It's been a while!!

Wow...I can't believe how long it's been on here...lots has happened!

At the beginning of the month, we had left the house to see Tony's parents. It was about 6:45 at night...about 15 minutes later, I received a text on my phone that our alarm system on our house had been set off. A minute later, Tony got a call from the alarm company asking if we were safe. Someone had kicked in our back door. Fortunately, we also have cameras with the alarm system, and no one came in and nothing is missing. We had the kids stay at Tony's parents' house and we dealt with our house. Thankfully my parents don't live too far away, so my dad came over to help, too. The police department in the city of Flint is on limited resources, so after waiting 2 hours for someone to show up, Tony called 9-1-1 again and had them on the phone while he and my dad entered and checked the the house. All clear. The men boarded up the back door. We are definitely looking into moving!!!

One thing that concerned me was how the kids would feel when they saw the door boarded up and heard what happened. They shouldn't feel scared to be in their own home! So when they got home (it was early in the day, since they didn't have school on Election Day), I told Tony to have them get their markers and decorate the door!  They went to town! I really think it helped both them and us feel a bit better!!

We have a brand new door now, and we thanked the alarm company over and over again. We are confident that is what scared the would-be intruders away!!! Now we venture into the real estate market!!!

Acorn-y Day!

It was a great day to stay inside! Quite chilly out, so I decided to do some projects with the kids. I cannot take credit for these projects...both of them were done by two separate friends during the same week...ironically, they were both acorn-related!

Bradlee LOVES acorns. He gathers them whenever he finds them! My dad, who has an oak tree in his backyard, taught both kids to put the acorn caps on their fingers and then draw faces on the pads of their fingers to make finger puppets!!! Here are our projects today:

Jeweled Acorns (from Kate, Lauren, Annie and Caroline)!!

First, color the inside of the acorn caps with markers:



Be patient while Mommy squirts Elmer's glue into the caps, then smile for a picture! 

Now we wait....for.....the.....glue......to.......dry....... (we also put glitter in some of the caps!)



Edible Acorns (from Monique, Samantha and Sophia)!!

Emma and Bradlee unwrapped the Hershey Kisses (milk chocolate and almond) while Mommy used frosting to "attach" them to the Mini Nilla Wafers!



Emma and Mommy used melted chocolate to "attach" the butterscotch chips to the tops of the Nilla Wafers to look like the "stems"!  

Don't they look like acorns??? 

To finish the day, the kids and I watched the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's live webcast of their concert tonight. It was called "Cirque de la Symphonie". It was live music provided by the orchestra with members of Cirque du Solei performing acts with it! We heard a ton of music, some of it, the kids recognized!!! :)

To the Zoo!!

On Sunday, we made our annual "back to school" trip to the Detroit Zoo! What a wonderful day! Bradlee had gone to the doctor in the past week, so we decided to switch out his car seat for the booster seat! He was SO excited we let them sit in the "way back" of the van!

It was also quite liberating to walk around the Zoo WITHOUT a stroller, wagon, diaper bag, or having to carry a child! What a milestone!!!!! While I love ny babies, and they will always be my babies, we are enjoying the freedom that comes with them growing up!

After the Zoo...by the way, we are now official members...we had our traditional visit with Snookie and Papa and I'm so ticked I forgot to get pictures of it! We had a wonderful dinner at Buddy's Pizza with them, then headed home.

I do love this tradition...

Open Houses!!

Can I get a HOORAY!?!? It's school time again!! Can you say schedule, schedule, schedule!??! :)

We've had a very exciting week so far with BOTH kids! Both kids had open houses at each of their schools. As you may remember, right now, they got to two different schools because we wanted Bradlee to have the same teachers Emma did.

Bradlee is in Pre-K at Holly Elementary. His Open House was Tuesday evening and he was SO excited! The preschool and pre-k classes moved from one building to their current building 2 years ago (this is their second year in the Holly Elementary building). They moved into basically the same room, with a divider to create two different rooms. Bradlee has been SO excited to go to school on the "other side of the wall"!! :) Mrs. Walters, his teacher, was very happy to see him, and happy to see what a beautiful young lade Emma has turned into! Bradlee gave Mrs. Walters a huge hug and said, "I remember you!!" I think it's going to be a great year! Mrs. Walters asked Bradlee if he would be willing to do the Mystery Box for the first day of school. This is where they have a little box that they put one item in and then the class has to guess what it is! Bradlee was quite excited and has already told us we are going to be doing some practice rounds at home before school starts! Here he is with the Mystery Box!



Miss Emma is, can you believe it, starting 2nd grade at Davisburg Elementary! She is going to do so well, I can already feel it! Her teacher is the former PE teacher, so Emma was VERY excited to hear he was moving back to teaching 2nd grade and even MORE excited to hear he was going to be her teacher! I could tell she was a bit nervous about starting school, which is totally normal, and it didn't make it better that her bestest buddy Allie was going to be in the other 2nd grade class...but once we went to the open house today, she was MUCH better! Two of her friends are in her class and it was all she needed...well, that, and to see her teacher!



I couldn't believe the difference between the 1st grade and 2nd grade classrooms...I don't know if it's also the difference between a male and female teacher, but, WOW! :) I am thrilled with the fact there are TABLES instead of a giant rug for the kids to sit on. Last year we had some issues with a girl in Emma's class writing on other people with the dry erase markers...something that does NOT come out of clothes!

Basically, I'm just really excited for both kids to take the next step in their educational journey!! Hooray for school!!! :)

So proud!

A few weeks ago, my in-laws had a garage sale at their house. We were able to contribute some items to the garage sale and of course, we were there to help out as well!

We got Emma all set up for her lemonade stand...and she told everyone who came that their donation was for the Relay for Life! She really only did the lemonade stand one day, but was still able to make $26!! :)

Birthday Boy!

Last Sunday, the 29th, my baby boy turned 4 years old! He is B-I-G into pirates...so naturally, we had a pirate-themed birthday! Aunt Kat and Uncle Garrett gave Bradlee a card with a treasure map inside...the "X" marked the spot of his present! He was SHOCKED to really find a treasure chest with pirate gold and all kinds of pirate goodies in it! Lots of family and friends were able to celebrate with us....it was a great way to spend Bradlee's birthday!

We went to the doctor for his 4 year physical...he is 2 pounds short of being able to sit in a booster seat in the car! To rectify this, Bradlee has constantly been in the "good eaters" or "clean plate" club!! :)

Summer Fun with Strings!

For the last two weeks, Emma has been participating in a camp at the Flint School of Performing Arts. The camp was called "Summer Fun with Strings" and is about as old as me! In fact, I remember helping with registration and such when I worked at the FSPA in high school! ;)

Last Monday, the first day, Emma went to camp and tried each of the stringed instruments: violin, viola, cello and bass. After trying each of them, she decided on the viola. I have to admit, though, that I sort of put the idea in her head ahead of time...but she knew she could pick whatever she wanted!

Last Friday, before going up north, I was able to pick Emma up from camp. She took out her viola and played "Mary Had a Little Lamb" for me! After only 5 days! Needless to say, I was impressed and very proud!

Today was the last day of camp...they had a little recital for the different age groups/classes to perform what they've learned. Knowing that these kids have never touched an instrument before 10 days ago, and seeing them play songs today...WOW. :)

My great grandfather played violin in Russia....I play clarinet...maybe Emma will continue in our footsteps??? My only hope is that she at least has an appreciation for music! I think we've got that covered!