Last Day of School

Today was Chris' last day of Kindergarten.  I was emotional the whole day.  It's just so hard to believe that my baby has grown up so much.  It seems like he should still be a little toddler. 

I got the idea from Pinterest for a couple end-of-year Teacher Appreciation gifts.  I gave Chris' teacher one of them during Teacher Appreciation week and saved the other one for today.  I let Chris carry it in this morning to give to her and she absolutely loved it.  So much that she actually started to cry!  She has been a wonderful teacher though and I'm so thankful for how much she has done for Chris this year.  He has come so far and I have her to thank for a lot of that. 

I headed up to the school shortly after lunch-time along with my parents to watch the play that all of the Kindergarten classes were going to put on and then the Graduation Ceremony. 

The play was soo cute.  It was 'Alphabet Adventure' themed.  The "graduation ceremony" wasn't what I thought it was going to be.  After the play was over all of the kids went back to their classroom and were going to receive their certificate there. 

Along with his certificate stating he was graduating from Kindergarten, he also received an award from Mileage Club.  Mileage Club is a program that his school does to keep the students active throughout the year.  They use gym time to either walk, run, or jog and their mileage is recorded.  This year Chris did 20 miles! 

On Awards Day a couple days ago, he got an award for Perfect Attendance for the last 9 weeks and the Best Effort award.  I'm so proud of him! 

on stage performing

Chris doing his speaking part

receiving his certificate from his teacher

Chris and his teacher :)  We're going to miss her

Field Day 2012

Today was Field Day at Chris' school.  It was his first one so he was super excited.  I had originally volunteered to help out with the events but my husband offered to volunteer in my place so I could watch Chris participate in all of the events they had planned for the day. 

They had a lot of cute events like Dress the Teacher (which prompted a lot of giggles from the students), Crazy Dance (lots of giggles with this one, too), Chicken Relay, Sack Race, Tire Roll, Hula Hoop, etc. 

After all of the classes finished their events, they took a lunch break and set aside some extra time for the kids to rest.  The last event of the day was the Tug of War.  Apparently this is a favorite with the majority of the school.  Every student was either on the Red Team or the Blue Team.  Chris was on the Blue Team for his class.  The kindergarten boys were up first.  So it was the Blue kindergarten boys vs the Red kindergarten boys (and it was like that for the girls also, all the way up to fifth grade).  Chris' team ended up winning their match of Tug of War ;)  He seemed pretty happy with that.  For every event he completed he got either a gold or silver ribbon, depending if his team won or not.  Chris ended up with 13 gold ribbons, 2 silver ribbons, and a regular ribbon just for participating in the day's events. 

Here are a couple pics from the day:

water relay

40 yard dash

Tug-of-War (he's toward the back)

me and my squinter - he can't stand for the sun to be in his eyes

Countdown!

borrowed this post from my friend Abby


12 Random Things

1.  My full name is actually Jacqulene, but I've gone by Jackie for as long as I can remember because of getting teased about my name. 

2.  I am absolutely terrified (meaning panic attack, the whole nine yards) of spiders.  Size doesn't matter. 

3.  I'm also pretty much afraid of any kind of creepy crawly, heights, bridges (especially over water)

4.  I'm an only child.

5.  I've been burned so many times that it's very hard for me to trust people.

6.  I absolutely refuse to ever travel on an airplane.

7.  I've never been outside of the US (in large part due to the reason above LOL)

8.  Just had my first major injury a couple days ago.  A concussion.  :-/  

9.  I collect postcards and souvenirs from places all over the world.

10.  I rode in a hot air balloon last year.

11.  My favorite color is pink.

12.  I'm extremely shy. 

11 Things I do every. single. day.

1.  Check facebook and other things online

2.  Talk to my mom

3.  Talk to one of my Fab 4

4.  Kiss and hug the boys

5.  Text

6.  Read (either for myself or for the boys) 

7.  Hygiene stuff

8.  Drive somewhere

9.  Eat

10.  Sleep

11.  Drink some iced tea ;)

10 Most recent purchases I've made

1.  Skate rental at Skateland tonight

2.  Dinner on the way home from Skateland

3.  Workbooks

4.  books for the boys

5.  Chris' membership for Cub Scouts

6.  Shampoo

7.  Pens

8.  new bedding for the boys

9.  books for myself

10.  groceries

9 Future vacation destinations

1.  Disney World
2.  California
3.  Florida
4.  New York
5.  Canada
6.  Italy (if I can get over my plane thing)
7.  France (^^)
8.  England (^^)
9.  Seattle, WA

8 Currently in my living room

1.  TV

2.  Bookshelf with Eric's books and my photo albums

3.  Bookshelf with all of our DVD's

4.  Sectional

5.  Marley's crate

6.  Chris' school desk

7.  Coffee table

8.  My magnet boards

7 If you came to my house the TV would most likely be on

1.  General Hospital

2.  American Idol

3.  Grey's Anatomy

4.  Private Practice

5.  King of Queens

6.  Friends

7.  Amazing Race

6 of my favorite foods

1.  Pizza

2.  Lasagna

3.  Baked Ziti

4.  burger from Backstreet's

5.  Ribs from Chili's

6.  Chicken Marinara

5 Things I accomplished this past week

1.  Updated my severely neglected blog

2.  Did dishes

3.  Laundry

4.  Cleaned almost the entire house

5.  Started making plans for this summer

4 Music I CANNOT stop listening to

1.  James Durbin

2.  Scotty McCreery

3.  Lauren Alaina

4.  My "project playlist" playlist

People who blog that I would want to be friends with in real life

1. O'Neal

2.  Jamie

3.  Mindy

2 Things I can reach from where I am sitting

1. cell phone

2. camera

 

1 picture that I love

Chris and Logan doing something together without fighting.  <3  Rare occurance! 

It's over already?

Wow!  I can't believe that this is the last week of school.  It seems like this school year has just flew by.  I'm excited and sad at the same time.  Excited that he'll be moving on to the 1st grade in the fall, but then sad for the exact same reason.  He's definitely not my little baby anymore :(  Chris has been talking a lot lately about wanting to hurry and grow up.  I'm like, "Slow down, kiddo!  You're doing it fast enough as is."  ;) 

This last week of school is going to be pretty busy.  I'm hoping to have lunch with him one more time either today or tomorrow.  On Wednesday they are having Awards Day.  I'm not sure if Chris is going to get anything or not, but I'm going to be there just in case.  And even if he doesn't get anything, it's cute watching all the other kids get their awards :). 

Thursday is Field Day!  Chris is super excited about that.  I had originally planned on volunteering as a floater (just going wherever they need me), but now Eric has agreed to volunteer in my place so I can go with Chris to all of the little events and watch him do them and take pics, etc!  Events start at 8:45 for Kindergarten and 1st graders and they go until lunch time.  After lunch, they start the tug-of-war games by grade level.  I remember that was my favorite part of field day when I was little.  Can't wait to see Chris and his class do it! 

Friday is the Kindergarten graduation.  Ohhhhhhhh man.  I'm preparing myself now for lots of tears.  I know some people may think it's silly to get emotional over something like that, but I just can't help it.  It especially doesn't help when they put on performances and play sappy songs :P  Chris said they are working on a play, so I'm excited to see what that's about.  This past weekend at a yard sale I found a camcorder and got an awesome deal on it!  It's really nice and even came with a new blank DVD so I can start recording right away.  I knew when I saw it that it would be perfect to have for the graduation.  He'll only graduate kindergarten once, why not get it on video?!  :) 

I've been a little worried about the boys being bored this summer because of us not having a lot of money to do things, but our calendar has already filled up quite a bit with fun, FREE things to do.  We signed them up for the Summer Reading Program and there are all kinds of events at the library this summer for that.  In their summer reading packet they received a free Crawdad's game ticket, free soft play at Hickory Dickory Dock, and a free treat or meal at various restaurants in the area.  The day after school one of my best friend's daughters is having her birthday party.  A couple days later we'll be going to an ice cream party at another one of my best friend's houses.  I'm sure the Fab 4 (my small group of besties) will be getting together for lots of playdates, also. 

I'm looking forward to the events of this last week of school and all of the fun things we have planned for summer break. 

Weekend Review

We had an interesting weekend, that's for sure. 


Friday seemed like it was going to be a typical day but turned into a nightmare.  That afternoon while Chris and Logan were jumping on the trampoline, Logan got hurt pretty badly.  While they were jumping, Logan tripped over Chris and fell face first near the edge of the trampoline.  He started to cry and got down and came up to me.  As soon as he got to me his mouth was just pouring out blood :(   I thought he had knocked out one of his teeth or something.  I got a cloth and dabbed out the inside of his mouth and it filled right back up with blood.  That's when I really started to freak out.  Once I cleaned it out the second time, I saw that all of his teeth were fine, but there was a large hole in his tongue.  I immediately took him to the emergency room.  The doctor on duty that night said that because the hole didn't go all the way through and Logan was still able to move his tongue, they weren't going to stitch it shut or anything.  They put him on an antibiotic and told me to give him Tylenol for pain.  I swear, that boy is going to put me in an early grave. 

Saturday morning Logan woke up in a lot of pain so I gave him some Tylenol.  That seemed to help him a lot and he was back to himself in no time.  It was raining that morning so I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to go to any egg hunts like we had planned to.  I remembered that my friend Joanne's church was having a hunt that morning and I hadn't heard anything about it being cancelled, so we decided to go to that one instead of the one at the park.  We all ended up having a blast.  The boys got to do some crafts, have lunch, and then were split up in different groups to go to the hunt.  Logan even ended up winning a prize.  They had a station with 3 different containers filled with candy and you had to guess how much was in each container.  When Logan got to the container with smarties in it, he guessed 60, and that's actually how many was in there!  So he won the container.  He was pretty excited about that ;)   
That evening Eric and I were supposed to go to a local wrestling event, but things happened and it ended up not working out.  Last minute I decided to take Chris to the night-time egg hunt at the park.  I ended up running into my friend Jennifer and her daughter.  Chris and Jayden hunted eggs together.  It was sooo cute.  They both ended up finding a prize egg!   Chris' prize was a purple yoyo and Jayden's prize was a ticket to one of our local baseball team's games.  It was so funny, they decided to switch prizes so now Chris has the baseball game ticket and Jayden has the yoyo :)   Hey, as long as they're happy, right?  ;) 

Our local mommy group was throwing a "birthday party" for the group since it was turning 6 years old so we went to that on Sunday afternoon.  It was at Foothills Gymnastics and Chris and Logan had never been there before.  It was a lot bigger than I was expecting.  There was so much to do there.  The boys had an absolute blast.  We got a voucher for a free trial class so I think we will definitely be checking that out. 



doing a craft at the church Easter event

Chris and Jayden after they had switched prizes

Me, Logan, Rachel, and my bestie Abby at the mommy group b-day party

What I'm Loving Wednesday

*  I'm loving this nicer weather.  It's so nice to be able to let the boys outside for some fresh air and play until they can't play anymore. 

*  I'm loving that the book fair is coming to Chris' school next week.  I can do some serious damage money wise at those ;)  I'm sure Eric is going to be just thrilled when he finds out, lol. 

*  I'm loving that Chris has picture day tomorrow at school.  They sent home the usual sheet about picture package information but they also sent home an envelope with information about a class picture.  I'm definitely going to be getting one of those.  I think it would be neat for him to be able to look back and remember who he went to school with. 

*  I'm loving how sweet Logan and my friend Abby's daughter Rachel are with each other.  We spent a lot of time with them today.  We started out at the park where Logan & Rachel fed the ducks together and then played.  They were soo cute.  Logan picked a flower for her and later on they sat down on a bench together facing the water.  Like they were on a little date ;) 

*  I'm loving that there are a bunch of consignment sales coming up soon.  I can do some serious damage there, too ;)  Yard sale season is creeping up also and I'm so excited. 

*  I'm loving The Hunger Games trilogy.  I decided to read the first book to see what all the hype was about.  I was hooked before I even finished the first chapter.  I just finished the second book today and will be starting the third one soon.  I can't wait to see the movie.  I hope it's just as good as the book. 

What I'm Loving Friday

Yeah yeah yeah, it's two days late, but oh well ;) 


**I'm loving that we got our tax money this week.  I have been anxiously awaiting it's arrival since we filed at the beginning of the month.  I was especially excited to get our money back this year because I was finally going to be able to go out and get a vehicle of my own.  I lost my van last year and have been without a vehicle ever since.  Having one vehicle is HARD.  The one vehicle we had left is a straight drive, which I don't know how to drive, so I wasn't able to drive at all.**

**I'm loving my new van!  After going to almost every car lot in this area it seemed ;), I finally have my vehicle.  I went to the car lot I got my very first car as a teenager from.  I had also bought another van from there a few years before, so I knew the place was a good one to shop at.  I saw the van (the ONLY one on the lot, by the way), and instantly said, "MINE!".  haha.  I was super excited.  I test drove it and loved it.  I decided to also test drive a Dodge Durango.  I looooooved it, but decided to go with the van since they are better on gas.**

**I'm loving how well Chris is doing in school.  He is doing really well with reading.  It amazes me how far he has come since the beginning of the year.**

**I'm loving that I got to spend some time with friends today.  We met up at the mall for a playdate.  I wasn't entirely looking forward to it since Logan doesn't behave a lot of the time, but he was so good today.  I was so proud of him.  He spent the whole time playing with Abby's daughter Rachel and Crystin's daughter Camryn.  He loves little girls ;)  haha.  After the kids played, Abby and I took the kids upstairs to have lunch.  Logan and Rachel were being soooo sweet with each other.  After they ate they even rode the carousel together.**

**I'm loving that Logan woke up dry this morning.  I was shocked.  He is completely daytime potty trained.  I put a pull-up on him at night because he always wakes up every morning wet.  It's been like this for a few weeks now so it was definitely a nice surprise to see a dry pull-up this morning.  Crossing my fingers that it continues!**

**I'm loving that I went out today to get some music for the CD player in my van.  Now I have something to listen to other than the boys' Chipmunk soundtrack ;)  I don't mind it, because it's songs that I like, just in a chipmunk voice.  But it's always nice to have some music of your own to listen to, right? :)**

Awards Day

My son Chris' school had Awards Day yesterday for the second nine weeks grading period.  I got a note with his report card (speaking of report cards, he got all A's on his!) last week that he would be receiving an award!  I was so excited for him.  I wanted to tell him so badly but decided to let it be a surprise. 

His school has four character traits that they really want their students to model.  Respect, responsibility, honesty, and caring.  Chris received the character award for Most Caring.  He also got a little bracelet that says "Bobcats Character Award." 

I am so proud of him.  He is doing very well in school.  I had a conference with his teacher last week and she kept bragging about how well he is doing and that he is already ready for first grade!



                                                             
                                                     receiving his award from his teacher

standing with the other kindergartners who got awards

                                              the bracelet that he received along with his award

Children's Museum

Whenever I need to stock up on postcards, I go to JR's Outlet in Statesville.  JR's doesn't sell as many postcards as they used to, but right there in the parking lot is the Statesvile Welcome Center so I buy a lot of my postcards from there.  Statesville and Blowing Rock/Boone are pretty much the only places relatively close to where I live that sell postcards.  I don't understand why Hickory doesn't have any.  I can think of a few places they could make postcards out of.... the Science Center, the speedway, the Crawdad's stadium, the airport....  but oh well. 

We took a trip to JR's the other day so I could stock up and decided to visit the mall that is right next to them.  We had never been in there before and wanted to see what kinds of stores they had.  It is pretty small and only has one level.  Toward one end of the building we found a mini Children's Museum.  It looked pretty neat.  At the time though, we didn't money to pay the admission to get in, so we promised Chris and Logan we'd bring them back another day. 

Two days later, on Monday, we decided to go back.  We got there and.....they were closed!  Apparently they are not open on Mondays.  The boys were really bummed out.  So once again, we promised them we'd bring them back when they were OPEN.  I felt so bad. 

So, we went back today and Chris and Logan had a great time.  To be such a small place in the mall, there was quite a bit to do in there. 

Here are some pictures from the trip:

This child is going to put me in an early grave

Eric and I decided to take the kids to the pool today with some friends of ours.  Everything was going great and the kids were having a blast.  We had about half an hour left until it was time for us to leave, so I told the boys to play as much as they could because we would be leaving soon.  Logan went down the slide and as he got up to slide again, he slipped.  He ended up hitting his chin on the end of the slide.  He cried for a while but quickly recovered.  I walked up the hill with him to slide again.  About halfway up, I glanced down at him and blood was pouring down his neck and chest.  I.Freaked.Out!

I grabbed his hand, raced down the hill, and took him to the check-in area.  Once I got down there with him, I checked under his chin and he had a horrible looking gash on it.  He was bleeding faster than I could clean him up.  I bandaged him up and we went straight home so I could get him dried off, into regular clothes, and taken to the ER.  I just knew he was going to need stitches. 

We ended up having to wait in the ER for about two and a half hours before he was seen.  Thankfully I had gotten his bleeding to slow down a lot.  When he finally got taken back, the doctor looked him over and confirmed that he definitely needed stitches.  I was so scared.  This was our first major injury.  I felt like crying but didn't want to scare Logan, so I stayed strong.  He ended up with 6 stitches and didn't even flinch!  I am so proud of him.  He was so brave.  I can't believe he didn't even cry. 

The doctor was even telling him how brave and how much of a big boy he was being.  She told us about a patient she'd had a while back, probably around 8 or 9, that came in and needed stitches and it took every person on the ER staff that night to hold him down! 

The nurse that was assisting the doctor told Logan she was going to give him a popsicle for being so brave :)  He really enjoyed that.  He chose a purple one. 

                       This is Logan all bandaged up waiting on the doctor to come put his stitches in.

                                                    Stitched up and eating his popsicle. 

                                           After his bandage was allowed to come off.