours. Oh well, he looked cute.

Swing Batter

We have our first week of baseball game under our belts. Ashlyn only likes to bat. She is really cute too. The batting helmet is so big that she looks like a bobble head at bat.

She's not that in to fielding but there is only one boy on her team that is into it. I think at one time every player had a parent on the field with them herding them out of the outfield or tearing them away from their sandcastle masterpieces. It was really fun to watch them play. You never know what a 4 year is going to do.

Braden had a blast at his first game. I was worried but he jumped in and enjoyed himself. He spent some time on the pitchers mound and behind the plate. We are living baseball right now. Braden has games on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday and practice on Wednesday night. So four days a week he's busy and Ashlyn has practice on Tuesday and games on Saturdays.

We don't even like baseball.

Play Ball

Ashlyn had her first ball practice. She is the only girl on her team and the only girl that I saw playing period. She spent most of the time dancing with her shadow and playing in the dirt. She was almost shy tonight which is very odd for her. Maybe next week she'll be more involved or maybe she and her shadow will perfect the waltz.

Fairy Tale Ball

I must say that Ashlyn goes to the best preschool ever! Last weekend they turned their main building into a Fairy Tale Ball. We had to sign in on the scroll and then we preceded to go to the dance, pictures, face painting, crafts, story time, and the bounce house.

We were standing in line for the carriage ride when the sky opened and it began to down pour. She was not happy at all. So she didn't get to ride the carriage or the pony but she still had a great time at her ball.

This is she and Joshua listening at story time. Joshua is her best friend but I think there may be a little romance in the air.

Play Ball

We (meaning Mike) decided that Braden and Ashlyn should play baseball this fall. So we looked around and Braden will be playing tee ball and Ashlyn will be playing wiffle ball. It will be interesting to see how we will manage being at two different parks each week.

Before we dropped the $150 in fees we ran to Dick's and bought a few things to see how interested the kids were. So far so good. They have fun out in the yard playing. I just hope it continues after practice and games start.

Ashlyn Started VPK

Boo Whoo Whoo! Actually no tears were shed Tuesday when Ashlyn started VPK. It was hard to feel sad because she was so comfortable and happy. All the other kids stayed close to their parents when they walked in. Everyone except for my child who promptly ran to the center of the carpet and began twirling like a ballerina. Then she started saying "Come on friend.Let's play."

She's been having fun. Yesterday she came out crying so I was braced for a bad report. She didn't get one. She was crying because she didn't want to leave. Today, however, one of her teachers ask me to talk to her about sitting quietly during circle time. Apparently they had a hard time reading the story because Ashlyn was busy entertaining.

I'm sure it was the teacher's fault. She should have picked out a more interesting story, preferably one with a pink cover and fairy pictures. It works for me.