Fire Station Trip

Griffin's preschool took a trip to the fire station that is right behind our house.  It was super fun.

She Made It...And Other Stuff

The short story is:  She got it the play.  She is Little Red Riding Hood and she is beyond thrilled.

The long story is:  The day before auditions, I got a call from a friend who works at the office in the school.  She told me that a couple of Sunny's friends had come to the office and told her that Sunny was upset and they couldn't figure out what was wrong.  I came up to the school and Sunny was indeed pretty upset, so I check her out and took her home.

She said she was feeling very stressed and worried about the audition.  She had gotten a nasty respiratory virus the week before and had had laryngitis for a whole week.  The poor girl had tried everything to get her voice back, but it just wasn't happening.  She said she thought she just couldn't audition.  With her voice not sounding great she was too nervous and she just didn't want to do it anymore.

We talked for awhile and tried to come up with a solution.  I knew she still wanted to do it, so we decided that she would talk to the music teacher and let her know that she was sick and that she would just do the best she could.

The auditions the next day went great.  She said the dancing was by far the scariest part and that singing was fine.  She said her voice was okay and she only had a hard time on the high notes.  She also said her teacher told her never to say was sick again, because even sick her voice was fabulous.  That really helped her confidence.

After the auditions she came home to wait for the call back list to be posted online.  A couple of hours later we looked and saw that of 150 kids, only 30 had gotten a call back, and she was one of them.  That meant that she had a special time to go to the school on Saturday and she had to read a scene with one of the teachers and sing the audition song by herself in front of several teachers.  They were supposed to be dressed nice, so we went out and bought her a cute leopard cardigan.

I was nervous that she was going to be to scared to audition again, but she proved me wrong.  Some people had parents going in the school with then, but my Sunny girl walked in all by herself.  She said this audition was the scariest thing she had ever done, but that she had loved it.  Next, we waited for the final cast list to be posted.

At the end of the day, it finally was and we saw that Sunny had gotten the part of Little Red Riding Hood.  She was so happy.  She can't wait to dress up and be a part of the play.  It is going to be great, and she said the 7 hours of workshops and auditions was totally worth it.

Next up is 3 months of an insane practice schedule to get ready for opening night, which is the last week of March!

Sunny also had a choir concert last week.  On her left is her bff Lexi, we don't know the girl on the right, but she smilied for the pictures, and on the far right is her other bff Rakel.  She sure has some great friends.  I love them all.

And this would be her face when she found out that I had gotten tickets to the Taylor Swift concert next September.  The show sold old in under 3 minutes and it was just totally lucky that i was able to get them.  

When she got home from school I tricked her and said, "Sunny, you know I wanted to get tickets to the concert, but it sold out in minutes.......good thing 4 of those tickets are ours!"  

 The girls and I are very excited, and I think Ryan is too.  He just won't admit it.

Shrek The Musical

Sunny's school does an amazing play each year.  Like, last year they did Peter Pan and they had several kids flying all over the stage.  It is a huge deal. So, the rules are that only 4th, 5th, and 6th graders can try out.

Last year Sunny thought about trying out, but she was too nervous and she also doesn't love Peter Pan.  This year when she found out they were doing Shrek, she was thrilled.

Shrek has been her favorite musical for a few years now and she knows every word of it.  (Don't even talk to her about the movie, that is no bueno to her. She only loves the musical)

The audition process is a pretty big deal.  She has already gone to 4 hours worth of workshops this fall and the next step is to learn part of a song from the musical.  Each kid will audition in groups for singing, dancing, and acting.  Then, they will do call backs.  If you get called back, you get to sing alone for the "judges."

Typically the cast list for these plays is not very big and it is really hard to get in, so this is going to be tough for Sunny, but I think she can make it.

I asked her the other day if she had been practicing the song and she looked at me like I was crazy.  Of course she had.  She had even looked online and found the music to sing too.  She let me watch her do it and of course I whipped out the camera.  She is such a cool kid.

(I hope she makes it because she wants to, but if she does, there is a grueling 3 month practice schedule Jan-March and then several performances in April.  It will be a huge commitment, and I am not thrilled about that part of all this)

Preschool So Far

These are all out of order, but they are Griffin's preschool year so far.  This is his cute teacher Miss Toni.  She taught kindergarten for the last 3 years and decided to open a preschool this year.  She lives right around the block from us.

First day of preschool.  (All the pictures with the Mickey Mouse shirt are from the first day.)

A selfie from the field trip to Hee Haw Farms.

They had a fun part with the huge bounce house back in September.

More field trip.

His official preschool class picture.  I am in love with it.

Class picture.  Griffin is the oldest in the class.  Some of the younger kids are about 9 months younger than him.  Not a ton, but they are all small and he is big.  So, there you have it :)

Letter's From Lila

First grade is the best year ever in school because kids can write the funniest stuff.  Throw in some bad spelling and grammar, and it becomes even more awesome.

I'm glad we are "rily" fun.

"My hero is Jesus because he is nice to america and he is part of our family."

That one is just classic.  I'm so glad that Jesus is nice to America.  Where did she even get that from?!?

"Dear Sarah and Ryan, I have fun at school.  I like what we do in school.  We play at recess. I have fun.  I like you because you are nice to other people. I like what you do.  From, Lila."

Does it get cuter and sweeter than that?

I "rily" don't want this sweet girl to grow up anymore. I love her awesome letters from school.

Halloween 2014

Halloween was great this year.  Griffin was supposed to be a hand me down power ranger.  I told him that's what he was going to be and he said okay, but that he really wanted to be Batman.  I had decided we weren't buying any costumes this year and we were going to make due with what we had, but a week before Halloween I had a change of heart and secretly ordered him this Batman costume.  To say he was thrilled would be an understatement.

When he tried it on he kept saying, "Mom I look so awesome. This is so amazing.  Can you believe how wonderful this costume is."  It was totally the best 20 dollars I've ever spent.

Lila was an Alabama cheerleader with a uniform that came straight from Tuscaloosa.  She said everyone at school loved it.

On the morning of Griffin's preschool party, we couldn't find Cameron's dinosaur costume, so we went with the red ranger.  It is a size 10 and we had to roll the arms and legs up tons.  But, it worked and Cam like it.

Sunny with her bff Rakel.  I love these two girls and I love their sweet friendship.  They have been in the same class for 4 years now and are crossing their fingers that they get to stay together for 6th grade too.

Griffin and I at the elementary school costume parade.

Sunny with her other bff Lexi.  Sunny wanted to be a nurse and draw up a sketch of what she wanted it to look like and then asked Nana Blair to make it for her.  The result was this adorable set of Frozen scrubs.

Another picture at the parade.

Lila and one of her good friends.  This is Lexi's little sister and she is adorable.  She and Lila have so much fun together.  They are not in the same class, but usually find each other at recess.

The 6th grade got to sit on the stage and watch the costume parade.  Jack in on the back row in the middle.

My crew.

This could quite possible be my favorite art project ever from Lila.  They had an art contest at school and were told to draw a piece of fruit in a costume.  Hence, the "perr bat."  I am shocked that she didn't win, because this is the cutest thing I have ever seen.  I am going to frame it so we can pull it out each year on Halloween to use as a decoration.

3 Year Old Check Up

I have been terrible at blogging as of late, but this little guy had his 3 year old birthday back on Sept 3rd.  Today was his checkup.  He did great and actually liked getting a shot.  He was very interested in how it worked and he watched the nurse do it.  He said it didn't hurt at all.

He really liked Dr. Wilcox and they had a hilarious conversation about dinosaurs.

Since his birthday and my last post, Cameron got a haircut.  I loved his long hair so much, but it was a lot to take care of and it was always in his face.  I missed seeing his little eyes, so we decided to go ahead and cut it. He says he misses his long hair, but he loves his mohawk and he makes sure it is done every day.

3 is such a great year (not that 2 is bad, because it is pretty great to me), but 3 is just so much fun.  Kids know how to do so many new big kid things.  Life gets a little easier and you get to sit back and enjoy all the hilarious things they say.  I am a little sad that this is my  last 3 year old.

Cameron is seriously the best kid ever.   If I had one word to describe him, it would be EASY!  Everything with him has been so easy.  He is so happy and sweet.  He never throws tantrums...never...seriously.  Sometimes, he might start to cry a little because one of the kids won't give him what he wants.  When that happens, I tell him to go to his room and cry and come down when he is done.  He always quits crying before he even gets upstairs.  Then he yells down, "Mom, I'm done, can I come down now."  It is adorable.

He is up for any adventure.  He can keep going and going and going.  He loves to hang out with the big kids.  During Sept., he loved going to soccer practice with Griffin and Ryan let Cam practice too.  He thought that was great, and he was pretty darn good.

He is constantly making up games to play and asking everyone to play with him.   He loves Minecraft, and can play it very well all by himself. 

Cam has a great sense of humor.  He loves to tell jokes and say weird things and then say, "just kidding!"

He still takes his nap everyday from 12-2.  Like clockwork.  The best part is that many days, he will go put himself down to sleep.  If I am busy, I just say, go upstairs, shut your door, and get under the covers, and he does.

He adores the nursery at church and his two amazing teachers.  He looks forward to it all week.  He has some great friends there.  His favorites are two sweet twin girls that live across the street from us.  They love to stand in their driveway and yell at him, "Hey Cameron, Hey Cameron!"

He talks all the time about how he gets to go to preschool next year and he wishes he could have gone this year.  He went on a field trip with Griffin's class, and I have to admit, he is totally ready.

Cameron is so patient.  He really understand everything that is going on around him and he is so good about waiting his turn, or understanding why he doesn't get something, or doesn't get to do something that another kid gets to do.  It really is a gift that he has.

Cameron's favorite toy is his "Teddy-Bee", which is a teddy bear that my mom brought back from England for him.  He also loves long boarding and riding his strider bike.  He really loves to play football with Jack and G. He also really loves watching musicals with Sunny.

His favorite food is:  string cheese (not really, but that's what he said)

His least favorite food:  rice (weird, right?)

Overall, Cameron is just amazing.  I can't believe that he is ours and that we are lucky enough to have him in our family.  I'm so glad we decided to go ahead and have a 5th child.  I could never have dreamed he would be as awesome as he is.  I love my little 3 year old.

And, the 3 year old stats:

Height:  38.5 --  71%

Weight:  34.17 --  72%

BMI:  16,21 --  58%

And some of the other kids that I can find:

Griffin:

Height:  40 -- 95%

Weight:  37.9 -- 92%

BMI:  16.47 --  65%

Lila:

Weight:  33 --75%

Height:  38 -  75%