Art Class

Also check out my Christmas post....I don't know how to link it or do two posts in one.


Back in October I signed Kade up for an art class in Dallas. It's a class where they work on 3 pieces per semester, which I love. They progressively work on one piece for four weeks. I really don't know where Kade got his talent, b/c all I can draw are stick figures, but he has a magnificent talent and I intend on catering to that and supporting it in any way I can. So..every Saturday we get up and head to University Park for his one hour art class. Mike and I sit in the Starbucks on the corner and eagerly wait for him to finish.

We went to get an estimate on custom framing for his two pieces ( he also did a sculpture) last night and it's unreal what it costs so I decided to just have a custom matte cut and fit it into a larger frame!

Here are his two pieces. One is of a bird b/c they were studying Audubon and the other is a self portrait. I can't wait for the matte to come in so that I can display these on my walls for all to see.




We've signed him up for next semester and I am so excited! He starts back January 8th. Look for more masterpieces to come!

Christmas break so far...

Once again...it's been a while since I've posted.
The Sonogram
The Tuesday before we got out for Winter break, we took Kade with us to my sonogram to find out the sex of the baby. The sonographer didn't realize that we were there to find out the sex and said it might be difficult at 15 1/2 weeks...but she had me move in all sorts of directions and didn't give up. After about 20 minutes she was able to get a picture of his bottom and in between was what she was looking for....100% boy! All of my friends and co-workers were convinced that it was a girl, but Kade wasn't. I was even surprised. On the way to the doctor I asked Kade what he would do if this baby was a girl and he said, "i'll deal with it." I was cracking up! Our sweet boy is set to arrive on or before June 3rd. His name will be Krew Gentry. About five years ago I met someone with a little boy named Krew and I have kept it in my vault since then! Gentry is my maiden name and my parents are thrilled that we've decided to use it as his middle name. I've found the bedding I want and I've have gone through all of Kade's clothes and separated them by size. I think I am only going to need 0-6 months! I have about 7 tubs full of clothes up to size 6. This poor guy will have hand me downs for most of his early childhood...he'll never know the difference though!

Kade's 6 year check up

I always take Kade to his yearly appointments in December so that we don't miss school. Here are some of his stats:

20/25 Vision (thank goodness he doesn't have the same vision I have!)
65 pounds
48 1/2 inches tall

I have a tall, SOLID, kid! My doctor always gets on to me about his weight and it really bothers me. However, when we have had to visit his partner, he thinks Kade's height and weight are proportionate and isn't worried at all. If you have seen my child, you know he does not look overweight. Kade is a very healthy eater. He loves to eat salads, broccoli, and just about every other vegetable known to man. We always have fruit for breakfast and lunch and, though we have eaten out ALOT over the break, we eat at home and I always make sure that he is eating healthy. The doctor said that maybe it's just his genetics and he has a slow metabolism...that's probably it b/c my metabolism doesn't even work!!!! HA!!!! I am not worried about him in the least. He's active and healthy. I wouldn't have it any other way!




The Holiday Shop Story
The next day, I gave Kade money to buy gifts at the school holiday shop. I had no idea how much to give him so I sent him with $20. On the list I said for him to buy for Mike and me and if he had enough money, he could buy for Mimi and Bop-O since we had already done our shopping. As I have posted in the past, Kade puts alot of though into his gifts and loves to give. When I picked him up from school that afternoon he had his bag full of gifts. He was so excited to tell me what he had bought. His first words were, "I bought you the BEST GIVE EVER MOMMY!". Then he proceeded to show me the Grandmother Votive he bought for Mimi and the tool kit he bought for his Bop-O. Then I said, "what about daddy?" This is where I could hardly keep a straight face. He said, "two spiders." I said, "What made you buy daddy two spiders?" And he said, "That was all my quarter would buy." I wanted to die laughing, but I said that I am sure daddy will love them. He later told me that he had a pen picked out and that the lady told him he was all out of money. That must have been the last present she went to ring up. I took him out shopping that weekend to find something else for his daddy.


Kade's Christmas Party
On Friday, Mike took the morning off to attend Kade's Christmas party at school. I couldn't go because I had two exams to give :(. From the pictures. it looks like they had a great time! They rotated rooms of each of the kindergarten teachers and did an activity in each. In one room they watched Rudolph and ate breakfast, another room was a tree ornament, a jingle bell game, jingle bell bingo, and cookie decorating. Normally I have to pick Kade up from daycare, but that day I was able to pick him up early from school. I loved it!







Cookie and Ornament Decorating

Every year we decorate cookies and this year was no exception. We cut snowflakes, christmas trees, stars, snowmen, and gingerbread men. However, I haven't quite mastered the thickness of the dough yet. My cookies always tend to lose some of their shape, but he still enjoyed decorating and EATING them!








For the past 5 years I have always let Kade pick out an ornament from Santa's pen, but this year they did not have a nice selection. So why not start a new tradition and a more meaningful one...let him decorate his own ornament. This will be something that we do on Christmas Eve for many more years to come. I hope to have a tree full of his and Krew's ornaments.









Christmas Lights
Highland Park Christmas lights are also a yearly tradition. I absolutely love traveling through the streets of Highland Park and seeing the lights and wondering about the people that are behind those lights and beautiful homes. Next year I would really love to do a carriage ride with the boys and see the lights while drinking hot chocolate!






A few of my decorations













Candlelight and Carols

We attended Candlelight service on the 23rd this year. Last year was the first year we took Kade because he had the attention span and found the love of singing Christmas Carols. It's one of my favorite things to do during the Christmas season. The message this year was about putting Jesus in a box. Pastor Stroope talked about how we set out our nativity scene each year and the day after Christmas we put Jesus in a box for another year. Why not keep Jesus out of the box (metaphorically) all year long. I love this message.

Christmas Eve

Since I was a little girl, we have always cooked lots of appetizers and opened presents on Christmas Eve. Maybe my parents started this tradition in the hopes we would sleep in just a little before we awoke to see what Santa had brought. We still continue this today and I decided to host at my house this year. I cooked meatballs, smokies, veggie pizza, baked raviolis, taquitos, cheese dip, ranch dip, and southwest egg rolls. I'm hungry just writing about it. As far as presents are concerned we were all supposed to cut back, but I don't think anyone did when it came to Kade. Let's see if I can list what he was blessed with:
Spongebob Mini Fridge (for the playroom)
Spongebob CD player
Spongebob Walkie Talkies
Crayon Maker
Guitar
IPOD Touch
Art DS Game
Toy Story 3
Flashlight Kit
Science Kit (to make bouncy balls...it's so cool)
Magic Show Kit
Spongebob Air Hockey Table
Modeling Clay
McDonald's Gift Card
BB Gun
Skateboard/Helmet/Pads (I protested this, but my brother bought it for him)
Trouble Board Game
How to Train A Dragon
PJ's/Slippers
10 new Dr. Seuss Books

From Santa:
Trampoline
Desk
Art Supplies

Is that it? I certainly hope so!

Here are a few pics from our Christmas Eve event!

My dad and brother Cole


My nanny and Kade


Opening his skateboard


His BB Gun


Mom and Dad aka Mimi and Bop-O


The family


My brother Blake and sister-in-law Ali

Christmas Cards are ordered!

Well, this is the card I chose for our Christmas cards this year! I love the way they turned out and love them even more because 50 of them were free!!!!

We chose to take pictures this past Sunday, which I believe was the windiest day of the year. Only about 3 turned out that I was in due to my hair blowing everywhere, but I got one for the card and that is what matters! Here are a few of Kade that I took.





I am really looking forward to our Thanksgiving break. Lots of cleaning and organizing will be going on so that we can get our Christmas decorations up!!!!

FREE FROM SHUTTERFLY!!!!!

I am so excited about the holiday cards this year from Shutterfly. I have ordered my cards from there the past 3 years and have always been pleased. Shutterfly has such an assortment to choose from to meet everyone's needs. Last year for Christmas I ordered books for my parents and in-laws. I could not believe the quality and so I ordered once again a book for my brother and sister in law of all of their engagement pictures. They are such nice keepsakes. My plan is to put together a book for each year of Kade's life because I'm not much of a scrapbooker! If you have not visited their website, you MUST..right now! You will not be disappointed. You can do all of your holiday shopping on one site. You can get your Christmas cards, Holiday party invitations, picture books, mugs, etc. Here are a few of my favorite holiday cards this year and once we have our family pictures taken next weekend, I will be able to see which fits our pictures best!




To find a card and fall in love, go to:
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/photo-christmas-cards
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/birthday-cards-stationery

To find a book go to:
http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-books

Kade's Birthday/Halloween/Go Cart Fun/World Series

It's been August since I last blogged and I have a few things to cover! The last two months have been very busy for us and very tiring. The Rangers consumed our lives and made us NON PRODUCTIVE. I half-way decorated for Halloween and haven't even decorated for Fall...I guess I will just worry about Christmas!

I had my first parent/teacher conference at the beginning of October. It went very well, but his teacher recommended that he be tested for ADD...ALREADY??? I told her I would rather wait and see in January how he has matured. He is not hyperactive, but he does space off sometimes and you do have to ask him several times to do something. Does that mean he needs meds??? I don't want to medicate him unless absolutely necessary. His first report card was AWESOME! He got 10/10 on everything except for taking off the beginning sound of a word and identifying the word. He missed 3. We are working on that and my kiddo is reading! I know that since I am a teacher he should have already been reading, but I teach high school. I have no idea how to teach someone to read. He is doing very well and I am a super proud momma!

My Kade man turned 6 on October 25th. Every year I make him a huge pancake and make the number out of candles. This year his birthday was on a school day. The night before Kade asked me if he would be getting his pancake in the morning with candles. I love that he counts on me doing this. However, I had to send Mike to get candles at 10 that night!



This is a gripe: I scheduled a swim party at the YMCA back in June, because I like to plan early. No one told me that if it rained, the kids couldn't swim. I had already changed the day of our party because the girl at the YMCA doubled books and so I GRACIOUSLY changed our day and time. Well, it stormed that day. Here I am setting up at the Y and they come and tell me the kids can't swim. WHAT???? Are you kidding me? We are indoors. I was in tears. They offered to set up a bounce house in the gym until it stopped raining...guess what? They couldn't find the bounce house. So the 25 kids that showed up and expected to swim are now in the gym playing kick ball, as they do every week in gym class. At the end of our party time, the YMCA staff came to me and said that the kids could now get in the pool and we could extend out time. The kids rushed into the pool only to be called out 10 minutes later b/c it started to rain again. I was furious and let them know. Yesterday in the mail I received a full refund. :)

Kade's party was Spongebob themed. Spongebob is everywhere in our house. We live in a sea of yellow. Even though the party did not turn out how I had planned, the kids did have a great time and that is really all that matters. Here are a few pics from his party.





On his actual birthday, we picked up Pei Wei, one of his faves, and headed to Mimi and Bop-O's. I would post pictures, but we left the camera at home. We stuffed ourselves with spicy chicken, mongolian beef, dan dan noodles, lettuce wraps, and edamame beans! YUM! Then Kade got to open all of his presents. We bought him a spongebob portable DVD player and 7 of the "Arthur" series books. Those were one of my favorites as a child and I want him to enjoy them as much as I did. When he opened the books up he said, "Mommy is the book fairy!" Mimi and Bop-O bought him a Go Cart! We go over there every Sunday and he rides until he can't ride any longer! Best gift ever!


Every Halloween weekend my friend Lori hosts a Halloween party for the kids. They hook up 3 trailers for a hayride around her neighborhood in Mclendon-Chisolm and all of the neighbors have candy ready for the kids. She hosts the party for about 60 people and prepares a delicious dinner and treats for all of us. She has games set up for the kids and when we return from the hayride, she has hot chocolate waiting for them. It's so much fun and it's safe for the kids. This year Kade decided to be a spooky skeleton! He was the cutest one I had ever seen!
Look at the size of the candy bars this lady was giving out...




Kade telling a funny story on the trailer!



On Monday, November 1st, we headed to the World Series! I can't believe we got tickets. The morning that they went on sale, Mike, my brother Blake, and I all had about 5 windows open on the computer and our phones too. Within minutes games 3 and 4 sold out. About 45 minutes in, I finally got in to buy tickets for Game 5. I should have bought more, but I wanted to make sure we got our tickets! I bought 5 and now all the Rangers had to do was beat the Yankees!!! We had already attended a game against the Rays and Game 2 against the STANKEES! Those games were exciting in themselves,but to get to take my kiddo to the World Series is something I will never forget. My brother and I had been attending games for as long as I can remember. I know my first game was when I was 4 years old and I still remember it. I remember Nolan Ryan's 5000th strkeout and his 7th No Hitter. I am a true Rangers fan! My brother and I attended a game in 1999 when they were the AL West Champs and the Yankees beat them to move forward. So for us to go to this together was very special. Even though they didn't win, the feeling in the air at the Ball Park was amazing. We were ten feet away from the trophy and we got to see a team win in person...WOW! I can't wait until April and for all of this to start up again!