Hershey Gardens For Mother's Day

Love Hershey Gardens with so much to see! Very peaceful to walk through.. TONS of my fav tulips, so many colors! (see below).

Hello there! Brandon is the photographer.

In children's garden you can find.. very..umm..interesting names of plants and flowers. Some of them refer to chocolate since, no surprise, we live in chocolate town, other names... I am not sure where they are coming from. I am telling you, you cannot make such things up! Here are a few names:

 Can I actually make Hot Cocoa from it?

 For some reason words Japanese and Snowbell do not go together for me.

 In CHILDREN's GARDEN.. Oh may be it is me who is thinking of something else?

 Ummm.. Well.. Yeah.. Just reading, makes me want to sneeze.

 Excuse me, but I am good standing this far.

Pretty cool inside of this huge tree. Even my girl in a dress does not look out of place :)

 Aha!

 This pig used to be the measurement of Brandon's growth :) Now, I believe, he overgrew it.

 Yes, it is kids area but who said 9-year old is too old to play here?

 My favorite lil' man.

It Is Life And Thoughts of 7-year Old

A night before Kyra's field trip kids slept over at Nan and Pop's. At 4am we got a phone call from Pop, who said he needed to take Nan to the hospital because she could not breath. Jimmy walked sleepy kids over while I fixed their beds. In the morning Brandon said something about going to Nan's to get something and when I told him she was in the hospital, he looked at me like I was crazy. I guess it is hard to think when you are abruptly awoken up in the middle of the night.

To add to that, Mike's girlfriend Tonya passed away that week and funeral was supposed to be at the same day.

So, on the way to Lake Tobias, while standing at intersection of 39 and Hersheypark drive where you can see what is playing in Hershey Theatre and Giant Center, Kyra saw something about Elvis Presley. She asked me if we could go see them. I told her he died long time ago. She asked if Tonya died from the same as Elvis. From there she went like this:
- I am sure Uncle Mike is very sad right now. I think Dad can understand him because that is how he felt when Andrea died. He must have been very sad. If you or Dad would die, I would be very sad. And.. Nan is in the hospital. I really hope she will not die...because that will make me very sad...

You can say it is just normal thinking of 7-year old and I will have to disagree. What I see is that she made a connection. And it is emotional one. Connection between grief and compassion. I was impressed by that.

1st Grade Field Trip to Lake Tobias

It started long ago, I know I wrote about the fact Kyra did not want me to be a chaperon because she was afraid I would baby her. Now, since my name was picked for 5 parents out of 11 who wanted, I was on the go!

At school, when Ms. Dentler told the kids who their chaperon would be, Kyra ran to me and clinged to my hand until we found our seats in the bus. She kept smiling and saying "Mommy.......Mommmy..." So sweet :)

Ms. Dentler did not make it easier on me, she gave me Kyra, Abrianna and Brianna. Phew! At least they all looked very very different even sizes, so I thought I would manage :)

Kyra in the bus. I had her hair French braided the night before and she let it lose before leaving for field trip.

When we got to the park, we got the tickets and were told we had an hour to go around the park till Reptile show. We walked around and we saw tiger, Mom-Dad-baby monkey family, lion, bears, zebra. Kids highlight of the trip was that we saw tiger poop right in its water area when it played with water just a minute ago.
Lauren King, Emma Stephens, Matthew Foerster, Georgia Speck, Kyra, Brianna and Abrianna

Later, when Kyra got home and Jimmy asked her what was the most interesting there, Kyra, of course, said seeing tiger poop was the best thing ever. Sigh.. I keep forgetting she is 7 :))
Abrianna and Kyra

We got to petting zoo next. It must have been the time of the year because we saw quite a few pregnant goats. I have never heard about big bellied pig but here it was.

 Ms. Dentler took a picture of me and Kyra with Matilda coming up

Guinea pigs were cute. There were a few tiny tiny babies, I just wanted to get over that fence and pet those rascals :)
Feeding alpacas

 This pic just cracks me up! :) It looks so important! :)

 Kyra and Matilda. Waiting for reptile show to begin

The show itself was not very long, about 20 minutes. They showed us a toad, alligator, two toe sloth and a snake. They were talking about how pollution is changing toads' and slothes' places to live because of deforestation. Interesting, that we should not pick a frog or a toad if we see them because if we have any lotions, hand sanitizers, soaps etc on our hands, it would transfer to their skins and visa versus if they have any secretion, it can transfer to us and if we are unlucky and catch a poisonous toad, some of them can make us very, very sick. 

This funny animal is called common marmoset

I took a picture of Kyra petting a snake but it did not turn out very good. Here they even have chain in front so people do not pet alligator's on the head but back, legs or spine.

 This dinosaur looking creature is blue-tailed monitor. Who ever thought of a name like this for an animal??

 Of course, green tree python. Looks like this guy is smiling, does not it? :)

We could not believe that we did not have time for a safari ride. That would be soooo much fun! However, the reality of life is that school buses had to be at school by 2 so they can start transport high and middle schoolers. Sigh. Will have to go there on our own in summer! :)

Why Have Girls

Kyra:
- I do not want to have my own kid. I want to adopt because I do not want to have all those needles in me at the hospital. And I want to have a girl. I know what to do with a girl. You can dress them up and do their hair.
Me:
- I am sure you can find something to do with boys like I do with Brandon. But, yes, boys are different from girls.
- Yes, Brandon is an expert of inappropriate words, Mommy! :)

Spring Concert - "All American" Theme

Brandon was so excited for this concert! They have been practicing at music class and he was proud that he would be a flag bearer with his cub pack members.

First there was art show with the stuff that kids made from all classes. 

Brandon's. As always, like his detail orientation. Like grapes on his plate :)

 Kyra's. Like how nicely stacked her food items on each other.

 Kyra's nice little cupcake made out of clay

First junior band and junior orchestra played and I have to say I personally found it very dark, I felt like I was at funeral although kids did do a great job. 

Next 3rd and 4th grades sand All American All the Way song. 

Ethan, Corey, Brandon and David Shillow - 1st row

Next was flag ceremony by cub scouts - Brandon,  Jack Lemarr, Avery Book and Austin Little. Brandon was very proud, he carried this heavy flag and did not move his arm, look how he is holding it and it was like that the entire time. 

Next song was called "Jazz", I really liked it. It was very dynamic. Brandon is between Wesley and David. 

The end of "She is coming around the mountain"

"What did Delaware?" My fav song of the concert. I love puns!

 "There is a hole in my bucket". Boys were playing Henry and girls were playing Liza.

Tiger song

I really, really enjoyed the show. Brandon seemed to enjoy himself and he looked very diligent about doing all the right moves and sing the right words. What a great performance! 

Weather

With this crazy weather we have been having, we totally missed spring. We had winter that went straight to summer. Today is may 10th and only yesterday I started switching my summer and winter clothes. MAY! Now we have 80F and we complain it is already hot. Seriously?

Brandon at 9

Height: 50.75" last year, 52,25' now

Weight: 54 lbs. 4 oz last year, 60 lbs now.

Favorite color: orange

Favorite food: pizza   

Favorite movie: Lego Movie

Favorite game: Minecraft

Favorite place: Nan and Pop's or Brody's

Favorite animal: Ocelot from Minecraft
Favorite character: Stampy from Minecraft

Favorite books: none

Favorite musical group: none

Favorite school subject: gym

Favorite fruit: everything

Favorite vegetable:  everything

Favorite holiday: Halloween or Christmas

Favorite month: April 

Favorite candy: Batonchiki 

Favorite hero: Emmet from Lego Movie

Favorite thing to do: baseball 

Favorite friend: Brody 

Most frequent used phrase: "Kyra smells like poopy butt". No joke. I just hope he will get over bathroom talk before he gets his first girlfriend :)

He definitely likes his pj days

He still uses a lot of poop words

Likes to run around with Pop

Likes sleepovers at Nan and Pop's and Brody's

Likes to roughhouse and play ball

Is very good at explaining things just like his Dad

Did basketball, baseball and scouts this year

Likes to ride his bike (now new one)

Likes to play video games (along and with friends)

He is eager to learn about Russia

He would try just about anything in food

He is good at protecting Kyra and I from insects

He still asks me to lay with him for a couple minutes in his bed before going to sleep

He still holds my hand on the way from school to the car (and I love it :)

He wants me to come to his school when I can

He is really fast getting ready in the mornings and with no reminders
He is VERY polite, with please and thank yous all around
He is good to give someone a call or ask a sale person for assistance
He likes to please us
When he wants to try something new, he almost gets obsessed with it :)

I feel like he really matured this past year. Most important, my Brandon-Bear is loved. A lot. <3

School Spring Pictures

I almost fainted when saw them, especially, Brandon's. Where did teenager looking boy come from????

3rd Grade Field Trip to Whitaker Center

I was lucky to be selected for this trip. 3rd grade is the smallest grade at school, they have only 24 people in the whole grade, so each of us had only 2 kids to watch.

When I asked Brandon a day before who he had as a child for me to watch, he said Brooke and he explained:
- Kids who had chaperon parents had to pick "left over" kids. There were Alexis and Broke left, so I picked Brooke.

In the end it worked out, because Michele Angerer had Shannon and left over Brody, so we switched - I watched the boys and she watched the girls :)

First, I have to say that it was my very first time in my life riding in the big yellow bus. I am only 24 :) Second.. I did not realize how loud a bus can be when Brandon used to tell me how much he disliked the bus because of that. Now I know what he meant. I needed ear muffs, how loud it was.
Those boys, however, behaved in the best way possible, just quietly chatting with each other.

Anyway, when we got to Whitaker Center, we could explore 3 floors of Science Center before watching 3D movie in IMAX.
Trying to light up a lamp bulb with their movements.

 Racing with built cars

 Playing to see who would kill more bad bacteria

Brandon and Alexis. His favorite activity here - Calorie Race. They ride a bike and watch the number of calories they are burning.

1 floor of exhibit. This one shows hurricane Sandy from 2 years ago. They could also try to stand in 90mph tornado wind, Brandon was not interested in trying that, though :)

Ready for 3D Journey to the South Pacific movie about Tropical islands of West Papua. Movie was great, I felts like I could touch the boats and fish and all underwater life, that was how closed it looked in those 3D glasses.

More of playing. Olivia, Katie and Brandon

Now, I think it is called Discover lab or something like that. Kids learned about electricity and about closed and open circuits. Here is an example of a closed circuit - tennis ball is a electron.  

Brody (left), (Tucker with his back), Elijah, Reese, Wesley Taggert, Brandon

 Now, here is an example of an open circuit - Brody left, so tennis ball, aka electron, can not move as easy.

Brody, Tucker and Brandon worked on various tasks on how to measure electricity, how to connect red and blue (negative and positive) together. It was so lunch time and kids were getting anxious to eat. Brandon was hungry but he was still so concentrated. He was one of the firsts to raise his hand when a teacher asked a question and I saw he actually listened. Great job, Brandon!

 Oh yes! How to leave without it?
1st row left to right: Gabrielle Veith, Carly Stephens, Madison Deal
2nd row boys: Corey Baker, Elijah Speck, Ethan with Tucker Berzinski in front of them
3rd row: Brooker Becker, Valerie Hevner, Katie Ross, Olivia Ball and Alexis Geib
Last row: Shannon Angerer with Brayden Pavone behind her, Brody Lenker, Julia Singsister, Brandon, Tanner Webb and Corbin Jockers

Mine and Brandon's rocks purchased at the gift store. Mine reminded me of my teenage years - I used to have a bracelet and a necklace made out of it.

 

International Bread Day

Kids were supposed to bring any kinds of bread for everyone to try. Brandon asked me days in advance to go get Russian bread, so the day before the event we drove and got 3 different kinds (altogether with our favorite Batonchicki).

I was not surprised when Brandon got home and said that barely anyone liked it, it was harder and tasted very different. Interesting how they eat chemicals enhanced bread and like it and the one that is actually healthy for you, was not to their liking.

I still like Russian one the best! :)

Big Advisors

I was going to HACC to meet with students with disabilities to give them hints on how to look for a job and how to keep it. On the way to drop the kids off at school I asked them what they thought I should tell those students.
Kyra:
- Well... Tell them to come prepared, stay concentrated and not to fool around (exact words)
Brandon:
- Not to come for an interview in pj and do spell check of their resume.

I have to say I am so super proud of them! They did not only listen to me talk about being employed but also, they actually listened to me. I keep talking to them about that and about work ethic and I hope by the time they are ready to work, those qualities are in hard in their heads!

Brother and Sister

Brandon and Kyra were in the shower. Kyra was finishing up doing her hair and Brandon was waiting for her to finish so he could get it. Jimmy was standing at the door so he heard their conversation.

-Brandon, is all soap gone from my hair?

- No, you still have a lot, here, here and here. 

Jimmy yelling:

- Kyra, are you just about done?

Brandon:

- No, Dad, she still needs to rinse her hair. 

Then Jimmy hears:

- Kyra, would you me to just rinse your hair for you?

Oh, my sweet, caring, thoughtful boy! I love him so!