Dancing, Gymnastics, and Stepping Stones

Things have been clicking along here, and we have been having some fun. We went to a girls gymnastics meet at the Arena and had fun. Sydney Frances also had her last preschool ballet performance this past Wednesday. We had a good time watching her perform, and Gigi was able to come with us this time. She is such a good listener and loves to participate. I hope that will continue when she starts school.

Rush is always so sweet when he goes to watch a performance. I am pretty sure he could think of a million places that he would rather be, but he always tells his Teeta that she did a great job dancing. :-) We also love SF's dance teacher, Mrs. Wilton. She does such a great job with all of those little dancing ladies.



Anyone want to go to a meet with us next year? Phil participated this time, but he let me know this would be his last meet. :-) His coke was $7.00 and I'm not sure he was as entertained by the floor routines as I was.


The weather here has been beautiful, so the kids and I headed out to the park yesterday morning. We went to a different park from our normal one. It doesn't have as much play equipment, but it has more trails and places to walk and explore. That can be translated to... I enjoyed it more than the kids did. What started out to be a fairly normal trip to the park turned into quite an adventure. We played on the playground equipment for a little while, but truthfully, my kiddos were nearly too big for the elements they had at this park. It was designed for younger kids. While my two are very aware of being sweet to babies, etc., I was afraid they were going to hurt one of the smaller kiddos. So, we hit the trails. They liked the bridges and looking into the water for fish. We stopped for a while to play on some rocks that cross part of the creek before it heads into the lake. Then, we walked out on the pier to look into the lake. After that, we walked around the loop, playing along the way. At this point in the trip, everyone looked like this:



(This posing... I have nothing to do with this. I think it is a result of spending four years with a camera in your face.)

As we were getting ready to head back to the car, we decided to stop at the rocks one more time. These are the big, flat rocks that are meant to be stepped on to cross from one side to the next. Can you see where this is going? We should have stopped at the first trip across the rocks. All would have been well. So, there we were. I was giving them challenges. I would walk to a certain rock, and then tell them to try to find a path to get to me. We were all playing and having so much fun. Then... Fran lost her balance. I am not sure I have ever heard a scream that loud. From anyone. Ever. It was blood-curdling. Like end of the world, worst thing ever, I am scarred and my life will never be the same screaming. As in, "Moooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyy, LOOOOOOOOOOOOKKKKKKKKK AAAAAT MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! I am soaking WEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTT! Oh no, dry me off, what will I do, make it be dry, my shoes are wet, look at my pants, oh no there is dirt on my hands, oh no there is dirt on my pants, make it be dry, Mommy!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I wish that I had snapped a picture, but I was laughing too hard. I know that was wrong, but I couldn't help it. I was trying to calm her down, but I was seriously laughing to the point that my stomach was hurting. You would think that is the end, but in the meantime while I was tending to her, Rush was still "river-rocking." So, as I was bringing her back to earth with a normal heart rate, etc. I heard the most out of control, horrifying scream that I have ever heard. Worse than Fran's by a mile. Rush had also fallen into the water. The only good thing I can say here is that Frannie was somewhat under control for the moment. There are seriously no words to describe the howls coming from Rush's mouth. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that everyone in the park heard him. No doubt. I had to put him under a tree in "time-out" because he wouldn't pull it together and he was on the verge of getting a spanking. There was no consoling him. It was clearly the worst thing that had ever happened to him in all of his four years. A dog named Peaches saved the day in the end. He ran up to Rush and hit the reset button for me. (Thank you random college student and owner of Peaches for helping to pull our day back together. The student talked to Rush for a few minutes and let Rush pet the dog.)

I decided I had to make a decision as a parent based on this complete and total over-reaction to slipping into a creek and having some wet shoes. We needed a little lesson in rolling with the punches. I mean let's face facts... this definitely won't be the last time something crappy happens. We need to learn some coping skills because their reaction was not okay. So, we rolled up pants legs and headed back onto the rocks. I made sure everyone was playing, smiling, and happy again. By the way, Fran fell again and soaked her pants this time. She got up and gave me a strained smile and said, "It doesn't matter, Mommy. I don't care if I am soaking wet. I am having so much fun." And again, I could not control the laughter. At the end of the trip we all looked like this:



All ended well, though, and we had an adventure to tell Phil all about when we got home. Phil's question when I described the demonstrations of horror: "Was it worse than when they put the girl toy in Rush's Happy Meal from McDonald's?" My answer: "Yes, oh yes."

Helloooo?? Hello? Is anybody there?

Yes, I do plan to keep blogging here at Just the Two of Us. One thing that would help in a big way is for our computer to work. I am working off an old computer right now. It is a smidge slow but the best I can do right now. We have been using our phones and my Kindle for Internet access the last couple of weeks....not the best tools for blogging. We had a CRASH with our newish laptop. I am planning to upload some pictures of our latest happenings this weekend, so I will be back with more later. :-)

Date Night

This past Saturday was lots of fun! Phil and Sydney Frances got all dressed up for Daddy-Daughter Date Night. Rush and I made sure they got going ok and then we took off on a little adventure of our own. Sydney Frances looked so pretty in her "princess dress". At first, I felt like it was a little tacky, but I ended up just loving it. She was so sweet and excited all day. She sat really still and I curled her hair a little with a curling iron. She loved seeing her little curls. After she put on her dress, she twirled and danced around the house. Phil looked so handsome in his suit, too. Phil gave SF a pretty rose corsage. (See side story on this later...)She loved it, and Phil said she refused to take off her sweater at the dance because she was afraid it would mess up her "flowers". They got to eat Chick-fil-a and do lots of dancing. SF learned the Chicken Dance, the Macarena, and the Cha-Cha Slide (or whatever it is called...). Phil danced right along with her. The only tiny snag in the night was when the Chick-fil-a cow decided to visit. This is kind of like me and public spaces. We have covered Fran's dislike of "pretend animals" on more than one occasion. Phil said she was able to move on after a little while, though. I must say, the text I got from Phil about the cow being there made me laugh out loud at McDonald's. McDonald's you say? Yes. McDonald's. I told Rush he could choose any restaurant for our dinner date. He chose McDonald's. I am sure it had nothing to do with the fact that the current toy in a Happy Meal just happens to be a Transformer. After our dinner, Rush and I headed to Walmart and Target in search of the perfect Star Wars toy. Rush had some money he had saved up that was burning a hole in his pocket. After MUCH deliberation, he finally decided what he would spend his money on. After that, we went and had some frozen yogurt at Chill. I loved getting to hang out with Rush by myself, and Phil felt the same about SF. We really should do it more often. Some fun and funny pictures from the night:

Is there anything about these pictures that makes you think SF likes to have her picture taken? Just wondering if you noticed... :-)

Of course, I like to show the real side of things... it can't be all smiles. There was a minor meltdown on how the corsage would be arranged on her wrist.

**Corsage side story** Phil and I talked about corsages before the day of the dance. Phil was going to order one at a local florist, but I told him not to do that because I had seen some corsages at Walmart, so I would just get one with a small flower in it for her because she probably wouldn't wear it long. As I type that it feels just so "rednecky" to say I would get the corsage at Walmart... whatever... I was trying to simplify. You know... Mama knows best and all that jazz. So, unfortunately, I waited until the day of the dance to go buy one. Guess what? The boxes I saw at Walmart did not actually have flowers in them. It was only the little wrist part with some fake leaves and these tacky little pearl thingies. I also didn't really see any pretty flowers except a dozen roses... which we didn't need. So, I drove up to Winn Dixie. They had some flowers that were a little brown around the edges, but there were enough pretty ones left that I could see a couple of sweetheart roses I was planning to use. So, I bought the almost dead flowers at Winn Dixie. Then, I drove back to Walmart to buy the little empty corsage box. I needed the wrist part. Anyway, when I went back to Walmart I saw some pretty little roses that were basically in front of my face the first time I went. I was sweating by this point. So, rather than using the almost dead flowers from Winn Dixie, I bought a corsage box and the flowers I missed the first time. I did not have time to return to Winn Dixie, so I had that "bouquet", too. When I got home, the new flowers from Walmart wouldn't fit into the corsage holder. So, I ended up using the ones from Winn Dixie. But before I did that, I cut the tacky leaves and pearly thingies off the wrist corsage band. So basically I paid $4.98 for a piece of silver elastic. Holy crap.
So to sum all this up:

1. I was totally wrong on so many levels, and she wore the flowers ALL NIGHT.
2. After buying half dead flowers, missed- them- the- first- time Walmart flowers, and tacky wrist thing, I could have just bought her a dozen roses and been done for the day.
3. I really kind of hate corsages and always have. I hated them for high school dances. Especially those really enormous mums for homecoming.
4. Phil will order from the florist next year.


The end. That is the end of my SA. I hope you liked my SA.

(This is how my fourth graders end their writings. No matter how hard I try to teach them other ways to end it. They also have no clue what essay means. It just kinda makes me laugh every time, so I thought I would give it a go here.)

P.S. Now I have two things to look forward to in February next year. Kate Kate's birthday and our fun little date night. February is redeeming itself.

February

That's the only title I could come up with for this post. I think I am in a funk. I don't use the word funk on a regular basis, but I just can't think of anything else. That's why I am going to make myself some dessert. This is it.

Guess what? I am the only person in my house that likes these. Is it wrong that I will be preparing a dessert that no one likes but me? I think not. Mama deserves a little treat.

I pretty much don't like February. It's cold, rainy, dismal, and thankfully... short. I have never been a big Valentine's Day person. When my favorite niece,Kate, was born on February 3, 2010, it gave me an excuse to try to like February. So for the last couple of years, I have been enjoying at least the beginning of the month. This year?

She could have ended this little note with... "because I vomited all over the kitchen floor last night when I walked in the back door." See... it's February. So we didn't get to do our only fun February thing. Turned out to be a pretty mild "virus", but it still kept us away from our family and friends. :-(

We missed this..

And this...

Ok.. I will try to be a smidge cheerier. We did do a little craft that I saw in the kids' High Five magazine. I'm pretty sure that makes me a good mother. Actually, Frannie saw it and planned the whole deal. She even reminded me about the supplies she would need at the grocery store.

They were very simple. I used a die cut for the hearts and bought some popsicle sticks. We already had googly eyes.

True to form, Fran's were symmetrical and had very neat little smiles. Rush's were alien heart-shaped hand puppets that had between three and six eyes each. I love how they each put their own little spin on the same activity. :-)

I'll leave you with a picture of two seriously happy kids. I think it goes without saying at this point that I do NOT enjoy public toys. Who am I kidding? I don't like public spaces. Period. But when you have two little ones, you are generally in public spaces quite a bit. So, they went to a birthday party at a local public jumpy place. They ran wild and jumped and screamed with the other 322 kids from the five birthday parties happening in the place. We only left with one black eye. (Yes, really, Fran got elbowed in the cheekbone/eye socket.) So on the way out, Rush asked if they could please ride in the little jeep thing. You know the one where you put in quarters and it kind of shakes and bucks and make some noises? Well, my kids had never been in one. I know.. pretty sure that cancels out the crafty thing from earlier. I should have let them do this before now. I just imagine all the germs that are all over those things. I think it may be because I am around kids all day that I feel this way. I know how nasty they are. Anyway. I figured I might as well win Mother of the Year while we were there at the already public jumpy place. I popped those two quarters in and out came this...

Pure joy.

Fran and Phil go to their dance tomorrow night. I can't wait to for her to get dressed up. She is SO excited! Rush and I are going on a date, too. I told him he could choose the restaurant for our dinner. He chose McDonald's. I promise to be back with some sweet Daddy/Daughter pictures... hopefully by the end of the weekend. I promise to leave my sarcastic bone at home when I post that one. You caught me at the end of a week that had too many days in it. :-)

January...

We are going to be heading to the first of FOUR birthday parties this afternoon that the kiddos have coming up in the next couple of weeks. Apparently, they are very popular... or maybe everyone at daycare was born in the same month. One of the two.
:-) They are very excited about it. January also held my beloved family Girls' Weekend! I was able to head to the beach with Mama and Ivy for a weekend of relaxing. It was VERY nice, and I am so thankful for my sweet Phil who was willing to hold down the fort for a few days while I took a much needed break. I look forward to it ALL year long!

Don't mind if I do...

Frannie has been enjoying her bike. She went to the "Fitness Trail" with me one day. She rode her bike about two miles. :-)

We also enjoyed the ice cream "van" that comes by our house. It makes me laugh because it is definitely in the sketchy category. Let's just say that I wouldn't let my kids run up to it for ice cream on their own... even if they were twelve. There is actually ice cream in the back of it, though. I know because I decided on a Choco-Taco for myself. :-) Rush is always my messy man.

Fran wanted a picture of her "messy mouth", too. Ummm... you aren't messy little lady. She rarely is... which is the exact opposite of Rush. Rush had grass stains on his pants on Friday. He told me it was because he had been to Degobah (Star Wars reference for those of you that are clueless like I am). He got dirty in Degobah, and he was sorry. His imagination is limitless right now. I love it!

Speaking of imaginations... Did any of you make "rooms" out of pine straw when you were little? Ivy and I did. I was raking the yard a couple of weekends ago, and the kids started screaming all of a sudden about how I made a castle for them out of straw. So, I left it and took a trip down memory lane with Ivy. For the record, it still looks like this. What a great excuse to not finish raking the yard!

Can you tell I was grasping at straws for things to write about this morning? February holds our Kate Kate's birthday and the Daddy-Daughter Dance, so that should make for interesting posting. I bought a dress for the dance for Frannie. She and I have different taste. I bought what I thought she would love. I was successful because she declared it a "Princess Dress" as soon as I pulled it out of the bag. That is the reaction I was going for, so who cares if it is slightly tacky. She loves the dress and her Daddy, so I am sure it will be a successful night. I will be taking my Rush on a date that night, so I am looking forward to that. :-) Pictures to come...

Hectic Life

Things have been a little hectic in my life lately, and I have not found much time for blogging or picture taking for that matter. We are going to take it easy this weekend because we will busy with some fun things for the next few weekends.

The weather here has been less than enjoyable the last week or so... on and off rain... just enough to make it too wet to play outside. Rush improvised and asked to play in the "gawage". So, we put the cars in the driveway, and it gives them a nice open space to get some energy out on rainy days. He made a little beach party with our beach toys that he found the other day. It is actually a pretty good plan because they can ride their scooters in there and I can hear them from the kitchen while I am cooking dinner. Everybody is happy!

She can't get enough of this scooter! While Rush LOVES all toys, Frannie has never really been "in" to anything. She loves princesses, but she doesn't play with toys a lot. She seriously loves her scooter, though. I mean loves it.

I was greeted by this Jedi when I came home from a run last weekend. He was wielding a sword and a drill. A multi-talented Jedi for sure! He got two light sabers for Christmas. He and I had a battle last weekend. He turns off all the lights in his room where you can only see the light sabers. He was giving me instructions on how to use my light saber so it would be like the movie. I had to swing it above my head and turn in circles. The rules for the "battle" changed a couple of times as it progressed... usually when I got a jab in. Rush won in the end. I accepted defeat graciously. I am still learning how to play boy stuff, but this was pretty fun. :-)

I was just thinking the other day how much I love four year olds. I think my kids are fun... and funny... and so cute right now. I can admit now that three was possibly not my favorite age. It had its good points. They learn and change so much at three. The fits and sassiness were at a high point for my two, though. For some, I think that phase comes at two, but it was definitely three for us. I feel like we are seeing more of their true personalities now. Are there still fits and meltdowns? Ummm... yes. They are fewer and farther between now, though. I love seeing how these two kiddos are growing up. I was holding Frannie in the kitchen a few nights ago. As her long legs dangled down to my knees. I told her not to grow up too fast. She pulled her head back from my shoulder and smiled at me. "I am, Mama." I know. Just wear that princess gown a little longer, ok?

I need for time to slow down a little. I think the fact that I registered them for Pre-K this past Monday might have me a little nostalgic for the baby days. I just really can't believe it.

2013... Here We come!

Have you had your black eyed peas and greens yet? Thanks to my sweet Mama, I have. I went back for seconds. It was worth it. Phil and I actually made it to midnight last night. It wasn't intentional. We just stayed up to watch a movie, and before we knew it, it was 11:48! It has been a few years since we have made it to the CST New Year. We usually like to celebrate with our Eastern Time Zone neighbors. :-)

Got any resolutions? I am NOT good at keeping resolutions. I am keeping it simple this year. Drink water. This is not as easy as it sounds since I do not like water. I think it will be pretty easy to keep, though, because I am only going to require myself to drink at least a little water every day. Some days, maybe I will turn that into a lot. No pressure.

I also plan to focus on this a little more this year.

I think about this all the time, but sometimes I am so guilty of getting into the daily grind that I find myself going through the motions of everything. I am going to stop and pay attention. I am not going to worry about having the cleanest or cutest house on the block. (Not that I ever really have...) I am not going to worry about making sure everything is just so. I am just going to try to be better at the stuff that matters most.
(I don't know this Mama or the little cutie sitting next to her. For all I know, they may not know each other either. I got the picture from Pinterest.)

I do, however, know these two. :-) Gonna make sure I am making the most of my time with them!

So there you have it. I know for sure that 2013 will be a year of change. All years are in some ways, aren't they? I'll be back soon. I have water to drink and children to cherish. Can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for us! Happy 2013!