Talk about insane.

2014 started out with a bang.  Ugh.

It's been crazy here.  Things are finally starting to calm down.

Around the time of my last post (what, back in October?)  one of the Goobers cracked the laptop screen.  So we have been working off of cell phones for awhile.

Then we had tons of drama at work around the end of the year.  To the point where Chef and I were pretty close to just walking away from the job because we couldn't deal with all the accusations flying around.

Then my Great Aunt Myrtle passed right after New Years.  She was one of the most amazing women I know.  She had just turned 98, and was ready to go, even if we all weren't ready to say goodbye.

Then we got hit with an apartment inspection.  Which itself isn't strange, but I was at work and when I came home Chef said that it was one of our landlords, his daughter and her boyfriend.  And a week later we found out that it wasn't an apartment inspection, but they were buying the apartment (who buys an apartment?  but I digress.  Yes, I'm still a bit bitter over the whole situation and how it was handled).  We were told by one landlord (the other one, if you are keeping track) that we had until March 31.  So we started looking.  And seriously found NOTHING.  Not one single place in our price range that would fit all of us.  We started looking in the next state over...which is really like 10 minutes away for us, and we spend most of our time there anyways, 95% of our shopping is done there, since I'm addicted to Target LOL.  Not much.  I had said something on facebook because we were frustrated and couldn't find anything local, and weren't looking forward to a big move with next to no money (yeah, we were getting screwed with how they worked out rent with us and all that) in the middle of the school year and so close to state testing time (we have 2 testing this year).  One of my friends took to her facebook and connected us with a friend who had an opening in their apartment building.  A bit more than what we were paying, but a better landlord, 3 bedrooms, living room, kitchen and dining room and laundry.  It's way bigger than what we had.  And of course, as winter in NY goes, we moved in between snow storms.  Fun.

Anyways, it's all done now.   With the exception of the kids outside toys, which are still buried in snow in the backyard, but it's finally melting, so we'll be able to get them this week hopefully...we turned the lemons into lemonade, even though there is still a sour taste lingering about the whole situation.

So we are in our new place, IKEA was finally able to deliver our furniture last week, and it's all almost put together (did I mention that we had to throw out almost all our furniture because they found bedbugs in our old rental house back in MAY and they are still there.  Have fun with that one.  We weren't taking any chances bringing those jerks to our new place.)  I just have to out my dresser together.  Chunk still hasn't adjusted to sleeping here yet.  He's up late, not wanting to nap...it's sucking.  But the kids go back to school tomorrow after being off for a week and a half between snowdays and mid winter break, so we're going to work on getting back on schedule.

The other awesome thing is that we have a dining room.  For the first time.  Ever.  We have been squished at a small kitchen table for 6 years now.  We put the new table and chairs together as soon as they were delivered and the kids still can't get over how much room they have at dinner.  Plus, we are making a corner into Chunk's Tot School spot.  Which is something else we are working on this week, getting that ready so we can start next Monday.  The dining room was the catch all room for the first few weeks, and I think we are down to a few bags and boxes of clothes that are waiting to be washed and sorted.  (all the boxes of clothes we had in the basement are musty, so we are washing it all before putting it back into storage.)

Chunk is excited to start Tot School officially.   He tells his brothers all the time that it's his school spot :D  So Cute.

Anyways, since Chef bought a laptop cheap off his friend for the kids to use, I figured I'd pop on and update...it's 1:11am and Chunk is still awake watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  Hoping he'll want to go to sleep soon, but my luck, when I left for work at 5, Chef let him fall asleep rather than keep him up a bit longer so he'd just sleep through the night...not that he cares since he's asleep.  o_0

Boys.

PS I know I have to finish my K5 review...I have to go and get the kids back on it.  They loved it but killed the computer after starting the program.  So once they have some more time under their belts, I'll post a full review with pictures. :D

Excited!

So you all know that Spawn has some issues in school...I'm super excited today though because I received an email from k5 offering me a trial of their program!  I'm excited to give it a show and see if it help Spawn and Cute Boy (who struggles a bit as well!  So look for updates and a review soon!

K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students.  I've been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program.  If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their  open invitation to write an online learning review of their program. - See more at: http://www.k5learning.com/review-k5?sid=18450#sthash.RbOeOU3M.dpuf

Time to settle into the routine once again...

Summer is coming to a close.  The Goobers start school in one week from today.  We FINALLY got their teacher assignments and bus numbers today.  I really love our school, but hate that the district waits until the last minute every year.

Spawn is heading to the middle school for the first time.  And he's starting it off with a pretty heavy course load for a 5th grader.  They can chose what they want to do for music; just a regular class, chorus, band, orchestra or a combination of the 3.  He's chosen orchestra (playing the viola) and chorus.  Not to mention all the regular classes, plus his extra reading class.  And to top it off, he gets pulled from a regular class once a week for his orchestra session, so he's got to take it upon himself to go and check into class and get the assignments and make up the work.  He's determined to put the work in and make it work, so I'm behind him the whole way.  He's also thinking about signing up for sports and clubs as well. The only shock so far is that he's getting the bus an hour and a half earlier than usual.  We live just down the road from the elementary school, so our bus stop is the last one in the morning, and the first one in the afternoon...so being on the bus for awhile will be interesting.  It looks like we're one of the last stops on his morning run since they pick up about 15 minutes before the first bell, and we live about that far away.

Sweet Nut is headed into 3rd grade and is excited, at times.  He reminds me a lot of myself at his age, where the concepts being taught were easy to get, the work can be knocked out in no time, but just doesn't want to do it.  We had a talk the other night about not talking too much in class, so we'll see what happens.  I was told numerous times by his teacher last year that he's very easily one of the smartest in the class, but it just takes him forever because he talks or tries to get out of doing the work.  Reading-wise he's chomping at Spawn's heels...which frustrates Spawn to no end.  Spawn will read something and then Sweet Nut will read the same thing and remember more.  Just shows how different kids are.  I know towards the end of the year last year, Sweet Nut was already on a mid-3rd grade level for reading and Spawn was early/mid-4th grade level (slightly behind, but A LOT better than he had been).

Cute Boy just finished his summer reading class at school and is excited to be a 1st grader.  He had 2 teachers on his list that he wanted and he got second choice.  He is also behind in reading and received some help during the year last year, so I'm excited for him to be full day this year and have access to more help and services.  I'm not sure what he's looking forward to most, eating in the cafeteria every day, moving up to the bigger playground, or spending the day at school.  My once shy little guy can not wait for school to start.

Chunk finished up his first year at daycare and loves it!  We found an in home daycare that does a prek program when Cute Boy was heading to prek, and when Cute Boy graduated out, Chunk took his spot.  He is thriving there, and has graduated up to a big boy chair at mealtime and a big boy mat at naptime.  This year he'll start participating in more of the learning activities.  They incorporate learning into everything, but the toddlers, they know have a short attention span.  I do know that he'll be learning to recognize his name and the letters in it, in addition to the letter of the week program they do.  By the time he heads to K in a few years, he'll have his letters under his belt!

As for me, I'm looking forward to getting back into a routine.  Summer, while fun, throws me off in all kinds of ways.  I'm looking forward to getting back to the working 3 days a week, homework at night, meal plans each week, etc...wait, did I just admit that I enjoy that?  LOL.

Summer 2013 Plans...

So, in the midst of our elementary school making me cry every other day...darn 4th grade music receptions and their kindergarten pictures lining the hallway...and yearbooks with wishes of good luck in middle school...and Kindergarten Picnics/Graduations.  Not to mention a 2 year old and a 8 year old celebrating birthdays.  This June has been pretty emotional.

And to top it off, the Goobers have been asking what we're doing this summer.  Like I even have time to think about it :D.

So here's what we came up with.  I know we tried this last year and didn't get too far so hopefully we will this year.

Definitely hitting the Bronx Zoo.  No other zoo we have been to compares.

Possibly hitting the Museum of Natural History.

Maybe heading out to the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk and the Stepping Stones Children's Museum.

Taking part in some of the summer offerings at the library.

Participating in the summer reading program at Barnes and Noble.


I'm thinking a smaller list will let us be able to accomplish more.  Plus we plan on doing LOTS of Tot School with Chunk this summer.  We're working on him using more words and getting him to talk more.  And if he's anything like Sweet Nut and Cute Boy, we'll regret it in a few months when he's talking non stop :D  We already tried a few things, so there's some posts in the works, plus we have a whole Pinterest board of toddler ideas.

We're debating doing a summer challenge again.  I'm thinking yes, but want to talk it over with the Goobers to get their feedback on it.

All in all, while dealing with that Mom feeling of the babies are growing up, I'm excited to try some of these neat things for summer.

Memorial Day

So it's Memorial Day.  Which means that my kids get super excited because they get to watch the parade with firetrucks and candy!

So we cart out our chairs, water bottles and sippy cups to the curb out in front of our house.  We waited until the time the parade was supposed to start, because in our town, they never start on time.  We learned that the hard way last year.  Even still we were waiting awhile.

But, a man came up and was talking to us.  It wasn't a total stranger.  We knew him from Freecycle (his granddaughter is now using a bunch of Landon's baby equipment) and he's part of the Fire Dept, so the kids recognized him from school.

He asked my boys (Sweet Nut and Cute Boy...Chunk was too busy with his lollipop and Spawn is at the X's for the weekend) if they knew why there was a parade today.  They said, Yep, it's Memorial Day.  I'm sure he thought that they were just parroting me saying it.  He asked them if they knew what Memorial Day meant and Cute Boy said that It's the day that we spend time with our families remembering the soldiers who died.  Sweet Nut went even farther and said that we need to pray for all the soldiers who are fighting now and for the families of the ones who have died.  The man asked if they knew anyone who was a soldier and Sweet Nut said yes, we know some who are soldiers now and that Grandpa(my grandpa-the boys call my dad Pa) was a soldier.  The man asked if he knew if Grandpa was ever in a war and Sweet Nut said yes, he was in the Army Air Force in WWII and that my uncle was in the Navy in Vietnam.  The man told him that it was great that he knew that and that he hoped that when the boys got bigger they would never have to go to war and Sweet Nut said, it's OK.  I'm going to be a soldier because I want to be like Grandpa and be a pilot.  The man said he can do that without being a soldier, and Sweet Nut said, but regular pilots only fly regular planes.  I want to fly planes and protect the world from bad guys.

Who knew my kids actually pay attention when we talk about things that go on.  And I'm super impressed that Sweet Nut remembered about Grandpa and my uncle, and what they did.  He learned about it for a project over a year and a half ago.  I guess I should prepare for him going into the armed forces now, because it's not the first time he's mentioned it.

The one thing that made me sad was that when the parade was done, both the boys noted that there were not a lot of people there, that more people were there for the carnival parade.  And then my ever so wise goobers said "Mommy, more people should come to this parade.  It's shorter but at least the soldiers can look down from heaven and see that we still care."

Yes, boys, you are right.  All the soldiers, on earth and in heaven should know that we care.

What a crazy few months.

Sorry for the blog silence.  We've had a rough few months, but I think we're on the other side of it now...at least I hope so!

A few quick updates:

Spawn is uber excited for middle school.  He's signed up to play the viola in the orchestra and will be signing up for football next week.  We're still working on some of the areas he struggles in at home, but all in all, this has been a successful year.  We've also dealt with a first crush and the first letdown when she became someone else's 'girlfriend'.  He's working his way towards earning being allowed to walk/ride his bike to school for the rest of the year, so that's been something good.

Sweet Nut is getting to the age where school isn't 'fun' anymore.  He's a smart kid, but hates to write, so that's becoming a problem.  We're working on writing at home and on penmanship, since he tends have a lot of assignments that need to be redone because they are sloppy.  Content wise, he's a great writer.  But it's getting him to actually write that is the problem.  He just had a pretty bad bout of some form of the coxsackie virus.  He had a throat full of blisters making talking and eating pretty painful.  Not fun.

Cute Boy is doing ok in K.  He's got a few areas he's struggling in as well, so we are working on that at home.  Sight words are giving him the same trouble that letters were, he's having a hard time remembering them.  He's just taken the training wheels off his bike so he's been working on that as well, and is pretty good, but has taken a few good spills.  Also he made a 'greenhouse' at school and has 2 bean plants he's growing, and hopes to transfer to the big garden.

Chunk is doing great.  He loves daycare, even though he won't talk there.  At home he's getting more words and is putting words together.  It's our 3rd time around with a late talker, so I'm not too worried yet.

Hmm...what else.  Oh, we are working on a garden this year.  My grandpa always had one growing up and nothing tastes as good as when it comes out of the garden.  So we're working on getting a corner of the backyard tilled and cleaned up.  We're going to cheat this year and buy plants, but I think the goobers and I might try to make a small greenhouse box like my grandpa used to for next year.  We don't really have the space to start plants indoors, so I figure buying them is the next best option.  The lilacs are blooming, so we'll start planting over the next few weeks.  Spawn did have a few seed packets that he got from his dad that he planted a few weeks ago, so we'll see how they do.


Also, I was approached by Reading Eggs to try out 2 of their apps and do a review and giveaway, so we're playing with that and the review will be coming soon!  I'm so excited!

I hope everyone has a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day!

{Pretty, happy, funny, real}

It's ba-a-ck.

I've done this once...maybe twice. But I love reading them. And in my quest to document the Goobers because they aren't getting younger, I'm going to try it up each week. Try. No promises. Feel free to yell at me if I miss though :D

So the idea is to post a picture of a pretty, a happy, a funny and a real. Simple right? It's started by the ladies over at Like Mother, Like Daughter. Click the button above if you haven't read their blog before. Pretty interesting stuff over there

Anyways, lets see here...

~Pretty~



Homemade chili. Homemade corn bread. Homemade guacamole. Yum.


~Happy~



My view last night. Homemade cakes mixed, baked and decorated by Goobers, who insisted on candles, singing and Are you 1... 30 has arrived, and I couldn't be happier :D

~Funny~

I have a few funnies this week. The first two are of my rock stars after my birthday concert they put on in our living room...





And this I found on my phone when uploading pictures tonight. Pretty common for there to be surprises on my camara. So here's Spawn.




~Real~



This was after Kindergarten Bedtime Stories. The kindy classes do it every January, go in after dinner in your pj's, with your blanket and stuffed animal and they have about a half hour of stories read by their teacher. So far all of the Goobers have had this awesome kindy teacher, we're hoping she'll still be there in 3 years when Chunk starts.

So that's my pretty, happy, funny real this week. What's yours?