Bowling

One of the things that Maddie won in fundraiser was a trip bowling with about fifty other kids. Maddie was very excited about getting to ride the school bus for the first time. However, once she got on and realized there weren't any seatbelts, she began to slightly freak out. One of the head PTO ladies decided that I should ride the bus with her and she'd drive instead. YAY! There is nothing more fun than riding a bus full of EXTREMELY excited kids on a humid, rainy day. :-)
We quickly got everyone a pair of shoes and we were ready to get the game started. Maddie really enjoyed bowling. She would literally stand and watch the ball go all the way down before she'd turn around and come back to her seat. It was cute!

Although her eyes are closed, I couldn't help but share this one. She was so excited! She knocked all the pins down but one and was in second place at the end of the game with 74 points. Not too bad for someone that has probably only been bowling 2 or 3 other times.

And the winner is........

Monday morning, the school had their assembly to announce the results to their school read-a-thon fundraiser. All the money raised, goes directly to the school, which is wonderful! They had all kinds of prizes up for grabs this time, but Maddie managed to snag the most money raised award.

She wasn't sure she wanted to go up in front of the entire school, but she did it.

Here she is standing with the little boy that had read the most in the entire school. I can't remember exactly how many books it was, but it was unreal.

And she quickly got her bag of goodies and darted back to her seat. She had absolutely NO desire to stay up there any longer than she had to. :-) She is like her mommy on that one.

Evaluations Round 2

Saturday afternoon, Ashton had the second round of hockey evaluations. I didn't get to go this time because I already had plans to spend the day with friends but Alex took some video for me to see how he did. I thought this was a good one. He is doing really well with the drills so far. I hope that it continues and his skating continues to get better. I think that is probably his weakest area right now.

Princess Tea

Saturday night, Maddie and I joined KK (my sister Casey), Addison, Lindsay (Casey's friend), and her two daughters for a princess tea in Spring Hill. Maddie was extremely excited when I told her about it. All the little girls dressed up in their favorite disney princess outfits.

When we arrived, everyone came inside and found a seat for their tea party. The lady came around filling their tea glasses with sweet tea, which our girls immediately didn't like. LOL We found some strawberry punch they enjoyed much more and traded out. :) They each got a plate of the typical "tea" foods and they each nibbled for a few minutes then were ready to go check everything else out.

Maddie tried to fit herself inside the tree, but couldn't really shut the door. However, she loved this slide. It was the happening place for most of the kids there. It is really just any old slide, but I'm guessing with these slick dress up dresses on.....you get a little faster than usual. These girls were flying out of there and many of them landing on their bottoms on the floor. It was comical at times to watch.

After some play time, the girls went to make necklaces with Cinderella. I caught a glimpse of Maddie in the line. Of course, she smiles when she sees that I'm taking a picture!

I love this one of Addison concentrating on her necklace making skills. If she were a TRUE Dillard, she'd have her tongue hanging out, but I guess she got more Romer genes. LOL

Once the girls finished their necklaces, it was on to make-up! Addison needed to check hers out in the mirror to make sure it looked good before she was getting up. Once she did, Maddie sat down for a turn.

Here is a picture of her all made up with Belle.

The girls had a little more playtime after craft and make up time. I caught this one of them in the corner. It was cute listening to them have their own little conversations with each other as well as the new friends they were making while there.

Addison and Maddie had their picture made with all the princesses and one prince that was there.
It was a fun night and on the way home Maddie told me it was the best night in the whole world, which is all that matters! :-)

Hockey Evaluations

Yesterday, Ashton had hockey evaluations. Basically all the kids get out on the ice at the same time and they start by just skating around the rink. After about fifteen minutes, they dropped some pucks out on the ice. Ashton didn't waste any time grabbing one and doing a little skating around with it RIGHT in front of some of the coaches, which I told Alex was cute especially because he was in no way doing that on purpose. They just so happen to be standing right next to one of the goals. Ashton just likes to shoot and he jumped right on it when he saw a puck.Once the kids got some skating in, they counted the kids off and did a some basic things with them like seeing how fast they could skate from point A to point B, told them they had to keep their stick on the ice and not up in the air, checked to see who could skate by pushing themselves with one leg and not both, and a few other things.I thought this shot Alex got of him sitting there listening was cute. He kept his eyes glued on the coaches so he wouldn't miss a thing.

Here he took the puck from that little boy in the yellow and he fell down and Ashton just kept going. I know I shouldn't be glad he knocked a kid down, but come on.... ITS HOCKEY! He took the puck and ran with it. That is the point!

After about twenty minutes the kids were broken up and they had some stations set up where they instructed the kids to do a particular thing and they observed and helped them. I was impressed with how well Ashton was able to do some of what they asked. A lot of the kids could skate faster that he could, but they were also falling a lot and I don't think Ashton fell at all. HOWEVER, we did have one nail biting moment. During one of the drills, the coach was having them drop to their knees and then get back up as quickly as they could. Ashton was doing good until he dropped his stick. He couldn't get it picked back up and so he took off his glove to get it. OH NO!!!! These kids are literally all shoulder to shoulder and now Ashton has his hand on the ice, surrounded by ice skates, and no glove on. Alex is getting nervous and all I can see is first time out there with all the other kids and mine would be the one with his fingers chopped off. :(
Alex got this one while he was waiting in line to do one of his skill drills. He looks so big out there!
He is standing up there in the front in the black jersey about to take his turn and shooting. I love how he squats down and gets ready!

I'm excited about the season and can't wait to see how he does. Thankfully, he gets his athletic abilities from his father and NOT his mother!!!!

Max is THREE

Saturday morning we celebrated my nephew, Max's birthday. He turned three this week and had a total dinosaur party. My sister in law, Courtney, doesn't do little parties. She had a dinosaur fossil hunt in the sandbox, dinosaur egg hunt around the yard and a whole lot of other goodies spread out in little stations. The kids had a great time and plenty to do!

Courtney is so creative and her parties are always adorable!!
Max couldn't wait to get him a cupcake, so he just decided to TRY and sneak one while no one was looking. Obviously, he got busted. :-)

Maddie and Addison enjoyed tracing dinosaurs and coloring.

Papa Monkey had to finish off all the grandkids cupcakes once they were thru licking all the icing off the tops. At least they were just little ones and not full size ones!
Dax just sat on the couch in the shade cooling off with his little grin!

It was a nice morning and I think all the kids had a good time. I know Ashton was super excited to find that some of his dinosaur eggs were stuffed with money and he couldn't wait to spend it! He'll eventually learn that it is some times good to save! We will have to just keep working on that part. :-)

Football?!?!?

While I was working this afternoon, I heard the kids outside playing together. I went to take a look at what they were doing because it sure sounded like they were playing football. I get out there and this is what I found.

Yes, they were playing football!! We are NOT a football household at all.
Maddie was literally just chasing Ashton around laughing her head off. He had it made. He had the ball and just ran with her behind him.

Occassionally, I'd see him tackle her and she just took it like a champ! She is one tough little girl.

Check her out.... just watching him like a hawk. :-)

Donuts with Dad

Today, Maddie's class had donuts with Dads. She was super excited for Daddy to get to go to school with her. She told Alex, "you get to stay with me longer than Mommy does!" She is so funny some times.

She was acting super silly this morning before they left and then her and Ashton had to get their hugging picture in before I put the camera up.

I love these two and I love that they still hug on each other!! I know it won't last forever. :(

Maddie and Mrs. Dawn

This is just a cute picture I couldn't help but share. Maddie loves her "I Rock Kindergarten" shirt and Mrs. Dawn wanted one too. So, I made her one that says "Kindergarten Rocks". Maddie was exicted about Mrs. Dawn's shirt and asked if they could wear them on the same day. Mrs. Dawn liked the idea too and this is them on their matching day. I thought it was cute! We love, love Mrs. Dawn and couldn't be more thrilled to have her again this year! I'm not sure what we'll do without her next year. Maybe she can move to another grade and just keep moving up with us?!?!?

Ashton is reading

Ashton's teacher, Mrs. Jennings started last week sending home a book each night for Ashton to sit down and read to us. We have to sign off that it was done, check a box as to whether he read it to us or if we had to read it to him and then note any struggles he had with it. I must admit, it isn't the easiest homework assignment I've ever assisted my child with. I LOVE that he is so eager to read because I've never loved to read myself and have to make a conscious effort to do it more. He is so excited to learn more words, however it can be a little painful at the same time for mom and dad. I want him to sound the words out himself, but some times it takes so long for him to get it that it is like pulling teeth in VERY SLOW MOTION! Alex has actually decided that there should be a program started where prisoners should have to listen to a 1st grader read on a daily basis as part of their punishment! Yes, that is how painful my sweet husband thinks listening to Ashton read some of these books is. Ashton is doing great though and I can tell how quickly he's picking up on it. It won't be long and he'll be reading chapter books!!!! WOW, he is growing up too fast!

Labor Day

Monday was Labor Day and the kids were out of school and Alex was off work. We spent the morning being lazy since we didn't have to get up and rush to be anywhere! Boy, I miss those days some times. The Perry house never stops! We are always on the go and that is pretty much the way we like it. :-)

After we got in our lazy time, we all showered and got ready and ran a few errands on our way to the Reed's for our membership interview with Erik and then a cookout with my women's group and families. Since part of our group is new, it was nice to get to finally hang out with their husbands and meet their kids. We had a great meal and then broke out the games. Alex and I have never played catch phrase which what we started with and it was fun. We played three rounds and the girls won in the end. Go Girls!!! I don't know that I've ever laughed so much during a game before. Alex took the cake for his "fill in for someone else" turn and it is still being talked about even a week later. LOL Next we played guesstures. I've never played that either but I caught on quickly and the girls won that game too. The boys were just having a rough night!! It was a fun night and we are looking forward to doing it again soon!

Ashton's Painting

A couple of weeks ago, Ashton and Maddie spent the night with Alex's mom. Grammy lets the kids paint some when they are there to visit. I couldn't help but share Ashton's painting. I thought it was adorable.

I asked him what it was (not that I didn't already know, but I wanted to see what his explanation would be). He said, "well its Jesus on the cross" in a real matter of fact way, almost to say, Duh Mom. LOL Alex then asked him what was all over him (later he admitted to me it looked a little like a clown with the bright red nose). Ashton responded with, "Dad its the blood running all down him from where he's hanging on the cross." Again, looking at us as if we're supposed to know this stuff without asking. :)

It makes me feel like we're doing something right if our child is given a blank canvas, to draw/paint whatever he wants, and he CHOOSES to draw Jesus on the cross and not something else. I love that kid and can't wait to see what God has in store for him!!!

Maddie's Struggling

Monday, we headed back to school and I was a little concerned about how difficult it might be for Maddie to go back to school after two days at home. We talked a long time about how important it was for her to be big and I even told her I'd take her for a little surprise after school if she could go in like a big girl with NO TEARS. She wasn't sure she could do it but I kept telling her she could. I reminded her of a bible verse that she learned a year or so ago at church that we frequently mention around our house. "Be strong and brave because God is with you." (Joshua 1:9) I told her that she should repeat that verse to herself any time she felt like she might cry and it would help her. She repeated the verse back to me and we got out of the car and headed in. We went about our routine as usual and walked Ashton to class and then back to hers. She walked in, put her things away, gave me a hug and kiss and then a high five. She did it! She did not cry and even smiled from ear to ear because she was so proud of herself for doing it!!! I was super happy and proud of her too! After school, I took her to get her toenails painted and she was on cloud nine.

Tuesday, Alex took her to school and she was back to tears. :( The rest of the week was a roller coaster of emotions for her. She would begin to get upset the minute we got out of the car and then I'd have to "talk her into" being big so I could leave. I've always hated to leave the kids while they were still crying. I tried to explain to her that it makes mommy sad when she is crying, but that didn't seem to matter to her. One day, her teacher had to pry her off my leg as she called out "please mommy just one more hug!". It broke my heart, but I KNOW that I have to just drop her and go so it doesn't make it worse. I am continuing to pray that this is short lived and that we will be looking back on it VERY soon and talking about how silly it was that she was crying.