Kelsey's Kindergarten Graduation

Well, my friends, the day has finally come.  Kelsey is a first grader.  And apparently, in Oklahoma they have Kindergarten graduations.  For us, it involved getting to the school 15 minutes early, finding a crowded gym, and sitting somewhere near the back.  They had a little power-point showing of all the kids in a cap and gown pictures and played "Wind Beneath My Wings" over and over again.  (You know, I can honestly say that I haven't really liked that song since the early 1990's.)

While we waited, I amused myself by snapping a few pictures.

 Someone looks bored.

But at least Olivia was having a good time.

And something tells me I should have put a little make-up on this morning.  Oh well...

And what do we have here?  A little nose-picker, perhaps?

Finally the kids came in and got on the risers at the front of the gym.  They sang a few songs, we clapped for a few people, and 15 minutes later we were done.  They even kept the kids on the risers for an extra 10 minutes so parents could get good pictures.  This is my kind of graduation.

Afterward we walked Kelsey back to her classroom for more pictures, and Kelsey insisted on one with her Daddy.  It's a good thing, too, because he won't let me post the other pictures I got of him while we were waiting.

Happy graduation, Kelsey!

Family Fun Day

Our family has an "Ervin Exchange" (i.e. family council meeting) on the first Sunday of every month.  We've been having them for a little over a year now, and they are so awesome.  We talk about our schedule for the month, the things we have planned, and any issues Ben and I feel like we need to discuss as a family, from behavior to bedtimes to vacations.  We also give the girls and opportunity to bring up anything they'd like to discuss.

At the beginning of May, Olivia asked for us to do more fun things together as a family, and so our monthly "Family Fun Day" was born.  We scheduled it for the 22nd, and decided to spend the morning at the zoo. 

Now, first let me say that it's been a while since we've been to the zoo as a family.  And we just got a family pass for the year, so we're not as familiar with how things work at this one - like the trolley rides vs. train rides, etc.  However, there's a back stretch of the zoo where the animals are spaced far apart because they need more space.  There's also a baby giraffe back there that was born in February that we really, really wanted to see.  We thought maybe we'd ride the trolley back there to save us the walking.  Whatever.  I'm not paying $20 for that, and it would have been something close to it.  So we decided to "hoof" it (pun intended).

On the way back there, we had to pass the Indian rhino.  I'm always surprised at how big these things are!

And before to much farther, Connor decided he had had enough of the stroller.  On went the monkey leash!  (And yes, I used to think they were cruel before I had kids... now I know better.)

As we were walking up to the giraffes, the mama giraffe decided she wanted to eat the grass.  Apparently, she needs to do a split to be able to reach it.  And if you'll look the right side of the picture, there's the baby!  Only 3 months old...

Of course, the giraffes had company in their area.  And I thought my kids sat weird.

Kelsey was so enthralled we couldn't get her to look at the camera!

All she wanted was a better look.

Until Connor and Olivia found the "mister", that is...

And this, my friends, is my favorite picture of the day.  He is SUCH a cutie-pie!

And then it started snowing!  Actually, I guess "cottoning" would be a better term.  This is all from the cottonwood trees, people.  But hey, at least it isn't yellow pollen all over my car!

And of course, when we passed the picture place, the girls needed another shot taken.  Olivia was a big to short for this one.

So she came up with a better idea - she held Connor up.

And finally, no trip to the zoo would be complete without the Zoo Statue Pictures.

I can't wait to see where we go next month!

Homeschool Field Day

It seems like we have had such an eventful week!  And really, we have in some ways.  At least, we've had 2 very busy weekends in a row.  So rather than trying to cram it all into one monster blog-post, I'll take it a topic at a time...

A week ago Friday the 21st was our first Field Day with our home educators group. We all met at a local park and set up chairs in the shade.  (And for you South Carolinians who have never been to Oklahoma... the shade here makes a big difference!  It's actually comfortable in the shade, even when it's hot outside.) 

Because I was helping out with one of the activities, we had to be there early.  There were a couple perks to that - #1 we got a great parking spot and #2 we got first pick of where to put our seats.  They started off the day with some foot races and a hula-hooping contest, neither of which Olivia wanted to participate in.  Just as she was starting to complain that she was bored, our buddies (the Z family) arrived!  Their youngest daughter, Leeann (not pictured here), is one of Olivia's best friends.  And the baby, Logan, loves me and Connor equally.  He is such a sweetheart!

The next activity of the day was a three-legged race.  Since LeeAnn is still 8, she and Olivia weren't originally in the same age group for the races so Olivia found another partner and they tied their legs together for the race. 

On your mark... get set...

... go! 

Poor Olivia and Anna lost their bandana about 20 feet into the race - tough luck, girls!  But they re-tied it and kept going, which I thought was great.

And then came the jump rope competition.  Look at her go!

Then came my favorite - the bean-bag toss.  It has to be my favorite because I was in charge of it.  Which is why I didn't get any pictures.  However, Connor competed in the 3 and under group and got 3rd place!  I promise I didn't even cheat for him.  He's just got a really good arm and a lot of practice throwing things at his sisters.

Yet as fun as these activities were, none of these were the highlight of Olivia's day.  That came just before lunch with the water-balloon fight.  The adults sitting in the chairs were off-limits so I stayed dry, but Olivia got just a teensy bit wet.

It was such a fun day, and we can't wait till next year when Kelsey will be there with us!

The Hilarity Continues...

It's one of those funny-but-not-funny things, to be honest.

Last night (Saturday) Ben made a box of macaroni and cheese for the kids for dinner since he and I weren't all that hungry.  I was working on girl's camp stuff in the den and he was reading while the kids ate dinner at the table.

That's when it happened.  Connor, the ever-inquisitive male creature that he is decided he wanted to try sticking a cooked noodle up his nose.  All the way up his nose.  And it was so uncomfortable he kept sniffing to get rid of the sensation.  I didn't know it was possible to snort a macaroni noodle up your nose into your sinus cavity, but he did.  I tried to get it out with tweezers, but it was so soft that any time I snagged it the tweezers just broke through the noodle. 

So I called the Urgent Care doctor that the girls have seen.  He was closed at 7:00 on Saturday evening, but recommended I take him into the emergency room to get it out ASAP.  Since I was not willing to sit in the ER with a tired 23-month old without a second opinion, I called a guy from church who is a pediatric ENT specialist.  I reached his wife, but he was in a meeting and couldn't hear his cell phone.  So off I trekked to the OU Children's Hospital downtown.

About an hour later, I received a call from the pediatric ENT.  As long as Connor was in no pain, it could probably wait till Monday and he could take it out in his office.  By then, the noodle had worked it's way far enough into the sinus that he didn't seem to even feel it, and I couldn't see it.  So, we left the ER without even having gone through triage and came on home.

About 30 minutes or so after we got home, Connor starting making funny sniffing noises again.  I pulled out the flashlight and saw that the macaroni noodle had worked it's way back to the top of Connor's left nostril.  So I went fishing again with tweezers and a snot sucker (i.e. bulb syringe).  No luck.  I just couldn't get it out!

And then inspiration struck.  I closed Connor's other nostril and told him to blow.

The result?

That macaroni noodle shot out like a bullet.