County fairs and End of Year School Party

If any of you are familiar with Boz, you might know the episode where Boz goes to the fair and has Cherry Pie and Lemonade. Well he actually doesn't get to go to the fair because he helps Grandma, but that's besides the point for this entry. So since Princess was probably 3 years old, she has enjoyed this Boz episode and associates cherry pie and lemonade with every visible carousel. Needless to say, fairs have definitely changed a bit. There is no cherry pie, you have to pay just to enter, rides cost anywhere from $4 - $6 per child per ride, there are plenty of lemonade stands for $8 a glass and it includes about a cup of sugar per glass and you can't win your child a stuffed animal without laying down at least $10 no matter how good you are at darts. Well at least that's how our county fairs are, maybe some mid-westerners have more of the experience I remember growing up as a kid? Anyone? Regardless of these changes, we did go to the fair last weekend as Princess has been asking since last August, and had a great time. Little man rode a few rides as well. He was a little uncertain, but it definitely was a better experience than previous times.

This was our first ride and it was one of those mini-roller coasters. Princess wanted to ride it herself. We were so impressed, she did great. I am a roller coaster nut, thanks to my mom, so this was a milestone for me too!

This might have been a bit risky on mom and dad's part, but the "big" swing ride was Jimmo's first ride. He was a bit hesitant at first, and then he enjoyed himself. It didn't help that Momma hit his head with the bar when trying to strap him in - ugh.

This ride was rated 2nd favorite for princess

As much as I love rides, I cannot stomach the pirate ship, so Daddy conquered this one for the team.

This was the preferred ride of the fair - she had a blast!

Friday was Jimmo's end of year school party. Miss Terrific Teacher planned a water day for the parents to come and enjoy. We started in the classroom eating popsicles and then went outside to the pool and water table. Jimmo loves the water, so this was a big treat to do this at school. Not all the kids felt the same about baby pools, so I unfortunately couldn't get a group shot but here are a couple.

Here is the Little Man with one of his buddies. (code name - Dora). Dora is a great asset to the class and especially Jimmo because she is verbal and has been helpful for Jimmo with peer play. Jimmo is often paired up with her for activities.

Here he's starting to get too excited. But he certainly did have a great time.

Husband and I realized this year, that only by a few hours, does Jimmo make the cut off for 3 years of preschool rather than only two. Our states cut off is September 30th and he was born on the morning of October 1st. It's always amazing to see how God was working in your life when you had no idea. Even the smallest things have such a big impact. The day Little Man was born, the house we picked when I was pregnant with him, the street we live on, the school we're assigned to - all things we prayed about and we had no idea how great His answers were.

Our school ends this Wednesday and then Jimmo will participate in summer school for 7 weeks starting on July 7th for four hours a day, five days a week. Because he's in the PAC classroom (Preschool Autism Class) they have most success with having less breaks for Autistic children and more of a routine. Although breaks don't necessarily effect Jimmo just yet, we're glad to have more ABA therapy this summer and school lets out at noon which is perfect to go right to the pool! Ahhhh summertime - finally!

National Fragile X Foundation 25th Anniversary and some

I am not prooving myself as a dedicated "blogette" as I continue to play catch-up. One day folks I'll be better at this......stay with me.

Princess is in a spring soccer league. She played last spring which was a good start as she learned the basics and fundamentals of soccer. They basically played one on one for very short intervals and then did drills with a parent. The winter league she participated in was WAY over her skill level, and Husband and I walked out of each game with this blank stare - maybe we should try art? Princess, living up to her blog name, was much more interested in trying to get the other girls (co-ed team) to hold her hand as they ran up and down the field. We, and that means 99% husband, wanted to try again. Not only did he sign her up, but Husband is now coach of the team. At the age of 5, coaching soccer is a little bit like being a cat herder extraordinaire (to quote a fellow blogette). The beginning of the season started off a little like our winter soccer league. Below is Princess (in the red) before the game started as the other kiddos, way down the field, are warming up. She is picking dandelions for her Momma. Can anyone relate with this?

However we have finally had much improvement as we have practiced some drills in the backyard. "Coach" says we're about up to speed. We're both kind of in shock and thought this day would never come. We only have 2 games left and I hope to take some action shots this weekend. Stay tuned!

Husband and I have volunteered ourselves to be the parent contacts of our area of the state for the Fragile X Foundation. We decided to host a spring picnic in order for some local families to get acquainted and hopefully begin a network amongst us. We invited 21 families and 11 came. We were thrilled since it was Memorial Day Weekend. We had a great time and families came from as far 4 hours away. For us, it was great to see some of the teenagers with Fragile X. Such amazing kids and their parents. Here is a picture of most of the families from the party. We missed a few that had to leave early including Jimmo's Miss Terrific Teacher. We were so excited that she could make it.

Today is the 25th Anniversary of the Fragile X Foundation. As I mentioned above, we are parent contacts and Husband also serves on the Public Policy Board for the Foundation. This is the group that hosts the Conference that we went to last summer in St. Louis and the one next summer in Detroit. We've learned so much from them and are so glad we have the Foundation as a resource. Today they launched a 10 minute video featuring the founder who is also one of the Top Doctors and her husband who leads in research. (Don't forget to pause the music off - bottom of the page before watching) You can also view it here...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMMY8WYuIMY

And finally, here is a picture of our little guy who I busted climbing onto the water table and drinking some of it (yuck). This might sound odd to those of you with busy little toddler boys, but I actually find pure joy in Jimmo getting into mischief. He doesn't do it much and on these seldom occurences, it makes us laugh. Who knows how much rain water he drank on this occassion but the fact that he got dirty and messy...just makes a momma proud!

Leaps and Bounds....sniff sniff

Every Sunday evening during the school year, Princess heads off to AWANA's. It's a wonderful program where she experiences bible stories, music, games and they begin verse memorization. She started as a Cubbie 2 years ago, and it's now time to graduate to Sparks. Or as she calls it "Sparkies". They had a little end of year ceremony and I'm not sure what happened to Momma but I got a little choked up with my Cubbie moving on. Husband thinks we're in big trouble if I'm having troubles with processing Cubbie graduation. But here are a few pictures from her big night.

Getting her final award. They earn patches all year long
and this is a ribbon for completing all Cubbie requirements.

Cubbie Bear came to visit

Princess enjoys Mother's Day, I think more than me at this age. She started making plans with Husband about a month ago. I think I've created a Holiday Monster! The day after Mother's Day she asked me what the next holiday is to celebrate. We'll deal with the counseling for that later. So for Mother's Day we have a little tradition of breakfast in bed, which is always well received. This year Husband included a portion for Princess so she doesn't eat all of my breakfast. (he's so smart) After church we went on a picnic. We usually go to a lovely park a few towns over that is filled with every flower imaginable, however I decided this year to embrace the kiddosat this age and go to the park they would enjoy the most, the train park. We had a lovely time and Jimmo especially enjoyed the train.

This video is a little fuzzy but I felt it was worth sharing. This is one of Jimmo's favorite activities with his sister. They have a few silly games they play and hopefully more as he understands more. (pause the music below)

Leaving the picnic area to visit the train

Many of you both local and visitors, have enjoyed this train. Jimmo is getting at the age where he comprehends what a train is, so I think this trip was a bit of a surprise for him that we were riding one. He's probably been on this train at least 20 times before.

Loading on to the train, he's taking everything in still

Our excitement level when the train whistled and took off

Princess riding the carousal while we waited for the train

And this is the kids and I in the hammock while Daddy did the dishes from dinner. Perfect day!

Yesterday was Kindergarten orientation for Princess. Another leap I don't think I'm ready for. But I guess WE have an entire summer to prepare for this. It was a fun afternoon and now she has a visual of her Kindergarten class to think about over these next few summer months. Are any decisions ever easy with parenthood? Well maybe a couple......Should we go get some ice cream? and Should we go to the pool today?

2 Busy Weeks

Another catch up blog :0) AKA - photo dump.

We had a lovely Easter this year. Small smoke out in the kitchen when the ham marinade spilled, but we all survived and so did the food. Princess and I made a craft this year to remember how our Lord died on the cross for us. It was a bit more complicated then necessary (shocker) but it turned out to be something we can keep for years to come. Our Pappy came down to visit. The D's and Uncle Muscles also came over.

A few shots right after church before the children got to disheveled.

After dinner we went out to find the 100 plus eggs that husband hid for the kids. They had a blast. It was a bit muddy so we opted for rain boots with Easter dresses - trend setters!

I wonder if this picture captures their personalities in 10 years!

And we ended the beautiful day with some lamb cake. Hmmm - we'll try again next year.

We had an opportunity arise to visit our cousins (and Aunt B and Uncle J). We knew all week we were going but waited until the evening before we left to tell princess so she didn't stone us for the week with her excitement. Such cruel parents we are. But boy did we have fun! Just a few shots to share. Cousin M and Princess were quite silly together...

Cousin L sure did know how to make Jimmo laugh. Here is a quick snippet of some giggles. Not sure why it's fuzzy, and unfortunately this time I can't blame my camera man.

Daddy walking the rock line with JimmoAnd we ended the evening with a cousin talent show. It was one of their best yet!

Yesterday we decided to take a field trip to the ER. Jimmo took a tumble in the classroom and some how managed to land on top of his sippy cup. Needless to say, the sippy cup won this battle. I was thankfully in the gym of the school when it happened so I got to the nurses office quickly. Poor little guy was quite beaten up and more than a little upset. But luckily, the laceration above his eyelid was at just the right spot where it would heal best on it's own and no stitches required. They also checked his eyeball to make sure there was no damage (took 5 of us to hold him still). During some down time as he watched TV I was able to snag a quick hospital picture on my phone. The results.....he looks like he was struck in the face with a baseball bat but...all is well! Until we learn how to throw those hands out to break our falls, I have a feeling I might be blogging about ER trips more than I would like.

And we'll end with our race today. Jimmo's school had a race for Autism this morning. Dad did the 5K with J and Uncle Muscles. Jimmo, Princess and SG did the Kids Dash. Everyone had a blast - even the wounded!

And they're off! (Uncle Muscles is behind them and peeled away during the race)

Yea Daddy's!!!

A good close up shot...well at least the goose egg and the new wounds are all on the same side! Thanks Pappy for pushing me all morning on the swing!

Competitive Egg Rolls

Each year we participate in our communities annual egg roll. It literally is over within 20 seconds but for some reason we go back each year. Princess lined up in the category of 4-6 year old. Husband and her discussed strategy the whole way over and rehearsed again while standing on the starting line.

Waiting patiently for the start

It's so competitive that you would think a gunshot would kick off the race but instead a woman just yells "go". And about 50 kids go running into a small field to hopefully retrieve at least one egg.

Here we are about to pass the little boy we stood in line with - go Princess go!

Husbands strategy worked as she collected about 5 eggs with random melted candies that have peanuts in them. Oh the joys! But she did better then last year and felt good about a successful egg hunt. My heart always weeps for the little one's who didn't hear the word "go" or got a little shy and decided to wait till the big kids started running. Tears and egg rolls don't mix. Little man enjoyed running around in a large open field. He was testing us to see how far he could get. Afterwards we sat down to look at our eggs and Jimmo enjoyed his bucket.

No eggs, no problem!

But speaking of eggs, he might not have gotten any at the Easter Egg Roll, but he certainly got one last night - a goose egg that is! Happy Easter - just in time for pictures!

I had literally just gotten off the phone with Aunt B and I heard a thump. It wasn't an alarming sound of a thump. More the kind that you freeze and listen to see if there is going to be a cry or not. There was definitely a cry, a very sad cry. In the hall sat little man and it appeared that he walked right into the door. Door meet Jimmo, Jimmo meet door. I had heard about these goose eggs before but have never seen one in action. Within seconds I watched it grow on his forehead. I was panicked it wasn't going to stop growing but it finally did. Attempting ice on his head was like catching a slimy frog in a pond, but I did my best. One day down of spring break and we already have a battle wound - yikes!

Cherry Blossoms Are Here

As I've shared in earlier posts, since Jimmo is in school and Princess is still home with me for this last year, we schedule some fun time together on Fridays. We call it - Field Trip Friday. So with the cherry blossoms in bloom, we decided to take advantage of this beautiful site. I was delightfully surprised at her interest in them . They are truly breathtaking how they drape over the paths and almost into the Tidal Basin. It was a bit foggy, cold and damp, but here is a shot where you can kind of see how they cascade into the water.

We did a cherry blossom tour with a National Park Tour Ranger. I'm not sure about all of you, but I always thought the trees were given to us as a peace offering after WWII. With that said, I've definitely revealed how much I did not pay attention in my high school history classes. So I thought I would give a quick background on the Cherry Blossoms for those of you who wrote notes to your friends during history class like I did.

• 1909 - A visiting Japanese dignitary offered a donation of 2,000 trees to First Lady Taft who was working on a beautification program in the District. The initial trees given were actually infested with disease and needed to be burned. The same dignitary offered another 3,020 trees to replace them a few years later.


• 1935 - The cherry trees were thriving and the First Cherry Blossom Festival was held.


• 1938 - A group of women chained themselves to the cherry trees in an effort to save them during the construction of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.


• 1952 - The parent stock of D.C.'s first cherry trees were destroyed during WWII. United States National Park services sent budwood from descendants of US trees back to Tokyo in hopes of restoring their original site. (WWII was from 1939 - 1945)


• 1954 - The Japanese ambassador presented the US with a 300 year old Japanese Lantern. This is on the cherry blossom walk at the Tidal Basin.


• 1965 - Japanese Government sent another 3,800 trees to Lady Bird Johnson for planting.


• 1982 - The US sent 800 cuttings from the Tidal Basin trees to Japan to replace trees that perished in a flood.


• 1999 - 50 trees are propagated from the 1400+ old tree growing in the Itasho Neo village in Japan as a gift to the US.

So rather than a peace offering it's actually a gift giving cycle with Japan and the US that continues even today. The trees are considered a symbol of friendship between the two countries.

We also learned a lot about the maturation of these trees. This was what Princess was interested in the most. It was quite fascinating to see and hear the process. This is Princess in a Magnolia tree (saucer Magnolia to be exact). You're obviously not allowed to sit in the Cherry Blossom trees.

And then we also went to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Her first comment was - "That's a very big man, Momma".

So after a few hours we were very cold and hungry. So much for the picnic lunch I packed for the sunny 68 degrees weather we were supposed to have. So I offered her some hot chocolate at Starbucks and she said she wanted a Cheeseburger. Interesting choice....so off to Johnny Rockets we went. A cheeseburger and milkshake can always make you warm inside!

So if anyone wants to visit next year for the Cherry Blossom festival - we are well equipped to give a tour! More on Jimmo soon.

Bring on the Madness

Folks, it's 15 minutes till tip off of the Sweet Sixteen game. Syracuse is in the house and our family is ready. We've worn the appropriate gear all day, we drank Sunkist and orange Gatorade and we ate Syracuse pizza. Go Orange!!!