Report Cards

Roman made A's & B's, Dallon straight A's. Way to go boys!

Mommy & Daddy are so proud of you both! We see you work very hard on your school work, it has paid off!

WAR!

The boys playing outside in their camoflauge fatigues, well except our rebel Rocco.

Can you see them?

Gammy bought a chopper!

Or should I say chomper? Gammy got some new teeth up top! Poor Gammy started having a lot of problems with her teeth the last few years. After months of going 'snaggle tooth' she decided to have them taken out and get some fake ones! They look real don't they? Next, the bottom teeth!

Basketball Jones

Basketball has begun!

Roman's on The Gators & Dallon's on The Sharks!

The first game: 1/23/10

Rocco was having his own fun.

Rocco w/his new friends, twins Austin & Stone. Their brother Peyton is on Roman's team.

The second game: 1/30/10

Another Trip to the Zoo!

The kids were out of school about a week ago for teacher planning so guess what we did! Yep! Another zoo trip! This time we took Dallon's best buddy Lincoln!

You know the boys got a kick out of this!

Dallon & Lincoln

Boys will be boys.

BINGO!

Hilliard Elementary has Bingo for Books once a year. This family fun night was created to put books in our homes. A few months before Bingo for Books our school holds Family Read In Night to raise money for Bingo for Books. Family Read In Night is held in the library. For two hours families gather together, reading as many books as possible and testing (Accelerated Reader) on them. This night only the kids can test on any level book they want to. So most of the kids grab PreK-2nd level books and read test read test read test. It shoots their points up quickly! Those points are spent at the AR Store three times a year. A few weeks leading up to Family Read In Night the kids are given forms to look for sponsors. Example: someone may sponsor a kid to read for one hour and donate $10. We never do this part because I'm uncomfortable asking people for money so we always donate $10-$15/each kid. This money goes towards Bingo for Books. The school buys books galore for this event! First there is a free spaghetti dinner that our church cooks & serves for about 650 people then we play bingo. For each time you get bingo you get a book. The kids take their bingo tickets to the hallway outside the cafeteria and they have tables after tables after tables of books to choose from. The school even allowed us to have a table of Gideon Bibles for the families! This goes on for one hour. We have so much fun! Everyone who attends plays. You don't have to be school age. This year Roman took home seven new books and Dallon took home five. We love Bingo for Books!

Life is like a box of puzzles

Rocco has entered a new phase, this kid LOVES puzzles! Every time I turn around he is working on puzzles. Here are a few pictures.

Wordless Wednesday

Basketball Begins!

Roman & Dallon had their basketball evaluations tonight. We don't know which teams they're on yet but they had fun. Nick wasn't able to be there since he's going to school for his Master's degree. Between him not being there & the Ash family not being there because they are in Upward basketball now, something just didn't sit right with me, I feel sad. I'm going to shake it & enjoy this season though! I took a few pictures.

Roman told me on the way there (less than one minute from our house) that he's not the best but he's not the worst either. I thought that was cute.

This is Dallon's first year playing basketball. Group picture Roman finally found a ball to play with and it was flat, hence the disappointed look. I told him we'd just use it for the picture but he wanted an inflated ball!

Dallon's Froggy Party Repeat

Today I hosted a 7th Birthday party for Dallon. He was supposed to have a dinosaur party but at the last minute (before placing the Oriental Trading Company order) he changed his mind & wanted to do the same froggy party he had last year. This boy loves frogs! It was such a cute & fun theme that I didn't even try to talk him out of it. I mean seriously, how many Superhero parties have you been to? OK, now how many froggy parties have you been to? Understand where I'm going with this? This year he didn't want to invite his entire class so he hand picked some close friends & we went from there. The last few years I have scheduled the boys parties in our back yard. It's free (except for the decorations ofcourse), motivates us to clean the yard & the boys just dig it. Due to the freezing cold temperatures we had to move inside. Well...........I was hesitant and frankly, not very hoppy, I mean happy about it. While we have been motivated to clean out & declutter recently, I have to admit there is a reason why I have not posted any updates on our remodeling that was started last June. BECAUSE NOTHING HAS CHANGED!!! Why? I don't know. I will just leave it at that. But I had to swallow my pride and throw my special boy an indoor froggy party. If you know me then you know I absolutely LOVE to organize these sort of events. I'm not so good at the artsy fartsy adult stuff but I can rock a kid party! I have also discovered that a morning party is fantastic because it leaves the rest of the day open for the guests. Living in the boonies (which I love) you will appreciate this because if you have a 1pm or 2pm birthday party you can't 'go to town' or get involved in a 'project' & don't usually feel like it afterwards either. But coming to a 10am-12pm party leaves you open for several hours later. I also love to serve up brunch foods like these: breakfast casserole, monkey bread, fresh fruit & coffee ofcourse. Some of the games we played last year were out of the question because it was just too cold to spend that much time outside. We normally have a craft ready for the kids to do as they arrive but they were having so much fun running around the house, up & down the stairs & even outside, that we just decided to scratch 'Tape the fly on the frog' game that Nick planned & let them play until 11:15. (The party started at 10am, despite the 1pm starting time listed on Facebook. Not sure what happened there.) At 11:15 I called them together for cake & presents. Then we went outside for our one game, 'Frog Find'. I gave each child a goody bag & released them (youngest first) to gather as many frogs as they could find in the side square of our yard. This was a repeat from last year & a complete blast for the kids! They get to take the frogs they find home, plus a balloon & a beach ball froggy, which were scattered throughout the house as decorations. We had a great time & Dallon was very happy.

Not all of his friends came, everyone just can't make it to everything. We invite & hope for the best. I am quite surprised how people don't RSVP like they used to. It's hard to prepare sometimes so I just plan for a group, rather than individual take home gifts. When Roman was in the first grade he invited about 35 people & three kids showed up. While it's heartbreaking to me, he hardly noticed. As long as his best friends were there he was happy. But next time you are wondering if you should RSVP to an event, do it, it's much easier on the hostess.

Here are some of our favorite pictures from today:

Look very closely at our dead, winter grass & you will see lots of multi-colored frogs waiting to be hunted.

Re-used Roman's banner from last year, but hey, it's green!
"I call this balloon!" Rocco exclaimed.

Dallon was thrilled to see the cake Mrs. Tara Libby made for his party!

Dallon put all the frogs where he wants them, now he's ready for his guests!

So are Rocco & Roman!

I like this picture of Daddy & Rocco sharing breakfast. See the dark chunk of goodness in the background on the cake plate?

Insert singing here: Happy Birthday to Dallon!

Blowing out the candles

Half the frog eaten in less than 10 minutes! I like Roman's face in this one.

Presents!

'Frog Find' time!

Dallon & Jamie were happy about all the frogs they found!

All the frog finders

Roman, Jamie, Dallon, Camille, Lacey, Walker, Adrienne, Rocco & Ben

Dallon & Camille

Dallon & Cameron

Checking out his new night vision goggles Uncle Stephen brought him.

This was so cute! After the game outside we walked in to find Rocco had snuck in & started rearranging the froggies. He was talking either to himself or to the frogs. Love it!