Creative challenges

 

When I do Maggie's hair I have to be quite specific on how many and what kind of hair clips or ties I want her to choose..... occasionally, I forget and just tell her to chose which ones she wants that day. When that happens I have to find creative ways to use all the ones she picked - on this particular day she chose 7 things. Hmmm. This is one of those 'choose your battles' moments - I have decided that it's just not worth it to fight about her hair-do, yet... Most of the time she will listen and chose the few I ask but on those days I forget to remind her..... well, it's just a way to boost my creative talents. Right?

Pretty Pretty Princess

 

Some friends told me about a game called "Pretty Pretty Princess" - amazingly enough I found it at a yardsale not long after.... Maggie loves it. All you do is move your piece around the game board and collect plastic jewelry in your color. Once you have collected all your pieces you win! Is has earrings (which Maggie calls "earbells"), a necklace, bracelet, ring and crown. It's a very simple game that the kids can even play on their own without my help. It was missing a few of the game pieces but amazingly had all the jewelry - so I am ordering some replacements from Hasbro for just a few dollars. Fun! I just have to swallow my pride and decorate myself along with her as we play.....

Books

 

We read books every night as part of our bedtime routine.... Jackson and Maggie love it and always want to read more. Hailey is usually a menace, as you can see. She climbs all over us and everything else causing general mayhem. She does sit and flip the pages of books on her own though so maybe the day she sits still while we read isn't too far off.

Peach days

 

The annual celebration here is called Peach Days. On a Fri night they have a children's parade for all the local schools - with Jackson being in Kindergarden this year he could also be in the parade. He was very excited and chose to take his scooter...... the parade goes for about 4 1/2 blocks - which doesn't sound far but he was very tired by the end. He said "I don't think I want to do that again. It was too far!" The following morning was the big city parade. The kids loved collecting candy but got bored before the parade was over - and Hailey kept trying to run in the road and follow the parade..... Later that day I took Maggie and Jackson to go on some of the carnival rides. We had a good time but it took over 2 hrs to go on three rides. Sometimes I hate crowds! :)

I think I am finally caught up with my blogging. Whew. Now I can go back to posting once in awhile! I am trying to keep it up to date so it will make a good journal record someday. I am working on getting last years posts made into a book. It's a lot of fun. So I am trying to do an even better job of staying on top of things this year. Wish me luck and check in a lot :)

Here we go!!

 

We pulled out the rollerblades the other day.... even mine and Matt's! Although I don't have any pictures of the two of us on rollerblades I have some rather good ones of the little Fisher's :) They love to be out and active. We should do it more often! Hailey also loves to be in on the action so she rides her little bike around. Matt put her on Jackson's scooter one day and now she is addicted to that and tries to get it herself. They don't last long on skates but it's fun to watch them try.

Maggie starts preschool

 

Maggie's first day of preschool was last Tue.... but we missed it to visit with a friend from Alaska who had a layover in SLC. So she started on Thur - on the way there she said "Mom, I won't be scared today. I will be brave and it will be fun!". This was an improvement over the week before when she said she would be too scared to go there by herself. She has done great. She hasn't been sad at all and loves to go do projects and play games. I love her preschool because they always have some active playtime. It's at a gymnatiscs place so they will go out and play in the big gym or in the indoor playplace they also have. It's well organized and Maggie loves it. Couldn't ask for more I guess! So a few days a week it's just Hailey and I - but only for about an hour and a half. It adds a lot of running around into my schedule but the kids love the social time.

Puppy

 

We decided to go ahead and get another dog...... It's been two years since we've had one. I kept putting it off until we moved, hopefully, to somewhere with more property but who knows when that will be. The kids love it especially Hailey. She and the puppy play together like siblings. It gets a little rough at times. He is about 5 months old and he's a beagle/harrier mix. His name is Jasper (not very original since my family had a black/white dog named Jasper growing up - but oh well). He will probably be about 30-40 lbs when he is fully grown. He is fully potty trained which is very nice. So far he really hasn't added too much work - we just have to keep things picked up so he doesn't chew on them..... Jackson was ready to give him back when he started chewing on some legos!

Kid quotes......

"I've got a lot of skittle"
This is what Jackson said as he jumped off the trampoline yesterday. Huh? Matt translated - he must mean skill :)
Kids are funny. Especially at these ages that they use/learn new words. One of Maggie's favorite words is 'actually'. "Actually, I do want that Mom"

Washington DC

 

We went to Washington DC to see Matt's sister get married. It was a very quick trip but we managed to squeeze in a little sight seeing. We got there very late on a Thur night and flew back Sunday afternoon. We took the metro (something that was an experience all on it's own) into DC to see the monuments. Since we didn't have very much time we didn't go to any of the museums. We saw the Lincoln Memorial, the washington monumnent (that's Jackson in the orange shirt touching it), and the WWII memorial. We drove by the white house for a quick peek but didn't take any pictures. As you can see, Maggie and Hailey, crashed for the monument tour. Jackson was tired - it was a lot of walking - but he did really well and enjoyed the monuments.

 

Aren't they cute? Doesn't it take you back to your wedding day? It was a lot of fun to go to a wedding. The kids loved seeing Kami in her "married" dress. It was also great to see all of Matt's siblings together and for the little ones to see all of their cousins on that side of the family. There are eight of them with Jackson being the oldest. We stayed at a rental house that was big enough for all of us. It was chaos but so fun to be so close to everyone for such a busy trip.




Jackson started kindergarten the day after we got back from DC - these posts are a little out of order......

The first of many......

 

 

Jackson started kindergarten on Aug. 31st. I'm only just now posting about it :)He went for a week then had a week off as they did assessments. I know - I think it would have been easier on everyone to have scheduled that differently. Anyway, his first week went fairly well.... with a few snags :)
On the first day we decided to walk (it's only about 4 blocks) I pushed the girls in a stroller and he rode his scooter. He had been coughing from a cold and riding his scooter made it a lot worse. Before I knew it he was coughing so much it made him throw up.... right in the grass beside the sidewalk. We weren't on the main road next to the school yet so it wasn't too crowded. He just got right back on his scooter and kept going. He has always had an easy gag reflex. When he was a baby if he cried too hard he would throw up. He gags on food he doesn't like... nice, huh? His first day went well though at least he seemed to enjoy it but he said "I was good at first, bad in the middle, and good again at the end." So I'm not sure his teacher enjoyed it as much. On Wednesday (his third day of school) I get a call from a teacher about his defiant behavior. Hmm. However, it turned out that the principal happened to be in the classroom when he was acting up and decided to 'help' by taking him out in the hall to talk to him. He didn't want to "go with that lady" so he threw a fit and ran away from her and wouldn't listen to her at all. So the principal had the teacher call me later that day. Once we talked it over with him and he realized that a prinicipal is the boss of the school and she can discipline him if it's needed he said "oh". So hopefully that won't be an issue anymore :) He will not listen to someone if he doesn't think they have the right or authority to do what they are doing. Excellent skill in an adult - a little harder to deal with in a 5 yr old! We will see how he readjusts after this week off. He hasn't been sad to go at all and for the most part he likes it.

Cute kids

 

Obviously I love to take pictures of these guys!! Hailey thought having a tutu on was the coolest thing ever. It's Maggie's - Hailey thinks it's great when she gets to play with the big kid stuff. What a character!

Kids and pictures....

 

This was my attempt to get a picture of the three kiddos the other day. Maggie and Jackson love to dress up and they were looking rather cute that day :) so I decided to take a picture..... Good thing my kids sit perfectly still so I can take awesome pictures...... They all thought it was hilarious. Hailey was the instigator of most of it.

What a big girl!

 

 

Hailey has always wanted to feed herself - from the first day we gave her baby food. Now she wants to be big and use a fork and spoon like the big kids. She is getting quite good at it.

Michigan

 

At the family reunion in Michigan one of the relatives had a speedboat.... Jackson wanted to go out on the boat but wasn't sure he wanted to ride in the tube. After watching the other kids try it he decided that it looked like fun and went out on it. Later that day when they had the boat out again Jackson wanted to have another turn - since they were still at the beach he said "Maggie, come on, ride with me." To our surprise she jumped right in with him. They both loved it.