Happy Birthday Faith!

My baby girl is 6 today!!!

She had her volleyball game this morning where she was the star--11 points in their 3 matches which was the highest on the team (and she's the youngest and smallest).

Then we got her Dave at the airport, went out to dinner and opened piles of gifts.

Tomorrow is her Strawberry Shortcake birthday extravaganza.

The Crud

We're all sick.

Shaun had it last week.

Ben was so sick on Sunday/Monday that he stayed home from school.

Faith was so sick on Wednesday that *she* stayed home from school. She also threw up in my mom's bed this morning (side note: at least it wasn't mine).

I may be better, I finally feel functional again. I did go to school yesterday but came home and went immediately to bed.

Let's just hope we all get better in the next day or two, Faith's birthday is Saturday.

Updates on Us

Since I haven't posted in a week or so, I figured an update post was in order.

Faith is loving school, she's gotten several 100s already to bill her grandfathers for and the lowest grade I have seen on anything is a 96! She also loves volleyball and is getting better at serving. In today's game, she was even able to return a serve! If you've never seen 6 year olds play volleyball before, there is a reason why they serve 3 times and the other team gets a turn. *No one* returns the ball or volleys it. It's good if they don't duck when it comes over. ;o) She is also working on her Great American Novel--The Book About Me by Faith. Last I saw, she was 12 pages in.

Ben is not-so-much loving school. He likes it OK; when he comes to me at the end of the day, he is happy & excited about it. However, he argues with Shaun in the mornings how he doesn't want to go. Apparently, there are too many girls in his class, so he will go to Mommy's school instead. When Shaun told him he couldn't, Ben announced that he would just go to Faith's class. That plan was foiled too. He has had a bit of a rough adjustment to it all, but it seems to be getting a little better. He is back to being happy to go to church again which was the other problem. He has decided he is going to play volleyball too, but they do not have 3 year old leagues. ;o) In the rest of his time, he is quite content with using my couch as a trampoline and playing sushi bar.

I'm liking my fourth graders and really enjoying teaching again. I'm tired but otherwise good. Faith & I did a 5K on the 13th together and I'm looking at a couple more in October. I signed up for softball again too and my goal is not to break any hand bones this season. Other than that, I'm dull.

Shaun is Shaun--he works, plays softball with me & ran the 5K with us too.

I need to start updating again, I'm sure I've missed a bunch of stuff in the last 9 days or so.

Faith's Early Birthday Surprise

Today was Faith's early birthday surprise! It had to be today because there wasn't an option closer to her birthday.

We left our house around 4pm and headed to Fort Worth. We met up with friends of ours at Reata's in Sundance Square. Faith had no clue what was going on and kept asking where her surprise was.

Our friend told her that it was "dinner an hour and a half away with people you don't know." Faith promptly told her that wasn't really a surprise.

Anyhow, we ate (yummy food) and Faith got dessert tacos with a candle in them.

Then we walked across the street to Bass Performance Hall when Faith finally clued in on her surprise--

Mamma Mia live on stage!!!

This has been her "dream" for several years now. Shaun & I saw it in Dallas a few years back and she was mad then that we didn't take her. It hasn't been back in DFW since, so once Faith found out that it shows in Vegas, she has asked us repeatedly to take her to Vegas to see it. Well, Fort Worth is a much closer & cheaper option than Vegas, so we got center seats about 8 rows back for her.

She loved it! She was singing the whole show with the cast and we got her a cute Mamma Mia shirt that she loves. It is now her favorite musical that she has seen. It already was a favorite, but she keeps rearranging the ones she has seen in order. Footloose (a local production that my friend Heather was in) is #2, then Hairspray is #3. She's also seen Wicked, Lion King, Beauty & the Beast, Fantastiks and Damn Yankees. I regret not taking her to Cats, so I may try & remedy that when it is in Fort Worth next spring.

My volleyball girl

Prior to finding Ben's long lost twin at SuperTarget, we spent our morning at Faith's very first volleyball tournament. Our girls won one game and lost the other three. However, they managed to hold their own, considering they had never actually played volleyball before last week.

In all truthfulness, if we had one kid who could serve the ball over the net with some consistency, we very well might have won the other games. The difference I saw between our girls and the other teams was they had one or two players (out of ten) who could definitely serve the ball over the net. Our girls are a bit hit or miss in that category.

However, they had a blast and they are the very youngest level that can play. They'll be playing together for years to come, so it was a great start to that. And the snacks Audrey brought were the best part for the kids. :o)

Target Stole My Kid!!!

F&B and I were just at Super Target to get a few groceries. We were walking back to get milk when Faith points at an advertisement and says "That kind of looks like Ben."

Kind of was an understatement, so I had to take a picture:



TwinBen is advertising organic foods. I think I need a royalty check for this one--how many Filipino/Chamorro/Canadian kids can there possibly be out there??? ;o)

Ben Starts Preschool

The boy's big day was today, his first day of preschool. He is going to the preschool/MDO next door to the school I teach at and Faith attends. Basically, it's putting him across the parking lot from us. Later start time (Shaun will take him), just about the same dismissal time (my friend Jen will bring him over to our school for me), and an all around good scenario.

I have been a little worried though, Ben isn't Faith and he wasn't quite sold on the idea of school. Add to it a number of different babysitters in the last few weeks and he has been having some major separation anxiety.

Our assistant director came to sit with my kids for a few minutes so I could go take him in for his first day. We walked up to his room, took a few pictures, convinced him to sit down and play, and we left without tears on anyone's part (mine or his, because if he had cried, I probably would have too).

After school, just as I was getting my kids over to the carpool lines, Jen walked up with Ben & Samuel. Ben came running to me quite excited. He told me they painted and ate and that he will go back, yay!!!! He said they laid down to rest but he didn't sleep (I am not sure about this, he didn't seem tired which would indicate that he did nap) and he ate everything in his bento for lunch. And, he wants to go back. That bore repeating a second time.

Pointing up the stairs to show Daddy where to go


Goofy boy with his backpack on


Climbing the stairs with Daddy


Putting his backpack into his basket


A rare picture with Mommy (I'm usually behind the camera)


Sitting down to play with a Mickey puzzle during table activities

Love my boy!

We were at Stonebriar today and decided to do a little shopping for Mr. Ben.

At the Cowboys' game, the other night, we had wanted to get him a jersey. They were limited on sizes and we didn't want to walk down to the main level to look for others. As well, the prices at the game are usually outrageous. Our plan was to shop locally instead and see what we found.

We walked over to the Cowboys' store at the mall and found the jerseys in his size. We tried on a few--3T, 4T, 4small and realized that the 4 Small afforded the most amount of room. We found Barber & Romo and decided on Romo. We tried it on him one last time to make sure it fit, then I asked him "how do you cheer?"

He looked right at me and said:

GO BUFFALO!!!

I love that kid!!!!!!!!!!!!