Holiday Luncheon

Today Preston and I had the privilege of joining Savannah for lunch at school! It was the school wide holiday luncheon where parents were invited for a special Christmas meal. I picked up Preston early from school and he was SO excited to go to sissy's "big school". One more day to winter break . . .

3 Things that made me smile . . .

When I was volunteering yesterday in Savannah's class, her teacher told me something funny Savannah did in school last week. She said that two boys made some comment to her as she was passing by during free choice time. Mrs. Hindman said that after hearing them, Savannah stopped in her tracks, turned around to them, and with her little head cocked back said "I'm watching you boys" then turned right around and kept on going. Later I asked Savannah about the incident and she said that they were saying something about how they hated Clemson ~ she was sporting her "new" pink Clemson sweatshirt at the time. Mrs. Hindman's comment to me was "Watch out boys. She's the perfect combination of sharp and beautiful too."

Preston loves his play therapist. She only comes every other week, alternating with our speech therapist, but as soon as she leaves he's already asking for her to come back. It's adorable to hear him say "I pay wif Audey, mommy". I'm not sure who I like more, the play therapist that HE loves or the speech therapist that has worked wonders in just two sessions. Either way, I'm smiling at his progress!!

With the Christmas season comes lots of chances to sort of bribe our kids into behaving well. I know it's awful to do, but we are holding Santa gifts over their head like no other. I figure as long as we aren't flat out lying to them, they're going to know in only a few quick years that the magic of Santa isn't real so we're enjoying it for now. :) To help us monitor behavior we have Cookie, our elf, always watching. We also have a small stuffed figurine of Santa on our hearth. Preston has decided that every day he needs to pay Santa a visit just to make sure he remembers that special gift on Preston's list. So, at least once a day I'll find Preston on his knees in front of Santa saying "San Cause, I wan bike to ride ouside. I wan red bike, San Cause." I have it on video, but have to remeber to grab my camera today!

Two Parties and a Tea

This weekend has already been jam-packed and it's only half over! On Friday we were invited to a birthday party for John Robert at the Ezells. It was the perfect party, very laid back and intimate. The kids LOVED having chick fil a, playing in the backyard (since the weather was awesome), having cake and playing upstairs too. I have to say I enjoyed sitting with the other mommies and just chatting. :)

Today we woke up bright and early and headed to Greenville for our niece Ashley's second birthday party. It was at the Greer fire department and the kids loved it! They got to walk around inside the fire truck, go on a tour of the fire department, see the fireman slide down the pole, watch a fireman put on his gear, and then of course we enjoyed more yummy chick fil a and cupcakes!

Preston couldn't wait to try sliding down the pole!

This picture cracks me up. Preston kept rubbing Ashley's knee trying to feel the fuzzy tutu that she was wearing. It was hilarious watching them!

Happy Birthday Ashley!!

As you can see Preston REALLY enjoyed his cupcake.

After the party the family kiddos headed to the local park where Savannah and Preston were able to run and play for a bit before getting back in the car.

Then, we packed up there and headed to the Billy Graham Library for the annual teddy bear tea. My friend Donna was a huge part of the planning this year and everything was just adorable. Lucky for us, Donna also reserved a table up front for us so that Savannah, Jack and Caroline could have great seats! It was a sweet program and Savannah loved sipping hot chocolate from a real tea cup. While Savannah and I were at the tea, Dave took Preston for a tour of the BG Library.

Making her craft place mat while waiting for her "tea".


Savannah, Caroline, and Jack

Savannah is Reading!!

On Monday Savannah came home with a new little ziploc in her backpack. It contained a reading log, a ring of high frequency words to practice, a pointer stick with an owl on it, and yes a book! I have to admit I was dreading the reading everyday, but I am shocked at how wonderfully she is doing!! I should have taken a picture on Monday of her first book she read all on her own, Little Chimp, but I forgot. Here is a picture of her reading her second book to her brother. It is so neat to share this time with her every afternoon where she can show off her reading skills!

Happy Thanksgiving 2011

Great Grandma with her 5 Great Grandchildren!

Preston loving on Taylor

As we celebrate another Thanksgiving, I'm reminded once again how many things we truly have to be thankful for. At the top of my list is family and friends. We started our holiday early by travelling to Cherryville to see my friend Marie and her family. Marie and I have been friends since middle school and it's always fun to catch up with her. I took the camera and left the memory stick in the computer so I don't have a single picture to share. :( Maybe I can post a few that Marie sends once she's back home in NJ. THANKS MARIE FOR THE PICTURES!!!

Everyone wanted to play with the race car toy!


What a fun morning we had visiting with Marie & her family!

I can't even express how thankful I am for my close friends, those that live here in Charlotte and those that live far FAR away. These are women who have truly walked by my side through some pretty tough times and I am forever grateful for you all!

On Thanksgiving Day we celebrated with my side of the family at Great Grandma's house. What a treat it was to be able to spend several hours with my brother and his kiddos too. We ate way too much and then headed back home so I could start some early shopping. It was a fantastic day spent loving on those we cherish.

Wishing everyone a Happy, Happy Thanksgiving!!

Helen, GA Vacation 11/10-11/12

For years Dave has been talking about wanting us all to take a mini vacation to this little German town in Georgia called Helen. There really hasn't been any extra time in our schedule, but with both kids having Veteran's day off from school we decided to take advantage of the little break from our routine. We left on Thursday right after school and stayed through Saturday afternoon since I needed to be back for my Sunday morning job. Here are a few pictures from our mini vacation.

Since we arrived so late on Thursday night, the fun really started Friday morning. Grammy and Papa drove up to meet us and we all spent the day together. First up, Babyland General Hospital. Savannah loved seeing all of the dolls and we even got to witness a doll being born and help name the baby. Savannah contributed the middle name and another little girl chose Macy as the first name; the newborn cabbage patch kid was Macy Grace! Here is a picture with Savannah holding her.

Savannah and Macy Grace

Next we drove to downtown Helen where we walked around a lot, took a few pictures (until my battery died), and had lunch.

This picture makes me smile. The kids were SO excited about seeing Grammy and Papa. See the excitement on their faces as they walk with Papa?!


After a long day of walking around, we decided to head to Anna Ruby Falls for some hiking. Well, lets just say that Preston didn't quite make it. He fell asleep on the 10 minute drive and I just couldn't wake him up. So, I stayed in the van with him and he slept the entire time everyone else was hiking!!

We then said goodbye to Grammy and Papa and headed to the hotel . . which by the way Savannah's first response when we arrived on Thursday was "this is a dream come true" said as she danced and twirled around. Really, Savannah? Wonder what she'll think when we do Disney if the little hotel in Helen, GA is a dream come true? We figured out later that she probably can't ever remember staying in a hotel since we've always stayed in a house or condo on vacation with them. Anyway, back to our vacation . . . we let the kids go for a swim in the indoor pool and then it was off to bed.

Saturday we woke up and decided to head to the Goofy Rooster corn maze. Little did we know how much fun it would be and just how many things there would be to do there! First up was the huge corn maze. The maze was a big clue game with hidden clues to find throughout the maze. If you found the clues and determined what happened to the farmer then we all got candy of our choice so that was quite the motivation!! It took us 40 minutes just to find our way through the maze (without a map) and then we realized we missed 3 clues. We headed back in for another 20 minutes to make sure we solved the mystery.


Here are the kids before going into the maze

Our own peanut!!

Savannah on one of the 3 bridges in the corn maze

Preston on the bridge, wondering what's below!

After the corn maze we went on a long hay ride up the mountain, let the kids ride the barrel train, had a picnic lunch, and then wrapped up the morning with some playground time. They were exhausted!!!

It was a fun weekend and a nice adventure for our family. Now that they are older and travel somewhat easier I'm looking forward to a few more weekend getaways!

Lots of Progress

I have been so busy with things around here that I have totally neglected the blog. This is a post that should have been posted two weeks ago, but better late than never, right?

Preston:
His speech has just taken off. Now most of his talking is in 3-4 word sentences! Last week I got my first real "I wuv U mama". Oh how it just melts my heart to hear him say it!!! However, our biggest problem is that he continues to drop the ends of words off. For example he calls yogurt "yo" and purple "pur", which also is conveniently his word for pour. The maddening thing is that sometimes he actually slows down enough and we actually hear the whole word, but this is a very rare occasion. The speech therapist (which we are changing next week) says that this is completely normal. She tried to explain that the first goal for Preston is to be able to communicate with us. Since he can basically do that and he is always going at full speed ahead, he probably isn't interested in his articulation. But, she assures me that will come with time. So for now we are loving his new speech. I have to get the video camera out to capture these precious "words" before he becomes a sassy little child.


Savannah:
She is also making progress with her reading and writing. Although I can't really say that she is "reading" at this point, she is doing pretty well at sounding out words . . . but only when she wants to. She is also improving with her writing, both in neatness and in writing more words on her own. I love sorting through her classwork and trying to decipher her words, it cracks me up! I'm afraid she is going to be much like me with preferring math over reading. She loves to do adding problems at the dinner table and always complains when I make her sound out words for her homework.

We had her conference a couple of weeks ago and received her report card last week too. Of course, she is the model child at school according to her teacher. She received all 3s on her report card and even a 3+ on following school rules.

Savannah and Preston have both come so far even since August. We still have a way to go, but it's neat to be able to see progress from day to day with each of them.