Preschool bingo is where it's at

If you've never played Bingo with a room full of 4 year-olds, well, you need to. It's quite adorable. 

I went to play Bingo for Books with Maggie's classroom and let me tell you...they take their Bingo games very seriously. 

I'm pretty sad to see Maggie's preschool year coming to an end. We ADORE her preschool teacher and are just thrilled with the wealth of information Maggie has learned this year.

Each school day, every student has an "assignment". Letter person, light person, line leader, caboose (Maggie hates being the caboose...she would much rather lead! Ha!), and so on. On the day that I was there, she was the door holder. She explained to me that each person has to say, "thank you, Maggie" as they pass through the door.

If they don't say "thank you, Maggie", she tells the teacher. Oy. We are still working on the tattling skills. She's a cute little door holder, if I do say so myself!

Along with Bingo, they did an Easter Egg hunt. It was all the rage! Each student got to find as many eggs as would fit inside their egg crate. 

I tell you what...in all the hustle and bustle, it's moments like these that remind me to slow down and take it all in. I forget that I need to just enjoy them while they're little.

Because there's not much better in life than enjoying a little one on one time playing Bingo and eating popsicles with your favorite 4 year old girl.

Yes, I have trouble with math. And bowling.

After the kids' basketball games last week, we spent THREE LONG HOURS working in our church's concession stand. Ima just go ahead and point out that math is not my strong suit. I would also like to say that if I was in charge of the concession stand, everything would be an equal DOLLAR. None of this $.25 or $1.75 stuff. That's just dumb. You want an Airhead? Yep, a DOLLAR. A coke? That's also a DOLLAR. I was proud that I only had to break the calculator out for a few orders. Shew! (And you people with kids -- have them make up their minds before they come to the window. None of this changing their minds mid sentence!) I kid. Sort of...

Since it was such a long day for me, we decided to meet up with some friends and take the  kids bowling. I have a hate-hate relationship with bowling. As my husband puts it, "To some people, bowling just comes natural. That doesn't happen to you." Nice. Ha! I was happy to find out that only the children were bowling. The parents just got to sit and chat. (Thank you, Jesus.)

My kids LOVE it! Maggie was hilarious. She would walk up to the lane and literally throw the ball on the ground. It would then take about two minutes for the ball to travel to the pins. Levi is pretty good. Seems he is one of those people it comes natural to. ;-)

Love my babies!

Switching gears -- on Tuesday night, we channeled our inner "retirement home" personalities and headed to Levi's school to play Bingo. 

Reading Bingo, that is! Now THIS was something I could do.

Emmy was one of the first ones to get Bingo. They had a table full of fun books and anytime a child yelled "BINGO!", they got to pick out a new book. Super cute!

Levi picked out a book about Pearl Harbor. 

Super excited to be there...

See this lil' face here? Can you tell she'd been crying? Uh, yeah. Maggie started bawling because she didn't get a Bingo right away, so THE TEACHER CAME OVER, GRABBED HER HAND, WALKED HER TO THE TABLE AND LET HER PICK OUT A BOOK. OY. She can throw down tears like nobody's business. 

Super fun night! I was hesitant to go, but I'm so glad we did. Looking forward to many more fun things at school.

All things Maggie May

Today, I'm talking about all things Maggie May. 

You guys -- this little girl brings me so much joy. And exhaustion and frustration. And sometimes, she causes me to get on my knees and pray so that I don't strangle her little butt. However, we're gonna just focus on the joy today. ;-)

She came home Monday wearing this crown. Adorable. She was picked as the Star student of the week for preschool. You would have thought the Queen had visited and made her a princess. Oy. She requested that we all refer to her as "Princess Maggie" for the rest of the day. So much sass. 

She really does love school. Her teacher has wonderful things to say about her on a regular basis, which makes us extremely happy. She is very social. In fact, when we pull up to the car rider line, she rolls down her window so she can shout talk to all her friends. 

These days, she seems to be growing up so fast. She has gone from that little toddler stage to a little girl. I'm not gonna lie...I love each new stage! Except maybe the new stage of throwing up a peace sign each time I try to take her picture. QUIT ACTING LIKE YOU'RE TWELVE. ;-)

Along with Maggie turning 4 came a super sensitive side. She's always been a sensitive child, but recently it has become a little RIDICULOUS. If I tell her no, she immediately throws out the lip and you can prepare yourself for a full on meltdown with a bucket of tears. She will be perfect for the day time soap opera scene. This child can cry like no other. Most of my family thinks it is comical. My parents just sit back and smile because they say that is exactly how I was. Whatev. 

And this right here melts me every time...

Every night, Mags falls asleep with her "Boltie" and her hand twisting her hair. So sweet! She got Bolt as a souvenir from Disney and rarely does anything without him. She has done the hair thing since she was a baby. She loves to rub it or twist it when she gets sleepy and we think it is quite adorable.

I have this weird, paranoid mom obsession to constantly remember what my kids are wearing. Call me crazy or tell me I've seen too many scary shows where the child gets abducted and the police instantly say, "What was he/she wearing?". I can always give you details about them. And, at the end of any given day, I will be able to back up my details with the MULTIPLE SELFIES of Maggie on my phone. Every.Single.Day. #blessed 

Love that little face! It is crazy to me that this once little blob-like baby is now quickly approaching FIVE YEARS OLD. Thankful for the joy that she adds to our lives.

Day ONE of preschool - check!

Yesterday was Maggie's first day of preschool! 

We've been talking it up for a couple weeks now. Some days, she seemed super excited, but most days, she said she just wanted to stay at home with me. Ha! Needless to say, I was a little worried that she would cry when I dropped her off. I am happy to report that SHE DID GREAT! But, why does she seem so LITTLE??

I was anxious to pick her up and hear all about her first day. The first thing she did was ask to take her shoes off. Ha! She's a flip flop girl and they aren't allowed to wear sandals to school -- INSANITY! ;-) She said school was fun and she can't wait to go back. That makes me so happy!!

The parents got an email from Mrs. Vicki last night and she "anonymously" shared some of the funny things they said. One child just kept asking, "When do we get to go to the playground?" and another one said, "Mrs. Vicki, you sure do have lots of words to say!" I really hope those two weren't from my child. :-)

haircuts and lunch buddies

Things are pretty quiet around the house since school has started back. Some days, it's surreal to sit on the couch and NOT hear arguing. Don't worry though...if I miss my kids arguing, all I have to do is count down the hours until Levi gets home, wait about 10 minutes and BOOM - fights. ;-)

Maggie and I have been filling our days with some fun things. Playing at the park has been a must with this CRAZY COOL summer weather. I adore it.

Maggie also got her first "big girl" haircut.  She has had it trimmed twice. Once because Gretchen told me her mullet status was no longer cute and the other because she has super fine stringy hair and they say it will grow in better.  "THEY lie." ;-)

My friend Ashly that cuts my hair has also trimmed Maggie's. Maggie has never been fond of having her hair trimmed. When I say "never been fond", I mean she cries and acts like I am pulling her apart limb by limb. Oh the drama. But this time was different. I don't really know why. I didn't threaten her life or anything. Weird. Ashly asked her if she wanted to wash her hair in the sink or use a spray bottle and I was blown away when she said, "in the sink!" like she was an nine year old.

And, when she asked if she wanted to have it blown dry or just let it air dry, Maggie said, "blow dry!". Who was this child?

Cutie patootie. Little Crystal Gayle keeps telling me she wants her hair down to her bottom, so we'll see how long that continues. Ha!

Meanwhile, back on the new school homefront, I get tagged in cute little pictures like this! Not only is Levi making new friends, but so is Mommy! One of my new friends, Turkey (no, that's not her real name, but that's a story for a whole other day!) had lunch at school and snapped this pic.


He has had his first full week at school. Some nights have been better with his anxiety and some nights are still a total struggle. Sundays are hard after he has been home all weekend. Life is a crazy journey and being a parent is the absolute hardest thing I have ever done. Sometimes, I feel like a complete failure. But, I know that God requires me to nothing on my own...so I'm standing strong ON HIM. I'm praying every hour that He gives me what I need and helps us through this process. :-)

We're about to be transparent up in here...

Summer has come and gone. It seriously seems like our summer was about three weeks long. Part of me wants to kick and scream and beg for it to come back, and the other part is just incredibly thankful for more memories we've made.  

We went to BG and visited our people. And it was good. 

We went to the movies. And it was good. 

Our people came here for an impromptu zoo trip. And it was good.

It was very good.

And, then it was time. Time to start thinking about school.

For Maggie, that is fairly easy. She is my easy going child. As long as she gets to hang out with Mommy everyday, she is a happy camper. (Preschool starts next week, so we won't bust her bubble yet and tell her she will be away from me for three hours a day, four days a week. EEK!)

However, for Levi, this has been a different year for us.

I'm going to back up. Way up. This is hard for me to write about, but I feel like I need to be transparent and share our struggles. When the tornado came through Henryville and demolished his school in 2012, it forever changed our child. His safe little kindergarten world came crashing down. Not only was his everyday life different with going to a temporary school, but his personality was different, too. He became a very nervous child. He was obsessed with the weather. The slightest change in the clouds bothered him. Heavy wind made him nervous. If it rained, or stormed, he was beside Eric or me pretty much in the fetal position crying. We met with his pediatrician and talked about counseling. She assured us that many kids in our area were in the same boat as Levi and that she was behind whatever we wanted to do. Eventually, with time, he started to get better. Even now, he can look at dark clouds and not break out crying. He starts to visibly change, though. He bites his nails, his eyes start to get antsy and he paces. We've learned to pray him through it and he will calm down easily.

Fast forward to this summer. We decided a few months ago to put the house on the market. Due to Eric's position at work, we feel like we need to support and live in the school district in which he works. This requires us to move. Several weeks before school started, we sat down with Levi and let him make the decision on where he wanted to go to school. We told him we didn't know when the house would sell, so he could start at his old school with the possibility of moving, OR, start at the new school where we will be moving to. I was very proud of him. He thought it over for two days and then told us he wanted to go ahead and go to the new school and start making new friends. This kind of blew me away! I felt like it was a big decision for a kid and was proud of him.

A week before school started, even though he was excited he would be at a new school with his cousins, he began to get extremely nervous. He started having some pretty crazy symptoms. He told me his stomach hurt, he was having trouble breathing, his chest hurt, he even asked me if he was going to die. :( One night, I realized he was having a severe panic attack! I almost took him to the E.R. I had never seen him like this and didn't know what to do. We were able to calm him down and I prayed over him until he fell asleep. After that night, I realized that he had extreme anxiety about school and we started praying constantly. He memorized several Bible verses about fear and we would repeat them pretty much all day. Eric and I decided he needed lots of encouragement, love and prayer. It was so easy to get frustrated with him and that is NOT what he needed.

The night before school came and we were all nervous. I wanted to go with him, you know...to make sure everyone was nice to him and beat up anyone who wasn't. ;-) One awesome thing is that he got to ride the bus with his cousins! He was SUPER excited about that!

    
Before he got on the bus, he told me, "Mommy, pray for me. My stomach hurts." We prayed. I wanted to tell him just to come back home with me, but I didn't. He was ready to do this and conquer his fear!

He got on the bus and didn't look back!

I cried the whole way home.

Somewhere after lunch time, Eric sent me this picture! This is a perk to your husband working in administration. :-) The principal sent this to Eric and said, "this may ease Momma's nerves". IT DID! Loved seeing that smile!

Day two, I got this picture. Lunch buddies. :-)

And I realized that he is okay.

He still obsesses over the weather every morning. He wants to check my phone to see if it is going to rain. This morning, he asked, "If it tornadoes at our school, where will the new school be?" Some things, you just wish your child didn't have to worry about. But, for now, we will treasure the little victories. He has two new friends that are "sooo nice"! He knows how to buy his lunch in the lunch line now. He loves gym class. His teacher is really nice. He loves his new orange backpack. It's the little things. :-)

So tonight as he sleeps, I don't care that he wanted to sleep on our bedroom floor because it made him feel better. He can sleep there until he's 35 if he wants. Well...  ;-)

My favorite field trip by far!

Last week, I went on a field trip with Levi to the Kentucky Derby Museum.  (Who knew they had a museum?!!)  You guys -- let me tell you something... I LOVED THIS FIELD TRIP!  Maybe even more than Levi.  I wasn't thrilled about going along with the whole second grade, mostly because I knew I would have a group of kids to keep up with.  However, they had so many parents sign up to go, I just had to keep track of Levi.  Win, win!  

We arrived at the perfect time!  It was 15 days until the Derby and with all the bad weather we've had, they were behind on getting Churchill Downs all cleaned up and ready.  We were told they are working day and night to have it ready for the over 160,000 people that will roll in!  There was a man who did a short presentation introducing the kids to all things horses. (He did a FABULOUS job keeping the kids engaged for 30+ minutes! I give him props for that!)  Then he told us that the horses would be out exercising on the track until 10:00 am and we would get to see them.  Insert kids squealing with excitement.  And, see them, we did...

  

It was pretty incredible how close we were!  They explained to the children that these horses are only babies.  They are two years old and very skittish, so they had to be quiet and gentle while we were near them.  

A picture of the famous twin spires (you can see underneath them the scaffolding set up for cleaning and painting).  

 Happy boy! :-)

Then, the trainer brought one of the horses over near the kids...

AND HE LET THEM PET THE HORSE!  In my best mom voice, I reminded them to be gentle.  Lord have mercy, we had quite a few anxious boys!! Ha!

A second horse came by and one of the boys (quite loudly) said, "Wow, girls can ride horses, too?! 

After our tour of Churchill Downs, we headed inside to the museum.  I was very impressed with how kid-friendly it was!  

Of course, there was a display of all of the Mint Julep glasses from the past.  (Yum!)

And we were told that the trophy for the Kentucky Derby winner is the only trophy in sports to be made entirely of 14K gold.  Impressive!

I think he's already too tall to be a jockey. ;-)

I love seeing him and his little friends hang out together.  So sweet!

 After all the Derby fun, we headed for lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory.  So yummy!  When we walked in the doors, Levi said, "Wow, this is sooo fancy!"  I guess it is compared to Chick Fil A or McDonald's!

What a great day with Levi.  I love this age.  He still enjoys being with his Momma.  I am grateful that he wanted me to go and that he even wanted me to ride in the back seat of the bus with him.  Gag.  

If he would just stay this age forever, I would be okay with that.  :-)