Catching Up

So much has been going on since last month that I just haven't had time to update you all on our world.  I'm going to do my best to bring you up to speed.

Grace continues to do well in school and brought home straight As for the third quarter.  She continues to participate in the We R Odell chorus and will join them in singing the National Anthem at two baseball games this year - the Charlotte Knights and the Kannapolis Intimidators.  Her involvement in the Girls on the Run program has been going well too.  We are closing in on our 5K at the end of April.  Hopefully we can run at least part of it though most of the time we have run indoors so the transition to outside may be difficult.  Finally she has officially committed to the Certified Instructor in Training program at karate.  Over the next few years she will learn about being a karate instructor and will slowly participate in leading the younger classes to gain experience.  Her instructor had so many wonderful things to say about her and how she has grown over the past 3 years; he and I were both crying.

The boy has started his second season of baseball.  He is having a blast.  Now that he understands the game and what to do we've seen a lot of improvement.  His first game was this past weekend - I was out of town but David said he played well.  He still has good days and bad days at school but thankfully the good ones outweigh the bad.

The week before Easter was Spring Break for our school district.  I still don't understand why people make such a big deal over spring break for elementary school kids and we certainly didn't plan a crazy getaway.  The kids spent their week at their after school facility and enjoyed different activities.  Although I did take the afternoon off the last day so we could enjoy a movie.

That about sums it up for us.  I'm sure I've missed something but we are always on the go so it's difficult to remember what I did yesterday let alone three weeks ago.  Here's a couple of pics of the kids to enjoy.

Let it Snow, Let it Ice, Let it Melt

February was quite an entertaining month for us as it relates to weather.  But before I get in to that, let's talk about our visitor.

My mom spent a few days with us.  It was one of those visits for alternative reasons - we had the chance to go to the mountains for the night and needed a sitter.  So we brought mom down.  She got here on Friday night the 13th, got to see Adam's basketball game and then spent quality time with the kids.  The biggest adventure was getting her home as the aforementioned weather wreaked havoc with planes and automobiles.  But she finally got home a day after she was supposed to.

Now let's talk about that weather.  Monday the 16th we had freezing rain like I hadn't seen since I first moved here.  It was not fun and I drove in it because we were still under the notion that mom's flight was leaving.  By the time we got to the airport it was cancelled, they put her on another flight and we came home.  That journey was full of adventures - constantly freezing windshield, my wiper coming off, driving with no wipers and using the fact that I'm a lady to get what I needed.

Tuesday the 17th we were covered in ice.  Nothing was going anywhere.  I worked from home and the kids were off from school.  I was able to get mom to the airport and she eventually got out at 3:00.  The temps didn't improve much, the sun didn't shine everywhere so what happened was the kids were out of school the whole week.

Finally we awoke to a lovely morning on the 23rd and the kids got to go to school.  But it was short lived.  Tuesday was some snow and ice so school was closed.  Wednesday we were back to school but the BIG one was coming.  Don't make me laugh.  On Thursday, we awoke to about five inches of wet snow which melted by the end of the day.  Unfortunately the temperature never got above freezing so all that water refroze and the kids were off on Friday.

Needless to say here we are - March 2 - and the kids are in school, the forecast is only calling for rain and there is still a portion of spring break intact.  You gotta love the weather in North Carolina!

The Boy

Our sweet baby boy, who's not much of a baby anymore.  He's turning in to a bigger ball of fire than he was before.

Aside from a couple visits to see the assistant principal, he's having a great year in Kindergarten. He's also becoming quite the little athlete.  After playing baseball and soccer last year he asked to play basketball.  He's doing pretty well, he gets the concept he just needs to work on dribbling, passing and shooting.  But, as with everything he's in to, there's plenty of time to develop.

2015 plans for the blog

As you may have noticed, I have not updated the blog since September.  My apologies to the five of you who check it for updates.

My hope for this year is to make at minimum one update per month (two if something really big happens).  I've already missed January but I'm going to get better at this.

I spend so much time with FB posts that I neglect the blog.  That's most likely because I don't have many readers.

So TeamBuckelew will be back in full force in 2015.  Look for a new post next week while I try to figure out the direction I want to take it.

Hugs XOXOXO

Labor Day Weekend

Even though the kids had already been in school for a week - we still decided to "celebrate" the last official weekend of summer with a little fun.

Friday night we took in an Intimidators baseball game.  It was their last home stand of the season and we had free tickets to use.

After Adam's swimming lesson on Saturday we put our walking shoes on and headed to Carowinds for some fun.  I hadn't been to the park in over 10 years and the rest of the family had never been so it was an adventure.

We settled in to Camp Snoopy which was made up of rides for kids to enjoy with their parents.  I got Grace on the roller coaster (she was a tad nervous) but after the first time, she was really in to it.  David and Adam did some riding of their own before we walked around to check out some other rides and adventures including the Dinosaur Park.  It was really cool to see these replicas of various dinosaurs.  Unfortunately the whole section was in the sun so we moved through it pretty quick.

After the obligatory stop at the gift shop, we headed home.  Both kids were tired, in fact they fell asleep within 15 minutes of leaving the park.

Sunday after taking care of our chores we went to the pool for what is probably the last time of the year and then Monday we caught up on the things we didn't accomplish before preparing for the week ahead.  I'd say it was a pretty good end to summer (even though summer doesn't officially end until the 21st).

First Day of School

Yesterday, the kids went back to school.  It was a rough day for me - Grace was starting her last year of elementary school and Adam was starting his first year of school.  Needless to say I thought I could keep it together but as soon as I hugged him, the tears flowed.  Grace gave me a reassuring pat on the back to let me know that Adam would be ok.

A while ago I saw this idea on Pinterest - make a shirt with your child's graduation date in a size that they will hopefully fit in by the time they are a senior and have them wear it the first day of school every year.  Well here's Adam wearing his shirt and in his normal clothes

 

Grace likes to make her own fashion statement so here she is, ready to take on 5th grade.  She's grown a lot since her kindergarten picture.  In fact when I compared her first day with his first day, I found that she was the same height as Adam back when she started school in 2009.  So look how much she's grown when you see her standing next to Adam.

I have this thing about taking pictures from behind with these kids so here are my sweet babies walking to school.  This is our tradition - walking to school the first day and he was really excited to do it.  Of course by the time we got to school his back hurt from carrying his book bag (full of school supplies) but he made it and loved walking in to school with his big sister.

Lots of parents were taking their kids into school so the line was long to sign in and get a pass.  But once we got through the line, Adam told me he knew where he was going so we followed him to his classroom (this of course is helpful since when he goes back on Friday I won't be there with him).

He was very excited to see his teacher and her assistant.  Mrs. Perry is the lady on the right and Mrs. L (the assistant) is on the left. They were ready to help him unpack and start the day.  He even brought them both a gift (you all know why, to butter them up before he showed them the real Adam - LOL).

For the first time ever, I requested a teacher for Grace.  All of her teachers have been wonderful and I know that all the 5th grade teachers are great too.  However, this is a pivotal year for her and she needs a firm hand to guide her as she prepares for the depths of middle school next year.  So after making a comment to the principal and receiving her permission, I sent in a request for Mrs. Kopp.  She's a former Marine, the chair of the 5th grade teachers and she doesn't take any crap.  Not only did I want Grace to have her but that's who she wanted (she also has been in class with her son).  Of course I don't know how excited she was about the choice when she came home with her first project assignment.

  At the end of the day, they took the bus to Tutor Time (their after school facility) and I picked them up a little early to take them for a treat to celebrate the first day.  We went to Sweet Frog to enjoy frozen yogurt.  But it's more like cup of candy with a little yogurt on the bottom.  I'd probably be better off just taking them to a candy store :)

After their treat, we went home to relax a bit before dinner.  Thankfully Monday is our free night so we didn't have any activities to squeeze in.  When David got home from work he was anxious to hear about their days. Grace came out of the playroom to give a quick recap and then she told us that Adam was asleep.  Sure enough there he was curled up on the couch.  I should have known he would fall asleep.  As we were driving home from the yogurt store he was rubbing his eyes.  When I asked him if he was tired he uttered one of the best lines to ever come out of his mouth - "well I didn't get a nap today".

Our Beach Trip (in photos)

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post beach photos sooner, but getting ready for school got in the way.  Here are a few of our favorite pictures from this year's trip with a quick summary.

We took the kids to the Ocean Drive Pavilion in North Myrtle Beach where they got to ride a whole lot of rides and see Uncle Sammy, we hung out at the beach (more than the pool), went to Broadway at the Beach to buy more useless crap (that we could totally buy at home) and we finally walked the Apache Pier which takes you pretty far out into the ocean.  We had a great time!