I SURVIVED!

Back in April for Morgan's 13th birthday we got her tickets to see 1-Direction in concert. Well, Thursday was the big day so we all loaded up & drove to Ft. Lauderdale. David & the girls came along too because, to be honest, I am directionally challenged and neither myself nor David thought I could actually get us there and back, and boy am I glad he came because that place was pure chaos.

The concert was sold out, it started at 7:30, but my girl wanted to get there at 5 so she could possibly, just maybe see the 1D tour bus pull up:)  So, being the great mom that I am I went...2.5 hours BEFORE the concert....1.5 hours BEFORE the doors opened...in the 95 degree humidity and heat!

There were thousands of teenage girls and a few guys waiting outside the BB&T center.

As you can see Morgan was all decked out from her finger nails to her toes:)

Quick story...I had my camera with my big lens and a special SD card for recording HD video and after waiting in line for 2 hours to get in, the security guard working the metal detectors at the entrance started searching my things and told me that I couldn't take my camera in because it had a detachable lens...OK no problem, I will leave it with security and pick it up after right? NO! She told me that they would not hold it and I could not bring it in...then she said you can take it to your car, which would be a pain since the parking lot it forever a way but the big kicker is I DIDN'T DRIVE. We took a shuttle from our hotel so I had no car to put it in. Now surely after finding out that piece of info she would say "oh OK ma'am" but NO. She said "oh well sorry".... She said I would have to leave my camera bag..with my Cannon T3i and 3 lenses outside for anyone to steal. REALLY? Long story short I had to leave my camera bag sitting by a trash can as I watched it from a distance and called David to come get it...GRRRR

Morgan had a great time & I survived however, I'm pretty sure my hearing will never be the same.

9 months home

Madison has been home for 9 months!

She says she loves me a lot, which I love to hear.
almost everyday she will come up to me & say "mama I love my house" "mama I love my swimming pool" .
Her new thing is when I give her food she will say "thank you mama for food me" so cute!

Morgan did a little face painting & took some pics:)

Some new things she is saying-"wait a minute", "I show you something","What you say" (she says this all the time), "it not funny"

She still loves to eat all the time. She has gained 5 pounds since September.
Madison may be a hand full but she is one of the most polite children you will ever meet, she says please and thank you for everything!

Madison will be starting Junior Kindergarten next year, I don't think she will be ready for regular K and the girls school has a pre- kindergarten class so I think that will be the best fit. I cant wait to see how much progress she makes.

Happy 9 Months, Madison!

VPK Graduation!

Madison had her VPK graduation tonight. I was SO excited to see her get up with her class & sing.
She new that the day was "all about her" and she LOVED that!

I will admit I was very nervous because I had no idea how Madison would react once up on stage. There were about 70 people and so I was planning how I would get to the stage to grab her if she started freaking out...But praise the Lord, she did great!

Madison & Ms. Gini

It was a great night & after it was over we took her to Sonic to get a late night ice cream, perfect way to end her day!

And in other news, McKinley lost a tooth yesterday and then ANOTHER one today. I am beginning to think there will never be another photo of her with a full mouth of teeth. Seriously, It has been over a year since she has had all her teeth in.

I love that face, but come on, enough is enough:)


Happy Thursday!
Melissa

Strep, parents/ teachers conference , a tea party & Down Town Disney!

The first week of summer didn't really start off as I had envisioned it. The day after Morgan's mouth surgery I woke up with a killer sore throat which only got worse, so after 2 days I went to the Dr. and was diagnosed with Strep. We had had plans for months to meet my sister & her family at Downtown Disney for dinner on Friday night and since the girls had been cooped up in the house all week and didn't want to disappointment them, we went ahead and went.

Uncle David & Cason

 Chandler & Morgan

We spent the night at the Hilton, this was our first time staying in a hotel with Madison since being home from China. We really weren't sure how it was going to go but I am happy to report she did really well and slept through the night (she woke up crying once but it didn't last long).

Now let me back up to Thursday when we had our parent/teacher meeting with Madison's VPK teacher. She told us Madison was behind in almost everything, which we really already knew. The teacher said Madison could only count to 13 and that was the only thing that I didn't agree with because she counts to 27 at home, however, she does skip the number 13 for some reason (bad luck I guess). Madison also failed the oral language test which is understandable. I knew that she wouldn't be ready for Kindergarten next year so we are putting her in Jr. K at the same school where Morgan and McKinley go. I am glad they will all be at the same school next year and I'm sure that will Madison adjust as well.

Madison loves to draw, here is a picture she drew the other day:

Now for the tea party. A little back story on this is that each year at the girls school they have a big fundraiser called the spring jubilee. As a part of it, each teacher donates either a gift, their time, or something they have made for parents to bid on. This year a little girl in McKinley's class mom bought the tea party with Mrs. Brightwell. The little girl could pick 6 friends to invite and McKinley was invited to go. The mom even rented a limo to take the girls to the tea party!

To say she was a little excited to ride in a limo was an understatement!

My sister asked her what her favorite part was and she said "getting to ride without a car seat" Ha! She has been asking me a lot lately when she can stop using her car seat:)

So if you are still actually reading this, that pretty much sums up our last few days. I am hoping next week is a little better :).


Hope you all have a great Sunday tomorrow!
MELISSA

FIrst day of summer..

Well our first day of official summer was spent at the DR. for Morgan to have a baby tooth removed & an impacted tooth exposed...fun, right? Ha

She did great! Her mama was way more nervous than she was:) And as of right now she still isn't having any pain...YAY!

We had a great Memorial day yesterday, grilled out & had one of the pastors at church & his family over . The kids had a great time playing volley ball in the pool & throwing eachother in. I did not take one single picture..Gasp, I know! Hope you all had a great weekend as well.

MELISSA

MY GIRLS

I am one BLESSED Mama! ( Thanks Yanira, for the great pictures!)

Melissa

JUST TRYING TO SURVIVE :)

This is the last week of school for my girls and I have spent the better part of my week just trying to keep them FOCUSED! I mean, I too am having a hard time with it...I checked out about a week ago & I think they did too. Morgan had final exams Mon, Tue, & Wed and she gets out at noon everyday this week which is great.  I love having her home early However, It has totally messed up my schedule. Madison still has VPK til June 7th so picking Morgan up at noon and by the time i get through the Carline its time to drop Madison off, then go back & get McKinley at 2:30 then pick Madison up at 4 whew... Yes its ever bit as relaxing as it sounds!

So let me share with you my day today. This is how it all went down:

6:30 get up & get everyone ready
8:00 off to school
8:20 Madison & I take a car load of 7th graders on their year end party, bowling (20 minutes away)
Then I have to be back at the bowling alley at 11:30 to pick the girls back up to get them back to school for car line at noon.
After I dropped off the girls we had exactly 45 minutes to grab some lunch & get Madison to her school at 1.
At 1:15 I headed back to the girls school to work the math & spelling carnival for McKinley's class and that lasted till 2:30.

So as you can see I had a very peaceful & stress free day:)

Summer will officially begin at our house tomorrow! I have been looking forward to no schedules or school routines, no homework to check or reading to do. Oh, wait did I say no reading? Sorry about that, I am  not one of those moms who let their children go all summer without picking up a book or staying up to date on their math & spelling skills:) whoops that was just a typo!

Now as excited as I have been about no schedule and sleeping in...wait there is never sleeping in around here because my 4 year old is up at 6:30 every morning, anyway as I was saying I have been waiting for the summertime, no routine days to get here but after about 1 month my "not-so-laid-back" personality comes back & I crave the mundane routine of life.

And for good measure, just in case some of you may be thinking that I was a bit dramatic about my busy day I have pictures to prove it!  Enjoy & happy summer!

In the above picture Morgan started jump roping at McKinleys party and within a few minutes

she was surrounded by a bunch of 1st graders.