Friday, March 2, 2012

Ryan's Special Day (and a pretty good one for mom)

6:00.. I'm ready for bed. Ha ha. The alarm went off at 4:30 for workout. I did my measurements for the end of my 30 days of no sweets. I was down 6 pounds and 1% body fat.

When I got home all three boys were still in bed. I woke Reid up and he ate breakfast and got ready for school and left before the other two boys got up (NEVER happens). He commented how nice it was to be just him and I awake (I agreed).

Then I woke Ross up, got him dressed and started his breakfast. He was actually calm, ate well... and ate a ton. He had a pop-tart and two half bowls of cereal (with milk). He's the only one of the boys that eats their cereal with milk on it and he makes quite a mess but he does sit up at the table eating pretty well.

Eventually Ryan rolled out of bed and ate breakfast and got dressed so we could take Ross to daycare. After we dropped Ross off we began Ryan's special day with mom!!

It started with kindergarten roundup! Ryan entered the classroom acting very shy. He wouldn't talk to the teachers or wear a name tag. He did separate and go to play while I went to fill out paperwork though. He did several stations - toys, draw a picture, play do, and finally make a cookie with Mr O. (the principal of the school). Our school is the Regency Place Lions so they made lion cookies.

(I didn't do a great job capturing Ryan here but I didn't want to be "that" mom that kept asking Ryan to pose while the principal smiled in the background)

After Kindergarten roundup we went home and played "kitchen" for quite a while and then did some mazes and dot-to-dots in some books. We then went to the beauty shop where I got a hair cut.

After my hair cut we went to Johnny's for lunch. I wanted to hit up Orange Leaf today but I was full from lunch so we went home to play for a while first. We drew pictures and cards, moved Ryan's easel to his bedroom, did a couple loads of laundry, dishes, and made rice krispy treats. I let Ryan do almost all of the measuring for them as well as buttering the dish and flattening them in the pan. Mostly all I did was melt and stir the ingredients on the stove. He LOVED making them.


(Paula Deen and Ree Drummond would be proud of the butter usage by this kid!)

Around 3:00 we ended up going to Orange Leaf for a treat... yummy! Some funny stories from OL:

* The owner of the yogurt shop knows me pretty well and by my first name. NO, not because I have an insane addiction. Honestly, I did a fundraiser for the hockey team there once and she handled it all and just knows me... honestly! Anyway, she brought over a tax form and asked me a question about a field. I told her I wasn't sure. Ryan says, "Call my dad, he's smarter."

* Right before we went to OL we got a letter from Ryan's teachers (Laurie and Demmi) about some inappropriate touching that's been going on in the classroom. A lot of the kids have picked up the habit of spanking each other and even adults. I was talking to Ryan about it and how we do and don't touch people. He claims he NEVER spanks adults. I reminded him that he had JUST spanked Kendra (my hairdresser) that day at the salon. He looks at me and says "Are you going to tell Demmi?" LOL, I guess we know who he's afraid of :)

* Also while pulling in to get our OL, Ryan is telling me a story about a store that he's going to open that will make lots and lots of money. He's going to get a big store and put all kinds of signs on the outside that says everything is free. Then everyone will come and get lots of stuff and then he'll tell them it's not really free and make lots of money.

* As a follow up he asks me, "What do rich people do anyway?"

YES - he talked ALL day. I'm glad that I jotted some of these down though (I got a new app for that - thanks Suzanne!!) Normally I remember that the kids said funny things but can't remember what they were.

After Orange Leaf I took Ryan to Archivers to get some stickers and paper. He LOVES my scrapbook stuff and I had an old gift card from the Christmas before last with $6.00 left on it. He really liked picking stuff out. At first he asked the price of everything and was being really careful, then eventually he wanted everything he saw :)

After Archivers we picked Ross up from daycare and came home for dinner (leftover lunch). Russ and Reid were heading out the door for hockey practice as we came home. Ryan, Ross and I have just hung out playing toys. Ryan played with his new paper and stickers immediately after dinner and is now putting together a 24 piece puzzle by himself and watching cartoons. Ross is playing with Ryan's Alphie (without cards) and pretty much being his usual terrorish self.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

The Final Product

Paul finished our cabinet yesterday afternoon...


We let it set to make sure all the "tacky" feel was off the shelves and doors and then today I brought all the books back in. This was my first attempt but I didn't like the paperbacks laying down on the top shelf.


So, this is what we've got for now. I wish it was about 15 - 20 books less so we could add a decorative piece or two. Russ has a flag raising statue that would look great as a book end... but we've FILLED this space to the max. And he's still got a bookshelf full in his office. I do give him credit though... this winter he was able to part with about 30 books - that's HUGE for him! I did find about 6 books on here that I own - a Children's bible, a Dr Seuss book I got for the boys, and my college yearbooks. A pack rat I am not. :) Honestly, I also have a shelf of books in my closet that I thought I might read some day - discount finds at library sales, but none of them have interested me enough to read them yet... so they might be getting recycled out soon. (I usually just pass my books on to friends or family as I never reread anything)

The bottom of the cabinet is going to be used for some board games and puzzles that we have overflow of. I just put some puzzles in there for now. These were on the kitchen counter as Ryan has been pretty into doing them as of late.

I'll probably find something around the house to put on top but haven't decided what just yet.

Quite an improvement, huh? I really like it. We ALWAYS trust Paul's workmanship!! I guess if my home is going to be overflowing with something, I'm glad that it's books. Both Russ and I are avid readers and have read to the boys since they were very little. All of the boys love to listen to books, have large collections of their own and Reid has quite the reading skills himself.