She Did It!

After a year of Vision Therapy, Kyla graduated today! Technically, I don’t think she would have graduated if I hadn’t already stated we wouldn’t continue another unit (12 week session), but she has mastered all the skills except horizontal tracking, which seems to be a dyslexia problem, not a vision problem.  Her eyes getting tired really easily, too, but we might as well wear them out reading than doing eye exercises.  Regardless, I’m really proud of Kyla.  The girl has an impressive work ethic and, with her fantastic therapist, gets full credit for achieving this one! (I’ll be taking the credit for any improvement Wesley shows—at age 5, he’s not exactly a self-starter for things he should be doing.)

Damn April Fools

A few years ago, I unwittingly started a tradition I can’t keep up with—April Fools “jokes” for my kids, usually involving food that looks like another type of food that my kids LOVE…except for the eating part.  So I’m kind of over it.

But the kids aren’t.

So after registering their disappointment upon my forewarning of no surprises, I ended up doing some last minute shopping at 10pm to come up with something.

 

This is what it is supposed to look like:

This is what it looks like with 10 minutes at Target to find a wheat-free substitutes:

But is basically cookies and candy being held together with frosting.  Party on, Kids. 

Grandpa and Grandma Come Visit

Dwayne’s parents, Dick and Darlene, were finally able to stop by for a quick visit this evening!  With Darlene’s brother, they drove up from CA and made a quick stop on our side of the mountains before going to Spokane for a few months.  We’ll get them longer than 5 hours in June! 

But the generations quickly reconnected.

See you this summer, G & G!

I’m Back!

It’s spring, which mostly means my winter quarter is over.  It was only one class, but it was an extra 10-20 hours a week since January.  Most of the 11 hats I wear at school had to be put on during this time, as well, including Book Fair Chair, Literacy Night Chair (cleverly done at the EXACT SAME TIME!), Book Club chair, and then lots and lots of little things that are small enough until they have to be done.

My favorite part of today is that Kyla had her vision progress report and in two weeks, she’s going to graduate from the program!  This is great news, because we were going to be done regardless of today’s results, but Kyla gets to feel that all her hard work paid off.  It’s also one more thing off my plate.  Which is good, because I have lots of possibilities lined up to jump right back on said plate!

Over the next week, my goal is to fill in some of the empty spaces of winter, 2015, so expect random back-dated posts for a while.  I’ll move forward soon!

Pi Day

3.1415

[Dwayne demonstrates to Kyla how pi was calculated before calculators.]

 

 

 

I at least know pi out to 4 decimal places now, thanks to this particularly special Pi Day!  To celebrate, Dwayne and I tackled an American Test Kitchen recipe for Chicken Pot Pie…and it was scrumptious!  (Full disclosure, I did not make, nor do I intend to ever make, my own pie crust when I can so easily buy it in the refrigerated section of any grocery store.  For the kids, I used gluten-free biscuits.)

 

We invited Mom, Dad, and Jim over to celebrate with us.  For being NPR listeners, my parents somehow did not  know about Pi  Day, which really means they need to stop listening to the jazz part of their preferred station.

I am no idiot, because my mom came with one of her famous homemade pumpkin pie, and a crustless one for my GF kids, and Jim brought the wine. 

Seriously, Pi Day should come around more often (Saturdays work particularly nicely!).  What a great evening!

 

Hmm, was the camera stealing nips from my wine glass?  This is the only picture I got of our tribe.

Piper is 7!

How perfect for Piper—a birthday on both a Saturday and Valentine’s Day!  (It was beyond exhausting for Mama, but that’s another story.)

Let’s be honest—I’m publishing this 6 weeks after her big day, just trying to catch up from the last two months.  My Piper is AWESOME, slightly terrifying, and I’m starting to find calling her a sociopath is less funny and more true!  If only she cared about people as much as she does about animals.  But, she has shown much personal growth as a sibling and no longer wishes she were an only child.  In fact, she and Wesley play so…energetically…together that sometimes Dwayne and I look at each other and wish they weren’t getting along so…boisterously.  And Piper and Kyla do really well together when they aren’t competing for Wesley’s affections.  Overall, the kids are doing great.  Thanks for turning 7, Piper—it’s going well for all of us!

Besides a used fish tank, Dwayne and I got Piper a BoogieBoard, which is basically an e-whiteboard that you can erase with a button, but can’t save anything. It’s actually brilliant for kids.  I love that she drew this dress and tried to stick her head on it!

Happy Birthday, Piper. You are still my sweetheart baby.

Grandma’s First Selfie

We were efficiently celebrating Piper and Wesley’s birthday, when I turned the camera around and snapped Mom and me.  She didn’t notice at first.

 

So I tried again.  She noticed.

 

Dad is a much better sport!