Birthday Ruby and Halloween!

Ruby turned 4 a few days ago! I am amazed. She's such a spunky, crazy, goofy, snuggly, intelligent girl. She started reading a few weeks ago. Unprompted, just walked up to the magnets on the fridge and put the sounds of words together - she read the words fun, red, extra, pit - I think there were a few more but I can't remember them now. Anyway, she's just growing so fast.


We didn't do much of a birthday celebration for her. There was going to be a small grandparents only birthday gathering at our house on Halloween except Ruby was running a small fever for the second time that week so only Neil's parents braved the sicky kid germs. I made her a 3D Rhino the Hamster cake (from the movie Bolt) upon her request. The little guy turned out really cute. She loved it and it was filled with ice cream. She got some new clothes, a couple of Webkinz and a little money, some books and a bike horn to go with the new bike that Neil's parents got her. Even though there wasnt much to it she still had a great time especially since the evening ended with Trick or Treating :)



This year for Halloween Raene wanted to be a fuzzy blue kitty and Ruby wanted to be a fuzzy white bunny (with pink ears and a pink tail). So, as usual, I went to the fabric store to see what I could come up with. But I was too afraid to put the fuzzy fabrics through my sewing machine for fear of it getting clogged up. So I sewed there costumes by hand over several weeks time. They turned out really cute and I even used face paints this year which I tend to avoid since I'm not very good at them. It was cold and wet weather but the kids still had fun. Ruby's temperature was low enough that we figured she could manage to go up and down the street so that's as far as we went.

Birmingham, England - Dathan Rocks!

In case anyone missed all the posts I put up on Facebook, probably annoying everyone, my brother is Amazing!

Over the weekend he ran the World Half Marathon Championships, in England. He did a phenomenal job. He placed 3rd but it was a battle all the way through. There was always another medal contender that he was holding off. Such a great race to watch! He kicked serious butt, getting himself a new personal record as well as being the first American to medal at the World Half (ever). I am just so proud of him. He has really embraced his new trainer, the new workouts and he seems so revitalized. He left his old trainer this spring and has been with his new one since June. Since then he just keeps kicking butt race after race.

Here's a great article about the race if you want to read it.

Photo found here. Courtesy of Getty Images.

Course 1 complete

I just finished the first Wilton Cake Decorating course offered at Michael's craft store. The classes meet once a week and there are four courses offered. The first course was a 4 week class covering basic decorating skills. I took the class with my friend, Apryl, and it was so much fun! I can't wait until we start the second course next week. Here's the last cake I made on the last night.

Two Backpacks Full

Both the kids have been off to school for a few weeks now. Raene started first grade this year! Its a crazy transition. She's in school all day now and I have to pack her a lunch *a special thanks to her Grammy Nessner for buying her all of her new school clothes, school supplies and her lunch box as an early birthday gift* It's been a rocky start to the new year but she seems to be adjusting now. I miss her though. I'm always happy to see her after she has spent 7 hours of her day off at school.


Raene also turned 6 last week! She's getting so big. She wanted her cake this year to be a Black-Eyed Susan with ladybugs and butterflies on it. She also wanted her school cupcakes to have this theme. So I worked hard and she loved it. We had her party in a small park again.


Ruby also started school this year. She's a big Preschooler! She made it into the free program that I applied for and started a week after Raene. So far the first two weeks of school have been pretty good. She loves it and is very angry that she can't go to school on Fridays like Raene and she always wishes she could eat lunch in the cafeteria (she has had that chance a few times now).


As for me, I started finally taking a cake decorating class. This coming Thursday is my final beginner course class and then I start course 2 a week later. I am absoluting loving learning some of the proper techniques for some of the decorating I do. I will be starting to work on another cake soon for our friend's son, Jack. His first birthday is coming up. Jack is the little guy who I watch at our house a few days a week. I absolutely adore him! He's is so sweet and gobs of fun.

Autumn is officially here. My favorite time of year but also our busiest. Hopefully, I'll get a few new posts up before Christmas :)

Frustrations

I guess this is to be expected with life. Some big changes are just NOT for the better. I decided not to continue with the job at the gym. The job has had a very negative impact on our family and life. Sure we need the money but we need eachother and I need my sanity more. I wont go into too many details in this public forum but if you are interested you can ask me more in private.

However, I will divulge one awful side affect of taking this job, which is that Ruby has reverted completely on her potty training. She will be 4 this fall and she is wetting in her pants all the time! I probably wont even be able to put in her in preschool and will have to do homeschooling coupled with group activities this year. She has to be 100 percent daytime potty trained in order to attend school, no pull-ups allowed. She is a busy girl, who hates to stop what she is doing to go potty but this seems like more of a defiance thing because of my going back to work. I don't know for sure but either way, that was the straw that broke the camels back. Wish me luck on getting her back on track. I have one month before the school year begins and I need every single day to prep her if I will be able to send her at all.

I'm not completely out of work though, I will be doing some babysitting which will help. So if anyone needs a babysitter feel free to call :)

A bit of good news - my mom will be visiting from Colorado all next week! She hasn't been back since Christmas and we have missed her terribly.

Princess Raene

My Grandma Adams heard about some great mini summer camps being offered through the public museum. One was a three day class called the Life of a Princess. Which teaches kids about what life was like to be a princess. Each day the kids got to dress up, bake, do crafts and learn about the customs happening during a new era. This year there was Colonial, Medieval, and Victorian times to explore. She asked if Raene would enjoy going to the class and of course the answer was a resounding "Yes!"

Raene had so much fun in the class and can't wait to take it again next year. Here are some pictures of her in the adorable dresses that Grandma either made or found for her.

Raene is holding the doll she made during class in this picture. I forgot to get a picture of the teachers in their costumes on the first day. The lead teacher is the costume designer at the museum. Grandma made this little colonial dress for Raene and when the teacher saw her she said, "She looks like she belongs to me."

On day two they made jewelry boxes and flowered headbands.

Raene liked day three the best. All the sugar they ate may have had something to do with that. They had a tea party and made homemade lemonade, cupcakes and sugared flower petals. Apparently Raene spent most of the class dipping her fingers in the bowl of sugar.

Getting Ready for Changes

I start my new job this week, probably on Tuesday. I can't wait! I'll have two months to get used to it and then the kids will be in school. I'm sure the school transition will be harder than this one but we will take that one step at a time.
We're currently on hold with Ruby entering preschool. Originally we were told she would be getting into the program and now we have to wait and see because there are so many families who want in. The old system was that you had to meet the requirements and it was first come first serve because space is limited. Well, the state decided that they would be taking kids that were at a higher risk first now even if the program was already full. So now we have to wait for a month to find out if Ruby will get to get in the free program or if we are going to have to find an alternative that costs money because if she doesn't make the program we can't send her to public prek because those programs are also full. So that would mean spending money we don't have on a more expensive private school. I thought I could do it on my own at home but honestly, Ruby is in need of some guidance and so am I. She needs the extra structure of a school atmosphere and I need to have someone tell me what she needs next. It's just frustrating to think that we wont know until a month before the school year begins. I am really hoping we aren't going to have to go school searching.
Raene is excited because she gets to start Princess Class soon. My grandma signed her up for a class in July at the Public Museum where the kids get to find out what it was like to be a princess during certain historical periods. It's a 3 day class and each day they learn about a new era. She gets to dress up, learn to make bread, how to properly set the table, etc. I think she is going to have a lot of fun.