I AM SO EXCITED!

No more pencils
No more books
No more teachers’
Dirty looks!

Is it wrong for a 38 year old grown mother of three to be so happy that today is the last day of school? Because I AM! Actually, I could deal with school if we could just change two things, start at 9 a.m. and NO HOMEWORK. So, I’m doing my little dance of joy that another year of school is behind us. Only 14 more years to go. *SIGH*

This has been an interesting last week of school. Monday, Memorial Day, the kids went to school for a full day. Alyssa had her portfolio party where I go in and look at her best work from the past year, then she gets to go home, at 10 a.m. Kai, however, had to stay the whole day. Tuesday, Kai had his ‘Punch, Pie, and Publications’ party, then got to go bowling with his fellow student council Reps. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, they are dismissed at 10:40. Hardly seems worth going doesn’t it? This whole week is a wash scholastically speaking. They just hang out, watch movies, etc. Of course, they hold report cards until the last day, so no one will skip these useless days. Today (Thursday) was Alyssa’s 5th grade graduation. I can’t believe she’s starting 6th grade next year. She is going to celebrate by going to Frankie's Fun Park with a friend and then swimming. She is very excited.

Above is a picture of her and her friends at the reception after the ceremony. This is the girl who used to complain that she didn't have any friends!

Last week Roan had a little pre-school graduation. Technically, he’s not starting kindergarten this year because he missed the cut-off date by 5 days! But, they let him graduate with the rest of his class because they are all leaving. Roan is leaving too, but to K-4 not K-5. It was actually kind of sad. Even though he only went two mornings a week, he’s been with Mrs. Twila for 2 ½ years. He loves her and teared up a bit when we left on the last day. Roan kept telling us to say congratulations, and he calls his graduation cap his 'gradulation' hat!

This coming Sunday, Dean will be running his first Ultra Marathon, which as I understand it, is anything longer than a marathon. This one will be 50K (about 32 miles I think). What’s worse is that for nearly the whole race, he’ll be running in deep sand. It rather appropriately takes place in Hitchcock Woods.

Roan Quote: Tuesday was Dean’s birthday. We wanted to surprise him with a picnic in the evening, but were going to see him at lunchtime. So I prepped Roan and told him, “Don’t tell daddy about the picnic, don’t tell him about the cake, and don’t even tell him that there is a surprise!” After saying this several times, feeling I was being completely clear, and he understood, we went to pick up daddy. After Dean got in the car, Roan said, “Mommy, I won’t tell daddy!”

Here's Mud in Your Eye

It’s that time again! This morning we went to Mud Mania. This really is a fabulous community event. It’s even free! The kid’s love the obstacle course, complete with a zip line, over, under and through the mud. There is even a separate area for younger kids with a slide into the mud. (The picture of Roan to the left is of him letting me check his eyes for mud. He hates getting his face wet.) Naturally, the kids had a great time. However, once finished playing, it quickly became miserable. They were cold and wet and uncomfortable. They had a hose to spray them down, but they didn’t like it. We finally got them changed into dry clothes, but they were by no means clean. See Kai’s hair in the picture?

He went to Ci Ci’s Pizza like that! This is our third year at Mud Mania and the whole rinse off part is always miserable with crying and complaining, yet they always want to go back next year! Go Figure.

UPDATE: Finally got Kai's bike back from getting the tire fixed, TWO weeks later. The next day

the

chain

fell

off.

Roan Quote: We were driving and Roan saw a Stanley Steemer Van and said, “Mommy, look! There’s the ice cream truck!” I told him that it wasn’t and he said, “Mommy, there’s a man sleeping on a couch inside. That means it’s the ice cream truck.”

Any guesses? I’m stumped.

The Joke's on Us

Saturday we went to Kai and Alyssa’s Karate Tournament. We had a good time and both kids did great but it was Alyssa’s turn to shine! This is the first time Alyssa competed in sparring. She got a trophy for first place in sparring for the Junior Division. I should mention that she is the only girl! She also got a medal for 2nd place in Kata. Way to go, babe! (That's her on the left)

For Mother’s Day, Dean and Alyssa made me breakfast! For lunch we went to O’Charlie’s because (horror of horrors), in one week they will no longer offer free kid’s meals. *SNIFF*

I must tell a little story about Dean. This is painful for him so I’ll try to be gentle! At church on Sunday, they were having a silent auction to raise money for a mission’s trip. They had some gift baskets, free weekend getaway, etc. Anyway, Dean saw a friend had bid on an ice cream basket (ice cream dish, toppings, coupon for Marble Slab, etc.). This basket had a $20 value. His friend had bid $50. Dean decided to be funny and bid $51 thinking he was helping drive the price up and making his friend bid higher. He even wrote ‘HaHa’ next to his bid. Well…you guessed it; we are now the proud owners of an ice cream basket. (Dean has his own business and we just paid our taxes, so we’re not exactly swimming in money at the moment.) I told him, if he were going to (way over-)bid on something; couldn’t it have been something we really wanted, like the weekend getaway? The clincher is this: Our freezer doesn’t even work right now, so we can’t keep ice cream in it! Yup, it will be a while before he lives this one down! He just keeps telling himself that it’s for a good cause. He simply donated money towards the mission trip.

I'm 38 Years Old

Last Saturday, Alyssa’s Honor Choir performed at Carowinds 2007 Choral Festival. They rated a ‘Superior’! (In the above photo Alyssa is northwest of the red ribbon with the glasses and pony tail.) We all went as a family and had a great time. This was Roan’s first time and he loved it. All day long he kept thanking me for bringing him. We came dressed for warm weather, but it ended up being a bit chilly and it rained most of the day, but we’re troopers and had a great time anyway! The following is a pic of my boys on one of the kiddie rides. I love this picture because of their expressions. Especially Kai, looking too cool for a kiddie ride!

Monday I drove to Charlotte to meet Amy so we could try on our dress for Andrea’s wedding. Brad came too and watched the kids for us. Thanks Brad!

Monday night, Alyssa had her Spring Concert, the last choral event of the year. She did great and is going to miss it. She says she’s definitely going again next year.

Yesterday was my birthday! Dean seriously outdid himself! When I got home from dropping off Roan at his playgroup, Dean had returned from his run and he surprised me by taking me out to breakfast. When he got home from work later he gave me flowers! Then he took me to dinner at Motor Supply Company Bistro, a very cool restaurant where they have a new (handwritten) menu every day. It was delicious. Dean had pan seared sturgeon with creamy jasmine rice and asparagus, and I had a New York strip steak with mushrooms, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. I had crème brulee for desert, YUM! Then he took me to Bed, Bath and Beyond and bought me a new body pillow because mine is about 10 years old and flat and flabby. He told me before we got there that the gift he was going to get wasn’t very big but it was thoughtful. I have to agree, it was a very thoughtful gift. I love it! I slept with it last night, like a baby! Then we went to see Spiderman Three. I had a wonderful birthday with my awesome, thoughtful husband. Thanks, honey!

Spiderman Three review: Dean and I were exceptionally disappointed. Kind of like when we went to see X-Men 3. This is what Dean had to say about that movie:

“An ill conceived badly constructed television movie of the week and an embarrassment to the few good actors sorry enough to be under contract to make it. Forgettable, disappointing claptrap.”

He had this to say about Spiderman 3:

“It was a complete mess, it had 10 good minutes scattered throughout the movie, those 10 minutes were A+, the rest of the 2 hrs 10 min. were not as bad as X-Men 3, but that’s not saying much.”

I have to say I pretty much agree. The movie was a complete mess. There were too many bad guys, things didn’t make sense, the love story was depressing, and even the CGI was not very good in places. In my opinion, the best part of the movie was in the last 20 minutes. This was very disappointing. I loved Spiderman 2 and think it was the best superhero movie ever made! LOL. (But S-3 did not mar my wonderful birthday!)

Roan Quote: (keep in mind that he is only 4) Dean and Roan were talking and Roan said, “That’s so lame. Psyche!”