Soccer

Aubrey is learning a ton about soccer this year. She really likes it and wants to keep playing. Julie is playing too, but I can't find my pictures of her so I will have to take more this weekend. She likes to be the goalie or play defense. I'm not sure yet if she wants to keep playing. Next up, basketball....

First Day of School 2011

Well, better late than never I guess. It only took about 2 months to post pictures of the first day of 1st and 3rd grade!

The bus stop

Pumpkin Picking

Thanks to our friends, we found a great creamery and pumpkin patch about 45 mins. away from our home to spend Columbus Day. Gavin had off and the kids had off too. Apparently, Columbus Day is big up here in MA. with Plymouth Rock and all! Aubrey got a big pumpkin, Julie got a medium one, and Meghan got the small one. We had a great day and are definitely planning on going back sometime!

The pumpkins were heavy







This was Meg's original pumpkin, until she fell and the stem broke off....we found a quick replacement







Yes, they are actually getting along!





 

 

 





   



 





 





 

























 

























Pooped Out Shopper

Meghan's Dance Recital

Yesterday was Meghan's dance recital for her ballet class. I didn't know if she would do it with her daddy and I in there, but she did! The dance lasted all of one minute, and it might have been the cutest thing I have ever seen! The girls were all told that they could wear princess dresses over their leotard, but I made the mistake of waiting until we got there to try to put it on her. There was no way that she was going to put that dress on with all those people there, so she is the only one not wearing her dress. Sometimes you have to pick your battles...I was just happy she did the dance!

The class with Miss Katherine!

Update of Meghan's classes

Last week Meghan screamed for about 2 minutes when Miss Catherine took her and I closed the door. But then she held her hand and eventually danced by herself.
This week Meghan screamed harder and tried to crawl to the door as I was closing it, like from some movie where the monster has her by her leg and she just can't get to safety quick enough. Broke my heart!
But, then in less than 1 minute, she was fine, sitting next to her teacher, not on her, and did the whole class without a problem.
We decided to try this with mini movers the next day with different teachers. She has been especially clingy with that class. So I brought her in, dropped off to the teachers and they grabbed her while she lunged for my leg and she screamed while I walked out of the gym. By the time the door shut, Meghan was participating in the stretching that she would never do with me there. She did everything, had a great time, and was even sweaty. Miss Candy told me that I am now banned from her gym! Out of sight out of mind!

And then there's library....

I don't want to push my luck and try to force her to do too many big girl things at one time, but I have been the only mom sitting in the story hour with the kids and the kind of intimidating, a little scary, abrasive, majorly tatooed, etc. Children's librarian has told me that their class is not supposed to have parents with them. Unfortunately all other classes are full, so I can't switch it. So, today we sat outside of the room, picked out books, asked if she wanted to go have fun with the class (to which she said no) and left.

I don't really know what to do, but I don't want to force her to do something that she really doesn't want to and I can't just leave her and let her cry for a minute because they won't let us do that either.
Am I wrong to let Meghan decide if she wants to do it or not? 

I'm really proud of her for doing the dance and movers classes and she's been sleeping in her own bed. I don't want to give her too much stress all at one time.

Meghan versus her classes

I signed Meghan up at the Y so she could take some classes since I am not putting her in preschool this year. She is taking Princess Dance (ballet) and Mini-Movers (sports). The first day of mini-movers I dropped her off and went downstairs to read while I waited the 1/2 hour for her to be done. She supposedly did pretty well and only cried a few times. That was last week....
This week Meghan went to her first dance class on Monday and I could not peel her off of me. I ended up sitting on the floor with her on my lap almost the entire time. She did get up once to sachet across the floor with her teacher, and then again to get a sticker. Parents are not supposed to stay in class and all the other 3 year olds seemed fine. Today, I had hopes that mini-movers would go well again. But it did not. I stayed with her and held her hand, while she cried, and I learned to play soccer. This time she didn't even want the sticker.  Meghan 2 - Classes 0
I'm hopeful that she will eventually be able to seperate herself from me and maybe even enjoy class down the road.
In other news, Aubrey got 100's on her first 2 tests!

 I am convinced that my girls are part fish. Ever since Aubrey and Julie took swim lessons this summer and learned how to go underwater, they love swimming.  Or maybe they always loved swimming, but now I feel more confident to let them swim without me having to hold their hands. Their lessons this summer were from a lady who has been teaching swim lessons for 43 years!  She is a little 60-something fireball of energy who conquered amazing feats with my children who would NEVER go underwater before. It was so amazing to see them going underwater after just a couple of lessons. This weekend they got to show off their newfound skills to me and I went a little picture happy! And, of course, I had to get some close ups of Meggie!

Sisterly Love

They actually get along when they are left alone!





Love her curls!



Meg's Hmmm face



School for Meg

Today I was watching one of our little neighbors get on the bus for her first day of all-day kindergarten, and I started thinking about Meghan's first day. Granted, it's not for 2 more years, but I think I'll start worrying about that now!
Meghan starts her mini-movers class today and is super excited about it! Hopefully she doesn't freak out when she realizes that I'm not allowed to stay with her....or hopefully I don't freak out I should say.

The First Day of School

Aubrey started 3rd Grade and Julie started 1st Grade yesterday. With the hurricane a couple days before, Aubrey and I were not able to meet her teacher beforehand and Aubrey had no idea who was in her class. There are 6 classes in each grade at the girl's schools. I say schools because Aubrey is in Dudley Elem. that goes from 2nd-4th grade and Julie is at Mason Rd. Elem. which goes from PreK to 1st Grade.

Aubrey has exactly 0 kids from last years class in her class this year and knew 2 girls from other things. Julie has 1 girl in her class from last year. At first, this caused me to have an all out panic attack, especially for Julie who is extremely shy.

I think I was the only one who stressed over this. Both girls are having a blast in school and are making lots of new friends. They also both started playing soccer, so they will be meeting more kids there. Kids are extremely adaptable I guess, much more than adults. I have pics to post but have no idea how to put them in the post, so I'll have to figure that one out!

Meghan and her bed

Meghan has a love/hate relationship with her bed. She doesn't like to fall asleep in it, stay asleep in it, or sleep for any length of time in it.
Since she turned 3, we have been working very hard to get Meghan sleeping in her bed. She turned 3 about a week and a half ago. So far, it's going pretty well. She sleeps about half the night in her bed, and last night slept all night there! (I had to go comfort her whimpering a couple of times, but not too bad!) My favorite thing that she has started doing is resisting going to sleep in her bed, sitting with me on the comjputer, and then when she is tired, she gets off my lap and goes to sleep in her bed. Much better than falling asleep on me and me having to put her in her bed.
I miss having my little girl snuggling with me, but now I can actually get some sleep!

Maybe this will make me journal

I am going to try using a blog to journal what's going on with my kids because I am so bad at writing everything down! We'll see how it goes!