Topsey Exotic Wildlife Ranch Wild SAFARI!!!

On Monday for Memorial Day we went to the Topsey Exotic Wildlife Ranch and went on their Wild Safari! It was so cool! My favorite was the zebras, and the Camel, the Camel tried to kiss me on numerous occassions, I was a little freaked out. We had such a good time feeding the "exotic" animals :) One of the rams kept putting its hoofs or whatever you call them on our car door trying to get us to feed it more. I was like "NO! You'll scratch our car!" So I started throwing the food away from the car in order to avoid further car damage :) They were quite friendly to say the least... Except for the small ostriches, whatever those things are called, I about lost a finger it tried to bite mine off, man that hurt so bad! Anyway, enjoy all the pics.

Sleeping in Special Places

My favorite thing as a child was to sleep in "special places". The definition of that is anywhere but your bed. When we were little we liked to get creative of where we would sleep, one time I slept in a little square space that the couch made against the corner of the wall and I could hardly fit in there in the fetal position. I woke up in the middle of the night with all my arms and legs "asleep" and boy was I in pain!!! Anyway, I've introduced my daughters to the excitement of "sleeping in special places" and they love it. Their version is on a blanket on the floor. Fine with me :) I took these shots on one of those nights when you watch them sleep and you just say a prayer of gratitude for the amazing family that you have and blessing of having children. I'm so grateful they are so close and best friends. What an amazing blessing to have two beautiful daughters!

Butterflies!!!!

For Abbie's birthday we got her the Butterfly Treehouse thing where you can raise caterpillars until they become butterflies. Well let me just tell you, it was pretty cool! These pictures are the girls releasing the butterflies into the "wild" so that they could live a full life. There were a few tears at the sad farewell, but it was pretty cool to see them in cocoons and hatch and all. I highly suggest it. You can purchase them at Target and send in for the caterpillars through the mail, its cheaper than ordering online or through the phone.

She's all growed up.

So this morning Brad woke up at 6:30 to go to Walgreens to get Tori's school supplies. Can you believe I forgot to get those last week? And of course I remembered on Sunday, the one day I can't go. Shame on me.

So we got there on time this morning with school supplies in tow. Tori looked adorable of course, and the uniforms could not hide the fact that she was the ONLY white child in the school. She made a friend instantly named Brooklyn, who was the only African American child in her class, so they had something in common, they were a little different from everyone else, but Tori held her hand and put her arm around her friend as Brooklyn cried, it was the cutest thing. Tori was so brave, and so was I :) So she was off into the world of never ending schooling.

They have half day this week and then next week they go to full-day, so at 11:45 I left to go pick her up, I turned the key to my Honda and low and behold, the battery was dead. So of course like any normal mother of a new kindergartner, I FREAKED OUT! I panicked, I called Brad and freaked out at him, flagged down a stranger to help me open my hood cause I couldn't unlatch it, Called the school, told them I'd be late, called Brad to have him come pick her up, in the mean time I found our battery charger, so I charged the battery after help from Brad because I pushed the air button not the battery switch (I was wondering why it was making that air sound), and finally, the car worked... phew! So I rushed over to her school as fast as I could, I was about 10 minutes late, I know, I'm a horrid mother. I was so upset. How could this happen on her first day of school?! Well, by the time I got there there were still other kids there, and she was happy as can be, with a filled backpack and a bag full of her school supplies. Her teacher explained to me, "Tori said that her Daddy bought these special for her and that she wouldn't let us keep them here at the school, she had to bring them home with her because they are special." I was kind of surprised at that and realized, how is she supposed to know what these are for, and that they are supposed to stay at school. So we got to bring them all back home and the teacher said she'd work her way into leaving things at school and Tori frankly said, "Tomorrow... I will leave my ziplocs." I laughed as I'm sure you are too. I thought that was adorable. Tori's words as we walked out of the gymnasium this afternoon were classic, "That was GREAT!"

Then we got in the car and I tried to explain to her about the whole school supplies situation, that we have to leave them at school, that's what they are for, etc.etc, so she go upset and she's been mad all day ever since. She did get sent to a different class though with the only White teacher there and Tori said there are 10 boys and 5 girls in her class. So it sounds like her class is very small and I met her teacher for a brief second, although I didn't know at the time it was her teacher, but she seemed very nice. But her friend Brooklyn is not in her class which I'm pretty sad about.

She enjoyed eating at the cafeteria, and she said kinda confused, "They took LOTS of potty breaks." She said that all the kids were mean to her. I didn't think that was true so I asked for more details, "What did they say, how were they mean to you?" She said, "Well, this one girl pushed this other girl to get to the sink and I told her she should use this other sink that was free and that she shouldn't push. *pause* And she didn't listen to me!" I said, "So she didn't push you or say anything mean to you?" Tori: "No, but she wouldn't listen."

So there you go. She enjoyed herself, and looking at these pictures, its amazing how much she looks like Brad, huh?

Some call it Creativity, Some call it Cruelty...

So today I'm trying to calm Tori from a tantrum, I decide that we need to "talk it out". So Tori begins to explain that everyone in her family is mean to her. Upset over the situation, trying to gain understanding, I ask challenging, "How have I been mean to you?" (She's had a scowl on her face ever since we came home from church and just very grumpy). She says, "You're making me clean, and I hate to clean, and that's not fun." So I come back with, "Cleaning is not a punishment Tori, it is not a consequence. Cleaning is a responsibility. Do you clean up after me?" Tori answers, "No." So then I went on explaining that we all clean up after ourselves and that I am not a maid, but that she has to learn to clean up after herself and its a part of life that she needs to understand is a responsibility, not a punishment, but that there are consequences if we don't clean up after ourselves... So she freaks out and runs into her room and shuts the door loudly (her latest rebellion). So I put on Veggie-tales for Abbie and go into Tori's room to talk... (here is where my idea comes)...

I pick her up and hold her in my arms and explain how much I love her and tell her that her room will be clean either her way or my way. Her way, is that she cleans up after herself and it is always clean... My way is this. Every evening I will bring up an empty bin (we have tons from moving) and fill it with whatever is on the floor of their bedroom. We'll store it in the Garage for one week. We'll have 7 bins, one for each day of the week. So everything I put in the bin this evening will stay in the garage in the bin marked (SUNDAY) and next Sunday after church we'll bring it out for them to put away. So this way the room is clean at least every night, and its rather easy for me to keep it clean. I'm hoping that after two weeks of this, they'll start learning that if they don't put it away, it goes away for a week, so we'll see how it goes. I've got to change their habits in order to keep my house clean and right now its just not working, so I'm hoping this idea will work. I'd like to thank my Mom for all the creative ideas that she had while growing up to get us to clean. She is my inspiration. And just so you know, most of the stuff in the bin today was Abbie's, but she didn't care much. So we'll see if this works for her too.

She's got it good.

So I was just sitting here daydreaming in my own little world about Tori starting school tomorrow as I'm preparing her school bag and her school lunch money and all that when I had this thought, "Man, She's got it good." The reason I thought that is because she gets to go to Kindergarten and play games and read books all day, and her lunch only costs $1.50! You know, I think her lunch would probably cost less if there were another child in her class paying for school lunch, but I think almost all of them get it free. i think the school rate of free lunch is 85%! So anyway, I was just thinking how nice it would be to have someone make my lunch and have it only cost $1.50. Granted I could get a 5-piece chicken nugget at Wendy's for only $1.00, but she gets an entree and 3 sides and a dessert! I'm jealous! Anyway, so the thought crossed my mind, "Wouldn't that be funny if she gained like ten pounds in a month from eating school lunch, maybe I'm starving my poor child at home!" I'll let you all know how it goes. And for those of you who never found out, she is going to Public School, so we'll see how it goes. Pray for her!!!

My baby is going to school

We've been trying to be a little more creative in our parenting with Tori as she's journeying into a new phase of her life. She's about to start Kindergarten here in a week and a half and I'm just amazed at how ready she is, and how ready I'm not. I thought I'd include this picture of Tori's writing on a post it note for me after a long day of her bad choices and hard consequences. Talk about a little girl who is thinking a lot. The note says, "How can I help to be a better kid?" Can you believe that? Yesterday after I grounded her for throwing Daddy's shoe at our cat five times, she wrote in her journal, "I wish my Mom was a better Mom." Can you believe that? Initial thought was, "Well, that was rude." And then I realized, Wow, she is communicating really well, telling me how she feels. So we had the opportunity to talk about good parents and bad parents and how if I were a bad mom, I wouldn't do anything, and give her no consequences. I gave her the opportunity to choose between consequences, 1.) Get grounded for the "whole day" (about 6 hours in her room with books) or 2.) Give the cat away. Her response: "Can I come out for dinner?" Poor girl. Some might think it was a harsh punishment, but she had been warned before, and she knew better, and she did it with a horrible look on her face (I was spying on her, so I saw), and I was worried for the life of our cat! Anyway, so she is definitely growing up, I'm well pleased. My baby is growing up!