My Kid, My Inspiration

Well, Elijah Graham, you've inspired me. You set some lofty goals for yourself, achieved them, and now you're striving for more. Next time will be an even bigger accomplishment...

Birthday Weekend

Happy Birthday Husband!
To a wonderful guy, from the family, we're glad we could spend it with you. For better or for worse.

David took Eli to Scout Camp for the afternoon, an event designed to give new scouts of all ages an idea of what Scouting is all about. And boy did they EVER give the kids an idea. The Scouts are now allowing boys as young as 5 to join so Eli's getting a head start on the fun. Kindergartners are Lions. So. Introducing you to our little Lion Cub, Elijah Graham!

They let everyone try archery. And BB guns. Seriously???? Once again, what kind of mom sends her kid.... (See the January Archives for a previous moment with this same thought.)

Bows and arrows and guns. I think they did other stuff too, but that was pretty much all I heard about. Oh yeah, and the rockets. Good thing there were lots of dads there to help every step of the way. Go dads! Go David!

But that was just the start of the fun, once the boys got home, the Fortier Five plus Two Grandparents trekked to the China Lights show at the same garden where David and I were married. When we were able to make our way to the Exact Spot where we stood to get married, there was a 1,000 foot long dragon facing us. I told E that the dragon was there when we got married. And I spent the entire ceremony worried that the dragon was going to CHOMP me! Do you believe me? He nodded, he looked a little scared. Sorry, E, I was just kidding. Anyway, beautiful show.

When we had seen almost everything and taken almost a million pictures we braved the crowds again and tried to swim against the stream to get out. Whew. Poor Dad, his birthday fun light show turned into a bit of a struggle as he tried to corral E and find the van. Eli had way too much energy. The grandparents and mom were way behind and weren't offering any help with the rambunctious Lion Cub. Happy Birthday Dad, you get to spend time with your family. Nothing but sunshine and rainbows, right? ;-)

Now for the little surprise - we took Mamaw and Bampa home and all the kids jumped out of the van to stay in HC for the night. Happy Night!

David and I enjoyed a dinner that didn't include kids menus. We didn't have to tuck anyone in, remind them to stay in bed, tell them to quit talking, etc. Nice evening, thanks to Mamaw and Bampa. I hear they had their own fun movie marathon and such.

Next morning, time to get the kids home in time to finish school projects and get to ballet rehearsal on time. And funny thing, for the first time ever, E insisted on driving. How kind! He asked me about 30 times if he could drive, then he quit asking and just told me, "I'm driving!" There wasn't much arguing with him. Thanks for being the chauffeur for the day Graham.

Ok, outa time, gotta move on to the next activity. Keep moving, everybody!

JLS In the News

Shelly and Eli's school celebrates International Day of Peace with songs and pinwheels. Shelly's been doing this since first grade and this is Eli's first year. It's fun to watch how their pinwheel designs evolve over time. This year, rain brought the whole celebration inside. And this year, Shelly was in the front row for the photographer, you can spot her in the gray shirt with the American flag on it.

Bonus Pic - E wasn't in the newspaper but he was in the crowd too...

Brunch Revival

We used to do this thing where we had waffles every Sunday. Then we didn't do it anymore, and today we started it up again. The best part is that the kids are old enough to help.

Archer and Shelly took care of the smoothie while Eli manned the waffle maker. And for those of you who noticed, yes, Eli is on his third, maybe fourth day, wearing that same shirt. He finally took it off this afternoon, in favor of no shirt.

Bedtime Stories, Bedtime Songs

We read a story, tuck them all up and demand they stay in bed. Then. Eli looks up at me with his big eyes and scoots over to the very inside edge of his bed. He peers at me and pats the empty space in his bed. This happens every night. He doesn't talk, and I ask him what he wants. He pats the space again. I come back to him, tell him only for a minute, and lay down next to him.

He asks me for a song, I ask HIM for a song, and finally we sing. This night, we got a little silly, we had a couple extra people join us, it was a delight. Goodnight!

 

Piano Plus Some

Shelly's started taking piano lessons from a friend of mine, Ms. Heather. Tonight, the boys came along and we waited in the car. No time for sitting around, we decided to check the air in my tires. It's never too early to start learning proper automobile maintenance. Or it's just fun to play with the pressure gauge.

And then I lost them. The boys ran off into the woods at the end of the street and I knew they were gone for good when they discovered a fort.

Archer discovering the fort, Shelly holding the cutest guinea pig hamster she's ever seen

When Shelly's lesson was over she ran off into the woods to join the boys. I had no choice but to stay for dinner with Heather while our kids wore themselves out in the woods, and enjoying a Grand Nerf War and grabbing a piece of pizza occasionally as they ran through the house chasing their next foe. I completely lost track of how many kids there were and who they even belonged to (there's another kid? who was that? where did he come from???).

Finally, at 9:00 we were ready to leave. And it wasn't until we got home that I realized, Archer had ended up with a big scrape on his face and black eye. I'd never even heard him complain that he was hurt. All he would say when I asked him was, "You should see the other guy's face." So.... I wonder if Ms. Heather will still teach Shelly piano after this? I wonder what the other guy's face - her son - looked like?

Homework?

Shelly is at ballet class. I promised myself I'd run on Thursday nights while she's in class. Instead of keeping my promise to myself, I've started visiting Starbucks. Tonight I brought the boys and promised them treats if they would do their homework. Everyone was happy to comply. Its been our first "happy to comply" homework night this year. Ahh.... Warm chai, smiling children, doesn't get any better.

P.S. "Happy to comply" homework night only lasted till the hot chocolate ran out. Then it became like any other night, "comply grudgingly" homework night. Tally Ho, I'm happy with my warm chai.

Dinner

I thought maybe we'd do something fun tonight. Turned out to be a failed effort, but whatever. We tried. Not really very hard, but we tried a little.

Simple Idea: Build a fire, roast some hot dogs

Reality: Wood not dry enough, nobody tried to find any kindling, the paper burned too fast for the wood to catch on fire, out of five lighters only one actually worked, the wind kept blowing out the flames

Then I gave up, put everything away, and came inside. Cause it was a little chilly outside anyway, and we have a nice warm kitchen, and a convenient stove... But it DID get the kids outside for awhile, and it was nice to hear them laughing and playing together out there while I warmed up the hot dogs inside. And that makes for a successful evening.

Go, Dog, Go! Go, Eli, Go!

There's a book I read when I was a kid, maybe around Eli's age, I remember where I was when I read it to my dad. Red Fish, Blue Fish. I remember feeling so proud that it was the first book I'd ever read all the way through all by myself. I realize now that I may have heard that book read to me a hundred times before I read it to him, and perhaps I couldn't even read but I was just following the pictures on the page to know what to say. But that proud feeling has stayed with me. Now I get to share that feeling with my son.

Last night Eli kept asking when I would read him a book, and could we please read Go Dog Go? When we finally sat down and I started reading, I was happily surprised to have him take over. It took us a very long time, but we made our way through the entire book with Eli reading more than I expected him to. We had a combination of guessing, getting clues from the pictures and slowly sounding things out, but we did it, HE did it! He read it!

We read it again tonight and I was reminded of what it feels like to watch the world begin to open up to a child as they begin to decode those letters on the page. The secret code, the key to all that knowledge, and the door is starting to open up to him. Watch out world, here he comes!

 

Back to the Grind - Back to School

I had a wonderful seven years of staying home with the kids. For five of those years I was blessed with a job where I worked from home. This afforded me a great amount of freedom to attend field trips, go to the beach, take naps... I didn't really take naps. Seriously. I didn't wear my pajamas all day either.

 We decided that once ALL the kids were in school full time, I'd go back to work full time. Knowing that it would take some time, and I wanted to start full time in the fall, I started looking in January. By April, an opportunity that I couldn't turn down presented itself and I started my new job on May 2. That day marked the beginning of a big transition for our entire family, one we're still working out. 

Grandma and Grandpa stepped in to help with Eli chauffeur duties, getting him to school for the last six weeks of his 4K year. They created an epic Camp Snoopy Summer for the kids. Someday I'd like to write more about that.

But. Getting back to the task at hand.

I'm back to work full time. And in September the kids were back to school, all three, full time. Archer's still at JAMS, now a seventh grader. Shelly's still at JLS, now a fourth grader. And Graham switched schools from NP to JLS. He's a kindergartner and riding the bus with Shelly. There is some new independence and responsibility. There are new routines but everyone's doing their best to adjust. Here's to another great school year!!!

How Was Your Day?

Earlier this week Elijah was devastated when some classmates told him that his project was boring. Immediately I was devastated too, and defensive. I didn't do his project for him, I gave him the tools to do it himself. He drew a very nice picture. They brought fancy poster board projects with fancy lettering and blah blah blah. And they called his project boring. Punks.

Yesterday he was heartbroken again when he realized that he wouldn't have a parent attending his field trip with him. Who would he walk with him in the nature center? Tears. Not even Grandma and Grandpa? Heartbreak. In the end it worked out, he walked around with a friend and her mom, and I think he even had a good time.

This morning Archer asked if I could take him to the store this weekend to buy new gym shorts. His were stolen. Gross. We're six weeks into the school year and guess how many times I've washed those gym shorts? None. So. Someone snatched his (probably) stinky (very) crusty gym shorts. Yeah, we'll shop this weekend.

After school Archer informed me that his bike was stolen for the second time this school year. Again, six weeks in. And we're on our SECOND stolen bike story?? Both times its been returned, so far so good, I guess.

This evening I received a phone message just as an FYI - the principal fell and hit his head today and as a precaution was transported to the hospital by ambulance. School counselors are available for students who need to talk (why?).

Archer says someone told him that a sixth grader punched Mr. Principal in the head. Let the rumor mill begin.

Mr. Principal is expendable, there are like EIGHT principals at that school. Mr. Assistant Principal was seen throwing Mr. Principal through the window. He was heard saying, "There's only one true principal!" It was all orchestrated by the custodian who will be paid overtime while he replaces the broken window.

No, Mr. Principal was seen chasing the bike thieves...

No, Mr. Principal was seen riding away on Archer's bike while shouting, "I'm outa here! Freedom at last!!"

Shelly's holding out on School Stories for now, but I'm sure any minute she'll spill the beans on all the exciting news from her week. And while we wait, Archer is baking cinnamon bites that he learned how to make at school. This school thing is finally paying off, he's BAKING!

Camp. (Devil's Lake. Badger Trail something or other.... Scouts EVERYWHERE!)

It started out optimistic. "All the rain is going south of that area," Bampa said. "You'll be dry, nothing's coming for the rest of the weekend," he said. We were all smiles and party songs as we left HC. That lasted about 30 minutes. Then the roads were closed, the rains rolled in, and we just kept singing as we tried to find our way onto the freeway just to get out of town.

The rain did not stop for THREE WHOLE DAYS. But we didn't let that slow us down on our way to adventure. The kids singing at the top of their lungs to every song that came on the radio, sharing stories with each other and enjoying the scenery along the way made me smile to myself as we drove into the sunset.

Three girls, a boy and a mom arrived at the campsites at 9:30 on Friday night. We were the first there, the rain was coming down hard as we sat in the van peering into the night thinking about what to do next. The Boy Scouts were an hour behind us and we decided to get started on our own. We picked our spot, dragged the tarp and tent out, and got to work. E was in charge of lighting the site while the ladies sorted out all the tent pieces. And tried not to get covered in mud. Amberlyn and Annika had never camped before, never set up a tent before, and both were wearing their good school shoes. We slogged along.

By the time the Boys showed up we were just about done with setup, and when they came along to ask if we wanted help, we shooed them away with cries of "Girl Power!" We ended up needing a little help with getting everything secured before we loaded all our gear into it, but we were pretty proud of our accomplishment for the night. We all finally crawled into our sleeping bags sometime well after midnight, everyone in good spirits despite the rain and mud.

Next Day - The Hike

It was drizzling a little but not too cold. Scouts, parents, cousins, siblings, all lead by the fearless Senior Patrol Leader headed out into the woods. This is where the rain was a blessing. There were almost no mosquitoes. Oh, but the mud. The Mud.

Archer and I waited until 3/4 of our way into the hike before the mud fight broke out between us. I can't remember now if it was before or after I fell down and was covered up to my knees with it, but it was pretty much inevitable. And it was ok - fun even. I'm not afraid of a little (or a lot) of mud, it was all good CLEAN fun!

Later, The Dance. Where I proceeded to probably severely embarrass the children and we all had a seriously fantastic evening. We were about five songs in before Archer actually started dancing, but the Cousins, Sister and E didn't waste any time.

Speed round to finish this waaaayyy too long recap -

The food was great all weekend long (thanks Boy Scouts!)
There were NO injuries!!!
One scout shared his conquests from the dance when we all came back to the fire that night (there was KISSING!)
We bailed early Sunday morning to make it home in time for ballet and we have been trying to catch up on laundry ever since

Maybe we'll get to have a repeat performance again next year, maybe it'll be a little drier???