Week 4: Excuse the Mess, The Kids are Making Memories

This week found Hayden much more agreeable about school. We had a little whining early this week, and it slowly tapered off. He is making friends, and is really excited about seeing them everyday now. This started Monday when over the weekend he was talking about the kids in his class- in particular Austin and Olivia (Both Cartoon Character names, but don't worry, I checked it out, it's legit)- and 'the dude with the glasses'. Oh, and he also kept talking about how he was going to tell this kid, Caleb, in his class that he needed to change his name because it was too confusing for him having a classmate and a brother named Calib. (I convinced him that would be rude) However, I couldn't convince him calling some kid 'the dude in the glasses' was inappropriate. So, instead, I told him his top secret mission this week was to find out the kids name. He asked 'but how will I do that?' I told him just to ask, and he said 'well, what if the teacher is talking? I know, I'll just raise my hand and ask her what the dude in the glasses name is'. I tried to convince him this was also rather inappropriate, and Asa didn't help matters saying he didn't see a problem with it. He said the teacher would be amused. So, now I'm picturing Hayden in class, the teacher asking a question and Hayden raising his hand, completely blowing off whatever the lesson is and asking what the 'dude in the glasses' name is. *Sigh* Luckily, Calib saw him and asked his name while he was walking Hayden to class. Mystery Solved. Dude in the glasses = Ashton.

Also, Hayden's exact words "I like going to school to see what color bow Olivia is wearing in her hair. Sometimes she wears blue, and sometimes its green- but I really like it when she has a red bow' He also got invited to Olivia's birthday party next week, so he's pretty excited about that. Peyton talking to Hayden about Olivia: 'You should at least wait till first grade to tell a girl you like her- that's what I did'. Oh Peyton, the womanizer. All the girls LOVE him. Calib on the other hand, is a lot more shy. When I've gone to pick him up he's always talking to the same girl. I tried to talk to him about her- but I got nothing.

In other Hayden at school news- he's really funny about the green boat-yellow boat- red boat system they have for behavior. He's been on the green boat all but one day, though he gets in the car everyday and tells me immediately, very proudly 'I was on the green boat the WHOLE DAY!" He got on the yellow boat one day and Asa and I both told him how it was unacceptable. So, he knows the yellow boat is bad- and the red boat is REALLY bad. One day he came home and told me all about how a kid in his class kept breaking crayons.

Hayden: 'Oh my gosh, mom. A boy was breaking crayons and not listening- and he got on the RED BOAT!!' And then, he STILL didn't stop- so he had to go have a conversation in the bad, bad place."

Me: 'Whats the bad place'.

Hayden: "The principals office- DUN DUN DUN!'

We got into the full swing of homework this week. We're doing better this year than last. Calib had to make a small costume for his vocabulary parade, and actually came up with it all on his own. His word was robotics so he took two pieces of paper, rolled them together, added a flat piece folded on each end and figured that was robot enough. I was just happy not to have to help a bunch with it. I mean, sometimes the school really reaches on the appropriate project for the age group. They have 2nd graders doing full on science fair projects. Which pretty much means I'm doing them. Another thing that super bugs me is some of the ways they teach kids to do things. Calib is going to start long division this week. I taught him long division last year because they were doing this crazy grouping thing instead, and it made zero sense to me. Just teach long division and move on- holy moly! This week was more of the weirdo grouping. I didn't get it, or why they would do it that way. I know it's terrible but I actually used the phrase 'this is dumb- you will never need this'. Bad Parenting on my part, I suppose. At least next week will be super easy for him.

This week I made the jeopardy board for math night. Now, before you ask how I did that since I have three kids at different grade levels, everyone had their own color of cards, so the problems were different for each child. It was going pretty well until final jeopardy when Peyton bet pretty much the whole thing, and was the only one to get his final question wrong. From first to last- there was some screaming and crying. You'd think we'd thrown Mr. Bear in the shredder the way he was carrying on- All because his prize was twizzlers instead of sour patch kids. It's rough being 9. So you may think I'm nerdy for spending all this time on our jeopardy board- but I'll see your nerd and rise you a dork- because for a time limit we played 30 seconds of the jeopardy song for each question- and included the 'now entering the studios' introductions.

Lets continue on the nerdy path- I made a super secret spy maze in the hallway this week for the boys to try and climb through. Basically, you just use painters tape and strategically place it like it's laser beams from one side of the hallway to the other. It was pretty amusing watching them climb through it. They really liked climbing to one side, and then calling Porkchop, who would run through it no problem- after all he's super small. The smaller you are, the bigger advantage you have. And, well, the less clumsy you are (so, your deduction skills by now should tell you Calib was not too good at this game). I think next time we'll use ribbon instead of tape- reusable and all.

So what was I up to all week? Well, Asa worked from home, so I had a bunch of company. That was nice. We've been watching the office. We started it a couple weeks ago, because we don't have much to watch in the summer, and especially since I was gone for a month this summer- we didn't really get into anything. I have a new favorite show- except now I'm determined to finish it before the new season starts. So shhh.. Nobody tell me anything! I also stole a bunch of straws from Moe's, because the skinny straws you get at the grocery store just aren't as good. I spent my kohls cash, and made some homemade bread and stuff. Nothing too exciting. This week I think I may venture out of the house! Exciting times.

Friday is spirit day at school, and they have to wear green t-shirts. Well, they don't HAVE to, but whoever's class in the pod has the most kids wearing green shirts gets extra time on the playground for otter frenzy Friday. Here's the problem though: Calib and Peyton are in the same pod. Therefore, unless every kid in the class wears green (which never happens) one of my kids gets in the car and says 'I got playground today!' and the other one huffs and puffs. I told them if they kept on like this I would alternate green shirts between them, one week they'd get one, one week they wouldn't to help alternate who gets playground. I wouldn't actually do that, but shh.. don't tell them!

Earlier this week Justins jeep broke down, and he's in the process of fixing his car. This jeep breaks down frequently- so I asked Asa how many days until his jeep breaks again. I said 13, Asa said 5- and that we were playing price is right rules (don't ask me why he didn't go with the classic $1 then). When Justin stopped by on Friday, his jeep wouldn't start again. We both went over on our bids, time to rebid I suppose. Anyway, Hayden was telling Justin all about how he can help fix his car. "I have tools Justin. Screwdrivers. A flat head, and a sharp head"

We were supposed to go to New Orleans this weekend- but Tropical Storm Lee had other plans in store for us, so we had to come up with a back up plan staying at home. We finally got to use one of our groupons. If you don't use the site, I highly recommend it. For 15 bucks we went bowling, got a pizza, and 60 arcade tokens. Bowling with the boys defiantly has it pros and cons. Pro: Bumpers for everyone! (thus me bowling over 100) Cons: Hayden throwing around a 6 pound ball. (you have to watch out behind him) Pro: Wearing cute bowling shoes. (I love bowling shoes, I should have stolen some when I worked at Cedar Point a la Amy Petrey. Now I'm just old and it's unacceptable to do such things) Con: Everyones stinky socks in my purse afterwards (we live in FL, everyone wears flip flops). And, just as a disclaimer, just because I can't smell doesn't mean I don't mind stinky sweaty bowling socks in my purse. I do wonder when Hayden is going to go from his 'whoo hoo I knocked down ONE pin' to Peyton's attitude and stomp around when he doesn't get them all.

After bowling we went to adventure island. Sometime between the end of August and Labor Day pools around here cool down significantly. I have no idea how it happens- the air temperature is still set at 'miserable' and has not been moved down yet to 'plain old hot'. Peyton didn't even want to go in parts of it because of how cold the water was. Keep in mind this was FL cold, and certainly not Ohio cold, and not even close to Alaska cold. Regardless, we stayed awhile and then headed home for college football kick off, in which I made this http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2011/08/peanut-butter-cheese-ball.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FofLCo+%28The+Girl+Who+Ate+Everything%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Dear God, go make this. Right now. Because it is close to the best thing I've ever made. Pair it with some apples to make yourself feel better. Anyway, college football is back- YAY! We switched between USF beating ND- Yay for my hometown team!- and the Gators looking like the Gators should. *Happily does Gator Chomp*

Sunday we headed out to Disney. Asa hadn't redeemed his pass yet though, so his will be good three weeks longer than ours. He's threatening to go without me during those three weeks, but I'm gonna go ahead now and call his bluff. We did finally get to meet Phineas and Ferb, in person. Phineas used his oddly triangular shaped head to boink Calib in his head though- Calib's response to Phineas's charade of apology (because he can't speak he just flailed his arms about) 'Ferb's my favorite now'. Hayden was super excited, because, well, he's five and he still thinks thats the real live Phineas and Ferb, not some grown up in a costume. However, this same excitement translated to terror when we saw the Lights, Motor, Action Stunt Show for the first time, and a guy caught on fire. Hayden's watching, wondering why everyone isn't more alarmed going 'Dude! Dude! Oh my gosh! Dude- that guys on fire- why isn't anyone helping him!?!?' Oh to be five. Hayden and I spent most of the day with characters while everyone else rode the ride. This quality time enabled Hayden to figure out he could do the 'up high... down low... to slow' thing successfully time and time again. They fell for it every time, he was amazed.

Sunday Calib also had another fantasy draft for Jeff's league. Because we were gone he had to be on autopick, and ended up with a really good team. I said I'm using this as a test- if his autopick team does better than his hand picked one, I'm staying with auto pick from now on. I'm so excited football season is almost here! Bad news though, we bought tickets to the Colts Bucs game specifically so my Peyton could go see Peyton Manning play- and now he may be injured and not even play. We haven't told Peyton yet, because we're really hoping a month from now it's a non-issue. I fear it will not be. I can't even imagine how upset he'll be. I got my tickets to see Brett Favre for week two, for fear of this same thing happening to me. Poor Peyton.

Monday was family fun fest, where our subdivision has all kinds of inflatable water slides, a rock climbing wall, and a BBQ set up. We were really worried it'd get cancelled due to rain, and although it looked pretty threatening at times, the sun was out most of the day. Asa has the sun burn to prove it- and I have the raccoon eyes from my sunglasses.

Big Events of the week:

Hayden showered himself- without any help at all. Here was his take on it: 'I showered all by myself. I got the water on, I put shampoo in my hair, I spun around, and I used the girly thing' (aka the lufa)

My phone was resurrected after falling out of my pocket and into the toilet at Disney World. Yes, I reached in to get it. I had to- it was my phone! It didn't work at first, but Asa worked some magic on it (after telling me how I'm not allowed to own electronics anymore) and now despite a bit of a water logged screen, it seems to be back in order. No harm. No foul.

Up Next: It's Swaptember and Football!