Happy 8th Birthday, Jarren!!!

(Jarren in an Aragorn costume he's been wanting)

Jarren turned 8 yesterday and we had quite the busy day. First of all, he had to do his least favorite thing--go to school. I'm a "mean" mom and don't let my kids miss school for their birthday. He had a walking field trip and it was early out day, so it wasn't too bad, right??

I am also a "mean" mom and don't do birthday parties every year for my kids--or even every other year. I think every 4 years is good. We do family things and other fun things on the "off" years. Sometimes they get to invite one good friend over for the family fun. Luckily for me (yes, I'm kinda being sarcastic), it was a party year for both Jarren and Jenna, which meant two parties in a month. Jarren has a tricky birthday--for 4 years, it will be during Memorial weekend. Then he'll have 3 years off. Well...yesterday was kind of the beginning of the long weekend. And he wanted his birthday party right on his actual birthday. We had it in the late afternoon. Jon has been reading him Lord of the Rings at bedtime for months now, so he wanted a Lord of the Rings party. It was a fun, fun party. We played Squirt while we waited for everyone to come. You pick a topic (like farm animals) and go around the circle. Each person has to say a farm animal and if they can't name one or name one that's already been said, they get a little squirt in the face. Then we played parcel pass. I wrapped a present about 10 times with different wrapping paper. Then I played a Lord of the Rings song while they passed the parcel around the circle. When the music stopped, the person holding it had to unwrap a layer and there was a note telling them something to do (10 jumping jacks, sing Happy Birthday in opera, etc). The last one had a note saying to open the box and he got a small gift. Jon took the day off and made a fun obstacle course for them to do. At the end, they each got a bow and arrow set. We practiced shooting those and then some Orcs came out!!! Two of the boys were pretty scared. They had a battle and won! The Orcs were Kendall and two of his buddies. After that, we dug in the sandbox to find the ring. I had one for each of them, but apparently hid them too well. After 10 minutes of digging, we only found 4. Then it was pinata time!! After that, gifts, cake and ice cream. I try to be very accommodating to make a fun cake for my kids, but Jarren informed me a few days ago, "I just want a plain rectangle one. I'm getting too old to have something fancy." Huh?? I almost hurt my feelings... He also wasn't too excited for his birthday, telling me that "birthdays just aren't as much fun when you get older." Huh, again??? Since when is 8 old? Jon, Kendall, Jarren, and three of Kendall's friends were going to go camping, so we had to hurry and do our traditional balloon present hunt and get them loaded up and gone. Jarren got some fun things. I hope he'll enjoy them for a long time! Happy Birthday!!!

D.A.R.E. Graduation

Kristen had her D.A.R.E. graduation today (Drug Abuse Resistance Education). They do a 15 week course, taught by a police officer, and educate the kids about drugs. At the end of the course, they have to write an essay and they choose 1 girl and 1 boy from each 5th grade class to read their essay at the graduation. Kristen's was chosen. And that's a BAD thing. She was a nervous wreck and tried to get out of going to school this morning by: throwing a tantrum, crying rivers of tears, hiding in her room and locking her door, refusing to get dressed, etc. She was an hour late for school--after me resorting to threats of: dragging her there in her pajamas, taking her itouch away, grounding her for the rest of her life, and even moving to Texas. We both finally calmed down and she went. She was really, really nervous, but she did a fantastic job!!Reading her essay.

Receiving her certificate.

The whole 5th grade singing their song. Kristen is in the front row (the shortest one towards the middle).

Me, being the perfect mother that I am (NOT)--I was almost in tears because I missed Kendall's D.A.R.E. graduation and he had to speak at his too. I was sick and after I dropped Jarren off at Kindergarten, Jenna and I fell asleep and took a little nap. He came home and was pretty upset that I missed it and I felt like a real winner. I got a little teary, thinking of Kendall getting up there with no family support. I STILL feel bad about that and every once in awhile he'll say something about it, jokingly, but I start in on myself. Hopefully he'll never be a druggie, not ever thinking that it's okay because his mom didn't think it was important enough to come to his graduation... :)

Fungus Update

I guess I should update about Jenna's head fungus. It's been 4 weeks and 1 day since she started the medication. Her head is doing better, but it's not better yet. It doesn't stink as much and isn't spreading, but we discovered that it had taken over quite a bit of her head. When the sores get better, they fall off--and take her hair with them!! She's got some bald patches. I read online that in severe, untreated cases, the baldness can be permanent. Hopefully 2 1/2 weeks didn't let it get that severe.

Last Sunday (Mother's Day), Jarren said his head was itchy. I scrounged around in his hair and found a couple of spots that looked like Jenna's did when they started. She had made a hat in preschool and he put it on to tease her and I guess that's all it took. I got him in to the doctor 2 days later and he gave me a strong, medication (prescription) shampoo. I used that twice and it's completely gone. The doctor told me to use it on Jenna now and it helps, but it's still not better.

What makes me so mad is that if I would have pushed harder to get her seen or if the first dermatologist would have listened to me and tried to get her in sooner, maybe it wouldn't be as bad as it is and it would be gone. Oh well. Jenna sure is a trooper about it all and is really careful not to spread it around.

No Longer a Preschooler....

Jenna graduated from preschool yesterday. I don't know why, but I'm having a hard time with it. She really is a school-aged child now. This year has flown by soooo fast!!! Seriously. She's so ready to move on--but I'm not.

I feel terrible. I walked into the graduation and they started showing a slideshow and kept turning the lights off, so I couldn't let her know I was there. Then they started. Jon barely made it in time and we were sitting in the back, so I could stand up to film it, and she never saw us.....

It was a cute program and she was in such a great mood!She's standing on the platform after receiving her "diploma."Jenna and her friend, Alexia. I have no idea if they'll even go to elementary school together.Jenna and her teacher, Mr. Nick. He was her buddy for graduation and one of two male teachers. She actually kinda has a crush on the other boy teacher and refused to ask for a picture with him--she was "too shy and nervous."Jenna and her favorite female teacher, Miss Kate. She had her dad bring a REAL horse for the kids to pet and sit on for Farm Week. Jenna wants to be a cowgirl just like her when she grows up.

Happy 5th Birthday, Jenna!!

Jenna turned 5 on May 1. Yes, I'm slow getting this posted. I couldn't find our camera cord and then when I did, it said the computer was too full and couldn't load the pictures. We got that all taken care of, by deleting very old and unneeded files and defraging. :)

Anyway...Jenna got a friend party this year. We did it the day before and invited just a couple of kids her age. She was very insistent on having a dinosaur party. We dug for plastic dinosaurs in the sandbox--in a snowstorm, hit a pterodactyl pinata--in the snow, played "Dino May I?," colored dinosaur pictures, hatched dino "eggs" (balloons), and "Don't Wake the Dinosaur." I tried to do a game to open presents--kind of like musical chairs and when the music stops, she opens whichever present she was holding, but that didn't work too well. They had dino cupcakes at the end.On Sunday morning, Jon and Kendall had to do fast offerings and Kendall had a deacon's meeting, so she got to open a couple of things and had to wait to do the rest until later. We did the balloon scavenger hunt again. :) After church, Jon's brother, sister-in-law, and twin 10 month old nieces came over for a turkey dinner with all the trimmings (her choice) and cake and ice cream. She had a terrific day!! The highlight gifts were: squinkies, little pet shops, and the characters from Tangled--Pascal (the chameleon), Rapunzel, Flynn Rider, and Maximus (the horse and her favorite). She LOVES being 5!!!