1st Grade ... already ?

Well, the first day of 1st grade has come and gone. Belle is now going to a year round school in Meridian with all her her step-siblings. The school is roughly 2 miles from my work and about 4 miles from her dad's house. This will allow me to actually attend school functions and will also make things easier having all the kids at the same school. I can drop Belle off at her dads in the morning and then she gets on the bus with everyone and dropped off back after school at his house.

I asked Belle how the first day went when I picked her up after work and she said "It was boring". Perfect. It was the first day, so I'm sure they didn't go hard on the kids and put them to work... just showed them around and things. She told me they went to music class and that she learned you cannot yell in the music room because it has an echo. She got rained on at recess and left her sweatshirt in the classroom so she just stood and shivered. (a bit dramatic, I know). For lunch, I packed her a cold lunch. It was a jelly sandwich, small bag of cheetohs, choc pudding, 3 oreos, a fruit roll, and a juice. She ate the cheetohs and drank the juice. She "didn't have enough time before recess". I told her she has to eat her lunch otherwise she will not have the strength to learn and do the things she needs to. We'll see what's in her lunch box today. She made friends with Lily and Sophia. There are no cute boys in her class. whew!

I think she will enjoy this school and I think she will learn a lot. It is 1st grade. I can't believe it.

Here she is in her outfit. We were literally heading out the door.

Skinny jeans, new boots, sweatshirt (zipped as far as it will go), tank top and a slicked back pony tail.

LakeFork 2010

A couple weekends ago, we took a crew to Lake Fork. There was 9 adults and 10 kids (5 families) and 3 dogs. We took Grace and Hannah, Belle's new official step sisters along with us. Crazyness. Friday night when we all arrived we had smores and chatted around the fire and the kids began digging holes and getting dirty.

Here are the girls ready for bed in the SWEET tent trailer.

Saturday we all woke up and had breakfast and the "men" minus Vince went to Brown's Pond to fish the creek. There was some creek playing:
(left to right) Josh, Cody, Kole, Logan

And bike riding and dirt digging and some naughtyness and laughs. Not alot of "mmoooommmmmmm blah blah blah". We decided we would try and get some group pictures of all the kids while they were in one place. ((Koen is only about 3 or 4 months old so he is not picutred))

(left to right, back to front) Logan, Belle, Grace, Josh, Evan, Heather, Kole, Hannah, Cody



For the most part, they all cooperated. Except one ...



Then we had them line up their bikes. Most everyone had one. Cody posed in a Tonka truck. (Henry seemed to follow them all around and just stop and stare during the pictures.)

We headed to the waterfall. Randi jumped in!

Then Vince jumped in... I was almost not ready for him!

Then Hannah says she wants to jump in. Hannah is 9 years old. She is not my child. I wasn't sure if her mother would like her jumping off a 10 foot rock into moving water surrounded by rocks. So, I asked a few more times and she still wanted to. So, Vince stayed in the water to retrieve her and as soon as the last breath of Vince's "yeah" came outta his mouth telling her he was ready, off she went!



She repeated this again. And loved it. Grace was starting to get incredibly tired at this point and wanted to head back to camp. So we did and Belle and Grace and I took a nap. Much needed.

I wanted to plan a fun little scavenger hunt for the kids. So, Randi, Amber and I made our little arrow trail clues and lead them on a wild goose chase. I stayed at the finish line and have no pictures of the action on the hunt.

Here they are at the finish line, gathering up their treats.



I made some most excellent tie-dye shirts for them, too.



Oh I loved it! And they all wore their shirts again the next day.

Sunday, Grace woke up and her "tooth was bothering" her. She asked for a tissue to rip it out. She sat on Vince's lap and wiggle and pulled on that stinking tooth. But it never came out.

Come Sunday, Rooster and Henry were so exhausted. Henry could barely walk to the truck. He would walk and then sit down for a minute. Then walk. It was funny. They rested up and by Monday they were back to normal.

I enjoyed the weekend camping trip with all the kids! I hope to do it again next year!

Ahhhh Belle

Tonight I sent Belle to the bathroom to brush her teeth before bed. She came out with the tube of toothpaste and hands it to me and says "someone screwed it on too tight." I give it a twist and indeed someone had screwed it on too tight. So, I take it into the bathroom and start running it under water to see if that will help loosen up some of the over squeezed toothpaste come off. I ask her "will you get out my toothbrush and I'll just brush with you now?" I then turn to grab a towel and try to use the towel as padding to turn the cap because it is really hurting my fingers. Then I hear the buzzing sound of a toothbrush. I think "that's weird, Belle doesnt have a spin brush" and then I look in the mirror at her reflection and see her with a toothbrush in her mouth spinning it arcoss her tongue and teeth. "oohh that feels funny" she said. Then I get the cap unscrewed and REALLY look in the mirror and realize it is MY toothbrush in her mouth! (barf a little in my mouth!) "GET THAT OUT OF YOUR MOUTH! THAT IS DISGUSTING!" "Oh Momma, that feels awesome!" "Belle! You do not put other people's toothbrushes in your mouth. That was scraping food and grossness off of your teeth and tongue and now do you think I want to brush my teeth with that?!" Needless to say, I held my toothbrush under HOT water for a good 5 minutes before I had myself convinced it was safe to put in my mouth. Y.U.C.K.

A Happy Birthday Weekend

Belle turned 6 years old yesterday! Eek! We had her party on Saturday, since Annie and her kids and the Krucks were here to help celebrate.

I sent out the invitations:

For Belle's birthday, we had Grace, her soon-to-be step sister, come over for the weekend. Friday night we went swimming at Aunt Char and Uncle Tony's with the Krucks and Warrens and Baba and Grampa and Zach and Rochelle. This was a nice little start to a wild weekend. We got home from swimming and the girls were going to attempt to "stay up until midnight!" Grace fell asleep on the couch around 10:30pm. I noticed this and we told Belle "You aren't going to make it to midnight if Grace is sleeping." She went over and shook Grace and said "Grace! You have to stay up! We're staying up until midnight!" and Grace looked at her like "what the heck?!" and jumped up and headed to Belle's room. She turned off the bedroom light and got into bed. Belle was ticked off and flipped the light on and said "what are you doing?!" and Grace, emotional now, comes hauling out of the bedroom on the verge of crying "Belle won't let me go to sleep!!" So, Belle stayed up and Grace went to bed. Belle fell asleep about 10 mins later and Tren and I put her in bed with Grace.

Saturday I woke up to the sounds of the kitchen chairs screeching across the floor. I went out to see what was going on and found both girls on the counter getting down bowls. I see the cereal on the counter and the milk and sugar out. Perfect. SO, I decide it's time for me to really wake up and get on with the day ahead. They played nicely together and I would get the occasional "Mommmmm, Grace won't let me play with the blah blah blah" or "Emmyyyy, Belle won't stop bossing me around..". Then it was time to head to the party. They both chose to wear black dresses. Perfect for the kind of party I was having. (I didn't tell Belle anything about her party. I had shown her the invitations and she told me what kind of cake she wanted.)

Presents:

Then for the cake! Belle wanted an ice cream cake. I remembered Randi had gotten a cake for Vince once that had his picture on it. I got the details from her and had Belle randomly select the picture she liked the most, out of a few different ones and then had Albertson's make the cake and put the picture on it. Now, Belle loves the twilight stuff. Everything about it. She understands it and knows all the characters. She has a crush on Edward, of course. (Who doesn't?) I have never seen Belle truly embarassed before. When I brought the cake out, everyone was hooting and hollaring at the cake. (I think I heard a few yips! too.) Belle saw it and turned a little red. I think she almost even cried because she was pulling on her eyelids, which I think was her way of stopping from crying. She was embarassed that everyone was wooting because she had a crush on Edward. Then after things were calmed down I asked her if she liked it and to cover up the embarassment she said "Well, I wanted Alice on it, not Edward." Either way, she DID enjoy the cake and I think it was great. And it tasted delicious, too.

As usual, I had balloons for the birthday girl to release. Red, like drops of blood. :) he he..

After the party we went to the Dam with everyone and swam and soaked up the sunshine. Then we went home and the girls played with the new Polly Pockets. Finally, around 9:30, Grace stands up and shuts the bedroom light off and jumps in bed. This upsets Belle and she comes out practically crying "Grace just stopped playing with me and got in bed!" She sat on the couch with me and fell asleep a little while later. Girls.

Sunday we had another birthday party at Jesika's house. They had fun there, too, playing with all the other kids in the pool and slip-n-slide.

Around 5:30 we loaded up and headed to the meeting place to send Belle and Grace to Shem's house where they would have Belle's party there. What a weekend for those little ladies. 3 parties!

Needless to say, I think they were exhausted...

I was too. I think if I saw another kid or had to attend another party, I would have puked. Too much for one weekend. But I survived and Belle had a wonderful birthday weekend.

Love you tons, Bellami Bea.

4th of July!

Tren and I took the new Jayco up to Lake Fork for the 4th of July weekend. It was a great trip! The Jay was perfect!! We went down to Browns pond, the creek part of it on Saturday. We made the long walk down and crossed fresh wolf tracks and a monsterous bear track. YIKES!! When we finally broke through to where we could see the creek, I hardly recoginzed the place! The creek was now filled with sand. Many trees were missing or laying in the place they had been ripped from the ground. Looking to the right, the creek was torn wide open and a ways off where you would go through the forest to get to the gorge, was piles of trees that had been washed down. It looked like, what I would imagine, was the scene after a tornado or hurricane.

This is standing on the bank looking across from the upper side of the log we would jump off of into the water. Notice all the sand in the water now, instead of just deep water?

This is looking down stream where there used to be the little "rapids" and where it was easier to cross. Look at the trees that are still standing and see the bark scraped off by passing trees?

This tree laying down used to be standing at the base of the stump of the tree we would stand on to jump in.

Just an example of how high the water was...

If you look closely at this one, you can see Tren in a blue shirt on the left of the picture and Zeb in a black shirt on the right of the picture. And again, look at the missing bark at the water line.

We could not believe the destruction. It was unreal. We went to the gorge and also barely recognized the place. I didnt take any pictures there. The rocks had been moved and there is now a very nice "honey hole" for fishing. After fishing the creek, Tren and Zeb went for a solo ride down to check out the pond itself. Here is where it all came together...

Brown's Pond 7/3/10:

The dam broke:

I hadn't heard that the dam broke. My mom said she saw it on the news. I just couldn't believe how much one "pond" could have an effect on everything. It was the craziest thing I'd ever seen. Im thinking we'll need to take a trip down there again.

Oh.My.WOOT!

Tren and I have been scouring craigslist for a while now, searching for a sweet Tent Trailer. Tren finally posted a "wanted" ad saying what we were looking for. This Sunday, someone responded. And need I say more, but:

We are going to get it cleaned up inside and out and then move on in for a 4th of July weekend trip. I can't explain how excited I am that Tren bought this. I can't wait to use it! Belle doesnt yet know of the new addition. I think it is going to be quite hilarious when it is in the traveling position (closed up in a little box) and I tell her "This is our new trailer for camping." She will look and think to herself "How are we going to fit in this?" Then I will point out the little bottom half of the door and I will open it and tell her to see how she likes it and see if she crawls in. I just can't wait to see her reaction when we get it all set up! She will love it!

Thank you Tren, for getting this for us.

Thank you Grandma Brenner, for letting us park it at your house.

John Deer Tractor vs Backhoe!

Tren's nephew is turning 2 tomorrow. I, of course, offered my help with making his cake. Cassie (the mother) said I could just make it for him since they wouldn't be in town until late the night before anyways. She had asked Gage (birthday boy) what kind of party he wanted... either a tractor or a backhoe party, and being nearly 2 he said "both". So, she did a tractor vs backhoe birthday invitation that was A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E. and I started googling cake ideas. I found a few different ideas I liked and sent them to her to choose from. I liked this one (below) and I thought I could do a tractor and a backhoe each:

Then I liked this one and digging in the cake!

Or a tractor plowing a field! Plus, with the toys on the cake, he could keep them and use them! Perfect!!

Cassie had already bought a tractor toy to put on the cake, so she gave me that one and then I did some looking on the internet for a matching sized backhoe. This was difficult, so we ended up just buying a tractor with a mower attachment and a backhoe.

Tonight we made the cake!!! ((I need a boy to make cakes for! Seriously! So much different than pink and princesses! Ugh!)) I think it turned out absolutely delicious!!

What do you think?!

Big Boy on a Little Trike!

Off to a good start.....

Uh-oh!....

Aw crap!....

He would not let me take a picture of the bruises from the handle bars. They were on his inner thighs and a bit high up! Pretty close to doing some serious damage.

The Dam

So, this weekend in Emmett there was a lot of flooding or near flooding. Tren went driving around with a friend to get a look at things. He came home, we went to see Shrek and then he said we had to go up and see the Dam. He told me "this happens once every 15 years!". I'm not sure if that is true, but it sounded good. So we all went up to check it out. YIKES!






It was getting late and it was cloudy, so this is the best picutre I got. Every now and then a huge tree would go over the Dam and then you'd see it go floating by. The water was a really tastey (not so much) brown color from all the dirt and stuff in it. Then we headed up towards Montour/Sweet and took a look around up there. There was lots of gophers out in the road and we decided it was because they were flooded out of their holes in the ground. It was a watery drive.

End of year Ballet Recitals

I finally got the information for Belle's last two ballet recitals.

June 2nd (Wednesday) 7:00pm at the Emmett Middle School
Cost is $3 to get in.

June 18th (Friday) 5:30pm at the Band Shell during Cherry Festival
Cost is free. I am not even 100% sure she will preform at this one. The note said they will dance according to time they have available. So, we shall see.

I really hope to see everyone there!