Field Trip - Las Colinas

I think that I am as addicted to our field trips as the boys. Miles got the whole week off of school this week, so we wanted to enjoy them. I was planning on doing a field trip with the boys tomorrow, but Troy had a couple of things to do with work that the whole family could join in on so we did.

We started out by going to Grandpa Whatcott work and getting a tour of War-Lok. Troy has become one of their distributors so it was fun to get a behind the scenes tour and meet the people there. The boys loved the fact that Grandpa gave them each a flashlight.

We were right by the Founders Plaza at the airport. It is a place that the boys and I went to over the summer during one of our field trips. Troy was making phone calls and the boys and I were watching planes land and take off and running around to get the wiggles out.

We made a couple more stops and then ended our day in Las Colinas to see the Mustang statues. I thought that they were so cool! It is huge statues of mustang horses running through water.

Drew our animal boy ran right up to them to check them out.

We had fun spending time there. It was a really fun to get to spend with the whole family.

Denton Turkey Roll

One of my friends, Jana just started riding with me. It has been so fun to have friends to ride with. It make it so much easier and more enjoyable to be out. We have done a couple of group ride with some of her family and it is has been fun.

They were all riding in the Turkey Roll today and a couple of days ago I decided to join them. We rode 35 miles and it was alot of fun. It was the longest distance that Jana has rode so I was proud of her. I think that this is going to be an annual event now.

Miles Thanksgiving Feast

Miles class had a Thanksgiving feast at school today. I got to go and join him and help with the food preparations. I thought that the party was so fun. I really liked all the Mom's that came to volunteer and thought all the food was yummy.

Miles with his place mat that he made.

After the lunch was done and we were cleaning up, Miles turned to me and said "Can I go home and eat now? I didn't like this lunch." As I looked at his plate that he was throwing away he did not eat one thing on it. Yes I did take him home so that he didn't have to starve for the rest of the day, but I think that Miles is going to have a couple more days of hunger. We are going to two Thanksgiving dinners and I am hoping to get enough left overs for a couple more days.

Primary Activity

All week the boys have been so excited to go to the primary activity that was tonight.  It was at the Winegar's ranch again like last year and they really have been looking forwarded to it.  I have too, last year was so fun and we all really enjoyed it.  The activity was a Pioneer Trek and we were to come dressed as a pioneer.  All week Miles has been asking me if I was going to make pioneer outfits for everyone.  I kept brushing it off and tellling him that I can't.  I packed my sewing machine and sewing stuff and didn't want to unpack it.  So, I told him that we were just going to go, it wasn't that big of deal, costumes were optional.

So, it is time to go and I am telling the boys, "go get your shoes on it time to go."  Miles come in and says, "we can't go we aren't dressed like pioneers."  I again tell him, that is ok.  We don't have to be in costume we can just go.  I told him that he could where his boots and a cowboy pioneer.  That wasn't going to fly.  To make a long story short.  We ended up not going to the primary activity because Miles was told that our family had to be in costume and since we were not in costume we not able to go.  I really did think that if I said ok, we won't go, eventually he come back and say I really want to go, lets just go. 

Note to self: When Miles is given a direction to come dressed in costume, I better make costumes.

Rebecca

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I read this book for book club. I wasn't to excited to start it, because I hadn't heard of it before. But, when I got it I only had a few days to read it so I jumped right in. I thought that the first 5 chapters were to discriptive and so I sped read them, but enjoyed the rest of the book. It had a little suspense, and some twist and turns in the plot.



View all my reviews >>

Drew Splits His Head Open

Ok, that makes it sounds really bad. But here is the story:

We just got back from our wonderful parent-teacher conference.  Had late dinner and are now trying to rush the boys upstairs and into bed.  Drew has been more than uncooperative through the bedtime routine tonight, crying and fighting with everyone which make me want to hurry even more and get him in bed because it is apparent that he is tired.  I am in helping bathe Miles and Tyson, calling for Drew to come upstairs.  Troy is in the boy's room getting out pj's and calling for Drew to come up.  He is sitting on the bottom step yelling "no" and crying.  Finally he stops crying and comes upstairs and starts playing with the piggies. 

Troy walks into the boys room and yells, "Kristin!  Drew is covered in blood!"  He grabs Drew and runs him to the bathroom and he is covered from head to toe with blood.  It is running down the back of head and all over his shirt.  Then it looks like he rubbed the back of his head and then wiped his face so it all over his face and hands.  I start taking all his clothes and start cleaning to see where he is hurt.  Eventually I find the cut on the back of his head.  It is about a half an inch long.  Through the whole process Drew is not crying.  He is just asking to stop touching his head.  I clean him and then tell him that he needs to bath so that I can the rest of the blood off of him.  He jumps in and lays down in the water.  I thought that the water would sting him, but it nevered bothered him.

We get the other boys in bed and Troy and I are looking at the cut on Drew's head and decide (after a few consulting phone calls with Kelly and Linda) that we don't think it needs a stitch, we just need to glue it together. Even after we put the glue on, Drew still has no reaction to the cut on his head. This is the part that I think is scary. Up to this point, I have always thought that Drew has never really gotten hurt. The others boys when they are hurt you can tell in the cry, that they are in pain and Mom better come quick. Drew's cry was the same tonight - it never changed. Not even the sight of blood on his hands made him say anything to us and change his cry. So, now I am wondering how many times he actually gets hurt, and I don't realize it. I see bruises on him all the time and he will never remember how they got there and will always say that they don't hurt, so I haven't thought much of them. I think that Drew has a really high tolerance for pain, and I never realized it. Now I am going to be more in tune with him.

As a side note: We discover what he hit his head on. We followed the blood trail back down the stairs and I think that he must have threw his head back while he was yelling "no" and crying and hit the corner of the stairs that is wood. What can say - Drew is going to make sure that our live is never boring.

Miles' Parent Teacher Conference

We got to meet with Miles teacher tonight for our Parent-Teacher conference.  I have been able to go in and work in Miles class a couple of times this year and really like his teacher.  I love how smoothly her class flows and all the kids seem to be really nice and well behaved.  Miles loves school this year.  I don't think that we have had one morning yet of arguing and trying to convince him to go to school like we did every day last year.  So, we were both looking forward to going in and hearing what the teacher had to say.  She had nothing but nice things to say about Miles.  Miles always works well in his centers, he gets along well with all of the kids, and he is reading and doing math above grade level...and just a joy in his classroom.

I was so happy to hear this report about Miles.  I think that Miles is a really good boy, and he is just excelling this year in school and I know it is because of the structure of his classroom.  We have often described Miles as our "rules follower."  If you tell him to do something, he is going to do it.  In his classroom, they are sent to centers where the teacher describes in detail what they are to, and they have an assignment and contract to fill out each week.  Miles loves this.  He has told me several times that he really likes his centers, and it is because they are right up his alley in being a "rule follower".  We love our little Miley-Smiley and think the world of him; it is really nice to hear that others think the same.

Dallas Arboretum

Tyson spent the night at Grandma's house so it was just going to be Drew and I today. I called my friend Kathy to see if she wanted to do something with the little boys and we decided to use her pass to the Dallas Arboretum. I have never been there, but I loved it!

We packed a lunch to eat, and found an area that the boys could run and explore. I was so impressed with the kid friendly areas that it had. They still had their fall exhibits out and so that was fun to see also. I now want to go back to see what the Winter exhibits will look like.

There were little house around for the boys to explore in that were just there size.

Don't they look thrilled to be sitting next to the pumpkins to get their picture taken?

I think that they are both plotting something....

Can I Die Now?

Troy had to speak in church today, and honestly I think that I was more nervous about being left alone with the kids while he sat on the stand. Our little Drew turns into a demon child during Sacrament Meeting. He has no patience and can not sit through the whole meeting. Still and he is almost 3 1/2.

Thankfully our friends the Waldron's sat with me to help with the kids. To start off, when the sacrament was passed the Deacon handed the tray to my kids. Drew saw his opportunity and practically emptied the tray with one handful. He did it so fast that that I couldn't catch his hand before he was all stuffed into his mouth. Then, just about the time that Troy was ready to start his talk he really started to act up. I was ready to leave with him, but knew that Miles and Tyson would follow. So I starting to tell them that they needed to stay while I left when Katie asked me if she could take him out. I just said "yes!!" Then thought, "I bet that her parents would have rather her stay and watch the other boys while I left." Obviously I spoke before I thought.

So she grabbed Drew and he started yelling "Don't touch me!" "Put me down!" "I don't want you!" At the top of his voice, while kicking and thrashing around. Thankfully we were sitting about 3 rows from the door and Katie was pretty much on a dead run. I guess that as soon and Drew got out of the door and realized that it was Katie and not me he said, "oh hi Katie!"

So at this point I am ready to climb in a hole and die. But, I convince myself that he wasn't screaming as loud as I imaged, and that maybe not that many people noticed. Wrong! I think that everyone in the chapel noticed and all came up to me during the rest of church to let me know that they saw and heard him scream his way out of the chapel. Honestly, I don't know what to do with my overly active and can't still for 2 minutes child. I sure hope that he decides to grow out of this phase soon.

Tyson's 5th Birthday Party

Tyson has been planning and impatiently waiting for a birthday party since his birthday last year. This year he finally got his first friends birthday party. He invited 4 of his best friends and we had a Madagascar party at the zoo. We have a local zoo here and if you get there by 10:30 you can help feed the giraffes. The party started early and we got to the zoo just in time to feed the giraffes. We spent time in the "African Safari" area of the zoo.

When the kids lost interest in the zoo we finished with lunch and cupcakes at the park across the street from the zoo. I thought that it was a great day for Tyson, and he was so happy and really had a good time. I party with a few friends was so much easier than the whole class party that Miles did...I think that this is going to be the birthday party rule in our house.