Spring Festival

Each year the elementary school here in town puts on a Spring Festival in which grades Pre-K through fifth perform.

Jack did amazing singing and dancing to Phineas and Ferb's Gitchy-Gitchy-Goo.

It’s soccer season…again

Yep, it’s soccer season. And Jack begged to play yet again. And despite my husband’s hatred toward the sport and the fact that he doesn’t think Jack should play organized sports until he is older, Josh still signed Jack up. I am only hoping to get another video like this one : )

Meet Marvin

I am a little behind on posting. One because the weather has been horrible and we haven’t really done too much and two the boys have been sick….constantly. In fact, since it is spring break this week, we were supposed to head to the city to spend the night in Bricktown and then head to Norman the next day to see the science museum; but because Beau was running a high temp and plagued with strep; Josh, Beau and I got to stay home while only Jack got to go with his grandparents, aunt and uncle and cousins. Maybe we’ll try a repeat of the trip this summer. Hopefully by that point-in-time my kids will be well…I’ll keep my fingers crossed but I won’t hold my breath.

Anywho, a couple of weeks ago, the hubby and Jack headed to Colorado to help Josh’s aunt and uncle move to Oklahoma. It happened to be the same weekend Jack got to bring the class pet, Marvin the Monkey, home.

Here are Marvin’s diary entries for their weekend together:

Friday, Feb. 6, 2010 - Today, I got to leave school early with Jack Brookshire. We headed to Jack’s house where we quickly loaded up his daddy’s truck so that we could begin our journey to Colorado in order to help his Aunt Jeannie and Uncle Bill move from Trinidad to Hinton. The trip was long but Jack took good care of me. We watched movies on his DVD player, ate lots of junk food and even took a nap. We reached our destination around 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 7, 2010 - Today we all woke up early so that we could get a head start on loading up all the trucks and moving van with furniture, clothes, toys and dishes. Our plan was to leave Colorado around noon but we got held up a little when Jack and I had to make a visit to the Trinidad Emergency Room. While Jack was playing with his cousin Devin, Jack accidentally fell on his arm and everyone was scared he might have broken it. After having x-rays done, we discovered Jack had only sprained his arm. It was a huge relief and we finally got on the road to Oklahoma around 6:00. This time instead of riding in Jack’s daddy’s truck, we got to ride in the big U-Haul moving van with Uncle Bill. We finally got into Oklahoma around 4:30 in the morning and boy were we tired. Since it was so late, Aunt Jeannie and Uncle Bill got to have a sleepover at Jack’s house.

Sunday, Feb. 8, 2010 - Luckily, we all got to sleep in this morning because boy were we tired!. But then it was back to work. Everything we loaded onto the trucks and van yesterday, we had to unload into Uncle Bill and Aunt Jeannie’s new house. Then tonight, we got to go to Jack’s cousin Owen’s house for his third birthday party. It was a Dinosaur party and we ate hotdogs and cake and then played pin the tail on the dinosaur and watched Owen open his gifts. It was so much fun!

 

The ceaseless chaos

And I don’t just mean the weather.

The phrase “ceaseless chaos” about sums up my life in general over the past few weeks.

You’ve read about my hairy, or rather hairless, situation with Beau and how Jack instigated the whole thing;  but I haven’t subjected you to all of the other “happenings” in a house with two boys….until now.

For some reason, Jack seems to play the lead roll in most of the stories around here; which is weird, because I like to think of him as my mellow child. However, incident after incident has occurred with him as of recently. Maybe it’s because he is five. Maybe it’s because he is a boy. Or maybe it is because I have no idea what I am doing as a mother. Any of those reasons are highly plausible.

It all started a few weeks ago when I went to pick Jack up from school. His teacher informed me he had been sent to the principle’s office for…get this…. peeing in the bathroom. Not in a urinal or a toilette, mind you, but rather in the actual bathroom floor. I got him to the car and immediately started crying. In all my years of school, NEVER was I EVER sent to the principle’s office (yes, I was somewhat of a goodie-goodie). So how I was to handle my son’s being sent in for discipline in only his first year of school was beyond me.

We talked about it for a long while with him insisting over and over again that he didn’t know why he did it, only that he “just did.” Until finally, after 20 minutes of my crying episode and trying to get to the bottom of such out-of-character behavior on his part did he finally say, “But mom, there’s a drain in the bathroom, don’t-cha know?”

Leave it to the plumber’s kid to think it is okay to pee in the drain on the bathroom floor. I called the school to make sure we were not having a lying problem as well. With a laugh, the teacher and the principle both assured me that he had peed near the drain and that come-to-think of it, he probably was not the first…just the first to be caught.

Next on the list, was a purple play-doh issue. Jack woke up screaming one night about his ear hurting and with as many problems as we’ve endured with Beau’s ears, I assumed that it was an ear infection. The next morning I took Jack to the doctor who discovered he had shoved a whole bunch of purple play-doh in his ear. It had hardened and had to be scraped and flushed out.

Then came the hair issue.

Then Monday Jack was sent to the principle’s office again. This time for acting up while the teacher was gone. The principle assured us that it wasn’t a big deal. He is a good and smart boy whom teacher’s expect a lot out of and when he acted up on Monday, along with everyone else, he was the one that got reprimanded….at least that is what the principle said.

Today, I received yet another call from the school. This time to inform me that Jack was sick. They asked me to come and pick him up and bring clothes when I did. (Baloney, you will totally love this story! for the rest of you it is probably TMI – but, that’s how I roll these days).

When I got to the school, I was directed to the nearest boys bathroom, which coincidentally had a “Bathroom Closed” sign handing on the door; and upon entering, there was Jack sitting naked from the waist down on a stool loaded down with paper towels and baby wipes. To be honest, it was one of the funniest and saddest things I had ever seen. Had I had my phone with me, I totally would have taken a picture.

Apparently a major case of diarrhea had gotten the better of Jack along with all of his clothes and shoes.

Like I said….ceaseless chaos!! Maybe by finally getting this all out in the open, life around here will calm down….I’m not holding my breath though.

My little deviant (a.k.a the instigator)

The story of Beau’s hack job only gets better.

When I found Beau in the bathroom shaving his head on Tuesday, he was not in there alone….Jack stood by quietly watching the whole scenario unfold. He was an innocent bystander… maybe a little too innocent.

I began to question him -

Me: Jack did you cut Beau’s hair?

Jack: No, mom! He did it all by himself (insert look of “how dare you accuse me of such a thing!”).

Me: Did you tell Beau to cut his hair?

Jack (looking everywhere but at me): Ummmmm, No.

Me: What exactly did you say to Beau, Jack?

L000000nnnnnngggggg

paaaaauuuuuuuse…..

Me: Jack?

Jack: I told him I thought it would be a good idea (insert innocent grin).

So all day yesterday, I faced comments about Beau’s hair, or rather, lack-there-of.

And all day yesterday, I got to hear about boys and that age, and that’s just what they do.

I would laugh and say “But Jack never did anything like that. He was always so laid back and good. But Beau…well, Beau’s my handful.”

Then, as we were gathered around the dinner table last night, I noticed a big bald spot on Jack’s head that he had cleverly hidden by combing the rest of his hair over it.

Yeah, real funny Jack! Just hilarious!!

Belated much?

So, I was browsing through my posts the other day and realized that although I did wish Jack a happy birthday back at the beginning of December, I never did an actual post about his party.

What a horrible mother I am; but I do have my excuses: 1. his birthday party was rescheduled a couple of times do to his having strep throat 2. his birthday is in December when there are five million other things going on, and 3. I was in the midst of putting together a ton of Christmas cards for my clients – I was amazed I even got mine out this year.

But those are all just excuses. Truth is, I just completely forgot to do one. Better late than never though…

Jack really wanted to have a Monster’s vs. Aliens birthday party this year. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything like that in the 10 different party stores I went in to. I could have ordered it, but again, I’m a horrible mother and procrastinated and just did not have the time to get everything in without paying a small fortune in express shipping and handling fees.

Amazingly, his daddy somehow talked him into having a Marvel Superhero birthday party (a theme I am sure that daddy himself would love to have at his own party – comic book geek – lol).  

All the kids in attendance were provided with masks.

Even Beau got his own mask, although he had a little trouble getting it on the right way.

But after a lot of help, Beau WAS Spiderman.

Overall, despite Jack’s still being a little puny, despite it not being a Monster’s vs. Aliens birthday party, Jack still had a wonderful time. It’s a toss up as to whether he enjoyed his gifts more or seeing so many friends and family members at his house to celebrate his special day. Oh who am I kidding? The boy is five – of course he enjoyed his gifts more : )

Dance party 09

Good vs. evil

I think from the following photo you can tell which of my boys made Santa’s nice list and which one made his naughty list.

Yes, Jack loves Santa and can’t wait for him to leave a “monster truck that looks like a shark and floats” under the Christmas tree this year.

Jack has always been enthralled with planes, trains and automobiles.

Beau likes them too (if they are big enough for him to run over stuff) but I’m pretty sure he’d rather have a gun. Not really a comforting thought for a mother.

It’s a good thing he is so stinkin’ cute, because if he wasn’t he’d be in a whole lot of trouble. Maybe that’s the problem….

Christmas Pageant

For weeks, our children’s ministry at church practiced for a Christmas Pageant. All we knew was that Jack would be one of the stable animals. For some reason, despite our arguing with him, Jack had it in his head that he would be playing the role of a giraffe (yeah, I’m still not real sure where he got that idea from).

However, when the evening of the Pageant finally rolled around, he did not act at all disappointed that he would not be dressed as a giraffe, but rather as a Jack a…a donkey. 

Of course he could have just been excited that his friends and family, especially his cousin Brynnley, had all come to see him.

Either way, he was so stinkin’ cute up there in his big floppy ears swaying to all of the songs they sang.

Fun in the sun

This should be my last post on our trip to Florida and then maybe I can get to some more recent happenings.

Again, I said the trip wasn’t too relaxing; but, that doesn’t mean we didn’t enjoy a little bit of sun and fun.

Even though it was November, Jack couldn’t resist getting into the ocean.

Beau was a little more skeptical.

He would have rather just stayed on dry land, playing in the sand

or with grandma.

But with a little bit of help from his loving big brother, he finally made it out into the ocean.

Happy birthday little man!!

It is amazing how fast five years can fly by.

Your daddy and I couldn’t love you more or be more proud of you!!

Halloween Etiquette Checklist

1. Dress up in whatever costume your mama bought you without complaining  – no matter how goofy you think you might look.

2. Walk calmly to the front door of any given house – without barreling over other children…

…oh, and if you can’t walk by yourself, then you probably aren’t old enough to be Trick or Treating in the first place.

3.  Hold out your bag and politely say trick or treat.

4. Thank the person who just gave you candy – without adding an amendment such as “Thank you, but I don’t like raisins.”

5. Don’t throw a fit when you don’t get the same thing as the person next to you.

And last but certainly not least…

6.  I realize you have taken a lot of photos this evening, but if someone who just gave you candy thinks you’re cute and would like to take your photo, don’t refuse them that joy, just as they did not refuse you that candy.

Two and a half out of six isn’t bad! Could use a little improvement for next year though.

This message has been brought to you courtesy of the Brookshire boys.