Drew's Author's Tea

With our busy schedule this past week, I neglected to post about the Author's Tea that Mrs. Batson planned for Drew's class. Their tea was scheduled for Friday, May 4th. I was planning the one for our class for the same day, but did not want to miss seeing Drew. They had a beautiful Author's Tea. Mrs. Batson let each of her students pick which of their writings that they wanted to read for the parents. They had set up tables with refreshments for the parents to enjoy while we watched our children read. Drew decided to read his "Frog Facts". He did an outstanding job reading. He has really grown this year in his writing also! In fact, I was very impressed with all of the boys and girls in Mrs. Batson's class!

WHEW!!! We are still here!!

Boy, I just thought last week was busy! Drew did re-injure his ankle last Tuesday, but after a second trip to urgent care it turned out to be just a sprain (thankfully)! Drew missed his Tuesday night game due to this and his Thursday night practice was rained out so it gave his foot time to heal.

This week has been another week with one thing after another (sometimes many things at one time). Mikayla has had practice every night this week (on top of her usual dance rehearsals) for the upcoming Little Miss Rising Star Pageant. They are doing an opening dance number, so Miss Andrea wanted all the girls to practice together. You probably remember from an earlier post that I am not real into pageants for Mikayla, but this is another "casual" one like the one she was in at Christmas. It is only open to students of her dance company, and every child gets a trophy and a crown. Mikayla wanted to do the pageant, so we shall see. If you remember from an earlier post, she did not want to walk on stage for the one in December. She is not wearing a "pageant dress", but instead a dress that she will also wear to church.

Also this week:

Drew had a baseball game last night (his ankle is better, so he was able to participate) - so we did not make it to last night's pageant rehearsal. We played against Bryson's team so we wouldn't have missed this game for the world. Bryson's team is very good and is the only undefeated team in the Mite division. Everyone played a great game - both teams were trying hard. I think Drew had the most fun at this game because he got to see Bryson! It was also fun cheering for both teams - cheering for our guys when they made an out, but also cheering when the other team got a good hit.

Mikayla with her best friend Breanna - just call them "double trouble".

Today, I gave a presentation at school for 16 teachers, my principal, and my assistant principal on Literacy Centers (from a conference I attended on April 20). I was very nervous since this is the first time I've presented before, but I received lots of positive feedback, and I think it went pretty well.

Tomorrow I have my interview for district Teacher of the Year. I was nominated by my fellow teachers as our school's Teacher of the Year for the upcoming school year. Because of this award, I am up for district Teacher of the Year. I turned in my application in mid - April, and I go for my interview tomorrow. I will answer questions for 3 administrators (typically superintendents) from other districts. Our district Teacher of the Year will be announced at our Welcome Back Convocation in August. My prayer is that I answer their questions the best that I can, and that I don't leave them thinking "this is all the school has??".

Friday morning, I am having a Mother's Tea where we have invited our moms to join us. It's the first time I am trying this, but I hope to make it a yearly tradition. We will see how well Friday goes first! My students will sing songs for their moms, then we will enjoy some snacks together (donuts, peanuts, fruit, and of course tea), and then my students will present their moms with their Mother's Day gifts. I hope it goes as well as planned.

Then, on Saturday, Drew has his last baseball game and Mikayla has the pageant. I'm not sure if I will have any hair left on Sunday for Mother's Day!

Baseball Game

I know some of you have been looking for this (post above) for a week now! It has just been one of those weeks (meetings every day, dance, Drew re-injured his ankle, etc.). So, this morning I finally get the chance to post pictures from Drew's game last Saturday! His game was at 10, so Craig and Drew came to watch Mikayla's dances and then headed straight to the ball fields. As soon as Jennie and I got Mikayla and made sure they were on schedule for awards we headed to the field to watch Drew's game. It was an awesome game where every player got a hit and made it on base. Drew even got to play first base some.

Drew gets the opportunity to play first base a little in this game.

Drew getting one of his hits!

Drew waits on first base after his single!

"Taggin' up" Another great game (and another win) Red Sox!

After the baseball game we headed to get lunch then zoomed back to the auditorium for Mikayla's dance competition awards. Today will not be as hectic as last week, but we do have a few things on our calendar (dance pictures, shopping, etc.)

Dance Competition!

We had to be at the Memorial Auditorium this morning at 8:00 for Mikayla's second dance competition of the season. She was dancing two routines in this competition, and they were scheduled for 9:00 and 9:12. She danced first to "Doin' the Penguin" wearing her penguin costume.

Timothy, Jadyn, and Mikayla "flap your flippers up and down".
Go Girls!
"Shuffle step" The end of the Penguin dance. Way to go Timothy, Jadyn, and Mikayla - you did awesome, and we are so proud of you!!

Then, Timothy, Jadyn, and Mikayla danced their second dance to Locomotion."Every bodies doin' a brand new dance now""Come on baby, do the Locomotion""Swing your hips now"The end of the Locomotion dance! Everyone was cheering for them! They did an excellent job! Way to go guys!!

We left directly after Mikayla's second dance to get to Drew's baseball game at 10:00 (see above post). Then we were to return at 12:00 for awards at 12:30. We stopped and got lunch on the way back to the competition, and when we arrived at 12:00 the girls had just gone up on the stage for awards (Ms. Andrea had called and left a message that the competition had finished early so they were moving on with the awards). Ms. Andrea got Mikayla and took her on stage to sit with Jadyn, and Timothy. Luckily they had just started so Mikayla did miss receiving the awards for her group.If you look closely under the big "X" you will see Mikayla as she goes back to the table to get the gold medal and first place trophy for "Doing the Penguin". They also received a gold medal and first place trophy for "Locomotion".Timothy, Jadyn, and Mikayla go to the front of the stage to accept their plaque for fifth place overall (for their Locomotion dance) in the 8 and under duet/trio division. This is an outstanding accomplishment because they were the youngest competing out of 10 groups in this division.

Jadyn, Timothy, and Mikayla pose with all of their awards. Two gold medals, two first place trophies (one for each dance), ribbons and bracelets for the dancers, and the plaque for fifth overall for the Locomotion dance. Way to go guys!! You did your best, and we are very proud of you!!!

Tuesday Night Baseball!

Drew gets ready to bat at Tuesday night's game! He got 2 doubles and a single in this game! One of them could possibly have been a triple or a home run had his ankle been 100%. He's walking/running on it fine in tennis shoes, but he's still limping a little in his cleats. Mrs. Hayes, one of Drew's teachers last year was even there to watch! She commented about how hard he is hitting the ball!
Mimi, Jennie, and Poppi, along with Mikayla, Craig, and I were all there cheering on Drew. At the end of the game, I was trying to get a picture of Jennie and Mikayla and Poppi kept putting his hat on Miki's head.
It really messed up her hair, but you can tell they were loving it from their faces!
We are so proud of the way he and his whole team is playing this year!! They are giving their all in most games, and they won another one on Tuesday!

Game Ball!!

Drew played in his make-up game (that was rained out on Thursday night) on Saturday. His ankle was still bothering him a little bit, but he felt like he could play. I just told him to take it easy - if it started hurting I was prepared to pull him from the game. Mikayla and I were the only members of our family there (since this game was not on his schedule), but our team family was helping to cheer him on of course. I was glad to see that he was walking better on his ankle, and he said it didn't bother him to run. So... he goes into the game. I wish I had gotten better pictures from this game, but I had my camera on the wrong setting and I didn't catch it because of the glare on the screen when I previewed the pictures. I think you'll still get the idea! The craziest thing you'll notice is the pictures from the beginning and end of the game are pretty good - the ones in the middle are blurry. Mikayla waits for the game to start while enjoying some Pringles, and Gatorade (we had snacks for this game and she couldn't wait). Drew gets his first hit of the game - again he got a hit every time at bat. He was smacking the ball, with most of them going into the outfield!

Drew waits on second base after his double. If his ankle had been 100% this more than likely would have been a home run.Breanna came over and surprised us as we were watching Drew played. Bryson's team played right after ours, and while they practiced Nanda and Breanna came to watch Drew. Breanna and Mikayla are best friends, so Mikayla was very excited to see her!!I didn't mean to get such a clear picture of the fence (ha), I was trying to get a picture of the player on third base. That's our Drew intently focused on the batter - ready to get the ball if it comes his way!
Coach Craig meets with the players after every game to congratulate them on playing so well! In this picture he has just awarded the GAME BALL!!! If you look closely, you will notice it in Drew's left hand! Coach Craig said "I'm awarding this game ball to the person who was really hitting hard - and it goes to Drew!" I couldn't believe it - I was still making sure every child, including brothers and sisters had a snack so I had to stop and get a picture! We are very proud of our little baseball man!
GOOOOOO RED SOX!!!

Loosing Another Tooth

As I was getting Mikayla ready to go to Drew's game yesterday morning (their Thursday night game was rained out, so we made it up yesterday), Drew came into the living room holding something that I couldn't see and talking in a mumble without really moving his lips. Without being able to understand the words, I immediately realized what he was saying. His second loose tooth had been just barely hanging on for a few days. He had pulled his own tooth for the second time! He wants to hold down his bottom lip every time he smiles so that you are unable to miss the holes in his mouth. I told him not to pull any more teeth for awhile or he won't have any left! The Tooth Fairy left another five dollar bill for him to find this morning under his pillow. Lucky for the fairy he doesn't have any more that are loose - at least not that we can tell!

Cheering on the Team!

Drew (far end) sits in the dugout to watch as his team takes the field.

Drew had a baseball game the Thursday before last. We had thought we would go to cheer on Drew's team even though he was not able to play, but since they were playing at different fields, and the walk to those fields was longer, we decided not to go. Our team ended up losing that game 10-8, and a grandmother of one of the other little guys on our team said if Drew had been there our team would have won. That makes a mommy feel good about her little player! He had another game last Saturday that was played at the regular fields so we decided to go cheer on the team at that game. Drew's ankle was feeling a good bit better by then, and we were even able to take the cast off and he could walk putting a little bit of pressure on it. He still wasn't able to play of course, but we thought he might like watching his team play (we knew this would be hard for him too, but we want him to learn about teamwork). This was a wonderful game played by two well-matched teams. Our team ended up winning the game 21-19. It was very hard for Drew to watch the game and not be able to play, and he was hoping that his ankle would be well enough to play by their next game!

Injured Ankle

As I mentioned in the last post, Drew injured his ankle at church on Easter Sunday. When it didn't seem to be getting any better on Tuesday, we decided to take him to Urgent Care (our pediatrician's office does not have an x-ray machine). I knew he was in serious pain when I told him he had baseball practice and asked if he wanted to go watch and he replied after I go to the doctor. Since he never asks to go to the doctor, and he never wants to miss baseball practice this got my attention. Then, many emotions went through my mind, but mostly I felt guilty that I had not taken him earlier. Since he could move it and had been limping on it I didn't think it was broken, but I knew to ease my mind, we had to have it checked out to make sure. The diagnosis from the doctor who looked at his x-rays at Urgent Care was just a bad sprain. Since there was not an x-ray tech there when we were there, and he saw a small space between two bones that worried him (the space between the two bones was not identical in width the whole way across) he referred us to an orthopedic. He also put Drew's ankle in a temporary cast. I have never seen one of these, but he folded it around Drew's foot, and then wrapped it with an ACE bandage. He said it was made of fiberglass and would harden just as a cast does. He wanted us to keep that on Drew for 3 days so that it would stay as stable as possible. He also didn't want him to participate in any vigorous activities for a week - in other words no baseball! I am pleased to announce that we did not have to take Drew to the orthopedist because when we called they informed us that if the x-ray tech had not called us after checking the x-rays, there was probably no need for concern.

Happy Easter

This year I didn't get as many Easter pictures. Part of the reason is our family did not participate in one of our yearly traditions - I don't have any pictures of Drew and Mikayla participating in an egg hunt (yet!!). We didn't take them to an "organized" Easter egg hunt this year since Mikayla was still recovering from surgery. All of the great-grandchildren usually have an Easter egg hunt at Grandma's house, so they would have a chance to hunt for eggs there - or so we thought!

While at church Sunday morning, Drew had a little mishap. He was on his way to children's church when he decided to jump up on the concrete curb (he is such a boy). When he came down he landed on his right ankle wrong, turning it. Ms. Amanda said he jumped right back up after it happened so she thought he was fine. Then, he started wanting mommy. He was on his way to get me out of the service, but it was hurting him so bad he couldn't make it that far. Luckily about this same time Craig had taken Mikayla out of the service because she still wasn't feeling like herself. As I'm sitting listening to the Easter message, Craig comes to the door and motions for me to come to the back. I jump up immediately thinking something is wrong with Mikayla. I did not expect to find Drew, in the educational building, sitting with his foot propped up. Craig then went to get some ice to put on it. After sitting with ice on it for a few minutes, he decided he wanted to go back up with the children. We tried to get him to walk, but there was no way he was walking on his ankle it was just too painful. So...mommy carried him! We decided not to stay for Sunday school, and instead to get Drew to Mimi and Poppi's house so he could prop it up more and keep ice on it. We were to go to my grandma's house (directly across the street from my mom and dad) for Easter dinner with my dad's family. Drew spent all day Sunday crawling around the floor when he needed/wanted to move, or sitting with his ankle propped with ice. Needless to say, we did not participate in any egg hunts on Sunday. Poppi told Drew and Mikayla that he would bring eggs over to our house to hide them for Drew and Mikayla as soon as Drew's ankle is better - so look for pictures of that soon! Checking out their Easter baskets from Mimi and Poppi. Drew received the Power Ranger Morpher that he had been asking for the past two weeks, and Mikayla received the movie Charlotte's Web as that's what she had been asking for. They also received a little candy, though I was happy Mimi and Poppi agreed that they didn't need a lot! Mikayla received the movie Happy Feet, two books, and candy from the Easter bunny, while Drew received the movie Open Season, a book, some addition/subtraction cards, and candy. They were excited. Drew also received $5.00 from the Tooth Fairy for his first tooth - I told him the Tooth Fairy must be getting richer because the most I ever received was $1!!
Poppi holds a sleepy Mikayla before we head over to Grandma's house.
Drew props his ankle up while playing with his Morpher.

We plan to get more pictures soon, especially pictures of Drew and Mikayla hunting Easter eggs! As a parent, there is excitement all the time!!

Dying Easter Eggs

Drew and Mikayla had anxiously waited all day Saturday to dye Easter eggs for their Easter baskets. After they got out of the bath tub, we were ready at last!

Mikayla and Drew excitedly wait for mom and dad to tell them they could get started!
"Mom - is this one dark enough?""Ooh I love pink!"
Drew and Mikayla had fun writing on their eggs with crayon before putting them in the dye. They thought it was magic when their writings "stood out" after the eggs were dyed! "I'm writing I love you mommy!"
"I can do it by myself - I will be easy."

Mikayla shows off her orange egg while Drew waits patiently for the color he needs.

Drew and Mikayla always have fun dying their Easter eggs, and this year was no different! It is such a joy for mom and dad to watch too! It is nice to spend time as a family where, for the most part, Drew and Mikayla share and use patience. I hope they will remember this as they get older, and one day be able to experience the fun of watching their own children dye eggs!

Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy??

As you might have guessed from the title (and if that didn't give it away, I'm sure the above picture did) my little boy lost his first tooth today! Drew started asking about his teeth falling out when he was four. At that time, he was a little nervous about it hurting, bleeding, etc. Since then, he has become more and more impatient wondering if he would ever have a loose tooth like his friends (a July birthday makes him one of the youngest in his class). So you can probably imagine his excitement when, at his last dental appointment in January, our dental hygienist told him he had a tooth that was a little (I couldn't even tell) loose! Since then we have watched him wiggle (wiggle, and wiggle some more) that tooth, and have watched the tooth become looser and looser. We knew it wouldn't be much longer, but he wouldn't let any of us pull it. Since March, he has been wiggling the tooth beside this one as it has become loose as well. We even kidded him that he couldn't loose all his teeth at one time because he would have to go back to eating baby food.

This afternoon, Drew was walking around our living room wiggling that tooth while I was resting in the recliner (I stayed up until 3 am finishing a book I started Thursday night), and Craig and Mikayla were watching TV. He walked over to his daddy and said "look daddy" to which Craig responded "what is that?". Drew said "MY TOOTH". Craig was pretty amazed that Drew had wiggled that tooth until he had "pulled" it himself. Imagine my surprise when Drew woke me up with a smile that was missing a tooth! Every time Mikayla saw the tooth or Drew's smile without it she would get a terrified look on her face. She never vocalized it, but it was as if she was thinking "I don't want that to happen to me!"

Drew was super excited and had to make several phone calls announcing his exciting news. Mommy was excited, yet a little sad at the same time! Where has the time gone? It doesn't feel right that my baby has lost a tooth. It seems as if just yesterday I was holding a bald-headed, toothless infant! There's no denying it - my boy is growing up and FAST! Wouldn't it be nice if we could forever keep them little? One part of me wants that more than anything, but the other part of me can't wait to see what the future holds for my "babies".

Drew awaits a visit from the Easter Bunny, and his first visit from the Tooth Fairy!

Spring Break

This week is our school's spring break. Drew, Mikayla, and I have enjoyed spending this time together, and it will be very hard for us to go back on Monday! We have spent the week relaxing and helping Mikayla recover from her recent surgery. Drew does not have any practices or games scheduled for this week with baseball, and Mikayla's dance company always closes the week of spring break. We are "extra-curricular" activity free this week. Mikayla will not be able to participate in dance for the next 2 weeks. We are planning to take her the week after next so she can watch as her friends dance - we just hope she doesn't decide she wants to join in. She has another competition coming up the weekend of April 28th so she will only have 1 week to practice for before that.

I got one of just Mikayla while we waited for Drew to come outside - 5 days post op and looking pretty good!

Mikayla is doing really well. She still doesn't have much of an appetite, but we are keeping fluids in her. She greatly appreciates all of the "goodies" she's received, and they have all gotten much use! She (and Drew) has painted, colored, cut, and glued all week.

We came home Thursday to find a sand pail filled with stickers, crayons, coloring books, and dress-up jewelry from mine and Craig's Sunday school class. Two of my students also gave Mikayla goodies - a color wonder book and markers, and a tea set! Grandma came over Saturday with goodies for Mikayla and Drew - coloring books, crayons, a bunny, and suckers. On Monday, Mrs. Hayes, one of Drew's 4k teachers, came over with goodies from she and Mrs. Brown - Mikayla a Doodle Bear and Drew (they didn't want to leave him out) a Nerf Gun. Yesterday, we got a surprise when someone from Vickie's Florist delivered a balloon bouquet and a teddy bear for Mikayla. There was a card with a sweet "get well" message attached from Ms. Amanda (the children's director at our church), Dewitt, Adam, and Macy! We are most appreciative that Mikayla and our family has been in the thoughts and prayers of so many people! It means more to us than we could ever express!

Drew has been terrific this week - he is trying hard to be careful with Mikayla! He is such a sweet big brother, and his sweetness really shines in times like these. He asks her if she needs anything, and he has remembered to play calmly as well (pretty hard for a 5 year old that's all boy). We keep reminding him that Mikayla can't be as active until she completely heals. He's made us very proud this week as he helps his sister recover!

I always enjoy spending time with my babies during my breaks! This week has been no different!