ANTHONY TURNS 6

Happy Birthday to my sweet, spunky little Anthony Thomas.

Mommy and Daddy love you to the moon, sun, and stars -- We love you millions.

BACK TO SCHOOL

The kids were all surprisingly very excited for their first day back to school. Most surprising of all was Anthony's excitement over starting Kindergarten. Why, you ask? Well, because all summer long, whenever the subject of starting school would come up, he would tell me "I don't want to go to Kindergarten. I want to stay home with you forever and never, ever learn anything." As you can imagine, it did not go over well when I told him he didn't have a choice, and that he had to go. Every time we had this discussion, it ended in a knock down drag out tantrum. And honestly, toward the end of the summer I was having that tantrum right along with him out of pure frustration over the fact he couldn't seem to get over this whole you-need-to-go-to-school thing. Very frustrating.

So, like I said, I was pleasantly surprised when I dropped him off at school the first morning and didn't get any crying, yelling, or a tight vice grip on my leg while I tried leaving him there.

[black eye courtesy of his trying to "fly" off the rocking chair "just like Superman"]

As for Lucas and Ava, they were as easy as ever. In fact, they didn't even need my help getting to class and finding their desks. I followed them to their rooms anyway, tried to help get them settled in and said my tearful goodbyes. All the while they were busy getting the stuff in their desks situated and talking to friends they hadn't seen all summer. I got a quick wave, a look over their shoulder and a simple "bye Mom." I have to admit, it was a little bittersweet knowing they didn't need my help.

And lastly, my Liv Grace. This little girl started preschool today, and I cried. I cried when each and every one of my kids went off to preschool. It is so great to see them gaining new found independence, meeting new friends, and starting a new adventure in life, yet at the same time it is so sad to see them growing up, and not having them at home with me anymore.

She was just thrilled to be starting preschool. My girl was happy, smiling, and dancing around pretty much all morning, and it continued into the afternoon when I dropped her off at her new school. I was so happy to see her smiling face as I left her there.

So there you have it. The first day of school for my preschooler Liv Grace, my Kindergartner Anthony, my 2nd grader Lucas and my 3rd grader Ava. Whew.

You know, my Mom always told me, "enjoy your kids to the fullest - they will only be young once and they grow up in the blink of an eye." My eyes usually glazed over half way through her telling me this little tid-bit as I was thinking, "yah, yah, yah, they grow up, that's what happens, don't worry I won't miss any of it..." But I have to say she had a point, the years do indeed fly by, faster than I have really been prepared for. It is all so bittersweet.

I love you Ava, Lucas, Anthony, and Liv. Happy first day of school - Mama is so very proud of you all!

PRESCHOOL GRADUATION

My Anthony Thomas had his very last day of preschool a few weeks back, and it honestly brought me to tears. I am not certain as to why, as this didn't happen to me when Ava left Sunny Hill, or when Lucas left either. Olivia will be starting school there this fall and Nathan will be following right behind her in a few years, so it's not like it's the last I will see of this wonderful school and those amazing teachers.

Whatever the case, it was a bittersweet day.

I cried, he asked what was wrong, I said nothing, that Mama was just happy and excited for him, he asked why, I said because he will be starting kindergarten in the fall, he said "No WaY", I said he would like it, he cried and said he wanted to stay at Sunny Hill, I said he couldn't but that we were going to have a party for him for being such a big boy and graduating preschool, he went from crying to laughing and jumping up and down in excitement for his "party" and all was well. WhEw. Talk about emotional.

Very last time singing the Goodbye song...

One last picture out front of school....

A special kiss for brother Nathan....

Pizza party to celebrate this memorable occasion....

His very favorite meal - of course without the cheese and toppings....

A few gifts on graduation day....

Fun with chalk and sidewalk paint, that he shared ever so graciously with his brothers and sisters...



Another big milestone met for my Anthony - with many more to come.

BATH TIME

Scrub a dub-dub, 2 of my three little men in the tub!

I love them, and their sweet little matching mohawks.

There you have it - short n' sweet. One of these days I am going to get back to posting on a regular basis. It may not be for a few more years, when all of my monkeys are in school and not demanding my constant attention. But I WILL get back to it. I swear.

5

My Anthony Thomas,

today you turned 5, and I am having a really hard time believing it.

I just want you to know that for what it is worth, you have my permission to stop growing up now. I would really love for you stay my little coley bug forever and ever. Okay?

Mama loves - as you would say, "to the moon, sun, stars....and everything."

THE TRUTH ALWAYS COMES OUT

My day started as usual. I got Lucas and Ava off on the bus, and the Mr. out the door en route to preschool with Anthony. I finished my coffee, fed Nathan, got him up in his crib for his morning nap, and got Liv Grace comfortable on the couch with a Dora movie on. Then I picked up the family room and vacuumed it, did the dishes from breakfast and cleaned counter tops, got the dishwasher loaded and running, made my way to the laundry room, folded the stuff in the dryer, threw another load in the washer and got it running. Then I checked on Liv to make sure she was still watching Dora and not getting into trouble, and listened at the bottom of the stairs to make sure Nathan was still sleeping and not upstairs screaming his head off.

All was well.

So I then went on to my next task of cleaning up the play room. I picked up the Little People, Star Wars guys, and Legos and made sure to put them all in their appropriate bins. I picked up the blocks that were thrown from one end of the room to the other in what looked to be some sort of "block fight" the boys had entertained themselves with earlier. When everything was sufficiently cleaned up and put in its place, I turned to leave and something caught my eye. Woody was laying on one of the chairs - this was odd as Anthony always puts Woody somewhere safe before he leaves for school. Somewhere safe meaning a spot where Miss Liv cannot get her hands on it.

I walked over to Woody in order to bring him to Anthony's room, where he would most likely want him to be store while at school. But when I picked him up I noticed something was not quite right.....Woody was wet. Very wet. So wet that it if I didn't know better, I would have thought he had just taken a bath and forgot to dry off.

Not good.

Worse yet, when I pulled the string on Woody's back to see if he still yelled out his standard myriad of phrases such as "Howdy Partner!" or "Reach for the sky!" nothing happened. I shook him a bit and tried again. Nothing. I messed with the batteries in his back a bit. Nothing. Woody was deader than a doornail.

My first thought? Liv had something to do with this.

"LIV!"

Within moments she was in the doorway.

"Did you do something to Anthony's Woody?"

"No, Coley [Anthony's nickname] did!"

"Liv, Coley [Anthony] is not here. Why is Woody all wet?"

"Coley washed him Momma."

"Liv Grace, don't you lie to Momma."

"Did you put Woody in the toilet?" I only ask this as we have had more than a few unfortunate circumstances where I had to fish toys out of the toilet after she had decided they needed a bath or were going to go for a swim.

"No Momma."

"Are you sure?"

Insert long pause.

"Yes, Momma, I did put it in the toilet."

"We are going to have to buy Anthony a new Woody doll now. That was naughty!"

"O.K. Sorry Momma."

Later that day, we made our way to preschool to pick up Anthony and give him the bad news. Knowing how Anthony reacts to news such as this, I was not looking forward this. I explained to him that Liv had put Woody in the toilet and that she was sorry. I told him that we would go to Target on the way home and buy a new Woody doll as his did not work anymore. He simply said "O.K.. turned to Liv, gave her a dirty look and snarled "I get a new Woody doll at Target and you don't get anything 'cause you broke him!"

That was pretty much the extent of it, which honestly surprised me a bit being that Anthony tends to get extremely worked up over things such as this. But who was I to question his reaction? It was a much better one than I had expected, so I left it alone.

We arrived home after our trip to the store for a new Woody doll and I began the arduous task of getting the damn thing out of the box while Anthony waited patiently. When he was officially free of all the cords, tape, and other crap I handed him to Anthony and he ran off into the playroom to get his other closest buddy, Buzz.

Liv and I had one last talk about how we never, ever, ever put things in the toilet. She promised to never do such a thing again, and let me know one last time how sorry she was. I ended it there and headed off to the kitchen to start dinner.

About 10 minutes later Anthony ran up to me with his new Woody doll in hand and an excited look on his little face."Hey Mom, now I remember what happened to Woody! I actually sawed [saw] something on his head this morning befow [before] sklool [school] so I washed him off in the sink."

I was speechless. Liv was telling the truth originally. I guess me grilling her like I was some cop and she was a suspect in an interrogation room caused her to give in, and tell me she did do it, when in fact she didn't. My girl took the fall for something Anthony did to his own Woody doll. And Anthony, of course, went along with it.

I wonder if this was his plan all along: He made the mistake of dunking Woody a little too far under the water, figured out he did not work anymore, placed him strategically on the chair in the playroom for me to find while he was at school, knew I would blame Liv, which would result in him getting a brand spankin' new Woody.

The only part of this plan that I don't quite understand is why on earth he decided to tell me what really went down after all was said and done. Maybe the guilt was eating up my little 4 year old up inside? Whatever the case... I know one thing is for certain - I sure have my hands full with this little boy.

BROTHERLY LOVE

Anthony has been begging for months for me to buy him and Nathan matching pajamas. Not sure what the obsession was with this request, but he seriously asked me an insane amount of times before I finally gave in and bought them. Thank the heavens above for Carter's - the one store where you can manage to find matching footy pajamas in 6 month [yes, my 3 month old wears 6 month old clothing] and 5T sizes.

Anyway, Anthony is just thrilled with the purchase and can't get over the fact that he and Nathan match. I recently found him chatting with Nathan as they both sat on the couch clad in their matching P.J's.

In his signature high pitched baby talk type voice [seriously so sweet], I overheard him saying,

"Look at us 'Nafan', Mommy bought us the same jammies. Isn't that soooooooo cool!"

Nathan seemed less than thrilled by his brothers in your face I- am-so-excited-I- can't-handle-it attitude, but fortunately that didn't wane Anthony's excitement.

HOCKEY

My boys started hockey this past weekend, and I have to admit, I am not all that thrilled about them taking up this sport. It is one of those sports that pretty much consumes all of your free time with its horrible ice times, numerous practices each week, and tournaments filling up the weekends that would have otherwise been spent as a family, doing fun family things.

Another reason for my lack of being thrilled is that the Mr. was the catalyst behind this whole hockey thing. The boys? Not so much. Don't get me wrong, once the Mr. sold them on the idea, they were excited - This will be so much fun boys! I played hockey when I was young like you! You get to skate on a big rink with all kinds of other kids your age and use a stick and shoot pucks into the goals. I will even skate with you at all the practices!" Really, what 4 and 6 year old boy wouldn't be excited after hearing this?"

How the Mr. tried to sell me on the idea? He said he wanted the boys to play hockey, that it was a good sport for them to get started in at an early age, that he played hockey when he was young and he wanted the boys to have the same experience. Yada, yada, yada. All I heard was there go our weekends to do anything like head out to the cabin for the weekend, or spend a Saturday out at the zoo, or the Mall of America, or spend a lazy Sunday laying around in our pajamas watching T.V. and reading the paper.

Call me Negative Nelly, Debby Downer, whatever you choose. 'Cause I know, this sounds all sorts of selfish on my part, but it's the truth and I am all about being honest.

Anyway, Dad spent the week running around with the boys, spending a small fortune on sticks, pads, cups, mouth guards, hockey sticks, helmets, hockey bags, etc in preparation for their very first practice. The boys were over the moon excited, and of course Dad was as well, so how could I not be excited for them? This was a good thing.

Staying true to his personality, my Anthony Thomas cried and cried before getting ready for practice Saturday. "I don't wanna skate! I don't like falling. Pleeeaassse don't make me goooooo!" That soon subsided after some encouraging words from the Mr. and I, and he was ready to get suited up for practice.

A few of my Lucas...

And what do you know, both the boys loved it and can't wait to skate again next weekend.

This hockey thing may be taking up our weekends and making it pretty well impossible for us to have time together as a whole family from now until March, but I think I can live with that. The boys are going to get some much needed quality time with their Dad, doing something that makes all of them happy. It makes me happy when they are happy, and happiness is a good thing, no?

HALLOWEEN FUN

The kids took off for school this morning all dressed up and ready for their Halloween parties.

This year we have...

Thing 2 from the ever popular Dr. Seuss books. Miss Emily is Thing 1, but since they don't go to the same school Ava is without her sidekick for the day.

Einstein, who is having a hard time remembering that he indeed discovered the theory of relativity. A little bit of knowledge he needs to be able to relay to his class today during the party. [To tell you truth, I am not sure he even remotely understands what this whole theory of relativity means, but what do you expect from a 6 year old?]

And last but not least, Anthony, my little gorilla.

Sunday I will reveal pictures of Miss Liv and my baby Nathan all dressed up in their costumes. They are going to be cute. I can't wait.

SCHOOL PICTURES

School pictures forms came home in the kids' backpacks a few weeks ago. Ahhhh... school picture day. I always put way too much thought into what "package" to purchase - do I go for it and buy the big one with 1 8x10, 2 5x7's, 4 3 1/2x5's, 8 wallets, and the class picture? [Yes, I have that memorized.] Or do I go with the simple 1 5x7, 2 3 1/2x5's, 8 wallets and class picture?

If I get package #1, and they end up having messy hair, food on their face, a goofy smile, or their eyes are closed - I am out the cash and left with a whole stack of crappy pictures. Any of the aforementioned scenarios are more than likely to occur being they will no longer be in my presence once they get on that bus. They could very well get get crap all over their face from snack time and not wash it off, or snarl up their hair after wearing their hats to school, or make some goofy face for the poor camera man [who is assigned the painstaking task of photographing hundreds of kids under the age of 10]. You get it, the opportunities for them to mess up this picture without me present are endless. But if I buy package #2, and hell freezes over when they come home with the cutest darn picture I have ever laid my eyes on, I will be kicking myself for not buying more to hand out to Grandmas, Grandpas, Uncles, Aunts, friends, and complete strangers I happen to pass on the street [kidding on that one]. Whew - that was one hell of a run on sentence.

After putting much thought into this, and asking the Mr. for his input and getting "why are you putting this much thought into the kids school pictures. If they turn out, great. If they don't, toss 'em", I decided to play it safe and go the cheaper route.

And I am glad I did.

Not sure what happened here, but Ava's picture fell a bit short in the "turning out nice" category. Here she is sporting her ever popular fake smile. And for some reason there seems to be a bright circle on the tip of her nose - it almost looks as if she had it squished up against a glass wall or something. The Mr. thinks it was a goof up on the photographers part with the lighting. Whatever the case, Ava is adamant about getting her picture retaken because of this issue with how her nose looks, and because she is not satisfied with how her hair looks. How on earth could she pass the wallet sizes out to her friends when she looked like this? [Insert dramatic gasp.]

Lucas' did not turn out all that terrible, but he has a really weird look on his face. It's almost like the photographer tried to say something to make Lucas smile that he unfortunately didn't find all that funny. Go figure. And again, the lighting thing - it looks like he has a bright light from the heavens above shining down right on top of his head.

And last but not least, my Anthony Thomas. Did the photographer not have a box of those little black combs laying around? C'mon, he is photographing preschoolers for the love of God. You can't expect a 4 year old to keep his hair looking perfect from the moment he leaves the house until the afternoon hours when he has his picture taken. Nope, no way.

I guess the moral of the story here is, you get what you get. Or as my kids would say, "You get what you get and you don't have a fit." A wise little piece of advice they were all given in preschool.

From now on, I think I am going to quit beating myself up every year over what package to buy, and just go with the cheaper of the two. It only took me 5 years to come to this conclusion, but better late than never, right?