Field Trip

Caroline's school went on a field trip to the zoo today. It got off to a bit of a rocky start. As we pull into the parking lot one of the girls in my van pukes everywhere...inside the car. Meanwhile, another little girl had a bathroom accident in another car. I had an extra pair of Caroline's pants so she got changed. We enter the zoo.

One of the mothers is friends with a guy that works at the zoo. He was our personal tour guide for the day. This is Mr. Scott. He was full of good info and friends with a lot of the zookeepers. We got a couple of special presentations.
We headed straight to the elephant exhibit. The zookeepers were going to do a special show for us. Here are all of the children lined up and waiting.

One of Caroline's little friends, Brigid, is always sucking her thumb and rubbing on someone's ear. I have never seen her do it to Caroline before.

The next thing I know Caroline puts her finger in her mouth and starts to rub on Brigid's ear. It was really funny.

The elephants are doing their show and I hear something behind me fall. A lady and her grandson had joined the group. She had picked her grandson up and did not realize she was standing by a step. She fell and hit her head on a rock. She ended up having to go to the hospital for stitches. All of this was within the first 30 minutes of our trip. At this point I felt like we should just get back in the van and go home!

We make it to lunchtime. Caroline's spoon blew away so she drank her applesauce. That is how she prefers to eat it anyway!

Here are all 12 kids in front of the penguins. Caroline is 2nd from the left.

At the petting zoo

The end to an eventful day!

All of the kids were out cold by the time we returned to the school. That is the sign of a good day!

Piano

We are finally getting some things fixed and repaired around our house. On that list was our piano. We had a key that was sticking, and it was causing Kayla some problems during her lessons. We called the repair man. We were a little worried when he told us we were going to have to replace the entire keyboard. However, this is a problem Yamaha has been having and they are replacing them free of charge. That includes labor. Yippee!!

I could not be home this morning when he came so I had my dad take some pictures for me.

Here is our key that sticks.
Out with the old...

In with the new...
It seems to be working perfectly. It is so nice to get these things taken care of.

A Busy Day

Part 1.

The day started with us dropping Caroline off at my dad's while the rest of us headed to Tulsa. Kayla participated on the OMTA District Achievement Auditions for piano today. This took place on the campus of Oral Roberts University. Kayla had to have her picture taken in front of the hands.


If you look really close you can see her standing at the base of the hands!

This is Kayla right before she played. She was not nervous until we got there. It worked out really well that her teacher was working at one of the rooms next to the room Kayla was going to play in. She was able to give her some last minute words of encouragement.


After she played her piece, she came out into the room where we were waiting. All she said was "I tried my best not to just run out of the room when I finished." It took a few minutes to get the score. Here are the comments her judge made: (my scanner is not working)

"Very musical performance - Thanks! With fine attention to all details of the musical score. Thanks too for being a good counter. You have made excellent progress for only 6 months of study - Good for you! Please continue to practice carefully to develop your fine musical talents.
Rating: 1+ "

We are really proud of her. She will play in the state audition in Oklahoma City in May. This is a very relieved little girl because it is finally over!





We took our starving child to IHOP for a healthy chocolate chip pancake breakfast. It was so sweet and sickening that even Kayla could not finish it!




Part 2.

Andy went to work for the afternoon. The girls and I headed to the park on a VERY windy afternoon. They had a great time playing, running, climbing, and swinging.



Part 3.

Last night I decided to take the binkies away from Caroline. We talked all day about her going to bed like a big girl with no binkies. She went along with it all day. That night she cried in her bed, but it was for a book or a stuffed animal. Never for the binky. She was finally quiet. We were so glad she went to sleep without too much trouble. Meanwhile, we can't get Kayla to stay in her room and go to bed. We kept hearing footsteps. I thought Kayla was hiding from us. But standing in the dark kitchen by the back door was little Miss Caroline. We asked her if Kayla got her out of bed. Her response was "No." So we asked her how she got out of bed. She said "Me. I put my leg over." She finally went to sleep in her crib, but only until 5:30 this morning. During nap time she climbed out of her bed again. She never went to sleep. I needed a nap from being up that early! So...in comes the toddler bed. My friend Robyn gave us one several years ago. It has been in the storage shed until today. Caroline was very excited. But if you ask Andy, she was not that excited about actually sleeping in it.

This was Caroline at 7:30 tonight when I was leaving the house. She is so cute in her new bed reading her book. Thing are looking good.
I had to leave, so Andy got to get her to sleep in her big girl bed. It took about 1.5 hours, but this is what I found when I got home. She is getting so big!

She looks so sweet. Surely she did not give her daddy any trouble...

Flash back

My dad emailed this picture to Kayla today. He came across it when he was looking for something else. I was 8 and missing my front teeth. Kayla got a kick out of it.

BTW - Kayla told Andy that she had the best day at school today. She feels pretty special with that little hole in her mouth. I am really happy for her!

The Difference a Day Can Make

Kayla before...




And Kayla after...

She finally did it. She lost her first tooth. This child has waited a really long time for this day. She came running in my room this morning yelling "I lost it! I lost it! I pulled my tooth!" I am very excited for her. I sure hope the tooth fairy comes through for her! But now it is official - my baby really is growing up.

Happy Valenine's Day

Kayla's class had their Valentine's party on Friday. What a fun time for the kids! Lots of candy, cookies, cupcakes, pizza and sprite. Not to mention no learning for an hour!

Her class also had the annual "Concert for Kindness" (aka 1st grade karaoke). Kayla did not sing this time, but her best friend Libby did. Her mom could not make it to the party, so this is for her...What a ham!

Let's Go Fly A Kite...

We had perfect kite flying weather today. Kayla and Andy got her kite all set up and she started it flying. She was doing a fantastic job. She had it really high for a long time.

We just commented on how nice it was to be on the corner lot with no trees. We did not take into consideration the trees across the street...

Kayla really wanted to try to climb the tree to get it down. Mean old mommy said NO.

We found yet another great use for Papaw's hat rack that he made for Andy. With a little help from the neighbor the kite was rescued from the tree. It will one day fly again!