Grown Up, Really?

Tomorrow is the last day that Madison will be in elementary school. Time has sure flown by. She is still so young, but really grown up all at the same time. Justin and I are so proud of her. Not just academically, but as a person as well. She sets goals and works hard to achieve them. She is hard on herself if she doesn't succeed. Junior high is right around the corner; it is so hard to believe.
This year the SEARCH (gifted and talented) class consisting of nine 6th graders participated in Destinations Imaginations. This was a competition with the other SEARCH classes from different schools. The competition included a structure built only with paper and glue. The structure had to be built to withstand the maximum amount of weight, but itself weigh less than 75 grams. They also had to perform a skit based on the structure. The interesting concept behind these two projects was that NO adult could help. All the parents had to sign a contract stating that we would not talk or ask or help with the project. It was a giant mystery to us.
Madison was chosen to be the skit writer. They competed two weeks ago and came in 2nd place in the skit and 4th overall (out of 11 schools). All the kids did such a great job! It was such a great team effort.

Tonight was 6th grade graduation. Madison did very well academically this year. She received the following awards:

• Certificate of Achievement in Science
• Certificate of Achievement in Reading
• Certificate of Participation in Honor Choir
• Principal's Gold Award (straight A's)
• Medal of Academical Excellence in Reading (highest reading grade)
• 1st Quarter Citizenship Award (leadership and attitude)
• Reading Plaque for 654.5 AR points (highest AR points in 6th grade)

Madison's goal this year was to break the school record of 525 AR points. She not only did this, she blew it out of the water! We helped her set goals and made frequent trips to Borders and the library.

Convocation and Zoo

Last week Justin attended Convocation at the University of Oklahoma. This was for the Fall and Spring graduates. It was a nice ceremony, but it was very long. I still don't understand how and why guest speakers think they need to talk for 45 minutes. Justin's dad was able to come from Indiana to attend the special event.
We all the love the zoo, so on Sunday we headed out. It was only cloudy in the morning and it wasn't supposed to get too hot. So far, it had been the only day without rain.

Spencer lapped up all the zoo had to offer. He was finally big enough to ride the train and carousel. He LOVED the carousel and couldn't decide about the train. Big sis Madi was sweet enough to take him on the train.

We checked out the new Children's Zoo that opened up in March and I have to say WOW! How fun. Spencer played in the splash pool, the mini forest, watched the lorakeets, petted goats, saw the horses, pigs and rabbits. Great times!

Madison played "I am King of the World" on top of some large climbing rocks. Overall, it was a good day until the sky became very dark. We headed home and within an hour, there was baseball size hail smashing out windows. Timing is everything.

Indiana Trip Part 1

Traveling to Indiana with Spencer was a bit overwhelming. The flight out was good, he fell asleep and we didn't have to change planes in St. Louis. With the help of some very nice passengers, we got through just fine to find Grandma Doris and Grandpa Dan waiting for us. I took WAY too many pictures as usual, so here is the summary of what we did. I had to put this into two posts, so make sure you read both! Fun times.

Sunday: Grandma and I went shopping at one of the best outlet malls I have ever seen. I splurged and bought a Coach purse. Madison has since ooohhhh and ahhhh and tried to steal it (not gonna happen). Spencer checked out the place with looking into cupboards and navigating his way through the deck with Sam and Dylan (grandma and grandpa's two golden retrievers).

Monday: Spencer and I headed south about 20 minutes to Grandpa Willie's house. We ate at Buffalo Wild Wings and Spencer flirted his way through lunch, very cute. We headed back to the house and checked out the pond on the four wheeler cart. Spencer had an absolute blast and grinned ear to ear as we made our way around the pond.

He took a nice long nap. I had to of course get the picture with his butt sticking straight up in the air while he snoozed away.

After the much needed nap, Spencer played some golf. Grandpa Willie showed him out to swing and putt and he giggled with glee each time.

We enjoyed our walk around the pond watching the geese with the babies.

Late in the afternoon, the neighbors were out with their new motorized jeep and Spencer got to go for a ride. He wasn't too sure about that.

During dinner, I was kept in the loop of the tornadoes that were on the ground in Oklahoma. For those that know me, I literally have panic attacks with storms and especially tornadoes. Justin said, I was very luck NOT to be in Oklahoma. We all watched the weather channel and more and more I realized how very lucky that things were not worse.

Continued on Post #2.

Indiana Trip Part 2 - VERY EXCITING DAY

Tuesday a VERY EXCITING DAY!: This was the day that Spencer and I got to meet Heather and Hudson. Heather and I both had blogs regarding our boys. We were introduced to each other's blogs by a mutual friend and Hudson and Spencer were born about 12 hours apart. For the last 1 1/2 years we have shared our ups and downs of rearing rambunctious little boys with each other as well as our blogs. We took full advantage of my trip to Indiana and met for lunch. The boys didn't seem nearly as interested in each other as Heather and I were. We took LOTS of pictures, but it was darn near impossible to get both of these boys to look at the same camera at the same time. It was too short of a visit, but I know we will continue to share our experiences with each other as we watch our boys grow.

Wednesday: I headed back to the outlet mall with a friend from high school. We found some awesome bargains (hat and mittens for only $0.16) and had to scoop them up. This required me to borrow an additional bag from Grandma Doris in order to bring back all of my goodies. We had lunch and it was time for nap, so Julie dropped me off and we agreed, it had been too long since we had seen each other. We ended the day with a nice long walk with Sam and Dylan. Spencer wanted to get out and run, so the last few houses he walked hand in hand with Grandma Doris and Grandpa Dan. AAWWWW

Thursday: We packed and packed and packed again (Spencer kept pulling everything out of the bags). Spencer also discovered Grandpa Dan's hats. He sat and played with the hats for almost a 1/2 hour (hey, that is a lot in Spencer time). Later that day we headed to the airport. The first leg of the trip was okay, but as I feared, we were seriously delayed in St. Louis because of the storms. Spencer was not happy, mama was not happy. We were ready for HOME. We finally arrived and Spencer was EXTREMELY excited to see his daddy and big sister.

Friday: I am home and touring the neighborhood. Oh my goodness I am soooooo relieved that I was not here. There is a lot of damage around the neighborhood. No one lost their homes, no one was hurt, but that was way to close. Our good friends and neighbors, Clay and Shyla had a storm shelter installed today. Simply too close.

Unwanted Sickness

Last Thursday Spencer began to act funny. We could tell that he didn't feel good, but with no apparent symptoms, there wasn't much for us to do.
The sickness quickly reared its ugly head on Friday night with a fever and vomiting. Friday night was spent in the living room on the couch/floor covered in towels, while he slept for a couple of hours at a time.
Saturday came and we immediately started some pedialyte and water. He wasn't drinking much and definitely wasn't eating.

This was his crazy sweaty hair after his fever broke on Saturday. He continued to lay around the house. He was tired, cranky and his tummy was upset.

He found some comfort in some of his favorite books, but generally wanted me. Not daddy, not Madison, me. He would drift off to sleep on the couch and if I got up, he immediately woke up whining. Saturday turned to Sunday in a blur. No more than 3 hours of sleep at a time. Sunday seemed like things were getting better. He was dehydrated, but continuing to drink some and eating a few snacks. Sunday evening came down crashing as he vomited again. The poor little guy just cried and cried.

This picture probably describes the weekend in a nutshell. He was on the way to the doctor's office and it was all he could do to look up at dad.
Yesterday was his first day back to daycare and it went okay. He has gained his appetite back and slowly is getting back into a routine. I can honestly say that vomiting is the most unwanted sickness I want children to have. They just don't understand what is happening and it is so degrading for them to wake up covered in vomit. :(

CATS

Friday night Madison and I went to see the show CATS. Madison has never seen a Broadway show and CATS was definitely a perfect choice for the first one.

We both got dressed up and of course, she looks way older than her tender 12 years (13 is gonna kill me). And NO she is not taller than me, she is standing on the porch and I am on the sidewalk.

We had to leave really early because there was a Red Hawks baseball game, a Thunder basketball game and the show all downtown. What a mess traffic was.
We arrived at the civic center and she picked out a classic CATS t-shirt (black tee with yellow eyes and "CATS" across the front." We also picked up a program. The performance started at 8pm, so at 7:30 we headed to the mezzanine level to find out seats. They were letting people into the theater yet, so we waited, waited and waited some more.
It was also very, very warm. The $15 program instantly became a fan for the both of us.

Madison took off her shoes and sat on the floor. It was now 7:55 and no sign of us getting in. A gentlemen standing near us asked the usher was the hold up was and then we finally know what is going on. NO POWER! The civic center was one of many buildings in the area with no power. They were running off a generator and that was it. The generator was enough for the lights and of course the credit card machine, but not enough for the air conditioning.

An announcement was finally made and that they were trying to fix the problem. At this point, they were not cancelling the show, that was a good thing. At 8:30 the entire lobby and multiple levels erupted in applause with the return of the air conditioning and normal power!!!
We had to wait another 20 minutes before they started letting people into the theater and wouldn't ya know it, the ticket scanner won't scan the tickets. So, thank goodness the usher was an older gentlemen with some wits and went back to the old fashion way of doing things: tearing off the ticket stubs.

The performance finally got started at 9pm and I explained to Madison that the people really sing (no recording) and the music was live from the orchestra. Within the first few moments (they hadn't even come on stage yet) she was hooked. After the first characters arrived on stage and blew everyone away the only words that she could utters was "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!"

We enjoyed every minute and she was in awe, act after act and then of course the reason everyone goes to CATS - Memories. I personally got goose bumps and I think the guy next to me was crying. I don't think Madison breathed or moved. She jumped to her feet and whooped and clapped loudly (just like everyone else around her). Fabulous show.

I waited to ask her what she thought until we were on the way home. Here was part of the conversation:
Me: "So, what did you think?"
Madi: "I don't know what to say, it changed me. It moved me. I only dance one dance for a few minutes and they danced and sang for over two hours. It was amazing."

My job as a parent to expose her to multiple facets of art, music and culture is a step in the right direction.

Discovery

Spencer liked his plastic eggs at Easter, but only because they can be thrown like a ball. He has good aim and you have to be on your toes otherwise an egg comes whizzing awful close to your head.

I think his favorite thing about Easter was taking the dyed hard boiled egg and accidentally cracking it open (he squeezed it too hard). Once it was open, he used his finger to dig inside and squished the contents with his fingers. We tried to convince him to "give it to daddy" or "give it to Sissy," but he knew the jig was up and he wasn't falling for it. He took off running away from anyone who tried to touch the egg. A emotional meltdown ensued after the egg was thrown away.

Spencer discovered more than just eggs this weekend.

He discovered how to climb on the pub table chairs and stand straight up on them.

He discovered that this gives mommy a heart attack.

He discovered he can pull out the dining room chairs in order to climb into them.

He discovered how to open mommy's laptop.

He discovered how to climb on top of the kitchen table.

He discovered that if he stands on the dining room chairs and leans too far that the chair will fall over with him in it (and it hurts).