Jase's Preschool Graduation

Jase has been going to preschool for 1 school year (Sept '11-May '12) and they put on a little preschool graduation program. It was really cute! They recited all the nursery rhymes (acted some out as well) and sang all the songs they'd worked on throughout the year. I was really impressed by all the stuff the teacher(s) put together! The kids all had parts to say (memorized) and Jase remembered his so well! Afterwards, Miss Joann handed out handmade scrapbooks she did for each child. It has pictures from various fieldtrips theytook and also other class activities. I loved it!

I got some ideas from pinterest for teacher gifts and ended up buying 2 cute plastic "freezable" cups, filled them with crystal light packets, and tied a Target gift card around the straws that read, "Thanks for keeping me on 'Target' all year. Have a great summer"! I really loved how they came out!



This is sort of what I did with the gift cards...

I bought cups similar to these, filled them with the drink packets, then tied the Target gift cards with notes onto the straws.

 I tried to get pictures with both of his teachers after the graduation, but as usual it's total chaos with kids running around and I was only able to snag one with Miss Joann. It was then she told us that she may not being doing her preschool this next year, depending on if she lands another job or not. Total bummer! So now I've got my eyes and ears open for other preschools in the area because Jase will miss the kindergarten cut off this year (and where we live is pretty rural, so there are not lots of options). I didn't even get any pictures of me, Reub, or Grandma Jenith! Lame. Grandma Connie was planning on coming as well, but her daughter ended up in the hospital with a bad infection and needed her there (she's doing better now, thank goodness). Jase said he wanted donuts for his graduation present, so that's what he got. Heh heh. Afterwards, we came home and grilled some chicken, then put Ian to bed. Grandma J, Jase, and I went into town and shopped a bit (Grandma bought Jase his own set of padlocks and keys, complete with key lock box) and I ended up getting some starter plants for my garden. We met Reub and Ian in town for dinner at a great pizza place and then said our goodbyes to Grandma. It was a good day!

Jase and Miss Joann! She is the best!

Dad drove Jase and Ian to the preschool graduation in "style" on the Ranger, complete with balloons! That's a proud Grandma and brother Ian in the pic!

 

Jase in the middle surrounded by two cute gals!



Little raindrops song, hee hee.

The entire class! Jase is second from the left.

Jase playing with his froggy noise-blower thing, haha

Froggy song is over and Jase is still playing with the prop!

Big Boy Beds for Big Boys

With baby #3 on the way, we have high hopes and dreams of turning our 2 bedroom home into a 3 bedroom home (hoping to add a real master bedroom on the main level). Our bedrooms are located on the 2nd story of our house. Currently Reub and I sleep in one; the boys share the other one. Since Jase has been around 2.5-3 years old, he's been sleeping in a little, cheap Toy Story toddler bed. It's been a good bed, but Jase is getting so tall, it's really getting too small for him now. Ian still sleeps in the baby crib (nope, he has not figured out how to climb out yet). We've realized we'll need the crib a few weeks after the baby is born, so I thought it'd be better to start transitioning Ian into a "real" bed right now...so by the time baby is here, ideally I won't have any trouble getting him to stay in bed for naps and at nighttime.

I've been watching a local online site that's kind of like a "craigslist" of used items. If anything decent popped up for a good price, it sold so stinkin' fast before I could get my hands on it. Or it was plain ugly. Or not sturdy enough. Etc etc. I went to the Downeast Home Outlet (lots of pottery barn markdowns) and found 2 matching espresso colored twin beds that were pretty awesome. They were dinged up a bit, but marked down on clearance for $250 each. I had the store hold them while I thought about what to do....I went back to the store and sweated out the pros and cons, finally deciding it was just too much for what we should be doing right now. So I passed. We looked around at some furniture stores in town, but couldn't seem to find anything cute (and solid wood) for less than $500 (for both). Well the other day Reub took us to a furniture outlet place and I did NOT expect to find anything there that I liked. Surprise! We found a black, solid wood bunk bed set for $280! It was really sturdy, and the headboard and footboard had a lower height than the Pottery Barn beds I previously had my heart set on (we needed them to be lower bc the boys have slanted walls in their room due to the A-frame house). The only thing I didn't love was that the bed had these BRASSY gold colored screws holding it all together. Blech. But nothing that a little paint couldn't fix! I paid the man (and in the meantime picked up some high quality mattress protectors by "Sleep Tite" that I had seen for only $29 each on Amazon. The manager tried to sell me some at the furniture store, but when I told him about the Amazon price he matched it for me--bonus!). I'm glad we ended up getting twin beds that can be bunked in case we ever need to do that. We also price shopped for twin mattresses and found the best price on a basic Serta mattress at Sam's Club for $99 each. We'd seen cheaper ones for about $79, but they were really cheap-o and you've never even heard of the manufacturer!

Last night Reub got them all put together and they look SO CUTE! He also painted all the screws with some leftover black marine paint (shouldn't chip) and it looks amazing. I was wondering how Ian would do his first night in a twin bed, but he did great (probably bc it was late and he was too tired to object). The "top bunk" bed comes with built-in railings all around it, so we put Ian in that bed. The funny thing was that later that night (after the boys were asleep), I was in the kitchen doing dishes and heard the loudest "thud"! Jase is the one who fell out of his twin bed, LOL. I thought I'd hear lots of crying next, but he just climbed back in and went back to sleep. I'm going to try to stick a swimming pool "noodle" under the fitted sheet along the edge of the bed until he gets used to it (I've heard that little trick works, we'll see).

The great thing about saving $200 between the bunks and the Pottery Barn Beds was that it allowed me to spend some money on cute bedding (I really wanted some PB quilts for $179 each, but let's be realistic here--I am not that rich, haha). I found 2 different but coordinating quilt and sham sets at Target. A space rocket themed one for Jase; and a construction themed one for little Ian. I also picked up two twin sheet sets that are navy blue and white pinstripes (they are so cute)! Here's to hoping no one pukes on these quilts for a long, long time, hahaha. This first one is Ian's bed. I forgot to buy extra pillows for the shams, so they are just "draped" on top of the other pillow. You can see the navy blue pinstriped sheet set at the top. The quilt even has some coudoroy (sp?) pieces sewn onto it for texture.

Ian's bed (has rails around it) w/ Construction themed quilt.

 This next one is Jase's bed. You can see the actual bed frame much better in this picture than in the previous one. Simple, curved headboard and footboard with vertical slats. This is also the room that was decorated in fall tones when they were babies, so I have some repainting and such to do (walls are kind of a dark, neutral brownish grayish green tone). And you can also see my floor rug kind of clashes with the new, brighter bedding. I will fix that eventually!

Jase's Outer Space Bed!

Top view of Jase's bed.  Too bad you can't see the details better (like the stitching, etc). And yes, he still sleeps with that little blue bear and also Jo Jo, the elf.

May 2012

I spend enough time online that you'd THINK I'd be able to keep up with blogging. I thought about trying to do "catch up" posts since last September, but I think that will just overwhelm me and I'll want to quit. So, I may as well start with today, and then maybe do occasional catch-ups whenever I'm up to it.

Ian on his 2nd Birthday

Reub & Ian. Look how cute Ian's bday t-shirt is! I love it!

The Construction-themed bday cake! I love how it came out! :)

Party favors: Home depot tool aprons with Tonka stickers, painbrushes, and chocolate dumptruck lollies.

LtoR: Hibbin (jase's cousin), Me and Ian opening gifts, Jase.

So what's the lastest? Ian turned 2 in April. Two. Nuts. And I'm already seeing little sassy glimpses of the "terrible 2's." Oh geez. He loves to literally scream "No" or "Don't want it" when you're asking him something. You could ask him like 5 questions in a row such as "Do you want a drink? Do you want to take a bath? Do you want a hug?" etc (to which he responds "NO" or "don't want it") and then throw one in like "do you want some candy?" and he'll automatically scream "NO," but then you can see him thinking and then he'll say "nandy, want some." Hee hee. I love messing with him like that! He's repeating pretty much ANY words you ask him to say, and now starting to say lots of 2- and 3-word phrases/sentences. I love it. He is growing up so fast. He can also turn from the sourest puss to the sweetest pea in a flash. He's so giggly and cute and cuddly. I love my boy. He will just hug you and say "hugs hugs" while he's doing it. Awwwww. My baby. I get all sad when I think that just in a few short months he is not going to be my official "baby" any longer. I haven't taken him to a pediatrician in a while (he's due now), so I'm not sure where he's at "statistically," but I'm guessing a bit on the smaller side since he's still wearing about 18 month sized clothes. And I think he's about a size 7 shoe.

Me and the boys (Dec 2011). Ian's going to have to take the backseat on the stroller to make room for baby #3!!!

Ah yes, on that note, I'm pregnant again! The "plan" was for me to actually have the baby by this spring/early summer, but it wasn't in the cards. I was so surprised when the pregnancy test came back with a positive result after seeing sooo many negatives (when I would have sworn I was pregnant in the past multiple times). I think that is why it still feels surreal to me. The baby is officially due late September, but due to the whole C-section thing, they'll schedule me a week earlier. I am not looking forward to having another fall baby, like Jase, bc it makes for a really long winter. And this winter since Jase misses the kindergarten cut off, I'll have Jase (almost 5 at the time), Ian (about 2.5 at the time), and brand new baby X. YIPES! I am taking names on a sign-up sheet now for visitors/helpers/nannies?? Heh heh. We are planning to find out the sex of the baby this Friday and I can't even stand it! It should be no shocker that we are hoping for a girl--but of course our number one priority would be a healthy child, either way. I will definitely have to post our results! I just hope and pray that the baby cooperates and doesn't hide the "goods" from the camera!

Jase's very first day of preschool in Sept 2011

LtoR: Miss Stephanie, Jase, Miss Joann (his preschool teachers)

Busted for pouring out a huge container of baby powder!!! Argh!!!

Taken back in Oct 2011. This was a field trip Jase's preschool took to a fun Halloween place!

Jase's 4th bday (Oct 2011). I kind of went all out for this one! It was a costume party!

A photo "booth" place I set up for the party. Then forgot to take pics of the guests there bc I am that awesome.

Some of the spread...it was a bit over the top!

Ghost lollipops, lots of painted/decorated pumpkins, etc.

Our festive little "crappio," as we like to call it. Check out the milk jug ghost lanters hanging from the trees!

Frankenstein bday cake + masked ghost smash cake. By me. I loved this cake!

Jase and friend doing a mask/sticker activity.

Jase trying to eat this donut without touching it! LOL! Fun game!

So Mr. Jase...he's been going to Miss Joann's preschool since Sept of last year and it has been AMAZING for him. She does the school out of her home and is so good with the kids, I love it. It's been really great for Jase to make little friends and have that social experience. We had a few rough patches in the beginning when he was trying desperately to get the other kids' attention but quickly learned what is/isn't acceptable. He has learned so much! He always surprises me with little songs, things he knows, what he draws/writes, etc and it makes me so proud. He loves to sing and knows sooo many songs. I have been listening to a lot of Miranda Lambert's new cd lately, which is country music if you didn't know, and he walks around the house singing "Another lonely night with that same ol' whiskey morning." Hee hee. I should probably skip that one when he's around. It's kind of funny hearing this little boy singing about whiskey....Ha ha ha! Jase is 44" tall (wow!), about 48 lbs, and wears a size 5 in pants and a boys XS (4) and sometimes a boys S (5) in shirts (just depends on the brand). We just signed him up to play for a local soccer team in the fall, which I hope he'll enjoy. He's such a good looking kid with the biggest smile, and he loves to make you laugh. He loves having all of your attention and doing anything with you, as long as he's not bored. He is the best kid ever if he has something productive to do. He still thinks helping me with "chores" is actually fun. I am going to try to keep this little "game" going as long as possible!