{ last week of preschool 3 }

I can't believe it. 


This is Turtle's last week of his very first year of formal school.


It has been such a wonderful experience. He loved his teachers, and he made so many wonderful little friends.


I'm so sorry to see it end.


Summer is going to be pretty fabulous, though, despite the horribly oppressive heat. There will be camp (Turtle will be learning all about different countries), and gymnastics classes and playdates, and I have set up some hopefully fun lessons for keeping him challenged for the summer. He has been so interested in things like outer space and rain and spelling, so we're going to work on experiments and projects to engage him. There will be field trips, too!


We are also redoing his room, which is pretty exciting. I can't wait to show you wait we've put together!


What are your plans for the summer months? What are you most looking forward to now that school is out?

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{ rainbows }

The weather has been less than stellar here, what with Tropical Storm Beryl and the approach of the official hurricane season. 


We do, technically, need the rain, but the dreary weather (and occasional power outages) are really doing nothing for my mood.


However, last night, as MacGyver called me out on to the back patio, I had a little shift of perspective.


In exactly one week's time, I had been privileged to see not one, but two, full, perfect rainbows.


Last week.

Last night.

That's pretty special. And it makes the constant stormy weather a little less awful.

It may also be noted that both rainbows were spotted within an hour of eating at Tijuana Flats (we were recently turned on to Taco Tuesdaze and all). But I think that's just a random coincidence.

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{ are you ready for some footballllll??? }

IAMIAMIAMIAM!!!!!


Ok. I WILL be as soon as my beloved New Jersey Devils take home the Stanley Cup (come on, guys!).


But the Jacksonville Jaguars are ready and they are showing their spirit with a series of Team Teal pep rallies around the city, in advance of training camp.


We have attended several pep rallies and pre-season festivities in the last five years, and I really can't rave enough about the quality and energy that go into these events.


I realize the Jags have their flaws. And they haven't been performing at top levels. Last season was disappointing to be sure, but good things come to those who wait. They have the right pieces, a new coach, new owner and some new blood. Now they just have to put it all together and capitalize on it.


It will come.


In the meantime, the team continues to treat its fans right.


There is a level of accessibility I have never before seen in professional sports. At every event, there are players, cheerleaders and management, and every single one of them is friendly, genuine and approachable. I realize it is part of their job (as well it should be), to participate in community appearances, but you can tell when someone's heart isn't in the game. As a fan and a mother, I appreciate the message that the entire Jaguars organization is sending: that they may be professional athletes but that they remember the people who support them.


Turtle is ready to get the fun started!

Hey! I'm ready for the field!

Reporting live from Team Teal... Wait a minute. I'm not supposed to be working. Am I? Where's the bounce house? Back to you.

He got some autographs from the cheerleaders...

And from new recruit Laurent Robinson. Welcome to the team.

Family shot by the giant, inflatable football. I wonder where I can get one of these for the yard.

Team Ambassador Tony Boselli took a few minutes to chat with MacGyver and Turtle. I don't know who was more thrilled.

Of course, no team event would be complete without an appearance by Jaxson de Ville.

Whoo hoo!


Fans enjoyed some great photo ops and prizes, as well as great swag (cinch backpacks with beads, pom poms and temporary tattoos), bounce houses, complimentary hot dogs, chips and sodas, and autograph sessions. It was a beautiful night, full of great people, and tons of teal. 


A special thanks to Team Teal and the Jaguars for bringing out such a wonderful community event! We look forward to lots more leading up to the season, and we're excited to get to some games this year!

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{ memorial day }

To those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country, we remember what you have given for us, and we thank you.

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{ turtle + iphone }

Equals about 50 pictures that look kind of sort of like this.

Love this kid.

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{ popie's boo boos }

This weekend, we paid a stealthy, surprise visit to my grandparents' house.


We kind of had to. 


I had mentioned to Turtle that Pop's knees weren't working right and he was going to need to have them fixed, and Turtle got very concerned about Popie's boo boos.


He was quite insistent that we had to bring him bandaids.


And cookies. With sprinkles. Like the ones they have at Publix.


Because bandaids and cookies make everything better.


True story.


So we put together a care package, full of Jujy Fruits and word search booklets, Batman bandaids and homemade sprinkle cookies, packed up the car, and headed off for the weekend. 


The trip was a complete surprise. 


And Turtle was so proud of himself to deliver such an important package to his great grandfather.


He put himself in charge of putting bandaids on Pop's knees,

and then joined him for a snack of cookies.

These pictures are just so incredibly special. 


He even went ahead and adhered about eight bandaids to his own legs. For solidarity. Or something.


It was a wonderful visit, and Turtle is pretty sure that his medical ministrations were just what the doctor ordered. Doc McStuffins would be proud. 

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{ buy, save, give }

We have been a little spoiled.


Turtle has always been pretty reasonable and laid-back. Oh, and highly communicative. Which has saved us from the ravages of the legendary "Terrible Twos" and other developmental "challenges" that would otherwise end with me sobbing in the pantry and drinking copious amounts of wine.


But now we're into Turtle's fourth year, and we are navigating another chapter of life. One where he has more opinions and wants to assert himself more. Sometimes, those assertions take the form of dramatic bursts of emotion. 


It's hard. 


We don't have rules, exactly. More like Acceptable Standards of Behavior. All of these are based on respect and kindness and being a nice human being. It's a method that works for us and has, for the most part, been relatively successful.


Sometimes, though, we get off track. I find MacGyver and I getting less and less patient and more and more frustrated, and all of us getting away from the core of respect and kindness. 


It happens. We're only human, and it's so easy to fall into that downward spiral of negativity and anger. So we take it back to the drawing board to try to refocus that negativity into a positive way that encourages everyone to want to do well within the structure of our home.


Turtle has always responded very well to responsibility and incentive charts. I think it's a good visual cue for him to see the things that we expect (or don't expect) from him, and there are short term and long term benefits to it. He loves being involved in picking his responsibilities and he also loves sitting down to discuss how his day went so he can get his magnets, or find out what he has to do in order to get one the next day.


This time, though, we decided it was time to up the ante.


I'm not really big on the whole allowance thing, especially not at this age, but Turtle is starting to express a lack of understanding about where things (toys) come from and how we get them. It is also about time that he learns, in a little more depth, about helping those in need. 


So we thought, and we thought, and finally, came up with a new system, that seems to include the best of all worlds.


The responsibility chart is back. Turtle will have three chores (setting/clearing the table, picking up his toys and helping out) and two behavior expectations (no whining and using his listening ears). 

He also has three jars, labelled "buy", "give", and "save."

At the end of each week, if he has had a strong showing on his chart, he will get one dollar in quarters.

One quarter will go into the "save" jar for college, rainy days, emergencies. 

One quarter will go into the "give" jar. We had a long talk about helping others and we selected four charities from which he could choose (Ronald McDonald House, March of Dimes, St. Jude's Children's Hospital and WWF - the wildlife one, not the wrestling one). Turtle picked Ronald McDonald House. Probably for the compelling reason that he likes Happy Meals. At the end of the year, we'll wrtie a check for the amount of the coins on the jar and donate it to the cause.

The final jar is the "buy" jar. There are several toys that Turtle has his eye on, including but not limited to, a Captain America shield, a Spiderman action figure, and an Ironman mask and hand thingamajig that pretends to shoot some kind of pretend electromagnetic pulse. Every week, two quarters will go in this jar.

Each of those three toys is taped on the jar as a visual reminder to show what he is working towards. We don't expect him to earn the full amount to purchase these or other things. At least not right now. We've assessed a value for each item (20 quarters for the shield, 10 for the action figure, etc), and we will chip in the rest when he gets to that point. It takes away a little of that instant gratification thing he has going on, shows him the value of the money he has and gives him something to work towards.


It also gives us a positive way to channel our energies if we find ourselves getting frustrated.


At least, that's the idea.


This is Week One, so we will see how it goes. 


I'll be sure to keep you posted!

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{ i didn't blog on mother's day }

You know how your friend asks you to babysit so she and her husband can out for a little bit, and you spend a few hours playing with one of the cutest little 16(ish) month old girls you know, and then she gets tired and naps and you sit down and watch some "Don't Be Tardy for the Wedding" on Bravo, thinking to yourself that it will be nice to go home, and make tacos and rent something on Pay Per View and catch up on some blogging. 


Just a nice, quiet Saturday night. 


Except you drive home and walk into your kitchen and there are about 20 people standing there, cameras in hand, yelling "Surprise!"


Yes. That's exactly what happened.

No, I don't always travel with a pillow. Although, after the shock of the evening, I'm a bit twitchy about walking into houses, so I might need to start carrying one for security purposes.


It would seem that when I mentioned it would be nice to have a real-live, fancy, grown up party with pretty food and music and plastic flatware that looks like real silverware, people were taking note. Namely, MacGyver and some of the best friends in the world. 


And somehow they pulled off a ridiculously perfect luau, complete with pretty food...

a gorgeous (and delicious) cake, made by the talented Lydia...

A real live bar with fancy drinks (and a volunteer bartender to shake it up)...

And live music in the form of the amazing Matt Collins.

I was absolutely blown away. And possibly speechless. And that doesn't happen. Ever.


Needless to say, my Mother's Day was spent laying very, very, VERY low, recovering from the late night.

So, it's a little belated, but I hope all of you mothers and grandmothers, sisters and aunts, and maternal figures of all kinds, had the most beautiful day. I was lucky that Turtle was content to snuggle and then ask to go to Cracker Barrel for our special dinner. Which is probably just what I needed.


I do believe things are going to be a little quieter around here in the upcoming weeks. Today is Bentley pug's birthday, so we are going to have some scrambled eggs to celebrate. He's not cooperating for pictures today, so this will have to do. 

Thank you again to everyone for being part of this wonderful surprise. Of course, to my amazing husband for getting it set up, to T, K and L for helping him pull it off, to L for the gorgeous cake, to  J for making the trip, to Matt for playing, to R and K for taking Turtle for the night, and to everyone else for just being so incredibly wonderful. MacGyver, Turtle and I are so very lucky and so blessed to have such wonderful friends. I know I say it a lot, but I think it's important that you all know how much you are loved and appreciated.


And now, it's back to real life!


Happy Mother's Day, Happy Monday, and have a great week!

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{ things about the 6th anniversary of my 29th birthday }

I took a little break yesterday to enjoy my birthday with MacGyver, Turtle, some friends and the pugs.


It was the best day, and I just want to share some of the highlights with you.


1. I have amazing family and friends. Uh. May. Zing. I cannot even begin to tell you how lucky I am to have them in my life.


2. You are never too old for a tiara of any kind.

3. Pretty much the best gift you can get is a drawing of a whale with the word "mom" written by it (not in reference to the whale, thank you very much, but in a "dear mom" kind of way) created entirely without adult assistance or prompting, from your child.

4. The next best gift after that? Yeah.

5. In 35 years, I never learned how to properly tip a belly dancer. I need to rectify that.


6. If a menu offers something called or described as "flaming cheese", get it. Eat it. You're welcome.

7. I love the 30s. Not the 1930s. Being in my 30s. They've been great to me.


8. However, it's nice to have younger lungs to help blow out all those candles.

9. It's ok to start the next year of your life with a broken promise. Like when I made that vow that i was never ever ever going to read those 50 Shades books? But now, I have to because of all the hype and all the controversy. And because a friend loaned them to me. I'll get back to you in a few days with my thoughts.


10. If you want to eat leftover chocolate cake for breakfast, you need to be sure to get up before your child and husband. Otherwise, there will be a lot of questions you just don't want to answer. 


Hope you have a wonderful rest of week!

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{ diy: teacher appreciation school supply cake }

Wednesday's theme for Teacher Appreciation week is "school supplies."
I had some great inspiration from browsing online, but then I was ready to get creative. I hit up Walmart, Target and JoAnn's for supplies:

• 3 pack of papier mache nesting boxes (I painted them tangerine and fuschia)
• 3 rolls of matching ribbon
• bag of cotton balls
• 24ct box of wood pencils
• 8 boxes of 24 ct crayons
• 3-4 boxes of 10ct markers
• 2 6ct packages of small glue sticks
• 4 bottles of school glue
• 4 travel size containers of hand sanitizer
• box of Kleenex and package of travel tissues
• large rubber bands
• hot glue gun
• cake board, larger than the biggest nesting box.

I started by hot gluing the largest box to the center of the cake board (I did not glue the lids on the boxes - instead, I filled some of the boxes with leftover supplies or supplies I didn't use - cotton balls, pencils, extra glue sticks and markers).

It took me a few attempts to figure out what I wanted on each layer, but finally I decided to make the bottom tier a combination of glue bottles, glue sticks, hand sanitizer and tissues.

For support, I used dots of hot glue and regular glue dots to hold the items in place along the bottom box. If you have a rubber band that's large enough, you can use that instead.

To complete the bottom layer, I measured out a length of my widest ribbon and bound it tightly around all the items, using hot glue to secure the ends at the back.

My middle layer was the crayon box layer. Glue the mid-size nesting box to the lid of the bottom tier, and then secure the boxes of crayons around the box using a large rubber band. This time, I used a contrasting ribbon as a band around them, gluing the ends in the same way I did the first layer.

For the top layer, I removed the markers from their boxes, and inserted them into a rubber band wrapped around the smallest box. At intervals, I inserted my remaining travel tissue packs. I then hot glued the top box on top of the middle box and glued the right length of ribbon around it.

Almost done!

I found this great box of tissues from Kleenex - brightly colored and shaped like a bird. I couldn't resist, and this formed the topper for the school supply cake. I thought it was fun and whimsical. You can use any kind of box you find, or you can even wrap a plain box in fun paper if you want to jazz it up.

Finally, I made the signs: an orange-y star with the name of Turtle's class and a black rectangle with the names of his teacher and her assistant.

Voila!

You can really make this project with whatever supplies you want. For older classes, you can incorporate notebooks, calculators and scissors, or anything else. You can also bring in more art supplies - bottles of paint and brushes, for example. There is so much flexibility!


Have fun!






Inspired by What's Scrapping and The Butlers

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