Pre Last Day of School

I am not sure if I feel even more excited about this school week being so busy but almost over.
Today Brandon had class party and International Day at school. Kids picked a country to do research on and then with help of their book buddies, they make Power Point presentations.

Brandon told me he worked in this program for about an hour I COULD NOT believe how much he knew about Power Point. He made a 3 slide sample presentation about Philly's, adding different effects including different fonts and sounds. I was more than amazed. That is the generation of technology, nothing is too difficult for them. Brandon rocks!

Anyhow, Brandon decided to do Russia. He seemed to be very excited about this project. I really wished I could have made it on that day but I had off their last day of school and could not take both. Mrs. Weimer took a few pictures for me.

Brandon, right before he left for school.

He wanted to take those posters I made for International Fair a couple years back and Mrs. Weimer said he could.  I helped him carry his stuff because there was so much. He took alphabet, matryoshka dolls, boys had their own stuff and Brandon said those poster attracted a lot of visitors to their booth.

 He said they all asked different questions, it is good to know that people were being inquisitive :)

After school I picked kids and Brody and we stayed on the playground, relieved that we did not have ANYTHING to do or ANYWHERE to go that night, however when I called to make reservation to Melting Pot for Friday night, they reminded me that I could not use my discount on Fridays, so our only option was to go that night. We got ready in half hour (longest time for Kyra to fix her hair and find high heels :) and we were off.
We had cheese, salads and chocolate. I cannot believe we ate almost 4 portions of chocolate :) I wished I could have Love martini but with the medicine I am on for my knees, I am into no-no for alcohol. I am, like a good girl, gotta listen.

Kids enjoyed it. Arvin was our server and he made us summer plate out of rice krispies and Graham cracker marshmallow in the middle for sun :) Brandon thought it was octopus because it had 8 legs :) And he told Arvin he knew how to make Yin and Yang martini :) " You pour it here, then cover it, then top it with chocolate, put those on and you are good to go". Oh, this mind of his never rests :) Love him!

On the way home we stopped at 2nd and Charles and got a couple of books. It was nice just to browse around and not be in any rush.

I am SOOO excited for summer to officially start! :)

She Prefers It Dirty

It is not what you thought. At all. All I am trying to understand is why my daughter, who is a girl, hates showers. Why she needs to whine/complain/yell that she just took shower this morning/last night/two days ago. She told me multiple times that I push her too much and she only needs to shower once a week.

I will show you this post when you are, like 15 :) and we can see how many times a day you will be taking showers by then :)

Jealous! :)

So how come those kids are so lucky? :) They get pj day, stuffed animal day, freaky Friday day, movie day. Yesterday they had field day for the entire school time, today Brandon had bare feet day (of course, he was wearing socks, though), Kyra had board game day (she brought Pop The Pig) and they had pizza from Jo Jo's pizza and class picnic. Tomorrow Brandon will have international day and 3rd grade end of the year picnic. On Friday, last day of school they will be just hanging out and Kyra's class will be watching Frozen.

I want a day like this at work!

Snuggle Bugs

Jimmy left for NYC today, he will be there 3 days and 2 nights. After baseball I took the kids to Sweet Frog and then when they washed up, all three of us snuggled on a big bed. It was completely dark when I took this picture, but they, did not discussing it between them, decided to make those faces :) 

I am curious to see how much sleep I will get tonight while sleeping between those two little people :)

Writing a day after... When I came to bed, I was supposed to sleep between both kids but when I came to climb in bed, Brandon laid right in the middle of the bed, so I took what was left from one side. I heard him talking at some point saying: "Go ahead, Corey!". Of course, he was dreaming about baseball :)

Creative?

Never have done anything like that before. Like! 

Bloopers

This weekend I did not work because of my knees, so we had some quiet (and at times not very much queit) time. When Kyra and I snuggled on the couch, she crawled right into my face, blew on me and said, sort of, by the way:
- It is so windy out!
I love her sense of humor!

When Brandon and Kyra were sitting on the couch next to each other and Brandon was calling her his usual poop head (do not ask me!), she said:
- Stop calling me poop head or I am going to lick you!
It immediately stopped him! :)

We were driving to Twin Kiss, when I head kids talking in the back. It went like this: (Kyra)
- Well, Titanic's tragedy happened 102 years ago, so I do not think she is still alive. At that time she was pretty old, probably in her 30s.
I totally lost it right there! Apparently, I am, being 34 years old, to them, 7 and 9 year olds like a person who saw dinosaurs in real life :) I am pretty ancient :)

Kyra Proud

Somewhere in a magazine or web I found a list of questions to ask your kids to see how they see you. One of the questions was: "What did I do to make you proud of me?" My heart almost melted when I asked twice, with almost 2 year interval, Kyra gave me the same answer: "Finishing Hershey half marathon". She has NO idea how it made me feel to hear it! I love you, Kyra, so much!

Back to the Future

I created Brandon's and Kyra's emails long time ago just in case if there is another person with the same name and now, (snap fingers), there is no chance for them to have the same email address. I have no idea, if years down the road, when my kids are ready to have their own emails, they will reject the ones I created because they would want cooler sounding email address but.. I hope mine will be okay for them :)

Today, out of blue, I decided to send them emails to those addresses. If/when they decide to use them, they will have a little surprise waiting for them. Why did not I think of it before???

What The Heck?

So I went for my usual run last Friday. Nothing much different but I had about 25 minutes between coming home from work, quickly changing, driving to the trail. Not much, so I slacked on stretching a little bit. Sometime during it I felt a little bit of pain in my both knees and I did not think much of it.

I skipped my longer run on Sunday because it felt like my legs needed rest. I ran on Tuesday and my both knees still hurt. I decided to go for a bike ride the next day which I did only to get disappointed that I did not even sweat riding 7 miles, like it was not a big deal. Next two days I had hard time walking or moving in general for that matter.

I was trying to figure out what I did wrong, what the heck was going on. I got online and saw how many things can contribute to knee pain, I think I counted like 8 or 9. I figured it is from weak foot or hip. I tried to make an appt with sports medicine dr just to find out I would have to wait for 4 weeks. Umm, thanks but no thanks. Someone recommended me another sport medicine dr, that I gave a try.

Funny thing, he had a medical intern with him, so when he was checking/bending/twisting my knees, he told her: "That is how 34 year old female knees look like". I frowned and asked him why he referred to me as 80-year old woman. He laughed and said my knees were in perfect shape, very healthy, something going on around them.

First, he sent me for x-rays which I did today to rule out natural/physical abnormalities. He also prescribed medication for me to take for 2 weeks which is, apparently, 4 times stronger than Tylenol. (First prescription medication in years if I even count one for bronchitis).

I will come to see him in 2 weeks and if I feel better, I can sloooooowly start biking. If it goes well, I can sloooooowly start running. I hope it will end like that. If pain returns, then... (I do not want to think about it).. we will have to come in to physical therapy to try to figure out what is going on.

It is such a shame! It is summer after all, time to get up early and go for a run/bike ride. I, certainly, do not mind sleeping an extra hour but I would much rather be active. Gotta be patient and wait.

.

Yes, It Is Summer!

Time for chasing each other and spraying!

Memorial Day Weekend

What a weekend! Brandon graduated from Bears to Weblos, we had a pack picnic in Sunset park, kids loved it! There was grilled food, playground, games, always water balloons, which kid does not like it? :)

We cleaned a big chunk of stuff in the living room on Saturday and I had early nights both nights during this weekend. On Sunday I got out even when daylight was still on. I got to play hide-and-seek with kids before bedtime :)

We got teachers' gifts on Monday and opened this summer with a dip in Palmyra pool. (except I was comfortable just to sit on the side and get some vitamin D :)

Nan, Pop and Mike came for food on the grill and kids finished up spraying each other outside for the rest of the evening. Now.. bed so we could do it all over again tomorrow :)

My Boy and I

I know I mentioned it before but I want to say it again.. I cannot believe that my 9-year old still asks me to lay with him as he falls asleep in his bed. I snuggle with him, rub his back and especially his head as he likes and I keep thinking to myself how crazy fast time has gone. Just recently I used to rock him to sleep and now he is getting closer to being double digit midget and he is still asking for me. I cherish every single day of it. I know it won't last much longer. I will take any of it. Just thinking that when I snuggle with him, brings him a sense of security, routine and feeling of being loved.. How much it means to me!

I Learn That Too

Since Kyra's class learned about Titanic, seems like everyone of them is obsessed with Titanic. We went to the library and got a book called 882 questions about Titanic. SO cool! I stayed up late that night reading about it. Ask me anything!

Love And Such

Kyra and I were doing errands, drivng in the car.Then she randomly:
- Mommy, I sat with Brady at this activity today and then at this and then Ms. Dentler put us together to do this together. (Happy)
- Do you think he likes you too?
- Mommy, of course! He told Georgia and I that he does not like girls who do dance or anything like that, he likes athletic girls like me, who like baseball, basketball etc.! And Jaden W likes me too, but if he starts talking about boyfriends, girlfriends or marrying, I will tell him no.
- Why?
- Mommy! He is not my type!
I could not help it! The WAY she said it cracked me up! I could not help but laugh! I can not believe it, I do not have a type but my 7-year old daughter does! :)
- So what is exactly is your type?
- Well, the one who is not very silly like Jaden who runs around and screams or pretends that his string cheese is Titanic! I like Brady!

At least she knows WHAT she likes! God help me when she is in her teens!

Miss in School?

Me:

- Kyra, now that school is almost over, what are you going to miss the most?

Kyra:

- Everything! I love school!

Me:

- Brandon, what about you?

Brandon:

- Gym, recess, music and health. 

- Why music?

- I like it. I would like to play either trumpet or trombone next year. 

Interesting! We will have to come back to this conversation!

Biggest Cheerleader

Brandon and Mike were playing basketball outside. Kyra ran in and said to me:
- Mommy, Brandon is beating Uncle Mike. He is awesome! Tell Dad!
And she was on her way...

Did I mentioned she loves telling Brandon that she loves him? She would take any affection from him which is extremely rare but still.

Kyra

- Just to notice how much she likes peace signs - in clothes or earrings.
- She covers herself with towel completely so that no one could see her naked.
- And she told me Georgia and her would ask Brady who he likes more. Because, apparently, it came down to two girls right now. Two days later.. Brady said he liked Kyra more because she is more athletic. She does gymnastics (used to), baseball, softball. Georgia does ballet. I guess when you are 7-8, this is a deciding factor.
- I love how she still blows me kisses when I leave and catches mine. Makes me feel like a magician :)
- And she is obsessed with going to porta potties.
- And always makes sure Brandon was not the one to get bigger or better or more of anything :)

Kyra's Talk

I think I mentioned, may be last month, how Kyra has got. She is so particular about the clothes she wears (should not be too hot, too cold, too long, too short, too bright, matching etc).. and her hair (not a hair should come out)..
Most times it is simply exhausting. Anything we offer does not work. She has nothing to wear, no right colors, doors do not close, she can not find (insert your own). It seems like she always has something to complain about.

Brandon and I were watching Brave the other night and main character, Princess Merida, acts just like Kyra.  In the movie everything ended fine but oh boy.. The way she acts when everything makes her annoyed.. It is exhausting. Is it a matter of raising a girl, may be? I do not know.. But I am very tired of it. Every day that we do not have one of her tantrums feels like I can breath again. Kyra, it is way to early to act this way for you. I am seriously worrying about teenage years..

Brandon's 9 Year Well Visit

I have to say I was looking forward to this appointment because it is a well visit. :) So, his weight is 60 lbs (sounds awfully much to me because he is half my weight) and he is 52.25 inches long.

Dr. Bartlett, as always, asked him some questions and then while observing him, he noticed: "Nice collection of bruises, Brandon". I said Kyra even has more than Brandon. Dr. B suggested playing connect the dots on their legs :) Dr. B has always been funny.

He is all good, healthy as can be :)

And the last..On the way out Dr. Bartlet asked the kids if they had any questions for him. Brandon said yes and asked to tell them about bio hazard box that they had in the office. My eyes got big. Seriously? Out of all questions he could have asked, he picked that one :) He is so funny, I love how inquisitive he is!

Book Fair Hearted Gift

I volunteered a shift at kids' school book fair. Each teacher had a few books on their wish list but Mrs. Weimer did not have any at all. Brandon came up to me and said he wanted to buy a book for Mrs. Applequeist who is another 3rd grade teacher, not even his and he wanted to to do so with his own money.

When he did, he brought it to her in her classroom and surprised her (because typically teachers pick their books the next day or after book fair).
I am so, so proud of my boy who is growing up to be a good man! Love him to pieces!