Halloween theme: Under the sea

I'm a sucker for coordinating outfits and themes. It must come from my obsession with scrapbook paper and coordinating ribbons. I need more scrapbook paper like I need a hole in my head but I just keep buying the stuff. I know, it's a sickness. But I digress...

Back to coordinating...I'm milking this for as.long.possible. Yes I'm quite aware that they will grow up and ask me, "Mooooooooommm, why did you have us coordinating in every Easter outfit, Christmas photo and Halloween costume?" And my answer will most definitely be, "Because I'm a mama of two boys and about the only thing us boy moms can get excited about when it comes to boy outfits is...well, matching them!"

Two years ago...



One year ago...

 Under the sea was our theme this year. It all started with Nolan wanting to be a deep sea explorer and the fish costume seemed like the least amount of work. Obviously, I'm not a good judge for budgeting time. Well it took some effort and I mean a lot of effort. Please remind me next year how much work and stress homemade costumes take.

No, really, don't let me forget.

Grandma made the fish costume. I swear she could make costumes for movies. And I finished up hand-stitching the scales. Yep, lost count after about 60. But dude, tell me my kid isn't CRAZY cute?!

 

It was actually a high of 70 today but supposed to be 80 on Halloween night. Poor kid will be drenched with sweat. Hopefully the sugar will be a good distraction. Today was a pretty big deal at school...costume parade day. 

We'll see if he'll actually keep this hood on all of Halloween night. Once again, candy and bribes work wonders for distraction. 

But I have to give all the credit for the next costume to my wonderfully talented husband. Grandma made the hood but the tank contraption was definitely all done by Justin. It's a wonder what a trip to Home Depot and a 2-liter coke bottle can do! 

It's like this kid was born for Halloween. What can I say? It's part of our genetic code. There's a long family history of holiday love.

Unlike Campbell, who wanted to take off his costume seconds after his parade, I think Nolan would sleep in his if I let him.

Grandma and Granddad made to the parade too and the boys were so excited to have them watch.



All the work, all the stress of these costumes was worth it. And that is why I put myself through it.

 
But seriously, don't ever let me do that again.

First Day

It's official, summer is over. The first day back was Monday. I've been working in my classroom quite a bit moving and getting it set up, but my first official day was Monday. Since Nolan was almost 4 months old, he's been in the same school as well as Campbell. I think I was more nervous about their move than me moving to another school.

But the first day couldn't not have gone any better. Nolan was so excited that he couldn't fall asleep the night before until after 10:00 (he is SO my child) and he tripped in the hall on the way to his room because he was so excited and walking so fast. In fact, they had Open House and he was upset that he had to wait the whole weekend before he went back.

The backpack was a pretty big deal in this house. Nolan wore it proudly and Campbell wanted one desperately. So he has his own little mini backpack on order. He wore Nolan's at first but it was literally the size of him so we'll have to adapt.




I made sure that we got up in plenty of time just to take a couple of pictures. Campbell's newest smile consists of closing his eyes and saying cheese. Gotta love those awkward smiling years already starting.



The boys are doing very well with their new teachers and bonding quickly. Nolan barely missed the Kindergarten cutoff being a September baby. In one way, it's hard to believe that he's going to start Kinder next year and be at school with me. On the other hand, I can't believe I'm still paying for daycare for him. I'm thinking, "Are you ever going to start school, kid?" I know that extra year will really help though and those school years will fly by in a second. So I'll just cherish this last year without him in school. 

I'm so excited about this upcoming school year. So far, there haven't been any tears during drop off which always helps make my day easier. Now if I can only get Nolan to take a nap at school.

Boy bullies

Yesterday I picked Campbell up from school and the terror (the bully who pushed him off the slide head first) came up to me and hugged my leg and said, "My mama." If I hadn't had the mama bear instinct a couple of weeks ago that I did, I might have thought it was actually pretty cute. Campbell DID not like one bit of that. I guess his Baby Bear instincts kicked in. He ran over to me, pushed him out of the way pointed his finger in his face (wherever did he get that?) and said, "NO NO! MY Mama!" Of course I got on to him and told him to tell him he was sorry and be nice. I was glad to know that he could hold his own though.

Then I got to thinking...I hope he's not mean all the time like that and maybe the terror was just getting him back by pushing him head first down the slide. So today I asked him teacher who I adore if he's a bully. She said sometimes he and two other boys pick on the little ones in the room. You'll never guess what he has in common with the two other boys that are bullies...they all have older brothers. I guess it's instinctual in the younger brother to learn self defense. Either that or Campbell has discovered he could wipe any of them out with his line backer brute force.

I bet somewhere out there, there's a mom with blog writing about Campbell being a terror to their kid.

Being "that" parent

Talk about a rough day... make that a rough week. Now that I moved up to 5th grade from 4th, I've finally discovered the one big difference between 4th and 5th now that we've hit the spring semester....drama. Girl drama to be exact. I feel like I'm in a soap opera and should walk around with a director's chair while saying, "ACTION!" when I'm at school. It's been exhausting dealing with it all week. It's finally gotten so out of control that parents were called. Dealing with behavior is my LEAST favorite part of teaching. It's frustrating, draining, and did I mention exhausting? Most parents are very supportive while some others talk big but do little only for their child to do it again.

Which brings me to my next story...Nolan has had a pretty off week at school this week just not listening, not taking a nap, and not getting along with some of his classmates. He has a new teacher which always rocks his world when there's a big change like that. Today, he actually went to the "office" because time out was not working. He refused to stay in timeout and then actually hit his teacher in the act. Oh boy. Can you tell I'm hiding behind my face in shame? I think when you're a teacher you put your children at an even higher expectation because you don't want your kid to be "that" child... that same one that drives you crazy each and every day.

So I did the walk of shame down the long hallway...halfway boiling but mostly just embarrassed. Let's just say that he was definitely disciplined and enjoyed a night free of cars or anything that resembled fun. I know he's four but it scares me that he didn't get the gene of being terrified of getting in trouble at school from me...must get it from his daddy. We'll see how tomorrow goes. For now, someone had to write a letter to their teacher apologizing. I hope that his teachers don't think I'm one of "those" parents.

Mama Bear

Ok, I had my first mama bear instinct kick in with Campbell. First day back in daycare and I pick him up an he looked like he got in a fight with a cat and the cat won. There's a bully in his class and it's not a hard one to figure out. He pushed Campbell off the top of the slide outside and Cam went head first into the dirt and came out looking like this. I didn't get the best shot of it but if you click of the photo you can see a close up of his face.

Now I know these things happen, they happen a lot in our home with two boys. Still, I don't like it. I know now why some parents tell their kids to defend themselves at school. Oh boy, is this just the beginning? I can't imagine what I'm going to do when these boys get in school. When my brother or sister tell me about some kid bullying my nieces or nephews, I'm ready to hunt those kids down...and it's not even my own children! Tell me, is this normal?

Rudolph cupcakes

es, We're on a roll...a cupcake roll that is. Minus the baseball birthday cupcakes, I'm on my way to redeem myself with the past two attempts to make adorable cupcakes (spider cupcakes at Halloween). These are the recent ones we made for Nolan's Christmas party at school. Almost too cute to eat, right? Almost.

Bleach bums

Update on Campbell...actually make that both boys. You guessed it, now they're both sick. Daycare called yesterday and said Nolan was running 100.4; barely a fever. So I pull up to daycare and the owner is covered in bleach spots and my poor 4 yr old is holding everything in his hands from his cubby including his pillow and blanket to take home. I mean I can't blame them and of course I want to wash them but I think he probably thought he was part of the haz-mat that needed to go.

I took him in to our most popular hangout, Carenow, where they know me by name. He has tonsillitis. I'm just glad that strep and flu test came back negative on him. How sad is it that I'm glad it's only tonsillitis? So both boys stayed home with Justin today. Campbell is going to stay home one more day with my dad (hopefully) but Nolan is going back tomorrow. Cam has been fever free for almost 72 hrs. Nolan has been fever free for 24 hrs. Even then, it was a very mild fever (99) by the time I picked him up from daycare.

Dear Santa,

I know it's a little early in the year, but all I want is a Clorox cleaning crew to scrub my entire house with toothbrushes and bleach.

Yours truly,
Andrea

P.S. Can you please come and take care of my husband when he gets sick. He'll definitely be next. This photo was taken the day before Campbell tested positive for flu and strep.