My kindergartner...

Has grown a lot over the years. I can't say that Bubba has changed a lot over the years. He looks almost the exact same! But, I can't believe that next year I'll have a First Grader!

and the real shocker is that I'll have a First Grader and a {new} Kindergartener...Yep Pooks is growing up quick too! He is extremely excited to start school and doesn't understand why he has to wait until September. Patience is not his forte.

And yes, we are taking over the school one year at a time :)

"but this one is just right..."

When Nanaw and Papa visited in March for Bubbas birthday, they surprised him with a desk. It's literally old school..my great grandpa gave it to me when I was little. Its so old that it's metal with a wood/ laminate top, a metal frame and actually has a lift top. It's adorable and he loves it. He uses it for puzzles, to draw/color and enjoys having his own spot. But, as it happens when you have more than one child, the other boys were jealous/upset. So I've kept an eye out for one and as luck would have it, Sunday night I found an ad on my buddy Craig's list, where a former home-schooling mom was selling not one, but 2 old wooden desks. Yeah I immediately emailed her....I wanted those desks. Well she contacted me and said they were ours for just $15/each....score! So after work yesterday, B went and picked them up!


Is that not the cutest thing you have seen?

Seriously?! Look at their little faces:

Now granted, they're not done yet...I am planning on refinishing them back to how they looked originally (Bubbas is in original condition). I'll have to sand off the green and pink spray paint, then Pooks will probably be re-painted to the gunmetal silver (depending on condition, since his is metal) and if the original wood on Peanuts is nice, we'll stain it. If it's not, we'll paint it again (but it won't be pink with hearts).

I think this is the push we needed to get refocused on home-schooling. When we moved to this house, we lost our "classroom" basement and we didn't have an area to kinda settle down and focus in. Well, now we do. Granted it's in our dining room but eh, we'll take it! As of now we will still be enrolling Bubba into Kindergarten this fall but I will teach Pooks and Peanut at home for preschool (unless Pooks somehow wrangles a spot in Pre-K...he desperately wants to go to the big school with Bubba we just don't know if he'll qualify). The boys are excited to go get Alphabet posters and workbooks, so off we go!

Ka-Chow!

Cars 2 hit theaters today. Our boys have been anxiously waiting for this moment {going on 2 years I think!} and like a smart Mommy, I went and bought advance tickets yesterday so that we wouldn't have to wait in line today. The show started at 11:15 but we were ready for it by oh, 8am. They were a bit excited:

So we managed to keep them corralled at home until 10:30am when we finally left for theater. We skipped the looonng line of people waiting to buy tickets and went and found seats. Even at 10:50am, it was already filling up! B kept an eye on the kids (and our up front, all togeher, row of seats) while I went and got snacks. I'm proud to say that because of different coupons and promotions, our family of six was able to see the movie for $2.50. Add in the large popcorn and medium drink (that I also had a coupon for) and our total for 4 tickets on Premiere Day + snacks was $9.25! Woohoo!

The boys had their popcorn in special Cars2 cups...they ate a cupful each before the movie had started!

I have to say that it was a really cute movie. I think that the storyline was a bit harder for them to follow {lets just say it involved oil companies vs eco friendly ''alltinol''} but they were so intrigued by the racing, spies, and funny parts that they didn't seem to care. All four kids sat through the entire movie without needing a potty break or throwing a fit. Granted Sissy did fall asleep 5 minutes into the movie and wake up 5 minutes before it ended but it worked out perfect.

In the Theater's lobby afterward

After the movie we ate a late lunch at Red Robin. After Red Robin the boys wanted to go see it again. Needless to say, that didn't happen. But we went home and took a nice long nap and now at 9pm, they are all back in bed asleep. All in all, a great day!

My little "Fixer Uppers"

Today we trekked on over to the Home Depot and took the boys to their first ever ''Kids Workshop". Originally B was going to take them as a Father-Sons thing but I wanted pics so I tagged along and ended up helping. It's actually a good thing I went because 3 excited boys with hammers everywhere...well, it could have ended up not so pretty. They had a blast! Each made their very own toolbox. And looked so cute decked in their orange aprons. They even earned ''achievement'' pins. The aprons are theirs to keep so they can take them with next time. Too cute! Thanks Home Depot!

 

Pooks was a little too enthusiastic with his hammer...

Bubba is naturally cautious and did great with his hammer.

Peanut was more than satisfied letting daddy help him.

"I'm sanded mom."

 

Pooks was the first finished and was proud to show his off

 

Telling the employee "thank you"

 

 I love my boys!

Bonkbeds

"You can't climb on them or you could bonk your head...dat's why they're called bonkbeds"

 

The big boys have been begging us for months, but especially during the last few weeks to bunk their beds. When we first got the beds, they were WAY too little to be bunked. Then when we moved into this house, originally Peanut was in their room as well. Which made me WAY to nervous...that kid is a climber! But he now resides in the other bedroom with Sissy. 

 

And he likes sleeping there. He has his own shelves and "stuff". Bedtime is beyond easier, he actually goes to sleep now instead of climbing in and out, harassing his brothers, staring at us from the hallway, etc. Granted most nights he sleeps alone as Sissy pretty much co-sleeps with me at night. {she was in her crib but she's been waking twice each night to nurse so it's easier on everyone to have her with us}. But it's his and he likes it. 

So after Bubba and Pooks asked us for the 1,293rd time if we could PLEASE bunk their beds we had a conversation about the ground rules.

1. No climbing/touching/going up on the ladder unless your name is [Bubba] and you're going up to go to sleep
2. No standing/jumping/hanging on either bed
3. No leaning over the edges, no hanging body parts over the edges, no throwing things over the edges
4. No climbing!!
5. If you climb/stand/jump/hang/bounce then we will not only un-bunk the beds but we will remove the beds completely and you will sleep on a mattress on the floor.
6. No toys in the beds. Stuffed animals and paperback books only.
7. No climbing!

We made sure to stress what *could* happen if they were breaking the rules and got hurt. We explained broken bones {thanks to Peanut they know what a cast is!}, stitches {they hates shots and needles}, fat lips, broken teeth, etc.

Now, I don't want you to think we just scared the daylights out of them, we didn't. We talked about how they get bunk beds because they are older now. That the beds can be fun because if you behave, Mommy and Daddy can hang a sheet up and make a fort. How now they have a ''reading area'' in their room, how they have room to build their Thomas tracks now.  How daddy slept in bunkbeds while in the Army and how Mommy did too, at college.

They really did listen and take it in. When bedtime came Bubba gave Pooks a kiss, climbed up his ladder and laid down. Pooks watched him, they he laid down. Other than some excited talking, we had no problems. And having the extra room in their bedroom is definitely nice!

See all that floor space?! Plus of course, the ''reading area'' as they call it.

 That being said, I'm no idiot. I pretty much decided that until the newness wears off anytime they are playing (without an adult) in their room, I will probably just take the ladder out. I know, I'm probably overthinking it but, better safe than sorry!

We Love You Grandma!

Two weeks ago I shared pictures from Great Grandma's 100th birthday. Yesterday morning, Grandma went "home" to heaven. She had a wonderful, long life and she was ready. She's been saying for years that she was ready. I guess all the excitement of living for so long has it's ups and downs. I know it was especially hard on her when she had to witness deaths of her own children, grandchildren and even one great-great grandchild. I remember her saying that it just wasn't fair that she was getting older and they died too young. She did enjoy her grandkids/great grandkids and great-great grandkids though! I wanted to share this video from her birthday a couple of years ago...she was singing to the boys :) I am so grateful that B caught it on camera, even if it was just his cell phone.

We love you grandma! I know you're in Heaven smiling down on us and keeping a watchful eye. Can't wait to see you again, someday. {I think it'd be pretty cool to meet my great great grandkids and seeing how grandma had just celebrated her 100th birthday and my Grandma Great is 96 years old the odds might just be in my favor!}

SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!

Appropriately enough on Sunday, B was able to take Bubba and Pooks to their very first Monster Truck show. The boys had seen the commercials and really wanted to go so after some discussion it was decided that Peanut would stay home with me and Sweetcheeks while B took the ''older'' boys. Realistically there was no way I was taking a three month old and it would have been very difficult for B to take all three boys by himself. We decided that Peanut just turned two, he wasn't really old enough and this was something special for the big boys.

They had a blast. Granted, I only have pictures but you can see how excited they were! Their seats were nosebleed at the Astrodome which was intentional; B and I figured that was best for there first show. It would be loud and sometimes, Pooks isn't as brave as he pretends to be. {Hello, he was scared of dolphins at Sea World}.

 Before the show, inside the Alamodome

 The start of the show...

 Monster Trucks!

 Bubba was too interested in the trucks, I guess!

 

 

 Standing in front of "The Tower of the Americas''

(apparently it's 87 feet taller than the Space needle)

 and looking tiny in front of the Alamodome

When they got home they were very excited to tell me all about the trucks, the popcorn, and the ear plugs...they were strangely excited about the earplugs, lol.

 All in all, a huge success!

An Impromptu Stop

 A last minute decision to buy some time before heading to Grandma Great's house too early, resulted in a great memory for the boys. They loved Rock City!

bubba and pooks...

Are getting so big! Seriously.

Serious.ly.

When I started this blog back in July of 2007, Pooks wasn't even TWO months old. This was the first picture I shared of him. Say it with me now. "Awww". He's now 3.5 years. He went from being the baby to having both a baby brother and a baby sister. It just amazes me.

Bubba has {obviously} always been the oldest but it's just recently that I've started to realize how old he really is. When he says things like ''Next year when I'm five, I get to go to Kindergarten?". Um...*gulp*....''Yeah".

Currently they are both in the same pre-school class {well, at Wee Wigglers there is only one class} but because of their age difference and because Bubba went last year as well, they have different homework. Pooks is working on colors/shapes right now and Bubba is learning how to write his lowercase letters and phonics. I'll be honest, even though there is an age difference of 13 months, when it comes to most things they are equally knowledgeable...different homework or not. Both already know all their colors and shapes. Both recognize and know all of the numbers and the entire alphabet, upper and lowercase. They're both quite good at phonices and catching on quickly to the sign language they learn at school.

The difference between the two kids is in actually caring about it. Bubba loves school and learning. He loves doing his homework. He does it perfectly, double checking with me before actually writing to make sure he's doing it right. Last year when he had to color his assignments he colored beautifully, making sure to stay in the lines and even drawing extra shapes on the back of the page. It'll easily take him 10-15 minutes for his one sheet. The sheets he's now doing are a connect-the-dots that form a letter, then he practices writing the letter below.

Pooks on the other hand, does his homework to get it done. Learning comes easy to him...he doesn't really think about it or talk about it or practice. He gets out his homework page, gets out his crayons, climbs up and asks ''What do I do Mom?". I explain it, he grabs his crayon, does it and is done in under 3 minutes. He does it correctly but quickly. "Color the squares blue" translates in Pooks' mind to "Scribble blue on every square as fast as I can''. I don't know if this is simply his personality or if it's because he already knows his colors and shapes so having to color them is a waste of time? 

I'm not sure. I do know that I've tried to teach him to write his name and to start writing the alphabet but he doesn't seem to have the dexterity {or desire} yet. To each their own...I'm not in a rush for him to grow up, plus he has another year of preschool to go and I don't want him to get too bored. 

Coolest, Easiest, and Funnest Project Ever

I stumbled across a tutorial while blog hopping a long time ago using Freezer Paper to make "Screen Printed'' T-Shirt designs.

I know...say what?

I can't even remember where I originally read about it but I know it was last year around this time because I was working on I-Spy bags when it happened. I mentally filed it away for later use but then never had a need to use it.

Until now :)


I knew I wanted to make/get each of the Little Dudes a ''Big Brother'' shirt to wear up to the hospital when they meet their little sister for the first time. I even proposed the idea to them and they loved it! Problem is I have 3 Little Dudes all whom wear a size 4T or smaller and it's not easy finding 3 shirts in the right sizes and styles. Not to mention they each cost around $12 (or higher) so we're looking at dropping almost $40 on 3 tshirts.

Um, I think not.

So I did what I do best and thought ''Oh it wouldn't be hard to make those". The problem was I knew that those Iron-On shirt transfers don't hold up very well to washings. I knew that I didn't have a steady enough hand to hand-paint each shirt with Puff paint and seriously, it's 2010 not 1993...I think we've moved past puff paint. Then I remembered the Freezer Paper shirt idea. So I headed over to one of my favorite blogs: Made and searched through her tutorials. Ah-ha, Freezer Paper Stenciling tutorial.

I won't get into all the details but basically freezer paper works wonderfully as a stencil for creating a screen-printed effect on tshirts. You simply trace/draw your design on the dull size of the freezer paper; cut it out with an exacto knife. Iron the freezer paper 'stencil' (shiny side down) to the shirt. Apply fabric paint, let it dry and then remove the paper...it just peels right off! Then you have a super cute shirt that is 100% original, cute, holds up well in the wash and, most appealing to a mom of soon to be four kids....CHEAP. And did I mention cute? {please excuse the crappy cell phone pic; it's 1am folks and this is the best you're gonna get for now}

Seriously how adorable did those turn out? I used a fun playful font and added a number to the boys just for cuteness. Best of all, the breakdown:

3 Long Sleeve Shirts (size 5t, 4t, and 2t if you're curious) @  $3.50/each = $10.50
4 pack of fabric paint (in the colors the boys had chosen) = $4.00
Newborn white onesie: Free (we already had that)
Grand Total Spent for 3 Customized Shirts = $14.50
Each kiddo having a special shirt to wear on a very special day: Priceless

Overall it took about 3.5 hours to do all 4 shirts. Most of that time was spent cutting out all the letters with an Exacto knife; not exactly a quick task. It may have gone fast if I hadn't been eating Oreos and watching 'How I Met Your Mother'' at the same time. The best part is now that I know how easy it is, I plan on making them cute personalized shirts for their Birthday's and instead of buying Holiday tee's at Old Navy I can just whip up something at home. Woohoo!