Avery can spell her name!!

I am about to start teaching Avery how to write her name, but I thought first she may want to know how to spell it. It only took a few minutes and she had it! I don't know how long she'll retain it, I guess we will have to work on it frequently to keep it fresh. Here she is:

Benjamin's first school project

In the masses of papers that are sent home with Benjamin from school, I noticed on one that said that their 100th Day of School Project was due on Monday. This was on Friday afternoon after school that I saw this paper for the first time. I tried to call his teacher but she was gone for the day. So I emailed her, but got no response. I just had to fight the urge to hunt her down and ask her "what project" so it wouldn't be late. I finally got an email back early Monday morning saying for him to just turn it in on Tuesday. They don't get real grades yet, so I'm not too worried about it. I won't go into the chaos that went into getting some of the materials, I'll just say that next time he has something like this to do, we'll just start at The School Box and skip Wal-Mart and Target.

The purpose of the project was for the kids to have '100' of some items on a poster board. They needed to be in groups of 10's but besides that, just be creative. I had thought about just getting him some space things and letting him do stars, but I didn't want to decide for him what to do. He got in the car and said "I want to do my project on SPACE!!" So that was easy. We ended up getting the planets and he clustered his stars in 10's. He was so cute, putting them in order according to his other space books. I wish I would have gotten a picture of that as well. While he was working on his, I kept Avery busy by giving her a plain sheet of paper and a sheet of star stickers to put on it. Here are their finished products:

Benjamin's worksheets

Benjamin had a substitute teacher the other day and she gave them busy work to fill the day. I really did like some of it, though:

WHY I'M ME

My name is: Benjamin
My nickname is: Boo
My favorite foods are: pancake
One of the things I like to do best is: minie golf
The members of my family are: mom mommy (I'm so important I count twice!! And I'm the only one!!)
My favorite game is: golf
My hobbies are: Legos
When I grow up I want to be: pleas (police)

And here is what he wrote if he were teacher for the day:
If I were the teacher of the day I would make the kid's work. Then I would let them play.
Benjamin Thomas Sleig

Not bad. The only thing he misspelled was his last name!!!

I asked Avery the same questions to see what she would say. Some of them I had to reword so she could understand what I was asking.

My name is: A ver eeeeee
My nickname is (what do I call you besides Avery?): Katherine
My favorite foods are: hehehehe...peanut butter and jelllllllllly
One of the things I like to do best is: JUMP!!
The members of my family are (who is in your family?): you, Benjamin and daddy
My favorite game is: basketball
My hobbies are (what do you like to play with?): puzzles
When I grow up I want to be: a doctor

This is the first time that I've heard her say that she wants to be a doctor. She usually says "princess" or something like that. Maybe she has higher aspirations than I thought!!

Bugs stink on you!!

Avery and I were just looking at a book called "On Beyond Bugs, All About Insects". It's a Dr. Seuss (post Dr. Seuss, just Cat in the Hat) book talking about the names of different bugs and what they do and such. It's a great series of books, we also have the ones on space and I think one on trees. Anyway, Avery was asking what bees do and I told her about them making honey, and she said "NO!! They STINK on you!!" I think she was trying to get 'they sting you' out, but that is what she is saying. It's too funny. I tried to tell her otherwise, but as anyone who has met Avery knows, you can't convince her of anything.

Benjamin jammed his finger at basketball practice last night. It bruised instantly and we ended up having to leave early because he was making such a big deal out of it. When I told him to get back out and practice (after kissing it and making sure it wasn't really hurt or anything) I had apparently not made a big enough deal out of it because he went to his coaches (one who is 16 and one who is at least 70 something) and tried to evoke some sympathy from them. It was then I just took him home. I told him I had some medicine at home (Tylenol) and it would make it feel a little better. We got home and there was no Tylenol, Motrin...nothing. He started to freak out again saying it hurt him so bad he couldn't stand it (all drama) so I gave him a probotic and told him it was something to make him feel better. Not a total lie, it will make his digestive track feel better. I felt kind of bad about it, but then I saw humor in it because he said that it made him feel so much better. :o)

Avery is still wearing out the trampoline we got her before Christmas. I don't think I ever posted pictures of her jumping on it, but if so I am doing it again. This has been the best $50 we have ever spent. She will jump on that thing until she is out of breath and has to lay down. It really helps during these days when it is just too cold to take them to a playground. Benjamin did convince me yesterday to take them to McDonald's to play, but it was so crowded since school was out and I just couldn't take much of it. Hopefully the weather will warm back up soon and we can get back outside.

Avery is now in her princess dress on top of her pajamas and wearing all sorts of accessories. I just heard her tell whoever she is pretending with that she is a princess, and the other person (Avery in a much higher pitched voice) says, 'if you are really a princess then YOU can dance ballet. Show me!!' Funny.

Benjamin's first, well second, basketball game

His first game was actually last week, but I missed it because I was up in Johnson City helping Amanda with her wedding preparations. He plays Upward Basketball and score isn't technically kept, but Elijah kept track and they have won both of their games. I watched the video of him playing last week and he already has improved his blocking and rebounds. He picks sports up very easily if the sport interests him. Here he is blocking a kid half his size, but just about all the 6 year olds are:

I don't have my old programs on this computer yet because I'm not sure which ones keep causing the computer to crash, so right now I'm not able to edit any pics. It probably doesn't bug anyone but me. Here is Benjamin when he stole the ball and was taking back down to his side of the court. Not much happened, he tripped over his own feet trying to go too fast and the ball went out of bounds:

Here is where he caught a rebound and was on his way down to his side of the court. He actually did a great job controlling the ball, I think he even passed it to another kid on his team:

I got distracted during most of the game by Avery. They have small bleachers set up for the 'fans' and she was climbing all over them (as she always does) and we were telling her (as we always are) to be careful before she falls. Well, this time she fell. She's fine, but made enough of a stink that I had to take her out of the gym for a while. After that she wouldn't get off my hip. This picture of her was actually taken before she fell, she was just upset because they had run out of Chick fil A biscuits before we got there and she was pouting. Elijah was helping her to come up with a smile. She ended up looking like the Joker.

I'm back!!!!

I FINALLY am back online. I am SO excited! Granted I have no pictures to show today, and it may be a while before I do, but I'll get back on track. I had a lot of emails to weed through, but I am finally caught up.
Everything is well here, the kids had a great Christmas despite being sick that night and both of them throwing up and shooting out the other end. (I'm sure everyone misses stuff like that).
I will try to post some pictures later of the kids, right now I still have lots of other things I need to catch up with online, especially other blogs!