we are in love

All of us, with Madeline's school. She loves it there! She actually got upset over the weekend because there was no school, never saw that one coming. Madeline did very well last week, she did vomit all in my car moments after picking her up the first day, from anxiety of that day I guess.

There are 12 students in her class, that is all the 1st and 2nd graders in the school. She is doing fine with the fact that only 2 of the 12 are girls, and the rest are boys. Ryan drops her off at 8:30am everyday, and I pick her up at 3pm. I have time today to blog because Ryan has two computers ready to install in her classroom so he was going to pick her up and do that.

Today was Pizza day, the 7th and 8th grade class order pizzas and serve the younger children. Every grade has their own day they spend outside, the older kids, spend days out instead of one day. So they might not go out for a couple weeks and then they take a 2-3 day backpack trip (how cool is that!), they fund those trips from Pizza day. Thursdays is hot lunch day where the parents take turns cooking for all the kids. The rest of the days, I'm having to get used to getting up really early and packing a lunch, yuck.

I can see Madeline staying at this school for a number of years, they go from preschool until 8th grade. It is such a warm, creative environment. We might pay extra for the next few years to have her go her and then to have her therapist come and work with her instead of going to the dyslexia school where everything is there but the focus is certainly more educational.

The Christian aspect of the school is very minimal. They have a weekly chapel time, where the Pastor comes in and tells a Bible story, which I'm fine with and that is it. I ended up knowing a number of parents and very few of them are religious, everyone just comes for all the wonderful programs/events the school does.

how to keep a house clean

You want to know how? Really?

Wait for it.....

If you cage your children all day then there are no messes to clean up!

With the house covered in sawdust, plaster, etc... from the kitchen project, I broke out a never used playpen for Julian to roll around in. Gabrielle loves climbing in there and playing with all his toys.

Madeline started school yesterday. She had a good first day, she enjoyed it and was excited to go back today. We are bribing the school to keep her as a student. Nope, but it feels like it. The school relies heavily on parent volunteers. Parents even vacuum classrooms, answer the phones in the mornings, etc... Ryan looked at the computers in the classrooms (ancient) and decided he needed to do something about it. He often gets given used but almost new computers when a company upgrades. He had 6 computers and a laptop to give the school so he has been busy wiping those out and loading programs on them. Two will go in Madeline's classroom and the laptop will be used on Wilderness Days. Once a week, the grades take turns spending half a day outside doing something.

These pictures got stuck together somehow, no idea about that. This picture actually doesn't show it well, but Julian looks so much like Ryan.

4 months old

Someone has been rolling all over the place. I caught him this weekend trying to very hard to scoot. Amazing what 4 months can do!

Gabrielle has been "showing" Julian things, like her laptop. A play one of course!

no time

There needs to be more hours in the day, I just can't get everything done anymore. Just one more child really makes it so that there just isn't any extra time. Or maybe it is just my non-sleeping children? Who knows but here once again is a long random post. The only reason I am finally able to do it is because I'm too tired to move off the couch right now! Julian has had roseola and has been a cranky little guy this week.

This was Madeline off to gymnastics camp one day. She went for two weeks 9-4pm so all day and did really well! It was her first all day thing she has ever done, great prep for school which starts next week. She is nervous but we have spent months preparing for this so I'm hoping that will pay off. We got to go into her classroom yesterday, she picked out her desk and her first job, she is caring for the class pets for a month.

Gabrielle is having to get used to be the "big sister" that is around most of the day without Madeline. You can tell how she feels about that....

For those that know Hannas, this is a size 100! Madeline wore this one when she was 4 years old! All of her 90's are too small, the dress in the previous picture is a 90 and barely fits as you can see.

This is our new house. Nah, but we did outgrow our garage. It was built in the 80's for tiny economy cars, there is simply no room for kids toys, bikes, and being able to park a car in there as well. We had this shed at a previous house of our's, a renter left it behind one year. We paid $180.00 to get it moved 20 miles, that was money very well spent! If you want to know how we moved it, on a tow truck of all things!

I was walking out to the trampoline last night with the kids and noticed the leaves are already changing. Sigh. Winter is coming.

This has been dinner lately, because of below.

Yep. That is my kitchen. What the picture doesn't show is that when they ripped out the ceiling, someone stood on the stove. It is a glass topped stove, and therefore cracked all 4 burners. I can't even brown meat to stick in the crockpot now. Hopefully the kitchen will be finished late next week. And apparently now we will be getting a new stove as well!

the big baby girl

I just had to buy Gabrielle all new shoes because I couldn't squeeze her feet into her old ones anymore, even in her sandals her toes were hanging over the edge. Her new size, size 9. She is 2.5 years old! Some of her 3T clothing just barely fits, the rest is too small, I know she will will solidly be in 4T when the weather starts to change here very soon. She is signed up for a Mommy and Me dance class next month, her leotard is the one that I bought Madeline last fall for her dance class then!

Sometimes I forget that she is just really 2. She has been having a difficult time recently I think that she has realized that this thing called a baby brother is here to stay. She is back in my bed sleeping and will only let me put her to sleep once again. She had happily been going to bed with Ryan for months.

Yesterday since Madeline was gone all day, I left Julian with our new babysitter and Gabrielle and I went off for the day. She had an entire day of her choosing, swimming, pizza, ice cream, a trip to the toy store, and a walk downtown. And yes, we have a babysitter now! I'm thrilled to pieces with her, while I haven't been able to leave Gabrielle with her yet (back to the Mama thing she has going on right now), she watches Julian and Madeline. If I have to leave all 3 then I've been arranging it for times where Ryan is here as well until Gabrielle gets more used to her. She is a college student and starts back 2-3 days a week soon but I've already booked her for 2 days a week, one day of watching someone for a various appointment or picking Madeline up for school and taking her to her activities and then another day of helping around the house. I should of done this years ago, after all now days we don't have that village around to help with children.

Gabrielle rolling around pretending to be like "brother Julian".

10 minutes

Given ample computer time, all of these pictures would of been their own blog entry and story. Now days my time is very limited and I'm making do with with what I can do before someone needs me, I give it 10 minutes.

This is what happens when you let a 2 year old pick out paint colors for her room. The picture doesn't quite give it justice, this a very bright blue. Ryan was still planning on sleeping in there with her only for the past week, Gabrielle will not let me out of her sight so she has been upstairs in my room with me.

Madeline made this the other night on the back deck.

Julian is quite the squishy baby, I love his little fat rolls! He is rolling over now, which seemed to happen much too quickly.

This is the reason Ryan and I didn't go out last night for our 8 year anniversary. He didn't want to be seen with me! And no this isn't from another ER trip. Although did you know you can get port wine stains lightened for less money then 5 stitches cost? Something is wrong with that. I wasn't born with a birthmark but I had one large area appear when I was a teen, over the last few years, more have appeared and they are getting darker. I'm getting tired of covering them with makeup and they bother me without so I am getting them lightened. They use a laser to do it, it doesn't hurt, feels like a shock rather, but because I bruise quite easily, I look like this. I go back in 6 weeks to see how many more sessions I will need.

We have finally been able to go to our local creek hangout. Once the big snow melt is over, the creek in town is a perfect place for the children to splash around in. It isn't a beach, but it will have to do living in landlocked Colorado.