Fun Night at Lori's Preschool

Tonight we all went to LoriAnne's preschool to meet her teacher. She will start next Tuesday. Her preschool had hamburger and hot dogs, face painting, games, bouncers, and a man making COOL ballons in the shape of whatever the kids wanted. LoriAnne had the guy make a doggy balloon & Robyn had him make a butterfly. Part of Robyn's balloon popped when we got home. I did not bring my camera with me tonight. I did not realize they were going to have so many fun things for the kids. So here are a couple of pics of the girls when we got home. They were so tired.

LoriAnne is sooooo excited to start preschool. She will be going Tuesday/Thursday at her preschool from 9am-2pm. Then I joined a Joy School group with 3 other moms on Wednesday's. I really will miss having her home with me but for many reasons she really needs to go. One great thing is I can always withdraw her from the preschool if it is too much time away from home for her. Since kindergarten is 8:30-3:30 here then it will probably help her transition into kindergarten.

An Exciting Day for Robyn

Robyn is soooooooo excited!!! She finally lost her tooth. I say finally only because it has been loose for 2 months or more. Robyn is 5 years and 3 months so I am surprised they are falling out already. She seems to have her mommy's roots. So her teeth will not be easy to take out. The tooth fairy will have to pay her a visit tonight :) Robyn has another tooth that is loose so we will see how long that takes to come out.

LoriAnne and "HER" Ather

Okay, I have a funny story that I had to blog about...mostly so I can read about how cute my LoriAnne is on those days that I need it. For those of you who do not know who Ather is she is LoriAnne's second mom. Ather does not know this but when LoriAnne is a teenager she is going to live with her :). Ather is still living in California even though LoriAnne thought that wherever she goes Ather would be going too. So moving on to the story.

LoriAnne was at the front door saying good bye to Dave as he was leaving for work yesterday morning. I told LoriAnne to shut the front door and this is how the conversation went…

LoriAnne – I can’t shut the door
Me – why not
LoriAnne – I have been waiting for Ather for 40 minutes
Me – Ather is probably sleeping
LoriAnne – No she is not she is probably waiting for me at the church…I have to go now!

She said it so seriously…I tried not to laugh but it was too cute. She stomped up stairs after our conversation all mad.

LoriAnne and "HER" Ather just before we moved to Tennessee.

We MISS you Ather!

I LOVE HAIR!

When Robyn had all her hair chopped off I knew I needed to figure out how to do some new hair styles. So Robyn has had her hair done different almost every day. I should of taken more pictures but I didn't. However, today I actually remembered. LoriAnne had to have her hair done just like Robyn's because she said it was gorgeous (she is a funny kid)!

Here is a close up of what it looked like.

...and here is miss LoriAnne the princess!

...and a close up of her hair

I love having girls!

A Fun Family Day!

Today we went to The Discovery Museum with the family. This was the 1st time Dave has gone with us. They opened a new exhibit this week called "Transportation". The kids had a great time exploring all the new things. They had old cars for the kids to climb on, bicycles, cars to repair, tables set up with tracks for cars and also tables with trains. They had more things but I can't remember it all. Dave was in charge of the picture taking today so here are a few of the kids.

Robyn spent allot of time having fun pretending to repair this car. They even have it set up so the kids can change the tires on the car or work underneath the car.

This is pretty much where Jonathan spent most of the time at the museum. He LOVES tables with tracks on it. He is not particular to cars or trains. If it has wheels then he is happy.

Robyn loves dressing up as a Fireman at the museum. It is fun watching her try to walk while she is wearing all this stuff.

This is one of LoriAnne's favorite areas....digging for fossils. The kids all enjoy playing with the rocks.

I thought this was a cute picture of the boys playing together. They have really started to get allong well. Of course LoriAnne is still very possessive of Mikey. But if LoriAnne is off playing with Robyn then you can usually find the two boys playing together. I am glad that they have eachother.

Mikey's Back in School

Today was Mikey's 1st day back to school. He has been attending Waves Early Learning Center. It is a school that children with delays go to. He loves it! Mikey is actually doing really well. We have had to puree all of Mikey's food over the past 3 months because he continues to pocket all his food. However, because he is getting a balanced meal 3 times a day he is actually doing AWESOME in all areas. He finally learned how to jump a couple weeks ago. It is so cute to watch him jump because he is so happy about this accomplishment. The great thing is Mikey does have the ability to learn it just takes him allot longer to learn things that come natural to most kids. His future looks good...if only we can find a miracle cure and figure out how to get the kid to eat. We are on a waiting list to get him into sensory therapy at Vanderbilt Children's hospital but we have no idea when a spot will become available. I am praying that we get a call from them soon. I could use some professional advice.

Robyn's "BIG" Day

So it is official now. Robyn is a Kindergartener (sp?). She had her 1st day today. It was only a 1/2 day (8:30-1:00). The 1st week of school they just come one day with a small group of kids so they can get aquainted with things. Then she starts full time on Monday (8:30-3:30). Robyn is going to take the bus to school so she leaves at 7:35 and is home at 3:45. That sure is a long day. I am really going to miss her BUT she is soooooo ready for Kindergarten. What am I going to do with only 3 kids at home? Hmmmm...maybe I can read a book or 2.
Robyn ended up being the only kids in the class (you could sign up for Mon, Tues, Wed, or Thurs. 5 kids each day) today there were suppose to be 2 others but they did not show up. So she had Mrs. Bannister's undivided attention ALL day.
So when I picked up Robyn I asked her teacher if she now knew our life story and everyone in our family. She said "Oh yes and how to spell everyones names too"! That is my Robyn.
One last funny thing. The teacher gave Robyn the option to go play the last 1/2 hour with some kids in the other Kindergarten class and instead she opted to help the teacher sharpen 100 pencils. I was not surprised when the teacher told me that. I love my Robyn!!!!

Where is LoriAnne?

I hear myself asking this question multiple times a day. If she is missing it usually means she is getting into trouble. On Sunday I went straight into the house to start dinner while Dave unloaded the kids. About 10 minutes into cooking I realized that I had seen Robyn, Michael, & Jonathan but NOT LoriAnne. So of course I call for Dave and he begins to search for her.
....and this is where he found her. She never even made it up the stairs in the entry way. She was sound asleep. Dave moved her to her bed and she did not even stir. She must of played hard in nursery.

"The Frog Prince" Marionette Show

So Friday we went for a "free" Marionette Show at the Nashville Public Library. It was EXCELLENT! It was the first Marionette Show I have been to and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact all 4 of my kids watched the entire show. Considering my kids are 5, 3, 21/2, and 18 months you know that they did an incredible performance.

After the performance they brought out a couple of the puppets they used for the show. Here is the "Princess"

...and this is the "Queen"

....and here are all the kids after the performance. They did not want their pics taken but I got it anyways :)

After the show we went to Centennial Park, had a picnic, and then looked around at the Farmers Market. It was a great day!

We are doing the HAPPY DANCE!!!

YA-HOO!!!! We found out this afternoon that the parental rights for Jonathan and Michael have finally been terminated! We will start filling out the adoption papers now and they should be ours in about 4-6 months depending on the court. So you can see why we are doing the happy dance!!!!!

Williamson County Fair

Last night we went to the Williamson County Fair which was about a 10 minute drive for us. The kids had a great time. They had a farm set up for the kids so they could learn about how things are done on a farm. First they fed some chickens, then they received an egg for feeding the chickens. The next station they picked an apple from a tree. Then they planted seeds in a garden. After they planted and watered their seeds they picked some vegetables. Then they milked a cow. After they did all the work they sold their "goods" to the market and received a pretend dollar bill for their hard work so they could buy a "real" ice cream sandwich.

We also saw a dog show, clown show, etc. And of course you can't go to a fair without seeing the animals in the barn and the petting zoo. I couldn't decide what pics to use so I did a slide show. Enjoy!

Last Week in a Nutshell

We have really been enjoying our summer. It will soon be coming to an end. Robyn will get to go 1/2 day to kindergarten next Wednesday (Aug 13th) with 3-4 other classmates so she can get to know them and the teacher. Then she starts school full time on August 18th (8:30-3:30). She is so excited. Right now I am excited too but we will see how I really feel the first day of school. I will miss her but she really misses all her friends in California so this will be good for her.

So last week we did not do anything out of the ordinary. We went to the museum one day. The zoo with Sophia and her girls another day. We also have been doing allot of swimming. It has been a relaxing summer.

Sabrina, LoriAnne, Emma, & Robyn at the zoo.

LoriAnne holding on to her brothers at the zoo and making sure they don't get lost. (At least that is what she said when she told them to give her their hands:)

Robyn and LoriAnne swimming with the neighbor kids.