Alexander and Glenn's Accomplishments

First, let's start with Glenn since I forgot to mention something last post. For the month of February, he was the student of the month in his class. You may remember that he was student of the month ever year at his old school for being caring. Well, that was the trait they were acknowledging in February. It's good to know that he shows this trait in the classroom! We're very proud of him.

Glenn had been having difficulty with his spelling tests. Come to find out, they are at the end of the day, so that may have been part of it (no one wants to think at the end of the day!). Well, we have been practicing the words playing a game, and he got a 100%! We celebrated by going out to get frozen yogurt. I haven't found out what he got this past week, but I'm sure he did well.

And Glenn's third accomplishment to mention is that he lost a tooth today. He was eating apples and carrots all day trying to get it out and it happened this afternoon. We had a bit of a fiasco tonight when he went to bed and couldn't remember where he put his tooth (I had put it in a ziplock bag on his desk, but he decided to play with it). Bob finally found it in Alexander's room (don't ask) and Glenn put it under his pillow. Then he told his dad, "No music in my room tonight. It might make the tooth fairy dance!" I was laughing so hard when Bob told me what Glenn said. We wouldn't want the tooth fairy to dance (not sure why)!

Alexander's school had their spring program this week. In the pictures below, all the kids are three or four years old. We have been practicing the songs and hand motions for weeks. He did awesome! He did almost fall off the stands a couple times, but caught himself. The first picture below is from "Row, row, row your boat." During the part that begins, "Merrily, merrily, merrily..." they put their hands on their cheeks like this. It was cute. I can't remember the song that the second picture was fun. But he knew all the words to the songs and the hand motions.

 

 

Gardening, design, and the kids...

I know, I know... It's been a whole month since my last post. But there's a reason for that- we are just so busy! Here's proof:

I've been setting up my vegetable garden. The former home owners left more pavers than we know what to do with. So, I decided to use some for a garden. You can see in the picture below that I will have three squares. And then I will have pavers around it up to the retaining wall. And it'll be pretty, too (I hope). I'm putting chives around the border of one square, marigolds around another (keeps out the aphids) and some little purple flowers (just picked up some seeds tonight) for the third square. I have it all planned out and will be growing most of the vegetables from seed. I think the only plants I'm buying are strawberries, tomatoes (who really needs a whole seed pack of tomato seeds?!?!) and dill (never have had luck growing dill from seed). I have four pots in the pool area with other herbs and am going to grow more herbs in hanging planters in the FL room. I love having fresh herbs for cooking.

 

(and yes, that light outside is not straight... it's on the list)

I've been decorating the house. I told Bob that I wanted to be able to decorate the house for my birthday and not to buy me anything. He was of course okay with that. So, I got started early. We have all laminate floors in the house, so I finally got a rug for the living room and Alexander's room. I had been wanting to get rid of the ugly gold vertical blinds in the dining area, and finally did. I actually got these curtains free through credit card rewards. They have a shimmer to them and the branches are silver:

 

Here's a cute picture of Alexander sleeping. I take so many pictures of him sleeping that I might have to make a photo album of just sleeping pictures:

 

Glenn created a poster for a county wide contest on how to attract butterflies to the home landscape. We did the research together. He decided what butterflies we were going to focus on (because the caterpillars and butterflies like different plants depending on the species). He chose three species and he chose a picture of the caterpillar and butterfly for each species. Then we found pictures of plants they like in my seed catalog. Of course, I came up with the explanation of what plants the caterpillars like and butterflies like. I didn't hear anything about the contest. I actually asked Glenn about it this week and he said he and a classmate had to bring their posters to the office because they were the best in the class. So, I was excited about that. The winners were to be displayed at the county's Master Gardener Spring Festival.

Well, we went to the festival today (because I wanted to get more gardening information about gardening in FL and just to see all the plants for sale). We walked in and the first thing we saw were the posters from the contest. Glenn didn't win, but he was one of about ten in his age category chosen to be displayed. His was the most research oriented poster because I followed the standards for research posters shown at conferences. The others were pictures of landscapes (I guess that would have worked, too). His classmate's was also chosen, so I was excited for her, too. Here he is next to his poster (sorry it's not clear, but I didn't bring my regular camera, just my camera phone. Had I known it was going to be there, I would have brought my camera).

 

And we finally swam in the pool today. Bob has been itching to turn on the heater, and I finally said yes. We all loved it!

Saving Kids with Special Hearts

Glenn is jumping in Jump Rope for Heart again this year. He gets so excited about this every year. He really loves helping children with "special hearts." View the cute card through the link below, and then there will be a link on that card to his donation page. I asked him some questions about what he was doing and why he was doing it, and got some very grown up answers.

Glenn's Jump Rope for Heart Card

(If the link above doesn't work, here's the URL: http://bit.ly/AgsPS4).

He surpassed his goal last year and collected $205. He hopes to do that again. Thanks for considering donating. Even if you don't want to donate, which is perfectly fine, you should view the card; it's cute!

Glenn's 2011

I just created a digital scrapbook for Glenn for last year. And then it will be printed into a photo book. I thought I would share it with you. Copy and paste the link below and it will take you to the Picaboo web site and you can view the photo book (and Uncle Gale, you should be able to print the pages, although Grandma has most of the pictures in her photo book).

Glenn 2011

We went to CT between Christmas and New Years and enjoyed getting to see our friends and family. Then we brought Bob's mom home with us for a couple weeks. It was an adjustment for me when she left: I had to clean up the dishes and fold the laundry. It was really nice having her here with us. She got to be here for Alexander's first day at his new school.

Alexander loves his new school. This month, he has been going three days a week for 3 hours a day. I've been teaching two sections of my course and felt he wasn't getting the attention he deserved the two mornings during the week he was home with me, so I just changed his enrollment to five days a week. He and I have one hour at home just the two of us before he goes to school and then we have two hours after I pick him up before I pick up Glenn. So, it's nice that we still get that one on one time.

Glenn is still loving school. He was happy to get back to school after the Christmas break. He missed his friends and teacher. And he has his birthday coming up next week. He will be turning 7 on the 31st. We asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday and he said he wanted to go bowling. He's only gone once. He's excited to teach his brother how to play and Alexander keeps telling me that Glenn is going to teach him. I also asked him if he wanted to go out to dinner somewhere, and he said Olive Garden. He's so grown up! He likes the salad and bread sticks and then of course he gets the pizza. :) We're going to celebrate his birthday on Sunday. I brought him to the grocery store today to pick out what he wants for his birthday cake. He chose chocolate cake and strawberry frosting. I made sure he knew that meant his cake would be pink, and he was firm that this is what he wanted. And then he picked out red hots to go on top. I knew there had to be red somewhere on that cake (his favorite color).

I'm going to start working at the office with Bob a few days a week. That was another reason Alexander is going to school every day. I'm going to be doing something with the incoming equipment, something about tagging the machines and some paper work. Sounds thrilling!!! <<>> The guy that usually does it is now going to be working from home a few days a week, so I'm going to do this so that Bob can focus on what he needs to do. Supposedly it should take about an hour each day I go in. Business is going really well, especially for winter. So, we're very happy about that.

I guess that's all the news we have for now. Stay warm! (We are!)

Merry Christmas!

We have had a fun week, especially since Glenn has already been off from school for a whole week. We did a lot of crafts and went to the park many days. We went to the library, and Glenn has fallen for Madeline books. He was so excited to find a complete collection of all her books within one book. He can even read them, so that makes it more exciting. He reads them to his brother, which is so cute!

Tonight, we went to church and the boys loved that there was a bell choir. Glenn was completely mesmerized by the candles during Silent Night. After church, we went to the town square. They actually had a church service going on in the square, which I though was really nice. We got to hear Christian Christmas carols the whole time we were there. The square is lit up really beautifully. And there's also a ferris wheel that they bring out just for this time of year. So, we went on that and could see all the lights from above while hearing Christmas carols. They also have horse drawn carriages with Christmas lights pulling people around the square. Alexander especially loved the horses. It got a little chilly at the top of the ferris wheel (I know, I shouldn't complain as it was in the upper sixties, but it was really windy up there and I was wearing what I wore to church). While we were in line, Alexander kept saying he was so excited, but he said it quietly. And during the ride, he said he was so happy he was big enough to go on it. Glenn was very excited the whole time on the ride. I think he talked non-stop the whole time. It really was a beautiful night!

Now the boys are in bed, the presents are under the tree, and I think it's time I go to bed, too. Our picture from just before we left for church is below. Merry Christmas!!!