100 day celebration

January 31, 2013- The 100th day of school is kind of a big deal in kindergarten in Harper.  I'm not sure how much the other grades celebrate it but it is pretty much a party all day long for the kinder kids.  

One of the things they do is go out to the football field to form a human 100.  I was there to photograph it and all was going well until Brazos decided he needed to pee.  We were at the top of the bleachers in the stadium and the nearest unlocked restroom was a half mile away.  So I did what any desperate mom at the end of her potty training rope would do...I took him around the corner of the press box and let him pee off the edge.  He was thrilled, I got to take the pictures and no one even noticed.  At least I don't think they did.  There may be security camera video footage of it floating out on the Internet somewhere.

I volunteered with a couple of other moms to pick up 100 helium filled balloons for release on the football field.  The weather was simply beautiful...until the exact moment we had to unload the balloons out of our SUVs and take them to the football field to meet the kiddos.  That's precisely when the wind started to gust at 30mph.  The strings were tangled, kids couldn't hold onto the balloons and we could barely hear the teacher's instructions on when to start counting to 100 leading up to the big release.  

 We managed to get them released in a semi-orderly fashion.  Some of the kids were very upset that the balloons were gone and wanted to chase them down.

After all that excitement it was back to the school building for a snack of sugar cookies and juice, just what they needed after all that excitement!  

One more picture with his 100 day project, then it was off to the playground and wouldn't you know it, there wasn't a breath of wind!

100 days of kindergarten

January 31, 2013- We made it to 100 days of kindergarten!  For his 100 day project Pecos wanted to do leather stamping.  He really does enjoy leather stamping but it is most likely the time spent with dad that he likes the best.

Since we knew Casey would be gone the week before and during the 100 day celebration they worked on this at about day 85!

The process went something like this:
Pecos selected a leather stamp very carefully.  Casey held it in position.  Pecos gave it a whack with his mallet {sometimes hitting Casey's knuckle instead of the stamp}.  Casey checked to make sure it made the desired impression and gave it another few taps if it didn't.  Repeat 99 more times.

Toward the end of the project they ran out of stamps and Pecos just did not want to repeat one so they had to come up with ideas of designs to make with the stamps they had.

Casey cut it out for him and tied the leather lacing so he could easily display it at school.

There you have it ~ a rather involved but very unique 100 day project complete.

{dis} r-e-s-p-e-c-t

January 2013- Pecos is having a bit of a struggle with boredom at school.  I knew this would be an issue by taking a red shirt year of kindergarten.  I know he feels like it is the same ol' thing and he already knows everything.  But boredom shall not lead to disrespectful behavior...at least that's what I'd like.  We are still 100% sure that keeping Pecos back because of his age was the right thing to do, we just have to figure out a way to make it to the end of the school year without boredom translating to bad behavior in class.

Today he didn't want to play alphabet bingo.  I'm still not sure exactly what happened because I haven't had a chance to visit with his teacher but Pecos is honest with me for the most part with what goes on at school.  Apparently he didn't care to play the game so his teacher asked if he'd rather go sit in the principal's office instead...and he said yes so that's what he did.  But he says he wasn't in trouble, he just wanted to go there rather than play bingo.

We had a talk about respect and that even though he may not want to do whatever it is his teacher is asking him to do he still needs to respect her and do what she says.  And do it nicely without being sassy.  I told him Mrs. Randle has a hard job teaching so many kids and he needs to help her by listening and behaving.  He agreed.  He also agreed that it may have hurt her feelings when he didn't obey and that maybe he should write her a note to make her feel better.

horsin' around

January 2013- 

"Sit tall in the saddle, Hold your head up high,

Keep your eyes fixed where the trail meets the sky,And live like you ain't afraid to die,And don't be scared, just enjoy your ride."

from a Chris LeDoux song, The Ride (written by Sony Tillis and Sam Weedman)

Brazos and Widow Maker

Pecos with Chief

Pecos on Pepper

progress report

January 2013- For those that have been following along in the saga which is potty training Brazos we have some progress to report.

Yes, this is my youngest child with his bottom in a feed bucket.  Now, before you go criticizing my methods or turning me into the authorities let me share with you the backstory to this happening.

For quite sometime I've been requesting that the nightly bedtime story Casey tells the boys must end with the main fictional character ~ Boudreaux~ pooping in the potty.  I really don't care what Boudreaux does during the story, as long as he poops in the potty at some point.  As you can imagine after several weeks of this Casey was tired of telling stories with such a predictable ending and Pecos was tired of having to hear them for the benefit of Brazos.  As for Brazos, he really could care less one way or the other and it really wasn't making an impact on potty training but I still insisted.  To change things up a bit Casey told a story that Boudreaux was outside and there was no potty so he had to poop in a bucket.  Not a big deal really, until you flash forward a few weeks.

So there we were, down at the horse barn.  Chief was tied up to the rail and Pecos was brushing him.  Brazos had made a few laps around the pasture with Widow Maker in tow and she was now tied up to the ATV and he was off collecting rocks and sticks.  Low and behold he had to poop and he actually told me!  See, I told you we've made progress.  I knew there was zero chance I could get the horses untied and up to the house in time for Brazos to make it to the potty and I really didn't want him going in his pull-up.  Can you imagine me taking off up the hill with poor Widow Maker racing alongside?

Since I had an empty feed bucket handy I told Brazos he'd have to go in the bucket.  When he seemed a bit shocked at my reply I simply told him he'd have to poop in the bucket just like Boudreaux.  Wow, that made sense to him!  {See, those seemingly endless stories came in handy!}

Oh, it wasn't as simple as that....he really didn't want to.  First he squatted on it and then said he was done without making a deposit.  At that point I knew it was only a matter of time before he would say he needed to go again.  So I started gathering our things and letting the horses go.  But I wasn't fast enough and he had to go again.  This time the Miralax was too much for him to hold off and he really did go in the bucket.

Don't believe me?  Just watch for yourself:

Now, would anyone like some special candy made by Brazos?!