Wiggles & The Kick off of a New School Year

The Wiggles were really, really GOOD! It's the one kid show that I actually enjoy. When I get their songs in my head, I can't stop singing throughout the entire day.

We had mentioned the upcoming concert with the boys earlier in the week. We kept telling them that the Big Red Ca (that's car, but ca has more of the Australian accent) was going to be there. Then Jace would start getting so excited - jumping up and down...we had to tell them that the Wiggles were still on an airplane coming to see them. So, the Wiggles had a very long airline flight that lasted the entire week, up until Sunday afternoon. They seemed to accept that without any problems.

We got there just before the lines to buy CRAP got crazy long. I had told myself that I was only buying ONE thing. Nana thought the same thing. SO, the boys got two crap items each, but they LOVED them. Believe it or not, Brittney did not want anything Wiggles....imagine that?


Of course, you have to have a light-up item during the concert. So, here's what a $15 light-up Wiggles stick with a Big Red Ca on the top of it looks like......(along with a stuffed Dorothy the Dinosaur).
All of the Wiggles (including the NEW yellow Wiggle, Sam) were there along with their friends, Henry the Octopus, Wags the Dog and of course Dorothy. I think the boys got more of a kick out of the friends rather than the Wiggles themselves.


When the show first started, Jace did a little freak-out and his "heart went beep-beep" and the lip came out. Thank God I didn't purchase tickets on the floor that would have been towards the stage. I opted for tickets on the 17th row on the side of the stage. They were pretty good.


Cade, on the other hand, clapped and laughed and smiled almost the entire time.


Then toward the end, THE BIG RED CA finally came out. Jace is STILL talking about it. Matter of fact, they are both still talking about the whole show.


Then the next day SCHOOL STARTED!

These are our annual pictures we take on the first day of school. She's getting SO tall!!! (Or maybe I'm just getting shorter!)


She had a great day and absolutely LOVES her teacher. She also doesn't have any of her "problem" friends or the obsessed ex-boyfriend in her class. I was very thankful about that.
So, hopefully we are on to the beginning of a great year!!!

It's Official......We're for Sale

Our current house is "on the market".

We have been so busy cleaning it up over the past week. We found a really cheap painter who changed our plum master bedroom to a more neutral beige color, we got new carpet (which sounds so easy until you prepare for new carpet to go in), I personally borrowed a co-worker's floor buffer and cleaned the grout in my kitchen. The difference is unbelievable. It looks like a new floor.

Now we wait...the market has definitely slowed in our area, so the realtor wanted to hurry up and list it in order to get some exposure. So, all of us get to practice cleaning up after ourselves. It's actually been kind of refreshing to see the house so clean and clutter-free. If we happen to NOT sell it (which we hope will not happen of course), we'd be fine staying here and learning to live in the close quarters. But we are optimistic and we have a little bit of time yet!

On our new house, it's definitely coming along. We have our "pre-sheetrock" meeting next week. After that happens, all the exciting stuff starts to fall into place. We get to see all the neat stuff we picked out at the design studio a couple of months ago.

Other items on the homefront include:

• Brittney's first day of school is tomorrow....that would be FOURTH grade. Oh my goodness. We had meet the teacher on Friday and she has a 2nd year teacher. She is young and full of energy. She seems energetic and ready to go. Brittney remembers her from last year and wanted to be in her class.
• Tonight we are going to the WIGGLES LIVE. I managed to get the boys down for a nap just now, so hopefully they will rest up for the big show! We've been telling them all week that we're going, but it won't sink in until we actually get there.
• Jace and Cade are going to a new mother's day out school starting September 5th. We have their meet the teacher on September 4th. It will be an adjustment for them, but I think it will be much better for them. So, we'll see. But this week is open and nana has them all week without any school or Brittney. She will be ready for them to go back to school on the 5th.
• Steve is back to work as a teacher tomorrow also. He went on several interviews for assistant principal positions to no avail. It seems that these school districts just post the jobs as a formality and already have someone in mind for it. PLUS you have to know someone to get your foot in the door. So, he's going to teach again and have some extra conference time for administrative training. He's fine with that.

All of the kids are keeping us hopping. The boys are either fighting like cats and dogs or loving all over each other while giggling nonstop. It's a toss-up. Brittney has been very bored this past month. The summer was extended this year and she really felt it. She's very ready to go back to school.

Here's Cade helping Jace put his "fi-flops" on. It's funny how Cade can do this independently but Jace can't.


Here they are practicing for their future band...


AND they are SUCH helpers in the morning for daddy. They're going to miss Daddy now that he's going back to work. They're going to also miss Sissy. She is just SO good with them.


Here's Brittney's pick for the first day of school outfit. It's a HUGE decision to make...I mean after all we are KEARLEYs for goodness sake, we MUST be stylish. (I hope the skirt pulls down more). She can already wear a woman's size 5 1/2 shoe! I am just in disbelief.


Wish us luck in keeping this casa CLEAN. It's going to take a miracle!

Beach Anyone?

We took advantage of my boss being out of town this past weekend and borrowed his new beach house in Galveston, TX. He gave us full permission to use all of his "toys"...margarita machine, industrial belgian waffle maker, golf cart, etc. etc. I have to say that the HIT of the entire weekend was the golf cart.

When we first got there, we unloaded, got dressed for the beach, packed up the golf cart and headed down the street to the beach. Let me paint the picture for you in a little more detail. We headed toward the beach around 2:30 p.m.....in Texas....in August...with a heat index of 110.....with NO wind whatsoever! We brought the boys shoes, they weren't wearing them. The minute their feet hit the hot sand, they were screaming. I was trying to get their shoes on and at the same time I was trying to get their feet in the water to cool them off. Well, Jace does not particularly like the beach...we learned this from our trip to the bayhouse a few weeks ago. I learned that he STILL does not like the beach.

We were at the "private" beach for this neighborhood and with no wind blowing whatsoever, it was very peaceful UNTIL we showed up.

Within 5 minutes of us being there, I was sweating profusely, the boys hadn't stopped crying, Brittney and her friend didn't want to get in the nasty water, but DANG IT...we were going to the beach and we were going to have fun!!

I said that we needed to go back and get the big umbrella. So we all loaded back up for the 1 minute ride back to the house...Brittney and her friend informed me that they didn't want to go back to the beach, they just wanted to hang out and ride in the golf cart. I looked down at Jace and Cade with their beet red little cheeks, I was soaked and miserable, and I gave them both a HIGH FIVE!!!

I love it when Brittney and her friends are sensible. So we played on the golf cart all afternoon. I let ALL of the kids take turns driving. Brittney drives like a maniac...heavy on the gas, that's for sure. I don't know if I'm going to be able to teach her how to drive, it may be a job for dad! Her friend, Morgan, was a little grandma driving.

Brittney and her friend kept telling me how much fun they were having and that this was the best part of the trip.

When the sun went down, we made it back to the beach. We only stayed for a few minutes so I could snap some pictures to prove we actually went!


Then we made virgin pina coladas in the restaurant style margarita machine. They were PERFECT!

Then we decided to have breakfast for dinner...bacon and WAFFLES! That machine was so easy and the waffles came out perfect. We decided to have them again for breakfast the next day!

We had to head out kind of early Sunday morning because Brittney had a birthday party at 3. But we managed to have time to eat lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. I was anxious to see how the boys reacted to all the stimulation. We had been trying to explain to Jace and Cade what was going to happen at the restaurant. I kept telling them that I would be right there and it was going to be OK.

Well, a few minutes into our dining experience the "rain" and "thunder" started. Cade immediately clung to me and covered his ears at the same time. Jace kept saying "my heart go beep beep"... "my heart go beep beep". The MINUTE it was over, they were totally fine.

This is a picture of what a $13 dessert looks like...it's called a VOLCANO! They shout it out when it comes out of the kitchen. That place is banking, I must have heard it shouted 20 times in the 45 minutes or so that we were there.

We couldn't even take Brittney there when she was little. We had to get our food to go one time.

It was an exhausting weekend, but we had so much fun!

We are definitely ready for school to start in almost a week!

More on the Home front

Well the house has come a LONG way in the past week!

From this ..........

to this ...........
The boys (and Brittney) have had so much fun playing in the dirt that's in our front yard. We've walked over every night this week to check in on all the action.


Last weekend we had SO much fun on our getaway WITHOUT kids.

Day #1 consisted of waking up....eating a peaceful breakfast with Steve and our friends...the boys departed to go play a little rugby for the day...the girls went to "market day" in town to browse/shop for whatever we wanted...lunch at a quaint little restaurant called the Leaning Pear....a quick change of clothes and then we were off to kayak down the river for about 3 hours (which provided the BEST arm workout I've ever had)...then we went home and cooked out a glorious meal with WAY too much food.

That was a picture of us "slumming" it at our friend's house. Her house is right off of the river...it is just picture perfect. This is her view EVERY day from the back porch. I think I could handle it.


The second day was a short one, but we managed to pack a lot in. I was taken on an hour horse back ride. I had a back experience horseback riding as a teenager. I got thrown off of a "very nice" horse while riding with one of my brother's friends. SO, I was a bit hesitant. Wendy was a GREAT tour guide and gave me Pedro the horse. Pedro was a true follower and very gentle. He didn't throw me off the whole trip. I have never been around horses that much and their size just frightens me. Add to that the fact that I got thrown off, needlesstosay I was a bit anxious about this adventure. But I overcame my fears and really enjoyed myself.

This trip provided an upper body workout the first day and a lower body workout the second. I was ready to come back home. My butt has never hurt quite like that!!

The weather was warm but nice for the weekend. I was a little worried when our outdoorsy host had all the windows open and the air conditioner wasn't turned on. The first night we slept with ceiling fans full blast. It wasn't too bad, it just felt like we were camping. I'm not a huge camping person so I just felt sticky. The second night we asked her if she minded turning on the a/c. So, the second night was heavenly...it was actually a bit chilly that night.

Back on the home front, the boys have had lots of potty action. There is nothing consistent with their potty use, it's purely for entertainment. However, Jace has really been telling us when he has to go pee-pee. That's actually progress for him! Cade still has no interest. He'll just sit on the potty because he saw his brother do it.

But there is NO privacy at our house. Here's a scene from the potty action tonight.

Man they love their big sister.


Isn't it great to have an older sister to wipe butts??? That's true love.


This weekend Steve is out of town, so I'm headed to the beach with the boys and Brittney and her friend Morgan. Hopefully I'll have lots of good pictures, stories and memories to share. We're going to stay at my boss' beach house. I think Brittney is more excited about riding in his golf cart than actually going to the beach!

Updates

A few Kearley updates:

The big boy beds are a BIG hit! They have taken a nap every single day (knock on wood) since we've had the beds. EXCEPT for the very first day when Jace escaped the bed and his clothes to pee on the rug, but let's not relive that experience.

Right now they still stay in their beds when they wake up. I usually hear "mommy...I OUT!". But today was the first day that Jace just walked right out and said "Hi Mommy!"

We have all been under the weather, but are now on the mend. I didn't know if Jace would survive last weekend. He had been wheezy and so congested that the doctor put him on liquid steroids. He was such a little TERROR! Within an hour of him waking up last Saturday morning, he had already gotten in a week's worth of normal trouble. I had to call nana for reinforcements so me and daddy could get a moment's worth of peace and go out to dinner. Luckily we're over that medication and I've made a mental note to NEVER EVER allow the doctor to prescribe that one again!

Notice in this picture from that fatal day that Jace is literally screaming at the top of his lungs? Cade kept saying all day that "Jace is MEAN!"


Today they poured the foundation for our new home! WHEW HO!! The weather has stalled it about a week. Hopefully drier weather will prevail in the next few weeks so they can frame it and put a roof on. Then the weather won't matter!


This picture shows the view directly behind our new house.......


This is our back yard view to the left.....


and this is our back yard view to the right.......


the kids will have so much room to RUN around and burn energy off!

Me and the hubby are off on a weekend WITHOUT the kids! Brittney is at Cheer Camp and the boys are staying with grandmas! We'll all be refreshed and ready to go for next week!