We survived a week without Daddy (barely!)

I love this photo, it is picturesque of Annie who is relishing every moment of being an “only child” when Gwyn and Jacob are both at school.  She is riding in the car in front of the shopping cart at the grocery store, and the first thing she said when she got in was “two wheels!!”  She was super excited to finally be in control of that car all by herself.

Brian was in Norway all week…8 days, not that I was counting…oh, wait, I was!  I’ve learned that I’m not good at the whole single mom thing, and I do appreciate him being here and all that he does.  We couldn’t talk that much due to the time difference, but when we did he asked if the kids were missing him, and my response was always “not as much as I’m missing you!”  Taking the trash out is not fun, watering the yard is even less fun, dealing with a sick kid and a dr appointment is not fun by myself, soccer practice and daily dropping off/picking up kids by yourself is tiring and early morning’s (Gwyn was up by around 5:30 am every morning this week!) are especially not fun.   Jacob was an extra big helper to me this week, and I let him sleep with me 3 nights, he was super excited, and I did find that if I put pillows in-between he and I then I could get sleep as well…he is a smuggler and likes to be all over you when he sleeps.  We survived without him, but did take advantage of meeting friends for an early dinner at Smashburger, swimming with friends and ordering pizza, going to sonic for happy hour drinks, and playing and having dinner with our neighbor and her kids, whose husband was also in China this week! 

Jacob is doing great in Kindergarten, he loves it!  He told me this week that he has 4 friends at school.  He started talking about really wanting to be a walker this week since one of his friends is a walker.  So, Friday, I rode my bike up with the girls in the trailer, and picked him up in front of the school.  I had brought his scooter and helmet, and then we all rode home together.  I told him we could start doing this on Friday’s, but not again until October sometime…we were there about 15 minutes early and it was too hot!  Jacob LOVED being a walker, but is happy to be back on the bus.  They go to the library once/week and they pretty much let them pick out any book they want.  His last two selections were “Worlds worst Earthquakes” and “Worlds worst Tornados.”  Those were some interesting reads…not really, they talk about how many people died in all these different instances, it was depressing, and hard to read to the kids.  We kept trying to leave stuff out, but Jacob is a little too smart for that now.  Thankfully he came home with “Night Cat” this week.   They worked on words with B and M this week, he’s doing so well:

He also had an assignment this week to make a writing folder for his journal writing at school.  We picked out a few pictures, went through some magazines to cut some things out, and then got a few images from the computer.  I love how he did it all by himself (the ideas, the cutting, the gluing, even the writing his name on paper and cutting that out).  It really does represent what he likes:

He's got pictures of a baseball, a soccer, a football, a spider, a scorpion, a grasshopper, an ice cream cone, a cookie with sprinkles, star wars characters, Phineas and Ferb, a tiger, strawberries, an airplane, bacon, the number 5 (since he's 5), a picture of himself swimming, and a picture with Gwyn and Annie.

Gwyn is loving her school as well and making new friends.  She wakes up in the morning and asks if this is a day she is going to school.  When it is a day, she pumps her fish and says, “YES!”  She goes MWF, so on Tuesday and Thursday her and Annie get some quality time together.  Here they are playing outside:

Annie hung out with my mom, Jason and me at the hospital one day last week (thank God, Jason is okay, home and doing well)...she's quite proficient with the iphone:

Gwyn has also decided this week to roll her bike shorts up really short, we are trying to not draw that much attention to it…I’m thinking this is just a phase and since she is 3 it is no big deal, she thinks it is super cool!

Here is a video from Jacob’s soccer practice, he’s in all red (his Buccee’s t-shirt and some “matching” red shorts):

This was supposed to be an bath off-night, I give them baths every other night while Brian is gone, but I ended up having to do two nights in a row since both Gwyn and Annie decided to play in the dirt while Jacob played soccer.  I remember how dirty I must have gotten while playing on the playground or under the bleachers during some of Jason’s practices/games growing up.  This is just the beginning for Gwyn and Annie (who was MUCH worse, but would not let me get a picture of her), who will be having to entertain themselves while Jacob plays sports for many years to come:

 Monkeying around on the playground:

Gwyn wanted to play hopscotch, so Jacob made her this hopscotch board…he did awesome, and I thought it was too cute!

Lastly, check out my awesome bag I won from Matilda Jane!  They had this contest to give suggestions for use of the mesh bags that their clothes came in.  Out of 782 suggestions, mine made the top 25!  I think it is because it is a girls clothing company and most of the other suggestions were things like holding bows, washing sea shells, organizing clips, etc.  Mine was to use them as portable bug catchers for little boys!  See here (http://matildajaneblog.com/mesh-with-matilda-jane-continued/)

Funny things the kids said this week:

Me to Annie as I’m getting her out of the car:  Alright Annie, let’s go into Target.

Annie:  Go Target and go poop. (poor thing thinks every time you go to Target you go poop because that is what Gwyn wants to do. Every. Single. time.)

Jacob:  Let’s rock this thing (another Kindergarten-ism he’s brought home)

Gwyn:  I need a really sharp saw?

Me:  For what?

Gwyn:  So I can cut a bad guys head off (oh my…she obviously has an older brother!)

Jacob:  Guess where I’m going to have my birthday party?

Gwyn:  Laser Quest?

Jacob:  That is where I’m going to have my 7^th birthday party, guess where I’m going to have my 6^th birthday party?

Gwyn:  Chuck E Cheese?

Jacob:  No, I’m going to have it at that place where you can go and see the real Darth Vader and Storm Troopers.

Brian and I (laughing):  You mean the Star Wars Tours at Disney World??

Jacob:  Yes, why are you laughing, it isn’t funny.

Me:  It is a little funny because it would cost A LOT of money to fly all of your friends over to Disney World for your birthday.

Jacob:  We would just get all of Daddy’s money to pay for it.

Brian:  We don’t have that much money, we might need to get some of Jason’s money. (joking)

Jacob:  Yes, and Stacy and Justin, we could just get their money too.

Brian and I (laughing):  Okay, you want to just ask Jason, Stacy and Justin to give us all their money so that we can pay to have your birthday party at Disney World?!?!

Jacob:  Yes, why are you laughing?? (He is dead serious, and we have gone seriously wrong in the parenting department!!)