Kenzie Goes To Kindergarten

This picture really is worth a thousand words.  This is my beautiful daughter, McKenzie, so excited to start her first day of kindergarten.  She is confident and assured that she will succeed at this journey because this is something she has been waiting for, practicing, and planning.  In what has been our families longest running campaign to prepare for something, the get excited for kindergarten campaign started the day Kenzie recognized her first school bus and continued as she saw her cousins go off to school. When we shared stories of when Matt and I went to school and the visits we've paid to her elementary school before the big day.  Over the summer Kenzie created her own countdown calendar and has been patiently marking off the days one by one.  Before we knew it we were there.  

Matt and I gave her a special necklace for her first day with a big monkey and a little monkey so she'd know we were thinking of her.  She loved it!

Ready to head out to walk to the school bus which is a quarter of a mile away.

This daily walk is going to be part of the family exercise plan, especially if we have to carry Ben there and back.

Daddy and Ben waiting for the bus to take Kenzie to school.  Now it's Ben's turn to have the full force of the get excited for kindergarten campaign.  The good thing is he is already bought-in and is trying to figure out how to get older faster so he can get on that bus.  We told him he needed two more birthdays until he was five and could go to kindergarten.  Then after the next birthday party he went to, he told me that now he was four and just needed one more birthday party before he could ride the bus.  Poor guy thought he could just sneak that past us.

Getting on the bus with all the neighborhood kids, it's amazing how many kids actually live near us.

After we walked home I jumped in the car and raced to the school to see Kenzie before she headed into her classroom.  She had already found her teacher and was happily in line and when it came time to head to class she just gave me a wave and headed off without a look back.

Where did my baby go?  I've found out in this journey that my baby is still there, saving her biggest hug for me when she gets home from school and waiting to share all the little details of her day.  She has really be thriving at kindergarten and continues to amaze me daily.  

Happy Campers

This summer we never checked off one of items on our summer bucket list, camping in our tent.  We usually get in some tent time when we go over to Entiat but this year we had the luxury of being able to sleep inside and we just never found the perfect night to set up the tent at home.  In order to check it off our list I let the kids have their very own camp out inside the house.  We have a smaller tent that we haven't used since we got our giant tent for our wedding so I pulled it out and found that it fit perfectly upstairs on the landing.

As you can see in the picture inside camping also enabled their pack rat tenancies, they had easy access to their rooms and proceeded to haul way too much stuff into the tent for bedtime.  We did lights out at our normal time but the temptation to giggle the night away was too much. Finally I had to resort to laying down with them to get them to sleep.  

In the end it worked out perfectly for all, they got their tent camping in for the summer and I got to do a little camping and then spend the night in my comfortable bed!  Now that we know this tent fits inside we might even allow camping in the winter.  

Fairly Fun

Okay it was more than just fairly fun, the kids love our yearly fair adventure.  We did all the usual things,saw some animals, ate fair food, and of course went on the rides.  If I had to sum up this years ride experience it would be the grass is greener syndrome.  With each ride the kids went on, they saw through the dizzying spinning of the ride another ride they desperately wanted to go on next and couldn't wait to get off the current ride to run get in line for the next one.  Luckily they all seemed to get caught up in the same idea for the next ride so at least they stayed together.

The age old tradition of checking to see who's tall enough to ride the rides.  Luckily everyone was tall enough to go on all the little kid rides.  

Claire and McKenzie, still very excited about this ride since it hasn't given them a good view of all the other fun rides.  

Ben, who can't be bothered to drive the car he's in since he's already spotted the spinning bears (note to self: do not get on that ride with the kids next year).

Fair food!  We sampled all the usual things that you just have to get when you're at the fair.  The best was still the scones and the elephant ears.  My favorite part was Ben ordering his pizza.  They had two kinds - cheese and pepperoni.  The lady asked him what kind he wanted and he said, "Pepperoni and Cheese" so the lady replied "Two slices" to which I had to tell her he just wanted one but needed to be clear he wanted cheese with his pepperoni.

The other side of the table with the rest of the family.

McKenzie shooting darts to win a prize.  She should never be allowed to come to the fair unattended.  She wants it all and would surely be that kid who comes home with the giant bear.

Ben's favorite animal siting at the fair was this giant rabbi.  I think it might have actually weighed more than him.  It was one big bunny!

Kenzie and I got to take a couple of spins on the Ferris Wheel which is her favorite ride because last year we saw hot air balloons when we were riding on it.  This year we just saw even more rides we wanted to go on but we also had a lot of fun just being silly.  Ask this girl for a picture and you get all sorts of faces, none quite what I was looking for.  

Another great year at the fair, it is always a perfect way to start winding down from the summer.  

Epic Adventures

Another year another great time in Chelan for Grandma C's birthday.  This year was extra special because Grandma C won a basket full of gift certificate at a charity auction right before we got there and we made it a goal to use them all before we left.  I actually won a prize at the same auction last year and we thought that mine was pretty great - it was a 4 hour jet ski rental.  Grandma's prize far surpassed that - she won:
- 4 hour jet ski rental
- 4 passes to Slide Waters
- 2 one hour stand up paddle board rentals (and then the owner threw in an extra hour on each board!)
- 1 free zip line ride

We barely had time to use all the coupons up during our trip.  It added a lot of new experiences to our trip and let us try things I'm sure we'll be doing again on future trips.  When we weren't using up gift certificates we found time to swim in the lake, hit the pool, play on the playground and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of Chelan.  We also got in plenty of star gazing since there was a big meteor shower in progress and the view of the sky is amazing at night without all the trees and lights we have on the west side.

We also tried another first for me and the kids - water skiing!  I didn't get up but I wasn't so discouraged that I won't try again, Kenzie tried five times and she was almost there, next year she'll get it.  Ben also decided that he wanted to try it so we got him out on the water and he was almost up but then went down and he just held onto that rope until he couldn't anymore.  He learned a valuable lesson about letting go when you fall down.  After that he just yelled at everyone who was skiing to "Just let go!".

All the grand kids riding in Grandpa C's truck.  Once one decided they needed to ride with Grandpa, everyone had to.  Good thing he had enough seats!

Staking out our territory down at the beach, I'm not sure we could have taken up more room if we tried.  Between the giant raft, the pop up tent and the fleet of lawn chairs we had quite the camp set up.

Kayla and Kenzie working hard on their sand castle.  This beach is just perfect for the kids because it has sand, plenty of grass for running and of course the nice cool water.

Ben taking a snoozer in the pop up tent, this makes staying at the beach during nap time possible.  So much better than packing up to go back to the house to nap.

Kenzie and Kayla on the big wheel.  They couldn't quite figure out how to get moving with both of them on there.  Way too many legs.

Cousins down at the Chelanriver after paddle boarding. Suh a fun loving bunch!

Paddle boarding on the river, I had never been before and was surprised at how easy it was to get going even with multiple kids on the board.  Such a relaxing way to enjoy the water.  Even Kenzie was able to maneuver the board around with the paddle and cruise the river.

Me, Grandma C, Nathan and Uncle Eric on our way to the first big zip line with the mighty Columbia River in the background.  Amazing views to be had from many locations on this tour, not to mention the excitement of the actual zip line.

Here I am on the last leg of the zipline which is the second fastest zipline in North America.  You rocket down the hillside and then hit a bungee brake that then sends you sailing back up the line again.  It was a pretty amazing adventure and I definitely will be trying out ziplining here again.

Kenzie, me and Ben on the jet ski.  This year Ben did not enjoy the jet ski and wanted to get off almost immediately.  Kenzie enjoyed riding up and down the lake with me checking out the beautiful houses.

Aunt Kacey with Kenzie and Kayla out for a spin on the jet ski.

Nathan (aka De-De) is such a good buddy to Ben, he just pals around with him and Ben cannot get enough of him.  Here they are waiting for their breakfast to come at Blueberry Hill in Manson - a must visit on our trips to Chelan.

The annual picture of Grandma and Grandpa C and the grandkids.  Not a bad looking bunch.

We did our usual plan of staying until it was time to go and luckily we outlasted the gift cards and were able to enjoy them all.  This was the longest that the kids and I have made it for a visit we came on Saturday evening and stayed until Thursday.  Another great trip to Chelan in the books and as always looking forward to the next trip over.  

Parenting from A to Z

Sometimes I literally feel like I go through plans A through Z figuring out how to overcome new issues with the kids.  I am always reading some new book or article about what to say and do or how to get your kids to do this or that.  Usually I find a few good nuggets to test out on the kiddos. Recently, I have tried a few new things, some that ended well and some that didn't but how else will I learn to be a good Mom if I don't keep trying?

A few weeks ago at school Ben's teacher asked all the kids what their Mommy's and Daddy's did best. Ben had some answers that really surprised me!  Matt of course loved his answers but I did not. You can see Ben's response about his Daddy below "Plays with me" - awww so sweet, what a great Daddy.

Here's Ben's response for what his Mommy does, "Puts me in time out."  That Mommy doesn't sound like much fun does she?  And guess what?  This Mommy should probably put a certain little boy in time out more often but he's so cute.  We teased him about this for a few days and he finally started answering my quizzes about what I do with better answers. So funny what kids will say!

My longest running success of late was a new phrase that I got from a positive parenting webcast I watched. See I learned after that "time out" comment...time to turn things around.  The technique is called "When and Then".  I find I can use it pretty much anytime the kids ask for anything.  For example if Ben says he wants a cookie, I say back to him "When you eat your dinner then you can have a cookie."  If he asks again I repeat over and over.  It's not "no" but it's telling him that he can have what he wants when he does what he needs to do.  I've had a lot of success with this and it has cut down on the arguing and whining.  I may perhaps have overused it though since one day I asked Ben to get his juice cup and bring it to the kitchen so I could refill it before dinner.  He said "You get my cup." So I told him "No, if you want juice with dinner please bring me your cup." His reply shows he's listening to me and also that he's a tricky one.  He said, "When you get my juice cup, then you can fill it up for me."  Needless to say I did not get that juice cup.  I won't be tricked into doing things by a three year old!

The other thing I've put in place this summer to get things moving in the morning in preparation for Kenzie having to catch the school bus was a morning routine chart that shows "What I Need To Do" before I can do the what I want to do like watch cartoons or color.

I had the kids help me make these pages with my scrapbook stuff that they are always begging me to get in to.  Each one shows the four things they need to do in the morning before they can play.  It has made my mornings simpler to just point them back to their chart to make sure they have done all the things they need to do.  It cuts down arguments since it's pretty clear what's required.

They both need to:
- Eat Breakfast
- Brush Teeth
- Brush Hair (that's an easy one for Ben but hey he's three)
- Get dressed (their clothes are already picked out in their closet hanging cubbies)

Now I'm thinking I need some bedtime charts to round out the day.  I've also heard of making charts where the pictures can move so you can tell the kids they can decide the order but they all still need to get done.  I suspect my kids will grow to hate me saying, "Do the things you need to so you can do the things you want to do" every time they ask to do something fun before they have checked their list.

One main thing I've learned about parenting is that your job is never done and you never have it all figured out.  Just when you find something that is working the kids grow and change and you have to reach out and ask friends what they've tried or read a new book or find some ideas online.  If nothing else it will keep my mind active as I age.