Swinging at the Park

I know this isn't his first time on a swing...maybe his 3rd...but I am not sure I took pictures of his first time :(  He was so scared at first and wanted me to get him out.  I had to make sure that he held on the swing in the right spot and I couldn't push him very high or fast.  He got use to it and was having a great time.  He FREAKED when I tried to take him out of the swing! 

The Grass Adventures

(I was using 3 different cameras, with different size lenses, so the lighting is different in the pictures!)
Yesterday I took pictures of my now 11 month and thought it would be fun to take them in the park across the street from our house...he wasn't too sure of the grass.  At first he wouldn't put his hands in it and he kept looking at me and Tay (she was helping me!) and screaming at us!

He got use to the grass and would not stop smiling!  Look how sweet that baby boy is...the cutest ever!!   



Then he realized it was MORE fun to crawl in the grass - bunnies, birds...anything and everything was distracting! 


He would get SO upset when my helper would bring him back to me!

He would look around for an escape route but always got caught!  I just love his little head.

He noticed a dog and thought it was pretty neat...then he started to scream at the dog!


He even found a leaf...tried to eat it!  Don't worry - I got the picture AND swiped it from his hands before he crunched down.  As you can see...he wasn't too happy with me!

Daddy even came out to try and help me get the little monster to sit still - to no avail.


I love this Energizer Monster (bunnies don't scream - so we decided he is a energy monster instead!).
 

End of the Year

Field Trips/Activities

The end of this year has been the busiest ever.  Probably because I now have 4 kids that participate in different school classes (last year I had two preschoolers, so it was TEENY bit easier).  So either Jed or I went on each child's field trip.  I have already posted about the field trip Jed went on with Zeke (Posted Here) but because of what happened...not sure if I can "let" Jed go on another field trip in the future.

Zee and Tay participated in our school sponsor run (Nicky Run) which raises money for Children's Hospital.  Tay really got into it and wanted to run for the entire time...Zee, well, he saw that as soon as you were done running you got a popsicle and he decided that he didn't want to run anymore :)

 

Zeke had a writers workshop that parents were invited too.  The kids had to share a poem or something that they wrote.  Zee shared a poem that was called "I Can't Write a Poem" (a free verse poem) and the class thought it was pretty funny.  I guess it is a poem that can be just random thoughts.  His class also had their class party at a close by park.  Zee is SO excited to be moving on into the 4th grade...he has had such a great year and we really owe it all to his teacher.  His teacher has been WONDERFUL.  Working with Zeke through his problems and his teacher really CARED, he cares about each one of his students.  I wish he could move up to 4th grade with Zee but found out that he is moving to be a 2nd grade teacher and crossing my fingers that Tay gets him next year!! 

Tay's class did a poetry reading.  She was so excited to read in front of the crowd.  JoJo and Popper were able to make it there to watch her as well.  She did great and wrote a poem about a horse :)  Her class also took a field trip to the public library and spent time learning how to find different types of books, Jed went with them on the crazy LONG walk from the school to the library to the park.  I met them at the park with the younger kids and watched everyone play and talked with the other parents.  Tay is growing up TOO FAST before my eyes.  She is so silly and cute to watch.

Bray had a music program.  All my kids have the greatest music teacher, he really takes pride in teaching the kids and letting them have fun with music (not to mention that his daughter LOVES my kids!).  She was so excited to have all of us there to watch her.  I got all her siblings out of class to come listen to her sing.  She ended up having a solo and I never realized how BEAUTIFUL her voice is.  I hear her sing all the time but  I guess I have never sat down and truly listened.  Wow.  Her class also went to a park for their end of the year party.  She has had a WONDERFUL Kindergarten year.  Bray has excelled in all of her school work and has had an AWESOME teacher.  She has made SO many great friends and we are really proud of our Bray-Bear.

Addie's preschool class got to go hiking up in Chautauqua park.  It is SO beautiful up there.  I have to say that this year it was MUCH easier (of course I was 8 months pregnant last year) BUT carrying Tigs on my back was HEAVY and TIRING.  Addie really enjoyed hiking.  She got to hang around with all of her "boyfriends" and liked to follow our hiking leader around looking for bugs and plants.  The preschool also did their annual breakfast at a park end of the year thingy!  I cannot believe that my baby girl only has ONE more year until kindergarten - I miss my little baby!!  She has made HUGE progress in her speech and has become SO chatty and comical...but I will say that I wish she NEVER stops says a few words right...

The DWODY (dirty) GURL(girl) is in the GOWABAGE. (garbage) (say it like you are from Boston or New Jersey!) 

Hill-ar-ious!  Love this girl :)

Choc-o-late the Snake

Tay's teacher this year had a pet snake in the classroom.  Zee had this teacher when he was in 1st grade and he LOVED the snake.  Tay...well, she had nightmares before school even started and they continued throughout the first half of the school year.  We talked with her teacher and told him that the snake had been bothering her and we were surprised when he told us that the snake actually hadn't been at school except for a couple of visits.  I guess he doesn't allow the snake to stay at the school until ALL the students are okay with the snake staying in the classroom.  Anyways, all of a sudden her nightmares stopped and we never heard anything else about the snake.  Of course we did speculate that her nightmares weren't even about snakes (Read Here)

To my surprise she begged to hold Chocolate on the last day of school - what!!??  So all of the kids got to take a turn holding the class pet.  Addie wouldn't go near it and screamed at me when I hinted that it was her turn next :)  Once everyone had gotten done holding the snake, Tay's teacher realized that Addie hadn't held the snake yet and so he grabbed her and told her that she could hold the snake's tail (he didn't realize that she was keeping a safe distance away on purpose!) - I could tell she was freaking out inside (which I SO would be too, I don't get to close to that slithery thing!) - funny thing is that Bray was stuck holding the snake longer than she excepted, look at the last picture and of Bray's face, she kept watching the snakes head to make sure it wasn't getting closer to her face!